this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at midday: mps warn british democracy is in crisis because of targeted campaigns of hate and misinformation on social media. welcome relief for some as the cool air arrives — but the changing weather is causing travel disruption across the uk. the chief constable of the west midlands admits his police force is occasionally providing a poor service, and apologises. we are incredibly busy at this time. sometimes the service that we provide in peak times does not meet what the public would expect. also coming up , australian sailor wendy tuck has become the first female skipper to ever win the clipper round the world yacht race. the families of the sailors onboard were waiting at liverpool to welcome them back to dry land. that was this morning. he has done some sailing from the

caribbean and some offshore things, but this was epic. and this is the view right now in liverpool, where the boats are preparing to do their lap of honour. and at 12.30 click goes to holywood, and visits a virtual reality film studio. good afternoon. voters are being systematically manipulated by the spread of fake news, according to a committe of mps. a report from the commons culture, digital media and sport select committee, which was leaked by one of the witnesses, and was due to be published

tomorrow, warns the uk is facing a "democratic crisis." the commitee says there should be tighter regulation of social media networks and new measures to combat attempts to interfere with elections. our technology correspondent, rory cellan—jones reports. the report warns that our democracy is at risk and it calls for action to protect it. mps demand more rules to make online campaigning more transparent. they are also fiercely critical of the director of vote leave, who refused

to appear before them. earlier i spoke to our political correspondent, susana mendonca. she told me that the tone and content of this report is interesting. we have a group of mps calling it a democratic crisis. they make clear it is serious. they have been looking into the issue since last year, looking at became bit analytic scandal, where we saw people's personal data harvested —— cambridge analytica scandal. mps are concerned about what might have happened here in the uk during the eu referendum. they are also concerned about possible foreign interference in british politics. they talk about needing tougher regulations. the recommendations are far reaching. for example, more clarity about who

has made these adverts. sometimes people are bombarded with things and do not know where it has come from. don't even know if it is an advert. yes. with leaflets through your door, you know which part it has come from, but many social media ads, you don't know where they have come from and that should be imprinted upon those adverts. they also talk about how there should be also talk about how there should be a register so that everyone can see what messages may be put out there. a lot just what messages may be put out there. a lotjust go to individuals based on their particular interests. you are targeted by particular adverts which other peoples do not have access to. so which other peoples do not have access to. 50 different voters may access to. so different voters may be promised contradictory things and nobody would know. exactly. so the report is saying you should be able to access all of these, whatever your interests. and also they are talking about fines on the greater

fines. the electoral commission can only impose fines of £20,000 per person. so they are talking about increasing the power they have and taxing social media companies so that pays for regulation and education. earlier i spokes to will moy, director at full fact. full fact is an independent fact—checking charity based in the uk. they research claims made in advertising and political campaigns and he told me how they do that. 0ur day job 0ur dayjob isjust asking petitions, you have made this claim in public, what are the sources? is it true or not? we are working with hundreds and thousands of examples of things that have been published. and a lot of that appears online and is published in political advertising. exactly. though when there is a lot of focus online, when you talk to the public about fake

news, they say, it is petitions lying to me, it is bad journalism, as well as this online thing. so we need to be careful about fudging that. when it comes to political advertising, we are at a critical time. we have been warned since before the last election that targeted advertising is undermining the ability of people to scrutinise election arguments. why do you say that? in the olden days... not that old! if you wanted to advertise to millions of people you got an advert ina millions of people you got an advert in a newspaper or on a billboard. everybody could see it and those who disagreed could argue back and journalists could ask you to back it up. now you can targetjust specific people. the rest of the country won't know. and that means an are stopping being a shared experience, and that is not what a democracy is about. politicians always try to

polish their message, a knit at particular groups. how individual has it got. you have some individuals their world —— international examples. it is difficult to know because this stuff is not transparent but a leaked facebook white paper said the donald trump campaign used 6.9 different —— 6.9 million different variations of adverts. so there is no way that they can be all scrutinised. so what do you think can most usefully been done and how does is pick up on the potential for trying to change this environment? firstly but the report does that is important is say, we have a way to go on this. we need to get the principles right. we need to accept that technology will change quickly and we need to get ready for

this right now. it says we need to update our election law urgently. there could be an election at any time, which would be very tiring, but could happen. if it does, our law is dangerously out of date. the law is dangerously out of date. the law needs to say all political advertising must be transparent, published in real time so everyone can see it, and it needs to be on a database that can see it, and it needs to be on a data base that computers can see it, and it needs to be on a database that computers can access so database that computers can access so it can be tested. so you can check and see what messages are being sent to everybody, even if you haven't specifically received those m essa 9 es haven't specifically received those messages yourself? absolutely. and also we need to be able to debate large—scale with computer also we need to be able to debate la rge—scale with computer data bases. passengers using the shuttle service through the channel tunnel are facing queues of up to five hours at the folkestone terminal in kent.

eurotunnel says it's running at reduced capacity because of what it calls "extreme recent weather conditions". in response to the delays, they've asked passengers not to travel unless ‘absolutely necessary.‘ major airports such as stansted, luton and gatwick are reporting disruption due to thunder storms in europe. and members of the rmt union at south western railway and eurostar are on strike for 2h hours over separate disputes. south western railway says half of its services — in south—west london and southern counties of england — will be cancelled. but eurostar say a normal service will run. we can speak to katherine da costa who's at stansted airport. lots of problems but in some ways, problems that are caused elsewhere having an affect on passengers where you are? that is right. we have spoken to many passengers who are very angry, very frustrated. they spent the night at the airport, on the floor, many of them with very young

children. the cancellations last night mean that planes are not in the correct position, causing a knock on problem today. this is the first weekend of the school holidays, thousands of people are preparing to take off. they have described long queues, disorderly queue is, many waiting several hours without any information from the airline. 0thers without any information from the airline. others have told as they did manage to board a plane, only to break on the runway for up to six hours with little in the way of refreshments, and then to be told the plane had missed its spot and they had to return to the airport. anotherfamily they had to return to the airport. another family who said they had recently suffered a bereavement, they booked a holiday to turkey, theirflight they booked a holiday to turkey, their flight was cancelled last night and it could take 2a hours before they can board the next one, and they say they are devastated. sta nsted and they say they are devastated. stansted airport and they say they are devastated. sta nsted airport have and they say they are devastated. stansted airport have said that the large queues were caused by passengers who chose to stay in the airport overnight, who rebooked

flights after theirs were cancelled. they say there are still restrictions in place because of the storms in europe, and passengers are advised to speak to their airlines for the latest information. we can speak to the bbc‘s environment correspondent claire marshall — who's stuck in folkestone. you are supposed to be going on holiday? we have had a lovely few hours in the departure terminal. he has been kind of stoic, that is the mood here, lots of people accepting it is just mood here, lots of people accepting it isjust going mood here, lots of people accepting it is just going to be mood here, lots of people accepting it isjust going to be hours. everyone here at this morning on twitter at saying delays are up to five hours. so by the time everyone gets here, you are prepared for that. i was talking to somebody in

the departures lounge who said yesterday, someone working at one of the tills, yesterday people were stuck here 6.5 to seven hours. we we re stuck here 6.5 to seven hours. we were supposed to go a couple of hours ago, we are now on our way to the passport is bit, and apparently there is another queue down there andi there is another queue down there and ijust there is another queue down there and i just saw a tweet from somebody actually on the shuttle, presumably before it went under the ocean, saying that there is actually no working toilet on there as well. so pretty interesting journey, pretty good start to be holiday! are you beginning to wonder whether you should just go home? the weather will be lovely after this brief bit of disruption. thank you that is nice to know. it is going to be a long trip. i have to say, we were lucky to stay in folkestone last night and avoid the m20. the m20

coming in here is absolutely horrendous. we were going to camp last night... in the ferry terminal? no, nearby. and then there was a storm psoriasis pays —— and there was a storm, so i suppose the start of our holiday was a huge storm. we we re of our holiday was a huge storm. we were ina of our holiday was a huge storm. we were in a hotel in the end. i wonder if it is worth me showing a bit of what we are going through at the moment. this is the view which is common this morning to a lot of people. the back of another car, basically. you are beginning to remind me of that episode of one foot in the grave when he is stuck in the trafficjam. it looks like you are moving a bit, if slowly. we are moving but we are in the car park, so we're not actually moving towards france. there have been some

signs along the way to show as we are moving, but the last one... hold on, look. there is a sign to france. it must be all like being in the desert and seeing the waterjust a few miles away. can i say thank you to your husband and is it your daughter in the back who has been beautifully well—behaved ? mesa daughter in the back who has been beautifully well—behaved? mesa yes. —— yes. beautifully well—behaved? mesa yes. -- yes. i hope once you have your holiday it is worth it. thank you for sharing some of your experiences with us. travel safe. that is claire, our environment correspondent. it is an experience eve ryo ne correspondent. it is an experience everyone is sharing on social media,

these hellish holidayjourneys. the chief constable of england's second largest police force has admitted it sometimes provides a poor service that fails to meet public expectations. in an interview with the bbc, west midlands police chief dave thompson said budget cuts meant a full range of policing could not be delivered. sima kotecha reports. a taxidriver in birmingham. he says one afternoon, a group of men threw some bricks at him. he claims the police response was nil. i don't feel safe. they are not scared of police because they feel they will not get caught. that's what they told you on your face. like other police forces across the country, west midlands police admits, at times, it's struggling. the man in charge says sorry. the demand on the service is going up because, actually, local authorities and other services have been reduced, so more vulnerable people come into the place. and we are absolutely at a point where that is not a sustainable position for policing anymore. and i'm sorry about that, but that's the reality of where policing is now.

all the forces across the uk have seen their funding cut since 2010. new figures show the number of frontline police officers in england and wales has reduced by 20,000 over the same period. the government says this force will get millions of extra cash over the next year and that it expects the police to investigate every crime properly. but according to the officer who leads the force, that's simply not possible. sima kotecha, bbc news, in the west midlands. police in essex have provisionally identified a body found near to clacton pier this morning as the missing 15—year—old ben quartermaine. he went missing near the pier on thursday evening. the death is not being treated as suspicious but the cause of death is currently unknown. the world's largest firefighting plane, carrying about 70,000 litres of water, is heading

towards northern california where a wildfire has been out of control since monday. thousands of firefighters are continuing to battle the fire, six days after it started. two people have been killed by the flames and hundreds of buildings have been destroyed. almost 40,000 people have already left their homes in the town of redding. firefighters say this is a fire tornado. large pockets of dry vegetation agitate the problem. the fire has destroyed 500 homes in california, and threatened thousands more. 0h, california, and threatened thousands more. oh, my goodness. the blaze has been burning for six days. so far it has scorched more than a8,000 areas of land, an area larger than the

city of san francisco. further south, another fire rages, city of san francisco. further south, anotherfire rages, this one deliberately lit, forcing thousands to flee their homes. i didn't realise how much my home means to me. and our communities. while many seek shelter in evacuation centres, others have been able to return to their homes once stood. became around the corner and saw this and it was pretty... heartbreaking. we know if a fire came up it was going to take. well, it took. it has taken ten years for it to happen but, yes, it is sad. it is the worst start to d efy it is sad. it is the worst start to defy a season that california has seenin defy a season that california has seen ina defy a season that california has seen in a decade. we have had the issue for years now in california. the wildfire aspect has intensified over the years so we experience more and more damaging wildfires, fires

that it might rapidly come it is like throwing gas in these fires. they spread so fast. in december, california's governor said devastating wildfires fuelled by climate change have become the new normal and that large fires could happen every year. almost 3500 firefighters are battling to control the carfire, firefighters are battling to control the car fire, working through the night to try to contain the blaze, but authorities warn many homes more may be lost. the headlines: mps warn british democracy is in crisis because of targeted campaigns of hate and misinformation on social media. welcome relief for some as the cool air arrives — but the changing weather is causing travel disruption across the uk. the chief constable of the west midlands admits his police force is, at times, providing a poor service — and he apologises.

an international arrest warrant has been issued for a man who killed a woman in a speedboat accident on the river thames in london in 2015. jack shepherd, who has been on the run since may, was found guilty yesterday of the manslaughter of charlotte brown, and sentenced to six years in prison at the old bailey yesterday. charlotte's mum, roz, and her sister, katie, were at the old bailey for the duration of the trial, and have appealed for him to turn up and face justice. they've been speaking to bbc breakfast along with with met police family liaison officer gavin seeley. katie explained how events at the court unfolded. we didn't have any indication of why, really. 0ur opinion of him is that he is a coward, confirmed by a statement he had written earlier this week. thejudge read it out

yesterday, and he said the reason was he didn't want to face us, and that he was a coward. we knew on the friday before trial, so we were going to trial on the monday morning, and both chris and i went to the old bailey and we had an inclination that something was going on. then we heard for the first time that jack shepherd is most unlikely to attend his trial. a big decision to make at that point. it is a friday, the family have geared up for three years to get to this day, this monday of trial. do i tell the family on that friday by phone call, because they are out of london, risk losing their weekend or worrying over the weekend, or do i tell them face to face? i make the decision to talk to charlotte's mum and dad face—to—face on the monday morning because then we have... the next question is, what happens? we then have a legal argument

on the monday morning. it is a manslaughter case at the old bailey. do we have this trial in his absence, or are we instructed by the judge to go find him, and then we have the trial when we find him? he has brought devastation to our family, and that is an understatement. charlotte has lost her life unnecessarily. she had everything to live for. she had been to university, had a good job, she was young. she literally had everything to live for. he did not give that one second consequence in his mind that night, that his actions would take her life. jack shepherd was convicted yesterday of charlotte's manslaughter. labour party members in birkenhead have passed a motion condemning their pro—brexit mp,

frank field, for supporting the government in the commons last week. they also urged the party at westminster to withdraw the whip from mr field. earlier, the constituency labour party of kate hoey at vauxhall in south london took a similar decision. the us television network cbs says it is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by its top executive les moonves. claims of unwanted kissing and touching have been published in the new yorker magazine. in a statement, cbs said it was looking into the reports and would "take appropriate action". millions of people have witnessed the longest lunar eclipse this century, as the moon passed through the shadow of the earth turning a mysterious red. known as a "blood moon", the eclipse lasted for one hour and 43 minutes and coincided with the closest pass of mars for 15 years. stefan levy has more. it was a spectacular sight for stargazers across the globe. the moon bathed night skies with its red glow for one hour and 43 minutes, as it was totally eclipsed by the earth.

the display was visible from most of the southern hemisphere, but the best views were across eastern europe, east africa, and asia, where the entire eclipse was visible. the moon is passing right through the centre of the earth's shadow, so it's where the earth's shadow is at its widest, and so it lasts the longest. and the only light from the sun that can reach it is actually the light that's been filtered through the earth's atmosphere, and that's why it goes this beautiful dusky red colour. catching a glimpse of the eclipse was hit—and—miss for stargazers in the uk, due to cloudy conditions, but the lucky ones managed to see the moon go fully red. meanwhile, in brazil, people of all ages were out to enjoy the spectacle. translation: it's very beautiful. very beautiful. it was great being here, and the moon was very beautiful, more so with this telescope. translation: it was very interesting to see at the beginning, when the moon appeared, when it became very clear, and bit by bit, the earth throwing a shadow. i thought it was very, pretty and i liked the planet mars even more, which you could see right next to the moon.

over the coming days, mars will be at its closest point to earth since 2003, but the lunar eclipse doesn't just coincide with the red planet's close approach. skywatchers will also be treated to a particularly good few of venus, jupiter and saturn. and if you didn't manage to catch this year's lunar eclipse, you can take solace in the knowledge that the next one is a mere six months away. stefan levy, bbc news. female skippers have taken first and second place in the clipper round the world yacht race — a first in team ocean racing. the 40,000 nautical mile race set off 11 months ago and ended in liverpool this morning. 0ur correspondent peter harris is live in liverpool for us now. it isa it is a fabulous sight behind you, and a very warm reception by the

look of it, and now the sun has come out as well. it was a bit drizzly earlier as they were coming up the mersey but it has finally improved. look at these crews being welcomed back by their family and friends. can you imagine during all those months everything they have been through, out on the sea, through the storms and hurricanes? you must lie at wake —— awake at night wondering if this table overcome. and if you will finally achieve it. they are coming back into this area and they seem to double park at the moment, probably not a nautical term. that is sanya probably not a nautical term. that is sa nya serenity probably not a nautical term. that is sanya serenity coastjust next to the dock, the winner, skippered for the dock, the winner, skippered for the first time by a woman. that is wendy tuck, the australian. she has been saying she hopes her win will encourage other women to come and have a go.

and is this idea of having a go important in this race? providing you can raise the money, anyone can have a go. there is no particular criteria to meet. yes, and so many of these people onboard are not professional yachtsman and women. the skippers are professional but there are teachers onboard, nurses onboard, and they have given up 11 years of their lives to do this. aside from what you have to face, the race organiser was telling as earlier about harry kane ‘s and that kind of thing, but you have also got to get on with 20 or so other people. the race organiser was telling as about hurricanes. what a life changing experience that may be. thank you. it is obviously going to bea thank you. it is obviously going to be a fabulous afternoon. plenty more

if you have the opportunity to get down to liverpool to the docks is after plenty to see. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's mike bushell. geraint thomas looks like he may be able to get over the hurdle and win the tour de france. with such a lead, hejust the tour de france. with such a lead, he just needs to state clear of trouble and he should have enough to keep the yellowjersey in the procession towards paris. those down the bottom of the standings have already started their time trial today. geraint thomas ta kes a time trial today. geraint thomas takes a two minute five second lead into the afternoon. he also has the

advantage of going out late this afternoon, at 3:28pm. chris froome needs to gain a few seconds on the opponent in the place, to get back onto the podium. the silverstone —based indian grand prix team will compete in the current competition. sebastian vettel was half a second quicker faster than champion lewis hamilton. he and his team—mate struggled to control their mercedes cars. the key holland has won the everton leg of the world triathlon series. —— vicky holland. she led on bike and in the water before breaking clear of the other athletes on the run. a trio of british athletes followed her in third, fourth and

fifth. i was not sure how that was going to play out. we had a big group running together. i have been running well but the other british girls are so good. i'd kept the pressure on and ashley disappear from my shoulder with about 700 to go. that is it. now the weather. a big change in the weather this weekend. we have lost the heat and humidity and now have something fresher but windier. there are still some flashes of thunder and rumbles these are the strength of the wins. dust will be