a very warm welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. authorities in the us state my name's mike embley. of alabama say they expect our top stories: to find more bodies, something like a war zone — after back—to—back tornadoes caused a trail of devastation on sunday. officials say more bodies are likely so far, 23 people are confirmed to be found, following deadly tornadoes in the deep south. dead in lee county, where the winds left a swathe venezuela's opposition leader of damaged buildings and roads in their wake. makes a triumphant return the venezuelan opposition leader, to the capital and calls for more juan guaido, has announced a new protest march on saturday protests against president maduro. to increase the pressure at china's national people's congress, on president nicolas the country's biggest maduro to leave office. political event of the year, new targets for the he received a rapturous welcome economy are announced. when he returned to venezuela and tributes are paid on monday, from a tour to the actor luke perry, of regional allies aimed who's died, aged just 52. at gathering more support. the american actor luke perry has died at the age of 52, just days after suffering a massive stroke. he'll be best remembered for his role as dylan mckay in the 90s tv show, beverly hills, 90210. he'd also featured in the netlfix show, riverdale. it's about 2:30am.

time now for monday in parliament. hello and welcome to monday in parliament, our look at the best of the day in the commons and the lords. on this programme... after more fatal stabbings, mps are desperate in their demands for an end to the knife crime epidemic. the task force, the consultations, the more reports, isn't working. what on earth will it take for him to recognise this is an emergency that requires an emergency response? and bad feeling in the commons when, fearing defeat, ministers pull a vote on tax transparency. i see this, mr speaker,

as a blatant, deliberate and arrogant snub of this parliament. and is it cash for votes? money's announced to improve some of the country's less well off towns. and no one should be hoodwinked by such a shameful and pitiful attempt to gain support for the prime minister's botched withdrawal agreement. but first, "it cannot go on". the message of the home secretary sajid javid after the fatal stabbings at the weekend of two 17—year—olds, one in east london, another in a village in greater manchester. the killings form part of a sickening trend, with figures revealing that the number of people in england aged 16 and under who've been stabbed has risen by a huge 93% in the last five years. and already, just in the first two months of this year, some 35 people across the uk have been stabbed to death. the prime minister has rejected the claim that cuts in police budgets are responsible for the rise in knife crime. when he made a statement to mp5, the home secretary admitted it had been a horrific weekend.

this weekend, two teenagers, were stabbed to death, i am sure i speak for the whole house when i express my deepest condolences to their families and loved ones. two young lives tragically lost. they are the latest victims in a cycle of senseless violence robbing and people of their lives across the country. there is no hiding from this issue, mr speaker, serious violence is on the rise, communities are being torn apart, and families are losing their children. he said last year, 285 died in stabbings — the highest total since records began. we all wish that there was one thing, just one, that we could do to stop the violence, but there are no short cuts, there is no one single solution. early intervention was needed to try to stop young people carrying knives.

third, we must enshare that the police have the resources to combat serious violence. i am raising police finding to record levels next year, up to £970 million more, including council tax. and on wednesday, i will meet with chief constables to listen to their experiences and requirements. mr speaker, we must all acknowledge that this is an issue that transcends party lines. politics can be divisive, but if there was ever an issue to unite our efforts and aspire to stand together, then surely this is. today the house is united in grief and shock at the tragic toll of the past few weeks, adding to hundreds of children murdered in our communities in the last year. in birmingham, over the space of 12 days, three boys lost their lives and back in 2020 took the decision

to activate the emergency cobra committee, and set a target for bringing the violent street crime that pete been under control and we might see similar leadership today from our prime minister. so will she step up and can the crisis be met with emergency funding? we cannot pretend cuts to policing have made our country less safe, sadly the prime minister continues to deny the crucial link and in the coming weeks, police have had the responsibility of writing investigations into young lives lost and bringing perpetrators to justice. the findings that are meant to be voted on last month is completely inadequate to allow them to do this that, especially for those forces hardest hit by violent crime. scotland employed a whole system approach for young people at risk of offending, which rather than criminalising, labelling and stigmatising young people, provides early and effective intervention, which keep young

people out of the justice setting, and this includes a better and youth engagement programme, and the fact ism mr speaker, all of this has been a huge success. there is research showing that adverse childhood experience severely harms a child's development and too many children with multiple issues and adverse experiences are excluded from school, which in turn can lead them to become involved in gang and violence. the games on our streets are ruthless organisations using sophisticated techniques to recruit children and chilling levels of violence to keep them compliant. so says the children's commissioner in an important report published only last week, and that report identifies 27,000 gang members in england, and a further 34,000 children who know gang members and have experienced violent crime. that's 61,000 young people, yet only 10% of that number are known to the authorities. i meet teenagers who are now afraid to go out at night.

of course, a public health approach is vital and we urge the home secretary to back the bid for a violence reduction unit to bring together all agencies and effectively to combat growing knife crime. but that's not enough, we need more police officers. i'm not sure that that is a complete list of everyone who is been killed by a knife in london this year alone. but i can tell the home secretary, that the task force

the consultations, the more reports isn't working. what on earth will it take for him to recognise her this is an emergency requiring emergency response? mr speaker, let the honourable lady reminds as is such a tragic loss of life as she talked about those last cuts were in london and the honourable members representing seats where we have lost lives across the country, she's absolutely right to highlight this, but as i say, i really wish there was one simple answer, just one single thing that can be done, but we require action across multiple fronts, and the best way to achieve that is for all of us to recognise that and to work together to deliver it. the home secretary on knife crime. now, facing a likely defeat in the commons, ministers dropped a debate and vote on the issue of tax transparency.

a0 mps had signed an amendment to a government bill, which would require the uk to help its overseas territories and crown dependencies set up a publicly accessible register of "beneficial ownership". the amendments would have obliged the territories to do this by the end of 2020. the treasury has now said the matter will be considered at a later date. some mps were far from happy. this house result that the overseas territories must establish registers of beneficial ownership by the end of 2020. mr speaker, it has recently come to our notice from statements made by a foreign office minister in the other place, that it is the government's intention arbitrarily to extend that date by no less than three years to the end of 2023, in flagrant breach of what was

agreed by this house. how, mr speaker, can this house seek your protection from the egregious slight of hand, now being proposed by the foreign office? i see this as a blatant deliberate and arrogant snob of this parliament. the business today included an amendment with the name of my right honourable friend and myself, which would notjust extend the public registers to the dependencies, but would have reiterated the point over the overseas territories. we were so angered by the action of the foreign office, that we wanted to reiterate the decision of parliament, which was passed unanimously by parliament last summer, we wanted to reiterate that in the amendment that we were proposing today. that opportunity to reiterate our determination has been removed from us as well. not only is tackling financial crime and money laundering essential for the reputation of the country, but if the government feels

that it can get away with changing a date that has been contained in an amendment to legislation passed by the house, if it can do it on this bill, then what is to stop it doing on other bits of legislation? what i want to say is this, the business was announced on thursday, so it was clearly the government's intention on thursday last that this business should be treated of by parliament today. so it is, if i may say so, a rum business, to put it maybe more strongly, that all of a sudden, this business that was scheduled for today, has been evacuated from parliament, it has been airlifted from the premises, it has suffered a mysterious and hitherto unexplained disappearance, it's a very odd state of affairs altogether,

one can speculate as to why it may be the case, but it is most unusual state of affairs and it is at the very least very discourteous to the house of commons. the government has announced a new fund to boost less well off towns in england after brexit. the fund will be worth £i.6 billion over seven years. £1 billion will be allocated on a needs based formula, with communities able to bid for a share of the rest. more than half the money will go to the north of england and the midlands. the british people, supported by the balanced, long—term approach taken by this government, have worked hard to rebuild the economy after the deaths we inherited in 2010. as a result, we have seen strong and consistent growth, but we want to make sure that the benefits of that growth helps support towns across the country. the country voted for brexit, communities expressing their desire to see change in their local areas, that must be a change for the better, with more opportunity and greater control. the communities secretary said

the stronger towns fund would build on other schemes to bring investment to poorer areas. our new stronger towns fund will bring on that approach and extend our devolution principles further, out to the towns our success was built on. through this, we will ensure that we expect opportunity more widely, so that every community can benefit from our economic prosperity, be used to create newjobs and train local people, and this growth of communities having a say on how the money is spent. but labour saw it as an attempt to persuade their mps to vote for the prime minister's brexit deal. this supposed funding is a pittance, that'll do little

compared to the billions that the secretary of state and government has already cut from our local communities. it will do little to reverse the damage they have inflicted in each and every region. because the reason that many of our towns are struggling, is because we have had a decade of politically imposed cuts, including council funding and public services by this conservative government. and that no one should be hoodwinked by such a shameful and pitiful attempt to gain support for the prime minister's botched withdrawal agreement. this is simply a bobble on a bare christmas tree of posterity, the {1.6 billion announced today pales in significance to what the eu funding estimate, over the same period would be 13 billion euros. the 33 millions, for the fireplace alone is only one grayling. the analysis this afternoon, shows that the cuts from funding for councils covering yorkshire

towns just over the next two years alone, far outweighs any investment that our towns are likely to get from the funds that he announced and does he not accept, unless we get investment and we get a fair deal on transport rather than rubbish one we get at the moment, we still would not be getting a fair dealfor our towns? well, it's for other reasons than the honourable lady set out i would think she would welcome the allocation to yorkshire of £197 million that set out to the announcement today to allow for towns to be able to bid into that to oversee in the fund was welcomed by english conservative mps. mps from outside england wanted assurances their area would get a share of the cash under the population linked barnett formula. we were promised a wells would not

lose a penny if we left the eu. but the grubby money offered to the uk must deprived areas is petty in comparison to the 2 billion wales currently receives from the eu over the 2014 cycle. if this is the pork—barrel future of uk politics, wales is better off out of it. will this find be monetized or will the minister admit that this money is indeed all about need but not economic, not social inequality, but the prime minister's need to tap the votes for her deal? i would say to the honourable lady that the uk prosperity fund is what we look to replace the funds she referenced and how government has guaranteed fall 2014 2015 allocations. james brokenshire. you're watching our round up of the day in the commons and the lords. still to come, not the best of years so far for the transport secretary

chris grayling. now, do doctors know enough about the worth of cannabis—based medicines for the treating of certain health conditions? some cannabis products can now be prescribed to patients in a limited number of circumstances and when other medicines have failed. but in the house of lords, a crossbench or independent peer said only four people had been prescribed medical cannabis since it became legal in november 2018. doctors have had no training in prescribing cannabis. they need to know the contents, the dosages, the side effects and everything else about medical cannabis products. and the pressure on doctors and desperate patients whose standard medications are not working or are causing unacceptable side effects is intense. and doctors do need government help urgently. this is a challenging area and the evidence base is still developing. but the government is working hard to ensure that awareness is increasing.

this is why we have asked nice to develop guidance which will be released later this year. we've asked hee to develop a training package to increase knowledge and awareness amongst health professionals. will the noble lady comment on the issues illustrated in the predicament of a person who has been prescribed the cannabinoid dronabinol branded as bedrocan, which is the only medication that is proved effective for her following the failure of 35 different medications previously prescribed to relieve her chronic pain from cervical and lumbar spondylolysis given that it was last summer that the chief medical officer stated that there is conclusive evidence that cannabis—based products are perfect for certain medical conditions? why is this patient still forced to travel to holland every three months to obtain the medication which her consultant considers essential her? what i would say is that there

should be no reason as i can see for the situation that he has outlined. it is up to clinicians to prescribe as they see fit under the guidelines which have been put out and i am very sorry to hear of the situation that he's raised. when the chief medical officer recommended that cannabis medicines to be rescheduled, she produced a report which showed that the most rigorous regulatory authorities in the world, those in the us, australia, ireland, and indeed the world health organization, had strong evidence of the benefits of cannabis—based medicines for people with epilepsy. in light of that surely, four licences is completely unacceptable. uk patients are not being denied access to these medications. they are able to access medications via a prescription from a doctor who is on the specialist medical register. lady blackwood. now, just when things couldn't get

much worse politically for the transport secretary chris grayling, they did. at the end of last week came news that the government was having to pay eurotunnel £33 million in exchange for the firm dropping legal action against the transport department over post—brexit ferry contracts. eurotunnel had started the proceedings over the way the department had handed out ferry contracts, arguing the process had not been transparent. when labour raised the issue in the form of an urgent commons question, the minister sent to deal with the situation was the health secretary. because of the legal action taken by eurotunnel and the legal risks of the court case, it became clear that without this settlement, we could no longer be confident of the unhindered supply of medicines. without this settlement, the ferry capacity needed to be confident of supply was at risk. as a government, we could not take that risk and i doubt anyone in this house would have accepted that risk either.

even in this golden age of ministerial incompetence, the transport secretary stands out from the crowd. he leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, causing chaos and wasting billions of pounds, yet he shows no contrition, no acknowledgement of his mistakes, nor any resolve to learn and improve. he's now ridiculed in the new york times. the mayor of calais has banned him from his town. mr speaker, the transport secretary has become an international embarrassment. the prime minister is the only person in the country who retains confidence in this failing transport secretary. and only does so because of her own political weakness. the public deserve to know how many more calamities is the prime minister prepared to tolerate and how many more billions of pounds will she allow him to waste before saying enough is enough?

mr speaker, this country cannot afford this transport secretary. he should be sacked without delay. well, i noticed mr speaker that in listening to that, the honourable gentleman didn't disagree with the decision that we made on friday. and the decision we made on friday was to ensure that we have the ferry capacity in place so that whatever happens in the brexit scenario, we can have the unhindered supply of medicines. mr speaker, it's always a pleasure to see my right honourable friend the secretary of state for health, rather surprising on this occasion. but the usual reason for settling an action is to minimise your losses when you are obviously on a loser in defending it. i'm relieved to hear it was in order to ensure the safety of medicines. with all due respect to the health secretary, mr speaker, surely what the house and the taxpayer are entitled to hear today is what was the main mistake made

by the transport secretary that's resulted in this unnecessary pay—out of £33 million? and where does this latest shambles rate on the transport secretary's top ten catalogue of ministerial mishaps? when i came back on saturday the 5th of january, there was complete chaos at calais with miles of delays — miles of queues and hours of delays. so i'm very glad that eurotunnel is going to improve its investment in our borders and our security and can the secretary of state confirm that if this money is not spent on improving our borders and security, it will be paid back to the taxpayer? if we were so confident in that legal advice, why was this settlement reached at all? and actually, isn't this an admittance of a catastrophic failure in stakeholder management?

and he doesn't even have the face to come here and front it out and what we are left with is hancock's half hour... laughter. i want to ask the health minister of the £33 million, is any of that going to be reimbursed from his budget to the department of transport? well, this of course is a cross government decision. hence, i am here because it's the medicines that are going under capacity. but in the hancock family, mr speaker, we are very proud of hancock's half hour and we thought that tony was a very funny man. laughter. well, that wasn't the end of chris grayling's woes. in a previousjob, the transport secretary had been thejustice secretary — the politician heading the ministry ofjustice. and in the commons questions were asked about the decisions mr grayling had made there in the light of a report from the national audit office which stated that the partial privatisation of the probation service in england and wales had cost taxpayers almost £500 million.

once again the conservative‘s part privatisation of probation has been exposed as a dangerous experiment that left the public less safe and out—of—pocket. the nao highlights a 22% increase in re—offences. will the minister now admit that this privatisation has put public safety at risk in a reckless pursuit of running justice for private profit? the nao says the ministry ofjustice will pay at least £467 million more to failing private probation companies than required originally. transforming rehabilitation was a coalition government commitment and built on these principles by contracting the private sector and others so for example in durham tees valley, this included the local authority and undertook to pay the providers if they were able to reduce re—offending. the contracts were left flexible to encourage innovation. this private model was applied only to low—risk offenders.

high—risk offenders continued to be supervised in the usual way by the state. the new model has delivered in some ways but as the national audit office has pointed out, it has not delivered in others. i genuinely have sympathy for the minister. he is the man with a shovel and the brush following a horse that's been ridden by his right honourable colleague the member from epsom and ewell. and that's it for this programme. alicia mccarthy will be here for the rest of the week. but for now from me, keith macdougall, goodbye. hello there.

we continue with an unsettled flavour to our wedding this week. —— weather. there will be some rain and snow over high ground in the north. showery rain moving over northern ireland, northern england and up into scotland, with snow developing on higher ground. whether moving through the midlands, east anglia and the south—east. we will see outbreaks of rain pushing in here, turning increasingly breezy and mild in the south. quite chilly across a good part of scotland. going through tuesday night, this week and increasingly windy weather in the south—west will push its way across england and wales, northern ireland and scotland. freezing in aberdeen, ten in plymouth, but mild towards the south. i'll stay in the south on wednesday, chilly in the north and wet and windy. it will stay u nsettled wet and windy. it will stay unsettled for the end of the week.