this time, not against the rohingya's in the west of the country, but against the kachin people in the north. for decades, they've been calling for independence from myanmar. ethiopia's governing coalition has announced it will fully accept and implement the peace deal that ended its border war with eritrea. it says it will accept the outcome of a border commission which awarded disputed territories to eritrea. thousands died in the conflict which ended 18 years ago. voting is taking place in eight us states in primary elections that are being watched closely ahead of november's midterm polls. california is among the states taking part, and is of particular importance to the democrats in their quest to take back control of the house of representatives. now on bbc news, tuesday in parliament. hello, and welcome to the programme.

coming up: it's been debated for half a century, now a decision‘s been made. creating tens of thousands of local jobs and apprenticeships, and boosting our economy forfuture generations, by expanding heathrow airport. but labour's non—plussed. the secretary of state now stands here today at the dispatch box and expects this house to accept what he says about the most significant of infrastructure projects. i'm sorry, but this secretary of state has form. also on the programme: feelings run high in a debate on abortion laws in northern ireland. who otherwise if we had had the legislation which exists here in the rest of the united kingdom would have been discarded and put in a bin before they were ever born.

but first, after years of reviews and delays, the cabinet has agreed that the controversial expansion of heathrow airport should go ahead. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, is one of those who's long opposed it on the grounds of noise and pollution. mps will be asked to vote on the decision within the next three weeks. so, less than 2a hours after angry mps queued up to condemn the transport secretary for the introduction of new rail timetables, chris grayling was back at the despatch box to announce the heathrow decision. this country has one of the largest aviation sectors in the world, contributing £22 billion to our gdp, supporting half a millionjobs, servicing 285 million passengers and transporting 2.6 million tons of freight last year. the time for action is now. heathrow is already full. and the evidence shows the remaining london airports won't be far behind. despite being the busiest two runway airport in the world, heathrow‘s capacity constraints means it is falling behind its global competitors, impacting the uk's economy and global trading opportunities.

but labour hadn't forgotten mr grayling's appearance the day before. the secretary of state came to the house yesterday to explain the calamitous implementation of new rail timetables. and he now stands here today at the dispatch box and expects this house to accept what he says about the most significant of infrastructure projects. i'm sorry, but this secretary of state has form. the only reason he's at the dispatch box today is because the prime minister is too weak to sack him. i regret that the secretary of state simply doesn't enjoy the confidence of this house. labour will consider a proposed expansion through the framework of our well—established for tests. expansion should only happen if it can effectively deliver on the capacity demands, if noise and air

quality issues are fully addressed, if the uk's climate change obligations are met in their entirety and that growth across the country is supported. mr speaker, i think you will agree with me that was a rather disappointing response. the one thing he didn't say was whether or not he actually supported the expansion. this decision is not only wrong for the uk and its competitiveness, it's wrong for london communities who will be blighted by the pollution and expanded heathrow. the secretary of state says that the runway can't be opened unless air quality conditions are met. but can he confirm that given in the heathrow airport limited

statement of principles that there is a cost recovery clause for heathrow in the event that the project does not proceed after this decision, that this could mean taxpayers have to pick up a bill that cost billions and billions of pounds. this project cannot pass the development consent order stage unless the airport can demonstrate that it will meet air quality guidelines. it really does beggar belief that the words climate change didn't pass his mouth once during the statement. in his department's most recent aviation forecast, there is no scenario in which expansion at heathrow is compatible with meeting the government's own commitments under the climate change act to limit air passenger growth to 60% by 2050, and those same projections imply that if this runway is approved, aviation will take up over half of uk entire carbon budget by 2050 which is absurd. but other mps were delighted with the news. i must be honest, initially support for heathrow was counterintuitive for myself from a scottish perspective. but engaging with scottish airports, all but one actually supported expansion, scottish chambers of commerce all support expansion as well because they recognise the business benefits it can

actually bring to scotland. can i congratulate the secretary of state on at last moving this issue on. does he agree with me that the delays caused by successive governments on this issue have caused the uk to lose a lot of business? for example, dublin is already getting on with expanding its airports. we now at last have a government taking a grip on this issue — a decision that should have been taken years ago. and my constituents in east london and people in essex and kent, with crossrail coming, will greatly benefit from this. so, i welcome the decision. but can he reassure me that there will be no further delays because of divisions in his cabinet? mr speaker, first of all, can i thank him for that very resounding statement of support? i'm very grateful to him. the matter was discussed at the cabinet this morning, the airport subcommittee met earlier this morning

and reached its view. the cabinet was informed about that. and i can say that the cabinet gave almost entirely universal support for it. chris grayling and his "almost entirely universal support". now, mps have backed calls to decriminalise abortion in northern ireland. a labour mp had called an emergency debate, following the decision of the irish republic last month to liberalise its abortion laws. the irish taoiseach, leo varadkar, welcomed the yes vote in ireland a week ago, saying that, "ireland will no longer say to women take the boat or take the plane when they need an abortion." instead, he said, "ireland will say take our hand." it is now time for us to offer our hands to the women of northern ireland in the same way. women who face a situation where if they are raped and seek

a termination they will face a longer prison sentence than their attacker. she proposed repealing the parts of the act that made abortion a criminal offence. but there was angry opposition. i made the mistake that many mps make of actually reading my e—mails today. "your views are a disgrace to humanity and a betrayal of the truly innocent." "women can always say no or keep their clothes on." "you, madam, were once an embryo." "you, madam, were once a foetus in your mother's womb." "you were once a preborn baby." "i wonder what decision you have wanted your mother to make about your life or death had she been given the opportunity in the months before you were born." now, i respect those who disagree with abortion on all grounds as a matter of faith, and i say to those who only think of the extremes this simplest point. if you only support access to abortion in cases of rape or incest orfatalfaetal abnormality, then, in essence, your concern is more about the manner that a woman became pregnant in than abortion. why does it matter to trust women and give them a chance to control their own bodies not to be forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy?

because it is about freedom. what this proposal would do would be to impose on the people of northern ireland one of the most liberal abortion regimes anywhere in the world — abortion on demand up to 24 weeks. the government believes that the question of any future reform in northern ireland must also be debated and decided by the people of northern ireland and their local elected and therefore accountable politicians. but the dup opposed any change. 98% of all all abortions carried out in the uk are carried out on ppregnancies that could continue to full term. they're not inconvenient... they're not fatal faetal abormalities. they're not cases as a result of crisis pregnancies, they‘ re unwanted pregnancies. we have people today in northern ireland who are rearing families, who are contributing to society, who are building their businesses, who are working in our factories, who are sitting in schools, who, otherwise if we had the legislation which exists in the rest of the uk, would have been discarded and put in a bin before they were ever born. unborn children being thrown

in the bin, or babies being disposed is a disgusting way to describe the choices that women have to make anywhere in the uk, but particularly in northern ireland. some mps shared their own experiences. i was ill when i made the incredibly hard decision to have a termination. i was having seizures every day. i wasn't even able to control my own body, let alone care for a new life. so, mr speaker, are you seriously telling me that in a civilized world, rape, incest or a foetus that is so sadly deformed that it could never live are not sufficient grounds for a woman to have the power to decide for herself? that she shouldn't make that decision?

no, enough. recently i had to hire a car. it turned out that the cheapest and best option for me was to hire it from birmingham airport. when i got in the car, i turned on the onboard satnav and the last journey taken was to the calthorpe clinic in edgbaston. the place i myself had been for an abortion a decade previously. i shuddered at the thought of the woman who hired the car before me. not to go about her working life, but to go and do something that i take completely for granted. myself and the member for south cambridgeshire are not criminals. she read out a letter she'd received. despite my mental health issues, despite an abusive partner, despite having no money and no real sense of where i was going, i was expected to have this baby. but i didn't want to be pregnant, and that's really why i went to england. afterwards, i felt sore, but mostly angry, that i'd been made to board a plane because the government that laid

claim to my country demanded it legislates better for its english citizens than for its northern irish people. because westminster allows our women to be deprived of the basic human rights they give to their english citizens. at the end of the debate, mps backed the motion to change the law in northern ireland, but the vote isn't binding and won't bring in a change. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, mandy baker. the government's decision to sell 7.7% of its stake in the mainly taxpayer—owned royal bank of scotland has drawn strong criticism from opposition peers. the sale price is significantly lower than the amount the treasury paid for its stake a decade ago. the minister said the sale would raise £2.5 billion. the transaction represents value for money for the taxpayer. rbs is a smaller, simpler and safer organisation than the one the government was forced to recapitalize in 2008 and the sale price reflects that reality. why sell now?

crystallising a loss that rises to in excess of three billion when financing costs are included? when there is no pressure and when the government claims to be positive about both rbs and the community? the bank which has been in the process... which we sold shares in yesterday, it's a very different organisation. its balance sheet is £1.75 trillion less. instead of operating in 38 countries, it's operating in nine. he must recognise surely that in fact the bank is being sold at a massive level below that which it had when it was bailed out in 2008. so, of course it's the taxpayer who's bearing the cost of this situation and will he not recognise that in fact it will not do for the government to say we now have a bank which can pay a dividend. we now have a bank which has made progress and we therefore are delighted to sell it to private ownership while the public who bailed it out in fact lose on the deal significantly.

it's beginning to looking increasingly like the government is taking awards of money now because they have financial difficulties in public expenditure currently, rather than waiting and getting the best price for the taxpayer. you've set on this process of doing precisely this. the proceeds of the sale yesterday will go directly to reduce the debt which was accumulated as a result of the actions in 2008. that is what it will be used for. but there was support from a former conservative defence secretary. this seems to me an entirely sensible procedure now to bring in some money while we can. a lot more shares to go, as we know, and then we will consider what stage we continue to go ahead and sell the shares at the best price you can get.

lord king. ports on the other side of the channel have warned they won't be ready for brexit unless the uk nails down customs arrangements quickly. officials from french ports told the treasury committee that new systems could be put in place if politicians made up their minds, but time was running out. we're two years on from the referendum to lead the eu, —— leave the eu what guidance had you received from treasury or home office on preparation for brexit from our side of our government? we had several meetings with them, but the most important problem is that we know that there is brexit, but we don't know exactly what it means. so there are several scenarios and we are working on several scenarios, in order to be prepared for the worst, but today it's hard to see where we will go and what time

we'll reach this target. we are waiting like everyone else, the clarity of the final agreement, because in order to make our contingency plan, we need to have a direction to go in. and at the moment, we are discussing different directions, which lead to different solutions and that means we can be prepared to follow one of those, but we cannot actually go any further than that at this stage. two years on for the referendum, have you had guidance for a no—deal scenario and are you clear on what to do? we have very clear guidance on what can happen in that scenario and we are preparing for that as much as we can, and the real thing we're missing

is clear specification. the absolute detailed specification of what inspections are required, what kind of volume of inspection will be or could be introduced because it is from that specification we can move on to making our contingency plan. whatever happens, they should start, because all customs are practical these are just practical questions. you have the transit goods. the syste m you have the transit goods. the system needs to be declared. it comes back and forth, halle times to declare the same things. all these simple things and no—one can answer that. finally, what have customs decided on operations on brexit?

they say prepare for the worse, but even that they don't know the details of that, and that is the point, not everyone knows what's the decision, so let's start on technical and practical things, and that should be started immediately because even with the transition period, they speak about transition which is more or less is decided, but we don't know that's really decided or not, that's also a problem. at their last session, the committee heard that highly—streamlined customs arrangements known as "max fac", which are favoured by brexiteers, could cost businesses up to £20 billion a year. that estimate came from the head of revenue and customs, jon thompson. appearing again, he stood by his figures, and said leaving with no deal would cost about the same. now the billions for the arrangement, what about the figure for no deal,

ending up on wto terms, is that something that has been calculated ? to be clear, that is not the preferred option and it's not the government's plan and they have been clear about where we are but nevertheless, if we move to that rule, that would require customs declarations. it would be similar. the hmrc chief, jon thompson. a labour mp was moved to tears during a debate on a controversial new polish law that bans any reference to polish complicity in the holocaust. alex sobel described the lengths many poles went to to hide and protectjewish people when the nazis occupied poland. leopold soho is a sewer maintenance worker. when the nazis occupied poland, leopold witnessed the suffering of the jewish people. he decided he was going to try and rescue at least 20 jews

from the ghetto. he enlisted the help of his co—worker, stephan. together they hid 21 jewish people in the sewers. initially they paid the men, but as they ran out of money, leopold and his wife provided for them. they stayed in terrible conditions in the sewers for 13 months. sadly only ten of the group survived until the liberation of the town. leopold also saved the life of my great uncle. he breaks down ijust want to pay tribute to leopold and the 6,706 righteous who did so much forfamilies like mine. mr sobel claims the new law could lead to the prosecution of people who've dedicated their lives to holocaust research. the foreign office minister said history mustn't be forgotten. it is a matter of historical fact that of the more than three million polishjews living in poland in 1939, fewer than 400,000 were still alive in 1945.

it's also well known that many polish citizens risked their lives to save them and the nearly two million non—jews who were victims of the nazis. harriett baldwin. the culture secretary has given the green light for two corporations, 21st century fox and comcast, to bid for the entertainment firm, sky. but matt hancock attached conditions to the bid from fox, which is owned by rupert murdoch. one is that fox must off—load sky news. a report by the competition and markets authority, the cma, concluded that a merger could be against the public interest. rupert murdoch already owns several uk newspapers. they found a cause for concern in those areas, first the potential erosion of sky news editorial independence, which could lead to a reduction in the diversity of viewpoints available to and consumed by the public. and second, the possibility of an increased influence

of the murdoch family trust over public opinion and the uk political agenda. saying he agreed with the cma, he turned to some possible solutions. i agree with the cma, that divesting sky to disney as proposed by fox, or alternative buyer, with agreement to ensure they're funded for ten years, is likely to be the most proportionate and effective remedy for the public interest concerns that have been identified. the cma report said that draft terms for such investment, and fox has written to me to offer undertakings on effectively the same terms. the next step is a consultation on fox's proposals. if we cannot agree on terms at this point, i agree that with the cma the only remedy would be to block the merger altogether, this is not my preferred approach. his labour shadow began his remarks on a light—hearted note. this is something we have

been living with for 18 months, and december 2016, when 21st century fox announced the bid for sky, the world looked very different. the tories were riding high in the polls, the prime minister was popular even in her own backbenchers. we had a different culture secretary and i was six stones heavier. i don't think, i don't think even the murdochs, i don't think even the murdochs would have anticipated the changes that have happened since then. he said labour's priority was to safeguard sky news. from kay burley, to adam bolton, sky news has some of the best presenters on and has always been a beacon for independent and rigorous journalism. our priority is protecting that and ensuring sky news going forward. it has taken some time to get to this point, but that consultation

and the further concerned that have been raised must be addressed robustly, because in the public interest given everything that's happened, in terms of the scandals and the families that have been damaged by some of the behaviour of the organizations, it must be considered in this process and merger. i wanted to speak mr speaker, being a formerjournalist most of my life because i think we should speak up for maintaining high—quality news and journalism and that should be at the heart of this decision. we are famous for it in britain. we need competition and we need sky news still to be giving its professional services especially in the day of fake news mr chairman and it's essential and i'm sure the secretary of state will take it to heart that it is important. the secretary of state will accept any

assurances coming in the next few weeks, it'll all be signed up, and in a few years' time, sky will be starved of money by whoever buys it and the broadcaster will end up coming to the next secretary of state or even the same one, i know he loves the job, and they will come back to him and say "terribly sorry, didn't work out, can we please now be subsumed back into fox? " or, can we just let sky die, and kay burley will be out of a job and she'll stand in west suffolk and defeat him, because most people in this country would prefer a diversity of ownership of media and we want to keep sky independent as possible. well, i relish prospect of a contest against anyone in west suffolk, but i'm not sure that is the path that the honourable gentleman, who normally is an optimist by nature, i'm not sure the path he sets out is the most likely one. not least because i will seek undertakings to make sure sky news remains viable over the long—term and independent so that it can pursue we politicians

without fear or favour. matt hancock. finally, on the day that the decision was made to expand heathrow airport, one conservative mp offered more than just an opinion on the matter. i read the newspaper there may be some barriers put to actual construction, so could i offer my services with someone with expert driving bulldozers. could that possibly have been a reference to borisjohnson who said he would "lie down in front of bulldozers" to stop a new runway being built? we'll never know, but chris grayling certainly found it funny. and that's all we've got time for. hello once again.

we just have time to update you on the weather prospects for the next couple of days for all parts of the british isles. wednesday starts with low cloud to the eastern side of the pennines and a lot of dry weather as you step out of the door first thing. a couple of showers getting into the channel and the odd shop one close by to the border as well. many locations exceeding 20 celsius. on through the evening and overnight perhaps one of the more significant changes is just too thick and that cloud down towards the channel islands. maybe the odd sharp shower here. and then clouts bling up towards the southern coast of england. not a particular cold night although a couple of spots will begin thursday on a fresh note with temperatures in the single figures. still low cloud in spite of the eastern shores. —— close by the eastern shores. —— close by the eastern shores. —— close by the eastern shores. there may well be a few sharp showers coming in the

afternoon and higher gain of 23. —— and a high gain of 23. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: hiding for their lives. children take cover from military planes in myanmar as the country's armed forces are again accused of targeting civilians. we have a special report. translation: on april 11, four fighter jets fired on the village. we also heard the army raped women and tortured old people nearby so we left. guatemala's fuego volcano continues to erupt, causing more people to flee their homes. nearly 200 are still missing. primary fever. american political parties choose more candidates for november's midterm elections. and argentina pulls out of a pre—world cup friendly match against israel after palestinian protests.