new pressure on the transport secretary — as the government is forced to pay out £33 million to eurotunnel to settle a legal claim. the government signed contracts with three ferry companies to keep goods moving smoothly in the event of a no—deal brexit, but eurotunnel said it was done in a secretive way. we will have the latest on that. and later in the programme — we'll be reporting some of the stories you've told us you want to hear on brexit. also this lunchtime — on the verge of freedom — the indian fighter pilot captured by pakistan is about to be released. social media firms are urged to do more to tackle child grooming, after 5,000 online offences

were recorded injust 18 months. wanted — the son of 0sama bin laden: america puts a $1 million bounty on his head. and coming up on bbc news — great britain's katerina johnson—thompson makes an excellent start to the defence of her pentathlon title at the european indoor championships in glasgow. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. the government is paying £33 million to eurotunnel — to settle a lawsuit over extra ferry services in the event of a no—deal brexit. the company which runs the channel tunnel — said the government had acted

in a secretive way when it awarded contracts to three companies to ensure goods continue to flow into britain smoothly. the transport secretary chris grayling has been heavily criticised for his role in the affair, but this morning downing street said the prime minister still has full confidence in him. our business correspondent, joe miller with me now. how did the government get into this position? you may remember it is the now cancelled contract with seaborne freight which the bbc found it had never sailed a vessel which brought this issue into the public eye in the first place, but it is the government's handling of the entire procurement process for these no dealferries procurement process for these no deal ferries that led to the department for transport having to pay the £33 million of taxpayers‘ money because eurotunnel essentially claimed that the way in which these we re claimed that the way in which these were awarded, there wasn‘t a public procurement process, the department for transport says there wasn‘t time, eurotunnel said its business was being disadvantaged and was

willing to take the government to court on that basis, and also saying that the government actually didn‘t need to put this through in a hurry, but it could have predicted a no—deal brexit for many, many months before these contracts were awarded in december last year. sources familiar to the case so the government was being held over a barrel and if it didn‘t settle this case, these are the contracts could have been cancelled and vital supplies in the event of a no—deal brexit would have been held up at uk ports. the entire issue adds pressure to chris grayling and his department. today we have heard that his tenure at the ministry of justice may have spent money, up to £500 million, on contracts which cost the taxpayer quite a lot of money. then you have this 33 million, which will add extreme pressure to mr grayling. joe miller, thank you very much indeed. joe miller, our business correspondent.

theresa may‘s former chief of staff has criticised her brexit strategy. nick timothy said the prime minister sees brexit as a "damage limitation exercise". mr timothy resigned after the last election when the prime minister failed to secure an overall majority. speaking in his first tv interview, mr timothy said the prime minister hadn‘t taken the steps needed to make the most of leaving the eu. 0ur political correspondent, alex forsyth, is in westminster. nick timothy was one of theresa may‘s closest aides, one of her closest allies, it was in her inner circle and what he suggested in this interview was despite the fact theresa may repeatedly talked about britain‘s bright future after brexit, her heart has never really beenin brexit, her heart has never really been in it. she said she and some other ministers have struggled to see the economic upside of leaving the eu. as you mentioned, mr timothy had to quit hisjob in government because he was in part blamed for the failings of the 2017 general election. he talked about the impact of that election result on the prime

minister and on himself. how do you think she felt about the result? well, i think it was written on her face on the day. she was shocked, hurt, disappointed, and i think, worried, because she knew how difficult it would be to get brexit with the arithmetic she had inherited and now it had become slightly harder. i think quite a lot of things went wrong with the election campaign and i take responsibility for that, yes. what do you feel when you see her? as somebody who has been very close to her and respects and likes her, to be honest, ifeel quite sad about where we are right now. but the big problem is that many ministers, and i would include theresa in this, struggle to see any economic upside to brexit. they see it as a damage limitation exercise. this isn‘t the first time that nick timothy has criticised the prime

minister‘s brexit strategy. he himself is a brexiteer and a newspaper articles in the past, she dumped he suggested she has taken the wrong direction. sources close to the prime ministers say they disagree with his view and point out that she has been wholly committed to the brexit process. but i think his comments will no doubt confirm the suspicion in the minds of some brexiteers that the prime minister has always been something of a relu cta nt has always been something of a reluctant leaver. thank you, alex forsyth, our political correspondent. the indian fighter pilot captured by pakistan two days ago is expected to be released any time now. thousands of people have gathered on the indian side of the wagah border crossing point, waiting to give him a hero‘s welcome home. there are hopes the pilot‘s release could defuse tensions between the nuclear powers over the disputed region of kashmir, which both pakistan and india claim as their own. the neighbours have fought three wars since independence in 19117. rajini vaidya nathan reports from the border.

on his way home to india, the pilot this country is hailing a hero. from the early hours of the morning, jubilant crowds have been waiting for the return of wing commander abhinandan varthaman. i‘ve come here from delhi. i want to see my pilot, i‘m proud of him. i want to see him back. there‘s been a real sense of national pride and patriotism here today, and a sense of triumph. but make no mistake about it. the tensions between these two nuclear neighbours might have dampened down in the last day or two, but they certainly have not gone away. i hope you‘ve been treated well here with us. yes, i have. wing commander varthaman was captured after the fighterjet he was flying was shot down earlier this week. pakistan said he had violated their airspace. india says it was responding after pakistani warplanes entered its territory.

news archive: it's impossible to check the figures of knocked out tanks. for decades there have been tensions between the two neighbours over the disputed area of kashmir, which both claim in its entirety. this recent military escalation followed a suicide attack by a militant group based in pakistan on 14th february. a0 indian soldiers were killed in indian—administered kashmir. india accuses pakistan of harbouring terror cells. today, at a rally ahead of upcoming elections, the country‘s prime minister narendra modi took a tough stance. this is an india that will return the damage done by terrorists, he told the crowd. these two nuclear powers may have walked back from the brink of war, but peace here remains fragile. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, amritsar. 0ur correspondent sangita myska is in delhi.

we have been waiting for the pilot to actually be released across the border. what is the latest? we are waiting for official confirmation that he has in fact passed from pakistan onto indian territory, but that could take some time. there are a number of procedural things he has to go through first. for a start he will have to undergo a medical check and we expect that probably to be done by the international red cross in order to check that he hasn‘t been mistreated. then, would you believe it, he must clear immigration. those immigration checks have to be done and lots of papers signed to ensure that happens. he will then go through a debrief. that will be done with his air force commanders. what they will be wanting to know is what questions was he asked, how was he treated and what did he tell the pakistanis. and then we understand his parents are waiting to see him, and it is thought that his mother will in fact get priority in that case. she will meet him and then after that it is possible we might get confirmation that the wing commander has returned

to india. sangeeta must go, in delhi, thank you very much indeed. —— sangita myska. as we‘ve just heard, there‘s renewed pressure on chris grayling over his role in the partial privatisation of the probation service in england and wales. a scathing report today from the national audit office says it‘s cost the taxpayer nearly £500 million. the report says mr grayling‘s reforms — when he was thejustice secretary — were rushed and that the number of offenders ending up back in prison has skyrocketed. our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw, reports. they were his flagship reforms when he wasjustice secretary. in 2015, chris grayling split probation between private companies and a national service. he called the process transforming rehabilitation. the aim, to cut reoffending and reduce the cost of crime to society. but the companies‘ contracts are being terminated 1a months early,

and independent experts now say the system was never going to work. 0ur report concludes that the ministry ofjustice set itself up to fail in how it approached these probation reforms, and that the consequences of that is that services have suffered as a result and the decision to end the contracts early will come at additional cost to the taxpayer. the review of transforming rehabilitation raises serious questions about ministry ofjustice decision making. it says the payment—by—results model it used was not well suited to probation. reoffending targets were missed, and taxpayers will have to pay at least £467 million more than under the original terms of the probation contracts. as part of the reforms, probation supervision was extended to prisoners who‘d served short sentences. as a result, the national audit office says the numbers sent back to jail for breaching their release conditions has skyrocketed. there was no need to go down this privatisation route, there was no need to split

the service into two sectors. we could have managed those cohort of offenders serving short sentences quite easily. the ministry ofjustice accepted the performance of the private probation companies was too often deeply disappointing. but the department said it was spending less than initially forecast. danny shaw, bbc news. five officers have been cleared of misconduct over the death of a musician who died in brixton police station. sean rigg, who had schizophrenia, died after he was restrained while in custody in august 2008. the officers had faced disciplinary proceedings but a misconduct panel found none of the allegations against them were proved. figures obtained by the nspcc show a sharp rise in the use of the social media network instagram to groom young children. altogether, police recorded more than 5,000 online child grooming offences in the 18 months to september in england and wales. sex offenders used instagram for grooming more than any other online platform.

the nspcc has accused social media firms of "ten years of failed self—regulation". keith doyle reports. the nspcc describes it as the wild west web, where children are being groomed online, some as young as five years old. sexual communication with a child has been a crime since 2017. the charity said since then over 5,000 such crimes were recorded by the police. in one of those cases, a 13—year—old girl exchanged sexual messages on social media with a man who first said he was 16. he picked her up, he took her to woods and had sex with her before disappearing completely from social media. an anonymous tip—off led to his arrest. he was 2a years old and he was jailed for five years. the nspcc said instagram, facebook and snapchat together made

up 70% of the cases of online grooming, with instagram being used most. for the period when police first recorded the online platform, instagram was used 126 times to send sexual messages to a child, but that rose to a28 for the same period last year, a threefold rise, and while girls aged 12—15 are the most common targets, one in five victims was aged 11 or under. the figures are hugely concerning. we are looking at thousands of offences. that means thousands of children that have been groomed on the social networks that we know all of our children enjoy being on, that they use everyday. that they use every day. we are really clear the government has to step in. we need to see meaningful statutory regulation because the platforms have demonstrated they won‘t take the steps themselves voluntarily to keep children safe. facebook, which owns instagram, said...

the government says it wants the uk to be the safest place to be online, especially for children, and new laws being proposed tackle online grooming and set out clear responsibilities for social media companies. keith doyle, bbc news. the united states is offering a million dollar reward for information about the son of 0sama bin laden, the late leader of al-qaeda. us officials say hamza bin laden is emerging as the leader of the islamist militant group. in recent years, he‘s called on followers to take revenge on the us and its allies for the killing of his father, who ordered the 9/11 attacks. 0ur washington correspondent chris buckler reports. the united states has published a wanted posterfor hamza bin laden,

and they believe this is the new face of al-qaeda. the group has been responsible for many killings and bombings, but none were more devastating than this. on september 11th 2001, its members flew planes into the twin towers of new york‘s world trade center. one of a series of murderous attacks on america, apparently masterminded by 0sama bin laden. almost two decades on, the us has new concerns about al-qaeda and its late leader‘s son. hamza has released audio and video messages on the internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the united states and its western allies. and he has threatened attacks against the united states in revenge for the may 2011 killing of his father. after a ten—year search, 0sama bin laden was found at a safe house in pakistan and killed in an operation ordered by the then

president barack 0bama. after a firefight, they killed 0sama bin laden and took custody of his body. in the compound they found letters that suggested he was grooming his son hamza to succeed him, and now intelligence officials believe he is emerging as a key leader in the extremist group. today‘s al-qaeda is not stagnant. it‘s rebuilding, and it continues to threaten the united states and our allies. the us is offering $1 million for information that leads them to hamza bin laden. officials believe he could be in afghanistan, pakistan or iran. but they admit they don‘t know for sure. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. the time is 1:17pm. our top story this lunchtime. the transport secretary, chris grayling, is under pressure after the government is forced to pay 33—million pounds

to eurotunnel — to settle a lawsuit over its brexit plans. and still to come... the break in the ice shelf which has forced british scientists to leave their research station in the antarctic. coming up on bbc news — cardiff city rejects claims they abandoned emiliano sala before the flight which led to his death, saying they have serious concerns over the potential unlawfulness of the journey. with less than a month to go before the uk is scheduled to leave the eu, many questions remain unanswered. throughout the day, bbc news is giving a group of viewers the opportunity to contribute their ideas to how its journalists cover brexit. 0ur reporters, chi chi izundu, is in the newsroom with some of them, to see what they want from oui’ coverage.

indeed, we are in one of the largest newsrooms in the world, here in the bbc news room, and today is a different day. even though you can see the journalists working behind me on different news stories, one of the stories that has been on the agenda time and time again is brexit and we‘ve invited some audience members in specifically to talk to editors, exactly what they want to see done on the brexit bishoo. i‘ll be talking to a couple of those shortly but first our reporters have had some in salford. hi, my name‘s tony, i voted to remain in the eu. i believe bbc‘s coverage should have been more positive in terms of showing the opportunities of remaining, as opposed to some of the project fear aspects. hi, my name's marie, and i voted to leave the eu. i feel the bbc's coverage of brexit has been scaremongering and very negative. it's about time we showed the positive aspects of leaving the eu and getting behind our businesses. they don't realise that educated

people in this country knew what they were voting for. they've been scaremongering that much that people think we won't be able to trade and we won't be able to travel. i've been in business 20 years. wind and we are a furniture manufacturer. sam‘s company is based in wigan. brexit will mean big changes. but upon reflection, he thinks it will be a good thing. most people look at brexit being a negative because everybody buys from europe and they think europe wasn't the only place in the world to buy anything. it's the opportunity we've got for people to start saying, do you know what, there are people in the uk who can produce what we want and produce it well. well, the view from marie, from the owner of this company and from many others, seems clear. the coverage of brexit has been too negative. there has been too much of what many call project fear and there should be more about the benefits of leaving the eu. not everyone agrees.

tony, for sure, thinks that way more attention should be given to the positive impact that investment from the eu has had on this country, and what happens after it‘s gone. there is not enough information to give a balanced view in terms of why we are leaving, the benefits of that. so, in the absence of not enough information, we should be staying. we have come to the new extension of manchester‘s metrolink. this network has been assisted with eu cash, as well as access to preferential eu loans. we have seen a growing role, haven't we, of the eu investing in our cities over the past 40 years. so, we've been in receipt of a lot of money over a long period of time? yes. and now we're leaving? yes. 0k, thank you. for tony the eu has reinvested uk money in areas too often neglected by westminster.

for marie, that‘s money the uk needs to spend on its own terms. it's true the eu does spend money in great britain. but at the end of the day, if we didn't have to give so much, we could spend that money on ourselves and keep britain great. i don't believe westminster will plug that gap. there are clear benefits for staying in and being a member of that club. if we leave, i believe we will lose. 0ur audience members have spent time with different programmes across the bbc. we are going to speak to two 110w. bbc. we are going to speak to two now. let‘s speak to terry, who is known as shorts to his friends. you are ukip voterand known as shorts to his friends. you are ukip voter and wanted to leave. how do you feel the bbc has done so faron how do you feel the bbc has done so far on its coverage? we haven't had enough positive coverage. the coverage we are getting is negative. i think the bbc should have been more positive on what we can get from the eu. the eu need is as much

as we need the eu. it‘sjust one—sided at the moment. we should have been informed more. basically what i feel is that everything is negative. the presenters are negative. the presenters are negative. they are all like remain. give us something we can grasp on, that we can understand, and perhaps, you know, we‘ll be happy with the coverage we are getting. fantastic. simone, you are labour voter and you wa nted simone, you are labour voter and you wanted to remain. if in the next 30 days because that‘s what we‘ve got left supposedly, what could the bbc do better in its coverage when it comes to brexit? first of all i think something like this should have been done earlier so the bbc would have been better advised as to how to kind of put the coverage out there for everyday people like myself, and i just there for everyday people like myself, and ijust think as it stands at the moment it's been two

years, we don't know much more than we did then, ensuring they get the clear clarity of information that is people need and want and put it out there ina people need and want and put it out there in a better way than it has been so far, with less jargon and a bit more, you know, easy to understand. so you guys will be here with the bbc for the rest of the day, talking to different audiences. you will see different members of the audience talking to editors and informing our programmes, including the six o‘clock news and the news channel, throughout the rest of the day. chi chi izundu, thank you. and you can find more information about today‘s events at the bbc — and on brexit more widely at bbc.co.uk/brexit. drones are to be deployed in the search for a british climber and his italian partner, who‘ve been reported missing in the western himalayas. tom ballard and daniele nardi last made contact on sunday as they climbed nanga parbat in pakistan. iain macinnes has more.

a snow—covered tent and signs of an avalanche on what is known as killer mountain. the search for tom ballard and his climbing partner continues, despite political tensions in the region. it was here at fort william it started for tom, climbing these hills from an early age, and people here are hopeful for the good news. it is a very high mountain, the ninth highest in the world. big mountains have all the inherent dangers. tom‘s early life shaped his mountaineering future. he watched on as mum alison prepared to conquer mount everest. she set her sights on k2 in the himalayas, despite criticism of her decision to leave her young family behind. when we go climbing, we obviously minimise the risks, and if we thought it was that risky, we wouldn't go climbing. anybody who went off thinking there was a high chance they wouldn't come back,

it is a very unfair thing to do. climbers climb, we know our strengths and our weaknesses, and hopefully we can normally make the right decisions at the right time. sadly, that was to be alison‘s last climb. she died on the descent. she was probably the finest female mountaineer that britain has ever had. it was a very tragic and unfortunate happening on k2. once again, this mountaineering family wait for news. iain macinnes, bbc news, in fort william. private hire drivers — including those who work for uber — are starting legal action against the mayor of london, sadiq khan, because of his plans for a new congestion charge to tackle pollution. they claim the move discriminates against them and breaches their human rights. our legal correspondent, clive coleman, reports. how do you reduce traffic and improve air quality in our city centres?

from the eighth of april, the mayor of london, sadiq khan, will make private—hire drivers like hadi pay the £11.50 daily congestion charge to drive in central london. i‘ll be almost £60 less every week and i‘ve been punished to come to work and i‘ve been forced to pay for it. we‘re already poor, we are already on the poverty line. we‘re not against reducing congestion in london, but this is not going to reduce congestion in london. if a driver has to pay £11.50 to drive into london that means they‘re going to stay longer. 94% of london‘s roughly 11a,000 private—hire drivers are from black, asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, while the vast majority of black cab drivers, who won‘t have to pay the charge, are white british, and that‘s led to a legal challenge. the independent workers‘ union of great britain, which represents private—hire drivers like those demonstrating here, is seeking a judicial review of the mayor‘s decision on the basis

that it‘s discriminatory and in breach of human rights. the mayor needs to go back to the drawing board on this issue and what he should not do is implement a charge that will disproportionally target low—income bme drivers. he should go about this issue in a way which also benefits these drivers and we‘ve suggested a number of alternatives. in a statement, the mayor‘s office said... with cities like birmingham now looking at congestion charging, this legal challenge could influence which groups of drivers can be lawfully forced to pay them. clive coleman, bbc news. scientists at the british antarctic

survey have left their halley base for the winter amid fears that part of the giant ice shelf it sits on may crack and float away. a large chasm is opening up that will eventually form an iceberg the size of greater london. 0ur science correspondent, jonathan amos, reports. the halley research base is like something from a sci—fi movie, a space station on the ice. it‘s here that they do cutting edge science on the climate. it‘s also where they discovered the hole in the ozone layer. but halley‘s got a growing problem. this huge crack is breaking through the floating shelf advice on which the base sits and any day now this fissure will spawn a city—sized iceberg. it‘s just one of the hazards of working in this frozen landscape. every so often the edges of the continent breakaway. it‘s very difficult to put any single

event like this particular carving event down to global warning, or climate change, however, across antarctica we are seeing a consistent pattern of glacier retreat and warmer temperatures, which does clearly point to climate change. the british antarctic survey don‘t want anyone in the base during the coming polar winter. it‘s an unnecessary risk. and the base itself should be fine. two years ago, snow tractors dragged the station away from the crack to put as much distance between it and the soon to be giant iceberg. halley has a unique design that incorporates legs and skis, which means if any further cracks emerge it would be possible to move the base again very easily. the major headache has really been about how to maintain cutting edge science observations of the antarctic while no one‘s around. but researchers think they have managed to automate most of their experiments. jonathan amos, bbc news.

time for a look at the weather. here‘s chris fawkes.