to support ukraine in its conflict with russia over the crimean peninsula. earlier, a court in crimea ordered the first 12 ukrainian sailors captured by russia on sunday to spend two months in detention. polls have closed in the us state of mississippi, where voters have been choosing a new senator. if the republican candidate, cindy hyde—smith, wins the vote, president trump's party will extend its senate majority to fifty—three. she has faced a tough challenge from the democrat, mike espy. the british government says there has been a significant increase in migrant boats crossing the english channel. home secretary sajid javid says the traffic is being organised by criminal gangs, and he has promised more cooperation with the french authorities. it is estimated 110 migrants have made it across in the last month. now on bbc news, tuesday in parliament. hello and welcome to the programme.

coming up, what are the government's plans for immigration after brexit? the home secretary is staying tight lipped for now. are you in your eu immigration policy trying to meet your net migration target, yes or no? i've answered your question. mps crack down on fake news. i think facebook have told us again and again a tissue of lies about the way your company operates. and big fashion firms reject claims that they're producing chuck away clothes. we're proud of the quality and durability of our garments. they're not bought to throw away. but first, the home secretary's told mps he's planning to publish the government's strategy for future immigration before christmas. the long awaited white paper, in the jargon, will set out what the new rules could look like. when sajid javid appeared before the committee that scrutinises his department,

the mps wanted to know when they'd get to see it and he was asked about reports from the london evening standard newspaper that the prime minister's desire to clamp—down on low skilled immigration was causing tension in the cabinet. he was pressed over whether the government was still aiming to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands. the white paper obviously will talk to the new immigration system. it's intended that new immigration would begin injanuary 2021 which is either if there is a deal, at the end of the implementation period, even if there is no deal, there will be clearly... time will be needed for that new immigration system. you speak as though you know what's in the immigration white paper which makes it all the more surprising that you're not prepared to actually publish it now. there are reports in the last few days that the prime minister wanted to try and beef up support for her withdrawal agreement by promising the british public even stronger restrictions on migration into this country. and it sounds as though,

from the evening standard, that that's been resisted by you and others. ijust wonder if you could inform us a little bit about these discussions that are going on. first of all, i do know what's in the draft immigration white paper, it's something i have been taking very seriously. i see this as a very important moment for this government. this is the first time in decades for any government where we're able to design and immigration system almost from scratch uninhibited by any eu rules or regulations. i'm happy to say a bit if it is helpful about the sense of direction of the paper, if that's helpful for you... well, i think in a sense you have already said that in the past. you have already mentioned at the party conference, they've leaked it and all the rest of it... the question i am going to ask is are you in charge of this white paper or is the prime minister in charge of it? i think as with all white papers from any government department, i'm in charge of the white paper but the final product would need

cross government approval and that of course includes the prime minister's approval. on the forthcoming white paper, will it contain the tens of thousands immigration target? the white paper is not complete yet so we will have to wait for its publication. do you still support the target? you'll have to wait for the white paper. the target, to put it in perspective, the white paper is like our future immigration system. the target is what's being set up with, what you call the target, the ambition that was set out in the party manifesto... it was for this parliament. we've had a long discussion about what should be in the cap and what should be part of a seasonal workers scheme. none of it is commensurate with a fixed tens of thousands. this is perfectly obvious so why not just say it and let's get it over with?

you will have to wait for the white paper. is it still currently your policy to be trying to meet the net migration target? i'm trying to bring net migration overall, including eu migration, down towards sustainable levels. are you in your eu integration policy trying to meet your net migration target, yes or no? i've answered your question. i'm trying to bring down net migration overall. it is very difficult, when i talk about net migration, it is very difficult for any government... ok, you haven't answered my question. it's really clear because you've got this thing that was in the conservative manifesto and i accepted you may not like it but it was in the conservative manifesto. and it says, whether it's an aspiration, whether it is the target, whatever, it has this number attached to it which is the tens of thousands or your overall net migration objective. so, all i am simply trying to ask is when you've got this white paper or this eu immigration policy or whatever it is that will come

down the tracks for eu citizens, is the purpose of that policy to meet that net migration objective, aspiration, whatever, of the tens of thousands, yes or no? i think i've answered your question. i think you really, really haven't! elsewhere on the committee corridor, the health secretary was facing questions about what life after brexit might mean for this department. a labour mp wanted to know if he'd really given the cabinet a dire warning about what a no deal could mean. you were reported as having told the cabinet that in the event of a no—deal brexit, you couldn't guarantee that people wouldn't die. is that your view? well, we don't comment on leaks.

that isn't exactly what i said and we have been very clear that if everybody does what they need to do then we can ensure continuity of supply. so you can guarantee in front of this committee that nobody will die as a result of a no—deal brexit? well, as my permanent secretary tells me, we shouldn't use words like guarantee. we should... what we can say is that we're confident that if everybody does what they need to do then there will be the continuity that i was talking about. you said a little while ago that you thought no deal was unlikely, but your fellow cabinet minister amber rudd said last week that no deal wouldn't happen, that this parliament would stop it. do you not agree with that? well, i think parliament should vote for the deal that's on the table because i think... no, my question was... she says... you say it's unlikely, she says it won't happen because parliament will stop it. well, i think that people should vote for the deal. i mean, i'm not... that is the government policy, that the government position. secretary of state, don't waste our time. well... everyone knows this deal is doomed. it's going down. so when we're facing a no deal scenario, do you agree with amber rudd that parliament would stop it?

i am planning for all eventualities and that, of course, includes no deal. for a second day, there were questions in parliament about russia's capture of three ukrainian naval vessels and 23 crew off the coast of crimea. ukraine has responded by imposing martial law for a 30 day period in ten of its border regions. two ukrainian gunboats and a tug were sailing into the kerch strait on sunday. russia's border guard says the flotilla violated russian territorial waters. ukraine calls it a flagrant violation of international law. there's been fighting in eastern ukraine since april 2014 when russia annexed the peninsula. we condemn russia's aggression against the ukrainian vessel that sought to enter the sea of azov on the 25th of november. we remain deeply concerned about the welfare of the ukrainian sailors detained by russia and call for their release urgently. russia has again shown its willingness to violate ukraine's sovereignty following the illegal annexation of the crimea

and construction of the kerch bridge. the united kingdom remains committed to upholding the rules based international system which russia continues to flout. he was responding to a question from a conservative former cabinet minister who called for stronger sanctions against russia. will he reiterate his call for the immediate release of the 23 sailors now being held by russia, some of whom are now, we understand, in occupied crimea and six of whom are badly wounded, and will he also look at imposing personal sanctions on those military personnel who have already been shown to be involved in coordinating this operation as well as increasing the economic sanctions on russia at least to the level which canada and the united states are already proposing? the minister said agreed it was a serious escalation of the situation. any further sanctions will be considered in cooperation with european partners and others. it's very important there is a sense of unity in relation to response to what has taken place and the united kingdom was active in calling a meeting of eu partners yesterday and the other meetings that took place also saw very strong response from united kingdom and others.

the events of the last 48 hours have been deeply troubling for all of us who want to see a return to peace, stability and the rule of law across the whole of the ukraine. instead, incidents like this make an already intense situation worse and risk widening of the conflict. every time we see one of these acts, we see a moment of russian weakness being expressed through violence, we see a falling oil price being covered up by an act of aggression, we see riots against the pensioners who have been stripped of their assets by brutal regime being covered up by further acts of war. would you not agree with me that this means that we must stand with the russian people, we must stand with the democrats, the journalists and the civic activist in russia? this has not been an isolated incident. this has been happening and escalating for some time. i endorse the call for unity, calm and restraint, but there are other consequences that we must be aware that russia is seeking here which is a wider destabilisation of the region.

2a politicians from nine different countries joined forces to question facebook as part of an inquiry into fake news. the self—styled international grand committee featured mps from the digital, culture, media and sport committee. but the man they wanted to question facebook‘s founder mark zuckerberg said he wasn't able to be in london and the committee left his chair empty. instead the company sent one of his employees who's also a member of the house of lords to answer questions. the corporate decision facebook to blow off at this meeting with mark zuckerberg, how was that advised at? who gave mr zuckerberg be advised to avoid his committee? i would not characterise

this as appalling. with the decision we took to try to understand is... you say it is not blowing off, you're trying to understand, we are trying to understand. he advised mr zuckerberg? was that his decision or did facebook tell him to stay away? i will take responsibility for decisions around appearances in front of committees. for the record, we have appeared in front of numerous committees this year of different institutions, including mr zuckerberg himself appearing before it to congressional committees and the european parliament. the mps are investigating how a company, gsr, harvested the personal data of millions of people's facebook profiles without their consent before selling it to the political consultancy cambridge analytica. the information commissioner has fined facebook forfailing to make suitable checks on apps and developers. i think facebook have known throughout this exactly what was going on in terms of passing information. and i think facebook have told us again and again a tissue of lies about the way your company operates.

i will contest that. again, to be very clear... give me one example of a business that you have banned because they have shared information. beyond gsr? beyond gsr. one! i do not want to mention the name of a business that turned out to be inaccurate. i will come back to you. the committee have seized a number of documents from a us software firm. they say this assured facebook knew about potentially malicious russian activity on the network years before it became publicly known. we are seeing a consistent pattern of facebook failing to disclose relevant information of considerate public interest when you're asked questions about things like motion activity. this activity came in to public knowledge because of a separate investigation, not from the company. can you not see that this has caused a massive breach of trust and not just between parliament and the country visit my company but with many people who watch these

deliberations as well. i'm not sure there is not answered that question. that information should have been disclosed. other other incidents of russian activity on facebook in terms of accessing data that we should be aware of? our policy at the moment is we have confirmed information about any of this kind of attempted interference, whoever that should be from, that once we have investigated, once we understand accurately what has occurred, then we will publish it. lord allen defended facebook‘s handling of the scandal. we took steps, as we have explained to this committee, to try and ensure that any data that had been obtained had been destroyed. we receive those assurances — i understand people are not satisfied with the fact that we only got written assurances, but we thought we had done the right thing around that incident. i know members of the public

when they are watching and listening to this very complicated saga that is ensuing would be forgiven for thinking that facebook were trying to expand their business and the value of their shares and perhaps that has been put above public safety. again, i would contest that characterisation. i do not want to hide the fact that we are a business. we offer an amazing service to millions of people around the world which we are able to do for free because we have an ad funded model, but we are doing that, you know, with a mission. we have a purpose, we want our service to be good, we want it to be useful and safe. as we have discussed, i think repeatedly today, we do not always get that right, but our objectives are very clear. is there a feeling among facebook and the staff that trust in facebook has plummeted?

absolutely. it is a major concern and topic of conversation. we recognise both in our own actions and external events that we are not in a good place in terms of trust. you're watching tuesday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. still to come, a tribute in the lords to former bletchley park code—brea ker lady trumpington who's died age 96. but before that, low cost clothing retailers have been challenged to explain how they manage to sell dresses and t—shirts for under a fiver. the environmental audit committee is investigating the so called fast fashion industry. mps are examining whether it's encouraging a throwaway attitude to clothes and profiting at the expense of under paid workers. primark is famous for its very cheap t—shirts. how can you justify selling t—shirts in your stores for as little as £2 or £3?

and how can you be making a profit on those? primark said it was all about its business model. we do no advertising. you'll see no billboards, do no television advertising. no significant advertising at all. and that saves £150 million compared to some of our larger rivals. that goes straight into price which keeps our pricing well. we then work with our factories, we often buy longer lead times and quiet periods for the factories. and then we pay the factories early. if you're a factory owner, you will be able to get a better price to reflect that. mary creagh wondered how primark was reducing waste. it's just been easy to chuck things in a landfill and forget about them. isn't that the problem with the fast fashion industry if you're selling stuff at £5, people will not treat

with any respect at the end of its life, it will just go on the bin? every item that we make and produce and sell, we are looking at durability. it is not a question... and durability has a number of tests across lifecycle. it's about washing, design, treatment of that garment. and we are proud of the draw ability of our garments. they are not bought to throw away. mary creagh turned to arcadia, whose flagship store is top shop. every week is a season in top shop, isn't it? i'm not aware that every week is a season but, yes, we do have a lot of different ranges that come out. they are of great importance that we do not sell garments for £5, we sought a higher price point. and again the product is designed and tested rigorously for things like washing, colour fading. so these garments are not designed

to be a disposable item. they are designed to be long—lasting and that continues onto secondary use as well with other people, whether that be a cherry shop —— use as well with other people, whether that be a charity shop or friends or family. it is meant to be a high standard. why do so much of yours end up in trash? we don't believe it does end up in the bin. we give to charity shops. next to give evidence were the online retailers. boohoo was asked about claims, made in the financial times, that it plays suppliers off against each other. boohoo hold weekly meetings at their office... supply is bring samples in a single room. it is like a cattle market, says one person, a supplier who do not want to be named. say i am the buyer. i will hold of the next table and say how much for that

and he will tell you £4. how can you manufacture dresses in leicester £4 a dress when the minimum wage is £7.83? carol kane denied that her buyers created a cattle market for suppliers. i have took that allegation on board. i have asked, does this happen? i've never witnessed that happening. when you're in there? when i am in there. unsurprisingly, do you think that behaviour might change when you're not there? i don't recognise that it does. you can't know because you're not there. it is not possible to be in every single meeting. missguided explained that it targeted 16 to 29—year—old fashion conscious women. our mission is to empower women to feel confident. and for every occasion that they find themselves in. so that could be a social occasion or work. we sell clothing for work as well. we do live in the instagram generation which has taken

over for facebook. we do not encourage the use of our clothing and we do not promote use of our clothing as a one—off. and he didn't think the firm was being socially irresponsible. now to the start of the day in the commons, where the minister was asked what the government was doing to tackle health inequality the difference in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest. we have known for decades that poverty and economic inequality drives health inequalities. the richer you are, the longer you live and the longer you are living in good health. in addition to the economic analyses of the prime minister's brexit deal, what assessment has the minister done on its impact on the inequalities and life expectancy and healthy life expectancy which we know are already falling for some parts of the country and for some groups of people? i simply don't accept the direct causation she outlines is as clear as it is. we will focus on those programmes to help people live healthier lives

with better diets, tackling tobacco control and preventing diabetes. as it sees most deprived children who are most overweight, will she call on kellogg's to follow the example of nestle and put colour traffic lights on all their products so people can make healthier choices? poor health amongst children used to be an indicator of being underweight. now, it's by being overweight. and i congratulate any food manufacturer who is taking action to address this problem. the bbc has been urged to continue providing free tv licences for the over 755. the government—funded scheme, which gives them to older viewers comes to an end injune 2020. the bbc has launched a consultation exercise on its future but warned that continuing with the scheme could cost around a fifth of the budget. we agreed with the bbc that responsibility for the concession will transfer to the bbc in 2020. it confirmed no decisions will be taken until the public have been fully consulted, but we have been

clear on our expectation from the bbc to continue this concession. the bbc are currently consulting on, and i quote, what, if any, licence fee concession should be in place for older people from june 2020. my lords, the ons classify the bbc licence fee as a tax. can i ask him to point to the section in the royal charter that gives the bbc the power to levy taxes? and will he join me in calling on the bbc to withdraw this disgraceful consultation? the bbc are doing exactly what they agreed when the settlement was put in place in 2015. we agreed at that time that we would provide a continuous licence fee, increasing by inflation, for five years. that had never been done before. we agreed to close a loophole, the iplayer loophole, that was what they wanted. and in return, the bbc agreed to take on this concession,

so we have been clear, however, that we expect the bbc to continue with this important concession. 0ne peer thought the answer was for the bbc to take adverts. after all, the bbc world service takes advertisements and after all, your lordships may study that there is about three minutes of propaganda on every hour of bbc programmes for forthcoming programmes ad nauseam. if the bbc doesn't go ahead with cutting this over 75 licence fee, then it's own content is going to be dramatically cut. why should the bbc be forced to make a social policy decision that should be the remit of government to make? and if the government wants the licence fee protection for over 75s protected, surely it should pay for it, not the bbc? lord ashton. the government has been defeated by peers demanding strengthened safeguards for vulnerable people detained in care homes or hospitals. the lords backed a change to give

the person being looked after and their representative an explicit right to upfront information about the process, including the reasons why a person may be detained and the appeal procedure. the government's mental capacity bill aims to replace the current safeguard scheme with a new, simpler system. peers backed the amendment by 277 votes to 192, a majority of 85. finally the lords speaker, lord fowler, has paid tribute to the conservative peer, lady trumpington, who died on monday at the age of 96. in the 1980s, when norman fowler was health secretary in margaret thatcher's government, lady trumpington was a health minister in the house of lords. at the start of the day's sitting, lord fowler made a short announcement, informing peers of her death. i regret to inform the house of the death of our much—loved

colleague and friend, the noble baroness trumpington on november the 26th. on behalf of the house, i extend our condolences to the noble baroness's family and friends. hear, hear. and those comments from lord fowler bring us to the end of this edition of the programme, but dojoin me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day at westminster, including the highlights from prime minister's questions. in the meantime, don't forget you can follow me on twitter @bbcalicia. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello there. we have lost our drive, called

weather now, it replaced it with something very much more unsettled and infact something very much more unsettled and in fact today is looking extremely unsettled. the area of low pressure bringing the spells of gales or severe gales. with it some very mild air drawn up from the azores. this area of pressure means business. it could cause disruption to the north and west, the combination of gales and heavy rain. keep tuned to the bbc local radio for the latest updates. this morning starting off on a mild nose. temperatures ranging between five and eight celsius. it will be cloudy and eight celsius. it will be cloudy and wet. something perhaps a little bit and wet. something perhaps a little bhdw and wet. something perhaps a little bit dry out into the early part of the afternoon. then another batch of heavy and persistent rain pushing into northern ireland and scotland, where we could see some very high rainfall totals particularly on south facing hills. a very mild day. temperatures in double figures as high as 15 degrees in the south. it will be very blustery. gales of 60— 65 mph in weston exposed areas. and

then later in the day it could be 70 miles an hour in the northern isles of north—east scotland. then slightly drier weather into the evening and for the first part of the night. then the next area of low pressure will move into southern areas to bring another bout of wet and windy weather. it looks like this next area of wet weather could bring strong wind across wales, the western side of england through thursday morning. a band of heavy rain spreading northwards and eastwards. something brighter into the afternoon with plenty of heavy and blustery showers across southern and blustery showers across southern and western areas. temperatures in double figures. maybe not quite as mild as what we will see today. as we end the week another area of low pressure will keep things unsettled. very windy, tight isobars across the northern half of the country. we could start off with plenty of sunshine around, particular eastern areas, lots of showers into western areas, lots of showers into western areas, especially western scotland, where they will be blustery and wintry over the higher ground.

temperatures a little bit down on what we will expect today and thursday, nine to 11 or 12 celsius. as we had on towards the weekend, it looks like it is fairly mild across england and wales with blustery showers, some sunny spells, maybe a bit cooler than that, though, across scotla nd bit cooler than that, though, across scotland and northern ireland. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: the us calls on europe to do more to support ukraine in its conflict with russia over the crimean peninsula. a sharp increase in migrant boats crossing the channel to the uk. ministers say its being organised by criminal gangs. we track down some of those responsible. translation: a boat, it will cost you £3,000—4,000. i'm taking three people with me. they pay in cash. we get a boat, and off we go. votes are being counted in mississippi's special election, where republicans hope to extend their majority

in the senate. politicians from around the world put some tough questions to facebook, but mark zuckerberg is a no—show at their inquiry into fake news.