this is bbc news. the headlines at apm: another group of migrants cross the channel and arrive in kent as the home secretary cuts short his holiday to deal with the crisis. the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, has urged the uk to "get its act together" over brexit. also this hour, a british couple, whose son was murdered by his chinese wife, have won custody of one of their grandchildren after a long legal battle. ian and linda simpson reached a deal with a court in china, but have been forced to leave their grand—son behind. polls have closed in a general election in bangladesh that has been marred by violence and accusations of vote rigging. and there could be a clue in the name for the favourite as it's tipped to scoop several awards at this year's oscars. and in half an hour — a special edition of witness, which looks back at some of most compelling stories of 2018, from reflections on the russian revolution, to the doctor who saved bulgaria's dancing bears.

good afternoon. the home office says six more migrants have been detained this morning by border force officials after arriving on a beach in kent. the men who are originally from iran, arrived by boat at kingsdown on the south coast. more than 200 migrants have arrived there in the past two months, and the home secretary sajid javid has cut short his holiday to address the problem. our political correspondent jessica parker has this report. a group of iranian nationals sit disorientated on a beach in kent. they arrived on an inflatable boat, this morning. they attract a crowd as border force officials try to arrange medical assessments and a transfer

to immigration officials. the images come as the home secretary has cut short his christmas break abroad, amid accusations that he's failed to get a grip on this crisis. sajid javid is facing questions from fellow tory mps over why only one of the border force's fleet of five cutters is currently operational in the dover strait. more boats to catch traffickers and apprehend them and bring them to justice. more boats to work hand in glove with the french authorities to ensure that these people are returned back to the northern french coast. the best deterrent is that people can't get across the channel and the best deterrent is to help people back to the french northern coast and they tell everyone else there's no point coming, because they won't get across. sajid javid has spoken to france's interior minister today and earlier, in a statement the home secretary said: an intensified effort to clear

migrant camps in the autumn has, it's thought, led more people to try and leave france, with organised crime gangs facilitating many of these journeys. so, a cross—border solution is clearly needed, with france and the uk today agreeing to step up their shared efforts. government ministers want to show they're in control. the home secretary's arrival back in the uk a signal that this issue will be tackled from the top. but with today's latest landing on the uk's shores, critics will be far from convinced. jessica parker, bbc news. our correspondent, alexandra mackenzie, was in kingsdown and sent us this update. we know this is the beach where they came ashore, this morning, around 7:30am. they were discovered. we are about a 20 minute along

the shore from dover here. i spoke to a man who was walking his dog this morning, as he does every morning. he said he knew straightaway there was something going on quite different this morning. he looked out to sea and saw a border force cutter and he said it was unusually very close to the shore. he then saw the six men, who we understand are iranian. he said they looked exhausted from their journey. they were obviously soaking wet from their journey. he said they were being looked after. they had obviously had a very difficult night, even though it is a mild december, it would have been very cold out in the channel in the early hours of this morning. we have had a statement from the home office, who have confirmed the men are iranian. they said they were initially taken

away for that medical examination that was mentioned in the report. just to see if they had hypothermia. it was obviously very cold... or any ill effects from the journey overnight. and then they were taken to talk to immigration. we don't know exactly where they are or what has happened to them now. i spoke to one local man and he said he was extremely angry about what has happened and the increased number of migrants who have been coming over during november and december. he is calling on the home secretary to do something and quickly. on that note, if we assume there will be more attempts, what is being done to try to intercept these boats that are being used to cross the channel? that is what is being discussed over the last couple of days. people have very different views on what should be done. we talked about the border force cutter ship.

there is only one here, at the moment. border force are calling that others may be brought here, that that would help patrol the channel and hopefully deter more people leaving france and heading for the uk. the home secretary has said that any decision on that will not be made at this stage. because he thinks that might have the opposite effect and may actually encourage more people to come, as they may think that the crossing would be safer, because there would be more patrols in the channel to aid their journey across. the home secretary, we are told by the home office, will lead a meeting on monday to discuss further action with senior officials from uk

government departments and agencies, including the border force at national crime agency. we are also told, following a phone call with his french counterpart, the french interior minister, that they will have a face—to—face meeting in january, to assess whether further action is needed. in the meantime, they have agreed to launch what they are calling an enhanced action plan on migrants crossing the channel. the european commission president, jean—claude juncker, has called on britain to "get its act together", and stop expecting the eu to solve its brexit problems. mrjuncker said brussels isn't trying to stop the uk leaving, and the eu is ready to open talks on future relations, if mps approve the deal it agreed with theresa may, last month. the department for transport has been defending a decision to award a contract for nearly £14 million to a shipping company with no trading record, as part of its preparations for a possible no—deal brexit. seaborne freight has been contracted to provide ferries to carry goods vehicles across the channel. earlier i spoke tojoe miller in ramsgate, where the company plans to operate its services and asked him what more we know about the company.

this is part of a government process. over the last couple of months, it has been quietly awarding contracts to three shipping companies to provide additionalfreight capacity across the channel, in the event of a no—deal brexit causing congestion at dover and on roads down to the coast. two of those companies are big international firms. one of them was seabourne freight, as you mentioned. it was awarded £14 million, to provide emergency ferry freight services from here in ramsgate to belgium. as of a few weeks ago, it was, essentially, only existing on paper, as a company, valued at around £70. and it had certainly never sailed a vessel. the company says it can get up and running in ramsgate in time for brexit day on 29th of march. the department for transport says it has done all the checks that

are needed in order to make sure that this company can get up and running and it's run by people with quite a good track record in the industry. local councillors say ramsgate port hasn't been operational as a freight terminal for at least five years. they don't think it can be up and running in time and they are baffled as to why this company has been awarded this contract. you have a direct contradiction. at this point, does seabourne freight actually have a physical presence, does it have any boats, now? not as far as we can tell. the company says that it does have contracts in place, so it will be operational at the end of march. it won't give us any details of those contracts. some local councillors have been trying to get details of those contracts, of seabourne‘s operations for some time. nonetheless, the department for transport says it admits this company hasn't provided facilities

in the past, but it is a company that can provide these services in the event of a no—deal brexit. of course, the government's policy and the department for transport policy is to still pursue a deal with the eu and it thinks it will not actually need these contingency plans. they are just there, in case. a 21—year—old man has died, following an incident outside a house in wigan. officers were called by the ambulance service shortly after 9:30pm on friday evening, following reports a man had been assaulted on bickershaw lane in abram. william livesley was taken to hospital but died from his injuries yesterday. police are questioning a 57—year—old man. the health secretary, matt hancock, has set out plans to provide better support for mothers and babies in england to try to halve the number of stillbirths, and maternal and infant deaths by 2025. he said the measures would make the nhs the best place in the world to give birth.

0ur health correspondent smitha mundasad reports. more than 646,000 babies were born in england, last year. and the vast majority of new arrivals were delivered safe and well. but, tragically, this is not always the case. in 2017, there were 2,679 stillbirths. and last year, 1,857 babies died in their first month of life. there have been steady improvements in the last few years. but there are concerns that england's maternity services lag behind some other european countries. the health secretary's ambition is to make england the best place to give birth in the world. there's a whole package of safety measures around maternity care to make sure that we have the right number of midwives. we will have 3,000 more midwives. we've got record midwives in training at the moment.

and we want to make sure that the very best care that we see in the best hospitals is replicated right across the country. the new measures include more specialist neonatal staff to care for newborns. and more cots in intensive care. more mothers will get physiotherapy after childbirth. and child health records, known by many as the red book, will soon be available on smartphones, making it easier to share information between parents, carers and the nhs. the hope is these measures will go some way to helping the nhs save an additional 4,000 lives by 2025. but some will argue that much more needs to be done to keep both mothers and babies safe. smitha mundasad, bbc news. tributes have been paid to the much—loved actress dame june whitfield, who's died at the age of 93. the actresses jennifer saunders

and joanna lumley — who starred alongside damejune in the hit comedy drama absolutely fabulous — say she became "a dearfriend". 0ur arts correspondent david sillito looks back at her career that spanned eight decades. # wheels on fire # rolling down the road...# june whitfield had been part of british comedy for more than a0 years, when she was cast in absolutely fabulous. inside of me, inside of me there is a thin personjust screaming to get out. just the one, dear? laughter paying tribute, jennifer saunders said, "it's so tremendously sad to lose june. "she became a dearfriend. "she lived and worked with an extraordinary grace." joanna lumley said she was heartbroken to lose such a friend. julia sawalha thanked herfor teaching her the craft of comedy. they were skills learned at rada and on the set of one of the biggest radio shows of the 50s, take it from here. 0oh, wrong!

her life after that reads like a who's who of the greatest names of comedy. oh, i see you wish to become a blood donor? i certainly do. tony hancock. benny hill. frankie howerd. and a 20—year partnership with terry scott. i'm talking about food. what about eating out? what about the garage? 0h, i'd much prefer a restaurant. when she became damejune whitfield, it was in honour of more than 1,300 appearances on tv, radio and film. as the writer denis norden once said, it was a mystery how anyone could do a comedy show without june whitfield. dame june whitfield, who has died at the age of 93. councils in england should be forced to consult local communities

before cutting down trees, according to proposals from the environment secretary michael gove. it follows three years of protests in sheffield, where more than 5—thousand trees were chopped down and replaced. mr gove says it's right that residents have a say. the labour mp lucy powell has accused private schools of cheating the exam system to improve their results, by entering pupils for international gcses. the exams have been criticised as less rigorous than the standard exams taken by most state school pupils. in a statement, the department for education said "the international gcses had not been through the same approval and quality control process as the new gold standard gcses, which is why they are no longer recognised in school performance tables. " the headlines on bbc news: another group of migrants cross the channel and arrive in kent, as the uk and france agree to step up action to deal with the problem. the president of the european

commission, jean—claude juncker, has urged the uk to "get its act together" over brexit. a british couple, whose son was murdered by his chinese wife, have won custody of one of their grandchildren after a long legal battle — but have been forced to leave their grand—son behind. sport and here's a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. there are four matches in the premier league this afternoon, which kicked off with an important win for chelsea. their 1—0 victory over crystal palace at selhurst park increased the gap between themselves and fifth—placed arsenal to five points. in a game of few clear cut chances, it was n'golo kante who scored the winner after 51 minutes. willian and ross barkley also came close for maurizio sarri's men. palace meanwhile took 85 minutes to register their first effort and remain 14th in the table.

difficult match, but i am happy with the team, because i think that we we re the team, because i think that we were in full control of the match, for 85 minutes. then we didn't kill the match. we have to fight again in the match. we have to fight again in the last five minutes. i think we played a very good match, especially in the second half, with the right intensity. elsewhere, burnley picked up their first win after three defeats, beating west ham 2—0. manchester city move back up to second in the table, seven behind liverpool — after their 3—1 win over southampton. and kicking off in around 15 minutes — a rejuvenated manchester united under 0le gunnar solskaer host bournemouth. a 65—year—old hibernian fan has been charged over the alleged racial abuse of hearts‘ clevid dikamona during saturday's edinburgh derby. television pictures from the 1—0 hearts win showed a home fan apparently shouting at the player. a hibs spokesman described

the alleged incident as "unacceptable. " two big games in rugby union's premiership this afternoon. bath are taking on leicester at the rec, a win for either side will see them jump into the top six. leicester took an early lead but the home side have fought back into the game — they lead 15—7. in the day's other premiership fixture, newcastle lead bristol by 20—17 at ashton gate — a win will lift newcastle off the bottom of the table. in the pro 1a — dragons are beating 0spreys 20—9. great britain have lost their latest hopman cup group match against switzerland. cameron norrie was beaten 6—1 by roger federer in the first rubber. norrie had the unenviable task of trying to defeat the man who's won 20 grand slam titles and was easily swept aside. katie boulter then lost her singles rubber against belinda bencic in straight sets. britain won theirfirst

match against greece, so still have an outside chance of reaching the final. india's cricketers have beaten australia in melbourne to go 2—1 up in the four—test series. australia still needed 1111 more runs to win at the start of the final day, but only had two wickets remaining — they lost both of those for just three runs. it was the first time india have won a test match in melbourne since 1981. we always knew that we can do this, so we are very happy. but we are not shocked or very surprised by what has happened. we always believed this was very possible, because of the talent we have in the side and the mindset we have carried for the last 12 months, regardless of what has been said. regardless of the mistakes we have made. but our mindset never shifted once. staying with cricket — australia's cameron bancroft could manage only two, on his competitve return to the sport this morning. bancroft was one of three players banned for ball tampering during a test match against south africa, last march.

he was playing for perth scorchers against hobart hurricanes this morning, but was out after facing just three balls. hobart easily chased down their target of 108 with six wickets and 15 balls to spare. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. a british couple whose son was murdered by his chinese wife have won custody of one of their grandchildren after a long legal battle. ian and linda simpson are due to return to the uk later this week, after reaching a deal during a court hearing over christmas in rural china. but they've been forced to leave their other grandchild behind. robin brant in shanghai has the latest on the family's struggle. they have been campaigning for almost two years now, since their son, michael, was murdered by weiwei fu, she was his wife at the time and the mother of the children. she stabbed him to death in an attack in an apartment

here in shanghai. the simpsons have been trying to get custody of the grandchildren, they've been fighting a long legal battle, that has invovled mps, the government here, lawyers and chinese officials, as well. that all came to a head about ten days ago, when a court hearing took place. they face the unimaginable decision of having to either take just one of the grandchildren, alice, which is what the chinese grandparents were offering, and the chinese courts supported that, or neither of them. they have struck a deal to take alice back to the uk with them but their grandson, jack, who is a little older, will stay here in china. they say their campaign goes on to have both children in the uk. for now, this is progress of sorts, for this family who have been through the awful trauma of first, losing their son, who was murdered, and then fighting for custody of their grandchildren. they have alice and they're waiting for some paperwork here in shanghai.

you can only begin to imagine how dreadful that decision must have been, when it came to what was on the table. polls have closed in a general election in bangladesh that has been marred by violence and accusations of vote rigging. at least 15 people have died in clashes between supporters of rival political parties. the prime minister, sheikh hasina, is seeking a third successive term. 0ur report from yogita limaye contains some flash photography. an indoor basketball court was, for the day, turned into the women's section of a polling booth. people filed in, searched for their name on a list, and after they cast their vote, their fingers were marked with ink. bangladesh's prime minister, sheikh hasina, has already been in powerfor ten years. but she's confident she'll be back. "i firmly believe that we'll win the election," she said. she is accused of cracking down on the opposition,

which says it hasn't had a fair chance to contest. people have been killed. people are being arrested. candidates are being arrested. it is unprecedented. unprecedented, unheard—of, could not be dreamt of. these are workers from prime minister hasina's awami league, standing outside a polling booth, and this is something we've seen across the city of dhaka today. behind me all of the political posters you can see are from the same party. in contrast, the presence of the opposition on the streets is really hard to find, leading to serious questions about whether this election has been fair. that left people split on whether they wanted to participate. translation: the process was ok. i was a bit worried that my vote might have been stolen but i did get to vote. translation: i thought that this election won't be a fair election. all the parties did not get equal opportunities to campaign. that is why i did not cast my vote. in one part of bangladesh, the bbc saw ballot boxes which had been filled even

before polling began. despite heavy security presence, there was violence in some parts of the country. the prime minister's party is credited with bringing development to bangladesh and clamping down on islamist militancy, but her critics say none of that can be at the cost of democracy. yogita limaye, bbc news, dhaka. anti—government demonstrations have continued across france for a seventh weekend — with the so—called yellow vest protesters taking to the streets. police fired tear gas in paris and barricades were set alight in bordeaux. georgina smythe has the story. the seventh saturday of yellow vest protests. this scene, filmed by onlookers on the streets of paris, the latest in a movement that ignited with fuel tax increases and exploded into so much more. an olive branch of tax and salary concessions was offered by president macron early this

month, but anger is still high across france. in bordeaux, police barricades were hijacked by demonstrators, stacked high and set alight. further north, in nantes, canisters of tear gas were deployed, as peaceful demonstrations turned violent. translation: we will continue until we win, until macron backs down and gives us what we deserve — more purchasing power, less taxes, a healthy life, without having to tighten and tighten the belt at the end of every single month. in the capital, yellow vests converged on the steps of media outlets, ensuring the movement stays firmly on the news agenda. translation: i don't think we are slowing down. i think there is a desire to discredit the movement, a willingness to say the yellow vests are slowing down. but that is not the case. organisers of the capital's new year's eve fireworks and light

show say preparations will continue for the event, despite plans for more protests on the night. a message to the government that the movement will not fade for 2019. georgina smyth, bbc news. a man credited with saving the lives of about 350 jewish children during the second world war has died, aged 108. george loinger would take the children to play football on a pitch near the border with neutral switzerland — where they'd slip through an unguarded fence to safety. the resistance hero was later awarded the french military cross, and the holocaust memorial foundation described him as an "exceptional man". the favourite is one of the leading contenders at the forthcoming awards season. the film is set in the early 18th century, when a frail queen anne, played by olivia colman, occupies the throne. here's our entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba. dearest queen, how goes the kingdom?

this oscar—tipped comedy—drama follows the behind—the—scenes manoeuvring as everyone tries to win favour with an eccentric queen. look at me! how dare you?! close your eyes! playing two of the scheming characters, a pair of britain's brightest young stars — joe alwyn and nicholas hoult. harley's a politician who's playing the chess game of the court, essentially, and trying to get to the queen's ear, because then he knows he can gain what he wants in that world. so, yeah, he's very manipulative. i'm not the brightest character. i think i'm a bit of an airhead, and i run around lustfully after abigail, who emma plays. there's this kind of cat—and—mouse power play between the two of them in the scenes that they're together, and she uses him. he has some status, and she uses him for that. although set in the 18th century, the story explores power and relationships in a way that still has a relevance today. go back to your rooms.

thank you. making these things isn't — when you're kind of inside the bubble of it, it isn't something you're necessarily aware of. but when it comes out, especially in the current climate, there are comparisons — both in terms of politics, or even gender politics. he's referring to the fact that, unusually for hollywood, the three most powerful characters are all women — a refreshing and significant change to the kind of films the cast are used to being offered. sometimes, you read scripts, and i've noticed it before, where you read it and you go, that's not a well—developed female character, or it's trying to be put into an archetype that doesn't exist. so, yes, it's important for it to reflect what's happening in society, definitely. may i exhort the chamber to roar a mighty hurrah for her majesty in her brilliant decision not to raise the land tax? hurrah! the film is overflowing with british talent, something often seen as a quality mark to us audiences.

it's the accent! he laughs. i think we're hard—working, i think that's something about it, and also, we love what we do. i think sometimes — nearly all the brits that i know are in it for the right reasons. you know, so that's a big thing for it. but, yeah, also the accent. it has already been recognised at award ceremonies here and in the us, and if the favourite ends up living up to its name at next year's academy awards, few will be surprised. lizo mzimba, bbc news. parts of japan have been hit by heavy snow. in some areas nearly two metres of snow has piled up — much more than the seasonal average. blizzards are forecast to continue through the rest of the weekend, mainly in the coastal areas. officials are urging people to make preparations for snowstorms, high waves, and frozen roads. now it's time for a look at the weather with mel coles. hopefully not the same weather.

hello, there. high—pressure will continue to berule the roost for the coming week — which will be a big influence on the feel of our weather. at the moment, it is mild, but with a lot of cloud around. this area of high—pressure is sitting towards the south, dragging in southerly or south—westerly winds. quite a mild direction to be coming from, but there is a lot of moisture in there, so we are seeing a lot of cloud. through the day today, the best of the breaks will favour eastern areas — aberdeenshire seeing the lion's share of it. temperatures in double figures across the board. as we head into this evening, there are a few breaks in that cloud seeing the return of some mist and fog.