the woman who has accused us supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh of sexual assault has yet to agree a deal to give evidence to a committee of senators. two separate deadlines for christine blasey ford to confirm whether she would testify on capitol hill have now passed. british prime minister theresa may has delivered a defiant statement about her plans for brexit. she has called on the eu to show britain more respect. european council president donald tusk said he remains convinced they can still find a compromise. the german chancellor angela merkel has agreed to reconsider the promotion given to the former head of the domestic intelligence agency hans—georg maassen. he was removed for casting doubt on reports of far—right demonstrators chasing immigrants in the city of chemnitz. but in a compromise agreement he was then given a more senior position. a group of men have been sentenced to nearly 50 years in prison collectively, after they were found guilty of what's been described as an "alarmingly amateur" people

smuggling operation. their trial heard how the men's "lucrative scam" used small boats to bring migrants across the english channel. they were caught in 2016 after 18 albanians had to be rescued off the kent coast. duncan kennedy reports. this is the gang who tried to turn the english channel into a high way this is the gang who tried to turn the english channel into a highway of illegal migration. and this is three members of the gang, george and leonard powell and saba dulaj, meeting in a pub car park in kent, discussing their nextjob. ajob like this. it is may 2016 and their boat is heading to dymchurch on the kent coast en route to france. but near calais these french police surveillance cameras pick up the migrants as they wade out to meet the boat. someone alerts the gang and they escape. they can be seen back in kent later that night. 48—hours later, using a different boat they do pick up migrants.

two of the gang can be seen in the red striped jackets. they were later jailed at a separate trial. the migrants‘ lives here are only saved by a british border force vessel. they chose to put profit over life, they use vessels that were unsuitable for the crossing and chose to have complete disregard for any means of legislation of border control. despite repeated failures, the gang did succeed with this one boat in getting migrants across. abandoning it here in kent. when police discovered the boat here they found a number of children's life jackets inside. they don't know how many migrants made this crossing or where they went to. but that was an isolated case. when they bought this jet ski to transfer migrants across the english channel, the depth of their ineptitude became clear. the boat was going back—and—forth, back—and—forth.

karen lewis, who lives in dymchurch, witnessed a taste of their amateurism. they didn't seem very competent, obviously because their behaviour was very erratic and the way they were directing the boat up the slipway. they didn't seem very competent at all. it was the powell family who led this smuggling ring. two brothers, george and alfie, and their father leonard, today jailed for a total of 21 years. this was a gang who ran out of fuel, couldn't work radios or navigate at night. yet still tried to charge migrants £6,000 each, to cross. in the end they were trapped by what the judge called their "alarming amateurism," but also by the natural dangers and human security measures of the english channel. now on bbc news, our world. sings in arabic.

hello. very mixed weather for this weekend, some improvements on the way for next week. for all of us it will be quite a chilly weekend on the way. storm bronagh has been battling scandinavia recently. the cooler showery airstream we add following thatis showery airstream we add following that is being replaced by all this cloud that is coming in from the atlantic. there is a lot of cloud. don't expect much sunshine for england and wales and northern

ireland. it will tend to cloud over. the biggest in the south—west, producing rain, they could spill into wales and perhaps a south—east of england later in the day. maybe the south midlands, some uncertainty as to how far north that will get. sunny spells for scotland. a scattering of showers. not very warm at all. 13, 1a degrees. miserable under that rain, still around in the evening, putting into east anglia. fading away later in the night. main —— more rain appears and pushes further north by sunday morning. towards scotland it will be clear and cold, easily down to two or three degrees. sunny spells. improving weather for northern ireland. this rain could be quite heavy across england and wales. as it starts to move away towards the east in the afternoon and evening, watch out for really windy weather on the back edge of that rain. gales are quite likely. it will fill quite cold out there on sunday. that area of low pressure deepens as it leaves oui’ of low pressure deepens as it leaves our shores. it takes the wind and

rain with it. very quickly, high pressure built in behind. at long last the weather is settling down again. there will be some strong winds and one or two showers coming into northern scotland, quite windy down the north sea coast as well. on the whole, the winds will become lighter, there will be more sunshine will stop not very warm, 14— 16 on monday. the reason things are settling down is because the jet strea m settling down is because the jet stream is pushing its way further north. high pressure building in across the uk. as we have seen over the past week, thejet across the uk. as we have seen over the past week, the jet stream across the uk. as we have seen over the past week, thejet stream picks up the past week, thejet stream picks up areas the past week, thejet stream picks up areas of low pressure, this time and into the early part of next week will be steered to the north of the uk. light winds for the most part and dry on tuesday. a chilly night. lydie of sunshine during the day, temperatures perhaps up to 17. perhaps rain in the north—west after tuesday. —— plenty of sunshine. this is bbc world news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories:

senators‘ ultimatum to the accuser of supreme court nominee — reach a deal to appear or we vote without you. after the british prime minister's defiant speech on brexit, the european council chief says we can still find a compromise. germany's far—right controversy: merkel pledges to think again over intelligence chief's promotion. and new research suggests one in 20 deaths globally are caused by drinking alcohol.