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 by shoppers buying household goods. turning up for training — manchester united's caretaker manager arrives for his first day in his new role.

and why some of the bottles of vintage whisky being sold for thousands of pounds are not what they seem. and coming up on bbc news... the metropolitan police are working with arsenal to identify who threw a bottle that hit spurs‘ dele alli during their league cup meeting last night. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. all flights in and out of britain's second busiest airport, gatwick, have been suspended after drones were seen flying nearby. gatwick‘s runway is closed until at least 4pm this afternoon, and thousands of passengers have been affected, with many facing long delays. flights have been diverted as far away as paris and amsterdam.

gatwick has apologised to travellers, but said safety was its foremost priority. the police are hunting for the operators of the two drones, which they say are being flown deliberately around gatwick. 0ur news correspondent navtej johal is at gatwick. yes, 110,000 passengers and 760 flights were expected to be coming into and going out from gatwick today. that of course will not be happening now but it gives an idea of the scale of this disruption, and it could not have come at a worse time. just five days before christmas, one of the busiest periods of the year for people to be travelling. the christmas getaway at a standstill. since 9pm last night, these have been the scenes at the uk's second—busiest airport. the stories of stranded passengers reverberating around the terminals. a bbc employee, who was

inside gatwick airport, showed just how busy it is. ok, so this is the beginning of the queue here at gatwick airport. i'm going to walk round and see how long it takes to get to the end of the queue. flights have been suspended since last night, when at least one drone, possibly two, were spotted above the airfield. there's people passing out in the terminal, where it's hot. yes, it'sjust a bit of a shame really. you would think that an airport of this size would have some sort of contingency plan to cope with a drone. you would imagine there would be better security in place and emergency action for something like that. amid the confusion, police even boarded planes to reassure passengers. sightings of the drone continued throughout the morning as the airport apologised for the disruption. 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's them who are paying the price of this deliberate act. 20 police teams including a police helicopter are currently on the hunt for the operator of the drone. they don't believe the incident is terror—related but still deliberate and unprecedented. there's been an incident or two but only very minor ones where there's been a sighting and that's been negated or confirmed and that person has been dealt with, and the airport has reopened. nothing like this, to this extent. for passengers, some of whom have been stranded as far away as paris and amsterdam, the situation may seem dire but the airlines are still obliged to complete theirjourney. people will get involved in slightly long and convoluted journeys, and it must be stressed that the airline that cancels your flight is responsible for getting you to your destination as swiftly as possible, even if they have to pay money to another airline to do it.

as flights continue to be diverted, delayed or cancelled, at least staff and passengers are trying their best to keep each other‘s spirits up. # fa—la—la—la la—la—la—la! we have had an update from the airport a short while ago. there was some suggestion the runway might be reopening this afternoon but we have been told it will remain closed until further notice and that's because a drone has been seen near the runway again in the last hour or so. so for now, the waiting continues. thank you. so, how is it that drones — only recently on the mass market — can create such havoc at our airports? our technology correspondent chris fox has been finding out. a nightmare situation for pilots and

passengers, a drone striking a plane at high altitude and top speed. this experiment from the university of dayton shows a worst—case and unlikely scenario but there have been several near misses with drones coming in with a few feet of commercial aircraft so the industry doesn't take any chances. depending on the speed of the drone and the relative speed of the drone and the aircraft, you can get some significant damage. with the drone collision against something like an a320 you risk killing hundreds of people. it's not the type -- not the first time an airport has been closed for this reason. previous incidents have been dealt with within a matter of minutes, not ours. now the police say the disruption is deliberate. the price

of drones has fallen dramatically. they are now available in catalogues and toy shops and in the uk you don't need to register your purchase. although it is illegal to fly within a kilometre or about 1000 yards of an airport, those wishing to cause disruption can easily flout those rules. it is an asymmetric threat and we need to deal with it effectively. the people responsible for the security of airport and things need to invest to make sure they have good strength and depth in terms of the security of people operating from airports. drone manufacturers can building geo— fencing which stops it flying near an airport, although that can be easy to overcome. they could use a signal jammer stopping the remote control communicating with the drone but that won't work if it is flying along a preprogrammed path. now

companies are developing counter drone technology, like this nets deployed from another aircraft. and aviation giant boeing has shown off this drone busting laser which makes it catch fire. the rules in the uk are expected to tighten in 2019 with the introduction of a drone register, but the problems at gatwick today show this is not something legislation alone will fix. the number of homeless people in england and wales who die has increased by nearly a quarter over five years to almost 600, according to official estimates. it's the first research of its kind carried out by the office for national statistics. life expectancy for the homeless is nearly half that for people in stable housing, with homeless men and women dying on average at the age of 1m. 0ur social affairs correspondent michael buchanan reports. matthew died in a public toilet. martin hyde was tragically murdered

while sleeping rough. david was holding down a full—time job but living in a small vehicle and died in the fire. at this charity in stockport, they have long remembered those who died homeless. they were friends who cared for them, helped them and in many cases attended theirfunerals. them and in many cases attended their funerals. when homeless people pass away they leave friends and associates behind and people are loved and missed. mark is a regular visitor to the charity. a few months ago he fell out with his brother, and was rough sleeping in manchester. the 31—year—old was hooked on drugs, and died. he was asleep in an alleyway or on a bench or something with a blanket. somebody thought he was sleeping but he was dead. this reason the jewel in manchester remembered some of

those who had died homeless. the north west of england has the highest levels of death. more than 2600 people died homeless in england and wales in the last five years and the number of deaths has increased almost 25% in that time. the number of deaths has increased almost 2596 in that time. alcohol, drugs and suicide account forjust over half of all deaths of homeless people where is only 3% in the general population, that is a big difference and producing that information will help decision—makers take the right intervention to help that from happening. this is how they are trying to prevent rough sleepers in nottingham from dying. most mornings, outreach workers will walk the streets with a qualified nurse offering medical help from bandages to taking blood samples. does being on the street shortened people's absolutely, without any doubt. the average age of dying on

the street if you are homeless is something between 110 and a7, roughly something between a0 and a7, roughly half of the general population, and those folks will die of chronic long—term medical conditions you attributed the elderly. what is your health like? on this morning she comes across chris who is blind in one eye and is getting radiotherapy as he has pancreatic cancer. do you worry about dying out here? as he has pancreatic cancer. do you worry about dying out here ?|j as he has pancreatic cancer. do you worry about dying out here? i do. i've got children and stuff, and i haven't seen my parents for 18 years because i get no benefits. i always send them a card saying i'm doing really well and all of this but basically i lied. more than £1 billion is being spent tackling all forms of homelessness, and deaths are being properly investigated. retail sales jumped more than expected in november, helped by black friday discounts

and stronger growth in sales of household goods. the figures also show online sales now account for more than a fifth of all retailing. our business correspondent emma simpson is here. today's figures are in contrast to gloomier news we heard only a few days ago? they sure are. we have had some pretty dire warnings from retailers in the last few weeks about just pretty dire warnings from retailers in the last few weeks aboutjust how terrible november was. for instance mike ashley, the boss of sports direct, he said november was the worst in living memory and just on monday we had a big effect warning from asos. but according to the 0ffice from asos. but according to the office for national statistics, overall november was a bit more positive. if you take the quantity of goods sold, it was up by 1.a% in november compared with 0ctober. that doesn't sound like a lot but economists had pencilled in growth

of just economists had pencilled in growth ofjust 0.3%. the year—on—year figure was up 3.8%. the 0ns reckoned we had all been splashing out on black friday promotions, particularly things like televisions and electronic items. clothing, there was minimal growth and part of there was minimal growth and part of the problem of the high street right now is it has been pretty mild so we haven't needed to go out and buy woolies so they are discounting like mad and really want to be selling stuff at full price. another factor is consumer demand has been subdued and there are signs consumers are starting to tighten the purse strings with all of this political uncertainty. so while these figures are rock beat, the underlying picture is lacklustre, as it has been all year. but with a big weekend of shopping ahead, retailers will be hoping there is still all to

play for. many thanks. mps begin their christmas holidays today with cabinet divisions over brexit spilling into the open. work and pensions secretary amber rudd said another referendum was a plausible way forward if mps rejected theresa may's withdrawal deal. but the leader of the commons, andrea leadsom, said that would be unacceptable, and argued instead for what's being called a managed no—deal. 0ur political correspondent iain watson reports. at westminster, it looks like theresa may's cabinet are having a traditional christmas — you know, when everyone gathers round the table in good spirits but then things get a little tense, disagreements begin, and long—bitten lips give way to loosened tongues. this is how the prime minister described the prospect of another eu referendum on monday. finally, let us not break faith with the british people by trying to stage another referendum. another vote which would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics. these days, half a week is a long time in politics.

here's a rather different tone from one of her cabinet ministers. 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. hang on a minute — her cabinet colleague didn't like that. well, it's not government policy, and i myself think that it would undermine the biggest democratic exercise ever. there is cabinet unity up to a point. they all say they want to get theresa may's deal through parliament when it comes to the vote in mid—january, but because the prime minister has made it clear she won't be leading her party into the next general election, some of her top team seem to be emboldened to put forward their own alternatives in case her dealfalls. andrea leadsom talked about her own plan b, the prospect of no deal with the eu. in the event that we cannot agree to this deal, there could be a further deal which looks at a more minimalist approach that 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. but the international trade secretary struck a different note when asked about no—deal in the commons. of course, if the house decides that we are not to come to an agreement with the european union, then there will be adverse consequences. are we going to have a second referendum? the prime minister met her polish counterpart to talk about life after brexit. she is hoping her plan will prevail, and that the various alternatives will look less attractive by comparison. if that strategy fails, well, perhaps plan b could be to hope for a christmas miracle. iain watson, bbc news, westminster. our top story this lunchtime: huge disruption for travellers, as gatwick is closed by drones being deliberately flown nearby. many of the 100,000 people due to use the airport today now face the headache of cancellation or delay. and coming up:

calls for the better regulation of the sale of laughing gas, after a bbc investigation found retailers are selling the canisters over the counter// coming up on bbc news... great britain's 0lympic swimming champion adam peaty has challenged the sport's world governing body to ban him after he he backed plans to launch a new, breakaway competition. the fire services regulator says the number of safety checks carried out across england has fallen by a2% in the past decade. it says cuts in public spending are behind the decline, and warns that people's safety is being compromised as a consequence. our home affairs correspondent, tom symonds, has more. firefighters — fewjobs attract as much public support as they enjoy, and the number of emergencies they deal with has been falling steadily. but this, the worst residential fire in living memory,

showed that disasters can still happen. it's put firefighting firmly in the spotlight. meanwhile, the system for inspecting fire services has been revamped. cheshire fire and rescue is one of 1a services to be scrutinised as part of the new system. it got a good rating for its emergency service, and for the fire safety checks it carries out. but today's report says when it comes to protecting the public by inspecting buildings, eight out of 1a fire services required improvement. in fact, the number of safety audits carried out by fire services across england has fallen by a2% in eight years. if fire services don't know where their high—risk premises are, and if they haven't been in and done safety audits of those high—risk premises, then there is clearly a danger that there are risks that aren't being addressed, and therefore the public are at risk. the reason it's not happening,

she says, is funding. fire services have prioritised the emergency response over the fire safety checks. but there are other issues — a general shortage of on—call firefighters able to interrupt their daily lives to respond to fires, and what was described as an outdated working culture, where fewer than 6% of firefighters are women, and fewer than 5% from an ethnic minority group. more inspections, including big city fire brigades, are planned. tom symonds, bbc news. president trump's decision to withdraw us troops from syria has been met with strong criticism. mr trump made the announcement yesterday, asserting that the islamic state group had been defeated. but major allies, including senior republicans and foreign powers, have disputed the claim and say the move could lead to a resurgence of is. 0ur diplomatic correspondent caroline hawley is here. like many things from president

trump, this came out of the blue. like many things from president trump, this came out of the bluem certainly seems to have taken many people by surprise. during his presidential campaign he promised to bring us troops home but still the decision shocked his own officials and allies, he announced it in a tweet, he said is had been defeated and the announcement came a day after the state department said the battle had not been won, so many people are up in arms. it's been called gift to is. it came against military advice. listen to the response of the republican senator, marco rubio. the decision to withdraw an american presence in syria is a colossal — in my mind — mistake, a grave error that's going to have significant repercussions in the years and months to come, and there's three reasons why and it's complicated. the first is isis is not defeated — they are most certainly degraded. isis is already converting into an insurgency and now they're going to become an even more powerful one. the other concern is that it leaves

kurdish forces, with whom the us has been allied, in the lurch and in danger, with fears of an imminent turkish invasion, an operation against them. another major concern is the leaves the field open in syria to greater influence from russia and iran. they no doubt are happy, russia and iran, britain certainly is not and the defence secretary gavin williamson has just tweeted there is much hard work still to be done to defeat is. caroline, thank you. photographs taken by one of the british victims of a seaplane crash in sydney on new year's eve last year have helped experts investigating the tragedy. businessman richard cousins died alongside his two sons, his fiancee, and her 11—year—old daughter. the canadian pilot also died. authorities are yet to release their findings on what caused the crash. hywel griffith reports. 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 the 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 it came down, we understand from an eyewitness, almost vertically, nose first into the water, and sank 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 show the exact flight path. they've even recreated it with police pilots in order to understand what may have happened. they also recovered a phone that helped them from a photo understand who was sat where within the plane.

but in all the investigation now, 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. he was said to have been well the day before and in a good mood. but they will investigate further his health records. they'll also look again at the plane's contents. there was no black box or voice recorder on—board. that's 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. hywel griffith reporting there. there are calls for the better regulation of the sale of laughing gas, after a bbc investigation found retailers selling the canisters over the counter. it's illegal to sell the gas if it's thought it might be used as a drug. the investigation also revealed that children can obtain the gas through the online retailer, amazon — it was handed to a 16—year—old boy at his home

in greater manchester, with no questions asked. anna jameson has this exclusive report. this shop was among two stores which sold the gas when i went into ten shops in manchester. properly known as nitrous oxide, the canisters weren't on display. an assistant brought them in from a van, parked behind the shop. he did not have any sense that you were lawfully entitled to it, he didn't ask whether you were, he simply sold it to you and that's potentially a crime on his part. we gave the shopkeeper a chance to explain, but he made no comment. it's legal to sell the canisters to whip cream, but it's a criminal offence to sell them if the retailer has reason to believe they're going to be abused as a drug. we wanted to find out if this 16—year—old boy could buy the gas online. with his parents‘ permission he quickly bought some using his amazon account and debit card. he was alone at home

when the amazon parcel arrived. i'd just got back from school and the door bell went. there was a person delivering the parcel, he just handed it over to me. he didn't even ask my age and he just went. i was a bit shocked. amazon says the advert warned the product wasn't for sale to under—18s. it also said, we state clearly on our website that users of amazon.co.uk must be 18 or older or accompanied by a parent or guardian. but the boy's parents say no proof of age was needed and it's too easy for children to buy what's potentially a dangerous product. there was no challenge about his age. that's unacceptable. if they say it's unsuitable for under—18s, they should check the age of the person they are delivering to. the former chief crown prosecutor of the north west says the law nitrous oxide was linked to five deaths last year, eight the year before. the former chief crown prosecutor

of the north west says the law is failing and that the gas should be regulated by a licensing system. anna jamieson, bbc news, manchester. 0le gunnar solskjaer arrived at manchester united's training ground this morning to begin his role as caretaker manager. he's taken over after the sacking ofjose mourinho, who left earlier this week — with the club languishing sixth in the premier league, 19 points behind the leaders liverpool. 0ur sports correspondent david 0rnstein is at the training centre near carrington. yes, 0le gunnar solskjaer landed in the uk last night. he was driven here just before 8am this morning, followed shortly in the next couple of hours by his players, including paul pogba. we understand he met with the club's executive vice—chairman ed woodward. he's the man who sacked jose mourinho and then appointed solskjaer, then he held a players‘ meeting before training at 11am. they‘ll train tomorrow morning. you‘ll addressed the media for the first time and

united will travel to wales ahead of their meeting with cardiff city dion saturday. that‘s the club that 0le gunnar solskjaer managed very poorly in 201a and ended up being sacked, with cardiff being relegated. this isa with cardiff being relegated. this is a new start. as in trays go, this will be as full as they come. he has to get back to winning ways on the pitch with united well behind the pace setters. he will need to solve problems with players such as paul pogba and alexis sanchez, reconnect afan pogba and alexis sanchez, reconnect a fan base and also there‘s a number of issues around united‘s playing style that was so heavily criticised in the journeys mourinho. united style that was so heavily criticised in thejourneys mourinho. united in the background will need to sort out what‘s happening in the summer. they aim to appoint a permanent manager. that could be solskjaer, but the expectation is he will go back to the club he was managing in his native norway and then united will appoint perhaps a more high profile name, and incredibly it will be

their fourth permanent manager in six years since sir alex ferguson retired. david, thank you. scientists who carried out a lengthy study of a number of rare scotch whiskies found that more than a third of the bottles‘ contents were fake. the research, at a carbon dating laboratory, established that 21 out of 55 whiskies were not what they claimed to be. at least one of them didn‘t even qualify as whisky. james shaw has been finding out more. vintage whiskies can cost thousands pounds. these bottles may look like the real thing, but they are not what they seem. scientists at the scottish universities environmental research centre spent nine months testing allegedly vintage whiskies and made some surprising discoveries. we tested 55 bottles of single malt scotch whisky, out of which 21 have proved to be fake. we‘ve come across bottles that were meant to be from the 1850s, and clearly they weren‘t. when they dated out, the liquid was dated to around the 1980s. the team used radiocarbon dating to pinpoint the age of the whiskies

they were testing. the technique is based on radiocarbon dating. we have to take a sample through the cork as carefully as we can, probably about a millilitre or so. we then have to distil the ethanol, the alcohol, from the sample. we then convert that ethanol through to solid carbon, and in the carbon is measured in a mass spectrometer, which we can then relate to the age of the whisky. because of the potential money to be made, the business of creating fake rare whiskies has become highly sophisticated. this is a closure that‘s been made to look like it is turn—of—the—century, because it‘s a driven cork with a lead capsule on top of it. we do find that a number of these bottles will have a blend in them when it‘s meant to be a malt. we find that there is what we think are just cheaper versions of the whisky that is meant to be in there. this is a serious problem for the growing market in rare whiskies, but the team who carried out these tests may have found a way to

reassure enthusiasts that what they‘re buying really is the genuine article. james shaw, bbc news, glasgow. time for a look at the weather. here‘s ben rich. slowly calming down in the run—up to christmas which is probably good news because we‘ve had more than our fairshare of wind news because we‘ve had more than our fair share of wind and rain this week and today, it‘s one of those downpour dodging days, some big showers like this one captured by a weather watch in powys. you can see them on the radar picture coming in from the west, some showers are heavy, there could be the rumble of thunder. there will be spelt of sunshine between the showers. quite breezy as well,