welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: one more historic victory. republicans win in mississippi and extend their majority in the senate. donald trump threatens to pull out of a meeting with president putin, as russia's conflict with ukraine intensifies. 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. politicians from around the world put some tough questions to facebook, but mark zuckerberg is a no—show at their inquiry into fake news. welcome to the programme. we start

with some breaking news. for the first time in its history, mississippi has chosen a woman to represent the state in the us senate. cindy hyde—smith, a republican backed by president trump, won an election clouded by racial tension. the vote was a special run—off for the last senate seat of the mid—term elections after no candidate reached 50% on the sixth of november. our correspondent chris buckler is in oxford, mississippi. celebrations for republicans are they and release in washington, i am imagining. yes, cindy hyde-smith was

a lwa ys imagining. yes, cindy hyde-smith was always the favourite to win this senate seat. her campaign was briefly derailed by those comments she made, in which she said that she would turn up at a public hanging and sit in the front row if she was invited by a supporter. that caused a lot of controversy here in mississippi, not because it dredged up mississippi, not because it dredged up the past of racially motivated lynchings that took place in this state. it also made it a much more competitive battle. however, she has ove i’co m e competitive battle. however, she has overcome that and she has, according to the opinion polls and the results, really managed to make it a decisive victory here. this will be regarded as a win notjust for her, but also for donald trump, who came on the eve of the election and held two rallies in support of nikkei —— cindy hyde—smith. he also tweeted that this is a big win, it is big for him because it extends his majority inside the us senate, it means that he has 53 of the 100 seat

for his republican party and he will see that as a victory. i suspect there will be others who will regard this as a moral victory, that is the democratic candidate mike sp, who led a very competitive campaign, if you consider that mississippi is regarded as a republican stronghold. certainly, this african—american candidate was somebody who gained a lot of a following, particularly from those comments from cindy hyde—smith. he has been tweeting, saying that while this is not the result he wanted, he is proud of the historic campaign he led and he said they built the largest organisation that the state has seen in a generation through a coalition of voters who shared their belief that mississippi's future will be brighter than their past. it gives you a sense that some of the things brought up in this campaign are not settled, but there are tensions. but

for republicans, they have won this senate seats, but for democrats a see this as an opportunity to perhaps build on what they did achieve through this competitive campaign. i know we need to wait for a breakdown of the vote is, but did you get a sense that this argument galvanised african—american voters in mississippi? i did, i got a real sense of that also from some younger voters as well, in which they seemed to say that they were coming out to support the democratic candidate, partly because of those comments by cindy hyde—smith. there is no doubt whatsoever that they dominated this campaign, it is certainly what people in the streets were talking about. there were also republicans that felt that her words were twisted, used against her, that this was a phrase never really intended to bring up memories of lynchings are. there were also republicans that came out to support her because of that. what it has made it a very, very divisive battle, as so often

politics is in current american. —— current america. a court in crimea has ordered 12 ukranian servicemen captured at sea be held for two months. another twelve will be brought before the court on wednesday. they and their three naval vessels were seized on sunday near crimea, the ukrainian peninsula annexed by russia in 2014. the men are not being treated as prisoners—of—war, but look set to face criminal charges of illegally crossing into russia. lebo diseko has more. captured at sea by russian forces and now sentenced in a crimean court, one of 12 ukrainian sailors ordered to be held untiljanuary. russia says they crossed into its waters illegally, but ukraine insists the incident happened in the areas that are free to shipping. russia's security service has released filmed statements from three other captured ukrainians, which were widely shown on state tv. one said that he was aware

the actions of his navy were provocative. we cannot verify the circumstances of the interviews, but kiev says the men were forced to lie under duress. this footage, also released by russia, apparently shows the incident which led to the crisis, the most serious escalation between the two countries in years. the kerch strait, where this happened, is the only way of accessing ukraine's key ports in the azov sea, which both russia and ukraine are meant to share. but, since russia annexed crimea four years ago, it has been able to block access in and out. on monday, ukraine imposed martial law, saying it is the victim of a deliberate act of aggression. translation: i don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. ukraine is under threat of full—scale war with russia. the us is calling on european countries to fully enforce

the sanctions on russia over its annexation of crimea. it's a dangerous escalation on the part of russians' continued aggressive behaviour against ukraine. the united states continues to support ukraine's territorial integrity. the secretary's heading to nato, as many of you know, in the coming days. i would imagine that that would be a big topic of conversation. america says russia violated international law, and president trump now says he might cancel a meeting with president putin at the g20 later this week. mr trump says he doesn't like what is happening, but he hopes they will be able to straighten things out soon. let's get some of the day's other news. the preliminary findings into last month's plane crash in indonesia have said that the airline involved, lion air needs to improve its safety culture. 189 people died when the lion air boeing 737 crashed into the java sea last month.

some of the grieving families have launched a legal challenge for compensation from boeing. president macron of france has said that nationwide protests against higher fuel taxes will not stop him moving the country to cleaner energy. mr macron wants all coal—fired power stations in france closed by 2022. but he says he understands the anger of the protesters. stephen hillenburg, the creator of the hit children's cartoon series, spongebob squarepants, has died. he was 57 and had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. the show, which was set under water, was inspired by mr hillenburg's early career as a marine biology teacher. a blast near a chemical plant in northern china has left at least 22 people dead. the explosion in zhangjiakou city

in the province set dozens of vehicles ablaze. our china correspondent stephen mcdonell is in beijing. what more do we know about this? what more do we know about this? what seems to have happened is one of the vehicles approaching the chemicalfactory, to have ignited a series of blasts and explosions come you can see there is footage of dozens you can see there is footage of d oze ns of you can see there is footage of dozens of trucks and cars lining the streets, on fire, and dozens more fire trucks moving down those street and putting out the fires on all of these vehicles. you can imagine, one of those trucks, i guess, could have had its own chemicals inside it, and whether or not it caused itself, maybe a spark from another vehicle has ignited that or something along those lines, we are still a long way

from knowing the reason for it, but it has to have been that one of those vehicles started it. the plant, even though it is shut down, it doesn't seem to have been a fire inside the plant, but dozens of cars approaching the plant. people will soon know the city of zhangjiakou, it will host the alpine events at the 2022 beijing olympic ‘s and there has been some concern, this is an industrial city and china, despite its fantastic record with economic progress, has really struggled with safety in the industrial sites. sadly, these chemical explosions are a pretty regular occurrence here and many of them have been quite deadly. thank you very much for that date. —— backed update. —— that update. stay with us on bbc news, still to

come: lots to answer for, campaigners and politicians ask "where's mark zuckerberg" as facebook faces questions over fake news. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world. the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number 10 to see the queen, she told her cabinet, "it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot air balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air we need, it's hard cash." cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s.

it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: the republican candidate cindy hyde—smith has won the senatorial seat in mississippi and extended the gop's majority in the senate. donald trump threatens to pull out of a meeting with president putin, as russia's conflict with ukraine intensifies. the british government has expressed concern at the significant increase in migrant boats crossing the english channel. home secretary, sajid javid, says the traffic is being organised by criminal gangs and he's promised more cooperation with the french authorities. this month alone 110 migrants, many saying they are iranian

nationals, have made it to kent on the english coast. all of them have been passed to immigration officials. the french police say they believe the recent surge is down to tighter security at the eurotunnel entrance and also because of brexit, 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 has been a surge in this kind of activity. a migrant camp in dunkirk we're secretly filming using an undercover researcher. it is 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 pay in 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 by boat 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 a couple of days ago, and when you get wet, we were fully wet. i was like that myself. a couple of guys they fainted, they were sleeping and we were trying to wake them up, and they were, and 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 is 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. we're like, we need to get in quicker, you know what i'm saying, in case the security gets 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 is 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 onto calais's 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. overloaded with migrants, this was the boat stopped by french authorities this morning. they were rescued, but there is real fear lives may soon be lost. colin campbell in dover. us secretary of state mike pompeo will meet his counterpart from mexico's new government

on sunday for talks over a possible deal that would see asylum seekers wait in mexico while their claims are processed. a caravan of thousands of migrants, made up largely of hondurans, has in recent days started to arrive at the us border. our correspondent, will grant, has sent this update from a migrant camp in tijuana. the migrant camp here in tijuana is reaching a sort of critical mass, after the first caravan of migrants from honduras was caught up with by a second and a third with people from el salvador and guatemala. the result is there are thousands of people in this space that simply isn't adequate for them. there isn't enough space, there isn't enough food, and as you can see around me, every square metre of this area has been taken up by a cheap tent or temporary accommodation put together with plastic sheeting, tarpaulins and pieces of wood. of course, migrants are generating

a lot of rubbish, a lot of waste. amnesty international have described the conditions here as squalid, and having been around the camp was some time now, it would be difficult to disagree with that assessment. after the protest on sunday, which was met with tear gas fired from the us side of the border, mexico has requested an investigation from the us authorities as to what happened. and the migrants themselves have choices to make. some will choose to stay here in tijuana, where temporary work visas may be made available. others have already decided to go home, deciding that enough is enough and that these conditions aren't sustainable. others still will continue to try to cross that border wall that you can see behind me and make it into the united states, either legally or illegally. but either way, christmas is coming, in due course, the nights

are getting much colder, and people will be here probably well into the new year. 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 with livestock producing methane which is a potent greenhouse gas. our 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. there has been a huge increase in milk and meat consumption.

that the man is going to increase 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. but on its own, that won't be enough to head off the worst there has been a huge increase in milk and meat consumption. that the man is going to increase 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. 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 kg of carbon dioxide and other gases. that's the equivalent of driving for 12 miles in a car. producing this blt sandwich involves 1kg of the gases. that's like driving for eight miles. and this serving of beef comes out top, creating more than 3.5 kg of warming gases. that's like a journey for 30 miles. we have got to reduce carbon footprint and the food sector is vital to that. it has a contribution not to uk emissions but also globally. we have to do something about it stopping it won't be easy and it won't be popular. so what does this mean for our everyday shopping? well, mike berners—lee

helps supermarkets work out their climate costs. the differences are striking. so making the switch from beef and lamb down to plant—based proteins is about one 50th of the carbon footprint. 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. this has come from kenya, it will have come from an aeroplane. there are simple rules, is it in season or is it robust enough to be able to travel from elsewhere in the world ona travel from elsewhere in the world on a boat? mike and other experts say they don't want to preach about this, but if we want to tackle climate change, we need to be less of this. david shukman, bbc news. politicians from nine 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 leaving an empty chair for mr zuckerberg. 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. our 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 three 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. sometimes it pays to stand

out from the crowd, especially if you're a cow that goes by the name of knickers from western australia. his owner geoff pearson tried to sell him at auction last month but meat processors said they couldn't take him as he's just too big. the 7—year—old is among the largest of his kind in the world, weighing 1.4 tonnes and two metres tall. that's one animal you wouldn't want any beef with. i'm sorry! you're watching bbc news. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @duncangolestani. for now, thank you for your company and i'll see you next time. hello there. we've replaced our cold,

dry weather now with something a lot more unsettled — wet, windy and much milder conditions, which will be with us in fact for the next few days. now, through today this next area of low pressure means business. it's going to be quite a deep area of low, bringing gales and heavy rain. in fact, there could be some disruption to travel throughout today, so keep tuned to your bbc local radio for all the local updates there. now, we're starting the day off, though, on a pretty mild note. we've lost the overnight frost that we've seen for the last week or so. temperatures starting off around six to eight degrees. now, we're dragging this milder air from the azores on a south—westerly wind. might not feel so mild, though, because of the gales and the rain, but it really will be milder than what we've been used to. spells of pretty heavy rain through the morning moving northwards, follow followed by showery bursts of rain further south during the afternoon. and then an area of much heavier, persistent rain for scotland, where we could see some pretty high rainfall totals on the hills there. temperatures, double figures

for all, as high as 14 or 15 across the south—east, but it's going to be very windy indeed. 60—65mph in exposure across western coasts, and then later in the day closer to 70mph perhaps for the north—east of scotland and the northern isles. and it's a brief window of fine weather during wednesday evening before the next bout of wet and windy weather starts to spread into the south of the country as we head into the early part of thursday. now, there could be a very windy spell of weather across parts of wales and the western half of england through thursday morning, as this next little area of low pressure moves north—eastwards. and with it, again, a spell of pretty heavy rain, which will clear through. and by thursday afternoon we should see a little bit of brightness breaking out, just a few blustery showers, maybe heavy and thundery, across south—western areas. temperatures down a degree or so on wednesday's values, closer to nine to 13 degrees. as we end the week, low pressure still very much in charge. again, very windy, particularly across northern areas. as you can see, tightly packed isobars there.

it's going to be i think a bright day on friday. most of the showers, blustery showers, will be across northern and western areas. and these will be increasingly wintry over the hills, as it will be a chillier day across the north. but very blustery, again, with the risk of gales across scotland, maybe into the far north of england. blustery across the south, though not quite as windy as it will be further north. and you'll notice a little bit cooler, with temperatures of nine to ten or 11 celsius. as we head on in towards the weekend, we maintain an unsettled theme, quite blustery, strong south—westerly winds. again, fairly mild across england and wales. turning a bit cooler, though, for scotland and northern ireland. this is bbc news. the headlines: for the first time in its history, mississippi has chosen a woman to represent the state in the us senate. republican cindy hyde—smith's win also extends the gop's majority in the senate to six. donald trump says he may pull out of a meeting with president putin because of the situation in ukraine. president trump says he wants more details about the detention of ukrainian sailors and three navy ships, after a tense confrontation over the crimea.

the british government says there's 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's promised more cooperation with the french authorities. it's estimated 110 migrants have made it across in the last month. now on bbc news, hardtalk.