. —— varadkar. there has been a soft borderfor —— varadkar.varadkar. there has been a soft borderfor years, even during the troubles. even the head of customs and excise has said there is no way there will be a hard border. 2% of exports are affected by this anyway. it has been weaponised by remainiacs. you did say remainiacs. we will park that want to talk about tax. this is an important question for the tories. an important question for voters, i guess. tax damaging the tories is the i's front page. and a crossbench peer who has aligned himself with labour suggesting that there may be need for tax rises to pay for social care. he is now saying social care as well. we are back to brexit, with the brexit dividend which would infuse money into the health service, which of course the ifs said was impossible. he spoke in a similar way thatjeremy hunt has been thinking about that. quite progressive thinking, and simon stephens thinks like that as well, that you have to see health in the round, but social care is a vital pa rt round, but social car

the irish taoiseach, leo varadkar, welcomed the yes vote in ireland a week ago, saying that, "irelandnger say to women take the boat or take the plane when they need an abortion." instead, he said, "ireland will say take our hand." it is now time for us to offer our hands to the women of northern ireland in the same way. women who face a situation where if they are raped and seek a termination they will face a longer prison sentence than their attacker. she proposed repealing the parts of the act that made abortion a criminal offence. but there was angry opposition. i made the mistake that many mps make of actually reading my e—mails today. "your views are a disgrace to humanity and a betrayal of the truly innocent." "women can always say no or keep their clothes on." "you, madam, were once an embryo." "you, madam, were once a foetus in your mother's womb." "you were once a preborn baby." "i wonder what decision you have wanted your mother to make about your life or death had she been given the opportunity in the months before you were born." now, i respect those who disagree with abo

and the prime minister, leo varadkar, who is very popular right now, he says, i will never work with are eurosceptic, they are nationalistic, and even sectarian. the faces may get younger, but their politics remains the same. and he relies on the support of micheal martin, who you have quoted, to keep them in government. so there isn't a clear—cut majority for any party. and, of course, political parties willjockey for position. i can simply say this — that we will seek a democratic mandate, and after the next election i will talk to the political parties, i will talk to independent members of the dail. i can only speak for myself. if these two gentleman you have quoted have said they will not talk to me, bear in mind they are also saying they won't talk to each other, so they run a very serious risk of winding up talking to themselves. but that is a matter for them. what is a matterfor you is how irish people perceive you as a party offering them the prospect of a more prosperous ireland. now, you are a big—state, old —fashioned socialist party. is that what the ireland of the 21st

he's been meeting with the taoiseach, leo varadkar, and the eu's chief brexit negotiator, michel barnierland backed by 26 member states and by the eu commission. this will not change. i am strongly against any temptation to try to isolate ireland and not to conclude the deal on ireland. ireland has to be part of the deal. the prime minister of new zealand, jacinda arden, has given birth to a baby girl. her partner announced the news by posting this photo on social media. the baby weighed 3.3 kilos and the name has yet to be revealed. ms arden is only the second world leader to give birth while in office. the first was pakistan's benazir bhutto. an air asia pilot has been heavily criticised after he tried to flush out passengers who refused to get off, using the jet‘s air—conditioning blower system. passengers of the domestic flight in india were told to get off the plane after a delay of four hours, but refused to because it was raining heavily outside. the pilot then put the air—conditioning on full blast, sending dense clouds of air into the cabin. eyewitnesses reported seeing children

but the irish prime minister, leo varadkar, has described the lack of progress as "disappointing".nique to help tackle the poaching of one the most endangered animals on the planet. the pangolin is the world's only scaly mammal. it's eaten for its meat and its scales are used in chinese traditional medicines. now a team at portsmouth university for the first time has come up with new fingerprint technique to help identify the criminals behind the illegal trade. that's a summary of the latest bbc news. cat has treated us, she has played doki doki literature club, she has depression but she says not once did the game broke into it. she says it is another excuse for people blame video games for people with not enough help for mental health issues. do get in touch. let's get the latest sport. the holders germany are on their way home from the world cup. heartbreak and a lot of questions for fans and players alike with the four—time champions knocked out in the first round for the first time since 1938. england are in kaliningrad and ready to take on belgium in theirfinal group game wit

the irish prime minister leo varadkar has said time is running out to conclude an acceptable agreementeaders appears to be on the problem of migration. here's our correspondents james reynolds in rome, jenny hill in berling and bethany bell in vienna on the italian, german and austrian positions coming in to the summit. italy's got two main aims at the summit. the first is to get the rest of the eu to agree to share out migrants more equally to take the pressure off frontline states like italy. but this idea is likely to meet resistance from states in central and eastern europe. and italy's second main aim is to get support for its plan to stop migration the mediterranean altogether. it plans to do this by helping to build migration holding centres on the external borders of libya. there are a number of questions about this but italy's interior minister, matteo salvini, has told the bbc he doesn't expect any objections from europe. we'll see. my colleaguejenny hill is in berlin. might not think that angela merkel, renowned for her liberal values, has much in common with the new italian

mrjuncker has been holding talks in dublin with the taoiseach, leo varadkar, and the eu's chief brexit a very strong sense from the news conference which they held that certainly ireland and the rest of the eu have each other‘s backs. absolutely. i think that was the whole purpose of this visit. michel barnier, chief negotiator and president of the commission came here exactly for that purpose, to put the focus back on the continuing disagreement over the irish border ahead of the eu council meeting next week. that continued disagreement is about the backstop, something we have heard so much about. the way in which it will be resolved, and to make sure there is no hard border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. if any free trade agreement doesn't go far enough to ensure there are no checks of goods crossing the border. at the moment the irish government says the uk proposals do not go far enough. they have proposed the whole of the uk would stay in a temporary customs arrangement with the eu at the end of the transition period. the irish government and the rest of the

we have paddy smith, european editor for the irish times, leo varadkar said he was disappointed thatded by migration. disappointed many that the british have still not that their cards on the table and explained how they will live up to their commitment to the backstop and what sort of future relationship they want with the eu, so that is they want with the eu, so that is the main concern. jeremy corbyn yesterday was pushing theresa may to roll out the new deal option but i notice in their draft conclusions that they have warned eu states they need to prepare for a new deal scenario. the dutch are just tired 1000 new customs officers, much more than the british have. the commission are exploring every possible option in a no deal scenario and every department in ireland is working on what happens if there is no deal. it is complicated in ireland because although we know in relation to the brexit cash, if the british say they will notjoin there brexit cash, if the british say they will not join there will be no money, so will not join there will be no money, so there is a hole in the