this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00pm: no end in sight to the chaos at gatwick airport, with hundreds of flights cancelled due to security concerns about drones. well, i was actually going to start crying. you were in tears, yes. because i think you sort of... you are trying to... you know these things happen, but not really, because because it is not whether, it is some idiot 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 tonight. we are looking at scenarios from we openin we are looking at scenarios from we open in the early hours of the morning and whether partial operation and get going again, through to we are closed for the entire day. it's suzie the nurse. there has been a sharp rise

in the number of homeless people who have died in england and wales over the past five years. the bank of england keeps interest rates unchanged. it says uncertainty about brexit has intensified, putting pressure on the economy. how hackers are stealing personal data and money from some of the millions of people playing fortnite. and at 11:30pm, we will be taking another look at the papers with former fleet street editor eve pollard and rachel cunliffe, comment and features editor at city am. stay with us for that. good evening. the christmas getaway at gatwick airport has descended into chaos for tens of thousands of passengers, with police saying there have been more than 50 drone sightings in the past 2a hours. gatwick‘s chief operating officer has confirmed the airport

will remain closed tonight, and that they are preparing forall scenarios, including being shut tomorrow. the army is using specialist equipment to help police search for whoever is flying the drones. the police say it is not terror—related, but is a deliberate act of disruption. our special correspondent lucy manning reports. i felt a ifelt a bit, ifelta bit, like, upsetand disappointed. this was meant to be the big christmas holiday. disappointed. this was meant to be the big christmas holidaym disappointed. this was meant to be the big christmas holiday. it shows how vulnerable people are with just one little thing. and airport shutdown. thousands of passengers with nowhere to go. holidays cancelled. this is not what reason‘s second—biggest airport is supposed to look like. the davies family were

flying to lapland. now they are heading home —— britain's. flying to lapland. now they are heading home -- britain's. really sad, i was so excited. what were you hoping to do in lapland?” sad, i was so excited. what were you hoping to do in lapland? i was hoping to do in lapland? i was hoping to do in lapland? i was hoping to go sledding and feed the reindeer. what do you think about the fact that an airport can be entirely shut down by drones?” know, it feels crazy. obviously think are going to have to change, they are going to have to look at how they do these things. ii—year—old eleanor was supposed to be celibate in her birthday in stockholm. i was about to start crying, you are in tears, yes. i know these things are... well, not really, because it is not whether, it is some idiot with a drone, and it is some idiot with a drone, and it has caused a lot of trouble. the only thing flying the police helicopter, as 20 police units searched for the drones. the airfield silent. from 9pm 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 of hearing, disappearing, then late this morning returning to then late this morning returning to the skies. it's coming over your head. over your head. is this the drone? passengers spotting something in the sky, possibly the small device that has caused 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 the airfield, the drone reappears, so i'm absolutely convinced it is a deliberate act to disrupt gatwick airport. nicola 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 of nothing. we are stuck on the plane for eight hours, with a baby, and we now have no luggage which has all our christmas presents and everything. if anything sums of disappointment, is this queue stretching. as far as the eye can see, people trying to checkin the eye can see, people trying to check in for flights that are not taking off, just a few days before christmas. tempers frayed on—board

some grounded planes. my apologies, thank you for bearing with us. ai rcrews thank you for bearing with us. aircrews 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 7pm in the evening. that means many of the passengers here won't be going anywhere. they told us that gatwick has basically shut. so no chance of matt 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 m, as queues grew, the army was called in, stopping the now a national priority. it's pretty clear that this is a fairly large drone, not the classic, plastic garden drone. we see this as a commercial size

drone that is clearly being operated deliberately in a way that every time gatwick tries to reopen the runway, the drones reappear. the airport authorities gave this update. the situation right now is there has been drone sidings in the last hour, be the airport is closed and will be for the rest of this evening, and we will review overnight whether there is any potential to open tomorrow. but what passengers need to do is check with their airlines and not come to the airport unless they know that they are being advised to do so by the airlines. so gatwick shut for another night, some heading home, others unable to get home, and the police still searching. let's speak to our political correspondent nick eardley at westminster. and it now seems that the airport is going to be close to potentially for another day, tens of thousands of people affected. what is the government's response? well, there have been various meetings across government today to discuss how to

respond to this. officials met in the cabinet office earlier from the department for transport, from the home office, from various other government organisations as well. i understand that ministers have been discussing it throughout the day with one another. one of the possibilities being discussed is that this is anti— gatwick protesters of some sort, responsible for this disruption. one of the things the government is doing tonight is allowing other london airports to stay open a bit later. normally there are restrictions on night flights. they are being lifted for one night only, to try and ease some of the congestion of planes coming into the country, and potentially some coming out of london as well. but it must be said that some are raising questions tonight about whether or not more needs to be done to tackle the use of drones. here is the labour transport spokesperson karl turner

talking to newsnight. the government should have brought this legislation forward. it has been an abject failure, andl forward. it has been an abject failure, and i blame chris grayling. he should have been in the house of commons today making a statement and explaining to mps why the government have failed to bring this legislation forward. now, mr grayling, as you saw in lucy's peace there, did give an interview to broadcasters earlier, in which he said government was doing all it could, would continue to liaise over how to react to this situation. clearly it is something that the government is still trying to get a handle on. the defence secretary, gavin williamson, has also said that the army are on standby to help the police in trying to track down whoever is responsible for this disruption if necessary. but i suspect there will be many more talks tomorrow on quite how this can be solved. many thanks for the latest from westminster. 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 is why there is 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 from entering the restricted zone. it appears those used at gatwick either didn't 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 a drone and its operator. british engineers are behind skywall, which captures the unmanned aircraft in a net and brings it down with a parachute. and 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 what we can do is a betterjob

of helping 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 a 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 will not make airports safe from those 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. rail services in 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. our 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. 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. others, 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 were 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. the us defence secretary, generaljim mattis, is to stand down from his role at the end of february. in his resignation letter, general mattis said he was stepping aside so president trump can appoint someone with the same views as him. jim mattis's departure comes a day after the president announced 2,000 us troops were to pull out of syria. a court in new york has ruled the sexual assault case against the hollywood producer,

harvey weinstein, will proceed, despite opposition from his lawyers. a judge 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. 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. the headlines on bbc news: police say they are considering trying to shoot down a drone that has shut gatwick airport for more than 2a hours. almost 600 homeless people died in england and wales last year, a rise of a quarter over the last five years. president trump's defence secretary, generaljim mattis, is to stand down

from his role at the end of february. the announcment comes a day after the president announced 2,000 us troops were to pull out of syria. there has 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 is nearly a quarter more than five years ago. london and north—west england have the highest proportion of deaths. it is the first time the numbers of deaths among the homeless have been revealed. more than 2,600 in england and wales over the past five years. our 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, 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 to him 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're 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, are you 0k? 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, out here? there's lots of chest infections, lots of respiratory problems, but there's also really, really chronic long—term health conditions that you see on the street. what's your health like? homeless people typically die in their early to mid 40s. chris has pancreatic cancer. do you worry about dying out here? yeah, i do, yeah. 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 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%.

darshini david reports. 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. online 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, like, 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 is 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 are stagnant house prices, a bleaker 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. 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 reports. vintage whiskeys can cost thousands of pounds. these bottles may look like the real thing, but they are not what they seem. scientist at the scottish university's environmental research centre spent nine months testing allegedly vintage whiskeys and made some surprising discoveries. we have tested 55 bottles of single malt scotch whiskey out of 21 approved to be fake. we have tested bottles that are meant to be from the 1850s. clearly they were not. the liquid was dated to the 1980s. the team used radio carbon dating to pinpoint the age of the whiskeys they were testing. the technique is based on radio carbon dating. we have to take a sample through the cork as carefully as we can, probably about a millimetre or so. then we have to

distil the ethanol, the alcohol from the sample, then we convert that through two solid carbon and then the carbon is measured and then using an accelerator we can find the age of the whiskey. because of the potential money to be made, the business of creating fake rare whiskeys has become highly sophisticated. this is a closure that has been made to look like it is because it has the lead katchalov top of it. so we find a number of these bottles will have a blend in them, if it is meant to be a molk, we find that there is what we think is just cheaper we find that there is what we think isjust cheaper versions we find that there is what we think is just cheaper versions of the whiskey that is meant to be in there. this is a serious problem for there. this is a serious problem for the growing market in rebel excuse. but the team who carried out these tests may have found a way to reassure enthusiasts that what they are buying really is the genuine article. the video game, fortnite, has recently launched its seventh season, and now boasts more than 200 million players. but a bbc investigation has found

hackers exploiting that popularity by selling details of players' private accounts in a thriving online marketplace. hackers as young as 1a are able to earn thousands of pounds a week, and the uk's national crime agency is asking the maker of fortnite to do more to stop it. our cyber security reporter joe tidy has more. since fortnite exploded onto the gaming scene, its estimated to have made more than £1 billion. most of that has come from in—app purchases, as players scramble to update their free accounts with the latest accessories. and that's what makes these accounts both valuable and a target for hackers. they're stealing them in huge numbers and selling them online to an ever—growing and hungry marketplace, and all over social media victims are venting their frustration. this british hacker was 1a when he got into it.

he started off after being hacked himself. he says he is mainly a middleman now, selling on cracked accounts. he knows he's breaking the law and says he wants to stop soon. this is how it works. crackers buy huge lists of usernames and passwords that have been stolen from previous data breaches. they use a tool to import them into the fortnite login in bulk. when they get inside an account, they take it over. at this cyber security competition, young hackers are encouraged to put their skills to the test. organisers say getting talented youngsters on a positive path is proving difficult. it's the ones, you know, that are carrying on that haven't been identified who are perhaps not

given this opportunity, who are lured and tempted by a quick buck and get taken down this path. how good are you at fortnite? this prolific cracker agreed to talk. ah, that good. but only if we met in—game. he told me he knows what he's doing is illegal and even admits to using his skills to carry out more serious cybercrime. there's a whole thing around no skins, they call it. the national crime agency says authorities around the world are watching them and this is a serious offence. for instance, just the compromise of a fortnite account could come under section one of the computer misuse act which is up to two years in prison. the nca wants games makers to do more to inform their communities that their activity is illegal. epic, the company behind fortnite, hasn't commented on our investigation, but the game

maker says it's working to improve security. it also encourages and rewards players who take steps to increase account protection. with the new season of the game freshly launched, even more players will be signing up, and the hackers will continue to make a killing. joe tidy, bbc news. and we'll be taking another look at the papers, with former fleet street editor eve pollard, and rachel cunliffe, who is comment and feature editor at city am. that's coming up after the headlines at 11:30pm. stay with us for that. now, it's time for the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. for cold weather fans who like their christmas cold and snowy, you will be disappointed with what i've got to tell you for the christmas forecast in a moment. for the time being, cloud on the

satellite picture, low cloud has been racing eastwards, and this will bring a wet start friday across england and will score though it will ease for southern areas, and we will ease for southern areas, and we will be left with thick crowd across northern england, ireland, southern scotland, with a number of showers in the morning and afternoon. with bright skies in the south it will be breezy and very mild for the time of year. temperatures will peak at 1a degrees, about nine in london at this time of year. further north, temperatures are close to normal for the time of year, seven or eight degrees. friday evening and night time, the rain band clearing, the showers will follow, then for the weekend we have a ridge of high pressure building in the atlantic for saturday. sunday's whether courtesy of this low pressure, that's going to return wet weather, particular for that's going to return wet weather, particularfor england that's going to return wet weather, particular for england and wales. saturday's forecast. it will be a

decent day, bright or sunny spells. low pressure that north of scotland will maintain the showers into northern and western areas, some could be slow—moving. it will feel a bit fresher with temperatures down a few degrees. seven in the north, 11 or so few degrees. seven in the north, 11 orso in few degrees. seven in the north, 11 or so in london. we are looking at a wet day on sunday in england and wales, there is uncertainty how far north the rain band will push. showers in scotland but by and large the north in the best of the sunshine. a bit cool in aberdeen, seven degrees. temperatures mild in the south. i mentioned uncertainty about the north house — south, we might see the rain band push into southern counties to take us into monday, which of course is christmas eve. so perhaps rain for the south—west of