hello, i hope you're having a nice half term, chris mason was spotted being quite stressed out by his children at todmorden services. laura is having a few days off as well, which means in the studio i've got some new friends and i'm going to let them introduce themselves. hello, i am alex forsyth in the studio near adam, often to be found in westminster or touring the country. i'm newsnight's policy editor. sort of feel a bit like a supply teacher. also, this is the only one who knows that you have more fun with a supply teacher, but also they get more stressed out. that's true, and i'm very stressed. anyway, i'm going to stress you out even more now because you're sitting

in chairs that have previously been occupied by laura kuenssberg. oh god. katya adler on. we know that they are the pressure and we know that they love a cake and they love a quiz. so i've mixed the two together so we can get to know you better and see what your skills are like with a cake quiz. i'm genuinely there. other examples of cake to our companies. why don't ijust dive into the quiz? you can stay already. who is fabled to have given royal icing its regal name? it is almost certainly going to be a monarch. queen victoria. she has got the victoria sponge, can she claim a sponge and an icing? queen victoria. that is so greedy! how can you have a sponge and an icing? what kind of chocolates does nigella lawson use in her own fashion chocolate cake? is it like maltesers? is that your final answer? truffles.

minstrels? it is chocolate buttons but they have to be 70% cocoa. she also says, do not dream of using normal confectionery ones. i would not dream of it. this is nearly over, you will be pleased to hear. we have all got lives to lead. in which english county would you find a fat rascal? i think i might know this, because i think i have been there. is there a famous shop somewhere that sells them and it is in yorkshire? you jointly got the right answer. steady on, it is early days. this is a bonus question, what are the toppings of a fat rascal? icing. cherries. yes. and. the toppings of a fat

rascal, peanuts? peanuts and cherries? almonds. correct. that puts alex forsyth slightly in the lead. that was the laura kuenssberg and katya adler memorial cake quiz. now going to quiz you what has been in a newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it is adam in the studio. it is alex also in the studio. it is lewis, also in the studio. shortly we will be joined by the magic of technology by the real—life mayor elsewhere in the country, but lots of places in the country are battening down hatches tonight because storm eunice is heading their way and this is after storm dudley passed through, but it seems that this one is going to be even worse and i thought we could get an update

from a friend of the podcast, matt taylor, you're not in the bbc weather centre, where are you? no, i am actually- at home in my garden. it is delightfully calm, - the calm before the storm. that is a commitment to duty, doing this from your back garden. i would love to do newsnight for my garden, ideally, as a committed gardener, i think that will keep the ratings up. if there is some policy to edit in your back garden, you could start a trend. matt, talk us through what we can expect over the next 2a or 48 hours and i know the first thing that is probably the most worrying is that this part of the country has a red warning. yes, it is concerning and it is going to be much worse - than we saw with storm dudley. storm eunice has been. developing and it is going through a process which we call explosive psychlogenesis, - it is a weather bomb, - strengthening quite rapidly over a short space of time and it is approaching us, i but the biggest concern - is the red weather warning. that has been issued i across the isles of scilly and cornwall, the north coast

of devon and southern - parts of wales. it is these areas where there is a significant risk _ of damage, disruption i and a risk to life as well from flying debris. also in these areas, - the environment agency has issued a number of flood i warnings because as those when start to follow getting up to 90 mph through tomorrow i morning, we could see some coastal flooding. pushing a storm surge right of the bristol channel- and those of the areas of greatest concern, . but just about anywhere i across england and wales could be having problems- tomorrow, and there is an amber warning across wales and much of england and what is unusuall with the storm is that inland - we could see gusts of around 60 or 80 mph and back and have an impact on transport, and powerl as well and if you have got any plans, consider them - before you head out. am i right in saying it is not just the red warning, it is also the size of the amber warning, it is a whole chunk of the country. exactly.

the big problem is that this is where we will see - a significant wind strengthl over huge area and notjust that, hugely populated areas, but will increase the impact. i the same strength across| scotland in the highlands, not much population. or infrastructure there, but when start to push in, power lines, trees, also. across roads and railway lines, it starts to have that more - widespread impact and to be honest it could be a pretty . dangerous and nasty day from first thing i in the morning, all the way- through the evening rush hour. it could be quite long lasting as well and even though - we have got the red warning across parts of south west i england, they are closely. looking at what may happen across the south—east i and north west england, it is not finished yet, - as the storm is developing, you can do all sorts of things, it may strengthen or weaken, j it might slightly change its tact and that is whyl it is so important to keep- across the forecast from first thing tomorrow morning.

can you tell me more about that term about the weather bomb, i feel like i go through that on a daily basis? we have all been there, . but what happens is there's a strong jet stream overhead, | blowing out of north america, across the atlantic, - it is like fast flowing air and that helps to push - the air from the us quicker than from the other way, - but is that speeds up and slows down, it causes fluctuations in the way above us, - starts to suck all the air up . into the atmosphere and that deepens the area of low pressure and as that. starts to push away, - all the air around comes in, i starts to circulate in the more i that has deepened, the stronger the storm basically becomes. the more it develops over a short space of time, - the quicker and stronger- the storm becomes and that is why you get some particularly strong winds and that is why. you get such a storm event - and whenever you hear weather bomb and that coincides - with inland areas, that is when

you have got real problems. i feel when i watch you on the weather, quite often i hear you say there is an amber warning or warning about high winds or they might be a high tide, how often do you find yourself saying, there is a red warning, the worst? very rarely. usually maybe once or twice a year. - as you go through several - years, the met office will only ever issue a red warning if it thinks there is a significant i risk to life and property. when that is triggered, that is when you reallyl do have to stay alert, it would not do that l without huge considerations as to the impact. _ for us, red warning is the big one, it is the big one. - it is worth noting that lots of local authorities are already thinking about emergency plans, announcing school closures, lots of welsh council said schools are closing, somerset county council and in cornwall as well, you feel the sense of this, it is notjust a hyped up warning, this is going to be quite serious and everyone

generally needs to batten down. i was in cumbria a few weeks ago and it is not as if this is the first storm we have had this year. up there, at that time, i forget which one it was, storm arwen maybe? people were without power for weeks and weeks. trees were felled everywhere. it seems to have been, has it been a particularly active season? we have got very active over a short space of time, - it was acquired through a good part of the autumn season. . storm arwen was weird, it came from a direction| that we are not used to, we usually have winds . coming in from the west - or south west and they came in from a northerly direction and trees are quite clever, i they pull out their routes to protect them from - a dominant wind direction - and when you switch it around, that is why we saw trees come i down, they were not used to it. that caused a big impact .

and even though the winds in these areas were affected by storm arwen, there - will still be strong winds l in the north of the country and the other aspect could be some significant snow, - central and southern scotland, added to parts of northern - ireland, and it is really- a widespread impact on the only place that avoids the worst is the far north of - scotland, if i am honest. snow as well! i thought it was going to be wind and rain. is it too late to get to the far north of scotland! i do not think you want to fly through the storm! orthe train! that is a much better way to travel if you're worried about the environment. matt will be saying that this is more proof of climate change but others will say, it is very hard to attribute individual weather events to changes in the climate.

it is a certainly this event, - we have seen winter storms come through and the big questionj is when we start to see them become even stronger, more regular as well, i but this for me is just a big . winter storm at the moment. that cabinet office briefing room a in the basement of the cabinet office has been getting a lot of use this way, they had a cobra meeting about ukraine and today there was a cobra meeting about the storm. the prime minister did not go, it was quite junior ministers and as we have learnt from political history, actually bad weather can lead to bad politics of people do not feel the government has got a grip or did not see it coming. floods tend to be the worse, they have done for a few cabinet ministers, they have really misjudged the response. the thing is this is such a massive impact on lives and unless you are in it, it is extraordinary and a lot of people in london or conscious they will be affected by the storm are suddenly talking about it and perhaps in a way they were not talking about storm arwen. i think it is good that people realise these things have a huge impact on the day—to—day lives of people and the rest for the politicians when they look disconnected.

who is the cabinet minister who turned up without wellies in a floodlit area? then there is the environment agency guy who had to resign. remember david cameron went to orlando when there were floods in his constituency. borisjohnson had a flooding issue. no, that was when he famously got the brush out and swept more water into the shop. the biggest example with extreme weather was george bush and hurricane katrina — his second term was crippled by that, the famous picture of him looking out of the plane, going, that looks awful. it is the disconnect, if they do not understand that this is awful and affecting homes and businesses and it sounds like welfare as well potentially, you need to understand the severity and take it seriously.

alley on the cabinet office briefing room a. thank you for bringing us up today with the alarming weather forecast. we will be watching bbc breakfast on friday morning and thank you to the taylor family for the loan of the garden for newscast. they will make mej cut the grass next. not tonight! i will offer to do it as a little favour to say thank you. take him up on that! it is worth saying, as well as following that, all our colleagues will bbc local radio will be working round the clock telling you what is going on in your area and it is really worth listening to your local radio and you can get that on bbc sounds and also get newscast on bbc sounds. what a pro! now we are joint for the second half of this episode by the mayor of west yorkshire who joins us from the bbc in leeds. hi, has the storm hit your patch yet? it is on its way and we are hunkering down ready for tomorrow. there are lots of things we can talk to you about and we will talk about levelling up, which alex does a lot of work

on, but first of all i thought we could talk about the cost of living which lewis has been looking out on newsnight. inflation is 5.5%, the highest it has been since you were born probably! i think that is literally true, certainly since the early 1990s. i don't think, since you were born, it is a different story, but let us not dwell on that. it is 5.5% and that is the highest level and if we use the oldmeasure of inflation, rpi it is even higher and the scary thing is for millions of people across the country, who are already have had a decade of standard of living slips, the worst is yet to come on the bank of england is saying we would expect a peak of inflation around 7% in the spring and although the general expectation is that it will then start to obey after,

the truth is no one knows, because we have never really had anything like this before and one of the reasons we had this really significant pressure on the economy are not just in our economy, but globally, is to some extent some of this is about geopolitics and energy prices on things we have been talking about a lot, but some of it is just a post covid—i9 effect and essentially much of the west and be on the west as well put our economies into a kind of stasis, adornment kind of state for a long time, lots of the economy packed up shop and now things have started to get going and get going quickly and all sorts of pressure is on labour or on capital and all of the different commodities and products and so one and all of it coming into play at once and we have got inflation. tracy, it has been interesting for this to filter down, first of all we were talking about the massive increase to our energy bills and a couple of days ago it was petrol prices reaching a record high and today the papers or sign the price of a pint will go through the roof, is there something you're noticing amongst your citizens that is really hurting them, that maybe we are not

talking about as much? well, certainly the issue for us is that 170,000 l people, working people - in west yorkshire, are being paid under the living wage. so, already there are people i in work that are automatically now being very stretched - with the rise in energy costs, inflation and of course, - the tory tax hike with national insurance. and in fact, only this - afternoon i was at a church food bank that on average had 350 maybe food parcels - going out a week, 2000 now. and they have an armyl of volunteers delivering these food parcels to - people without transport. and added to this problem| is that we probably will get onto it later talking - about transport and the cliff edge for buses. i so, we've also got that perfectl storm of people with less money in their pocket and potentially no access to get to jobs, - training and opportunities. tracy, you touched upon it there, actually, but ijust wanted to ask you about this

bus issue because it's such a big thing, isn't it, that's happening? and i think maybe it's just worth explaining why that is. the government put a whole load of money into supporting buses during the pandemic because obviously the pattern of people that were using the buses fell right off a cliff and that money is due to come to an end quite soon and in fact, at the end of march. and so there's a bit of a debate about whether or not they're going to continue that or what they're going to do instead. but tracy, what's going to be the impact in your area, then if that money is withdrawn at the end of march? we've spent tens of millionsi of pounds supporting the bus companies to get those key. workers, students to college, and to get the people i back to work as we have had reduced restrictions. but there's no doubting that some people are l still working from home. we have 25% less footfall on i the buses than than pre—covid. however, because government have said that they're not - going to continue the covid support grant for buses, i we are seeing bus companies already cutting services. - but this is counter—intuitive .

because we need to get more people on the buses, not just to get back. to pre—covid levels, - but to increase bus use. and this is what government wanted to do with their busl back better program. we were promised £3 billion for our bus service _ improvement plans. it looks like that's - going to be 1.2 billion. so, already our ambitions are going to be reduced. i but this is a critical point, which is why myself- and the other mayors, i cross—party mayors, have written to the treasuryl and to government say, you can't have this cliff edge because absolutely what's . going to happen is areas like the five towns - in wakefield are not going to have any routes at all. i and everybody that uses those bus services, - they don't have a car, - they're on their way to work. we are just going to actually roll back any ambitions for l levelling up and transforming the bus network for that - london style network. it's a really critical - point for government, and they have to make the right decision. - tracy, what's the number for the bus bailout that you're asking for? it sounds eye watering.

635 million. but if we don't do it, the cost is going to be even greater. i it's going to be an- enormous backward step for our communities. tracy, now that we, obviously a week or so ago, we had the levelling up white paper much anticipated, not least by mayors such as yourself. i mean, now the dust is starting to settle in it. i mean, what's your assessment as to where we are with it? and, you know, in terms of your conversations that you're having with the department for levelling up and michael gove? i mean, obviously one thing that i'm sure that you're keen to know more about is the idea of more devolution of power. what's your assessment of where we are now? well, look, it was welcomed. it's the first time we've had a tangible productl that is the levelling up white papen — it seems like michael gove does absolutely want to deliver, - and talking to government and trying to get a handlel on what it actually means,

what the numbers are, - what these 20 communities. are that are going to get that extra boost and investment. we're still unsure about what that is, but one i of the problems is the only i money that was new money, it seems, is the 22 billion i for the brownfield land fund that comes with the same strings attached than - what we've been complaining about in the past. _ so, what we're saying is it has |to live up to its expectations, | and coming out of the levelling up team, we want to be - able to say that, yeah, - you're going to give us more power, more devolution, but actually enable us i to make our own decisions- for our community that we know and understand without having to come back to government l to have sign off, give us that money and that flexibility. . and the shared prosperity fund is an opportunity to see that. coming out of government. obviously, we do notl know what that is yet. it's not going to be - the same as the eu funding. tracy, let me ask you one thing, because i think after the white before levelling up, that was my thing.

and you in the car park reading everything. i heard michael gove was going to call of the alex forsyth levelling up paper. he should have done. where are you going to take michael gove? i where are you going to take michael gove?_ where are you going to take michael gove? i am the worst yorkshire _ michael gove? i am the worst yorkshire disco _ michael gove? i am the worst yorkshire disco dancing - yorkshire disco dancing champion so there might be some moves involved. that champion so there might be some moves involved.— moves involved. that sounds ri . ht moves involved. that sounds riaht u- moves involved. that sounds right up his _ moves involved. that sounds right up his street. _ moves involved. that sounds right up his street. we - moves involved. that sounds right up his street. we will . right up his street. we will find out- — right up his street. we will find out. let _ right up his street. we will find out. let us _ right up his street. we will find out. let us know. - right up his street. we will find out. let us know. in i right up his street. we will| find out. let us know. in all seriousness, _

find out. let us know. in all seriousness, there - find out. let us know. in all seriousness, there are - find out. let us know. in all| seriousness, there are some amazing things i will be showing him about how we are doing our own levelling up and really reaching in health tech and all of our businesses and we have the bank of england and channel 4 in leeds, but there are also challengers who can help us with.— are also challengers who can help us with. before you go i want to ask _ help us with. before you go i want to ask you _ help us with. before you go i want to ask you one - help us with. before you go i want to ask you one thing i help us with. before you go i want to ask you one thing on help us with. before you go i i want to ask you one thing on a different subject. so, rachael maskell, the mp, said yesterday that prince andrew should give up his title of the duke of york because of his association with the city. i think i'm right in saying you played sarah, the duchess of york, in a us tv movie. so, should prince andrew be stripped of the title duke of york? well, i will support my labour colleague all the way, - and rachael maskell is a fine mp, and you're absolutely i right, i did play sarah _ ferguson during the toe sucking sequence of their life. but i do think it is a disgrace - what has happened and the idea that the prince has any role

to play in supporting young j people who are victims - of sexual violence and abuse, i think is absolutely outrageous. - he has no part to play and it's incredibly patronising - given the victim shaming that he and his advisersl pursued over the last couple of years. - it's an absolute outrage. is it damaging to the yorkshire brand that he's got _ the word york in his title? is it damaging to the yorkshire brand that he's got the word york in his title? well, we are... we're very proud in yorkshire, and we have a lot to shout - about — yorkshire tea, yorkshire cricket, - our yorkshire dales - and yorkshire, the pennines. we won't necessarily be . talking, you know, in those same terms about the prince. no, no. you mentioned the yorkshire dales. did you happen to watch celebrity mastermind on saturday teatime when chris mason of newscast fame had that as his specialist subject? well, how marvellous. i need to watch that on catch up. - yeah, he actually did very well, and he did much better in the yorkshire dales round than the general knowledge. oh, what a dig. whata dig! now tracy, just before you go, because alex and lewis

are fairly new to newscast, at the start of this episode i gave them a little quiz about cakes, which is one of our house themes on newscast. and one of the questions was in which english county would you find a fat rascal? i'm sure you know the answer to that. cheshire. it's yorkshire. it's in betty's tearoom. resign. betty's tearoom! of course it is. yes, betty's is going to be writing to you, tracy? i'm not being funny. if celebrity mastermind want your number, should i pass it on? oh, no. yes, please. don't worry, we'll send you a slice courtesy of newscast. especially to put up with the fact that our line to leeds was a little bit glitchy tonight. i'm blaming storminess, but lovely to chat to you, tracey. see you soon. yeah, thanks all. bye tracy. it has been lovely chatting to you two, would you like to come again? no. it was a joke! i don't want another ache quiz.

we probably didn't get the worst question wrong. i won it. i'm not sure about the quality of the questions. only one person used to work on university challenge here. lewis used to. i was on it, if you remember. you didn't win. what's the secret, just know everything in advance, all of human knowledge? have a massive brain? the secret is... actually they wouldn't be happy if i gave away the secrets. what a tease. get lewis to write you some questions. then you would really get some politicians on the ropes. lam available. let me know when he's doing it, i'm not here. good luck with the quiz, and good luck getting home, alex, because i know you are travelling through the storm. i'll be stranded in a car. thanks to both of you and thank you for listening and watching this episode. goodbye.

storm eunice is bearing down on the uk. and all indications are this will be a dangerous, disruptive, and damaging storm. in fact, a met office red warning is in force — that means there's a danger to life. the storm system has been developing — you can see it here on the earlier satellite picture, this hook of cloud indicative of a storm that's been deepening and strengthening rapidly. this area of low pressure passing across the uk — and on its southern flank with all the isobars, the white line squeezing together — that is where we have the potential for damaging winds. especially across coastal parts of southwest england and south wales — met office red warning here, gusts of up to 90mph, very rough seas and coastal flooding are likely.

and then, we also have this much bigger amber warning area. and still the potential for some really disruptive and dangerous weather here, as well — gusts of wind up to 80mph. rain and wind quickly spreading northwards through the early part of friday, snow for western counties of northern ireland, high ground of northern england, and up into scotland, as well. but the winds peaking through the morning across some coasts of wales in the southwest, with gusts up as high as 90mph. some very rough seas, also very rough seas through the english channel. and those strong winds will be working eastwards through the day — even inland spots of eastern and southeastern england seeing gusts of 70—80mph — that is very unusual. further north, it won't be as windy, but snow is likely to cause issues. some hill snow for parts of northern ireland and northern england, significant snow in scotland, could see up to 30 centimetres, settling over high ground — that snow coming down very quickly is likely to cause transport impacts and some power cuts, as well.

temperatures the least of our worries, but really cold in the north where that snow is falling. now, things will only very slowly calm down during friday evening, we'll see some wintry showers pushing in from the northwest. and then, for saturday, a band of rain pushing in from the west potentially with some snow, especially over high ground in the north. it will be a windy day — not as extremely windy as friday, but still potentially windy enough to hamper any clean—up efforts. temperatures between 3—10 celsius. and we stick with a fairly blustery theme as we head into sunday. some brisk winds across the uk, outbreaks of heavy rain, but mild, 9—13 celsius.

welcome to bbc news — i'm rich preston our top stories. the us urges russia to formally announce that it won't invade ukraine, as fears mount that it's preparing to create a pretext for war. but let me be clear — i am here today not to start a war, but to prevent one. more than a hundred people are now known to have died in floods and mudslides in brazil as the search continues for those missing. southern britain braces for one of the fiercest storms in years — and a red weather warning means storm eunice could pose a risk to life. and canadian police warn protesting truckers in ottawa that action to clear them from the city centre's