the home secretary's concern about the sharp increase in migrant boats crossing the english channel. earlier today, 18 migrants including a baby in two small boats were stopped in the channel. the traffic is being organised by "criminal gangs", according to the home secretary. we track down some of those responsible. translation: a boat will cost you £3,000—£4,000. i am taking three people with me. they're paying cash. we get a boat and off we go. we'll have the latest, as dozens of migrants have made it to kent this month alone. also tonight... the prime minister sets out on a tour of the uk trying to sell the brexit deal that was heavily criticised by mps. a bus company is fined more than £2 million after one of its drivers crashed into a supermarket, killing two people. why the food choices we make are having a major impact on attempts to tackle climate change. it comes down to the key, and highly controversial, question of what we all choose to eat.

and tributes to the veteran peer baroness trumpington, a wartime code breaker and former minister, who has died at the age of 96. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news, we'll have all the action from the champions league, with manchester city and manchester united both in action tonight. good evening. the home secretary has expressed his concern at the significant increase in migrant boats crossing the english channel. sajid javid says the traffic is being organised by "criminal gangs", and he's promised more cooperation with the french authorities.

this morning 18 migrants including a baby in two small boats were stopped in the channel. 110 migrants, many saying they are iranian nationals, have made it to kent this month alone — all of them have been passed on to immigration officials. the french police say they believe the recent surge is down to tighter security at eurotunnel and also to brexit, they say, with migrants wanting to get to the uk before it happens. our correspondent colin campbell reports. rescued off the coast of dover, in an inflatable dinghy, these are migrants from northern france trying to get to britain. in the last few months, there's been a surge in this kind of activity. a migrant camp in dunkirk we're secretly filming using an undercover researcher. it's smugglers like this man who are at the heart of the problem, willing to risk lives forfinancial gain. translation: a boat, it will cost you £3,000—4,000. i'm taking three people with me. they're paying cash.

we get a boat, and off we go. he says he was a fisherman in iran, and getting us across the channel would be easy. translation: look, i will check the weather. you have waves in the sea, ferries cross the water, and they can drag you underneath them, even if you are one kilometre away. but i know the sea routes, where you will not be disrupted by the ferries. more than 100 migrants have reached the kent coast. reached the kent coast in the last three weeks. but not all that depart succeed. farhad, from afghanistan, was put in a dinghy with 11 others. he was rescued at night after the engine stalled. he thought he was going to die. it was freezing couple of days ago, and when you get wet, we were all full wet, i was like that to myself. a couple of guys, they actually

fainted, they went, they fainted, they were sleeping and we were trying to wake them up, and they were... we were trying to wake them up because their hearts will stop from the cold. this migrant told me the boat he was in capsized after being battered by waves. living in a squalid makeshift camp in calais, they claim they fled their countries because of religious and political persecution. their desperation to get to the uk is being fuelled by fears of brexit. how many of you think that it's going to get harder — harder, put your hands up? you all think it's going to get harder? there is a rush. everybody‘s talking about it in here, in thejungle, they're like, "we need to get in quicker, you know, what i'm saying, in case the security get tighter." even as winter sets in and temperatures start to plummet here, migrants in this part of the north of france are continuing to prepare to cross this treacherous stretch of water. it's happening at night—time in the dark, and they're using their mobile phones to navigate across to the kent coast. waiting to catch a dinghy to the uk, these iranian migrants told me they had paid £6,000 each, and were waiting to be taken to a nearby beach by smugglers.

translation: we have to go by boat. we know we are putting our life in danger. i've tried before, but the waves were three metres high and came up over the boat. i already stared death in the face. there are fears drowned migrants could wash up on to calais' beaches. migrants trying to cross are risking their lives, every night, here in calais. is the french authorities doing enough? well, we try to stop them, we stopped quite every boat that tried to cross the channel, but we need to face the truth. the truth is, we cannot stop everyone. 0verloaded with migrants, this was the boat stopped by french authorities this morning. they were rescued, but there's real fear lives may soon be lost. well, small boats containing

migrants from calais and northern france have been arriving in frequently on the kent coast for many years. what we have seen in recent weeks, though, is totally unprecedented. the french authorities believe that it is improvements to security at french ports which is forcing people smugglers to try new tactics. here, the home secretary has been saying that he is very concerned about the significant increases. sajid javid also says that he cannot guarantee that the number of migrants arriving in small boats will slow any time $0011. in small boats will slow any time soon. colin, many thanks again. colin campbell, in dover. the prime minister has embarked on a tour of the uk to try sell her controversial brexit deal the deal heavily criticised by mps yesterday. but earlier today, one of her most loyal supporters the former defence secretary sir michael fallon declared that the deal was "doomed" and the "worst of all worlds".

0n the first part of her tour mrs may has been visiting wales and northern ireland, where there's a sharp focus on the so—called backstop, a kind of insurance policy which would keep an open border between northern ireland and the republic in the event of britain leaving the eu without a formal deal. 0ur political editor laura kuenssberg reports from belfast. the start of another working day. the hardestjob in brexit...has been working out what happens here. in belfast, as in parliament, maybe the only thing everyone feels is frustration. i think people are sort of getting fed up with it. a lot of people is maybe afraid now, more than we ever were, but you just have to get on with it. afraid of what? well, afraid of a hard border that's being talked about. i don't think it will happen. afraid of, are they going to be left on their own, or a different part of the uk? just had enough. i don't think anyone knows what's happening now, honestly. the prime minister's working day just gets harder. controversy everywhere.

here, trying to sell her economic compromise and the so—called backstop, where, if there is no big trade deal with the eu in future, northern ireland would be more closely bound to the eu than the rest of the country. she knows it's unpopular — here her laughing here, she is laughing about being written off. you won't be able to achieve this, you won't be able to achieve that, you won't be able to achieve a final deal. now i've got to the the final deal, everybody‘s saying, "0k, well, what's the... ? i" then, back to the script. people don't want to go back to uncertainty and division, and it's that uncertainty and division that would happen if parliament does not support this deal. the boss here is far from the only one who's with her, desperate for that agreement to be signed off. not because it's perfect, but because it's something — better than this unsteady situation he believes is costing jobs. we need a deal, and there's only one deal on the table. i just can't reconcile the reality of what we face with the position that's been taken by politicians uk—wide.

i didn't see a no—deal brexit on the side of a bus, and i certainly can't reposition our industry in the space of four months. they need to face up to the reality, and stop spinning the illusions of what it means. but all political sides are stubborn. the supposed northern irish allies of the prime minister are furious that her compromise could see northern ireland more tightly tied to the eu. instead of wasting the new two weeks trying to persuade everybody that this is the only deal, therefore we must accept it... my goodness, what sort of propaganda route is that? "this is it, this is as good as it gets, so we have to accept it." the prime minister has given up, and she's saying, "this is where we are and we just have to accept that." but she may have given up on further negotiations, and trying to find a better deal, but i haven't given up. she would say she's done anything but given up, what she's trying to do is actually get something done that is realistic, rather than spend

another two years talking about what might be...? why do we need to have the backstop in the withdrawal agreement? it's time to get rid of it and to try to find a better deal. what happens here in northern ireland has been the biggest brexit conundrum all along. and the prime minister's solution to the problem around the irish border is precisely what has turned so many of her natural allies against her. and right now, there is precious little sign of any of them being willing to budge at all. the prime minister might find refuge in crowds, today in wales as well as across the irish sea. but it's pa rliament‘s decision, and many mps think the deal‘s doomed. it might take more than handshakes to shift them. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, belfast. so, what kind of trade deals could britain strike with other countries under the terms of theresa may's brexit deal? last night, president trump said the deal looked good for the eu, but could prevent future trade deals

between the uk and the us. is he right? our business editor, simonjack, has been looking at the possibilities. well, the first thing worth saying is that the uk already does a lot of trade with the us. in fact, the us buys more uk goods and services than any other single country, by miles. uk exports to the us in 2016 were worth £99 billion a year, that's nearly double what we sell to germany and much more than we do to france and ireland. but to the eu in total, we sell £241 billion worth of goods a year, so it's still our biggest trading partner overall. now, there is no reason that existing trade with the us should be affected, but what mr trump may have meant is that the pm's plan could make it hard to strike a new trade deal with the us — and there, he may have a point. the uk is due to leave the eu at the end of march next year, but there will then be a transition, or a status quo period, until december 2020 at least, during which time the uk can negotiate new deals but they can't come into force

until that period is over. if a deal is not done by then, the backstop, designed to ensure the irish border remains open, could be triggered, which again means the uk stays in the customs union with the eu, taking a trade deal with the us very difficult. making a trade deal with the us very difficult. even if a deal is eventually done with the eu, theresa may's planned talks about a close alignment with the eu on rules and regulations, which could make doing a deal with the us tricky, as it has different standards for things like food. but remember, as we've seen with the uk's existing trade with the us, you don't necessarily need a trade deal to do trade. a bus company has been fined more than £2 million after it ignored warnings about a driver who later crashed into a supermarket, killing two people. the midland red bus careered into the sainsbury‘s store in coventry three years ago, killing a seven—year—old boy and a pensioner. the court heard that the driver,

who was 77 at the time, had mistaken the accelerator for the brake. 0ur correspondent sima kotecha reports. it was a bus journey that went terribly wrong, and cost two people their lives. 76—year—old dora hancox and seven—year—old rowan fitzgerald. behind the wheel was 77—year—old kailash chander, a driver who lost control as he pulled out from a bus stop and ploughed into a sainsbury‘s store. today, his former employer, midland red, was fined £2.3 million, after admitting failing to prevent the accident by monitoring the driver's performance and tiredness. our own detailed policies were not followed as closely as they should have been. there were failures at an operational level in driver supervision, and we deeply regret the opportunities that were missed to act decisively on emerging warning signs.

the court was told how on numerous occasions the company had been alerted to mr chander‘s problematic driving, and had failed to respond. the judge paul farrer qc said that midland red had deliberately disregarded the evidence because of staff shortages. he said mr chander, who has beenjudged medically unfit to stand trial, had worked more than 70 hours in some weeks prior to the accident. today, rowan‘s family said mr chander should have known he posed a risk, and midland red was equally to blame for the cruel way in which the child died. sima kotecha, bbc news, birmingham. the supreme court has decided not to allow a terminally ill man permission to mount a final legal challenge to the law which prohibits assisted suicide. noel conway, who has motor neurone disease, wants a doctor to help him to die. three supreme courtjudges refused permission to allow a full hearing of his appeal. mr conway said the decision was ‘extremely disappointing'. the british academic freed

from jail in the united arab emirates yesterday has arrived back in britain. matthew hedges was welcomed home by his wife daniela and members of his family. the durham university phd student was given a pardon after being sentenced to life in prison just days earlierfor spying for the british government. politicians from 9 different countries have expressed their anger after the facebook founder mark zuckerberg refused to appear as part of an international inquiry into so—called ‘fake news‘ despite being asked repeatedly to attend. the politicians were left having to question facebook‘s european policy chief at westminster today leaving an empty chair for mr zuckerberg. it followed the seizure by parliament of a number of documents belonging to facebook allegedly containing new information about the company's controversial data and privacy controls, as our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones reports. they had demanded the boss —

and they weren't happy that mark zuckerberg declined their invitation. so, the facebook executive sent in his place came under immediate attack from a canadian mp at this multinational hearing. 0ur democratic institutions, our former civil conversation, seem to have been upended by frat boy billionaires from california. so, mark zuckerberg's decision not to appear here at westminster today to me speaks volumes. and the pressure continued to mount. facebook cannot be trusted to make the right assessment on what can properly appear on its platform... it has become a serious threat to modern democracy... do you accept that facebook needs to be regulated...? at the weekend, documents were seized by a commons official from an american executive whose firm, the maker of an app hunting down bikini photos, is in a legal dispute with facebook. why didn't facebook disclose

that as a company...? the man who ordered this highly unusual move described one seized e—mail which he said suggested facebook had known about russian interference for years. an engineer at facebook, noted by the company in october 2014, that entities with russian ip addresses have been using a pinterest api key to pull over 3 billion data points a day through the ordered friend's api. now, was that reported to any external body at the time...? facebook later released a statement saying the engineers who had flagged their concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific russian activity. mark zuckerberg may have been a no—show today, but the political pressure on his company shows no sign of letting up. rory cellan—jones, bbc news. for the first time in a decade the scottish government is to announce its strategy for dealing with the growing problem of drug abuse in scotland. it's expected to suggest that addiction should be treated as a public health concern

as opposed to a criminal justice issue. the number of drug related deaths in scotland has risen significantly in the past 5 years from just over 500 in 2013 to 934 last year —and the figure for this year is expected to be even higher. one of the worst—affected areas is the city of dundee from where our scotland editor sarah smith sent this report. in dundee, someone dies from taking drugs every week. more people are killed here by drugs than die in road traffic accidents. charities that provide hot food for the homeless see the problem every day. as the city has the highest drug death rate in europe. michael is a recovering addict who started using heroin at 16. he doesn't take drugs now, but he sees what they do to his friends. a friend of mine recently, he overdosed and he wasn't actually found until the following morning.

butjust recently i bumped into his little brother in the town centre and he's in a bad, bad way. he's taking drugs himself? yeah. everyone must know someone who's died of an overdose and realised how dangerous it can be? some of them do worry, that i know. some of them just... don't give a monkeys... they don't care if they live or die? no. the volunteers at the food truck can sometimes help addicts into rehab. the scottish government want to find new ways to make recovery services less clinical, more approachable and have promised an extra £20 million. we are hopeful that there will be a clear focus on reducing fatal overdose deaths and that sector is very clear now, with that level of death that we are experiencing that that needs to be the key focus. 0lder drug addicts, who have been using for decades, now have multiple health problems.

while new, cheap, synthetic drugs are killing people. this gives you an idea of the scale of the problem. thousands and thousands of so—called street valium pills that have been seized by the police, that are sometimes known as blueies, but as you can see, they aren't even always blue. they contain all sorts of different kinds of chemicals. which when taken in combination with other drugs like... heroin can often be fatal. flora's daughter, helen was taking street valium heroin and other drugs in stirling. six months ago flora got the dreaded news that her daughter had overdosed. we did not speak for a while, but i saw her every single day... hanging about with other drug addicts. every single day. i waited years and years on that chap coming to my door and he came in and he said, just to let you know, that we found your daughter passed away. this was a policeman?

yeah. and that was like your whole world, that day. changed. completely changed. flora now raises her two grandchildren alone. addiction wrecks whole families. it is a devastating problem the scottish government have to try and address. sarah smith, bbc news, dundee. efforts to tackle climate change are way off track, according to the united nations which is hosting a major climate conference in poland next week. last year greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high and it's notjust a matter of industrial pollution. food is also a factor the global livestock population has reached 28 billlion animals. and those animals produce methane a potent greenhouse gas that's expected to increase by 60 percent in the next 2 years. 0ur science editor david shukman reports on how our food choices have an impact on the planet. every breath from a cow, and especially every burp, releases methane.

600 litres every day. most from the front end, not the back. and because methane warms the planet, the more we eat beef and dairy products, the more the temperatures rise. at this farm, researchers encourage the cows to feed inside this hood so they can measure the methane. so, a cow came in, she was eating... professor chris reynolds explains what they found. she had five eruptations, five belches. so each spike is a burp, is it? it's a burp or a belch. there's been a huge increase in meat and milk consumption. that demand is going to continue, so i think we need strategies for sustainably producing that meat and milk. one option is adding special supplements to the feed. some of these make the cows a lot less gassy. so technically it is possible to reduce the extraordinary amount of methane that cows produce, but on its own that won't be enough to head off the worst of global warming, so it comes down to the key

and highly controversial question of what we all choose to eat. here at manchester university, researchers study the climate cost of food — the fertilisers, tractors and processing all generate gases that cause more warming. so, add all that up, and these chocolates are responsible for up to 1.4 kilos of carbon dioxide and other gases. that's the equivalent of driving for 12 miles in a car. producing this blt sandwich involves a kilo of the gases — that's like driving for eight miles. and this serving of beef comes out top, creating more than 3.5 kilos of warming gases. that's like a journey for 30 miles. we have got to reduce our carbon emissions across different sectors, and the food sector is absolutely paramount to that because we all eat, and it has a significant contribution to our... notjust the uk emissions but globally, so we have to do something about it.

and it won't be easy, and it won't be popular. so what does this mean for our everyday shopping? mike berners—lee helps supermarkets work out their climate costs. the differences are striking. making the switch from beef and lamb down to plant—based proteins is about one 50th of the carbon footprint. his advice is to eat more of this, and to check if the produce is british and in season. also to avoid fruit and veg that's been flown here. it's the tenderstem broccoli that's come from kenya and that will almost certainly have gone on an aeroplane. there are some simple rules of thumb, so, is it either in season? or is it robust enough to have been able to travel from elsewhere in the world on a boat? mike and other experts say they don't want to preach about low—carbon food,

but they say, if we want to tackle climate change, we need to eat less of this. david shukman, bbc news. in france, president macron has insisted he will not abandon his vision of a low carbon society despite nationwide protests against rising fuel prices. mr macron is introducing higher taxes on petrol and diesel. he also wants all coal—fired power stations in france to close by 2022. but he said he understood the anger of protesters, as our correspondent lucy williamson reports from paris. emmanuel macron likes his country united and his opponents divided. which is what makes these protests over the fuel tax so tricky. exposing france's social divisions and uniting people from different political parties against him. eco—taxes, he said today, meant different things to different people, while some worried about the end of the world, others worried about the end of the month. inequalities, he said, that went far beyond one

issue, or one country. translation: brexit is the same problem. it is british citizens saying the world on offer is no longer made for them. it is made for the city of london. all democratic societies today are facing this challenge. last weekend, thousands of protesters filled the champs—elysees to demand an end to tax rises and even an end to macron‘s presidency itself. protests here are usually organised by a union or a political party, this one sprang from social media, with no official leadership and polls suggest three quarters of french voters backed them. at this roundabout in the champagne capital of france, ministers say economic frustration has been building for years and that at this roundabout in the champagne capital of france, protestors say economic frustration has been

building for years and that households keep bearing more of the burden, while businesses and the wealthy get tax cuts. natasha works two jobs, but says she cannot afford to buy her children sweets. we eat a lot of noodles and potatoes, she says, we rarely have meat. with france's political opposition still divided and some voters losing trust in the system itself, social issues are becoming a new kind of bridge. translation: mr macron has to listen before it is too late. the protests are very peaceful for now, but there will come a time when we can no longer contain the people. millions are living in misery and among the protesters are some who are very angry and want to revolt. the champs—elysees has been returned to its tourists, its restaurants and its designer brands. mr macron says he is listening to the protesters, but his prescription for restoring trust in politics is strong economic medicine and there is no sign the government is changing course. mr macron likes to be seen as a man of the people, swept to power by a grassroots movement of his own, but with his popularity now below 30%, he is learning that the will of the people is not always the will of emmanuel macron.

lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. football and both manchester sides have been in champions‘ league action tonight and made it through to the knockout stages. manchester city travelled to lyon while manchester united hosted visitors from berne. 0ur correspondent david 0rnstein was watching. playing at the so—called theatre of dreams has become something of a nightmare for manchester united this season. against young boys, a fine chance to recapture their old habit of winning, though marcus rashford quickly showcased united‘s more recent trend — failing to find the net. managerjose mourinho, well, unimpressed. young boys began to grow in belief and would have taken the lead if david de gea hadn‘t intervened. that save proved all the more crucial when marouane fellaini struck in stoppage time to lift the gloom and cue some interesting celebrations.

in lyon, manchester city fell behind to a breathtaking goal by maxwel cornet. the visitors responded well, however, nothing was stopping this aymeric laporte effort from levelling the scores. and although cornet landed what looked to be the decisive blow, city had other ideas, sergio aguero securing a point and their passage to the last 16. david 0rnstein, bbc news. tributes have been paid to the veteran conservative peer lady trumpington one of the great characters in the house of lords who has died at the age of 96. she worked as a code breaker during the second world war and spent nearly four decades in the upper house. colleagues describe her as ‘one of a kind‘ and an ‘utter joy‘ to work with. 0ur deputy political editorjohn pienaar looks back at her long life. laughter. always in her place in the house of lords, always the same.

so lucky to be here. as david cameron said, theyjust don‘t make politicians like that any more, and he meant it. wartime code—breaker, oldest woman ever to be a government minister, and even, after a long life, a youtube sensation. the grainy black—and—white photos tell of a colourful past. land girl on the farm of former pm david lloyd george, during world war ii. then a member of the near legendary code—breaking team at bletchley. churchill visited us. he said "you are the birds that laid the golden eggs, but never cackled." and that was the important thing, was that we never talked.