urged delegations to step up their engagement to try to achieve a deal. this comes after negotiators from small island states and developing countries walked out of overtime talks, saying their interests were being ignored. there's been travel disruption across large parts of the uk as storm bert brought high winds, torrential rain and heavy snow. one man died in hampshire and a group of ten people were rescued after a landslide in north wales. various yellow weather warnings for rain and wind remain in place. there's been a day of intense air strikes and fighting across lebanon which has claimed the lives of at least 50 people. the deadliest incident came early, when an eight—storey building in central beirut was flattened by israeli warplanes. now on bbc news, we have today's episode of newscast, where paddy and laura discuss

gordon brown's intervention in the assisted dying debate. gordon brown's intervention plus, the possibility of french missiles being fired into russia. now you've finished adjusting your quiff, we can talk about the serious business of the week. people might remember last weekend, we, shall i say, joshed about whether or not there was a minister for spoons. we did, however, discoverthat there is a ministerfor spoons. yes. sarahjones. and she was a good enough sport to talk to newscast about this, as, if you were paying attention, newscasters, you'll have learned earlier in the week. however, what is the most unusual thing there's a ministerfor, we wonder? yes. well, because i use it as a sort of soubriquet for, um, you know, mid—bulletin issues. ooh. yes. ministerfor spoons says there aren't enough spoons. yes. you know, then we do an interview on the radio about it in which we normally say, "i'm sorry, we haven't "got enough time. we can't go on." "we have to stop you there, minister."

minister's going, "but i just want to make it clear that there "aren't enough spoons." and you go, "no, sorry. you have to leave it there." so, my equivalent soubriquet would normally be the minister for paperclips. and every week ithink, "oh, no. "are we only going to get the minister for paperclips instead "of the foreign secretary or the defence secretary "or the prime minister?" but i don't know if there is a minister for paperclips. but also... it gets back. we were sort of talking about this a bit with louise hague. it's not a bad thing to be a minister with a point of view or an interest in anything. it's interesting how labour is going to play. can i say what i think? can i be an individual? that's right. and it also is a reminderjust actually, of how massive the reach of government is. and in a democracy like ours, actually, we do expect the government to have a handle on absolutely everything, whether it is spoons or paperclips or defence or foreign affairs or all these hugely serious things. and it is an interesting thing to observe, as you suggest, labour still going through the sort of growing pains of working out

how actually they do government and how they should respond — and we are grateful to sarah jones for getting in touch with us to talk about her job — maybe you need a new soubriquet, but what we have no shortage of, spoons or otherwise, is really big, serious things to talk about this weekend. so we probably now should get on with this episode of saturday's newscast. newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello! it's laura in the studio. it's paddy in the studio. and it's very nice to be reunited with you. so, we used to talk, didn't we, about how there was no weekend newscast, and now it's everything everywhere, all at once. and one of the big interventions that's taken the news world, newsrooms by surprise is gordon brown's come out with a very harrowing and personal account into the, to influence the debate about assisted dying. that's right. so, the vote on the bill to introduce assisted dying is coming up at the end of next week. and everybody knows how sensitive and emotive an issue this is for people on all sides of the debate, for those with strong feelings

and those with none. this is clearly an issue that people touches that people, touches them in their heart. every family has got a story. every family has a story. and gordon brown has come out very strongly and i think very passionately, but with a sharing of an incredibly painful story about the loss of he and his wife, sarah's baby girl jennifer, some years ago, and he's written an opinion piece for the guardian paper, and he's talking to one of our fellow programmes on radio 4 tomorrow morning. and the experience of spending those days withjennifer in her very short life are not days that he would ever have wanted to exchange. so despite the pain, the heartbreak of losing a tiny baby, he writes that actually those days with her before she died, just a few days into her life, were days that he and his wife, sarah, will treasure forever. and it's in that context that he makes a very emotional and powerful case for saying

we are not ready as a country to consider assisted dying, because even the closing days of life are precious, and the closing days of somebody�*s life are just as precious as any day of anyone�*s life. and i think it is a very significant intervention because, of course, as a former labour prime minister, labour mps listen to him. they are the people who have to make this decision. and also, he suggests, i suppose, a way out of this because labour's split on this as a party, it's not a party political issue and this sort of binary, "should we do it or should we not do it?" vote is very difficult for them from a political point of view. and what gordon brown is saying is, look, he understands that people want to move forward with this as a nation and other countries have done it, but why not take a pause, have something like a royal commission where you could have a genuine national conversation and essentially have a really good deep think about this? yeah, because that's criticism as well. criticism as well,

that's come, that the previous time, nearly a decade ago when parliament considered this, it said they had seven weeks of time to ponder it. and this time the critics say it's 18 days, but actually two things. an opinion poll of the public has been published showing that more than 70% of the public broadly expect an assisted dying permission to be given. it's hard to use the word want because it's a serious matter. parliament is divided on conscience. but my question would be what, what's likely to happen? how's the prime minister going to vote? and what do you think is the impact of the intervention of diane abbott? uh, also, uh, who's the other? edward lee. the mother and father of the house. i was going to say the oldest parliamentarians. i don't mean the oldest parliamentarians.

i mean the people who've served the longest as mps are known as the mother and the father of the house, and they've come together to write a piece also expressing concern. but there are lots of other people, you know, yvette cooper has been out this week saying that she backs the bill. liz kendall, another cabinet minister who's on the programme with us tomorrow. she's backing the bill. kim leadbeater, of course, who's the labour mp who's put this forward, backs it very strongly. so it's, i think it's very understandable that this is not and completely proper that this is not a party political issue. however, there are politics in this. yeah. because the government has given this time in westminster, we know that the prime minister is in favour of this change, although he doesn't really want to talk about it now. we know also, its just awkward to have cabinet ministers out there expressing different views because, you know, unity is powerful in politics and having them out there saying different things, that's just awkward, even debating whether or not they should be saying different things. and there is a sense of people i've been speaking to in government in the last couple of days of actually, was it the right thing to allow this to go

ahead at this moment? so early on. yeah, and they've got so much else to be getting on with. it's really, really difficult. there are lots of big, unanswered questions like would the nhs be expected to help do this, or would it happen in some other kind of mechanism? how would the government be able to sort of manage this and how it would actually translate from being a kind of intellectual debate with a vote attached to something that actually happened in the real world. and i think there are a lot of nerves. you know, someone even suggested to me that there might be government ministers who vote for it, but actually hope it doesn't go through. right. well, that's, i mean, that reminds us of the kind of parliamentary procedure, doesn't it? it's got hints of, funnily enough, it's got hints, actually, of the brexit referendum. it does. because that was also a position where cabinet ministers were allowed to express disagreements, but were asked politely, please don't press the muscular button, please just be sort of intellectual, don't be emotive. and that was very problematic for david cameron. hugely problematic.

and david cameron, i think, sort of thought it would be fine and thought that it would all be civil. now, we're not saying that this is going to end up in some kind of four year horrific political civil war, but it's interesting you make that parallel because somebody in government made that parallel to me yesterday, they said, "oh god, it might end "up being a bit like brexit." not that they're going to be all sorts of, you know, hideous infighting, but that you enter into a public period of disagreement on something that is profoundly important and it's just kind of messy. well, it's wizard of oz, isn't it? you've opened the curtain on cabinet government, and it's meant to look like this and suddenly it looks like someone�*s got to tell wes streeting to get back in his box. that's right. and other people are saying, actually, you know, wes streeting is completely right because he's pointing out what the potential because he's pointing out what the potential, there might be potential costs and impacts on the health service and other people, as you say, suggest that he should get back in his box. but ijust wonder, i think some of our viewers and listeners also think that, we've had quite a lot

of emails on this subject, and i kind of think, well, hang on a minute, why are we suddenly talking about this now? you know, this wasn't in a party manifesto. we've just been through a huge democratic exercise of a general election, but no one voted on this. and actually, if people will remember, i know newscasters remember, i know newscasters will because they're a smart bunch of people. this came about because esther rantzen, who is herself terminally ill, said publicly that she thought it should be debated and made a sort of request, i suppose, in a very moving interview with our colleagues at the today programme, keir starmer responded to esther rantzen saying, "yes, "if we win the election, i'll give "this parliamentary time." and there is a sense of a couple of people who i've been speaking to that actually did they quite realise what they would be opening up when they gave what seemed to be, i suppose, quite a kind of harmless answer on a very serious subject. but yes, of course, of course you would want

to grant that wish. and we know what keir starmer�*s personal position was. and actually, as you said, drawn back the curtains on something and you go, oh, okay. yeah. and in the meantime, as it's been discussed, a large number, an unusually large number of people have been writing to us. your programme, my programme on radio 4 and our newscast colleagues, we've, we've got messages on both sides of the argument. mm—hmm. so ian said, "as a 50—year—old father with secondary "progressive multiple sclerosis, i'm deeply concerned "about the ongoing calls for assisted dying legislation. "should we not be assisting living and affirming "the inherent value of human life?" and this is kind of what gordon brown's intervention is. and in reading this out, we're not seeking to influence anyone�*s opinion or influence the debate. i can now read another one. i'm just saying this is kind of what gordon brown is saying. this is the intervention of gordon brown. we're reporting the intervention of gordon brown. we know there are very many people, including esther rantzen, who want us to adopt it, but this has touched the live wire part of the national conversation.

it's definitely worth saying, though, that the uk is not the only country that's been considering this. you know, we're talking to the belgian minister tomorrow, actually, which has got very liberal laws on euthanasia. it's possible in the netherlands. obviously in canada it is as well, in some states of america is. so there was a sense at the beginning of this debate that this is kind of the progressive direction of travel, you know, and that most politicians would want to be on this side of that. and in the scottish parliament, for example, there is already legislation. it hasn't gone through yet, but legislation has already been put through, in that it has, legislation is already on the books, in holyrood, although there's a debate about whether or not it's actually within the powers of the scottish parliament to pass this law. but, you know, the law that's been put forward by kim leadbeater, you know, is not a kind of outrider. this is something that's happened in lots of places, but i don't think it's certain at all that it is going to pass when it actually comes to a vote.

and up until the vote, we will definitely continue to share your messages and your views to try and include the public in the conversation. so do keep them coming in. so if you haven't heard your view represented in what i've read out, you will do this week. and also, after the vote on friday, we're having a special edition of newscast. and the other story, really, of the week is the use of long—range missiles by ukraine into russia, supplied by the united states, the uk and possibly france. so, you're right, it's been a huge story this week, also including putin striking back with an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time. so, he fired a big missile that can go a very, very, very long way for the first time. so, both of those things have been sort ofjunctions, if you like, in what's been a very serious week in ukraine. yesterday i sat down to speak to the french foreign minister, jean—louis barrault, and it was very interesting in the context of what's happened this week, that he was completely clear that france explicitly

has said that ukraine can use french—supplied long—range missiles to fire into russia, he said that would be in the logic of self—defence. he said that there were, there shouldn't be any red lines set at all, in terms of western support for president zelensky, and he wouldn't rule out even troops going to help alongside ukrainians. now, president macron has indicated in may that he might be willing for this to happen, that france didn't have a problem with its missiles being used in that way. but obviously in the context of the uk and the us actually doing it, not firing them themselves, but allowing ukraine to fire them in that way, it takes on a new significance. so it was really interesting to speak to him at that moment. he was the first french foreign ministerfor several years, actually, to come and meet the british foreign secretary, which tells you something about what relationships have been like on either side of the channel. but he was very clear that this was an option. he was also said that —

france hasn't always taken this position — he also said that countries should be open to ukraine joining nato. he said they were trying to encourage other allies to come to that view, that ukraine should be able to join the defence partnership of nato, which of course is one of president zelensky�*s absolute key demands. and one of vladimir putin's red lines. absolutely. you could see, we've said on newscasts before most wars end at the table. the question you should ask is where's the table? who's around the table? what's the timeline for getting the table out? we don't often talk about that, but we've started to because of the arrival of president—elect donald trump saying it'll be over by his inauguration, the war without saying how. and president zelensky saying he's aware of the transition, meaning the war will end in 2025. in that gap has come joe biden�*s permission and vladimir putin's response. the most unstable escalation in a year, if not longer, just in the transition. so it's all connected to what's happening in the white house,

of course. it is, completely. and last week on newscast, you said that it was not out of the question that there could be a change on the use of long—range weapons. that was something you said last week. well, we werejust wondering if biden, as somebody suggested to me that biden might use his last couple of months in the white house to try to make a difference in ukraine, to try to move things forward, to try to put them in the strongest possible position before trump arrives. before trump arrives and he does whatever he's going to do to try to bring all this to a conclusion. and in the last few days, i've written about it for the website today, i've been talking to people, defence sources and people inside and outside government and one of the things that struck me was, well, lots of things are really interesting, but someone said to me, who's very connected to all of this said, look, everybody knows now there's a negotiation coming. coming. yeah. and therefore we have to do two things. and this was two parts of a strategy were suggested to me sort of independently by,

by different sources — one is you have to put ukraine in the strongest possible position in terms of that negotiation. and it was suggested that was to really make some progress in kursk, so that they had something to trade. which is in russia. sorry, i should have said that. so they had something to sort of trade. so there's a question of keep them, keep the money flowing, keep the munitions flowing, do things like allow long—range missiles to be fired. continue to have a united western approach to this, and i'm sure our interview with the ministerfrom france is no coincidence. is no coincidence, in the part of that. clearly, he was very keen to get that message of support for ukraine across. the second part of a strategy that was sort of described to me by different sources was how you handle president trump. and someone put it to me this way. they said, "you have to get him in a frame of mind, use the art "of the deal, big up" —

which of course was his book, big up, his sort of strength as a negotiator and say, "look, you want to be "the guy that stopped the war, not the guy that lost ukraine." but there is concern in the circles of people that i've been speaking to that the sense that's coming out of florida, trump world, before it moves to dc is that there is potentially the incentive for russia will be go to the negotiating table and we'll ease up on your sanctions. the message to ukraine may be go to the table or we cut off your aid. and it was suggested to me, that's not a very fair and balanced approach, because it's like all carrot for russia and all stick for ukraine. but obviously this is a very, very moveable feast. so many different pieces of this jigsaw. but it's a very, as you said, there's a sort of moment of what feels like kind of maximum uncertainty and maximum peril. someone said to me, "everyone�*s waiting to see "what the trump offer is." and also the europeans have got to decide how much money to spend on their own defence, without getting a check from the american taxpayer. in fact, we use this phrase check. adam fleming always points out hardly anyone writes checks anymore, but... oh, he's so young. yeah. billions and billions

and billions of american money in an era when americans havejust voted for america first, going to the defence of european nations, some of whom are very wealthy, in a post—war order, which is changing. which is changing/has changed because the russians have imported troops from north korea to the front line. that's an escalation. mm—hmm. which is why the west said it needed to respond. you need to tell putin, "we see your north korean troops "and we raise you missiles." that's kind of unfortunately, the era i grew up in, cold war logic. this is, we're back to the future, we're back to those kremlinology days, how to read signals sent by troops, missiles, all within the framework of the change in the white house. but it is basically, it won't have escaped newscasters attention that this

is all men with rockets. you know, there's no woman in this picture. there's no powerful person really trying to bring these people together as we speak. at the moment, it'sjust a lot of men fighting with the wars of their fathers with a lot of weapons. you make a really interesting point there, that the foreign minister made to me this week, he said, look, actually the period of the sort of early �*90s to the mid 2000s when it looked like russia was looking with a friendly eye to the west, nearly joined nato, they were suggesting to me that was an aberration. and essentially we're back with something that we lived with kind of forever. they said either a new cold war or maybe even a dirty war, whatever you want to call it. and they actually said, get used to it. this is what we've lived with forever. and, you know, if we had a russian sympathy and, you know, it would be wise for western nations to remind the russian people that we don't have beef with the russian people. we have beef with a system where political dissent is punished by death. president putin's rivals fall

out of windows and blow up in aeroplanes. we have a democratic system. the front line at the moment appears to be ukraine, so we do know which side we're on, but it is very delicate. also, of course, the thing is that russia has a complex going back hundreds of years to powers coming from the west, sweeping across the flat part of europe and going towards moscow. that is in their history. and they are right to have that in their memory of being invaded. that's part of it. is it being exploited by vladimir putin? yes. is he increasingly a despot? yes. and what's going to happen? it's been compressed into this time frame. and i think your interview with the french foreign minister is a sign. it's a time to pick sides. and if you've been rowing about migrants in the channel and brexit, this is existential. so you need to get your meetings out and you need to get going. that's the whole point. well, it's one of the reasons i think, clearly, why he was here. i thinkjohn healey, the defence secretary, is heading back, i think, to berlin, or certainly to meet again with the germans and the french and continue this sort of round of visible, visible unity. but then also you talk

to people in the sort of defence circles here, and some of them are really frustrated that they think that allies have not all been pulling an equal weight. obviously the us, the uk, the poles, others have been giving significant amounts of support. and the germans. but you know, we've talked about it before, haven't we? there's always this sense... and in fact, president macron said this. he said that western leaders should be humble about this, that what's happened has often been too late. you know, zelenskyy has asked and asked and asked and asked. and then eventually the request is granted, and then asked and asked and asked and asked for the next thing. and then eventually the request was granted. so if you go back to the beginning of this conflict, i think from memory, germany initially offered helmets and sleeping bags. yeah, there's a lot of criticism and there's a split in the coalition government there. sure. yeah. well, i mean, i suppose what we say is we know that the search for context matters. we don't want people to go away feeling depressed about, um, all outcomes because we said, clinton gave us the phrase "it's the economy, stupid." and i've thought for a long

time, we need people to come along and say, "it's the politics. "and by the way, don't call me stupid." what's needed is adult, political, diplomatic people to understand the russian perspective, to understand what must not be given away in ukraine and to come together. that's what the west is. the west is a coalition of nations. and i think what is happening is in governments, in western governments, there is the beginnings or, or the more evident signs of private discussions about what the ultimate quid pro quo is going to be for ukraine. hm. and that was said very plainly to me by a few people, is this has to be something that now is given proper thought. not because anybody in the western alliance wants ukraine to have to give up or to have to compromise. absolutely not. but i go back to the phrase of my source — "everybody knows there's a negotiation coming." so how do you bolster

ukraine and zelensky to be in the strongest possible position for the negotiation? but also, how do you start to think about what might be realistic options? what will the ukrainian ask be? it was put to me, maybe it is a guarantee that they could get into nato to guarantee their long—term security. maybe it could be some kind of demilitarised zone. who knows? but the tone of the conversation and the tenor of the conversation certainly has changed with the trump victory. and it's going to be a fascinating and maybe, maybe quite perilous few weeks until the proper shape of the trump plan, such as it may be, becomes clear. so we're at the end. thank goodness for that. but also, ukrainecast is doing extra editions with people who actually know more than you and i. perish the thought. you've got a great interview on this tomorrow with the french foreign minister. mm—hmm. we've got vadym

prystaiko, who was the ukrainian ambassador and was sacked by he and was sacked by, was sacked by zelensky. yeah. so he's going to be our live guest. so maybe when we meet tomorrow, we can... i'd love to hear about that. join all these thoughts. absolutely. and we'll be talking to liz kendall, who is the work and pensions secretary, because next week comes another government welfare crackdown. government wants to get to grips with the absolutely enormous and growing numbers of people who, for whatever reason, feel that they can't go to work or they're not well enough to go to work. so we'll be hearing about her plans to try to sort that problem out and all sorts of other exciting things. we've got piers morgan, nadine dorries, jonathan dimbleby on our panel tomorrow. how will you get them to talk? i don't know. what a shy, retiring bunch of wallflowers. i'm a bit worried. the work you're going to have to do to get that. a bit worried about it, to get anybody else into the programme. i've only got 60 minutes with the three of them.

so we say to you, thank you for listening. it's a serious, these are serious times and we try and keep the conversation flowing with your help. so please write to us. do you have any wild animals on your programme tomorrow? no turkeys? no, but we have got opera singers. oh that's lovely. which is? which is passion. if not animal spirits. animal spirits. there you go. yes. thank you for listening. and goodbye. goodbye. model where working its way back in. many places have had lots of rain, northern ireland has seen some flooding, we've also seen widely strong winds and widespread scales remain a part of the forecast through the rest of this weekend, flooding rain also a concern. on the satellite picture we can see storm bert. this hook of cloud on the satellite picture a deep area of low pressure,

the scent of which is passing to the north—west of the country. we did see that snow through the morning, but notice on the radar picture it largely turned back to rain through the afternoon. some places have seen quite a lot of rain, there is a lot more to come true tonight, particularly wet across wales and south—west england, increasing risk of flooding here. very windy everywhere, widespread gales, but particularly in northern scotland, the irish sea coasts and north and south coasts, but look at the temperatures sunday morning, considerably milder thanit morning, considerably milder than it has been lately. our deeper area of low pressure continues to drift slowly towards the north—west of the uk. these are low only moving slowly, so the winds will continue to be strong throughout the day tomorrow. heavy rain again across the south—west of england, into south—east wales and the midlands with that risk of flooding. further north and west, brighterskies flooding. further north and west, brighter skies with sunshine, but heavy, blustery showers, those wind gust 60—70

mph. it stays dry and relatively bright for much of the south—east, we could see temperatures up to 17 or 18 degrees here, so in very mild feel here. as we head through sunday evening but with the front eventually pushes east and behind it to the air turns and behind it to the air turns a bit cooler once again, but certainly not as cool as it has been. ourarea certainly not as cool as it has been. our area of low pressure continuing its very slow journey close to the north of scotland, so the wind is only slowly easing through the day on monday, sunny spells, hefty downpours and feeling a bit chilly out once again. we keep those slightly lower temperatures as we had flu next week, but certainly not as cold as it has been and not as stormy as it is right now.

live from london, this is bbc news. cop29 enters its final session with hopes of a deal,

despite a dramatic walk—out just hours earlier. the ukjustice secretary shabana mahmood has attacked the assisted dying bill, saying it could lead to a slippery slope towards death on demand. there's been travel disruption across large parts of the uk as storm bert brought high winds, torrential rain and heavy snow. officials in lebanon say more than 50 people have been killed in israeli air strikes on beirut and baalbek. hello, i'm karin giannone. just hours after delegates from several countries walked out of talks at the un climate conference, it appears delegates are now moving towards an eleventh—hour agreement.

but in the last couple of