the white house says the move will save hundreds and thousands of taxpayer dollars. and finally, the sun reports on bbc newsreader huw edwards chasing of a burglar out of his home while wearing his pyjamas. the paper says the raider escaped by driving off in the star's mercedes. hopefully not by huw in his pyjamas. so let's begin with the times, and the latest turn on brexit. with me is kathleen brooks, director at the market analysis company minerva analysis. where does labour stand on all of this? it appears there is another waiting game going on. labour waiting game going on. labour waiting for the eu, the vote on monday, where are we?” waiting for the eu, the vote on monday, where are we? i know, it is like a gordian knot, really. the

times going with labour holding the key to get the election which boris johnson so wishes. although key to get the election which boris johnson so wishes. althoutheremy corbyn‘s in a circle once the election, mps do not and if mps don't vote, because borisjohnson doesn't have a majority for a general election on 12 december, if labour mps don't vote for that, he needs cross—party support which means it won't go ahead. we are kind of stuck in this... we need something to break the deadlock, i would say, but it is this huge feedback loop that keeps coming in. labour is waiting for the eu, as you mentioned. the dup, the snp, the liberal democrats, saying they will not vote. it could be the third time that boris johnson not vote. it could be the third time that borisjohnson put not vote. it could be the third time that boris johnson put this not vote. it could be the third time that borisjohnson put this to parliament, and the third time again that it gets rejected. and just to explain, the reason they need a two—thirds majority in parliament is because you need to do that in order to bring forward and have an early election. the fixed term parliaments

act, you would have to break that. otherwise we are looking at 2022. that is why they are looking for it. to add further uncertainty to all of this, the european union indicated it would delay a decision over the length of any brexit extension until next week. next week, we are talking... we are coming up to halloween. halloween is certainly in my house, but also possibly a zombie government. absolutely, a zombie government, but it means, i think, that the 31 october deadline has very much been put to bed. that is definitely not going to happen. we will not be leaving the european union next thursday. this time next week, we will not be out of the eu. although the official line, certainly from our guest a second ago, adam jackson at grant thornton, is still prepare for no deal, he is saying, because legal at the moment thatis saying, because legal at the moment that is still the default. let's talk about the european perspective on all of this. a german paper here saying that chrisjohnson‘s chance of new elections is as good as zero.

very critical, this paper here, saying that the offer is a seductive only at first glance. and they are quoting a former minister of education, ben bradshaw, from labour, calling johnson's offer a trap. there are a lot of shall we say trust issues going on? politics, perhaps? in westminster but also more generally across europe, when it comes to this whole saga of british politics. absolutely, this isa british politics. absolutely, this is a german newspaper looking at what doing, and it has called the new proposal by borisjohnson as that of a scoundrel, rather than a serious offer. what this article did very well was looking beyond monday's election vote and basically saying that with that in mind, johnson has to come up with a new tactic to come out of this mess, which i think makes perfect sense. he has put this deal to parliament three times, sorry, the prospect of an election, three times. theresa may did the deal three times. but is that not the definition of madness, doing the same thing over and over

again and not getting a different result? knowing you are not going to get a different result. they are bringing upa get a different result. they are bringing up a really good point. we are ata bringing up a really good point. we are at a turning point. we leave the eu, we accept the deal, we have a general election. if none of those things are working, prime minister borisjohnson does need to come up with something else. and that is what the germans are looking for, which is possibly one reason why there is this whole delay from the eu about our extension, or our flexte nsion, eu about our extension, or our flextension, if that is what we get. they need a clear path ahead. and we don't really have one. let's talk about something a little clear—cut. what is going on over at amazon. we all knew, didn't we, all the financial analysts knew that the launch of one—day shipping was going to be pricey for this company and was going to eat into amazon's earnings. but no—one was sort of expecting the sort of numbers we are seeing here. and no surprise that

the shares fall 7%, and jeff bezos is no longer the richest man in the world. know, back to bill gates. after 21 yea rs world. know, back to bill gates. after 21 years at the top. so moving from two days prime delivery to one day has cost amazon $800 million in one quarter. that is huge. however, this is probably a sign that that is what consumers want, and that is what consumers want, and that is whatjeff bezos what consumers want, and that is what jeff bezos is what consumers want, and that is whatjeff bezos is very much saying. customers love the transition of prime from two days to one day, and his comments around the earnings we re his comments around the earnings were that this is what the consumers want, i almost don't care what the earnings say. we are doing what the consumers want and that is why amazon is the best company in the world. obviously it pays to be the best company in the world or to make sure customers love you. that was a lot, and it was the first decline in earnings for two years. for as long as amazon has been going they have not had positive earnings for that long. so having a little drop in earnings isn't necessarily going to knock them off track. i wouldn't be

surprised if in the next few quarters, when the costs of this prime move are absorbed by the company, if that actually triggers much more profit going forward. so i don't know if bill gates will stay on that pinnacle for too long. i think we could seejeff bezos back there within a year or two. he is going to have to do with his paltry $1019 going to have to do with his paltry $103.9 billion personal wealth. the poor guy. i know how i would help him spend it. i have a few ideas. jeff, get in touch. in the financial times, iam jeff, get in touch. in the financial times, i am glad they picked up on this story. this was some office for national statistics data which was out on thursday about working pa rents. out on thursday about working parents. saying that the proportion of uk mothers in work has now hit a record high. this is something we are also seeing across europe. i think we have a graph we can show viewers as well. yes, so europe is actually leading us but we are

definitely on the right track. we are the third—largest now in not quite up there with the netherlands 01’ quite up there with the netherlands or denmark, but we're not far away. 7596 or denmark, but we're not far away. 75% of women are in employment, that is fantastic news. largely down to the fact that there is a massive difference between women born in the 19805 difference between women born in the 1980s who have degrees and women born in the 1960s who have degrees. there is a generational cohort as well. if you have more mothers who have degrees, they are more likely to be in work after they have their children. but what is quite telling, i thought, about this result, is the majority of mothers with a degree worked in high skilled jobs. so it is not just about work. worked in high skilled jobs. so it is notjust about work. it is the type of work that women are doing, and that is very positive as well. it is, but the flipside of this is we have had a real benefit squeeze. it does put up the question of whether women are back in work because they want to be because they have to be. particularly if they are lone parents. s, and that is a very real point. obviously there has been a little bit of help. we have more free hours, in fact they doubled it in 2017 to 33 hours of childcare.

but it still doesn't address the fa ct but it still doesn't address the fact that we are still one of the highest paying in the oecd for childcare. so yes, are going back to work as mothers at a higher rate than ever before, but it is still probably costing us more than ever before. so how much money we are actually bringing home is also a key thing. but the proportion of women, of mothers in employment, isjust going to go up and up and up. because more and more women are getting degrees now, and that seems to be the link. the higher the number of mothers with degrees, the more likely they are to work. and then maybe it makes sense for them to go back to work even if childcare costs are high. donald trump has cancelled subscriptions to the new york times and washington post, stories which ran in both papers, which he would know if he still read them. perhaps he read vanity fair, which also ran the story, saying angry little man cancels newspaper subscriptions. it is certainly one way of dealing with what he says of

the free press, the enemy of the people. just imagining they are not happening. apparently his preferred read of the day is the new york post, which is the equivalent of one of our tabloids, which is quite telling as well. they still get copies of the wall streetjournal, usa today and the financial times get delivered to the white house, so thatis get delivered to the white house, so that is quite interesting. and they still have online subscriptions, apparently, so it is not all doom and gloom. eco- warriors over there. iam not and gloom. eco- warriors over there. i am not sure we're going to get to the story of the day, which our dear bbc man huw edwards taking on the burglars in his pyjamas. he has managed to recover his car, which was burgled about a month ago. huw has recently ta ken was burgled about a month ago. huw has recently taken up boxing and looks fabulous, and he has now taken on the news with huw and so much more. stay with us. many more to

come. hello. there's a battle between cold and mild air taking place across the uk at the moment to see which wins out for the weekend. spoiler — it is the cold air that wins. it's already in place across northern parts of the uk. on the dividing line between the two, before the cold air wins and heads south, some of us are about to get a lot of heavy rain through friday into at least early saturday, from the moors of south—west england into wales, and northern england, from this waving weather front. finally, as it does clear, by the end of saturday from south—east england, that's when the cold air travels further south. now, as i mentioned, it's already in place across the northern half of the uk. a touch of frost for you to start the day in scotland, northern ireland and northern england. it is a mild start the further south you are. it's a fine start for many of us. a few showers in scotland, wintry on hills. here comes the rain from the south—west and wales into the midlands, especially the west midlands, the eastern side of northern ireland and southern scotland. the uk top—and—tailed by strengthening winds, with coastal gales as well. so it is turning much wetterfor some of us, and we still have those big temperature contrasts across the uk,

but quite a lot of hill fog down towards the south—west of the uk in the mild air. let's focus in on the rain, though, and these totals you're seeing here are some of the higher totals we may see in the higher ground in the moors of south—west england, the welsh hills and pennines. lower levels won't see as much as this, but with that much rain falling for some, the potential for some flooding and perhaps some travel disruption. there are some met office yellow warnings in force, details at the website. so again, the possibility of seeing some disruption, especially to travel as we go into the start of the weekend. and this is how we start saturday. away from the area of rain overnight into saturday, some clearer skies elsewhere in northern ireland and scotland, still a few showers, and of course maybe a touch of frost too. the rain does eventually move south on saturday, away from the wettest parts of england and wales, to give a wet afternoon towards east anglia and south—east england. elsewhere, brighter skies developing for many, with a few showers around, and the cold air pushing further southwards, still there in the far south—east by the end of the afternoon.

through saturday night and into sunday, get rid of this front, get rid of the rain. the blue is in charge. the cold air has won the battle. it's not going to be bitterly cold, and as you can see from this, on sunday, a lot of land showing up. that means it's clear. a bit of patchy cloud, but quite a bit of sunshine coming through on sunday. still a few showers dotted about, more especially into scotland. it's still quite breezy out there. so yes, temperatures are coming down. but by sunday, for many, it's drier and sunnier.

good morning, welcome to breakfast with naga munchetty and charlie stayt. our headlines today: borisjohnson calls on parliament to back an early general election in december, in return he's offering more time to debate his brexit deal. the eu will meet to decide whether to grant another extension. post—mortem examinations are due to begin on the 39 people whose bodies were found in a refrigerated lorry container in essex. uluru's final ascent. tourists climb the sacred red rock for the last time — much against the wishes of indigenous australians. good morning.