A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister hosted Chairmen and CEOs from some of the UK’s largest employers and investors this evening for a short presentation and question and answer session following the EU Council on Sunday.

Over 100 leaders representing a range of sectors including financial services, advanced manufacturing, food and drink and retail attended, alongside business organisations and trade associations.

The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Stephen Barclay, opened the session and this was followed by a technical briefing from senior officials. The Business Secretary and the Chancellor were also in attendance.

The Prime Minister then gave a short address, she said:

I am acutely aware that for employers like you this is about realities on the ground and the practicalities of doing business. That is why, since I became Prime Minister, I have been clear in my desire to secure a Brexit that honours the result of the referendum in a way that protects jobs and economic growth.

The Withdrawal Agreement endorsed by leaders in Brussels yesterday does many things. It ensures our smooth and orderly departure on 29th March next year. It delivers a time-limited Implementation Period, during which trade will continue on current terms, so you have time to prepare for the new arrangements and only face one set of changes. It protects the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU, meaning no disruption to your existing workforces and it meets our commitment to ensure there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland – and no customs border in the Irish Sea. Having spoken to many of you over the past two years I know just how important it is that you continue to enjoy frictionless trade with the rest of the EU.

On the Political Declaration she said:

It includes a new Free Trade Area with no tariffs, fees, quantitative restrictions or rules of origin checks – an unprecedented economic relationship that no other major economy has. It includes liberalisation in trade in services well beyond WTO commitments and building on recent EU Free Trade Agreements. It includes new arrangements for our financial services sector – ensuring market access cannot be withdrawn on a whim. And regulatory autonomy will be preserved, but we will each ensure that our approaches are transparent, efficient and compatible as far as possible, doing all we can to avoid unnecessary regulatory requirements.

So taken together, the Withdrawal Agreement and the broad terms of our new relationship, should provide your businesses with the reassurance and certainty that I know is so important to you.

Representatives from businesses including BT, Shell and Blackrock and trade associations including the National Farmers Union and London First asked questions.

The NASA InSight mission landed at 19:53 GMT on Monday, 26 November.

InSight will study the inside of Mars to learn how planets, moons and meteorites with rocky surfaces, including the Earth and its Moon, formed. The lander’s instruments include a seismometer to detect ‘Marsquakes’ and a probe to monitor the flow of heat beneath the surface of the planet.

The UK Space Agency has invested £4 million in the short period Seismometer (SEIS-SP). This will be on the surface of Mars to measure seismic waves from Marsquakes. Scientists expect to detect anywhere between a dozen and a hundred of these tremors up to 6.0 on the Richter scale over the course of two years.

Sue Horne, Head of Space Exploration at the UK Space Agency, said:

It is wonderful news that the InSight spacecraft has landed safely on Mars. The UK scientists and engineers involved in this mission have committed several years of their lives to building the seismometer on board, and the descent is always a worrying time. We can now look forward to the deployment of the instrument and the data that will start to arrive in the new year, to improve our understanding of how the planet formed.

InSight carries three instruments designed and built in the UK as part of the seismic package. These microseismometer sensors were developed by Imperial College London and integrated with electronics built by the University of Oxford.

The UK team is led by Professor Tom Pike at Imperial, who designed the sensors to withstand the shock and vibration of the launch from Earth and landing on Mars. The sensors can detect motion at sub-atomic scales with the help of the electronics built at Oxford under Dr Simon Calcutt, with support from STFC RAL Space.

Prof Tom Pike said:

We were able to turn on the microseismometers during the cruise to Mars and they performed perfectly, showing they survived the rigours of launch as they left Earth. But every landing on Mars is risky and we were waiting nervously at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to get the first signal back from the successful landing.

The lander will take several weeks to deploy two of its three instruments, the seismometer and probe on to the Martian surface. The UK will have a team of instrument scientists from Imperial and Oxford at JPL in California to help with this process, including selecting just the right spot for the robot arm to deposit the seismometer.

Prof Pike added:

We should be listening for Marsquakes for at least two years, and we hope considerably longer. It is critical that we set down the instrument in the best place to ensure we’re stable, and then follow up with adding a cover to shield our sensors from the wind.

The instrument team will be joined by UK seismologists from Bristol, led by Dr Nick Teanby, Imperial, led by Professor Gareth Collins, and Oxford led by Dr Neil Bowles, to analyse the data from all of the mission’s instruments.

Dr Neil Bowles, from the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics, said:

The InSight SEIS-SP seismometer is one of the most sensitive and challenging instruments we have worked on for spaceflight in Oxford. After launch in May and successful instrument checks during the cruise to Mars, the team are absolutely delighted to witness the landing. We’ve shown that a traditionally delicate scientific instrument is capable of being launched on a rocket and the next challenge is to see how it behaves on the surface of the planet.

With our partners at Imperial College London, STFC RAL Space and the UK Space Agency, getting the SEIS-SP seismometer assembled and qualified for flight has been a significant effort. After nearly a decade of preparation, building and testing we are incredibly excited that the science can now start.

The mission, which took off from California in May this year, will conduct six science investigations on and below the surface of Mars to uncover the evolutionary history that shaped all of the rocky planets in the inner solar system.

Anna Horleston, a researcher at Bristol University, said:

I’ve studied seismic data from all over the world but to get the chance to study data from Mars is just something else. To finally see it arrive and to get to test out our techniques on real Martian seismic data is so exciting.

The UK instrument will work together with seismometers from France, as well as major contributions from Switzerland, Germany and the US. Other instruments on board include RISE, a precision radio tracking of the lander that can determine the direction and motion of the rotation of Mars and the HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe) which will study heat flow by embedding a temperature sensor under the surface of Mars.

A mission to Mars, supported by the UK Space Agency, has successfully landed and will soon begin the first study of the heart of the planet.

Thank you Mr President. May I just start by saying that I was disappointed by the Russian Representative’s explanation of vote in the previous round, as he himself stated he did not actually make an explanation of vote, but a substantive statement. In so doing Russia showed contempt for the Security Council and its Members by not accepting a procedural vote by this Council. Russia has regularly discussed Ukraine here under a different agenda item. In this instance Russia deliberately chose a provocative title for the meeting which they knew they would lose. I ask myself why. And I assume that Russia knows how weak its position of substance is and so hoped to turn attention on process and play victim.

Well, it will not work Mr President, because yesterday – by Moscow’s own admission – Russian vessels opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian vessels approaching the Sea of Azov. We are deeply concerned about the six injured Ukrainians and 23 Ukrainians who have been detained by the Russian Federation and we call for their immediate release.

Mr President we condemn Russia’s deplorable use of military force. This further demonstrates Russia’s ongoing contempt for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and its contempt for the global rules-based international system which this organisation serves to uphold. It follows on from Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its construction of Kerch Bridge in May this year which constitutes a further violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Yesterday’s action follows months of Russian harassment of international shipping in the Sea of Azov, presumably aimed at destabilising the Ukrainian economy. Russia’s actions are not in conformity with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2003 Russia-Ukraine Bilateral Agreement which provides for freedom of passage for each state’s vessels in the Sea of Azov including military ships. Russia’s actions must stop immediately. International shipping must be allowed free passage in the Sea of Azov. All parties must exercise restraint.

Mr President we have seen this game before. Russia wants to consolidate its illegal annexation of Crimea and annex the Sea of Azov. Russia seems to hope that the international community will simply acquiesce and accept this as a new reality. Well we will not. The United Kingdom’s position is clear: we do not and will not recognise the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia.

The General Assembly made its position clear in its resolution of the 27 March 2014 and we continue to fully support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and territorial waters. This is why on 31 July the European Union sanctioned six new entities in connection with Russia opening the Kerch Bridge. We continue to work closely with international partners to ensure that sanctions remain in place as long as Russia’s control of the peninsula continues.

Russia’s illegal annexation constitutes a deliberate violation of a number of international agreements and commitments including Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the Budapest Memorandum and the 1997 Russia-Ukraine Treaty of Friendship. But this is just the start. Russia’s actions are also causing human suffering. Appalling human rights abuses in the Crimean Peninsula continue with the widespread persecution of minority groups such as the Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Tatars face regular harassment and risk arrest, detentions and threats to seize their property. They have had their rights of worship, assembly and expression restricted. The Crimean Tatars are not the only people suffering at the hands of Russia. Anyone who expresses even mild discontent or voices their opposition to this illegal annexation risks being charged with extremism and given a lengthy prison sentence, forcing many into exile. Russia continues to ignore calls by the General Assembly for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Crimea.

Mr President we remain clear in our support of the rules-based international system which Russia continues to flout. Russia must not be allowed to rewrite history by establishing new realities on the ground. But this is sadly not the first time Russia has indulged in such reckless and provocative acts this year. Russia was responsible for a chemical weapons attack on British soil and its agents were caught red-handed in The Hague. Russia has steadily increased tension in the Sea of Azov and has now – by its own admission – fired on Ukrainian ships, injuring sailors on board. These are not the actions of a responsible country dedicated to the maintenance of international peace and security and to upholding the United Nations Charter. As my Prime Minister recently made clear, like others here today we remain open to a different relationship with Russia: one where Russia desists from these attacks that undermine international treaties and international security and desists from actions which undermine the territorial integrity of its neighbours and instead acts together with the international community to fulfil the common responsibilities we share as Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council. And we hope that the Russian state chooses to take this path. However, Russia’s actions over the weekend do not give much ground for hope.

Thank you Mr President.

The Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt condemned Russia’s use of military force against Ukrainian vessels entering the Sea of Azov on Sunday 25 November.

Russia’s act of aggression and seizure of three Ukrainian vessels not only outlines Russian contempt for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also its disregard for the global Rules-based International System.

Russia’s actions are further evidence of its continued violation of international commitments, following on from the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the illegal construction of Kerch Bridge by Russia earlier this year.

The Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

I utterly condemn Russia’s aggression against the Ukrainian vessels that sought to enter the Sea of Azov yesterday, including the forcible seizure of three Ukrainian ships and their crews. This incident provides further evidence of Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. We also remain concerned about the welfare of the Ukrainian sailors.

I call on Russia to ensure freedom of passage through the Kerch Straits, and for all parties to exercise restraint. Russia must not be allowed to further erode Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, especially through the use of force.

Published 26 November 2018