Your morning briefing: What you should know for Thursday, August 22

Macron rebuffs Brexit deal renegotiation ahead of Johnson meeting

Boris Johnson is set for showdown Brexit talks in Paris today only hours after French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out making concessions.

The UK Government was buoyed on Wednesday after comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel which seemed to indicate that European leaders could be willing to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement in a bid to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

Hosting Prime Minister Mr Johnson at the Chancellery in Berlin, Ms Merkel set Britain a 30-day deadline for coming up with an alternative solution to replace the Irish backstop.

But Mr Macron told reporters on Wednesday that the demands to renegotiate the Brexit deal were "not an option".

Man arrested over Libby Squires' death

A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Hull University student Libby Squire.

The 21-year-old vanished in February and her body was recovered from the Humber estuary nearly seven weeks later.

Detectives announced last night they had made the arrest and Miss Squire’s family were being updated on developments.

Ryanair strike goes ahead

Strike action is going ahead as planned today and tomorrow after Ryanair lost its High Court bid to force its pilots to take to the skies.

A judge sitting in London on Wednesday rejected an urgent application by the airline for an injunction against the British Airline Pilots' Association.

Ryanair has said it would be able to run a full schedule but it could not rule out some delays for passengers.

A second round of strikes in the dispute over pay and conditions is planned between September 2nd and 4th.

It's GCSE day

About one in five GCSE entries are expected to score one of the three top grades this year, but just a tiny fraction of teenagers is likely to walk away with a clean sweep of 9s.

Hundreds of thousands of youngsters will receive their results today after sitting the Government's tough new GCSE courses following the biggest shake-up of the exams for a generation.

Last year, 20.5 per cent picked up at least a 7 or an A grade, which was roughly in line with previous years, and it is likely that a similar proportion will achieve that level this summer.

About two thirds of UK entries were awarded at least grade 4, or C, last summer, while just 0.1 per cent scored at least seven straight 9s.

New record forecast for bank holiday Monday

A bank holiday heatwave could see record temperatures replace the wind and rain that has dogged August, the Met Office has said.

From tomorrow, south-easterly winds will draw warm air from Europe towards the UK, bringing rising temperatures along with dry and settled weather.

By Monday temperatures may reach 33 degrees Centigrade – which would be a new record for the late bank holiday weekend.

The highest record temperature for the late August bank holiday weekend is 31.5C (88.7F) at Heathrow Airport in 2001.

And the sunny spell could set a swathe of new records around the country, with the current hottest late summer bank holiday in Wales standing at 27.3C (81.1F) at Velindre, Powys, in 2013.

The Northern Ireland record is 27C (80.6F) recorded in Knockaraven, Co Fermanagh in 2003. Monday is not a bank holiday in Scotland.

Last month saw the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK - with the mercury reaching 38.7C (101.7F) at Cambridge University Botanic Garden on July 25.

That exceeded the previous record of 38.5C (101.3F) set in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.

On this day…

1485: The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought in Leicestershire and Richard III was butchered as he vainly tried to reach the usurper Henry Tudor. He was the third King Richard to die by violent means and cautious monarchs have avoided the name since.

1642: The Civil War in England began, between the supporters of Charles I (Royalists or Cavaliers) and of Parliament (Roundheads), when the king raised his standard at Nottingham.

1862: Composer Claude Debussy was born in St Germain-en-Laye, France.

1922: Michael Collins, Irish politician and revolutionary, was assassinated by extremist Republicans in an ambush in Ireland.

1933: BBC TV televised a boxing match for the first time.

1962: Fifteen terrorists attacked General Charles de Gaulle in the 22nd of 31 attempts on his life. Despite being sprayed with a volley of 150 shots, the general was only superficially cut by flying glass.

1985: A British Airtours Boeing 737 burst into flames at the end of the runway at Manchester Airport when take-off was aborted. Although 80 escaped, 55 died in the flames and fumes.

2004: Edvard Munch's painting The Scream was stolen at gunpoint from the Munch Museum in Norway.