Who didnt come from the same background as them and did not go to the same university do not look like them. How the royalty of Silicon Valley are coping in america. Hello. Its a big year for france. We know president hollande will not be in power after may. What is to be determined is who will replace him. Marine le pen of the Front National hopes to pull a trump like shock, and, to that end, she has been putting flesh on her Policy Platform in the last couple of days. The big news is that shes inserted some nuance into her stance on the eu. Shes no longer saying france must come out. But she is for change, and even accepting that shell probably fail to win the election, france could take a radically different direction, anyway. Our diplomatic editor mark urban reports. For many french, the Front National, the national front, and its former leader, Jean Marie Le pen, had become like the baddies in a Graphic Novel there to menace, but never to win. Marie le pen le pens daughter has sought to rebrand the party, shed its racist image and capture the presidency. I think she has done extremely well in detoxifying, thats the word she uses, the Front National brand and saying, you know, im not an extremist, i do not make nastyjokes about the holocaust and parties like mine win in other countries. Look at ukip, look at brexit, look at trump in america. It is perfectly normal to vote for me, im just a politician, except that im different from the others. Le pens platform unveiled during recent days has a take back control feel to it, restoring sovereignty of the economy, she says, being more protectionist of the territory of france itself, imposing permanent Border Controls, and of monetary policy, reintroducing the franc, albeit pegged to wider european currencies in a kind of new Exchange Rate mechanism, a more moderate message than some of her recent pronouncements on the so called frexit. We see that shes not going for hard frexit, shes trying to explain to the electorate that she wants to renegotiate things with europe. That is quite a change from the rhetoric at the start and now. She is doing this probably because she wants to reach beyond her traditional electoral base. If Marine Le Pen is to win, she has got to leap a whole series of hurdles, from appealing to voters who usually stay at home to racing through a crowded president ial field, and indeed, funding her campaign. Speaks french with the party short of cash, it may seek another loan from russia, a country The Party Leader has been reluctant to criticise. The Front National has a storied past of aligning themselves with strange people. Marine le pens stepmother and herfather got money from saddam hussein. They, you know, they campaigned heavily for saddam hussein, saying that he was misunderstood, and a bit like Bashar Al Assad today, you know, a beacon of secularism in the middle east. Thats a tradition. And strangely enough, it has not harmed her. But can le pen actually win . Received political opinion suggests she may get to the last two for a second round vote, as indeed her father managed in 2002. But it will be very hard for her to clinch victory. But, then again, thats received opinion, based on polls, and one french paper announced yesterday that it wont be using them. Translation we realise that pollsters did not predict several big Events Brexit in great britain, trump in the us. In france, we have primaries on the right and we didnt expect Nicolas Sarkozy to be eliminated in the first round. We all thought alain juppe would win. Thats what the polls were telling us. But it was Francois Fillon who won, and nobody predicted that. Francois fillon, now leading the polls, is a man of bracingly right wing views. He may well cast doubt on Marine Le Pens values, or even suggest shes not so different from her father. Her battle for power wont be easy. She is suddenly looking not as the newcomer, as she would hope, but somebody who has tried again and again to be elected, while Francois Fillon was Prime Minister for five years and is now the favourite, the newcomer. She didnt expect him to win the primary. So this is a new battle for her and it is dangerous for her strategy. Mobilising people against an establishment candidate will still provide le pen with plenty of options, and the success of her messages on Border Controls and leaving the single currency may yet produce in france a huge challenge to the european project. Joining me now are benedicte paviot, the uk correspondent for france 2a, and philippe marliere, professor of french and European Politics at university college, london. I want to start by getting you to reflect on the Front National, they seem to have softened enormously. Should we think of them as the Fascist Party or the french ukip . It is more the french ukip but it is a different animalto ukip. There is very much the question of identity, this is across the french spectrum, people are concerned about security and france is still under a state of emergency, about immigration. And that is they are concerned, very high unemployment, for the same population, france has almost io . The economy is not doing very well, so it is difficult and people are finding it very hard to get by. But i wouldnt compare, and indeed nigel farage doesnt like her thinking they are in the same boat. He has never said a word against, he said, but he has criticised her father. Would you call them a Fascist Party . No. She is very astute in her language, so she is able to appeal to people who would be described as probably fascist but she is careful, unlike herfather, not to generally not to say things, although she has been in trouble herself, whether it is about muslims and also about the holocaust. Do you think of them as the Fascist Party . Or as the ukip party . It is hard to call them a Fascist Party today, although their roots are in the far right, and they are clearly an extreme far right party, but they have softened the image, the brand, because of le pen herself, you know, the message is soft, but when you look at the core policies it is about immigration and law and order. It is still about identity politics. It is still about islam posing a major threat to french identity. These have been very important in other elections, like in america. If many french voters think they are a Fascist Party, they will think they will never vote for them, but if you look at the policies you have described, populist economics, sovereignty, national control, you could see people voting for that, couldnt you 7 it would appeal to the mainstream . It is a difficult question, Opinion Polls have said for the majority of people the Front National remains a party which is a threat to french democracy. That is very clear. It is not a normal party in that respect. However, again, if you want to see it as a Fascist Party along the lines of the nazis in germany or mussolini, there are differences, clearly. Lets talk about fillon, being parked between ukip and more extreme, but Francois Fillon, he is not a normal french candidate, hes quite right wing, isnt it . I mean, hes thatcherite. Which the french dont like. Very socially conservative. Yes. So, lets point out that Francois Fillon, i would not agree with your reporter, hes not a known quantity, he would like to present himself as a newcomer, but the french people know him very well. He was a Prime Minister under ex president Nicolas Sarkozy and we should point out that it is quite a surprise that we are sitting here at the end of november. He was not seen at all by the polls as the favourite to be the conservative candidate, but he is the official candidate in what was a very successful first time exercise for the french conservatives to do these primaries, that is the. The socialists did that at the last election, they will go through their second exercise. It was very successful because they got millions of people to come out and vote and we ended up, not with another former conservative Prime Minister, alainjuppe, we got Francois Fillon, who has a track record, and is a known quantity. And, as you say, he has parked his tanks very firmly on the right, which is a slight problem for a certain Marine Le Pen. She had geared herself up to be dealing with mrjuppe. Hes not doing well in the polls, though. Hes not doing well, no. Ever since his victory, which was very good, and the expulsion in third place, as we know, of the ex president nicholas sarkozy, he has been completely silent and 53 of the french people feel he has been to silent and he has disappeared, you cant afford to do that. And that he should also change some of his policies. What is going on in france . We have not spoken about the socialists, no one seems to be bothered by them in this election. Is it cultural or economic Question Mark it is very simple, the Francois Hollande presidency has been a fiasco, is it cultural or economic . 1 5 €§335554e{£ . . § 1 7 1 74 so a very unpopular government. That is why one of the candidates, manuel valls, will have a mountain to climb. If hes nominated by his own party. The second reason, the left is not united. There will be many many candidates, 5 6 candidates on the left. Very briefly. Final answer, what do you think the eu should be thinking French Election . Should they be terrified of both candidates . Particularly because, in some ways, Marine Le Pen is a bit softer towards the eu than she was six months ago. If Francois Fillon wins or a socialist wins, any candidate will be rather lukewarm regarding europe but they it be the same continuation of the same policy as at the moment. If le pen wins it is a totally different situation. She would like a referendum about frexit. That would be a different proposition, but she has to win, and shes not there yet, in my opinion. Watch out for macron. There is one other person to watch out for, the independent candidate. The wild card. Thanks forjoining us. Britain has a new ambassador to the eu it didnt take long, didnt it . Hes another sir, like ivan rogers. This one is tim barrow. Im joined by our Political Editor nick watt. What do we know about Sir Tim Barrow . Hes an immensely respected figure and his nickname in the Foreign Office is deep state, denoting an all knowing figure, which means he has the answers to everything. He had a stint in moscow and a couple in brussels. Boris johnson is delighted. Interestingly, for a brexiteer, he believes the uk mission to the eu needs to be headed by someone who speaks the language in europe. He was one of the diplomatic high flyers who takes the form formal notes of the European Council some years ago. They also believe because tim barrow has been the political director at the Foreign Office, he is in tune to the politics and he also has something of a sense of humour and is aware of the intricacies of the brexit debate. This became apparent in a recent appearance before the Foreign Affairs select committee when his boss alan duncan inadvertently set him up as one of those dreaded experts. This is the exchange. Im not perhaps as deeply immersed in theirthinking, but maybe i can bat that to tim barrow, who has been living with this. Im not an expert. Michael gove might approve, but not me. Where did disappointment come from . This appointment. It has been quite quick. Is it a solution, or does it create another problem inside the Foreign Office . Tim barrow was only approached for thisjob in the last 36 hours after sir ivan rogers stood down, and the process a successor was led by sirjeremy heywood, the Cabinet Secretary Scotching Rumours that a political brexiteer would be put in. Sirjeremy has ensured that at one level, nothing changes. A Whitehall Life will run the British Mission to the eu. Lifer. But at another level, everything changes. He is a clean slate. Sir ivan rogers carried a lot of baggage because he was associated with David Camerons negotiations. Interestingly, tim barrow has achieved a first. He has united remainers and almost all leavers. One dissenting voice is nigel farage. In the film i, daniel blake, you see the main characters daniel blake and his friend kate lose their benefits after being sanctioned by the benefits office. Sanctioning is a punishment for not looking for work hard enough or turning up on time for appointments or whatever. Now, Daniel Blakes story is fiction, but those who work in food banks say that sanctioning does force people into charity. Were going to debate sanctioning shortly with ken loach, who made the i, daniel blake film. But first, we go to the town of accrington to meet some people whove been sanctioned. Filmmaker Nick Blakemore has returned to maundy grange, a Charity Relief centre he visited in 2014, which tries to help them. Good morning, maundy grange. Ive had a bit of a bad situation with a landlord. Hes evicting us. Its been an absolute nightmare. Got in rent arrears with the landlord and hesjust started getting really heavy. Hes been evicted. Needs referring. At the moment, hes struggling hard forfurniture. Right. Here, we try to provide an Immediate Response to poverty and need in the local community. Need can be defined as not having enough to eat or suffering from Mental Ill Health or needing help with a form. Is there any dinner left . Fish and chips, no peas. Fish and chips will do. Three years of things getting e there are things. Whichme merefii and people being left to be destitute, which are now more commonplace. And thats a worry, and that doesnt seem to be getting better. I cant get into the house to get my stuff, so while im fighting to get my stuff, ive got nothing to live on, you know what i mean . All i really want is help. If i can get hold of a bed or something. Nothing wrong with this. All good food. Tomatoes. Whats wrong with them . Nothing. Ive been eating this today. Lovely. These are them. Im one of the lucky ones. People feel sorry for me. They shouldnt. Im already on the streets. Im not scared any more. Ive got no debts and i dont owe anybody any money. Theres nobody knocking on my door. John isnt receiving any benefits. When he lost his job four years ago, he says he gave up on the system after being sanctioned. Ive worked all my life and now they expect me to do a job search, six hours a day. For £40 a week . Im not doing it. Ive got bills to pay. Its wrong. Thats not living. There should be heads rolling for that one. When you say you worked all your life, what were you doing . My firstjob, i worked in the mill for six years and then in a foundry for a couple of years, and then in another foundry in accrington, and in burnley. Theyve all closed down now. When i was here last, i metjohn crabtree. Hed just been sanctioned. The sanctions are basically about saying youre not making enough of an effort to look for work. So is that not fair . Its not fair. I turned around and said to them, look, im 61 now, theres nojobs for someone of my age. So how can you sit there, young person, 25, and tell me about work . You havent even had the experience ive had. I say, dont make me laugh. All right, john, hows it going . I tracked john down to his new place in accrington. Hes now on another sanction, he says, because he did not fill in a form correctly. Its been a while since i saw you. I wanted to see how youre doing. Is this your new place . Yeah. Come in. Hello. Sit down. This is where ive been for about three year. Last time i spoke to you, youd been sanctioned and you said youd been struggling to make ends meet and had been doing shoplifting. I spoke to you the other day and you said youd been in prison . Yeah. What happened there . I was stuck for money. I got caught, obviously, so i got 20 months. 20 months. For doing what . I was the driver. Conspiracy to steal. What happened . There was a leak up in the bathroom. I werent in, and the sink ran over. The plug was in, it ran over, and thats what it did. And the ceiling came down. Well, its better than the place you were in before. Oh, yeah. Quite nice here. Thats not saying much, john. I know. Can i just ask you, when you think back, you worked all your life. Thats right. Yeah, i worked from the age of 15, i6. I was born on a farm. Things should be easy now, not worse, but anyway, itll get better, wont it, i hope. Laughter jonno, are these your supplies . Yeah, i got this milk early on. Cakes, buns. Im a chocoholic. Lfieie iiwtef a peesfdflt sometimes i wake up and think, oh, shit. Its a nightmare. Sometimes i have a nice dream and i think, ahhh. But then the realisation hits me. Oh, shit. When you find a place to sleep at night, what do you look for . A bit of shelter. There are a few places i go to. Theres an old school, as well. Its got a bit of light, thats quite nice. As long as you have a couple of sleeping bags, Something Like that, you are nice and dry. Its a lot better than, say, Sleeping In A Tesco Car Park or something. Might still be draughty. But youre in a public place. You get over here and out of the way. You know you have to get up in the morning by the time they open up. So you just do what you do. You find a place thats sheltered like this. And thats it. Happy days. Z i dont know. Some jobs, theyre only taking on certain qualified people. I dont have no qualifications. Hello, zack, how are you . Are you all right . Yeah, not bad. Now, hes back in work. Hello. What happened after you were sanctioned, then . They basically messed around with my Housing Benefit and it still carried on until not so long ago. They got me over £1,000 in debt with my landlady. Messing with myjobseekers and all that lot. Thats what made me want to get a job, really. So obviously, i dont have to depend on them. See you later. All we have is emergency accommodation, which is literally on one of our sofas. Its easy to agree with the principle that people who can work should work. But what worries us is the number of people who cant work who are being penalised for not being able to work. The way things are going, i think theres a big gap in Peoples Awareness of whats going on. Maybe some people feel were moving out of recession and things are getting a bit better and maybe theres a lack of willingness to look at people who dont have that feeling that things are getting better, and for whom things are getting considerably worse. 0h, bacon. I dont want that. Its bacon. Should be all right. Its been in a bin bag. Looks all right. I use a lot of food from the skips, ive got to admit. I find a lot of chocolate biscuits sometimes, a lot of cake. What are you looking for . Food. To eat. There you go. Food to eat. Do you want some milk . Yeah. Lovely. Yeah, take it. Take it, man. Bread. Pigeons, pigeons, pigeons. The soup kitchens, things like that, theres not enough to cope fordinnerand tea. So when you are hungry at tea time, you do the skips. Can you explain how often you go hungry . Every day, im hungry. Why . Because im homeless, im on the streets at the moment. And i dont claim any benefits. Im not getting any benefits. Right, is this being used or not . Ive got some bedding, as well. Just between us two. We did ask the department for work and pension for an interview, but they werent able to offer anyone. They did say, however, that sanctions are only used as a last resort. Im joined In The Studio by Matthew Oakley, who was commissioned by the government to write an independent review into the impact of sanctions onjobseekers allowance claimants. And in bristol we have director ken loach, whose Award Winning film i, daniel blake told the story of people struggling with the bureaucracy of the welfare system. Matthew, i would like to start with you for some facts. You did a review and you found it was basically working, is that right of the Sanction System . Essentially so. We need to take on board the wider context, that this is a system of sanctions that only applies to a small number of people. The majority of people on benefits are not sanctioned. So the people you see in that film are at the hardest end of what are talking about. Secondly, there is a huge amount of International Evidence that shows that conditionality, requirements placed on people who are on benefits, backed up by financial sanctions, penalties for not doing what they should be in terms of looking for work, is effective in getting people back to work more quickly. Thirdly, this is a system that is supported by both the majority of the public, but also Benefit Claimants themselves. That is one of the surprising things from my review. We spoke to a lot of Benefit Claimants and charities who support them and even people who have been sanctioned, and they supported the principle. What is your reaction as you watch that film . Do you think those people should have been sanction, or do you think they are just, if you like, the cost of a sanctioning system, that you will have some people who shouldnt be sanctioned who are sanctioned . It looked like someone find it quite difficult to get a job. Absolutely. What my review said was that in certain situations where people are obviously vulnerable, we are talking homelessness here, that should act as a signal for people to step in and provide more support for those people so they can get themselves out of that situation. Did you see i, daniel blake, the movie . I have not seen it. Ken loach, did you recognise the finding that some conditionality in a system that is, you have got some responsibility is and you are punished if you dont meet them, do you accept any of that in the Benefit System . Well, whats clear is that sanctions are a cruel and vindictive way of treating Vulnerable People. People are to fail. The system is there to trap them. When they go to a jobcentre, they are not shown the jobs that are available. The job coaches arent allowed to show them what jobs are available, and people are in fear. And a lot of people are sanctioned because of the Work Capability assessment. We heard a Story Of A Man who had a heart attack in the course of the assessment. He had to go to hospital and was sanctioned because he couldnt complete the assessment. There are absurd stories of people being sanctioned for being a few moments late. And, of course, we know jobcentre staff, i dont know if Matthew Oakley got this in his report, butjobcentre staff are given targets. They call them expectations, and if they dont sanction a certain number of people per week, they themselves get into trouble. We were told this all the time. They have to work in a terrible atmosphere. Let me put this specifically to matthew. They have to work in a terrible atmosphere. Is that correct, they have do sanction a certain amount of people . Im telling you it is correct. Wouldnt you be more concerned if we did not know how many people at a job centre were sanctioned . That we didnt know they were sanctioning, say, 30 of people, is it not right, in terms of standard management practice, we understand what proportion of people on benefits each office is sanctioning . Are they forced, are they told you should be sanctioning this number . That is not my experience, we have spoken tojobcentre staff, in the course of the review, what we found is a large proportion of the staff actually supported the system. 0k, we will hold that. Ken loach, im interested, you say there is no conditionality at all, or there are some kind of sanctions, and in a way, you sound like you are arguing there should be no sanctions at all. Nobody supports cheating. Nobody supports tax cheats, but they dont seem to get the same coverage. Yes, of course, people should not cheat, and there should be a way of dealing with that, but when you stop peoples money, you force them into the direst poverty, they have nothing. They are driven to the streets, they are made homeless, and food banks, and last year out of one group of food banks, 1,100,000 food bags were given. Half a million of those went to families with children, children would not eat unless people put tins into a charity bag. Dont you think that is disgusting . We accept that as part of our society now. That is the system which Matthew Oakley appears to be defending. What i would say, this is a system which the vast majority of the public actually support, the claimants. You cant hide behind that, this is an appalling system. That is not to say that there are some Vulnerable People who need more help. We have a binary system, you are either capable of work and have to go and look for it or youre not. But there are people who are on the margins and they will find working quite difficult, they have ragged lives or the responsibilities are onerous or they have low Mental Health difficulties. Are we applying sanctions to those people . Most people would say we do not want sanctions apply to people who are not capable of holding down a job. We need to understand what a sanction is. This is not people being sanctioned for not being in work, being unemployed or out of work is not the cause of a sanction. It is not doing what you have agreed to do for the people are agreeing to do these things. Seeking work and taking steps towards work, and maybe you are taking steps to prepare yourself for work, to take on some kind of activity which improves your health condition. This isnt people being sanctioned for not being at work, this is not taking the steps to what they have agreed. Ken loach, the last word. People are sanctioned when they are in work, woman were sanctioned for going on leave when she was on a zero hours contract. She was sanctioned for that. We are missing the point, this is a very cruel way to deal with the most Vulnerable People and if all the people who fulfilled everything of what they are required, there would still be 1. 6 Million People unemployed and there would still be five Million People underemployed the system creates the poverty and we are punishing the poorest and blaming them for their poverty, blaming the unemployed for the unemployment, and that is really false and matthew should accept that. Ken loach, matthew, Thanks Forjoining us. We now move to the other end of the social spectrum. The Billionaire Bosses of Silicon Valley. They have been as taken aback as anyone by the new and obvious divisions in american society. Full as they are of the potential of technology to solve anything, suddenly it seems that real people in their midst have problems that cant be solved by a smartphone app. And people are pretty angry about stuff. Mark zuckerberg, the founder of facebook, made a new year Facebook Post with a hint of guilt at how disconnected he has become from his own society. Hes challenged himself to visit 30 us states this year, and to meet the people in them, having, he says, enjoyed travelling around the cities of the world in recent years. Its a fascinating post, it not only offers a good idea for a new years resolution for upstanding members of the global elite. But it also tells us something about the Tech Entrepreneur Class a kind of new royalty, with a sense of the duty of visiting their public. Or does it tell us something about the challenge of trying to run a business for everyone, in a society thats split. Heres our Technology Editor david grossman. The new year is a time to reflect on times past. What could possibly help a new year hangover better than a load of World Leaders popping up on your phone to give you their thoughts on the year ahead . And, how refreshing, amongst the peace and goodwill messages, to hear the north Korean Leader announce a new long range missile in his new year address. But look whos also lighting the fuse on the year with a missive, facebook ceo Mark Zuckerberg. In a post on facebook, he says in previous years, he has said something more substantive, im going to programme an ai for my house, im going to learn chinese. In previous years, he has said something more substantive, im going to programme an ai for my house, im going to learn chinese. This year he is like, i have a toddler and i dont have that much bandwidth and im just going to go to nebraska and hang out with people. The fact is, Tech Companies like facebook dont really look like america today. They dont for instance have too many Trump Supporters working in them, for instance. Theyre built of people who look the same, they act the same, they come from the same background. Maybe they went to the same university together. And they Work Together to build a brilliant company, but then at some point they realise they need to start focusing on the people who didnt come from the same background as them and did not go to the same university and do not look like them. We need to start bridging our way out and experiencing people in a different context if we are going to build their products. And i think thats something im seeing more founders and more executives doing. I think its a survival mechanism. One of Donald Trumps first actions after his election was to summon the bosses of the big Tech Companies to trump tower for a meeting. Most had made no secret of their antipathy towards him during the campaign. But how powerful are these tech bosses compared to political leaders . I think that what Mark Zuckerberg does by being the Chief Executive of facebook, which has its own population, or its user base which is larger than most countries in the world, does wield a lot of influence. And the messaging and the way it convenes people or convenes thought or informs people is hugely important and can be transformational for different political agendas. The facebook algorithm, of course, has been blamed for spreading fake news stories during the us election campaign. To what effect, no one seems sure. The balance between maintaining an open platform and policing the content on that platform has never been one the Tech Companies have enjoyed or found easy. They dont like the messiness of the real world. They dont like the messiness of how you deal with unemployment and stuff like that. They love big simple solutions. The hot thing in Silicon Valley right now is this thing called the universal basic income. Everyone loves it for different reasons, because its a bold and simple idea which can transform the world. But politics isnt really about bold and simple ideas. Politics in the real world is about campaigning and meeting people and understanding different ways of looking at the world and forging compromise and legislating, and that kind of messiness is something Silicon Valley just doesnt lend itself to. This is much more the sort of project they love, bringing the internet to the unconnected in the developing world with drones. Although the big tech firms are more and more powerful in our lives, theyre only now learning how to use this huge influence. Clearly, they dont want to act like elected politicians, apart from, that is, sending out the odd new years message. Good night. Thats all weve got time for this evening. But before we go, as you might have heard, today was the last day dippy the diplodocus could be seen in the Natural History museum before being dismantled and taken on tour. I understand that things are not going smoothly. Lets go over now to the museum hall. Good night. You leave that alone dinosaur, move good evening. It is a cold night already and it will be really cold towards dawn. Cold air coming in behind this weather front, which will keep cloud over the south west overnight, not cold here, but elsewhere it has been chilly. Earlier on them was cloud in the north east of the uk. Not a great deal of rain to be had. Clear skies in aberdeenshire. It was called, now temperatures are below freezing. These are the temperatures we have seenin these are the temperatures we have seen in the last hour. Temperatures could drop to as low 8. It will be accentuated along the east coast. Along with that comes the risk of icy patches. Elsewhere, it is a clear night. Major towns and cities, 1 clear night. Major towns and cities, 1 or so. For most of us the cloud in the south west keeps temperatures around five or six degrees. You dont have to go far inland to see temperatures below freezing. This is eight oclock in the morning. Dont forget about the risk of icy patches. Widespread frost for Northern England and ireland. Most of scotla nd Northern England and ireland. Most of scotland will be cold and frosty. More cloud in the north and west keeps up the temperatures. Lots of sunshine to start on thursday. It wont do a lot for the temperatures. The frost will be slow to clear. And by the afternoon we will see spells of sunshine and light winds. It is a decent day, but it is cold. Temperatures around two or three degrees in glasgow and newcastle. Something mild on thursday night into friday as the wind picks up, Cloud And Rain Moves in from the north and west. Mild air comes in. For some western parts on friday we will see some reasonable temperatures. It will be a dull and damp day. The rain will take until the afternoon to reach the south east. Out west, belfast, nine 01 south east. Out west, belfast, nine or ten, maybe even 11 degrees. Something mild into the weekend. The wind comes from the atlantic. That wind comes from the atlantic. That wind will bring moisture with it. It is turning more mild through the weekend. That will translate into a lot of cloud. Not a great deal of rain. They will be some, most of it light and patchy. In the short term it is all about the temperatures, a cold morning a head of us. Welcome to newsday. Im Sharanjit Leyl in singapore. The headlines. Counting down the final days in office as Congress Battle over president Barack Obamas legacy. We need to remember that we must not give into the false illusion of isolation is because in this dangerous time, oceans alone will not protect us and the world still seeks and brown leadership. South koreas president in is due in court again. Or she sure this time . I Babita Sharma in london. A case has divided in israel. Stu d e nts students in each east asia