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unpacking the numbers behind some of the most pertinent questions of our time.

Hello and welcome to this week's Spectator podcast. I'm Lara Prendergast. As the clock ticks down to the European Council meeting next week, can Boris get a last-minute deal with the EU? Plus, we look at whether Extinction Rebellion is just the latest doomsday cult. And finally, what's the right way to shoot a pheasant?

Time seems to be running out for a Brexit deal. And finally, what's the right way to shoot a pheasant? Time seems to be running out for a Brexit deal. And if Boris Johnson can't get one before

next week's European Council, he'll almost certainly have to request a Brexit extension.

So, what options does he have left? Katie Balls talks to the Telegraph's Europe editor, Peter

Foster, together with James

Forsyth, about the latest Brexit developments. So I've had a week in which various number 10 sources,

one in particular to James Forsyth, have suggested that the Tory is a ready to move to pushing

no deal quite heavily if the EU failed to respond to their proposed offer. Over on the EU side,

there's little sign that they are going to do as Johnson and his colleagues hope. And we seem

to be heading to an EU Council summit where little has agreed and Boris Johnson may not even be

there. James, can you just give us an update of where exactly are with the prospects of a Brexit deal?

Kind of sub 1% this side of October 19th, well, maybe not sub 1%, but very, very low.

Because essentially, the two signs are still too far apart on customs.

Boris Johnson's red line is that the UK must leave the EU of its customs territory intact.

The EU position is there cannot be checks anywhere on the island of Ireland, and if Northern Ireland

is not in the same customs territory as the Republic, there would have to be checks somewhere

on the island of Ireland. And that means the two sides are fundamentally too far apart to negotiate.

And I think on everything else in the Boris Johnson's proposal, the precise nature of the way that the consent mechanism

works, level playing field provisions for Northern Ireland, the UK is prepared to negotiate.

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