welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: british mps are set to vote on a range of alternative plans for brexit, but can theresa may continue as prime minister? survivors of the so—called caliphate. we report from syria on the families stranded in camps and shunned by the world. the longer it goes on, the more there is a risk that something could go wrong, there could be instability in the region again. unless a plan is put in place soon, this really is a ticking time bomb. claims of a "whitewash ofjustice", as us prosecutors drop charges against us actorjussie smollett for allegedly staging a racist and homophobic attack. plus, how london and british

landscapes moulded the life and art of vincent van gogh. hello. british mps are preparing to embark on a series of votes to explore other ways forward in the brexit process. some 16 options have been tabled and the process could last several days. some leading conservative brexit supporters have suggested they could now get behind theresa may's withdrawal agreement to prevent the risk of a long delay in the brexit process. here's our deputy political editor, john pienaar. parliament has shown its power. we know who is in control,

and the answer is no—one. mps are getting ready to talk and vote their way through their ideas for brexit. but then what? brexiteer ministers especially insist mps taking control won't work. it's a negotiation between ourselves and the european union, and if parliament expresses a view, it may be entirely undeliverable. but the cabinet is split. there is amber rudd — she is backing mrs may's deal, but wants freedom for tories to vote as they choose. some junior ministers are saying privately they'll rebel and resign if they have to. mrs may kept them all guessing. one, who quit the government and voted to give mps a choice between brexit plans, stood by his decision. i think brexit should happen in the right way, which is leaving, but leaving on good terms, with the best possible opportunity of a good future with the eu. so what'll be the choices? there is the pm's deal, twice defeated already. or a brexit deal closer to eu customs and market rules than mrs may's, maybe comparable to norway's.

a fresh referendum is another option. and a brexit with no deal. mps insist they'll never support that, but it still seems possible. all of these proposals will be put forward. the speaker will select them. they will then be put on a ballot paper, and that will be handed to mps, and we'll be asked to indicate yes or no to each one of them, and mps can vote for as many of the ideas as they're prepared to support. still, the battle over mrs may's deal goes on. some rebels have backed away, but not enough. the chances of the prime minister getting her brexit plan approved by parliament at the third time of asking look slim. talk to any tory mp or minister, and her own chances of surviving long after this crisis, whether her plan goes through or not, look even smaller. reporter: are you risking no brexit by voting against the deal?

boris johnson wants her job, but would he support her deal? earlier, he kept us guessing. tonight, though, people queued to hear a hint of a grudging shift towards mrs may's plan, if there's a change of brexit policy, and did he also mean a change of prime minister? what i want to hear is that, if this withdrawal agreement is to make any sense at all, then there's got to be a massive change in the uk's negotiating approach. another potential candidate is reluctantly backing her plan. well, it's not a good deal, but the alternative is a complete cascade of chaos. that's what i said a week ago, and now you're seeing it. you're seeing proposals being put up which are all worse than her proposal. and do you think, with your help, theresa may might get this deal over the line? she's got to get the dup onside, and i have some sympathy with them, because i want northern ireland to be protected inside the united kingdom. but i think she's got a decent chance. but the democratic unionists were sounding tough as ever. is there any chance of us changing our minds on it? unless there are significant changes to the agreement itself, no.

no—one‘s predicting the future of brexit, or mrs may's, with any confidence. no—one can, and in brussels, the eu's chief negotiator spoke for many. all eyes on the british parliament. unusually for any comment on brexit, no—one is disagreeing with that. john pienaar, bbc news, westminster. if british mps manage to come up with an alternative plan for brexit, it will have to be put to the european union. so what is brussels expecting from wednesday's series of votes? here's our europe editor, katya adler. right from the beginning of this brexit process, the eu has cajoled, pleaded, even threatened the uk not to just say what it doesn't want from brexit but what it does want, but the eu is not holding its breath, even though we heard there from its chief negotiator that all eyes are now on westminster. by now, eu leaders are pretty well versed in all the comings and goings in the house of commons, and they know that those indicative votes may throw up

no more clarity at all on the brexit landscape, and even before the votes take place, i'm told that jean—claude juncker, the european commission chief, will stand up in front of the european parliament tomorrow and say again that the eu negotiator here is her majesty's government, led by theresa may, and not parliament. so for all these reasons, the eu worries there's still a lot of uncertainty ahead, eu's preference remains to avoid a no deal if possible, to get the brexit withdrawal agreement passed sooner rather than later. on the other side, after brexit, have as close a relationship as possible with the uk. the eu is calling off brexit as rather unlikely, they call is the nuclear option here and they are worried that a second referendum could prove indecisive, so they think that in

order to help theresa may get her deal past and mps find a way forward, the eu is thinking of two options, one having a longer extension to brexit, conditional on the uk taking part in european parliamentary elections, or to lengthen an unconditional brexit delay from the 12th of april till the 22nd of may. let's get some of the day's other stories now. algeria's army chief of staff has demanded president abdelaziz bouteflika be declared unfit to rule after weeks of protests against him. the president has already agreed not to stand for a fifth term in upcoming elections, which have been delayed. there are frantic diplomatic efforts to install a ceasefire between gaza and israel, after the worst escalation of tensions in months. israel has sent tanks to the border, while palestinian militants fired a rocket from gaza into israel on tuesday, breaking a lull following a day of cross—borderfighting. the united nations has called for calm. a southwest airlines boeing 737 max aeroplane has made an emergency landing in florida, after experiencing an engine problem shortly after take—off. there were no passengers on board,

as all planes of this type have been grounded from commercial service in the wake of two deadly crashes. officials say today's emergency landing did not appear related to the software problems suspected of causing the two crashes. the singer roger charlery, known as ‘ranking roger', of the beat, has died aged 56. as part of the beat, he spearheaded the two—tone movement with a distinctive vocal style, influenced by the jamaican rap technique of toasting. the beats hits in the 1980s included tears of a clown, mirror in the bathroom, and hands off...she‘s mine. kurdish authorities in northern syria are calling for an international tribunal to try members of the islamic state group. last week, forces retook the last piece of territory from is, bringing an end to their self—declared caliphate. now officials say they're struggling to cope with the thousands of men and women they captured.

the bbc‘s aleem maqbool has been given rare access to one of the camps — roj in northern syria — where many of those captured are being held. what should be done with the captured men and women of the islamic state group? it's one of the most urgent issues, now the last enclave has been won back from is. hundreds of women who joined the group from around a0 countries are in this camp in northern syria. they include ilham, from the netherlands, who admits to having joined is, but as yet has no idea where she might face trial. we are asking the government to take us back, but i'm still here, awaiting. if you did go back to holland, what do you think would happen? i'll go to prison, my children, i hope, to my family. that's what's going to happen. and you could accept that? yeah. because i know i made a mistake.

well, you'll understand there are people around the world who will be watching this and they will say, well, leave her there. if she wanted to go there, leave her there. yeah, but it's not a matter of what people are thinking about me. with few countries taking back their is group nationals, dealing with them has been left to the ill—equipped kurdish administration. this isn't a prison. it is, as you can see, a camp in a war zone. the longer it goes on, the more there is a risk that something could go wrong, there could be instability in the region again. unless a plan is put in place soon, this really is a ticking time bomb. people in the kurdish region of syria have already suffered living under is, then losing so many lives fighting is, and here, countries like britain revoking the nationality of citizens who joined the group has gone down badly. the kurdish head of foreign relations, abdulkarim omar, says it has created a huge problem.

"unfortunately, the international community has disappointed us", he says. "we can't hold and try these people alone. if the world doesn't help us, they'll be a problem again, and the islamic state group will once again be a danger for all of us." after the final offensive to wipe the so—called islamic state from the map, we saw trucks that carted away, we were told, hundreds of is families. an ignominious end for the militants, but a reminder that children had been caught up in it all too. the administration here is urging countries to at least do something to help rehabilitate these young, foreign victims, to try to stop the ideology into which they were born re—emerging through them in the future. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in north—eastern syria.

and you can find much more on the conflict in syria and our website, including an analysis of where the victims of war crimes will receive justice. that another top stories, justice. that another top stories, just go to the website and you can also download the bbc news app. the maker of the medication oxycontin, purdue pharma, has reached a $270 million settlement in a lawsuit which claimed its opioids lead to the deaths of thousands of people. the state of oklahoma brought forward the suit to the drug maker, which is owned by the billionaire sackler family. the settlement is the first from a wave of lawsuits that accused the company of marketing painkillers and helping to create the opioid epidemic in the us. here's john sopel with more. oxycontin came to the market in 1996 and it was seen as a major breakthrough in chronic pain management. it was massively over prescribed,

but its addictiveness was underestimated, it's alleged. and nowadays, drug opioid is accounting for 150 deaths a day, 50,000 a year, and in the richest country in the world, astonishingly, the death rate, the life expectancy rate, is actually falling because so many people are dying from opioids. in a dramatic legal u turn, all the charges against the american actorjussie smollett have been dropped. he had been accused of staging a hate crime against himself. to the anger of chicago's mayor and police chief, prosecutors now say they're dropping the charges because they don't see the tv star as a threat to public safety. a warning: laura trevelyan's report has flashing images at the start. jussie smollett was a red carpet regular, a tv actor who's

now at the centre of a real—life drama with a surreal script. back injanuary, mr smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in chicago. but when the police investigated, they found the two men who supposedly attacked the actor claimed they'd been paid by him to stage the incident, as a way for him to get publicity and increase his tv salary. the star was indicted for filing a false report to the police, but today came the shock news that prosecutors had decided to drop all the charges againstjussie smollett, citing his volunteer work and his agreement to forfeit his $10,000 bond to the city. the actor claims he's been nothing but honest throughout. i've been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one. i would not be my mother's son if i was capable of one drop of what i've been accused of. chicago's police chief, stunned, had this reaction. do i thinkjustice was served? no. what do i thinkjustice is? i think this city is still owed an apology. while chicago's mayor fumed that jussie smollett‘s celebrity clearly played a part in the decision

to drop charges against him. this is, without a doubt, a whitewash ofjustice and sends a clear message that if you're in a position of influence and power, you'll get treated one way, other people will be treated another way. there is no accountability in the system. as forjussie smollett‘s acting career after all this, the makers of his tv show, 20th century fox, said they were gratified to see the charges against him dismissed. laura trevelyan, bbc news, washington. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: why the internet will never be the same again. europe's controversial new copyright law. let there be no more war

or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. very good. so proud of both of you. with great regret, the committee have decided that south africa should be excluded from the 1970 competition. chants streaking across the sky, the white—hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. onlooker: wow! this is bbc news, the latest headlines: british mps have put forward a range

of alternative brexit plans as speculation mounts about theresa may's future. syria's kurds have called for the creation of an international tribunal to try thousands of suspected members of the islamic state group. part of the us has declared a state of emergency over measles. rockland county — in new york state — is experiencing one of its most severe outbreaks of the disease in decades. after midnight, no unvaccinated under 18s will be allowed "to enter any place of public assembly" for a month. for more on how the ban will work i've been speaking to laura haefeli, a reporter for news 12 hudson valley. so we spoke with the county executive for rockland county earlier today and he did explain to us they can't exactly go around

and ask, he has asked people for vaccination records and they do not plan to. how they are planning on handling this situation is that if you are found to not be vaccinated against the measles and you did go to one of those public spaces you mentioned, schools, shopping malls, houses of worship, then you will be referred to the district attorney's office. now in the declaration, it is outlined that there are punishments involved if you do get caught being unvaccinated in one of those public spaces and that can amount to a $500 fine or even jail time. those punishments though will not be given to those under the age of 18 who are not vaccinated, they will be handed to their parents. so again, they do not plan on going around and asking for vaccination reports, they will not be doing that but it is something that they plan

on dealing with after—the—fact. it is such a drastic step, isn't it? just explain to us how big this outbreak is there. so this is the longest measles outbreak in the united states since 2000, which is when the cdc declared it officially eradicated. right now, there are 153 confirmed cases of measles in rockland county and that number seems to just be going, which is why the county executive is taking this so seriously. the people who are most at risk right now are people who for medical reasons or for age reasons can't be vaccinated. —— growing. so if you are an instant, let's say, you obviously can't get those vaccinations, so if they are exposed to the disease, they are at a much higher risk. the county executive explained today that that is why they're taking this so seriously, we have to come together as a community to protect those people. right now, more than a quarter of the population of rockland county is not vaccinated and that has caused a big of them and is why this number

has gotten so high. what are people there thinking? first of all, are they worried for their children? and two, is it causing any tension in communities that some parents are not getting their children protected? you know, it is definitely on both sides of the aisle right now. there are a number of parents and parent groups that have gone as far is to sue the county for not allowing their children to go back to school. some of these kids have been out of school for as long as 26 weeks and their parents are looking for way to get them back class, but refusing to vaccinate their children. green meadows waldorf school in rockland county, just went up against the rockland county department of health in court for that exact reason. so parents are definitely finding issue with this, but the county is standing strong and saying you need to vaccinate your kids and now with this state of emergency, taking it one step further, not only is your child not allowed in school if they are not vaccinated but now they are not allowed in any

public space for 30 days. ok, thank you very much for that update. the european parliament has passed a controversial new law designed to protect copyright on the internet. its supporters say the legislation will guarantee fair payment for artists, musicians and writers whose work is shared on networks such as google or facebook. but opponents argue the law will stifle internet freedom. our media editor amol rajan has been investigating. despacito by luis ponsi ft daddy yankee plays recognise that tune? well, no wonder, this is probably the most watched video in human history with a mere 6 billion views on youtube. great marketing, but who picked up the bill? not youtube, that digital narnia containing millions of videos, most of them free to view. as host platforms, companies

like youtube don't generally pay artists or publishers for their work. today's ruling could change all that and return cash to the creators or owners of the content. it's based on two clauses within the eu copyright directive. article 11 says search engines and news aggregators will have to pay to use links from news websites. article 13 says large tech companies will be responsible for content they use without copyright. they will have to apply filters to content before it is uploaded. this potentially changes their very nature of the web. many artists and publishers have campaigned strongly for the changes demanding payment for ideas and content which they created. but campaigners for the open web and tech giants themselves who spend huge sums lobbying against the changes say this is a dark day for civil society across the globe. they add that these rules could be unworkable. there are important caveats here. the reforms have already been deleted and they remain short on vital detail. if approved by eu member states,

each country will have two years to make the changes and of course britain's future relationship with the eu is still unclear. this is really about competing visions of the world wide web. the internet model we have in the west today is dominated by a few mostly californian giants. the coming iteration of the internet will probably be more regulated and less literally of a free—for—all while stopping short of the walled garden users occupy in places like china. whether it is on competition rules, new data protection is or now copyright, it is europe that is clipping the wings of big tech. the future of silicon valley is being reimagined in brussels and the laws governing our global digital community are about to get a whole lot tougher. amol rajan, bbc news. vincent van gogh is universally celebrated as one of the world's greatest artists — and now a new exhibition at tate britain aims to shine a light on the three years that he spent living in london. while in the capital he worked as an art dealer and although he didn't become a painter himself until four years after leaving britain, those years were crucial

to his artistic development. our arts editor will gompertz reports. vincent van gogh came to britain in 1873 — not to make art, but to sell it and see it. the 20—year—old art then dealer quickly developed an appreciation for british landscape painters, most notably john constable. he settled here at 87 hackford road in brixton, south—east london. he'd leave home and walk to work in covent garden every day because he wanted to take in the sights and the sounds and the smells of britain. he'd often have some charles dickens in his pocket to read and always wore a top hat because, as he said, you couldn't be seen in london without one. van gogh took to london like a beard to a face. that is, it grew on him. in a west end gallery he discovered james whistler's paintings, whose evening view of westminster bridge would inspire the dutchman, when he eventually became an artist a few years later, to produce one of his most famous works. he found something in british art which he recognised as different from the art of his own country.

the way particularly british landscape could evoke a feeling in the viewer. that was something he always wanted to do himself. modern british artists, he noticed, were painting autumnal landscapes, and paintings like millais‘ chill october creates this wonderful atmosphere and you see van gogh actually, particularly when he's painting in autumn, trying for that same emotional accent. it has been said that the van gogh we know was born in london. "things are going well for me here," he said in a letter to his brother theo. "i have nature and art and poetry, and if that isn't enough, what is?" ajob, as it turned out. he was sacked, which was a good thing in a way. he left britain and decided to take up painting. will gompertz, bbc news. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @duncangolestani. hello there. don't expect any major changes in our weather over the next few days. there is more dry weather to come, some spells of sunshine and patchy cloud as well. one subtle difference, it is going to turn a little bit milder for a time at least. high pressure then sitting to the south of the british isles. the winds allowing cloud to feed in over the top of that area of high pressure so we will continue to bring areas of cloud from the north—west towards the south of the uk through the first part of wednesday. best of the clear spells as we start off the day across southern and western parts of england and wales, that's where we have the lowest of the temperatures. a touch of across parts of the west country. south—east wales, the south—west of england. further north, not as chilly because there is more cloud. through the day, we continue to bring these areas of cloud south—eastwards.

a mixture of patchy cloud and sunshine for many. the best of the sunshine across wales in the south—west. equally the cloud across the far north and far north—west of scotland. temperatures generally 11—14 degrees, may be 15 in aberdeen if we get some sunshine and shelter to the east of high ground. as we move through wednesday night and into thursday, not as much cloud potentially by this stage but that could allow some mist and fog to form. again, some pockets of frost, temperatures widely holding up between 3 and 6 degrees. thursday, again dominated by high pressure sitting just to the south of the british isles. winds around high pressure moving in a clockwise direction so introducing something of a south or south—westerly flow of air for most of us towards the end of the week which will lift the temperatures a little bit. thursday, areas of low cloud and some mist and fog patches as well. we should get to see spells of sunshine. away perhaps in the far north—west of scotland, where there will be more cloud and breeze.

temperatures 1a, 15, 16 degrees — somewhere we could get up to 17 degrees. similar temperatures could be achieved on friday, particularly central and eastern parts of england and scotland. further north and west, for northern ireland and scotland, we'll see thickening cloud. outbreaks of rain creeping in. a frontal system approaching, and that is going to change the weather a little bit as we head into the weekend. as we move through friday and saturday, that front will slowly, painstakingly slowly slide south—eastwards, taking some cloud and rain with it but behind, the winds round to northerly. so things are looking a little bit cooler for the weekend and into next week, those temperatures are expected to drop further — we may even see some wintry showers.

this is bbc news. the headlines: british mps have proposed alternative plans for brexit, after voting to take control of the process from the government. they're set to stage a ballot on wednesday on which options they would accept. meanwhile, there are signs theresa may's deal is winning over some critics, depite questions about her future. kurdish authorities in northern syria are calling for an international tribunal to try members of the islamic state group. last week, forces re—took the last piece of territory from is, bringing an end to their self—declared caliphate. prosecutors have dropped all charges against us actorjussie smollett for allegedly staging a racist and homophobic attack. the reasons behind the decision remain unclear. chicago's mayor denounced the move

as a whitewash ofjustice. now on bbc news, panorama. on panorama tonight: a scandal in english schools. we investigate two academy trusts. ijust want people to hear what happens in academies, the corruption that goes on behind those doors. we hear from two headteachers turned whistle—blowers. i can't stay here and watch what they're doing to my school. we uncover evidence of organised cheating in exams. she walked past, looked at my test and she stopped and she just pointed at it, went, "that's the answer" and told me the answer.