at the madrid climate summit. will they take it? tell is the mood in india, is the smog concentrating minds ahead of madrid? the smog has lifted to a certain extent, but it is still very toxic and it was pretty serious just a couple of weeks ago. having said that, i think that this toxic smog is caused to a large extent by crop burning in neighbouring states. and that smog is what aggregates the situation. it is a normal phenomenon which generally takes place in the month of november. but that said, i think that when it comes to overall, nationwide, mass consciousness about the environment, i think india still has some way to go. what i noticed,

very encouragingly, was that schoolchildren were out on the streets demonstrating against pa rents streets demonstrating against parents and politicians because they are angry. they really feel let down by the older generation. and is at translating anyway into a sharpness of attention from the indian government when it gets to madrid? at this point, india has a carbon intensity pledge but it doesn't have a cutting emissions pledge. this pledge that india made in paris was that from the standards of 2005, india would reduce the emission intensity by 33 to 35% by 2030. i am not sure whether india will make it but india has made significant progress in the area of energy, for instance. 0ne progress in the area of energy, for instance. one of the major polluters in india has been these coal—fired plants. they are now being gradually

replaced by solar energy, because the cost of generating solar energy has come down, which has been a boon for india. therefore india is rapidly catching up there are still wild violations taking place as a result of a lack of consciousness. that is where india needs to get its act together. agnes, what about madrid? if the us, as we all know, is just backing out of the paris agreements, who is stepping up to ta ke agreements, who is stepping up to take leadership? it doesn't sound like india has quite got there yet and of course, some of the other big nations like china and russia also seem to say, don't blame us, don't expect us to clean up the damage of other developed countries, who is going to take the lead?” other developed countries, who is going to take the lead? i was going to say president macron but it is one of them. european leaders, but also canada. they are still leaders

who make green issues there priority more and more things to the public‘s awareness. it is very important in two weeks' time, a lot of the world's national commitments to cut green, greenhouse gases were pegged to the 2020 deadline so it will be crucial to when we have talks hosted in london for a new set of commitments. i wanted to say, the paris agreement only four years ago, it feels like another century, was such an achievement and a feat of international cooperation. the spirit has changed. trump, bold scenario, climate deniers are in power. what is happening is a awareness and realisation in the wider public. we can't rely on the

state and administrations to do what they have to do. they should be part of setting targets and passing laws and showing the way, but every one of us can actually have a massive impact on tackling climate change. and it is very easy to be cynical when you see greta thornburg and the school strikes and i must say, i must admit, i am one of the cynic sometimes. we should be doing this, not children. and actually that is a good thing. extinction rebellion is a bit dodgy sometimes and leaves a lot of garbage in the streets of paris, but we are forced in our daily lives to be confronted with those issues. that is a good thing. it is down to individual responsibility. i think politicians use to lead the way, but now they are following the public, it is not the other way around. the five, as

you say, that the labour manifesto has it as one of the first major issues. perhaps it is too late. but we have to try. turning to the us, mentioned a couple of times, interesting line coming out of the trump administration now that technological advance will get the job done and that government action is not what is necessary. is that compelling to audiences in the us? no,, but it is a very american approach of like going to the moon or science can fix it, let's come up with a magic bullet. what is taking hold to a degree in the state is the economics behind developing and marketing alternative sorts of in energies is gaining momentum. there are hopeful signs because the power of the individual states in some states like california are standing

up states like california are standing up to the federal government, like california and posing their own standards on the federal government. the other important thing that you referred to in the introduction is that this is a huge electoral issue in the states and the democrats, unless there is one person who is not convinced, the democrats are basically saying we have to address this immediately and reverse president tom's withdraw from the climate pact. the vote in the us next november is going to be quite crucial on this because the us may well change position or trump could be re—elected and then have another four years to water down the us's antipollution laws there. brian, you have been in brussels, it is interesting as agnes says that some european governments are making steps on the carbonised ink there

environments. how is that looking in brussels? it is at the top of the european commission's to do list. the new president of the european commission has set out a target of climate neutrality by 2050. the big problem with that of course is dealing with 28, soon to be 27 countries. a lot of those countries are very worried about the social impact of this and who is going to pay for it and where the money is going to come from. it is literally trillions of euros. that is what the big debate for example in the european parliament is going to be about. every single bloc in the european parliament with the exception of one of the extreme right blocks is talking about it. it is no longer a green issue, and the biggest issue for them is going to be how are we going to pay for it.

there is no longer any argument about whether it should be done or not. it is how fast can we do it. when it comes to madrid, one of the important things, i think they are going to have to face up to, is when they tighten up what happened in paris about carbon trading, because there are so many loopholes in this. that scheme was first introduced in kyoto and it is widely abused basically. china has continued to build coal—fired power stations since paris 2015, it is still going oi'i. since paris 2015, it is still going on. india has its problems as well. that gives a huge let out to people like donald trump, for example saying, "why should i damage steel workers in pennsylvania if the chinese are basically ignoring what is going on? " one point about india and it is this. india is a target of

environmentalists because of the size of its population. per capita, emissions out of india is well below the global average. the problem really is of developing countries expected to do a lot whereas countries like the us renege on its paris commitments. we will see this argument continue in madrid and we will possibly return to its. —— returned to it. british voters are laughing in the faces of their politicians. literally. a studio audience hooted derisively at conservative leader borisjohnson when he said telling the truth was important. and they gave labour leader jeremy corbyn the same treatment when he claimed his brexit policy was clear. but mocking incredulity aside, what is the mood of this election and where is its momentum?

the mood is people are not paying attention, they are bored, they are turned off, sceptical, cynical, thinking get these politicians away from me out of my face. i think they are not terribly likely to vote in d roves are not terribly likely to vote in droves if it is wet and cold, and obviously it will be dark on december12, ithink obviously it will be dark on december 12, i think you will see a dampened figurative way, literally, turn out. people are turned off by the whole thing and huge things are at stake. this vote is really important but the voters are probably tired of people hearing people on tv say how important it is. do you agree? i don't see anybody running away as yet. if anything, the lead that the conservatives are supposed to have at the moment shrinks and it will get tight. there's something else that should be emphasised, more than 40% of people are either still

undecided or will not tell which way they are going to vote. that is a crucial factor and this is a result of this being an extremely abnormal complicated election. with brexit as an overwhelming issue, it is not really a normal general election. the economy might dominate and other factors could dominate over elections, the environment is a factor, but i still feel that this brexit issue has complicated matters. for instance, we have a situation way you have a traditional labour voter who is a lever, which way will he go? then you have a traditional conservative voter who isa traditional conservative voter who is a remainer, which way will he go? it isa is a remainer, which way will he go? it is a very abnormal election. people will take their time. i don't know what will happen but if it is a wet and cold i2th know what will happen but if it is a wet and cold 12th of december, then perhaps the younger generation will come out rather than the older generation. thatjust

come out rather than the older generation. that just might come out rather than the older generation. thatjust might help the remainers. brian, you are. well, i rememberwe remainers. brian, you are. well, i remember we were saying the same thing during the 2016 brexit referendum, maybe the regeneration will come out and save the remaining side. but i think there are a couple of interesting things about this. it is the brexit referendum, but a couple of other things have been going on. the laughing, people simply do not trust what politicians say any more. so for example, bbc's question time programme the other night, you have a labour mp saying "in our manifesto, we are going to raise income tax on people raising over £80,000 and that is a top 5%." that is correct, but a voter in the audience put his hand up and said he and that amount and he is not in the top 50%. they were all nodding along. the vast majority did not

believe it. labour is right factually when they say that, but people don't believe it. why? because politicians have the last few years been telling them don't trust the expert any more. they are i'iow trust the expert any more. they are now reaping the results of having said that. however, there is one other point about that debate earlier in the week, the tv debate betweenjohnson earlier in the week, the tv debate between johnson and jeremy corbyn, prime minister and the leader of the 0pposition. because politics has been polarised by brexit, it is probably the biggest gap between a labour and conservative leader in british politics for i don't know how many generations. it is huge. you have a very left—wing labour leader promising nationalised broadband, this that and the other. the opinion polls suggest he is not going to win this election. he won't be in downing street, things could

change, but the opinion polls suggest he is quite a bit behind. however, what i think has changed is if you put brexit to one side, which is very difficult in british politics, i think the weather is changing within all of the other issues. because for the first time, people are saying, yes, maybe we should renationalise people are saying, yes, maybe we should re nationalise railways, people have had enough of poor railways and pay to much for water. they nationalised broadband has hit a chord with voters there. it won't happen this time but i think that we will see that carried on in future elections. agnes, for the many not the few, this message, is it beginning to get heard alongside boris johnson's oven beginning to get heard alongside borisjohnson's oven ready brexit message? i agree with brian, but i

wouldn't believe the polls, especially in the uk. it is also a referendum against boris johnson. just to put labour aside. but even if corbyn might have close to zero chance of winning a majority, the thing is he doesn't need to win a majority. what he needs is about 270 280 seats. and then it tends to be welsh or the snp or others and that might make him cross the line. boris johnson needs a majority, he needs 321 seats. in the new look... the prom with labour is not labour. it is not the manifesto becomes you read it and you go, it has —— in pa rt read it and you go, it has —— in part that and you think, this is pretty good. whether that can be

incremented is another thing. i think a lot of labour voters think it sounds good but will never be done. is britain ready for socialist britain? that is a big question and it isa britain? that is a big question and it is a radical manifesto that labour have produced. but it doesn't help that the fact thatjeremy corbyn is sitting on the fence on brexit. it doesn't help that it appears to have been an unwritten deal between the conservative party and the brexit party. and in between what i discovered in the last few weeks is thatjo swinson is not making an impact. therefore, the lib dems who wear polling at over 20% seems to have shrunk to something like 15%. i don't know what that will ultimately be. they seem to represent the remainers. that is why

don't trust the polls, a lot of constituents are going to choose their lib dems candid is not post on jo swinson, but of their legal candidate. these polls are very misleading because there are very distinct constituencies. politicians like to say a week is a long time in politics but a prince has just proved that an hour is quite long enough to destroy a career in public life. that was the duration of prince andrew's bbc interview focusing on his friendship with convicted sex offenderjeffrey epstein. the tsunami of outrage that followed forced the queen's second son to announce his withdrawal from royal duties. and other public roles swiftly followed.

agnes, your reflections on this. it isa agnes, your reflections on this. it is a big problem for the royal family? does it create an impression of dysfunction and detachment?” family? does it create an impression of dysfunction and detachment? i am not sure you need to ask a french republican about the british monarchy. i think i should remain silent. look, it is britain's biggest con tradition. —— my contradiction. it is a democracy yet has a monarchy, a monarchy that is not biased, that is the unwritten pa ct not biased, that is the unwritten pact with the head of state. she is the head of state doesn't have a say. she can be tricked by her prime minister, like boris johnson, say. she can be tricked by her prime minister, like borisjohnson, lied to. from abroad, it is very strange. it isa to. from abroad, it is very strange. it is a destruction and the fact that we have a prince, we have a prince. to think that he was the

british ambassador of trade in the time of brexit. we have people who are too privileged and not bright enough. so now yes, the institution is in chaos, yes it will be banned or banished from the inner circle and prince charles is furious because he once the core of political activities or the prep hesitation of royal activities to be on him. there will always be scandals like this, as long as the monarchy is around. but brian, widening it out, agnes is having a go at the monarchy, but in a way, theseissues go at the monarchy, but in a way, these issues are attached to all areas of public life. wherever you get a sense of entitlement or privilege from normal people, you will get issues like this. the me to

movement is a result of that. —— the me too movement is a result of that. you have powerful, predominantly white male people exerting that sort of privilege. this is going to continue to happen. until people say no, that is enough, we won't do it any more. the problem is that institutions, whether they are corporate or the monarchy, need to be alive to this, aware to this in the workplace, whether it is in the royal family, or anywhere else, what we saw in that interview that prince andrew did was simply somebody who was completely oblivious to it. as you say, he wasn't terribly smart about the way he conducted the interview and part of that was as a result of an innate privilege which he felt. when you are invited at the end ofan he felt. when you are invited at the end of an interview to say is there anything else you would like to tell

me? or anything else you would like to tell me? 0rto anything else you would like to tell me? or to say? anything else you would like to tell me? 0rto say? and anything else you would like to tell me? or to say? and you completely ignore the fact that it might be a goodidea ignore the fact that it might be a good idea to actually say something about the victims of this epstein affair, you deserve everything you are going to get. speaking of opinion polls, it will be interesting to see where the royal family stand in that. either and they will bounce back in ten minutes personally. we went spirit with the death diana as well. i want to ask you about the question of the me too movement that brian just mentioned. president trump newjeffrey epstein but disputes he was a close friend and prior to his election as president we had the access hollywood tapes and boasted about groping women. these questions attach globally, don't they? yes,

and epstein cosmic friends across the political aisle. he and epstein cosmic friends across the politicalaisle. he had and epstein cosmic friends across the political aisle. he had a friendship with the clintons as well. i think what was remarkable about the trump election was that he was not hindered at all by those access hollywood comments which was quite striking. it is almost as if the voters backing him reallyjust didn't mind that disparaging attitude toward women. that is the exception in what juicy with epstein. epstein shows the power of the press when applied properly. there was a regional reporter in south florida in miami who refused to let the investigation of epstein die, even when the court had closed it. he was able to continue on and was living the high life and it took the press doing itsjob properly to say, wait a minute, how about those victims. the deal they got was wrong. that changed everything and

changed prince andrew's life. how does it play in india and how these issues post me too play in india? is it time up for people who behave like this or can they be protected if they have a partisan trying to protect them or enough money in power? although india has got its links in 1947, power? although india has got its links in19li7, india power? although india has got its links in 1947, india remains greatly enamoured with the royal family, therefore great television events like royal weddings or any of that thing, attracts massive tv audiences in india. there is a little bit of respect for the royal family. in india. there is a little bit of respect for the royalfamily. so this incident, whether it is the episode that has unfolded over the yea rs episode that has unfolded over the years and months and then this television interview that took place

last week, this hasn't gone down very well in india, fright obviously. that said, i think people are notjumping to conclusions. what people are saying is that it looks bad, but is it really that bad? i don't think the tv interview has helped at all. does it cause people to pivot back and look at their own powerful privileged people? indeed, there is a bit of reflection. you look at yourself within, you look at the country within, and you wonder whether this kind of thing is going on in the country itself. 0bviously, it isa on in the country itself. 0bviously, it is a difference in their world. there is no royalfamily there. what i would say is that this story is going to run for a while. there is an interview coming up on panorama shortly and therefore... with one of epstein's accusers. who also accuses prince andrew which he categorically

denied. the royalfamily prince andrew which he categorically denied. the royal family do differentiate between queen and the re st of differentiate between queen and the rest of the royal family. and there are certain popular members of the family. but one thing this goes down bottom line is that it was a great misjudgement to frequent the company of somebody like epstein. that's it for dateline london for this week — we're back next week at the same time. goodbye for now. hello, it has been a very wet autumn so far, and the final week of autumn is following on that fairly unsettled trend. more rain around, particularly on saturday, this picture taken by one of our weather watchers in exeter a little bit earlier on.

we have had outbreaks of rain, heavy rain across parts of the south—west of england, south wales too, but there could be some ongoing flooding issues through the day. lots of lying surface water meaning travel disruption possible across the south—west of england, south wales and also later in the day, across north—east england and eastern scotland as well. so, here's the rainfall we have across wales and parts of northern england as well, pushing northwards through the day. we also see further heavy showers down towards the channel, heading across parts of the south—east of england. the isle of wight for instance seeing more of those showers through the afternoon. working in at times, glimpses of blue skies, but it is generally cloudy, drizzly. we will see lots of lying surface water on the roads across the north—east of england and this rain this afternoon then pushes into the south of scotland too. northern ireland and western and northern parts of scotland getting away with a drier day here. but into the evening hours, that rain pushes across eastern scotland, there is a yellow warning here and we could see flooding problems. elsewhere though, it is looking

like a largely dry, cloudy, murky sort of night, frost—free with temperatures holding up at about 6 degrees or 7 degrees for most of us. we do start sunday on that grey notes, but a respite. some drier weather before the next area of low pressure moves in during sunday night and into monday. still a bit of rain lingering across northern scotland on sunday, that should clear across to the north fairly quickly. still lots of low cloud so quite a murky day, a bit of drizzle, but a drier day tomorrow than it is today. still mild too with temperatures nine to 12 degrees and later on, we cast our eyes towards the south—west as this area of low pressure moves its way in. this will track northwards and eastwards across the uk as we head through the day on monday. not expecting the rain to be particularly heavy, but any more rainfall on saturated ground is not great news, particularly for south—west parts of england and the midlands, northern england as well. some brightness working in through the south later in the day and it is reasonably mild still, ten to 13 degrees.

the new working week starts on that mild but unsettled note and it looks like things turn a little bit colder but drier towards the end of the week. goodbye for now.

this is bbc news. i'm geeta guru murthy. the headlines at midday: jeremy corbyn says under a labour government, there would be another referendum, and as prime minister he would be unbiased, and deliver on the result, whichever way it went. i will adopt, as prime minister if i am at the time, a neutral stance so i can credibly carry out the results of that to bring our communities and country together, rather than continuing an endless debate. and today, labour set out measures to tackle what it calls "tax and wage cheat culture" of multinational companies. jeremy corbyn said he would force companies to pay theirfair share in tax. big companies that operate in britain, infuture, you big companies that operate in britain, in future, you are going to have to pay taxes in all of your operations in this country. you will not be able to offshore your tax bill to