a meeting with kimjong—un, planned for next month, would be delayed. last week, north korea threatened to pull out of the proposed summit if the united states continued to insist that it give up its nuclear weapons unilaterally. lava from hawaii's erupting kilauea volcano is edging towards a geothermal power plant that provides a quarter of the electricity for big island. workers have capped three pressurized wells to reduce the risk of an uncontrolled release of toxic gases should they be inundated by the lava. the facebook founder, mark zuckerberg, has apologised to european parliamentarians for failing to prevent the site's technology from being used for harmful purposes. but he was criticised, as meps sought an explanation for how the personal data of millions of facebook users was misused. now on bbc news, it's tuesday in parliament. hello and welcome to

tuesday in parliament. on this programme: mps remember the victims of the manchester arena attack. labour criticises the government's new clean air plan. when will the government treat this issue with the seriousness that it deserves? the immigration minister runs into trouble when she's asked about the good friday agreement. have you ever read it in the 20 years since we marked its anniversary this year? have you ever read it in its entirety? no. no, i haven't. and as mps debate how to tackle knife and gun violence, a minister points the finger at the uk's growing drugs habit. the united kingdom is fast becoming the biggest consumer of cocaine in europe. but first: mps joined the commemorations to mark the first anniversary of the manchester arena attack.

22 people were killed and hundreds injured when a bomb was detonated at the end of an ariana grande concert on 22 may 2017. prince william and prime minister theresa mayjoined families of victims at a service in manchester cathedral. the commons speakerjohn bercow, led mps as they took part in a national minute's silence at 2:30 in the afternoon. in a moment, colleagues, we will all stand to observe a one minute's silence to remember all those affected by the terror attack in manchester a year ago today. a minute's silence in the commons for the victims

of the manchester arena attack. earlier, the environment secretary, had been called to the chamber to be questioned about the government's new clean air plan. michael gove called the consultation document, "the most ambitious steps yet" towards tackling air pollution. but critics say it does little to encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport. the plans would give councils powers to introduce "clean air zones," and there's also a drive to reduce emissions from wood burners, which, along with solid fuels, cause more than a third of fine particle pollution. the government is under pressure to tackle air pollution, after it was defeated for a third time in the high court this yearforfailing to deal with the problem. air pollution is generated by a wide variety of sources — from the fuel used for domestic heating to the application of fertilisers on agricultural land, from the use of chemicals in industry to sea, rail, air and road transport. he referred to a previously announced plan to phase out

petrol and diesel cars. a plan of course committed us to phasing out the sale of convectional, diesel and petrol cars by 2040 and taking them off the road altogether by 2050. this is more ambitious than any european union requirement, and puts britain in the lead among major developed economies. emissions have fallen consistently since 2010, and my predecessors in this role are to be commended for the action that they have taken, but today's strategy marks the most ambitious steps yet to accelerate our progress toward cleaner air and i commend the strategy to the house. i thank the secretary of state very much for publishing the clean air strategy today, and i know he feels very passionately and works very strongly to get ouraircleaner in this country. i also welcome the proposals for improving air quality. this demonstrates progress, however, i am concerned the strategy is not

as wide—ranging as it could be, and i welcome the fact that we need to clean up our wood—burning stove and we need to deal with agricultural pollution, but we need to deal with these hotspots in our inner cities in particular. what we needed from the government today was a comprehensive clean air strategy to show that it's really serious about tackling this public health emergency. but what we have seen instead is yet another consultation with a focus on emissions from agriculture and wood—burning, and that is weak on cutting roadside pollution from diesel vehicles. we know that air pollution is responsible for at least 40,000 premature deaths every year. we know that it is particularly harmful to our children, and to our vulnerable, elderly people. and yet again we have seen more shunting of new responsibilities onto our cash strapped local authorities who have been cut to the bone by the government's unrelenting austerity agenda. when will the government treat this issue with the seriousness that it deserves? it seems that in her desire to be grudging, she failed to share

with the house the detail of our ambition. she also asked about clean air zones, of course clean air zones can be implemented by local authorities if we believe that is the right solution, but on this side of the house we believe in the local government. it is right for local authorities to make an appropriate decision depending on the circumstances in that area. a i—size—fits—all approach imposed from the centre may be appropriate in the marxist—leninist world of the corbynistas, but we believe that it is appropriate to work with local authority, metro mayors and other local authorities. when necessary we will apply ministerial directions, but it's appropriate to have the right approach for each individual area. there's a compelling case to get britain moving, get out of our cars, and that cycling and walking even when there's a lot of traffic

exposes people to less air pollution than driving. therefore, does the secretary of state share my disappointment that there's only a single paragraph on active travel? and can i urge him to go further in strengthening measures to get people out of their cars and where possible onto their bikes and walking for their benefit? 0urjoint select committee report calls for ambitious coordinated cross departmental action, yet there is virtually nothing in his new strategy to tackle the impact of road traffic. as the chair of the health select committee hasjust said motal shift gets two paragraphs, active traveljust three sentences. he's clearly rejected a ban on diesel and petrol cars before 2040. can he point to a single measure of funding that he is announcing today that will better align urban planning, public transport and fiscal incentives as our committee's recommended? i think it's important to recognise that in the report tha twas produced

by the honourable lady and by other select committee chairs there was a widespread recognition that road transport was simply one of the sources of air pollution, and in this report what we do is we already complement what was announced last year in terms of our roadside emissions knocks strategy with action on ports, action on air travel, action on trains, and that is a signal of the determined efforts we are taking a cross government to deal with all the sources of air pollution. precisely what are his plans to interfere with my fireplaces and my bonfire? well, i know that my honourable friend, my right honourable friend is one of the most responsible dwellers in the new forest, and i know that he would never burn wet wood or coal with a high level of bitumen, only the driest and most parched twigs that will find their way onto his fire, and only appropriately less smoky coal he will use.

michael gove. the government says it's still fighting to free a british—iranian woman imprisoned for allegedly "spying". nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe — from north london, was charged two years ago despite insisting she was in teheran on holiday. she's now facing the possibility of an extended prison term after a further charge which her family say has been "invented". her constituency mp asked an urgent question: will the government make it clear today that they will condemn the new charges brought against my constituent and call for her immediate release? ministers have said they won't provide a running commentary on the case, but the foreign secretary promised that he would leave no stone unturned when we met with him in november. can i press the minister to update the house on how his strategy is being conducted in practice? all we want in west hampstead is for nazanin to return home.

all our constituents, including her husband richard who is in the gallery today believe that nazanin is innocent. she's british, and she deserves to know what her government is doing to secure her release and bring her to be reunited with herfamilies back home. and she asked if anything could be done to secure a temporary release so that mrs zaghari—ratcliffe could be free to celebrate her daughter gabriella's fourth birthday. the minister explained there were some questions he couldn't answer in public. but... 0ur ambassador spoke with mrs zaghari— ratcliffe on sunday as i indicated. he assured her in relation to the conduct of the case that she asked, that we continue to prioritise her case and do everything we can to bring about her release, including requesting consulate access, requesting access to medical reports and requesting a temporary furlough so that she can indeed celebrate gabriella's birthday with her family.

the iranian judiciary has now brought a second charge against nazanin and denied her access to a lawyer, however even to this day the government has yet to formally call for her release. it has stated that it's raised the concerns of nazanin's family to the iranian government, but has not formally called for her release. isn't this the lowest possible expectation a british citizen can make from their government, and shouldn't the minister call for her release today? we are doing all that we can in our belief that this is the right way to handle this delicate situation, and i don't think that dealing with some of the questions that the honourable gentleman asks would be appropriate and would be helpful. will he now agree to significantly escalate the uk government's response to nazanin's plight by asking for the prime minister's personal intevention so this further injustice can be brought swiftly to an end, as it's been going on forfar too long. the detail of any particular type of contact between the embassy and the iranian government is not appropriate at this stage to deal with, and in terms of escalating

the matter still further the matter is already being raised by the prime minister and is handled at the highest level by the british government. alistair burt. you're watching tuesday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. don't forget, you can catch up with all the news from westminster on the go by downloading the today in parliament podcast via the bbc radio iplayer. mps on the northern ireland committee were left aghast by a series of admissions from the immigration minister, caroline nokes, as they questioned her about the issue of passports in northern ireland. it began when the minister said it was crucially important that the government upheld the good friday, or belfast, agreement. can i just ask you if you've read the belfast agreement? not in its entirety, no. so it is crucially important to the british government to uphold the belfast agreement, but you as the immigration minister

— looking at passports, looking at the issue that we were asking for evidence and inviting evidence this afternoon — did not think fit to read the belfast agreement in its entirety? i haven't read the whole document, no. have you ever read it in the 20 years since we marked its anniversary this year? have you ever read it? no. no, i haven't. but 20 years ago, i think i was probably giving birth, and, you know, i've been immigration minister for five months. yes, you've been immigration ministerforfive months. the next subject for discussion was the fact that military service in northern ireland is not taken into account in border force recruitment even though service in scotland, wales or england is. and you haven't spoken, or the secretary of state for northern ireland has not actually spoken to you about this, about this issue? no, i don't believe so. that is absolutely astonishing, i have to say. i mean, this is amazing. i find this quite shocking, really.

can you just say who will have read that equality commission submission? is that public, presumably? i would assume that it's public, but that will have gone to the border force... so this decision will have been made by an official, not by a minister. yeah. so you knew nothing about it until... until it was raised publicly because of the issues that lady hermon is discussing. and again, can you... getting back on with the original questions that we were talking to you about, do you think this is fair that people in northern ireland, part of the united kingdom, are treated so differently? well, i think we have to respect the equality commission on this. have you read the equality commission submission? no. and i think, minister, you really must read this because these are extremely sensitive issues, and i would expect a report of this sort from the equality commission to be considered by the minister making the decision ultimately, so that she can make a informed determination on this issue.

so this is not a ministerial decision. well... this was a recruitment campaign by border force. minister, you're in charge of your department. absolutely, but you just said that before, a minister made the decision and it was not a ministerial decision. if your officials are doing this kind of thing without your knowledge, i would suggest you go back to officials and ask the basis on which they are making their decision. the questioning moved on to checks currently being made to ensure goods were not being smuggled across the border. over £50 million worth stolen from the treasury last year in northern ireland in diesel alone. i would be alarmed... so i was merely reflecting upon the checks that you might see on the m27 motorway in my own constituency, and i think i've seen a red diesel check along there once since i could drive. yes. but i'm talking about on our border, though. yeah, 0k. that border.

you wouldn't be surprised... that's part of our border. 0ur border enforcement. well, i would hope that hmrc carried out checks as were appropriate. 0k, thank you. but with respect on that, it's notjust red diesel, it's the fact that oil is a different price, completely different price, so they're stopped quite regularly because there's smuggling going on. i mean, you must have seen... you haven't visited the border yet. no, i haven't. because you will see the customs sign up as you go through. there is a customs... you know, the thing i've been

conscious of since coming into this job is that smuggling is a problem, and that's why we have highly trained operatives identifying all sorts of substances, items that would be liable to duty, things that we wish to stop coming through the border altogether. so it's not frictionless. we are not going to have any infrastructure at the border. caroline nokes. back in the main commons chamber, mps spent the afternoon debating the government's strategy to tackle serious violence. knife crime rose by 22% in england and wales in 2017, according to the office for national statistics. the figures, which cover crimes recorded by the police, also showed an 11% increase in firearms offences. the crime survey for england and wales said most types of crime stayed at similar levels to 2016. the security minister began the debate by remembering those killed and injured in the manchester arena attack a year ago. a year ago today, 22 innocent people, including many children, lost their lives in an appalling and cowardly attack on the manchester arena.

today, we remember their lives and share a thought for all the families who were affected on that tragic day. we are reminded today of the devastating consequences that hatred and violence can have on ordinary lives. this government's absolute priority is the safety and security of its citizens. no one should feel unsafe on our streets and in our communities. well, when the debate got under way, a labour mp who used to be a home office minister argued part of the answer was more resources and more police. he explained what labour had done the last time there'd been a spike in knife crime in 2009. we put investment in early prevention, afterschool activities, higher policing visibility at the school gates, visibility at night, alternative activities for people in the streets, and we reduced knife crime incidences by recording to hospitals and by accident and emergency, things he is now, in this file of crime strategy, reinventing, having cut them in 2010. i note the right honourable gentleman's examples but all those examples —

hospitals, local schools, local governments — were not about these numbers, they were just about the similar thing we were talking about today in the strategy, the broader response by society to tackling why violence is being embedded in communities. so it is not purely about the police numbers debate. i reject utterly this connection. we would have to swamp the streets with policemen. there would have to be policemen available at every violent incident for it to make that form of difference. we'd be back to cromwell saying, "if i am one in ten, will that be enough? " much more significant in the propensity to violence is the lack of attention to young people, particularly very young people, and parenting, and that's where the government's efforts must be directed. i'm grateful to my right honourable friend's point.

it is certainly the case in any type of crime, whether it is violent crime, or serious crime, or organised crime or terrorism that this has to be dealt with not purely by arresting your way out of the problem. the minister turned to the role of drugs. at the same time, the united kingdom is fast becoming the biggest consumer of cocaine in europe. so there is a high demand by the consumer. no longer is cocaine in the preserve of the yuppie or the rich. you are seeing cocaine in my villages and in rural communities, and in communities that previously would not have been using cocaine. in london, it is a high margin, high supplyjob at the moment, and that is fueling that increased violence. for labour, diane abbott, picked up on the issue of what are known as county lines, where city gangs send youngsters out into county towns to peddle drugs. just in the past few days, we've seen in islington the 67th homicide victim in london this year, who was also the 42nd victim of a fatal stabbing.

and this is notjust a big city issue. the county lines phenomenon has brought violent gang—related crime into the heart of the countryside and county towns. for many of our people who end up selling drugs or even killing or dying because of a drug gang, the downward spiral starts with something really simple like being befriended by a really cool older boy. you know, a "new best friend". he gives him chicken and chips or new trainers. and they take the older boy's gifts and respect, but it doesn't take long before those gifts become debts, and that respect, domination. by the time that realisation dawns, too late. we've got to find a way of giving our young people resilience to grooming. and that means peers, teachers, youth workers, role models making them aware of where accepting that gift of chicken and chips may lead. we have also got to educate those people who think that drug use,

that occasional line of coke at some middle—class party, is some victimless crime. it is not. there is an absolute causal relationship between that so—called victimless crime at some party or some club and the kid that lies bleeding out in the stairwell of a block of flats in south london. and until we look people in the eye and remind them of that fact, this problem — as much as we try and mitigate it — will not go away. the government has long been in denial of the effect of its own cuts to the police. they have cut 21,000 police officers since 2010. over a quarter of pscos have been axed, and they have not protected police budgets.

diane abbott. the governor of the bank of england has said households are on average £900 a year worse off than expected in real terms since the vote to leave the european union in 2016. mark carney was giving evidence to the treasury committee. the question is why, and what drove the difference? some of it — and we can't be absolute about it — but some of it is arguably ascribed to brexit. one of the things we've seen, for example, is that investment spending has been quite weak given all the positives for investment spending. the behaviour of households influenced heavily by where their real incomes have gone, and their real incomes have been... one of the biggest drivers of that has been the referendum—induced fall in the exchange rate, and the inflation that's come through, what you just started with. so there are brexit effects that come through. mark carney.

a bill to cap energy prices cleared the commons at the start of the month. now the domestic gas and electricity tariff cap bill has arrived in the lords. the legislation gives the regulator 0fgem powers to impose a ceiling on standard variable and other default tariffs. the price cap will ensure that uk consumers are protected from suppliers seeking to exploit the loyalty of their longest—standing customers by providing them with core value tariffs. injune of 2016, the competition and markets authority identified that customers of the big six suppliers were paying 1.4 billion more than they should be in a truly competitive market. what is worse, the consumers most likely to bear the burden of this huge detriment includes some of the most vulnerable. the bill does not provide an answer to the broken energy market.

the rules in place currently are contradictory and self—canceling. the place of green energy is equivocal. electricity bills have soared by 20% between 2007 and 2013, while in the past year alone, every household in the uk has paid an average of £120 towards the dividends extracted by energy company shareholders. over the past few months, report after report and news story after news story have detailed the unfairness of the current system. if you look back at the excess debts due to cold weather estimate for 2016—2017, that number is 34,000. now, we know that's an estimate, but that's why this subject and this bill is around something that's as fundamental as life and death in many households, because people fear turning on their energy supply during winter because they cannot afford the bill and do not want to be confronted by court action, being cut off, or the other things that they may fear, even if those things aren't actually what would happen if that really occurred. lord teverson.

and that bill will now go off to be considered in more detail by peers in committee. and that's it from me for now. but do join me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day here at westminster, including the highlights from prime minister's questions. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. the weather is looking fine across most of the uk on wednesday. it will feel warm as well.

clear blue skies are on the way. not from the word go. in fact, in the morning, in eastern and northern counties, cloudy. this is the big picture. this is the jetstream. these weather systems have been diverted to the north. the jetstream is far north, we are well away from it, meaning we will have settled weather. it will warm up in europe in the next two days. i will talk about the warmth heading to us towards the end of the week and the weekend. this is the short—term. ten in the south and 11 in the north. this is the cloud in the morning. it will come back to the coastline through the morning. some of the coastal districts could stay cloudy and cool. look at the yellow compared to the deep orange. a temperature contrast in the uk. possibly a 10 degrees difference. 23 in london and 13 in newcastle. for most of us, a fine and beautiful day. a slight change, a big change, on thursday. it will upset weather in southern areas from the word go.

not everyone will get rain, but it could be heavy for a time. thunder is possible as well. this could stick around for much of thursday. a big contrast across the uk on thursday from the cloudy and rainy south to the sunny weather in yorkshire, northern ireland, in scotland. and then the weather front on friday will move further north. many of us towards the end of the week will at least catch a little bit of rainfall. this is the rain as we go through the course of thursday morning into the afternoon. a bit of rain is on the way. on friday it will improve. beyond that, it looks like we will see a plume of warmth coming from the south. a heatwave. it will hot up in france and then hit the uk. temperatures will rise. saturday and sunday, highs of 28 in some areas. more modest elsewhere. warming up significantly. welcome to bbc news.

broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: ‘a substantial chance of delay'. president trump casts doubt over the north korean summit. a new lava flow from the kilauea volcano threatens a power plant on the big island of hawaii. an apology for europe's politicians, but facebook‘s mark zuckerberg doesn't convince everyone in brussels. some sort of regulation is important and inevitable and the important thing is to get this right. manchester remembers, one year after the bombing that killed 22 people at an ariana grande concert.