tonight at ten — no end in sight to the chaos at gatwick airport, with hundreds of flights cancelled because of security concerns. tens of thousands of passengers have been caught up in the turmoil, which started when drones were spotted flying over the airport. well, i was actually going to start crying. you were in tears, yeah, cos i think you're trying... you know these things happen, well, not really, it's not weather, it's not — it's some idiot, isn't it, with a drone? devices like this one have been repeatedly flown over the airfield — against the law — and gatwick‘s runway has been closed since last night. police say the drone activity is a deliberate act of disruption, and more sightings have been reported within the past hour. we are looking at scenarios from we open in the early hours of the morning with a partial operation and get going again, through to we are closed for the entire day. there have been dozens of sightings today. we'll have the latest on the situation, and we'll be reporting on the significant knock—on effects for travellers. also tonight...

it's suzey, the nurse. we report on the sharp rise in the number of homeless people who've died in england and wales, over the past five years. president trump orders the withdrawal of us troops from syria, but allies — including britain and france — are opposed, and fear the potential boost for the islamic state group. the bank of england keeps interest rates unchanged. it says uncertainty about brexit has intensified, putting pressure on the economy. and we talk to the teenage formula 3 driver about her miracle survival, and recovery. i didn't have the control any more because i lost my two side wheels, because of the other driver. then you're just like, 0k, this is going to be a crash, but i never thought, ok, this is going to be a really bad crash. and coming up on sportsday on bbc news, arsenal say they're identifying the person who threw a bottle at tottenham's dele alli in their league cup quarter—final defeat at the emirates. good evening.

there's still no end in sight to the chaos at gatwick airport, with hundreds of flights cancelled because of security concerns caused by the flying of drones near the runway. officials say there was another sighting within the past hour, and there's no word on when the airport will reopen. tens of thousands of passengers have been affected since gatwick‘s runway was shut last night. police say it's a deliberate act of disruption, while ministers are calling for heavy prison sentences for those responsible. live to gatwick and our special correspondent, lucy manning. tonight, gatwick is shot and it could well be shot again tomorrow.

it's an unprecedented situation, caused by these drones. in the last half—hour we've been told by the police there have been more than 50 groa ns police there have been more than 50 groans sightings around the airport since last night, and one in the last hour and it's caused enormous disruption as we have found, speaking to people all day at the airport —— is more than 50 drone sightings. ifelta bit, like, upset and disappointed. this was meant to be the big christmas holiday. it shows how vulnerable people are, just one little thing. an airport shut down — thousands of passengers with nowhere to go, holidays cancelled. this is not what britain's second—biggest airport is supposed to look like. the davies family were flying to lapland. now they're heading home. i'm really sad i was so excited. what were you hoping to do in lapland? i was hoping to go sledging and feed the reindeers. what do you think about the fact

that an airport can be entirely shut down by drones? i know, it feels crazy, i think obviously things are going to have to change, they're going to have to look how they deal with these things. ii—year—old eleanor was supposed to be celebrating her birthday in stockholm. well, i was actually going to start crying, i was... you were in tears, yeah. because i think you're trying to... you know these things happen... well, not really, because it's not weather, it's some idiot, isn't it, with a drone, causing a lot of trouble? the only thing flying — the police helicopter, as 20 police unit searched for the drones. the airfield silent. from nine o'clock last night, no planes in or out of gatwick. police spotters also on the roof, on the lookout, and armed officers now in position. the drone threat appearing, disappearing, then late this morning returning to the skies. it's coming over your head, over

your head. this is the drone, passengers spotting something in the sky, possibly causing massive disruption. each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. when we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears. so i'm absolutely convinced this is a deliberate act to disrupt gatwick airport. nicola bastian was stuck on a plane and then told it wouldn't take off. we didn't even get out of the plane, they didn't let us out for nothing, we were stuck on the plane for eight hours. with a baby. and we now have no luggage, which has all the christmas presents in and everything. if anything sums up the disappointment, it is the queue stretching as far as the eye can see, people trying to check in for flights that aren't taking off just a few days before christmas. tempers frayed on board some grounded planes... this is probably as bad as it gets here, my apologies, thank you for bearing with us, 0k? ..as air crews struggled to explain the situation to passengers. well, mid—afternoon, and gatwick has just announced that flights won't be taking off

from here until at least seven o'clock in the evening. that means many of the passengers here won't be going anywhere. folks in the uk have told us that gatwick is basically shut... so no chance of matt ryder getting home, stuck with his wife in prague, with his children at home in britain. well, naturally, it's very frustrating. i think a lot of it is not knowing what's happening, and i guess a lot of people here don't know what's happening either. by late afternoon, as queues grew, the army was called in, stopping the drone is now a national priority. it's pretty clear that this is a fairly large drone, not the classic plastic garden drone that you'll see, this is a commercial sized drone that is clearly being operated deliberately in a way that every time gatwick tries to reopen the runway, the drone's reappeared. so gatwick shut for another night, some heading home, in the last hour the airport

authorities gave this update. the situation right now is there's been grown sightings in the last hour, the airport is closed and will be for the rest of this evening and we'll review overnight whether there's any potential to open tomorrow. passengers need to check with their airlines and not come to the airport unless they know they are being advised to do so by their airlines. so gatwick is shut for another night, some heading home, others unable to get home and the police are still searching. lucy manning, bbc news. there has been a sharp increase in the number of incidents involving drones and aircraft in the past few years. there were none in 2013. so far this year, 120 have been officially reported. and there are calls to strengthen the legislation which governs where drones can be flown, as our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones explains. here's why there's so much concern about what might happen if a drone hit a jet aircraft. this experiment at the university of dayton shows an extreme and possible unlikely scenario,

but after a number of near misses, airports have to take a safety—first approach. uk regulations mean drones are not allowed within a kilometre of an airport and must not fly above 400 feet. they can fly in this west london park a few miles from heathrow as long as they don't enter the restricted zone. this drone, like most sold in the uk, has technology on board which prevents it from even taking off too close to an airport or stops it entering the restricted zone. it appears those used at gatwick did not have the technology or it was overridden. so what can airports do to get rid of these unwanted intruders? in the united states, the federal aviation authority has tried out a system developed in the uk which cuts off the communications between the drone and its operator. british engineers are behind skywall, which captures the unmanned drone in a net and brings it down with a parachute. the dutch police have even

tried using birds of prey to take down a rogue drone. what is readily available is equipment to track drones and the people who are flying them. this is the aeroscope protection system. as you can see here we've got a live view of an aircraft that's within our vicinity. it's pretty difficult to stop people flying irresponsibly, but we can do a betterjob to help people use a system which we have at the moment. it gives you the real—time information of where the pilot is flying and also where the drone is flying. the police have themselves been using drones for quite a while, but at gatwick they have struggled to catch up with those who have caused so much disruption. this is the big wake—up call for counterterrorism policing around the world, because this potentially is the first time multiple drones have been used in a disruptive attack. they might not have had explosives or anything, or caused explosions, attacks or injuries, but it's a major disruption to the economy of the uk.

for many, flying a drone is a great hobby. from late next year all users will have to be registered and take an online safety test. but that won't make airports safe from those who are determined to break the rules and wreak havoc. rory cellan—jones, bbc news. the problems at gatwick have had a severe knock—on effect on other major transport facilities. london's st pancras station, the home of eurostar train services in the uk, has been heavily congested. and other rail services, from airports and cities in different parts of the uk and in paris, have been badly affected. the civil aviation authority is treating the event as an "extraordinary circumstance", so airlines don't have to pay financial compensation to their passengers. 0ur correspondentjon donnison has the latest. they'd arrived — but at the wrong airport. this is paris charles de gaulle, where many gatwick flights were diverted.

much to the surprise of paige garcia, flying home for christmas from the states. i was asleep, and i woke up and found out we were in paris. and then we were just pretty much left sitting there for five hours. i mean, it's not the pilot's fault, the staff didn't know what was going on either. but i mean, we had no food, no water, they turned the ac off for a while. very upset that anyone would want to do this just to disrupt everyone trying to go away for christmas. i'm just trying to get home for christmas. paige managed to get on a bus and then the eurostar to get home. 0thers, though, weren't so lucky. after a 16—hour flight from buenos aires, these passengers had a long wait in paris but finally got a coach. it's been a pretty long day, very chaotic, no—one there to help us. yeah, and in the airport itself we were there for nine hours. we're supposed to be taking a ferry now, we don't know our final destination, whether it's gatwick or anywhere else in london, but hopefully we'll get home before tomorrow. stephanie's christmas plans also went pear shaped, but she was trying to see the bright side.

so we had an interesting journey from toronto pearson airport, we're on our way to visit my sister in london, and we actually have a birthday dinner tonight, so it looks like we'll be spending that in glasgow, my first in scotland. at least now i have the scotland stamp on my passport. that's something, but passengers might be lucky to get much else. the civil aviation authority said it considered this event to be an extraordinary circumstance and said, in such circumstances, airlines are not obliged to pay financial compensation to passengers affected by the disruption. and this evening, another long queue — but this time to get on the eurostar at st pancras. tonight, every eurostar train to paris or brussels has been sold out. eurostar have told us gatwick passengers have been turning up desperate to get away for the christmas holidays, and tickets for tomorrow and the weekend are selling out fast. jon donnison, bbc news, at st pancras station.

let's get more from our special correspondent, lucy manning, at gatwick. in the past hour what have you been told about the latest situation there? we have had the latest briefing from the police and from the airport authorities. we've been told by the police they have got lines of enquiries, people of interest that they are pursuing. we understand the bbc understands from government sources that one line of enquiry is whether anti—gatwick protesters are enquiry is whether anti—gatwick protesters a re responsible enquiry is whether anti—gatwick protesters are responsible for this, plus as at the moment there have been no arrests and the problem for the police, they are admitting they do not know the make and model of this drone and without knowing that information they say they don't know how they can necessarily tactically respond to getting the drone down, so they are appealing to the public

for any pictures they may have so they may get a better idea of what make and model the drone is. what we do know is that they have changed what they are planning to do in terms of an armed response to this drone. they are now saying they will if need be shoot the drone down, if it is safe to do so, and that's a change from this morning. 0n the travel disruption, it's likely that gatwick will be shot again tomorrow, but they are not definitely saying that. they are going to be taking decisions overnight and into the morning, so the advice is to check with the airlines, because many airlines are cancelling flights. but i think what is clear is there is still going to be massive disruption here, unfortunately, tomorrow, more of those stories we have heard here. this drone situation with the army now involved is posing massive issues and massive questions for the airports, the politicians, and the police. lucy manning, many thanks,

oui’ police. lucy manning, many thanks, our special correspondent in gatwick. and with me in the studio oui’ gatwick. and with me in the studio our transport correspondent tom burridge. what does this tell us about how prepared or not the government is for these situations, not least because we heard in the report the technology probably exists to deal with it. near misses between drones and planes is relatively new but not completely new, in 2014 no issues at all, last year more than a hundred, but in june, a drone came within ten foot ofa virgin june, a drone came within ten foot of a virgin atlantic dreamliner over south london with 250 people on board. yes, the government did tighten the rules earlier this year, but the pilots union has been pushing for much tighter rules for several months, for example at once the exclusion zone around uk airports for drones increased from one kilometre to five kilometres. in the united states, it is five miles. the government are saying, look, we are consulting, we are thinking about what action should be taken, possibly more power for the about what action should be taken,

possibly more powerfor the police, more technology for the police, on the spot fines for minor offences, but as you say, some of this technology is already out there, technology is already out there, technology that could jam the signals the drones need to operate, technology that could hack into drones to fly them away safely. so given this incident happened at all, but also dragged onto a night and today, people are inevitably questioning whether this is a case ofa questioning whether this is a case of a government is distracted, it is ioff of a government is distracted, it is i off the ball on an issue which has been prevalent for some time. so embarrassment tonight for the department for transport, but i think relieve too, because yes, the disruption at gatwick airport is terrible for those caught up in it, but a much worse scenario would be a drone colliding with an aeroplane and possibly taking it down, a massive wa ke—up call and possibly taking it down, a massive wake—up call for all and possibly taking it down, a massive wa ke—up call for all those concerned. tom, again, thanks very much. and there's continuing live coverage of the chaos at gatwick on our website at bbc.co.uk/news, and you can also read about your rights if you're affected. now, there's been a sharp rise

in the number of homeless people who have died in england and wales over the past five years. the office for national statistics estimates that almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales in the past 12 months. that's nearly a quarter more than five years ago. london and north—west england have the highest proportion of deaths. it's the first time the numbers of deaths among the homeless have been revealed — more than 2600 in england and wales over the past five years. 0ur social affairs correspondent michael buchanan reports. we give thanks for all the lives of those named, and those whose names we do not know. at a recent vigil in manchester, a small group gathered to remember those who died in the city and elsewhere while homeless. hundreds of lives that ended early, talents wasted. stefan tomkins was a very bright young man who went to university and got a masters degree.

daniel was a very talented footballer, went through manchester city's footballing academy. at this charity in stockport, they've long remembered those who died without a place to call home. drug addiction, alcohol misuse and suicide among the most common causes of death. this year i've been to five or six funerals, and i don't like to remember people by going to their funeral. it's obviously respectful to do that, but i like to remember people how they were before they died and the times we spent with them here. among the regular visitors to the charity is mark urmston. the last thing i said was i wished him dead, which i regret. he had an argument with his brother, luke, who was rough sleeping. the 31—year—old had a drug addiction to spice. two months ago, he died. he was asleep in, like, an alleyway on a bench or something with a blanket. someone thought he was just sleeping, but he was actually dead. rough sleeping is the most visible

and dangerous form of homelessness. it's risen rapidly since 2010, often caused by rising rents or problems getting mental health or addiction support. men are most likely to die homeless, but women are just as frightened. we do not need night shelters. we need a hostel, a place where we can stop carrying. when we put in the night shelters, in the morning you are told to go out. you have to walk in the cold. and with your bags, and people stigmatise you as being homeless and you feel homeless. sweetie, you 0k, it is susie, the nurse. this is how they are trying to prevent rough sleepers in nottingham from dying. most mornings, outreach workers and a qualified nurse will offer everything from bandages to taking blood samples. what sort of conditions do you come across typically? lots of chest infections, lots of respiratory problems, but there's also really chronic long—term health conditions that you see on the street. homeless people typically die

in their early to mid 40s. chris has pancreatic cancer. do you worry about dying out here? yeah, ido. i've got children and stuff, and the thing is i haven't seen my parents for like 18 years. ministers say they're spending more than £1 billion tackling all forms of homelessness, aiming to reduce a problem that blights the nation. michael buchanan, bbc news. the united states and the uk have accused china of carrying out a global campaign of state—sponsored espionage, using what they called "cyber intrusions" to gather secret and confidential information. us prosecutors have charged two chinese nationals, said to work for a state—sponsored spying agency behind the attacks. the men are believed to be in china. in dublin, the taoiseach, leo varadkar, has said his government is making "no preparations whatsoever" for a hard border with northern ireland

in the event of a no—deal brexit. he warned that doing so could become "a self—fulfilling prophecy" and said his entire focus was on an eu agreement with the uk. ireland has published contingency plans, warning that a no—deal brexit could have a severe impact on trade, travel and security. 0ur ireland correspondent emma vardy is at newry on the border. it seems the irish republic is concerned that a no—deal brexit is looking increasingly likely. well, look, we are heading towards christmas with that brexit deadline approaching, so i think the irish government had little choice but to mmp government had little choice but to ramp up their contingency planning, and that is because the irish government believes that ireland could be hit harder than any other country if the uk were to leave without a deal. the irish government said so many areas of life could be affected, from medicines to planes to food, so it says it has no choice but to ramp up there is no deal

contingency planning. but when it comes to that question of whether this could lead to a hard border here, well, today we heard the irish prime minister, leo varadkar, saying despite the no deal planning, there are no suggestions that any infrastructure would be put up here. but he makes the argument he has made many times, saying the only way this could work, the only way to avoid problems in future would be if the uk were to continue following eu rules, and we know that an argument that many brexiteer mps at westminster just do not that many brexiteer mps at westminsterjust do not buy, something they remain very strongly opposed to. so tonight i think hope remains high from both sides that a deal can still be found, but the problem is this comes back to this old tussle, this big question at the heart of all this over how close or not the uk will have to remain to the eu in future for the sake of people's lives on both sides of this line. emma, many thanks again, emma vardy per us at newry with the latest. now, the bank of england has decided to keep interest rates at 0.75%.

the bank said uncertainty about brexit had intensified, which, added to slower global growth, was affecting the economy. it estimates that the economy is set to grow by 0.2% in the final quarter of the year, down from last month's forecast of 0.3%. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity has more details. anxiety over brexit appears to be diluting the festive cheer this year, be it for the bank of england, retailers or shoppers in st albans. i think everyone's a bit worried with brexit and the uncertainty that's going on there, and it makes you think twice about what you spend this year. only spend what i really have to spend on at the moment, and only do what i can really afford to do. 0nline retailers, on the whole, are beating the uncertainty better than most and are now taking more than one in every £5 spent. but even this online gift specialist, which supplies 4.5 million christmas presents, is working hard. we saw a real spike around black friday, cyber monday, we invested behind that, customers really reacted.

and then i guess we did see customers pull back, and we have to monitor that and keep in touch. but then what we've noticed most recently in the last few days is a real push towards last—minute shopping, i think we see this every year, it gets later and later. household spending makes up two thirds of our economy and typically drives growth. but over the last three months, the pace at which retail sales are expanding has slowed — something the governor of the bank of england had warned about in august. households looked through brexit—related uncertainties initially, but more recently, as the consequences of sterling's fall have shown up in the shops and squeezed their real incomes, they've cut back on spending, slowing the economy. there is a good reason why consumer confidence is struggling. let's just take a look at wages over the past decade. they're now growing faster than at any point over that period. but if you allow for increases in the cost of living, we're actually worse off than we were before the start of the financial crisis,

meaning our standard of living is lower than it was ten years ago. then there's stagnant house prices, a blea ker stock market, and that uncertainty about what lies ahead. so it's not surprising that we may be feeling a bit more cautious about spending. add in dismal investment and subdued public spending, and we could be looking at the weakest year for growth for the economy as a whole since the financial crisis. what happens next year depends not just on the arrangements for brexit but also how we react to those. the bank of england has lowered its expectations for growth. the actual outcome is up to consumers as well as politicians. the fate of the economy is quite literally in our hands. dharshini david, bbc news. president trump has defended his decision to withdraw us troops from northern syria, where they've been fighting the islamic state group. he said the us didn't want to be the "policemen of the middle east",

and called on other countries to take up the fight. us political figures and america's allies — including the uk — have expressed grave concern at the decision, and the fact they weren't consulted. the kurdish—led alliance in syria — in dark green here — said the decision would allow the islamic state group to recover. 0ur correspondent mark lowen reports from turkey. today's military flourish in ankara was all the more upbeat. the turkish and iranian presidents have got what they wanted — the us out of syria. donald trump's withdrawal frees them up to extend their influence and pursue their own aims in the war—ravaged country. president erdogan insisted he wants to bring syria's fighting to an end and establish peace, but he's got other targets too. the syrian kurdish militia, or ypg, have fought side by side

with american troops, battling and dying against so—called islamic state. the turkish government says they're terrorists, linked to banned kurdish militants in turkey. the us presence protected them — until now. they face an imminent threat of a turkish offensive against them. we followed turkey's last offensive against the kurdish ypg back injanuary. we're patrolling the front line now with turkish troops, the closest position of the ypg kurdish militia just a few hundred metres in that direction, from where they fire artillery. then turkish troops drove the ypg out of the syrian town of afrin. now turkey will see the us withdrawal as a green light to expel them elsewhere. some of mr trump's own senators say that's no way to treat a partner. it's in our national security interest

not to withdraw at this time, in my view, because if you do so now, the kurdish fighters, the kurdish forces, will be decimated by turkey, assad, or maybe isis. the move will also allow russia to consolidate its control in syria, bolstering the assad regime. hosting his annual end—of—year press conference, vladimir putin knows syria is going his way. translation: is the presence of american forces necessary? i think not. let us not forget their presence is not legitimate, so if the us decided to withdraw its forces, that is correct. while most of the trump administration and us allies weren't forewarned about this plan, turkey perhaps was — president erdogan pressuring donald trump last week. but is still has an estimated 20—30,000 fighters, and the fear is a premature american withdrawal on turkey's terms might allow the jihadists to rear their head again. mark lowen, bbc news, istanbul.

a court in new york has ruled the sexual assault case against the hollywood producer harvey weinstein will proceed, despite opposition from his lawyers. ajudge said there was ample evidence to put mr weinstein on trial. he faces five criminal charges, including rape. he's always denied having non—consensual sex. a month ago, at the formula 3 grand prix in macau, 18—year—old driver sophia florsch was lucky to survive. she was driving at 170 mph when she lost control of her car, fracturing her spine. the subsequent surgery on her back took 11 hours. now she's looking forward to getting back behind the wheel, and she's been speaking tojo currie about her experience. it was the moment the world held its breath. teenage german driver sophia florsch surviving this dramatic crash that could have easily ended her career —

and possibly her life. it is a miracle. it happened quite fast. i had a top speed in kilometres 275 and, um...yeah, but some weeks later i can do nearly everything again, so for me it'sjust to be happy and to continue and see positive. sofia was taking part in a formula 3 race in macau when her car collided with two others, catapulting her through the air, over the safety barriers, and into an advertising hoarding. amazingly, just one month on, she's back home in munich preparing for christmas with her family and taking her recovery one step at a time. i remember everything from the crash. one of my first thoughts was to tell the team over the radio, "ok, i'm ok, please tell my family."