you're watching bbc newsroom live — it's11am and these are the main stories this morning: all flights in and out of gatwick airport remain suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. i have a drone on my field. as we stand here now, we will not be able to reopen until that drove is brought down. flight remain grounded here at gatwick, with no indication as to when the runway will reopen. that is causing huge disruption here and beyond. nearly 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year — a rise of 24% over five years according to official figures published for the first time the work and pensions secretary amber rudd says a second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal can't be broken. britain has twice as many shops as it needs according

to a new report into the state of the high street which recommends councils are given more money to change the layout of town centres good morning. welcome to bbc newsroom live. all flights in and out of gatwick — britain's second busiest airport — have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. flights have been diverted as far away as paris and amsterdam. gatwick has apologised for any inconvenience but said safety was its "foremost priority." 10,000 passengers have been affected with many facing long delays. 760 flights were due to use the airport today (ani) gatwick is the uk's second busiest airpot with 45 million passengers a year. wets 73,000 of them are due to

depart on sunday. the volume of passengers at the airport has been steady for the last few years. 0ur correspondent navtej johal is at gatwick airport for us now. there must be so much frustration there. absolutely, there is frustration and i think a level of understanding from passengers that this is not something that could have necessarily been predicted full stop as you say, the runway has been closed here, and flights have been grounded for over 14 hours. we understand there is a meeting taking place to discuss when the runway will reopen. we have heard various time slots mentioned earlier in the morning, expecting maybe 10am, midday, but the truth is, nobody knows when the runway will reopen. we know that police are currently

searching for the operator of the drone behind today's disruption. 20 police teams are searching for that operator. they don't believe this incident to be terror related but they believe it is a deliberate act. as the police were telling us just a couple of hours ago. at the moment we are still getting sightings of the drone in and around the airfield. i've got 20 units at the moment from surrey and sussex and from the airport searching for the drone operator to try and locate him. we are exploring other options at the moment to try and bring the situation to a close. this appears to be a deliberate act? absolutely. this has been going on for hours now. each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears. i'm absolutely convinced it's a deliberate act to disrupt gatwick airport. do you know why anybody would want to do that? no, not at all. and actually there's been no intelligence that this is going to happen. this isjust a random act that has happened overnight. are you confident you will locate the operator of the drone? i am convinced we will.

it's a painstaking thing. with the new drones, the bigger the drone, the further the reach of the operator, so it's a difficult and challenging thing to locate them, but i've got teams now and investigators looking at how we do that and locate them and i'm confident we will. the scale of this disruption has been huge — 110,000 the scale of this disruption has been huge —110,000 passengers are expected to use gatwick airport today. 760 flights are scheduled to come in or go out of gatwick, and the busy mourning period has passed, when the vast majority of flights we re when the vast majority of flights were due to take place. gatwick have apologised and extra staff have been drafted in. people who normally wouldn't work with passengers are currently trying to ease the situation. we spoke earlier to the cheap operating officer of gatwick. firstly, i'd like to apologise

to all of the passengers who have been disrupted by this irresponsible act. at nine o'clock last night, a drone was seen by two different members of staff, and since then that drone has appeared and reappeared all through the night. we reopened at 3am for 45 minutes, but then the drone reappeared again, and so the airport is closed now. there is a drone on the airfield as we speak and the police, 20 police units, are looking to bring that perpetrator to justice. five years imprisonment is the punishment for this act. i was inside earlier in the terminal speaking to some of the passengers. there are huge queues in there and have been all morning, people who have been all morning, people who have been all morning, people who have been waiting for information, hoping they might be able to catch a flight hoping they might be able to catch a flight still. we spoke to a couple of earlier who were waiting on the ru nway of earlier who were waiting on the runway with their baby for eight hours, hoping they could still catch their flight. another couple were hoping to go on their honeymoon to new york. that flight has been

suspended as well, and that has been the pattern for all of the morning. we've been speaking to passengers throughout the past 1a hours, and they all have their own story to tell. we have been here since our past midnight, expecting to fly at 3am, it is now 7:20am and we have no idea when we will fly. you would think an airport of this size would have some sort of contingency plans to cope with a drone. we were travelling from glasgow to gatwick, and we were devoted to luton because we weren't able to land. and after being held oi'i able to land. and after being held on the plane for around two hours, we eventually got off and got a bus which took us here to gatwick. we're i'iow which took us here to gatwick. we're now waiting for an update on whether we will be able to fly to istanbul, and we also have a connecting flight in kiev, so it's not ideal. it's

ridiculous. it must because inc tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in delays. it's absolutely ludicrous. those are just a few of the plans that lie in tatters as a result of the disruption, disruption that will ta ke the disruption, disruption that will take days because of the backlog to clear. they advise currently is do not come here without having checked the status of your flight first. a number of people have asked, why don't they just shoot down the number of people have asked, why don't theyjust shoot down the drone 01’ don't theyjust shoot down the drone or drones? the advice we have heard from police is it would simply be too dangerous, so they are hoping to catch the people behind it first. there is a maximum prison sentence of around five years they were to be found guilty. that is the current state of play. currently no flights coming in or going out, the same as it has been for the past 1a hours. we hope to have an update in the

next hour or so. plenty of disruption still. thank you very much. we will be back to gatwick for live updates regularly throughout the morning as we wait and see what is going to be happening there. we can bring in the chief executive of the uk flight safety committee. welcome. it is extraordinary how something so simple can cause so much disruption. it isa simple can cause so much disruption. it is a disruption to a very finely tuned system. gatwick is a very busy airport, and the issue for the operators is firstly safety, safety of the travelling public, and now that you've got a drone cited over the airport boundary, then they have very little option. the unusual occurrence this time is the fact that it occurrence this time is the fact thatitis occurrence this time is the fact that it is a repeated sighting. it has either been more than one drone, 01’ has either been more than one drone, or there has been a drone with a stack of batteries and stumbled —— somebody doing this deliberately. whoever is doing this obviously knows the impact they are having.|j

think they would have to have been com pletely think they would have to have been completely shut off from society to not know what they were doing. completely shut off from society to not know what they were doingm terms of tracing or following this drone, why is it so difficult to actually find out where it's coming from? they are very small and there area from? they are very small and there are a lot of them. the rules say you are a lot of them. the rules say you are supposed to stay below 400 feet outside one kilometre from an airfield boundary, and within visual line of sight, which really restricts you to maybe one or 2000 metres, because most of these objects are small. you have something very small, it's not really transmitting anything that the air traffic control systems can pick up, so you have an immediate issues of visual sighting and then maybe following it back to where it has originated from, which is why there have been prosecutions in the past where police have been able to follow a drone back to its point of origin, but if you can't do that,

you're in difficulties. the person doing this is aware of the rules, if you own a drone, and is presumably knowingly breaking them. if you have someone prepared to do that, is there anything technologically to stop this happening? there are systems being developed. it is possible to jam the signal, which means the drone should go back to its operator. the same with geo— fencing, you can put restrictions on the coordinates within which the drunken fly, but it doesn't take much to be able to override those if you know what you're doing. would there be geo— fencing at gatwick? there should be. there should be or there definitely is? there should be. they will be fenced, but if you can override the software, that becomes irrelevant. we don't know how long this can go one for, obviously. know, and the issue is

one of the disruption it causes, and i think the national air traffic service has pushed out a very good video of what went on about 18 months ago. it's notjust the impact on the 110,000 people who have been disrupted at gatwick. you put workload up for flight crews, for air—traffic controllers. people are 110w air—traffic controllers. people are now rushing on the ground to make things happen in a short time. you just load the system risk which is otherwise managed. having a huge impact, as you say. what questions and what will the logistics be around when to reopen the airport? if they don't find it, will there be a certain period of no sighting when they decide, that's it, we will have to open again? now that it is broad daylight, they have a much better chance of seeing something that is coming back. isuspect chance of seeing something that is

coming back. i suspect whoever is doing it will now they stand a much greater chance of being seen in daylight. hopefully someone out there will know who has done it and we'll let the authorities know, because this can't be allowed to continue to happen. there are rules out there. there is a five—year penalty for offences of this nature. if somebody is found guilty of this. but it is very much a case of managing risk. some of the drone encounters that have been going on have not been around airports. they've been about 500 feet, some of them as high as 12,000 feet, so those are people who know very well that they are breaking the law in doing that. thank you very much. earlier my colleague annita mcveigh spoke to the aviation minister, baroness sugg, about what the governemnt was doing to help get gatwick reopened for passengers... i think the priority is to make sure we get the airport open as safely as possible so that people can fly off on christmas breaks, or people can come in to visit friends and family.

that is the priority. we have taken action and we have changed the law earlier this year. and we will look at extending police powers. what will you do today? the police are out on the ground in numbers working closely with gatwick airport to ensure they can reopen. if the police are unable to identify the person or persons responsible for this drone activity, and it has been going on over a period of 12 hours, and it continues, what other options are there available to you to try to ta ke are there available to you to try to take this drone out of the air? what can you say to our viewers? what can you say to travellers about what you will do today if the police are unable to stop this? the first thing i would say to travel as is, i would like them to check with airlines before travelling to the airport because we are facing such disruption. there is up—to—date information on the gatwick airport website on that. and the police are working to bring the drone down. i'm

sure they will do so promptly. are there any other people being brought into this at the moment to consider a strategy beyond the police? we are working incredibly hard with the police and with the airport to open as quickly as we possibly can. who else might you call on if the police can't? there must be other options, that's what i'm trying to get at, if the police can't bring this to a conclusion within the next few hours. there must be other options you may consider using, whether it is the raf or perhaps saying to the police, you do have to shoot this down. we are working closely with the police on that. we need to make sure the public are kept safe, which is the priority, but we are working together in order to open the airport as quickly as we can. sussex police have sent out a

statement asking if anyone knows who is responsible, call 999. we will keep you updated on the latest. the headlines on bbc news... all flights in and out of gatwick airport have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year — a rise of 24% over five years according to official figures published for the first time. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd says a second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal can't be broken. in sport, the metropolitan police are working with arsenal to find out who threw a bottle at spurs player

delle alli during his side's league cup win at the emirates last night. manchester united's new interim manager has started at the club afterjose mourinho was sacked. adam peaty challenges the sport's world governing body to ban him after confirming he wants to compete ina new after confirming he wants to compete in a new breakaway competition. i'll be back with more on those stories just after half past. deaths of homeless people have increased by nearly a quarter over five years to almost 600, according to official estimates. the first figures of their kind to be released by the office for national statistics reported 597 deaths last year across england and wales — with most deaths in london and the north west. liver disease, drug poisoning are among the main causes of death in what is a stark picture of rough sleeping across the uk. i'm joined now by howard sinclair

who is the chief executive of the homelessness charity st mungo's. welcome. it is a high number — what is your reaction? i wish i was shocked. we have seen a rise in rough sleeping in the last five yea rs, rough sleeping in the last five years, so rough sleeping in the last five yea rs, so we rough sleeping in the last five years, so we would expect a similar rise in the number of deaths. it is a consequence of what i think eve ryo ne a consequence of what i think everyone sees on the streets every day, up and down the country. there are more people being forced to sleep rough. causes of death just mentioned, primarily, it seems, liver disease and drug use. tell us the stories that you sort of... that is what we see, and also suicide. a high number of suicides. that accou nts high number of suicides. that accounts for 50% of the deaths as

far as we know from the research that has been published. that reflects what we see. rough sleeping isn't just about not reflects what we see. rough sleeping isn'tjust about not having somewhere to stay. it is actually people with complex health needs, mental health needs, and dependencies. they can't cope and helping them out of that situation must have a sense of urgency. it it isa must have a sense of urgency. it it is a shocking number of deaths for this country, on every single level, and actually helping to pull together the services and resources together the services and resources to support those people on the streets that they need must be a priority for us. what are the ways, the most effective ways, of helping? i think we need to prevent people going onto the streets. i think we need to look at housing, both in the private sector and the social sector. there must be more housing. and it is about long—term support, social and health support, that meet

the needs of very complex individuals. what we are calling for at saint mungo's is that this is a good start on behalf of the government to recognise that this is an issue and to begin to collect proper statistics. in our view, every one of those deaths should be reviewed and investigated and the lessons learned, almost as a tribute to those forgotten people. by doing that, we will be able to prevent further people falling onto the streets and dying in the future. if we can learn the lessons of how systems have failed people in the past. what currently happens? it is at the discretion of local government as to whether there is a review or not, a safeguarding adult review. does it happen often? very rarely. the government said they will encourage local authorities to do this. there has been nothing more than that. we believe each of these deaths should be investigated and lessons learned. everyone who dies

on the streets, it's just not appropriate. they are lie because for some reason society's systems, perhaps charities like us, perhaps local authorities, people coming out of hospital, back to the streets, somewhere it has failed, and we should be looking at that and looking at every individual instance. yesterday, somebody died just outside parliament. i think it is the second death of a homeless person outside parliament. these figures being put out today do mean that it figures being put out today do mean thatitis figures being put out today do mean that it is an issue that is being looked at for today at least, discussed in the media. do you expect things to change?” discussed in the media. do you expect things to change? i would hope that they do. at saint mungo's we provide outreach services for people in westminster and across london, so it was my team who knew that person. interestingly, this morning, i was told... a 45 a polish

man, is that right? that is right, who had been offered assistance, along with his friends living there. something good that has come out of it is that his friends who were sleeping on that site have been offered and have accepted accommodation, so hopefully something good has come from his death. i was going to say, you were saying, it is important to look at the circumstances around someone's death in what has led them to that end — tell us more about him. as much as you can tell us. the first thing to say, this is a tragedy for him, for people who knew him, for his family, and i can't comment on him in particular, but i feel sure that, given where he died, the authorities will take this seriously and will be undertaking a review as to the cause of his death, and that's right and proper. that should

happen for the 590 is a people who have also died this year so that we can all learn the lessons. howerd sinker, thank you. mps begin their christmas holidays today — but the rows over brexit continue. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd has suggested that while she doesn't personally support another vote, a second referendum could become a plausible way forward — if parliament stays deadlocked. andrea leadsom warned another brexit referendum would be an acceptable. let's cross to westminster now where we can speak to our assistant political editor, norman smith. is this a significant intervention, norman? i think it underlines the sort of tensions and divisions within the cabinet over brexit, which keep on being laid bare. now by amber rudd, saying publicly that if mrs may's deal goes down, then indeed there could be another referendum. that completely at odds with what the prime minister was saying at the start of the week, in

very forceful language in the commons, when she said another referendum would be a breach of trust with the british people, that people would feel betrayed, that their faith people would feel betrayed, that theirfaith in democracy people would feel betrayed, that their faith in democracy would people would feel betrayed, that theirfaith in democracy would be undermined and it would fuel more division. she sought to slam the door shut on a second referendum only for amber rudd to come along and budget open again. have a listen to what she said. i have said that i don't want a people's vote, ora referendum in general. i have said that i don't want a people's vote, ora referendum in general. but, if parliament absolutely failed to reach a consensus, i could see there would be a plausible argument for it. but i think it is incumbent on mp5 to find the centre ground in parliament, and to try and find where i have said that i don't want a people's vote, ground in parliament, and to try and find where the majority is there. because, quite frankly, i don't think the majority of people, let alone brenda, want to be asked again how to vote. and then to underline the rift in cabinet over watch it happen if mrs may's deal goes down, we had the

leader of the house, andrea leadsom, pretty much rebuking amber rudd to her suggestion, saying it was not government policy to support the idea of a second referendum, questioning how it would be possible to introduce the legislation and the necessary “— to introduce the legislation and the necessary —— in the necessary time, and suggesting it would be to undermine what she called the biggest democratic exercise in british history, namely, the first referendum. however, she then went on to outline her own plan b, a managed deal where we pay the eu money to give us more time to get our act together to leave without a deal, so she was, in effect, canvassing her own plan b when she appeared on the today programme this morning. so a managed no—deal does not necessarily mean there is no withdrawal agreement at all. in my view... i mean, this is all speculation, but what i'm looking at is trying to find an alternative that in the event that we cannot agree to this deal, there could be a further deal which looks at a more minimalist approach but enables us to leave with some kind of deal and some kind of implementation period that avoids a cliff edge,

that avoids uncertainty for businesses and travellers and so on. interestingly, on another matter, andrea leadsom continued her criticism of the speakerjohn bercow over his handling of the row yesterday, when jeremy over his handling of the row yesterday, whenjeremy corbyn over his handling of the row yesterday, when jeremy corbyn faced accusations that he called mrs may a stupid woman. mr corbyn's long—time friend came out in defence of him this morning. tory mps put on this page —— put on a display that hackney primary school would have been embarrassed by it, and they staged a mini riot because of what they allege the leader of the opposition said under his breath. nobody knows what he said, and certainly they didn't, at the time. and to me, it was

contrived, staged behaviour.m the time. and to me, it was contrived, staged behaviour. it is probably just as well that parliament is going on holidays, because it is getting testy down here. we thought it would be a quiet one yesterday, didn't we? thank you. see you later. let's return to our main story. all flights in and out of gatwick — britain's second busiest airport — have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have already been affected with many facing long delays. flights have been diverted as far away as paris and amsterdam. gatwick airport believe these drones are being flown maliciously, but just what are the rules and regulations over drone use? our technology reporter chris foxx can shed some light on that. has anything like this happened before? there have been smaller incidents of drone flying near airports and disrupting things. manchester airport was closed for about 20 minutes while they sorted out a problem, but certainly nothing

for this long. there is a question over how long drones can be flying because a battery should last about half an hour. is it a deliberate attempt? mrs watson —— this is what police are suggesting now. attempt? mrs watson —— this is what police are suggesting nowm attempt? mrs watson —— this is what police are suggesting now. if you are flying and know you are having this effect, it has to be deliberate, doesn't it? you can get around those restrictions. drones have geo— fencing built in, where they can detect if it is going into a band area and can force itself to learn. you could use a signaljam at stop whoever is controlling the drone being able to communicate from their remote control with the drug, but maybe they are not using a remote control. you could be based far—away and using a drone flying along a set path, nipping it out to the airport and sending it back for a battery top up. if you are doing

that, a signal jammer won't a battery top up. if you are doing that, a signaljammer won't help. a battery top up. if you are doing that, a signaljammer won't helpm is worrying to see how easy it is to cause a huge amount of disruption if you want to with something very simple. what are the ways of the authorities preventing people doing this? at the more star wars end of things, you can use a laser to fire down and drones. you don't want to be shooting missiles near airports, especially if there are planes coming in to land, but bowling is one company that has been testing a laser that can track a drone, heat up laser that can track a drone, heat up the battery and cause it to set on fire to bring it down. we saw it in 2015, and it works, though whether you want lasers flying around airports is another matter. there are more unusual things, where you can send out a bigger drone with the net and have it deploy the net to catch the smaller drone that is causing a nuisance. another slightly left—field idea to stop that kind of thing happening. the thing is actually spotting it, though, and this is where the trouble has been

caused — may keep seeing it but can't track it. they don't always show up on radar. they can be too small to show up. they also move very quickly, so if someone is controlling it remotely and having it go along a set path, they could get it near enough the airport to cause alarm and then have it as it straight back out, and it could be ha rd to straight back out, and it could be hard to spot where it is coming from and where it has gone. how long could the problems go on for? they are obviously concerned that someone is doing this maliciously, but if they stop for a while, will the airport just they stop for a while, will the airportjust then, we will resume flights, or is it too risky? if there have been tests done and where they have deliberately flung a drone into a plane, the tests we have seen our worst—case scenario where they do it as far as —— fast as possible but might there has never been a commercial airliner brought down by a drone, though there have been two

incidents where a drone has hit an aircraft, one in canada where no one was harmed, and one hit a helicopter in the united states, damaging one of the rotors, though it didn't bring the aircraft down. so it could cause a lot of damage? they are worried about the worst—case scenario. it depends on the size of the drone, because some can be massive, 20 kilos. they are supposed to be registered that they are being used commercially. if one of those hits a plane and has gone higher thanit hits a plane and has gone higher than it is supposed to, it could do serious damage to an engine or go through a windshield in the worst—case scenario. through a windshield in the worst-case scenario. chris fox, thank you very much. time for the weather with simon. now it's time for a look at the weather with simon. the hugue of our viewers has spotted this one interruption. most of the showers into western scotland and northern ireland and this afternoon

we will continue to see those being brought in. elsewhere, lengthy sunny spells and even where you have the showers, sunshine in between the showers. temperatures getting up to about 7—11 celsius. tonight, showers across northern parts and to the far north—east we could see a touch of frost. to the south, rain spreading its way in. and milder conditions, temperatures no lower than about six, eight, 10 degrees in plymouth. that rain will move north. northern ireland and northern english thing cloudy and wet at times. and for england and wales, it will get brighter into the afternoon. goodbye. hello this is bbc newsroom live with joanna gosling. the headlines: all flights in and out of gatwick airport remain suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year —

a rise of 24% over five years, according to official figures published for the first time. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd says a second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal can't be broken. britain has twice as many shops as it needs, according to a new report into the state of the high street, which recommends councils be given more money to change the layout of town centres. sport now, here's hugh. good morning. the metropolitan police, are working with premier league side arsenal, to try and identify the fan who threw a water bottle at tottenham's delle ali in the league cup last night. spurs went through to the semi finals of competition with a 2—nil

north london derby win, but it was overshadowed by the incident, as patrick gearey reports. a cup tie marred by a bottle thrown — the moment dele alli was struck by what appears to be a water bottle, apparently launched by a spectator several rows back. arsenal say they are reviewing cctv to find the culprit, the behaviour of supporters again in the headlines. dele alli's response was to reference the scoreline, 2—0. he had got one himself and set this one up for son heung—min, this exactly the sort of calm finishing arsenal have lacked. and when they got one right, as aaron ramsey did here, they found paulo gazzaniga inspired as well as in luck. when spurs fancied a bit of insurance, they brought out their premium. harry kane has not played in this competition since 2015. it took him just a minute to spot dele alli. dele said what happened later made the goal sweeter. unlike that, this took real bottle. it's been musical chairs at the top of the scottish premiership

this season. we've got another new leader as celtic go back to the top. they beat motherwell 3—0 thanks to goals from anthony ralston, scott sinclair and this, from mikeyjohnston — his first for the club. they over—take old firm rivals rangers, who were held to a goalless draw by hibernian. afterjose mourinho's sacking earlier this week, 0le gunnar solskjaer has arrived at manchester united's training ground for his first day at work, as their interim manager. the former club hero has been appointed until the end of the season and met executive vice—chairman ed woodward shortly after his arrival. he also held a team meeting with the players before training. next to a growing row in swimming. britain's olympic gold medallist adam peaty has dared those who run the sport to ban him after he backed a new competition. peaty and other top swimmers in the world want to compete in the breakaway international swimming league, with the potential to earn far more. however, the sport's international governing body, fina,

says it'll ban them if they do so. wa nt to want to make sure that that kid looking up to me winning the 0lympics can have a stable future and can make a very good living out of the sport that he has worked so ha rd of the sport that he has worked so hard for. what if people say that they will badly because you will compete in that event? if they have got it, i'm not bothered. at the end of the day, they're going to have the backlash from that. they know they can't. they know they can't get away with it. you lose all the respect of the athletes, and you can't bully athletes into racing. you need to listen to athletes, to start working together. it shouldn't be take, take, take, orgive, give, give. it should be a give—take relationship. saying look, how can we work together? i'm a little bit angry

that we haven't been listened to but at the same time i'm easy and that just trying to get by in it, rate more records and win more gold medals for my country. meanwhile the multiple 0lympic champion missy franklin has retired from swimming at the age ofjust 23. the american says she is "ready, not to be in pain every day" after struggling with a shoulder injury for a number of years. james wade has apologised after being accused of bullying at the pdc world darts championships. wade celebrated in the face of his japanese opponent seigo asada during their second round tie which wade won. he says his actions were out of character, and that he is disappointed with himself. he says his outburst was related to his bipolar disorder. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. australian investigators have released the final pictures taken

by a group of british tourists before the seaplane they were travelling in crashed in sydney last year. businessman richard cousins, four of his family members and the pilot were killed when the aircraft came down on new year's eve. authorities are yet to publish their findings on what caused the crash, but say the photos have helped them to reconstruct the flight‘s final moments. our correspondent hywel griffith gave us this update from sydney. today's report has helped us understand a lot more detail as to what happened but very little in terms of findings and why it happened. we know that on new year's eve last year, richard cousins, his two sons, his fiancee and her daughter all boarded this seaplane a few miles north of sydney, all planning to take a sightseeing tour to bring them down to the harbour here. their pilot, gareth morgan, had carried out similarjourneys several times that day using the plane. there were no known mechanical faults but within a few minutes of taking off, the plane veered off path and came down, we understand from an eyewitness, almost vertically, nose first into the water, and sunk upside down. the investigators were able to find

a digital camera on—board which they believe belonged to one of the passengers sat beside the pilot in the cockpit, and vitally, they were able to recover pictures taken that showed the exact flight path. they've even recreated it with a police pilot in order to understand what may have happened. they also recovered a phone which helped them from a photo understand who was sat where within the plane. but in all the investigation, in almost 12 months, they still haven't put forward a theory as to what exactly went wrong. they've looked in detail at the pilot's health, and he is said to have been well the day before and in a good mood. but they will investigate further his health records and also look again at the plane's contents. there was no black box or voice recorder on board. that is not required for a plane of this size. so we may never know what was said before that plane plummeted into the water. however we expect a final report with some findings in the next six months. the fire services watchdog

is warning that people's safety is being compromised — both at home and in the workplace — due to a decline in the number of checks being carried out. fire safety inspections in england have fallen by more than 40 percent in the past decade according to the report. the home office has said urgent action needs to be taken. our home affairs correspondent, tom symonds, has more. actually we are going to leave that report. we are going to gatwick? we are going to the house of lords, baroness sugg is answering questions on the drone at gatwick airport. these are being flown illegally and anyone endangering an aircraft could face up to five years in prison. this incident has illustrated the frightful ease with which drone users can inflict massive damage on our safety, security and economy. it

is christmas and thousands more drones will find their way as gifts into the hands of untrained and unregistered users. i asked the honourable lady, the minister, to ask if she will introduce proper, stringent controls on drones early in 2019 and we know the government is very busy with brexit but this illustrates the importance of other aspects of our national life, i can see the last whether the police now consider this incident to be an act of terror or simply of criminal irresponsibility, and whichever of those two it is, all airports are now clearly at risk. what steps are being taken to prevent a repeat copycat attack? i entirely agree with the noble lady that we absolutely need to make sure that we introduce new rules to ensure that

drones are you safety and responsibly. earlier this year we put ina responsibly. earlier this year we put in a law making it illegal to fly within one kilometre one airport or above 400 feet and in november we have reduced the registration system which will include a mandatory safety check before you're able to fly your drone, but these drones are being operated illegally. i'm not able to give any further comment. it seems as though they are being used to intentionally disrupt the airport, but this is an ongoing investigation. my lords, my lords, i am satisfied with the noble lady's responses, i'm not the only noble lord to have an interest in christmas flights from gatwick, but there are longer term issues, than today. this is causing disruption and stressed to thousands, over 100,000 people are stranded. the

scale of destruction, this is not a teenager playing with an early christmas present from their bedroom. this is obviously malicious. the noble lady has to address serious issues. firstly, the police say that they have 20 units looking for the operator or operators. but the police have the expertise and equipment? they now say that they are launching a campaign for information. secondly, has the government consulted or engage the military who should have a higher grade of technology for dealing with a drones and which ministers are monitoring the situation and coordinating the emergency response? was there a cobra meeting last night to coordinate ministerial responses? i expect given the agency that the minister investigates these issues and comes back to the house today with an answer. if you cannot, can she reassure the house that we will

get answers to these questions? '5 this is an ongoing operation, sussex police are in the lead, officers on the ground are doing everything they can to locate the drone or its operators. all other parts of government are involved in the response and doing everything we can but it is an ongoing police investigation in operation. i am not able to confirm details at this time. i declare an interest as a pilot but also as chair of the all party parliamentary group on general aviation investigation into airspace in the uk. we are very concerned with the incursion into airspace by drones at this time. whilst i am reassured by my noble friend 's's remarks, we do feel that there is a matter of considerable urgency that these matters are dealt with with full accountability for drone operators and those that sell drones to the public are now implemented.

my to the public are now implemented. my lord, we can change the law earlier this year bringing in an exclusion zone around airports, and we are absolutely working with manufacturers and retailers to ensure that these rules are communicated to people who purchase drones, and from november people need to register drones and take an online safety test. we have consulted on extending police powers and we will be making announcements on next steps on that shortly. two years ago, my lords, on the 28th of february 2017, we raised the issue of the jamming of signal equipment from these benches, at 2000 feet and the minister a reply said he would ta ke the minister a reply said he would take issue with officials, two years ago, and he said, the minister said, we will be raising a specific point with the manufacturers. what

happened? was it raised '5 was it raised with manufacturers? what were the results of his conversation? my lords, we are working closely with manufacturers on drone technology. that was something bespoke about in our consultation and we're working with the home office on counter drone technology and on the physical side of things, too. may i ask the minister, she says this is an ongoing police operation... baroness sugg being questioned in the house of lords. she is the aviation minister. she was asked specific questions and kept saying there was a police operation under way, and that she couldn't say much more than she was saying. she said the department for transport, the home 0ffice department for transport, the home office and the mod are all involved in the ongoing situation at gatwick and she referred to the laws

currently in place and coming into force to try to control the use of drones. 0ne questioner concerned that there could be a copycat attack, and asking what is being done to stop that. she didn't specifically answer that point. we will keep you updated on the latest. gatwick remains closed as that investigation continues, and they are searching for the drone that has caused all the problems, affecting so many passengers. in a minute we will have all of the business news. first, an update on the headlines. all flights in and out of gatwick airport have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 10,000 passengers have been affected. almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year — a rise of 24% over five years according to official figures published for the first time. the work and pensions secretary, amber rudd, says a

second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal can't be broken. hello, i'm victoria fritz. in the business news this morning: retail sales bounce back in november as black friday promotions keep uk tills ringing. and britain has twice as many shops as it needs. that's the verdict of a man officially tasked by the government to come up with a plan to revive the nation's high streets. how to save our high streets. we've been here before, haven't we? everyone from mary portas to former iceland boss bill grimsey have had their say on what needs to happen to help the high street. despite that — we are still seeing a record number of town centre businesses shutting up shop.

so the government asked the founder of shoe repair and key cutting shop timpson's to take a look, and his report is out today. the key message is that the solution must come from the ground up. by that, it means that local leaders need to work out what works best for their town — and implement it via town task forces. the government has already announced a fund of £675 million to help set up such schemes. here's sirjohn timpson. there's no great magic solution. the high street has been changing rapidly beat mainly because of online and the retail formats that are coming to the end of their financial life. we noticed a significant number of local town centres that have actually done well in the last few years, football is up, the alarm was closed shops are bound, and almost invariably it is

the result of local people and inspirational leaders with great ideas who have got on and done things. the recommendation of my panel to the government is that they should be encouraged by calling it a form of upside—down government were actually what the government does is to help those people who are there to help those people who are there to help those people who are there to help themselves with plenty of data, not overdoing the data, but having the relevant stuff, particularly the success stories that have happened elsewhere. and clearing the obstacles that might be getting in the way, particularly planning, to make planning easier, quicker and more common—sense. so the real hope is that there are going to be plenty of local leaders and communities who really do want to change their town centres. several retailers have warned of tough trading this winter. yet the figures for november from the office for national statistics

paint a more positive picture. let's speak to maureen hinton, research director, global data. we have had the likes of mike ashley at sports direct saying that it is utterly grim on the high street. asos saying something similar, are they all wrong? they cannot be wrong because those are the ones doing the trading. we are getting this message from different types of retailers. if you look more closely at the 0ns figures clothing retailers have made marginal growth and a large food retailers have only made marginal growth. but the 0ns comes out with different biggest what everyone else sees going on quite often then they get the rise but later. while there is going to be more positive growth because there's so much discounting going on, it is that the risk of margins, across the board. some

figures came out not so long ago looking at football, in high streets, which is at its weakest level since before the recession. is that a better indicator of what is going on in retail —— footfall. that a better indicator of what is going on in retail -- footfall. it shows that the visits to physical stores is going down. we are seeing this big shift online but even online is maturing, so that is slowing down as well, so there are still much stronger growth than you would get from physical stores, and we're still buying at christmas when it isa we're still buying at christmas when it is a much easier to buy online but that reflects what is going on much more closely. sirjohn timpson coming out of recommendations today about how to save the high street. many of the recommendations are similarto many of the recommendations are similar to what we have heard before. do you think they will work? i think they will. more of the residential property we need on high streets because if you are people

living there, they will start using nearby facilities, so that does seem to bea nearby facilities, so that does seem to be a really good way of getting people to be in our high streets. and to get those local authorities to target what people want, more of a social space as well, notjust selling products. so it is getting the right mix in an area that will attract the local population. so, yes, he's right, it isjust getting on and doing it. thank you, maureen, have a very merry christmas! there's been a broad sell off across equities and other risk—based assets in the last 24 hours — sparked by an interest rate rise in the united states from the central bank there, making the cost of borrowing more expensive. oil prices are sliding once again — the loss for the week to more than 8%. and less than 40%of shareholders of kier — a construction and support services group — took up the call to bolster the business this month by buying new shares in the company.

that news is being seen as a sign of wavering confidence in a sector that has been under strain for some time. and the scottish—based transport company stagecoach has pulled out of the us. it has been running bus services in north america for 20 years, but its sold that part of the business to a private equity firm. stagecoach is planning to concentrate on its bus and rail services in the uk instead. that's all the business news. we will see you after the lunchtime news. some breaking news that we are just hearing. 0ne about brexit and one about gatwick. we are hearing that flights will not be resuming until 4pm. that is the latest estimate. it is by no means certain flights will resume then because the previous estimate was they would resume at 11am but they didn't with that drone issue still ongoing at gatwick. we will keep you updated on that. the other thing to tell you is that. the other thing to tell you is

that the brexit bill, the withdrawal agreement is going to be brought back to the commons on wednesday 9th of january 2019. the timetable has just been announced by the leader of the house andrea leadsom. there will be five days of debate on the withdrawal agreement which would suggest that the meaningful vote would then take place on tuesday 16th january, so the brexit bill, confirmation of the date when it will be back in the commons, wednesday 9th of january. there will be five days of debate. they started five days of debate previously but then the vote was pulled because it became clear that there is no way that the government was going to win that the government was going to win that vote. we will keep you up—to—date with those developments. budget cuts mean many libraries have to find new ways of providing a service. this week one council in the west midlands has opened the doors of a new library in a rather unusual venue. 0ur correspondent kathryn

stanchessun reports. this building happens to be both a library and a church. this church has been here really for 800 years. st mary's in the centre of lichfield hasn't been used as a church since the 1970s. now it has been restored to its former glory for a new purpose. lichfield's main library has closed to make way for this, a new home for its 50,000 books. as well as a library there will be a tourist information point, a cafe and this performance space. this chapel is going to be used as a very quiet space, so you can come to study in here. it might be in nation building but it has been kitted out with everything that a modern library needs. this is what churches used to be used for. churches would

be used as meeting and community places. places where people would gather to talk. libraries are no longer quiet any more, so you can talk, you can explore things and a library. staffordshire county council has spent 1.4 million pounds creating this bespoke space. they say it is a better fit than the old premises. it will save them money in the long term and they expect more people to use it. benefits it will bring to the people of lichfield, will be the increased footfall, the better facilities we put into this building and a tenancy will ensure that this building is here for the next generation. people in lichfield think it is a good solution. i'm a big believer in books, so if it means people going into the library and read more books, that's fine. means people going into the library

and read more books, that's finem isa super and read more books, that's finem is a super idea, bringing it into the town centre, making it easier for people to get to.|j the town centre, making it easier for people to get to. i think if people can come into this centre it is really good. we have problems with some of the big stores coming down in the centre and anything that can bring people in will be really good for the town. 113 libraries closed across the country last year as more and more local authorities are getting creative when it comes to the future of the service, whether it is help from volunteers, sharing premises or, like here, coming up with a different plan altogether. the library opens this week. a new beginning for this church at christmas, you could say, a marriage made in heaven! we will bring you the latest on what is happening at gatwick. it has been closed for 14 hours with those drone issues and the latest we are hearing as the estimated time for flights to

resume is 4pm. we will keep you updated here. you're watching bbc newsroom live. we will say goodbye to viewers in scotland. now it's time for a look at the weather with simon king. lots of sunshine across the uk at the moment, and showers, mainly affecting western areas. you can see from this weather watchers photo, from this weather watchers photo, from the galla peninsular, nice photo and you can see though showers as well. —— gower peninsula. the north and east of scotland getting away with a largely dry afternoon, as well as the south of england. then showers moving in to the west and temperatures getting up to 11 celsius. tonight, clearer spells in the far north. temperatures here could get close to freezing. 0therwise, rain makes his way across southern parts. it will remain mild here, temperatures no lower than six

celsius. that rate will gradually work its way northwards into northern ireland, southern scotland and the far north of england. there will be some drier weather originally across england and wales, and temperatures mild, at around 12-14. you're watching bbc newsroom live — these are today's main stories: all flights in and out of gatwick airport remain suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. the latest estimate is that the airport won't reopen until 4pm. tens of thousands of passengers have been affected. i have a drone on my airfield as we stand here now, and gatwick won't be able to reopen until it is brought down. nearly 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year — a rise of 24% over five years according to official figures published for the first time. theresa may's brexit vote will be brought back to the commons on ninth january for five days of debate — suggesting the meaningful vote

—— after which the meaningful vote will take place. britain has twice as many shops as it needs according to a new report into the state of the high street which recommends councils are given more money to change the layout of town centres welcome to bbc newsroom live. all flights in and out of gatwick — britain's second busiest airport — have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. flights have been diverted as far away as paris and amsterdam. is the latest estimate for the airport reopening is 4pm this afternoon. and gatwick has apologised for any inconvenience but has said that safety is its foremost priority. 10,000 passengers have been affected with many facing long delays. 760 flights were due to use the airport today.

gatwick airport expects to welcome a "record—breaking" number of passengers over this year's christmas period. it predicts 2.9m people will pass through its gates during the festive getaway, with 73,000 of those due to depart this sunday. the number of aircraft incidents involving drones has grown dramatically in the past few years. in 2013 there were zero incidents, compared to almost 100 last year. civilian drones have grown popular as their price has fallen. technological improvement has meant components are smaller, faster and cheaper than ever before. police investigating the situation say the drone is still on site and is believed to be a deliberate act to disrupt the airport. we are still getting sightings, and i have over 20 units searching for the drone operator. we are exploring order options to try to bring the

situation to a close. it appears to bea situation to a close. it appears to be a deliberate act? absolutely. every time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. and we look to reopen the airport, the drone reappears, so iam the airport, the drone reappears, so i am convinced it is a deliberate act. do you know why anybody would wa nt to act. do you know why anybody would want to do that? not at all. there has been no intelligence that this was going to happen, it isjust a random act that happened overnight. are you confident you will locate the operator of the drone? i'm convinced we will. it is a painstaking thing. it is a difficult and challenging thing to locate them, but i have teams and investigators looking at how we do that, and i'm confident we will. the airport's chief operating officer gave this statement earlier. at nine

o'clock last night, the drone was seen by two different members of staff, and since then, it has appeared and reappeared all through the night. we reopened at 3am for 45 minutes and did drone reappeared again. there is a drone on the airfield as we speak, and the police, 20 police units, are looking to bring the perpetrators to justice. five years' imprisonment is the punishment for this act. 0ur transport correspondent paul clifton is at gatwick airport for us now. the latest that we have is that... where are you? hi. the latest we haveis where are you? hi. the latest we have is that hearing that the airport is scheduled to reopen at 4pm — is that confirmed or is it the best guess at this stage? we are due to have a statement in the next quarter of an hour from the airport, so that is what we have heard, but we're not certain. for the people in

the airport terminal behind me, that could not come soon enough. i had a wander through there a few minutes ago. to describe it as pandemonium is an understatement. there are so many people in the south terminal at gatwick airport that most of them can't even sit down on their suitcases. there are thousands and thousands of people packed in there. the queue for a cup of coffee is probably a couple of hours. the queue at the airport information desk stretches all the way around the terminal and back again. the people walking behind me, some of them are giving up and going home, some of them are travelling in hopefully. we know that 760 flights are being affected today so far. that is around 110,000 people. as we getjust in this run—up to christmas, gatwick is in its busiest period of the year, and it is absolutely chaotic. how will they deal with the backlog? will they be

able to lay on extra flights? what will happen? the problem at this time of the year is the airport is already running at full capacity. you can't just bring already running at full capacity. you can'tjust bring in more planes. easyj et you can'tjust bring in more planes. easyjet is the biggest operator here, nearly 50% of the airport's business. they can't suddenly find extra aircraft. by this point, crew and our craft will be out of sequence. crews are not allowed to work a large number of extra hours. it is quite hard to see this backlog being cleared up within two days or three days, possibly even before christmas. shutting down the one ru nway christmas. shutting down the one runway they have here at britain's second busiest airport is no small thing. as we heard in the news, this isa thing. as we heard in the news, this is a deliberate act of sabotage, if thatis is a deliberate act of sabotage, if that is the right phrase. it is certainly being very effective. what are people saying about that, the fa ct are people saying about that, the fact that we are being told it looks

malicious and deliberate? nobody here is happy with it — you would expect that. some people are fatalistic about it, what will be will be, and they are sitting on their suitcases. they have been there all morning. some people have given up and have gone home. a few people are trying to arrange coach travel elsewhere, but as you can imagine, absolutely nobody is happy with this. thank you very much. a little very much. earlier i spoke to our technology reporter — chris foxx — who told me how unusual it is for a drone to be able to cause this much disruption over so many hours. there have been smaller incidents of drone flying near airports and disrupting things. manchester airport was closed for about 20 minutes while they sorted out a problem, but certainly nothing for this long. there is a question over how long drones can be flying because a battery should last about half an hour. if this has been going on for several hours, is it a deliberate

attempt hezbollah and that is what the police are suggesting. if you are flying and know you are having this effect, it has to be deliberate, doesn't it? you can get around those restrictions. drones have geo—fencing built in, where they can detect if it is going into a banned area and can force itself to learn. you could use a signaljammer stop whoever is controlling the drone being able to communicate from their remote control with the drone, but maybe they are not using a remote control. you could be based far—away and using a drone flying along a set path, nipping it out to the airport and sending it back for a battery top up. if you are doing that, a signal jammer won't help. it is worrying to see how easy it is to cause a huge amount of disruption if you want to with something very simple. what are the ways of the authorities preventing people doing this? at the more star wars end of things, you can use a laser

to fire down drones. you don't want to be shooting missiles near airports, especially if there are planes coming in to land, but bowling ——boeing is one company that has been testing a laser that can track a drone, heat up the battery and cause it to set on fire to bring it down. we saw it in 2015, and it works, though whether you want lasers flying around airports is another matter. there are more unusual things, where you can send out a bigger drone with a net and have it deploy the net to catch the smaller drone that is causing a nuisance. another slightly left—field idea to stop that kind of thing happening. the thing is actually spotting it, though, and this is where the trouble has been caused — they keep seeing it but can't track it. they don't always show up on radar. they can be too small to show up. they also move very quickly, so if someone is controlling it remotely and having it go along a set path, they could get it

near enough the airport to cause alarm and then have it zip straight back out, and it could be hard to spot where it is coming from and where it has gone. earlier my colleague annita mcveigh spoke to the aviation minister, baroness sugg, about what the governemnt was doing to help get gatwick reopened for passengers. i think the priority is to make sure we get the airport open as safely as possible so that people can fly off on christmas breaks, or people can come in to visit friends and family. that is the priority. we have taken action and we have changed the law earlier this year. and we will look at extending police powers. what will you do today? the police are out on the ground in numbers working closely with gatwick airport to ensure they can reopen. if the police are unable to identify the person or persons responsible for this drone activity, and it has been going on over a period of 12 hours, and it continues, what other options are there available to you to try

to take this drone out of the air? what can you say to our viewers? what can you say to travellers about what you will do today if the police are unable to stop this? the first thing i would say to travel as is, i would like them to check with airlines before travelling to the airport because we are facing such disruption. there is up—to—date information on the gatwick airport website on that. and the police are working to bring the drone down. i'm sure they will do so promptly. are there any other people being brought into this at the moment to consider a strategy beyond the police? we are working incredibly hard with the police and with the airport to open as quickly as we possibly can. who else might you call on if the police ca there must be other options, that's what i'm trying to get at, if the police can't bring this to a conclusion within the next few hours. there must be other options you may consider using, whether it is the raf or perhaps

saying to the police, you do have to shoot this down. we are working closely with the police on that. we need to make sure the public are kept safe, which is the priority, but we are working together in order to open the airport as quickly as we can. sussex police have sent out a tweet saying: we are appealing for information to help us identify the operators of the gatwick drones. if you know who's responsible or have any information please call 999 and quote ref 1350—19/12. please retweet. the latest we have is that it is anticipated that gatwick is opening at 4pm, though there is no confirmation that it will definitely

be so. it was anticipated it would reopen at 11am but that came and went with the investigation is still ongoing and still concerns about the whereabouts of those drones which the police say are being operated maliciously. so, we are expecting a statement shortly from the chief operating officer of gatwick, who spoke earlier and said that staff we re spoke earlier and said that staff were still trying to find that drone. safety is a priority. 0bviously, drone. safety is a priority. obviously, it is having an enormous impact, with the run—up to christmas, many people with all sorts of plans and hopes of getting away from gatwick, and of course, people stranded overseas as well. expecting to have been able to fly back to gatwick prior to all of this starting to unfold yesterday. let's show you some of the pictures from inside the airport, where are waiting, absolutely unable to do anything but wait. those flights

grounded now for 15 hours or so. 110,000 passengers were due to either take off or land at the airport today. we will keep you updated with all of the latest here on bbc newsroom life. right now, we say goodbye to viewers on bbc two. -- bbc say goodbye to viewers on bbc two. —— bbc newsroom live. . the chief operating officer of gatwick has been speaking in the last few moments. the runway is closed, and i want to apologise to all the passengers affected. there are 110,000 passengers due to fly today, and the vast majority of those will see cancellations and disruption. it is our intention to get open again, but only when it is safe, and currently, within the last hour, we have had another drone

sighting, so at this stage we are not open, and i cannot tell you what time we will open. tell me about the sighting. it was at the airport, seen by the police uncorroborated, so having seen that drone that close to the runway, it was unsafe to reopen. tell me about the situation inside the terminal — enormous numbers of people in there. we are working closing with —— working closely with the airport, and we are asking airlines to cancel flights. 0ur asking airlines to cancel flights. our efforts are on the passengers who arrived this morning with the hope of flying out today, and what we're doing with our airline partners is to make sure we don't add to that problem by bringing any more passengers here. if you do reopen today, what will realistically happen? realistically,

the airlines will seek to deal with the airlines will seek to deal with the passengers were on site and to prepare for an operation tomorrow morning where we seek to start to repatriate the passengers who are in the wrong place. realistically, this will take several days. you're absolutely correct, yes. and again, i would like to add my apology on behalf of the airport. but let's... this morning, i talked about an irresponsible act, and this afternoon i am talking about an act thatis afternoon i am talking about an act that is deliberate. this is deliberately seeking to affect the many tens of thousands of passengers who wanted to fly from gatwick today, this close to the christmas period, and it is them who are paying the price of this deliberate act. what do you think about? it's very disappointing, but the passengers, and all i can do as i stand here is to offer my apologies to them and to confirm that we are doing all that we can, working with the police and other government agencies to make sure that we bring

the perpetrators of this deliberate act tojustice. the perpetrators of this deliberate act to justice. do you think it is now likely that some people will not get away for christmas? it is too early to make that statement on thursday, with several days to go until christmas. do you have an idea of how many people are in the terminals at the moment? several thousand in both terminals at the moment, a mixture of air side, thousand in both terminals at the moment, a mixture ofairside, in the international departjohn large, and landside, queueing for check—in. —— in the international departure lounge. how do you look after people sitting on their suitcases? they need to eat and refresh themselves. between us and our airline partners, we are doing what we can. 0ur teams are out with bottles of water, and we are offering vouchers so they can get something to eat. give me an idea of what will happen this

afternoon. bill we will work with the police to reopen the airport and start to prepare an operation ready for tomorrow morning. that's what i would hope will happen, but i'm not prepared to reopen the airport until i believe it is safe to do so. the chief operating officer saying he will not open the airport until it is safe to do so. police have seen a drone within the last hour close to the they say, for it to be safe, so they are concerned about the very latest sighting, and the question of when gatwick will reopen remains una nswerable at question of when gatwick will reopen remains unanswerable at this stage. the earlier estimate from european air traffic control was that they we re air traffic control was that they were saying the situation is fluid, but they were anticipating that possibly the airport would reopen at

4pm, but listening to the chief operating officer there, it doesn't sound like that will be the case. we will keep you updated. let's join gavin wishart, the chairman of the uk's drone association. thank you for joining uk's drone association. thank you forjoining us. uk's drone association. thank you for joining us. 0bviously, uk's drone association. thank you forjoining us. obviously, there are rules around operating drones near airports and presumably whoever is doing this is aware of the rules and aware of the chaos being caused by what is going on. yes, it is a terrible situation, clearly, and drones are an asymmetric threat, really, in many respects. the point you make is that the regulations are quite clear. the air navigation order, the rules of the road for the error were updated recently by the civil aviation authority and they quite clearly state that you are prohibited to fly in the areas where this drones flying without permission from air traffic control, so it is a wanton act. it was being

discussed in the lords a little earlier, and one person asked what is being done to stop a copycat attack. people will see how easy it is to cause chaos relatively easily. i'm not sure how easy it is, but they are certainly doing it, and obviously the publicity that has come from this may well push other people into taking similar action. when you say you are not sure how easy it is, presumably, anyone with a drone can do this, can't they? that's not quite the case, because certain products that you buy, a lot of the drones in the uk, are manufactured in china, and they specifically exclude flying within those areas, so you would have to get into the software to change the softwa re get into the software to change the software to be able to do that. it's not as simple as just flying. it depends on the drone. they might manufacture their own, which could be simple. there are all sorts of factors, but the real point is that it is an asymmetric threat, and we

need to deal with it effectively. the people responsible for the security of airports and things need to invest to ensure that they have good strength in depth in terms of security for people operating out from airports. what technology is available to counter this? you a lwa ys available to counter this? you always start by looking at technology, but going beyond that, if you're trying to counter any threat, you start with intelligence, you approach this like any other asymmetric threat and start to build up asymmetric threat and start to build up security and depth. you need to protect the areas around the airfield that are most prone and dangerous, and there are technologies available to track drones, though it is not an easy target to track. they are quite small, there is a radio signal. there are a number of methodologies one could adopt, but it is notjust one could adopt, but it is notjust one solution but a layered approach. what might you would think an

airport of all places would have technology to deal with this quickly and efficiently. you would imagine. iam the and efficiently. you would imagine. i am the chair of the association for professional use of drones, but i'm nota for professional use of drones, but i'm not a party to some of the security work that goes on in places that are vulnerable to a drone annoyance. 0ne that are vulnerable to a drone annoyance. one would imagine that they have carried out a detailed threat assessment and have put it in place with measures to address that. that is the way i would think anyone would go about it. gavin wishart, thank you very much. we will keep you updated, of course. the latest we we re you updated, of course. the latest we were hearing from the chief operating officer of gatwick is that they will not be reopening the airport until they are absolutely sure it is safe to do so. the drone spotted within the past hour by police. the russian president vladimir putin says attempts to link moscow to spy

scandals in the west are designed to damage the country's international standing. at his annual press conference, he referred to the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter in salisbury and said moscow's ties with the uk had broken down. translation: with respect to russia- uk relationship, it's gridlocked, i believe. it is in the interest of both our countries to withdraw our ties from this gridlock. are we interested in restoring the fully fledged cooperation and relationship with britain? yes, we are, and i think britain also is, especially the business community of the uk. yuri vyazovsky from the bbc‘s russia service is here. thank you forjoining us. tell us more about what he has been saying. he was asked about the skripals and brexit and all kinds of things regarding the russian and british relationship. 0ne funny and interesting thing is that now we can see that president putin is against

a second referendum in britain. he hinted at that when he said that theresa may has no other option but to fulfil the will of the people. if there is another referendum, what kind of democracy is that? that is what putin said. the other interesting thing is that this press conference, this is the 14th big press co nfe re nce , conference, this is the 14th big press conference, annual, huge show, and putin has always used them as an opportunityjust to and putin has always used them as an opportunity just to show that everything is under control, the country is faring well and so is he, and sometimes he has announced something new and important at these press co nfe re nces , something new and important at these press conferences, but not often. the journalists usually just press conferences, but not often. the journalists usuallyjust use these press conferences as an opportunity to determine, to understand or to confirm your understanding of the way that putin

a cts understanding of the way that putin acts and things. this press conference was quite useful in these terms as well. asked about the skripals, he said that this isn't just another pretext —— he said it is another pretext for attacks against russia. he said that journalists are paid by the west to attack russia. asked about the ukraine, he said it was rosser phobic and they had there not exactly orders, he didn't say that word, but definitely that was not quite ordered, i can't find the word at the moment, by washington.

directed by washington. like that. this press conference is quite useful for understanding the way mr putin thinks. when he speaks and when a day leader speaks, sometimes they are per merrily addressing an audience overseas, sometimes promote relay home audience. it depends on the question. who is this aimed at, do you think? the first audiences the russian internal one, and it plays well for mr putin, especially the format of the press conference. he uses these press conferences as an opportunity to make a sort of state of the nation. like today, at the beginning, he threw in a bunch of figures, saying that the economy is faring well, everything is

stabilised, and the country will do even better in the future. of course, the primary audience for thatis course, the primary audience for that is the internal russian audience, because hejust says something, you know. the press conferences not staged in terms that that there are only prepared questions and answers. there are allowing every year all kinds of journalists to ask all kinds of questions. but the problem is the a nswer questions. but the problem is the answer is, and colleagues u nfortu nately answer is, and colleagues unfortunately just failed time answer is, and colleagues unfortunatelyjust failed time and again to pick up the previous question which hasn't been answered and asked mr putin again, like, sorry, mr putin, i had my own question but i am feeling we didn't have the answer to the previous one, like that. colleagues never do that, and putin uses that format very well forjust achieving his goals and to

show first of all that everything is fine to the russian audience and everything is under control. yuri, thank you. mps begin their christmas holidays today — but the rows over brexit continue. the work and pensions secretary amber rudd has suggested that while she doesn't personally support another vote, a second referendum could become a plausible way forward — if parliament stays deadlocked. but her cabinet colleague andrea leadsom warned another brexit referendum would be ‘unacceptable'. meanwhile, it has been announced that theresa may's brexit bill will be brought back to the commons on the 9th of january, government sources saying there will be five days of debate, suggesting the meaningful vote could take place on the 15th of january. let's join norman smith. is anything likely to be changed, norman, orwill norman smith. is anything likely to be changed, norman, or will it be the same scenario? i don't honestly know the answer to that. what we will have is a full five days of debate again. we had three days of

debate again. we had three days of debate last time, and then, as we know, mrs may called a halt to proceedings. it is not clear whether those mps who spoke last time we'll get the chance to speak again, or whether they will have had their chance, so we don't know how it will play out. but we do know i think the timetable. parliament comes back on monday the 7th of january. the debate will begin after prime minister's questions on the wednesday, and then the following tuesday, we should get a meaningful vote, i presume around 7pm. i had of which there are continuing signs of cabinet ministers fleshing out their own possible plan bs should mrs may's deal get voted down, with amber rudd suggesting last night that the second referendum could be plausible, an idea and not surprisingly dismissed by downing street this morning, firmly rejected by the prime minister on monday, when she said it would be a breach of trust. but amber rudd thinks that may be a plausible outcome. have a listen. i have said that i don't

want a people's vote, ora referendum in general. but, if parliament absolutely failed to reach a consensus, i could see there would be a plausible argument for it. but i think it is incumbent on mp5 to find the centre ground in parliament, and to try and find where the majority is there. because, quite frankly, i don't think the majority of people, let alone brenda, want to be asked again how to vote. then the leader of the house, andrea leadsom, waded in, saying it would undermine the biggest democratic exercise in the history of the country: the first referendum. she said there wasn't time and it wasn't practical, then came up with her own idea of this managed no deal under which we would pay the eu money to give us more time to get our act together so we could leave without a deal. she is floating her own plan b. so a managed no deal does not necessarily mean there is no withdrawal agreement at all. in my view... i mean, this is all speculation, but what i'm looking at is trying to find an alternative that

in the event that we cannot agree to this deal, there could be a further deal which looks at a more minimalist approach but enables us to leave with some kind of deal and some kind of implementation period that avoids a cliff edge, that avoids uncertainty for businesses and travellers and so on. meanwhilejeremy meanwhile jeremy corbyn meanwhilejeremy corbyn has been pressed over the row yesterday which erupted in parliament after he was alleged to have called mrs may a stupid woman. he said that he was referring to stupid people, tories playing pantomime games on the government benches. this morning reporters caught up with him and i don't think he was very amused. reporters caught up with him and i don't think he was very amusedlj don't think he was very amused.” made very clear what i actually said at the time which was that the behaviour of conservative mps concerning the very serious issue of

the failure to negotiate properly on brexit, turning into a pantomime, i said that they were stupid for their behaviour. you are not being respectful. i muttered it to myself in parliament, and you and your colleagues in the media seem obsessed with this. the fact that a homeless man died outside parliament has got no coverage whatsoever. do you think the respectful nature parliament is important? the respectful nature of parliament is important and tory mps turning the issue of an no—deal brexit into a pantomime, that is serious. mr corbyn sounding a little bit bruised here. and his college diane abbott said that mps were behaving worse than a primary school class.

now it's time for a look at the weather. we've had more of our share of wit and windy weather this week but there is a sign of things coming down towards christmas. some showers on the heavy side this afternoon, with the odd rumble of thunder and not being ruled out, these will fade into the evening but then we have another frontal system approaching. a band of round ashfaq rain and cloud drifting into the south, then into wales, northern ireland and the midlands, but you could see a touch of frost across parts of the north—east. tomorrow, this band of patchy rain becoming stranded across northern ireland and northern england and cringing into southern scotland, to the south of that it will be windy, but mild, 14 celsius. to the north, even for northern scotla nd to the north, even for northern scotland where we see some sunshine, temperatures struggling a bit. heading into the weekend, big travel weekend, saturday should be largely dry, some rain for a time on sunday,

particularly in the south. hello this is bbc newsroom live with joanna gosling. the headlines: all flights in and out of gatwick airport remain suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. another drone has been cited in the last hour. tens of thousands of passengers have been affected. almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year — a rise of 24% percent over five years according to official figures published for the first time. theresa may's brexit vote will be brought back to the commons on 9th january for five days of debate after which the meaningful vote will take place. britain has twice as many shops as it needs, according to a new report into the state of the high street, which recommends councils are given more money to change the layout of town centres. let's get more on the problems

affecting gatwick airport. the chief operating officer has just said that a drone was seen within the last hour so the runway remains clsoed for the forseeable future. the current state of play is that the runway is closed and i want to apologise to all of the passengers affected. 110,000 passengers had been due to fly today and we will see cancellations and disruption. it is our intention to get open again but only when it is safe to do so and we have had another drone siting in the last hour, so at this stage we are not open and i cannot tell you when we will open. it was on the airport, it was seen by the police, so having seen that drone that close

to the runway it is unsafe to reopen. tell me about the situation inside the terminal at the moment. there are enormous numbers of people in there. what we want airlines to do is to cancel flights for passengers will not the airport yet, we believe, passengers who believe they are flying when they are a flying today, so i have allotted my own stuff out in the terminal building to help passengers who arrived this morning with hope of flying out today, and what we're doing with our airline partners is making sure we don't add to those problems by bringing in any more passengers. realistically if you reopen today what will happen? airlines will seek to get passengers who are on site, and to prepare for an organisation tomorrow morning where we can repatriate passengers who are in the wrong place. this is

realistically going to take several days. realistically, that is correct, yes. gail muller is in fuerteventura. her flight has been cancelled but she's just got a new flight to stansted. tell us how your plans were supposed to change. i was going to stay in gatwick and then go to an airport hotel and get a connecting flight from gatwick to newquay tomorrow but my flight tonight has been cancelled, i will not make it to gatwick, to my hotel. the hotel are not particularly interested in helping me with reimbursing or offering to people in gatwick. i said that my room would be available and at the minute they are not interested on passing it on to someone forfree, so i try interested on passing it on to someone for free, so i try to find a way to get from stansted to cornwall

where i live and just for the 12 hour journey and how long where i live and just for the 12 hourjourney and how long it would take, i was being quoted £500 plus online. and a nicer company got me a dealfor a carfor £250 to drive down, for that six—hour journey. dealfor a carfor £250 to drive down, for that six-hourjourney. so it has caused you a lot of aggro and affected you financially. how do you feel about the fact that we are being told this is a malicious thing thatis being told this is a malicious thing that is being done at gatwick? being told this is a malicious thing that is being done at gatwick7m being told this is a malicious thing that is being done at gatwick? it is really unfair. perhaps it's an environmental issue. i understand people have concerns about environmental issues with wine but disrupting tens of thousands of journeys at this time of year is not the way to put your cause forward to the way to put your cause forward to the public and to convince people that we need to be more environmentally conscious, of course we do, but there are elderly and disabled people, babies, in the airport, it is really cruel and unfairto them, and

airport, it is really cruel and unfair to them, and the time of year notwithstanding but any time, it is particularly mean at this time of year. people are using the money they have at a tough economic time to be with their families. so they have at a tough economic time to be with theirfamilies. so it is just penfold was. why'd you think it's an environmental issue? because of things i've been reading recently, on the internet, the two things being put forward is that the drones are with people trying to disrupt flying, because of highlighting the new runway. disrupt flying, because of highlighting the new runwaym terms of the impact on you, and the cost of it, are you going to get any money back? i don't think that i will. i'd don't know what will happen if my flight down to cornwall, flybe are pretty good like that, but i'm not holding out much

hope. i'm in an ok financial position, i'm a teacher with some disposable income, i know that not eve ryo ne disposable income, i know that not everyone can do that, so i have enough money in my bank to come home, but if i did not i would be com pletely home, but if i did not i would be completely stuffed out here, i would not be able to buy my second flight home, and there are lots of people trying to get back from you today so that flights tomorrow would be booked up very quickly. ijust double booked both flights, thinking that i would have do suck it up, and i lost one. we wish you happy christmas and hope that you get home in time for thank you. sussex police has been giving an update about the situation at gatwick in the last few minutes. and there have been numerous sightings today. i cannot give actual specifics of what is happening at this moment in time because it is a live incident. is

there one drone many different drones? i cannot answer that because it is ongoing, i cannot give answers to the specifics of how many drones we re to the specifics of how many drones were spotted or what time never spotted that, at the moment. the first one was last night and it is still going on now. you must be putting a considerable number of people out to look for them. we are committed with gatwick to resolving the incident and we put in lots of resources to get this resolved as quickly as possible. most important thing is the safety of the public. and that is where we are at, and that's why we are in this situation. is this a deliberate attempt to disrupt the airport?” is this a deliberate attempt to disrupt the airport? i can't speculate on that, but it is an investigation, laws have been broken and we will do everything in our power to find those responsible and bring them tojustice. power to find those responsible and bring them to justice. we have committed a lot of resources to this. it is an ongoing investigation. progress might seem slow but we are doing everything we

can with gatwick to resolve this, with the safety of a public absolutely paramount. any indication of when this could be completed? i'm afraid i can't at the moment. city airport will remain closed for the foreseeable future? until they can guarantee that it is absolutely safe for planes to take off and land, then this is the right thing to do, at this time. do you think the right provisions are in place for you to be able to tackle drones? it is probably an ongoing issue that we will review, but i think we have the resources in place to be able to tackle this and we're doing everything we can with gatwick to make sure that it is tackled and result safely. it has been suggested that the legislation stopping drones being flown nearly airport is insufficient. it is probably wrong to me to talk about that at the moment because we're in the middle ofan moment because we're in the middle of an ongoing incident but i'm sure that it will ——

of an ongoing incident but i'm sure that it will -- it of an ongoing incident but i'm sure that it will —— it is something that will be reviewed by the right people around the table, following us successfully resolving it. how many officers are involved? i'm not sure the count, we have a helicopter up and we have over 20 units working on this today to successfully resolve this today to successfully resolve this ina this today to successfully resolve this in a safe way. any idea what the next couple of hours will hold? we are continuing to try to resolve the incident. that's an update from the incident. that's an update from the police, saying that there have been numerous sightings of a drone this morning. she was asked whether it is one of many drones, and she didn't know the answer to that. but there have been numerous sightings, so the airport remains closed and the chief operating officer has said it will not reopen until they are absolutely certain that it is safe to do so. deaths of homeless people have increased by nearly a quarter over five years to almost 600, according to official estimates.

the first figures of their kind to be released by the office for national statistics reported 597 deaths last year across england and wales — with most occurring in london and the north west. liver disease, drug poisoning are among the main causes of death in what is a stark picture of rough sleeping across the uk. i've been speaking to howard sinclair, the chief executive of the homelessness charity st mungo's and asked him for his reaction to the figures. it is actually people with complex health needs, mental health needs, and dependencies. they can't cope and helping them out of that situation must have a sense of urgency. 600 deaths is a shocking number of deaths for this country, on every single level, and actually helping to pull together the services and resources to support those people on the streets that they need must be a priority for us. what are the ways, the most effective ways, of helping? i think we need to prevent people

going onto the streets. i think we need to look at housing, both in the private sector and the social sector. there must be more housing. and it is about long—term support, social and health support, that meet the needs of very complex individuals. what we are calling for at st mungo's is that this is a good start on behalf of the government to recognise that this is an issue and to begin to collect proper statistics. in our view, every one of those deaths should be reviewed and investigated and the lessons learned, almost as a tribute to those forgotten people. by doing that, we will be able to prevent further people falling onto the streets and dying in the future. if we can learn the lessons of how systems have failed people in the past. what currently happens? it is at the discretion of local government

a safeguarding adult review. does it happen often? very rarely. the government said they will encourage local authorities to do this. there has been nothing more than that. we believe each of these deaths should be investigated and lessons learned. everyone who dies on the streets, it's just not appropriate. they are lie because for some reason society's systems, perhaps charities like us, perhaps local authorities, people coming out of hospital, back to the streets, somewhere it has failed, and we should be looking at that and looking at every individual instance. yesterday, somebody died just outside parliament. i think it is the second death of a homeless person outside parliament. these figures being put out today do mean that it is an issue that is being looked at for today at least, discussed in the media. do you expect things to change?

i would hope that they do. at st mungo's we provide outreach services for people in westminster and across london, so it was my team who knew that person. interestingly, this morning, i was told... a 45year—old polish man, is that right? that is right, who had been offered assistance, along with his friends living there. something good that has come out of it is that his friends who were sleeping on that site have all been offered and have accepted accommodation, so hopefully something good has come from his death. i was going to say, you were saying, it is important to look at the circumstances around someone's death and what has led them to that end — tell us more about him. as much as you can tell us. the first thing to say, this is a tragedy for him, for people who knew him, for his family, and i can't comment

on him in particular, but i feel sure that, given where he died, the authorities will take this seriously and will be undertaking a review as to the cause of his death, and that's right and proper. that should happen for the 597 people who have also died this year so that we can all learn the lessons. we can show you some pictures from gatwick where police snipers are in place. it was suggested earlier today that the drones that had been spotted over gatwick to be shot down and it was said they didn't want to use live bullets at the airport, but we do now have this picture of snipers, apparently, armed police

next to the airport, next to the ru nway next to the airport, next to the runway at gatwick, we don't actually know whether they are there because ofa drone, know whether they are there because of a drone, but that's the picture that we have just had from gatwick. we will keep you updated as the airport remains closed for the foreseeable future with, this morning, police saying there have been several sightings of a drone several times, or several drones, they'll not sure, they've had multiple sightings of drones. the headlines on bbc news: all flights in and out of gatwick airport have been suspended after two drones were seen flying near the runway. 100,000 passengers were due to fly today. almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year — a rise of 24% over five years according to official figures published for the first time. the work and pensions

secretary amber rudd says a second brexit referendum will become a "plausible" option if the deadlock in parliament over theresa may's deal can't be broken. more money should be spent on changing the layout of our town centres, an independent report into the state of the high street has recommended. an expert panel, chaired by the owner of timpson's, says local authorities across england don't have enough money — and central government needs to contribute more. victoria derbyshire spoke to sirjohn timpson and asked him if the report's measures were enough to turn the high street around. there's no great magic solution. the high street has been changing rapidly beat mainly because of online and the retail formats that are coming to the end of their financial life. there are certain local towns were

things are getting better, where footfall is up. it is where the local community led by an inspired leader reimagine their town centre and make it different and put their plan into practice. is it about car parking charges? that's part of it but this isn't talking about shopping. it is creating a new community hub which includes medical centres, service centres, entertainment and leisure facilities, because we are thinking 20 years ahead. we owe it to our children to have community centres, places where they can meet because ina digitalage places where they can meet because in a digital age communication is a pretty lonely thing and people,

humans, need face—to—face contact. it isa humans, need face—to—face contact. it is a complete reorganisation of what we do. one of the obvious things is going to be more housing in town centres. australian investigators have released the final pictures taken by a group of british tourists before the seaplane they were travelling in crashed in sydney last year. businessman richard cousins, four of his family members and the pilot were killed when the aircraft came down on new year's eve. authorities are yet to publish their findings on what caused the crash, but say the photos have helped them to reconstruct the flight‘s final moments. one of only nine domestic violence refuges exclusively for men in the uk may be forced to close less than a year after opening because of a lack of funding. the northamptonshire domestic abuse service says it needs to raise £100,000 to save it, and four women's refuges. northamptonshire county council failed to win government funding for its domestic abuse services, and is facing its own financial difficulties. james melley reports.

follow me. this ordinary looking house in a town in northamptonshire is in fact something very rare. residence rooms, both with locks on. it isa residence rooms, both with locks on. it is a refuge for male victims of domestic abuse, one of only nine such centres in the country. we have them to have a child with them if needed. for the men here, they are considered at serious risk of harm, so its location is kept secret. there's actually people out there to help males and females. this is one of the men living in the refuge and we are hiding his identity for his safety. he lived with an abusive

female partner until one day he collapsed at work. i wasn't eating, soi collapsed at work. i wasn't eating, so i had dehydration. why would you not allowed to keep my partner was taking it. and you experienced physical violence as well. use, taking it. and you experienced physicalviolence as well. use, i got things chucked at me, i got a drink in my head from what she was doing. ididn't drink in my head from what she was doing. i didn't feel safe. the mail refuge is open seven months ago and is run by the northamptonshire domestic abuse service. we spoke to their business manager. edit 34 weeks for it to be full, to get the word out there that we were available and since then it has been full for the whole time we've added. we have helped 16 men in the refuge since we opened, but we have turned i think 50 away. biffed despite

their not being enough space in the refuge to meet demand, it and four other refuges for women, also run by the same group are facing possible closure in the spring. it is an important issue that affects the most vulnerable people in the county, so it would be a shame for us county, so it would be a shame for us to lose it. they had been hoping to win new government funding for domestic violence services, but northamptonshire county council failed in its bid. separately the authority is now facing a multi—million pound hole in its finances, forcing it to cut services. the council says that it is still committed to funding domestic violence services but ndas is still looking for the funding it needs. for dean, going into refuge has given him hope for a new life, safe from domestic violence.” has given him hope for a new life, safe from domestic violence. i want to hopefully get myself into a

place, a new place, and have a simple life for myself. in a moment it's time for the one o'clock news but first it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. we have had ourfair share of wind and rain but as we head closer to christmas, the weather will be slowly calming down. there has been some sunshine today but also some hefty showers. as we go into the evening those will tend to fade, but only because we have this next strike of cloud and rain pushing in from the south—west, riding cross wales, the midlands and northern ireland by the end of the night. mild to the south, becoming windy as well. to the one or two spots might see a touch of frost. into tomorrow, this frontal system will wriggle its weight eastwards across the country. it is this front extending out to the west that is going to get

stranded across the central parts of northern ireland, southern scotland, northern england, we will see cloud and outbreaks of rain through the day. for the south, and outbreaks of rain through the day. forthe south, early and outbreaks of rain through the day. for the south, early rain will clear to leave spells of sunshine. it will be windy and mild, between 12 and 14 celsius. to the north, a band of rain across northern scotland, and we will see some sunshine with temperatures restricted to around six celsius. to the south, it will be quite blustery and we will see some further showers pushing in from the west during friday evening. as we get into saturday this area of high pressure sta rts saturday this area of high pressure starts to reach its way in. you can see the bump in the isobars. more in the way of dry weather to come on saturday with many others having a fine, dry day with spells of sunshine with potential for the odd shower to the north and west, but if your travel plans on saturday,

not looking too bad, highs of 12 degrees. 0n not looking too bad, highs of 12 degrees. on sunday, another bout of wet weather, rain clearing quite early in the day. some wet weather left behind across southern england, but the further north you look, dry weather as those of sunshine. temperatures in the north around seven, 8 degrees, milder towards the south. moving through sunday and into monday, christmas eve, the rain in the south will tend to fade. this high—pressure kills off that weather front and we keep the area of high pressure grew into christmas day, so the crew —— so the christmas forecast is looking like it'll be largely dry, perhaps some frost and fog to start with, but there be some sunshine. —— should be some sunshine. huge disruption for travellers as gatwick airport is closed by drones being deliberately flown nearby. with over 100,000 people due to use gatwick today, most face the headache of cancellation or delay. i have a drone on my airfield as you stand here now, and we will not be able to reopen until that drone is

brought down. with police hunting the drone operators, we'll be asking why they can so easily cause such havoc. also this lunchtime... nearly 600 homeless people, most of them men, have you arrived just to say hello, my have you arrived just to say hello, m 7 nearly 600 homeless people, most of them men, died in england and wales last year — up by a quarter since 2013. he was asleep in like an alleyway or bench or something with a blanket. someone thought he wasjust sleeping but he was actually dead. a surprise jump for retail sales last month, driven mainly