this is bbc news. the headlines at 11:00pm: the former leader of the liberal democrats lord paddy ashdown has died at the age of 77. he led the liberal democrats for over a decade and was the first leader after the liberal party merged with the social democrats in 1988. he was a very formidable man. it is, you know, very sad that we've lost him. he was politically act with and really very dynamic and full of ideas, right to the end. he also served as international high representative to bosnia—herzegovina following the war which saw the break—up of yugoslavia. police investigating the drones at gatwick search a house in west sussex, following the arrest of a man and a woman from crawley. and at 11:30pm, we will be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, sian griffiths from the sunday times and martin bentham from the evening standard. stay with us for that. good evening.

the former leader of the liberal democrats lord ashdown has died after a short illness. he was 77. he served in the royal marines before turning to politics, first with the liberal party in the 1970s, then becoming the first lib dem leader in 1988. he revealed in november that he was being treated for bladder cancer. our chief political correspondent vicki young looks back at his life, and there is some flash photography in her report. this is how most people will remember paddy ashdown — the action man, the party leader with the least affection for westminster. long before he fired his first political salvos, he was a military man.

a marine, he saw active service in borneo and malaya, as documented at the time. newsreel: at this post, 20 yards from the border, 23—year—old marine lieutenant ashdown, from somerset, has local forces as well as marines under his command. he excelled as a member of the elite special boat squadron, spoke fluent mandarin chinese. he spent time, too, in his native northern ireland during the worst of the troubles. after a period as a diplomat, and some time on the dole, paddy ashdown got involved with the liberals, elected mp for yeovil in 1983. later, in 1988, after the painful merger with the sdp that formed the liberal democrats, he became leader. i say to the millions out there who are concerned about poverty and about unemployment, come and join us. the party was at rock bottom in the polls, and financially crippled.

paddy ashdown built it up again, but at some cost to his home life. he admitted an affair with his former secretary tricia howard. what paddy said stands. he's made a statement already, and i was perfectly well aware of what he was going to say. fears that his party's poll rating would suffer were unfounded, and in 1997, he guided it to its greatest election achievement since the ‘20s, doubling the number of lib dem mps. by this stage, he had already been contemplating the prospect of coalition government with labour. a joint cabinet committee was established, with liberal democrats invited to talks at number ten. according to ashdown, the plan to bring the lib dems into government foundered on opposition from senior labour ministers and the thorny problem of electoral reform. charles kennedy is duly elected the leader... paddy ashdown resigned the leadership in 1999, handing the baton onto charles kennedy, and retiring

from the house of commons two years later. he spent time in bosnia, at some personal risk, at the height of the war there. and in 2002, he became the high representative in bosnia and herzegovina. myjob is to create, to help to create, the structures of a modern european democratic state, and then to repatriate the powers that the international community has held here back to the bosnians. but he wasn't done with westminster politics. in 2015, after the lib dems had spent five years in coalition with the conservatives, lord ashdown returned to chair the party's general election campaign. and we are saying the conservatives are the largest party. famously disputing the exit poll's prediction of a dire result. if this exit poll is right, andrew, i will publicly eat my hat on your programme.

this is a hat. andrew, you are so predictable, aren't you 7 ijust knew you'd... i wanted to get a bigger one. he had great enthusiasm and energy, optimism, drive. he was very much mr action man. the style that he acquired in the military, he carried into politics very effectively, and he did great things for our party. he inspired respect for his constant ideas and enthusiasm, and his efforts to build the liberal democrats into a force in national politics. a little earlier liberal democrat leader sir vince cable gave his reaction from his west london constituency, and told me the great achievement of lord ashdown was his leadership of the new party, the liberal democrats, from the merger between the liberal party and the social democrats. well, it was difficult indeed.

i think he described it that we were at that point an asterisk in the opinion polls. we were no longer counted. and gradually, he built up the strength of the party in the decade. we progressed through by—elections, through growing influence, and we had a really successful period in the late 1990s, when all of this hard work and leadership produced good results. i think, actually, you have to go back before his leadership of the party. i mean, he served as an example, really, about how politics is done. he started from virtually nothing, in yeovil, which he was unemployed for a while, did all kinds of interesting jobs in the local community, he was a youth worker, fought his way up from nothing to becoming an mp, and that set an example about how we, the rest of us, should campaign.

he served as a terrific role model for a campaigning politician. and, listening to the tributes coming into him this evening, one is really struck by the number of times people have talked about his honesty, his integrity, and his very strongly held principles. yes, indeed. and i think, more than that, i think the period when he was at his peak as a party leader, he had a very positive view about the country. this was a relatively optimistic period, and he was an optimistic man, and he gave really great leadership when it was needed. and it was a pity, in a way, that his vision, which was that we should work in government with tony blair's administration, wasn't realised, because there was a sort of labour landslide, and his own treatment in doubling our number of mps was slightly overshadowed. but he did play a major role

in the way that government developed, and took on his views of institutional reform which were very much his own. prime minister theresa may has issued a statement saying: sirjohn major paid his. —— respects. colonel bob stewart, the conservative mp who as commander of the united nations served in bosnia, became a friend of lord ashdown and gave me his memories from his time there. he was, i have to say, a great friend, when he turned up, he convinced me to take him to the front lines.

i wasn't allowed to take anyone to the front lines. no generals were meant to go to the front lines. but paddy somehow got me to do it. he said, i was a soldier, there'll be no problems. and i said, i'm not meant to take anyone of high rank to the front lines. he said, i'm going there today. and he said, well, i'll come with you. i said, but you're not meant to. in the end, he convinced me and i put him in the back of my armoured vehicle and we went to a place. and i took him in and i took him and introduced him to the front line commanders there. and it went well. he was clearly confident and at ease on the front lines. but, on the way back, a flipping great explosion occurred right in front of my vehicle. it was a mortar bomb that had been aimed by bosnian serbs,

i suspect. and i thought i'd been blinded, actually. i was at the front of the vehicle, and paddy was standing at the back. and i thought, that's done it. you know, that's all i want, to be reported that i've taken him to the front line. no—one will report it, he said. it was on the 6:00pm news, and i got a frightful bollocking. a man and a woman are tonight still being questioned by detectives in connection with the criminal use of drones near gatwick airport. police are also searching a house in crawley in west sussex. sitings of drones over the last three days led to the cancellation or delay of 1,000 flights, affecting more than 140,000 passengers. the airport has remained open, but there are still some delays. jenny kumar reports. police activity at a house near gatwick airport.

officers have searched inside the property and examined vehicles parked on the drive. this comes after sussex police confirmed last night that a man and a woman had been arrested in connection with illegal drone activity. well, tonight, there is a small police presence outside the property that was searched earlier today. meanwhile, gatwick airport say measures are being taken to keep the airfield safe and to keep flights running. at gatwick, flights have been getting back to normal after three days of disruption. but there is a backlog to clear, and frustration amongst passengers. we fly off to france today, skiing in the alps. the kids — taking them away properly for a first white christmas. and yeah, it's been really anxious times for us. i only had a couple of weeks at home so it's cut my trip short by a day, which is really upsetting, when you don't get to see your

family and friends that often. so i was really sad. i've been really sad about it, but i'm just excited to be on the ground and back home. it's not ideal, we're not happy with that. we don't have a very long holiday, so it's frustrating to miss out on some of it. it seems rather stupid that this incident had to happen at all. the disruption caused widespread chaos, affecting 1,000 flights and 150,000 passengers. today, six flights have been cancelled, but the airport hopes to run the majority of services. 0ne estimate is that the disruption is costing airlines around £15 million as they refund customers and make arrangements for others to get to their destination in time for christmas. jenny kumah, bbc news. 0ur correspondent caroline davies has the latest from gatwick airport. it does seem to be getting back to normal hearing gatwick airport. there's been a steady stream of people coming through from arrivals, and the noise of aircraft engines

taking off overhead. gatwick did tell us that six flights were cancelled this morning, but i have just heard from them that 757 that we re just heard from them that 757 that were expected to run did run today, and that there were no significant delays. they have also said that they are continuing to monitor the airfield closely. now, with the number of people in the number of flights involved in this disruption and this chaos, of course, there are and this chaos, of course, there are a backlog of passengers waiting to try and get to their destination. now, tomorrow, gatwick say that they are expecting to operate a normal service. they have 785 flights in total expected to be taking off from here. because of the knock—on effect, potentially, they have said to be on the safe side, anyone expecting to travel to check before they go to the airport. a special sitting of the us senate has ended without a deal, to stop a partial shutdown of the american government. the row is over funding that president trump is demanding for a border wall with mexico. 0ur washington correspondent chris buckler is at the white house. just explain this impasse to us and

what has happened this evening. just explain this impasse to us and what has happened this eveningm basically donald trump is trying to push for $5 billion in order to build that long promised border wall between mexico and america. something he pledged to do during his campaign, but which he has found it very difficult to actually get the money for. at one stage he was saying mexico would pay for it. in reality, he is asking the us taxpayer. democrats say they will not accept that. as a result, there is currently a major row which are stopping funding for the government. he basically says he will not allow the finance bill to go forward u nless the finance bill to go forward unless money for the wall is included. without that, as a result, there is a deadlock that means that there is a deadlock that means that the funding bill cannot get through. some government buildings are having to be shot. some employees will not be paid. some employees are being placed on unpaid leave. —— shut.

senate and congress have been told to get together and to try to sort all of this out. they did so in a special sitting of the senate which took place just ahead of christmas itself. but they failed to be any come from ice today. as a result, this shutdown is going to continue over christmas, affecting hundreds of thousands of federal employees and it can't be solved until thursday at the earliest when congress will resume again. what is likely to happen next? the question is whether donald trump axed out the democrats do. certainly if you listened to the rather unvested conversation that was taking place inside congress today, it was very clear that both sides are blaming each other. republicans say democrats are taking advantage and trying to push their own agenda. as far as the democrats are concerned, they believe a republican president has caused this problem, leading to what they describe as a trump shutdown, because of what they describe as a temper tantrum over

his border wall. in the meantime, donald trump was due to go to mara largo for christmas, but will stay at the white house because of this problem. he will try to come to some kind of a conclusion, some kind of a compromise. at the moment it feels like this 3—way negotiations between republicans, democrats, and the president himself is really not getting anywhere and there is this fear that the shutdown could potentially last into january. 0k, chris, many thanks. chris buckler there. the headlines on bbc news: the former leader of the liberal democrats lord paddy ashdown has died at the age of 77. he led the liberal democrats for over a decade and was the first leader after the party merged with the social democrats in 1988. police investigating the drones at gatwick search a house in west sussex, following the arrest of a man and a woman from crawley. sport and for a full round up,

from the bbc sport centre. thank you very much. good evening. 0le gunnar solskjaer has got his tenure as manchester united caretaker manager of to a great start. united completed an emphatic 5—1 win at cardiff city. it's the first time united have scored five in the league since sir alex ferguson was manager overfive years ago. joe lynskey reports. this is the week manchester united sought out a fresh start with an old place. 0le gunnar solskjaer became an icon of the bench. his new short—term cameo is to lift the mood from there. and just like his playing days, his presence brought an impact. it is marcus rashford. the perfect start. marcus rashford rewarded for new—found ambition. it was part of a starting line that

included paul pogba. back in the 11, the world cup ander herrera player set up to make things better. this brought solskjaer back to the club he had managed four years ago. had he had managed four years ago. had he still been carved's boss this handball decision would have been more welcomed —— cardiff. that setback brought the best from united's attacking talent. the interchange more fitting of the quality they have had all along. that is superb for manchester united. and after the break, jesse lingard's run brought the chance for a fourth goal. england man got up to finish it himself will stop 4—1, but still time for more of the free—flowing approach. pol pot bag an setting upjesse lingard for a fifth. these are the early days. —— pogba. they are good players. we knew that

we would not beat cardiff if it became a fight. they are better than us, bigger than us, became a fight. they are better than us, biggerthan us, if became a fight. they are better than us, bigger than us, if the ball is up us, bigger than us, if the ball is up in the air, so we had to get the ball down, pass it quickly, move quickly. the third goal, that was just a different class. earlier, champions manchester city fell to a shock 3—2 defeat to crystal palace. city took the lead through ilkay gundogan. but palace staged a remarkable comeback — goals from jeff schlupp, andros townsend, and a luka milivojevic penalty made it 3—1 kevin de bruyne pulled one back but it wasn't enough. it's city's first home defeat of the season and they're now four points behind league leaders liverpool. there was another shock at stamford bridge where jamie vardy scored the only goal of the match as leicester beat chelsea. chelsea stay fourth — ahead of arsenal only on goal difference. here's the rest of today's premier league scores. bournemouth beat brighton. southampton have chalked up their second win in a row under new manager ralph hassenhuttl. they won 3—1 at huddersfield. newcastle and fulham drew 0—0, while watford won 2—0 at west ham. celtic are three points clear at

the top of the scottish premiership after a comfortable 3—0 win at home to dundee. aberdeen are up to second after a 2—0 win at home to hearts. kilmarnock drop down to fourth after being held 1—1 at hamilton. struggling st mirren had a welcome win at motherwell. rangers play at st johnstone tomorrow. hibernian and livingston shared the spoils at easter road. livingston took the lead through ryan hardie. hibs had a penalty saved before ryan porteous headed an equaliser. the result means livingston stay sixth — one point ahead of hibs. in rugby union, exeter beat saracens and replaced them at the top of the premiership. saracens had been on a 22 match unbeaten run but exeter were too good for them at sandy park running out 31—13 winners. elsewhere today there was a big win for leicester over harlequins, whilst sale comfortably beat bristol. in the pro 1a leinster produced a stunning comeback to beat connacht and establish a 16 point lead at the top of conference b leinster

scored 21 points in a dramatic closing ten minutes and andrew porter burrowed over for a try deep into injury time to snatch a 33—29 win. edinburgh are up to fourth in conference b after a comprehensive 23—7 win over derby rivals glasgow warriors at murrayfield. duhan van der merwe scored two tries for edinburgh. earlier 0spreys beat scarlets 19—12 at the liberty stadium. and that is all your support for now. many thanks. retailers hoping for a last—minute rush of christmas shoppers on so called super saturday have been left disappointed. footfall on the high street is down again this year, to its lowest level since the 2008 recession.

sarah corker has more from leeds. # joy to the world, the lord has come... with three days to go until christmas, millions of us are hitting the high street to bag those last few presents. in leeds today, shoppers were certainly getting into the festive mood. so we tried to get things online, but then you can't feel it and touch it, so we've come into leeds because you get the atmosphere, and to me the two days before christmas, where everyone is running around getting shopping, are kind of like a nice atmosphere, it's quite nice to come out and see everybody. it's actually quite stressful, i'm in such a bad mood. i can't find anything i want, i should have prepared, but it happens every year. why have you left it until the last minute then? i always do, every year. it's not last minute — christmas eve is last minute. i have seven grandchildren, ranging from nine months to 23, so... so you've got all the food to feed the family. oh yeah, definitely. shoppers are expected to spend more than £1 billion today, which has been nicknamed super saturday, and many retailers are banking on that last—minute rush

to boost sales after a difficult run—up to christmas on the high street. prices are being slashed to boost sales and shift stock. 2018 has been one of the toughest years on record for retailers, who are being squeezed by rising costs and online competition. today is normally the busiest day for christmas shoppers in the lead up to christmas, but this year the situation is different and consumers are feeling less confident around the future so they have been reining back their spending, so footfall, the volume of activity, the number of people going to retail destinations, is lower than last year. even for internet retailers, sales this season have been lower than expected. it's christmas, you should be organised! one thing people are splashing out on today is turkey and all the trimmings. it has been non—stop since 6:30am. we were here at 5:30am. today, we're hoping to be five times busier than a normal saturday and we have the staff in to cope with that. so it may still be one of the busiest shopping days, but this year more than ever, the high street has lost some

of its sparkle. sarah corker, bbc news, in leeds. church attendance in the uk has been in steady decline in recent years — but not in cathedrals. they're bucking that trend with a 13 % rise in attendance in the last decade. 0ur religious affairs editor martin bashir has the story. is wise men followed a star, then what would they make of this? —— is. a laser light show at lichfield cathedral in the run—up to christmas. £6 for adults, cathedral in the run—up to christmas. £6 foradults, £4 for children, and it's a sell—out. inside this mediaeval cathedral, 22,000 doubs float above the need, modern technology telling the

ancient story of peace on earth. -- doves. you can see ancient story of peace on earth. -- doves. you can see as ancient story of peace on earth. -- doves. you can see as you walk in, it draws you in. absolutely brilliant. think it is really good to come and see something like this locally. the spectacular light show is also having an impact here. a recent study found that cathedrals give a £200 million boost to their local high streets. with all the light shows and all their events, it is bringing in a lot more people to litchfield, which is great for the bars, the restaurants, the shops. attendance at litchfield is up 25%. and while they are reluctant to a tribute this to any single cause, bedene says that cathedrals have worked hard at improving their products that make the bedene. combining the tranquillity of a sacred space with the stimulus of modern media. what has any of this to do with the message of a saviour

who is christ the lord born at christmas? the message of the angels wasjordie. i christmas? the message of the angels was jordie. i bring christmas? the message of the angels wasjordie. i bring you news of great joy. when you wasjordie. i bring you news of greatjoy. when you look in the face ofa greatjoy. when you look in the face of a newborn child is you experience jov- of a newborn child is you experience joy. it is that experience of non— anxiety, ofjoyfulfreedom, joy. it is that experience of non— anxiety, of joyful freedom, that joy. it is that experience of non— anxiety, ofjoyfulfreedom, that we wa nt to anxiety, ofjoyfulfreedom, that we want to put people in touch with. the light of the world has certainly come to the midlands. martin bashir, bbc news, at lichfield cathedral. and we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers martin bentham from the evening standard and sian griffiths, education editor at the sunday times — that's coming up after the headlines at 11:30. now it's time for a look at the weather with helen willets. good evening. considering the days are so short at this time of the air, we did not do too bad with nearly six hours of sunshine in essex. at the other end of the

country, lots of showers. we had nearly an inch of rain in the islands. we will turn the tables as we go into sunday, because we have cloudier weather to come. it looks like today has been the brightest half of the weekend for the majority, because these weather fronts are gathering out to the wes thomas, bringing their rhaney to the southwest approaches. they are all tied with this area of high pressure —— bringing their the rain into the southwest approaches. we have sunshine around. the sunshine faded. we have the dark skies, the showers with us across the north and the west. those showers will continue temporarily, i think, west. those showers will continue temporarily, ithink, across west. those showers will continue temporarily, i think, across england and wales. they will keep going across the coast of scotland. this is what takes centre stage. this is the rain coming in. not great for travelling. standing water on the roads across southern and western areas of wales by the time we get the morning. mist and fog ahead of it in eastern england, certainly for scotla nd it in eastern england, certainly for scotland where we expect a frost and

a fault. there is little strength in the sunshine. for the majority, a different complexion to the weather with the weather front sat across the country. it is cloudy, outbreaks of rain, heavy rain at times. the low cloud wil trapp the hills in fog. it will be great, misty, and dank, even when we do not have the heavy rain which is likely across north wales, northern england for a time. to the north of that they sunnier skies. after the falklands it looks like with spells of sunshine for much of scotland, northern and central areas —— after the fog clears. temperatures today, six and seven, mild with the soggy air further south. the six and seven, mild with the soggy airfurther south. the rain still with us as we go through tomorrow evening and overnight. with high pressure building in it tends to squeeze the rain out. there will not be much rain by monday morning. that said, a more widespread frost on monday morning down into the midlands, parts of east anglia and wales. it means that it will be much brighter, more sunshine, drierfor

christmas eve for most of us, except the south and west where we hang on to be mild and cloudy and at times damp weather. two or three further north, particularly where the fog lingers. that will be an issue. christmas day sees the weather front returning, not with much rain, it is dry for most of us, but it brings the cloud. i wish i could tell better. but at the moment that is how it is