this is bbc news. lam martin i am martin kroc sold. the headlines at 7. tear gas and rubber bullets have been used to try to break up crowds of anti—government protestors in paris. white house chief of staff john kelly is to leave donald trump's administration at the end of the year. police in new zealand are to charge a 26—year—old man with the murder of british backpacker, grace millane — who went missing in auckland last week. sadly the evidence we have gathered to this point of the inquiry has established that this is a homicide. amber rudd becomes the first cabinet minister to publicly discuss an alternative brexit plan if mps reject theresa may's proposal next week. what happens if it is voted down? and anything could happen. there are lots of different things that could happen. most of which they will not want to happen, so when they think about this deal they need to weigh up the alternatives as well. one of the uk's biggest outsourcing companies — interserve — is reported to be in rescue talks to avoid its collapse. and mo salah scored a hat—trick to send liverpool top

of the premier league with a comfortable a—nil win over bournemouth. good evening, welcome to bbc news. france is facing more anti—government protests tonight with riot police deploying water cannon and tear gas to try to disperse demonstrators. thousands of the so—called "yellow vest" protesters have taken to the streets of paris where cars and barricades have been set alight. the "yellow vest" movement began three weeks ago in opposition to a rise in fuel tax — but ministers say it's been hijacked by "ultra—violent" protesters. from paris, lucy williamson reports. they called it a protest. at times it looked more like a game of urban war.

groups of protesters fanned through the capital's streets today. from the arc de triomphe to republic, boulevards once built to open the veins of the city filled with tear gas, firecrackers and riot police. on the champs—elysees this morning, the mood was largely peaceful — protesters arriving here from across france caught up in a familiar dance of conflict with police. police are just pushing the protesters back down out of this side street onto the champs—elysees, they have been pushing them up and down this street all morning and the tension is starting to rise. the police were well prepared for this confrontation, with armoured vehicles, new tactics and bag searches, seizing gas masks and helmets and anything that could be used against police. the tear gas, far stronger than usual, took many protesters by surprise. and rapid reaction squads marked out by orange arm bands were stationed

among the protesters to spot trouble and make early arrests. translation: since the start of the demonstrations there have actually been more injuries on the side of the security forces than on the side of the protesters because the idea is to contain things, but that tactic has limits, particularly when we're faced with people who want to behave like it is a war. so today we've changed the tactics so there will be more checks and more immediate interventions. despite the violence of previous protests, this movement still has the backing of many voters in france. its members proud of their lack of leadership and the diversity of their support. sylvie is a far left supporter, her friend christoffe is a fan of the far right. they say the yellow vests have united different people against president macron. translation: that is what president macron does not like, that we are united.

he has brought back solidarity among the french. we are united in combat for now, after that, who knows? but this movement is already splintering into two kinds of protest, one that looks towards a new political programme and a violent wing, opposed to any negotiation, that's hard to exclude, even harder to control. and lucy has just sent this update. let's speak to photojournalist pete kiehart who is amongst demonstrators in central paris. has been near the republic and the french capital. can you hear us ok amongst the crowds? can we hear you? no, ido amongst the crowds? can we hear you? no, i do not think we can at the

moment. we will try and come back to him ina moment. we will try and come back to him in a moment. just to tell you we'll be looking at how this story is covered tonight and tomorrow's front pages at half past ten and half past 11 in the papers. our guestsjoining me tonight is the author and journalist yasmin alibhai—brown and the economist ruth lea. pete, where have you been amongst whom today? i spent the morning at the arc de triomphe and on the chance lee's for a few hours where there were fairly orderly demonstrations. afterwards i spent my time in the small streets around the area, the wealthy streets that we re the area, the wealthy streets that were affected last weekend, and that was much more disorderly with running battles and cat and mouse games between protesters and police. what was the mood amongst the

protesters ? what was the mood amongst the protesters? because it is claimed by the authorities that this group has now been infiltrated by ultraviolet demonstrators. in general, iwould characterize most of the protesters as fairly peaceful, but of course there are those causing damage and being quite violent, and we have seen quite a bit of that today. the police presence is much more strong thanit police presence is much more strong than it was last weekend, and they been much more aggressive and much more willing to charge at protesters and to break them up so i think that has had some effect at quelling the violence. by and large, who are the people who are out there on the streets ? people who are out there on the streets? e seems to be a fairly broad swath of french society. there's young people, old people. at 1.i there's young people, old people. at i.i saw there's young people, old people. at i.isawa there's young people, old people. at i.i saw a young man who looked to me to be of north african descent walking up an elderly frenchwoman

who had been tear gassed out of the demonstrations —— at one point. there is one the —— really quite a few people. i saw the numbers and they count the protesters throughout france as being in the around 130,000, i believe. what do they wa nt 130,000, i believe. what do they want from president macron that he hasn't already given way on? in their eyes he has not given them much. they have seen their buying power diminished over the years, and they feel that the tax that sent this off and has since been rescinded unfairly targeted those rural people who are struggling the most in terms of income because they do not have access to the public transportation and in other words are most affected by this gas tax that was initially proposed. thank you for talking to us tonight. thank you. president trump has announced that his chief of staff, john kelly will be leaving by the end of the year. there have been persistent reports

for several days that mr kelly had been under pressure to go. the retired marine general was homeland security secretary before becoming chief of staff injuly 2017. here's president trump speaking about the time frame of mr kelly's departure. john kelly will be leaving, i don't know if i can say retiring, but he isa know if i can say retiring, but he is a great guy. john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year, we'll be announcing who will be taking john's place. it might be on an interim basis. i be announcing that over the next day or two, but john will be leaving at the end of the year. he has been with me almost two years the year. he has been with me almost two yea rs now the year. he has been with me almost two years now as you know, between the two positions. danjohnson is in washington. just tell us more aboutjohn kelly's time in office and how successful it has been. he was described as one of

the grown—ups in the white house when he took over as chief of staff 18 months ago. it was six months into the trump presidency, and it was thought that someone needed to come and take control really, impose some discipline and order and former military generaljohn kelly was chosen to do thatjob. he was seen to have had some success at least in the early days at trying to control the early days at trying to control the messages, trying to restrict the president's social media outbursts and to stop the infighting in the white house, to actually get some consistency to some of the messaging. there have been ups and downs in that relationship. a p pa re ntly downs in that relationship. apparently he threatened to resign before and although apparently he was offered a two—year extension in the summer and asked to stay until 2020, apparently over recent days and weeks the relationship between john kelly and the president has reached absolute stalemate. they're not even on speaking terms. it looks like he reached the end of the road and the time is come for him to even make way for someone else to take over as chief of staff. is a bit of

a result —— revolving door, isn't it, in the white house with people coming and going quite quickly? another one bites the dust. there have been a lot of changes in the last two or three weeks. some high—level people have gone and some controversial new appointments have been made. this is partly donald trump reforming his administration for the new year, because he faces a new challenge with congress changing in favour of the democrats after the elections here. the white house is going to need a different approach to try and get things done, though partly i think that is why there are some high—level changes being made. why announce it today? the president has had a rough 2a hours. there was bad news yesterday in those documents about michael cohen linked to russia and those payments to the women who said they had affairs with donald trump. perhaps that is why he's trying to move on the agenda and get us talking about this today. it isa and get us talking about this today. it is a well—worn strategy for the president to attack —— attack, deflect, divert attention to another issue but he's announced john kelly will be going by the end of the year and we'll know who will take over thatjob, the chief of staff of the

white house, we should find out in the next couple of days. thank you very much. dan johnson the next couple of days. thank you very much. danjohnson in washington. the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, has become the first government minister to openly discuss an alternative brexit strategy, if the prime minister's deal is rejected in the commons on tuesday. she said she still supported theresa may's withdrawal agreement but it could be chaotic if mps didn't back the plan. she said a so—called "norway plus" option or another referendum would both be possibilities in such a situation. our political correspondent iain watson reports. you know what it's like in the run—up to christmas. you will be told that great deals are available, but you're tempted to wait for the january sales. and one cabinet minister is telling mps that if they don't like the prime minister's brexit deal, then a different one could come onto the market. amber rudd supports theresa may's deal. she says it is the best option but if it is defeated... if the house is not going to support the deal any to come forward

the deal it need to come forward with an alternative deal. and i have seen that there is a lot of support for norway plus in the house of commons, there is a certain amount of support for a people's vote, nobody knows what would happen. people should think very clearly if they are not going to vote for the government's withdrawal agreement whether they would prefer those alternatives. so what does she mean by norway plus? like norway, the uk be outside the eu but with access to the single market, we would have greater control of our agriculture and fishing industries and the plus bit — unlike norway we would be inside the customs union or something very like it to avoid the hard border in ireland. but there would be fewer restrictions on freedom of movement and we would pay into eu budgets. you don't need me to tell you that we are living in extraordinary political times, and here is another example. cabinet ministers are expected to sing from the same hymn sheet, and notjust at this time of year. yet amber rudd is speaking openly about the defeat of her own government and setting out her preferred plan b, now she doesn't want the prime minister to resign,

but theresa may's authority is looking less deep rooted. but some senior conservative figures say we don't have to be like norway or have another referendum if theresa may's deal is defeated. instead, we could leave the eu without a fully fledged deal. we should seek to put in place some ad hoc temporary arrangements with the agreement of the european union which would minimise and indeed perhaps even eliminate any disruption at the border on the 30th of march next year. there is not much festive cheer at westminster. the prime minister and amber rudd say the brexit deal would bring certainty but some sceptical conservative mps believe pushing on with next week's vote would simply be a gift to the opposition. iain watson, bbc news, westminster. we can speak now to stephen kinnock, the labour mp who's been championing the norway plus plan for brexit. welcome, thank you very much. have

you and amber rudd been getting your heads together on this? we have had discussions about this when amber was a backbencher, which of course just recently she has been brought back into the cabinet. she was part of ourgroup, we back into the cabinet. she was part of our group, we have a cross party group of mps called the norway plus group of mps called the norway plus group and she was part of those discussions and we had very good conversations about the norway plus option. is it a very literal type or a good one? why would this win support when many people who voted to leave the said that what they did not want was freedom of movement of people, they did not want the customs union or anything like it and they don't want the single market. i have always believed that 52-48 market. i have always believed that 52—48 result is a mandate to move house without leaving the neighbourhood, and that is what we have to deliver on. it is i think a mandate for aesop brexit that means leaving the political institutions of the european union, leaving the political project but having extremely close and reductive connections to the single market and

also the customs union. in terms of free movement of labour, very important to note there are two very important to note there are two very important safeguard measures and the eea agreement, article 112 and 113 annable the suspension and reform of free movement of labour. i com pletely free movement of labour. i completely accept —— enable the suspension. i think you have to think about doing that and that you could potentially take retaliatory measures but the most important thing is they are in the treaty, it isa thing is they are in the treaty, it is a well—established, well understood agreement, the eea agreement have existed since 1993, so it'll give us much more certainty and greater assurance of the free movement of labour. just how unilateral cut buk be in invoking those articles, because i thought if you want to use those articles —— how unilateral could the uk be in invoking those articles. i thought you had to go to the commission to make it a permanent arrangement and discussions have to take place. you cannot just invoke discussions have to take place. you cannotjust invoke them and expect it to stick. you invoke 112

unilaterally, you then make your case as to why you have invoked it ina case as to why you have invoked it in a special competence is called with the eu in order to negotiate the future. by the commission could say no. no, they cannot, actually. they cannot force us to return to the status quo. they have to accept our position, but they can then take retaliatory measures if compromise cannot be found. so, the risks with it is retaliatory measures. norway has never invoked it because they're in the schengen area anyway and a common travel area with sweden, so they cannot invoke 112, but that is a political decision, sovereign parliament norway has taken. what cost would we be looking at for an arrangement like this? because another one of the argument is we have spent far too much money to the european union and people want to stop doing that. the way the budget

works is very different for the european economic area countries. they negotiate on the basis of gdp per capita, and you have a contribution you make then and it doesn't go into the central part of the european union budget. it is used to pay the cost of your participants eight —— participation in the agency and it goes into a pocket for the economic regeneration in the poorer parts of central and eastern europe, so you see where your money is going if you like and because our per capita gdp is far lower than norway's, we would pay far lower, many analysts have estimated we would pay about half per capita what norway is currently paying, which is substantially less than what we are currently paying to the european union. your assessment of the mandate that the leave vote brought license for aesop brexit, of course is not shared by many people. a lot of brexiteers, they want a

very ha rd a lot of brexiteers, they want a very hard brexit or even no deal at all to bring us under wto rules. how much more likely is this deal to be accepted much more likely is this deal to be a cce pted by much more likely is this deal to be accepted by parliament than the one theresa may is pushing forward? the big challenge that parliament has had really since the 23rd ofjune, 2016, is interpreting the result. we had a binary referendum, which said remain or leave, but leaving can mean many, many different things. it is thejob of mean many, many different things. it is the job of parliament to interpret that and to turn it into reality, and in my opinion the manifestations of a 52—48 vote it and eea —based brexit, it is actually the closest we'll get to delivering on 52—48. of course there'll always be maybe 10% of extremist at both ends the spectrum, thatis extremist at both ends the spectrum, that is the same in any political conversation, i think. that is the same in any political conversation, ithink. but that is the same in any political conversation, i think. but when it comes to what ourjob is to deliver on what we think the majority of the british people are looking for interpret that mandate and once you have that interpretation, everything flows from there. the prime minister

made a very illjudged speech at lancaster house where she said she thought leaving meant leaving within the market and the customs union, but those questions were never on the ballot paper, and indeed nigel farage two months before the referendum took place said let's look at norway and switzerland. they're rich, look at norway and switzerland. they‘ re rich, happy, look at norway and switzerland. they're rich, happy, self—governing countries. would that really be so bad? what we will be really voting —— what were we really voting for on the 23rd ofjune? i think there is a stock —— strong case for interpreting aesop brexit as a mandate. it'll be a fascinating week. thank you very much for talking to us —— week. thank you very much for talking to us -- interpreting a soft brexit. the headlines on bbc news: tear gas and rubber bullets have been used to try to break up crowds of anti—government protestors in paris. around 700 people have been arrested. in the us. — president trump has announced that his chief of staffjohn kelly — is to leave his administration at the end of the year. here — the senior government minister, amber rudd,

has warned the country would be in "uncharted territory" if mps reject theresa may's brexit deal. police in new zealand are preparing to charge a 26—year—old man with the murder of the british backpacker grace millane. grace was last seen in auckland a week ago. police say there's evidence she's dead but her body has yet to be found. simonjones reports. described by her family as lovely, outgoing, fun—loving. in grace millane's hometown in essex, they're trying to comprehend the news that her disappearance is being treated as murder. it is very, very sad. devastating for the family, obviously and friends. many of the young people in our parish knew her, some went to school with her and went on school journeys with her, so it is... it will have hit the parish really very bad. despite an extensive search, police have now reached this conclusion: the evidence we have gathered to this point of the inquiry has established that this is a homicide.

grace's family have been advised of this development and are devastated. police say a 26—year—old man will be charge with her murder when he appears in court on monday. grace arrived in new zealand last month and had been staying at a backpackers‘ hostel in auckland. she was last seen last saturday night entering a hotel in the city with a male companion who the police they had been with her during the evening. detectives have released pictures of jewellery they believe grace had with her, this necklace and a distinctive pink watch that are both missing from her possessions and could help them find her body. here at the catholic church in wickford, special prayers will be said for grace at services throughout the weekend, a moment of contemplation to mark a young life cut short. we have been extremely concerned for her welfare. grace's father had flown to new zealand to plead for help in finding her, now he needs to know where her body is. the police say they will do everything they can to return her to the family.

china's foreign ministry has called on canada to release an executive employed by the telecoms giant huawei or warned it would otherwise face consequences. meng wanzhou, the company's global chief financial officer, was arrested in vancouver last weekend and faces extradition to the united states. she's the daughter of huawei's founder and is accused of breaking american sanctions on iran. one of the uk's biggest outsourcing companies — interserve — is reported to be in rescue talks to avoid its collapse. interserve employs 115,000 people here, providing services in key sectors including schools and hospitals. most of its income comes from government contracts. let's get more on this now from russ mould, who's an investment director at the stockbroker, aj bell, and has been following the interserve story closely. thank you very much forjoining us

tonight on bbc news. tell us a little bit more about the scope of interserve's work. it has £3 billion —— annual revenue, employs over 70,000 people globally and does everything from security to catering to facilities maintenance to construction and just under three quarters of its business comes from the uk government, so it is of the uk government's strategic supplier and the cabinet office was looking into financial help early in the year. why is it running into trouble? in some ways it is a little similarto trouble? in some ways it is a little similar to carillion and that you have too many moving parts, too little profit and too much debt effectively, so the company for that £3 billion in sales it makes an operating profit of around 60 million, so for every pound in revenue it keeps to and profit and thatis revenue it keeps to and profit and that is before it has to pay interest to the bank and tax, so thatis interest to the bank and tax, so that is the key problem really. how much of a shadow does the fate and colla pse much of a shadow does the fate and collapse of carillion, company that also had a lot of government

contract way on interservice —— interserve? it is a sector that has been dogged by problems for some time whether it is brilliant, gas, it has been a very similar problem. it depends on long—term contracts, tried to do too many things and in fairness the government has put pressure on prices to try to get the best value for money for taxpayers some cases the companies then have bid what is a competitive price, but not been able to deliver a profit for themselves or their many investor. how much earlier have interserve's problems been flagged up interserve's problems been flagged up and carillion. the share price was over £7 five years ago, it is now about 25p so someone somewhere has been snowing problem for some time. the one thing interserve does not have that carillion ended with a massive pension deficit so that is one less burden for them to kerry but it still has an awful lot of debt which is restricting it —— restricting its ability to operate properly. how precarious position

are all those thousands of employees and particularly those words with christmas pop are? i'm acutely aware of that and you have to be careful what you say. i think the good news is the financial times story talks about there being a refinancing of the company and there will be a reduction in debt burden and lenders will expect shares in the lab payment for interest and that will be fantastic news for the employees because it means the company will continue to trade and they will keep theirjobs. it is bad news for current shareholders that'll probably get whacked out and they should know the risk anyway. thank you for that. six people have been killed in a stampede at a nightclub in northern italy. the crush happened in the early hours of this morning in the town of corinaldo near ancona on the adriatic coast. james reynolds reports: the blue lantern nightclub in the town of corinaldo was packed. around 1,000 people, many of them teenagers, had gone to see a concert by one of italy's leading rappers. at around one in the morning some

reports say that a pepper spray—like substance was used, provoking a stampede. translation: we were together. we started seeing everyone rush towards the emergency exits. at the beginning we didn't understand why, but then we started to cough and thought there might be a fire or something, so we decided to leave. one of the emergency exits was blocked. in the crush to get out of the club, a railing collapsed causing dozens of partygoers to fall. translation: since three this morning we were very close to the bodies and to the relatives. and then we've accompanied them here to the morgue. you can imagine it's been a very sudden thing. you cannot believe that it's true. the government has named the dead as teenagers between the ages of 1a and 16, and the 39—year—old mother of one of these victims was also killed. italy's interior minister, matteo salvini, says the authorities

will find those responsible for turning a party night into a tragedy. james reynolds, bbc news, rome. a british sailor, whose yacht was crippled by a ferocious storm during a round—the—world race, has been rescued. susie goodall was sailing alone when she ran into trouble 2,000 miles off the coast of chile as andy moore reports. safety at last. the cargo ship that rescued susie goodall used its crane to winch her on board. she's reported to be uninjured and in good spirits. it was an ordeal that began 50 hours earlier with this distress call in the teeth of a ferocious storm. her yacht had lost its mast and water had to be pumped out. in one of the remotest places on earth, she had a long

wait for help to arrive. she was tossed about, seasick, in a disabled boat, in heavy seas. it was a difficult rescue right to the end. the engine on susie's yacht kept cutting out as it manoeuvred alongside the rescue ship, the tian fu. and then the first news of success in a brief tweet. "on the ship", she wrote, followed by three exclamation marks. in the time waiting to be rescued with a broken cooker, she said she'd been longing for a cup of tea. so it was no surprise that in the second message she said she had enjoyed a very good hot drink. her friends welcomed the good news after an agonising wait. it was an absolutely huge relief, a massive relief, and i think everybody in our sailing community was just absolutely overjoyed by the news. susie is now on her way to chile. her dream of sailing solo around the world is over, for now, but at least she's safe.

andy moore, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather. hi there. plenty of showers again today and a strong wind and that stays with us for the next few hours at least. you can see on the radar just how widespread showers have been across the country today. it will continue through this evening and overnight. the winds if anything and overnight. the winds if anything a bit ofa and overnight. the winds if anything a bit of a nuisance across wales in southwest england. in fact across the channel coast risk —— we could see when a 60—70 miles an hour through the night, that is worth bearing in mind. showers will continue during the early hours of sunday morning but sunday is the day of improvement. in fact, we can see the drier conditions across scotland, chilly start here, colder air starting to push down from the north and that will chase that weather front further south. it will introduce a much cooler feel and still blustery noticeable wind at

generally across the country on sunday but sunday may well start off with a few scattered showers, the east pretty quickly, clearer skies, drier, sunnier conditions. still quite breezy out there and that is just going to take the edge off the feel of things. maximum temperatures i suspect by sunday afternoon look likely to stay 5—7d into the north. we might if we are lucky see hype of 11 or 12 from the south and west. that's it. i'll be back in an hour. —— halfan that's it. i'll be back in an hour. —— half an hour.