this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 6. what next to break the brexit deadlock. tomorrow mps vote again on alternative options — and if a plan for a softer brexit gets a majority — one cabinet minister says theresa may must consider it. i don't think it's sustainable to say well, we'll ignore parliament's position and therefore leave without a deal. i don't think that is a sustainable position for the government to take. that's interesting. police in england and wales are being given greater stop and search powers to tackle rising knife crime. it's a very important tool. it's a vital tool in fighting serious violence. i want police officers to feel more comfortable to use it so they can protect all communities. there's been a sharp rise in the number of adults calling a national helpline

designed for the children of alcoholic parents, according to figures seen by the bbc. the founder of facebook, mark zuckerberg, calls for governments to play a more active role in regulating the internet. liverpool score an early goal against spurs in the premier league — but tottenham have just equalised. and portsmouth win the checkatrade trophy, you can hear more about that and the rest of the day's sport in in sportsday in half an hour. good evening. as mps prepare to try and break the brexit deadlock at westminster, a senior government minister has said theresa may has to look closely at a softer brexit and staying in a customs union with the eu if parliament votes for that this week.

thejustice secretary, david gauke, said that it wouldn't be sustainable for the government to ignore mps‘ wishes. tomorrow, the house of commons will once again vote on alternatives to mrs may's brexit deal — which has now been rejected three times. with the details here's our political correspondent, iain watson. shame on you! the original brexit date has been and gone and the protests carry on. give us all a final say! this week, crucial decisions will have to be taken if mps are to avoid leaving with no deal by the new deadline of april the 12th. this morning, was the prime minister seeking divine intervention to break the deadlock? she's likely to resurrect her defeated deal this week, in the hope that mps prefer it to the alternatives. but if it fails again, this member for capbinet wasn't her first negotiating a closer relationship with the eu.

if problem is melting overwhelmingly against leaving the european union without a deal, but is voting in favour of a softer brexit, then i don't think it is sustainable to say well, we'll ignore parliament document position and therefore leave without a deal. tomorrow mps will debate alternatives to theresa may's deal, including a closer economic relationship with the eu such as a customs union or single market membership. but leaving with no deal could also be an option, as well as putting any deal to a new referendum. and that's the option favoured by labour‘s deputy leader. we need to move beyond brexit. it seems to be the only way we can do that now. a people's vote is the solution, not an option. theresa may faces some tough choices this week. there's no question of her cancelling brexit, or as it's known in the jargon, revoking article 50. but some other options favoured by mps, a customs union

for example, also ran counter to the conservative manifesto. if she goes along with that, she could lose some of her top team around her cabinet table. or she could take a different option and call a general election. a senior conservative has said that pragmatic preparations are under way for possible election. but that prospect has horrified many in the party and inform a former occupant of number ten. i think a general election will solve nothing at this moment. so what's his solution? in the interest in ending the chaos that we have now, and that could continue, we must have a government that has a working majority. and that is the only reason for a time limited unity government. so a cross—party government, to unite a sometimes a very cross country. not likely. but he stays normal political rules don't apply. our political correspondent, iain watson, is here. let's start with celis votes tomorrow which have no legal status but are seen as a way of may be moving the house of commons to work

to some consensus. what do we know? i think they are an indication of opinion parliament. parliament spoke with one voice recently and said we cannot agree. so all of their options went down. we will try and get a consensus, there are eight different motions that will be put forward tomorrow. it is up to the speakerjohn part tell which ones he selects. last month did not do desperately well. he may decide he does not want to talk about no deal. we'll see. others are variations on the theme. and some as well about resulting article 50 and saying let's start all over again. that has been planted by the prominent member of the snp. what i think it significant this time, is that a leading snp figure is now a co—signatory to an

amendment on a customs union. last week the snp decided to go for this idea of another referendum, but they did not back a customs union option. that was very much the second best. effect of getting behind that now, and it was narrowly defeated last week, means that possibly the concerns around forming a closer economic relationship with the eu and a customs union. obviously those involved in the people's vote campaign will have a good showing. it did quite well last week. it will bea it did quite well last week. it will be a good showing for the referendum. there is some hope that they will get around this idea of a closer relationship, possibly subsequently putting that to referendum. but this is not binding. and theresa may does not like either of them. and she's made that pretty clear. interesting that the town of some of this, maybe david gauke is not so surprising, giving the criticism he raised. but even yesterday we had the party chairman saying it would go against our

ma nifesto, saying it would go against our manifesto, and i am not very clean but if this is where parliament is going, we may have to look again at this. is there a sense that may be the customs union option is looking a bit more appealing than the no—deal brexit? a bit more appealing than the no-deal brexit? i think it is not the same as a consensus. other states the underlying in the sand is a customs union. this will allow alice to do our own trade deal. and as if theresa may because that way and perhaps keeps david gauke happy, if he is herfirst choice, or amber rudd, then she may lose people that are long—standing brexiteers. it is not safe yet, possibly somebody like liam fox would have the job of going out to get new trade deals. he's been trying to do that over the last couple of years. if the rug is taken from under him, who knows what he does. at risk of causing cabinet

level resignations if she goes down that road. maybe also the grassroots of the party we be very unhappy as well. there is no easy option for her. one option is still to hold a general election. she is not desperately team. there's that sense talking to people on the inside, that this may not be in her hands anyway. should she bring her gear back and say look, i know you don't like this deal but it is better than all the alternatives and it goes down to a fourth defeat. she is been at risk as a no confidence motion. it is not clear given the anger in some sections of her party that she would definitely when that. although the conservatives are not the majority, we think when push comes to us ofjoy and peace are not going to us ofjoy and peace are not going to vote to bring down their own government and neither is the dup because he fears a labour government more. it appears as if people are no longer behaving and the way one traditionally thought they would. there is an idea of political roles,

highly improbable and no longer impossible. one inside the european research group means they are not entirely united and they felt it different ways last week. one suggested that as many as 20 of them could potentially withhold their support and the confidence motion, perhaps abstain and vote against the government but allow the opposition to win the day. the dup are critical in this, they might build theresa may out because they mightjeremy corbyn even less. might not be enough of them. that could also be true. the question does she take her fate into her own hands. that would mean competing in a general election and just what the party needs. no easy options. thank you for sending out some of the territory at least. the rules on police stop and search powers in england and wales are being relaxed to try to stop the rise in knife crime. more police officers, at less senior ranks,

will now be able to authorise the tactic in several areas where knife crime is high. campaigners have questioned the effectiveness of stop—and—search and described the move as "disappointing and regressive". our home affairs correspondent dominic casciani has the details. another knife off the streets, found in a stop and search in north london. some a0 fatal stabbings so far this year. now police in the most affected areas are being given a search power band when theresa may was home secretary. the whole government recognise that stop and search is a useful power. we still want it to be targeted but with these increased power we all agree, including the prime minister, this is exactly is needed to help fight the rise in serious violence. knife crime fell after 2011 but it has been rising for almost five years. the police's use of stop and search plunged over the last decade from 1.4 million times a year to less than 300,000.

that fall after concerns the tactic was failing by wrongly targeting young black men. the main stop and search power requires police to have a reasonable suspicion someone is carrying a weapon. they could use it if this knife detector raised and alert. today's changes mean police inspectors rather than their seniors can authorise anyone to be searched in an area where they believe violence may, rather than will, occur. police hope the return of this strategy will help them respond more quickly. while there is no proof of a direct link between the rise in knife crime and the use of stop and search, many believe it deters people from carrying blades. but critics say it is still intrusive and any increased use will be highly controversial. too many of my experiences have been very unpleasant, which leads into a lot of tension between police and young people to the point where you have young, innocent civilians running away from police just

to avoid being stopped and searched. you stopped me going about my business for no reason! police chiefs say they are listening to concerns about how they use their powers. tomorrow the prime minister hosts a summit to hearfrom officers themselves about how to reverse the deadly violence. earlier, i spoke to nathaniel peat, the founder of the safety box youth programme — a youth violence and knife prevention programme operating across london. he said although stop and search is effective when applied in a targeted way — it could be dangerous if it's over—used. you're talking about a young person being stopped, that young person may being stopped, that young person may be intimidated by the police, it may have a knock on effect on the brothers, sisters, family and school they attend. that builds a community issue. where you have offices trying to build a trust, it doesn't do anything to trust but it destroys it. that we overreact perhaps the other way when theresa may set the

pa rents a re other way when theresa may set the parents are being used too much. i was looking at the figures. this is in 2014? that's right. by the time the figures were introduced, i think the figures were introduced, i think the two continuous years, four year figures 2015—16 compared to 2317, 18. in 2015-16 figures 2015—16 compared to 2317, 18. in 2015—16 there had been 2501 stops in england and wales under this section 60 power. by the following year it had fallen to 631. i wonder if they had gone to much the other way. they said ok, we cannot use it, it is too sensitive so cannot use it, it is too sensitive so perhaps not use in opportunities when we should have done. got to look deeper beneath that. you've got to look at the link between stop and search and violent crime. has there been a direct link to the, and an evidential link, to the reduction of violent crime linked to stop and seacrh, the answer is no. you cannot pin pointed directly to stop and seacrh. this goes back again. this isa seacrh. this goes back again. this is a backward movement, it is regressive, that had before. might it not be a confidence building

measure, 01’ it not be a confidence building measure, or be at a temporary one, in the sense of saying to people as you said, it is a reaction to something that is a terrible problem, people don't know what to do about it, the community more generally wants reassurance, and feet idea that police can't stop people gets that reassurance?” mean, it is not a level of reassurance. it is really about having proactive solutions, evidence—based practise solutions where you are talking about a public health model. we have huge examples of this. a new york when they reduced to stop and seacrh, the finely crime went down. again, the push towards community development, the push towards providing provisions for young people, this is a social issue, it is not necessary tool to take a knife out of a young person's hand. is that going to stop him from using a knife? no, it's a mindset change they need. if you can change the mindset then you can stop them effectively using the weapon. you take a knife from their hand, they still make pick up a pen from a sharp and blunt object and use that. you've got to think of the social issues and big deeper beneath that.

a manhunt is under way after four people were stabbed in a spate of "random" attacks in north london. a woman and three men were all approached from behind and knifed in the back as they walked alone in edmonton over the weekend. police said each victim appeared to "selected at random" for being "alone and vulnerable" in the potentially linked attacks. two are in a critical condition. the headlines on bbc news... the justice secretary, david gauke, has suggested the government should support a softer brexit — if mps rally behind it this week police in england and wales are being given greater stop and search powers to tackle rising knife crime. there's been a sharp rise in the number of adults calling a national helpline for the children of alcoholic parents, according to figures seen by the bbc. let's stay with that story. there's been a sharp rise in the number of adults calling a national helpline for the children of alcoholic parents, according

to figures seen by the bbc. in 2013 the majority of calls to the national association of children of alcoholics were from children but now more than 80% of calls are from people over the age of 18. the department of health said it was investing six million pounds to tackle the issue. adrian goldberg from, bbc radio 5live investigates, has more details... these figures come from the national association of children of alcoholics. back in 2013, they tell us that the majority of the calls that they have received seeking help and support from their helpline, the majority of those calls were from children. but they did at that time have around 6500 calls a year from adults. anybody over the age of 18. that 6500 figure has rocketed between 2013 and 2018, to the point where last year they had 23,000 calls from people over the age of 18. that now makes up around 81% of their caseload at their helpline. a really significant increase in the number of adults contacting that helpline for support and assistance.

do we know why there has been such a big rise? what are the theories behind that? it's very interesting. i think around 2015 when you had high—profile figures like the labour mp liam byrne, talking as an adult about his experiences having been a child of an alcoholic and finally overcoming what he perceived to be the same and the stigma coming forward to talk about that, that has prompted a lot of other adults to come forward and say that they too had problems like this as a child, with a parent who would turn to drinking. amelia, who grew up with an alcoholic father, joined us earlier to share her experience — she sought help after his death two years ago. i am the youngest of four. i had older siblings who were able to help us deal with that. it was a lot of really difficult times, and unfortunately, my dad passed away from alcoholism about three years ago now.

when you have an alcoholic parent from a really young age, you are grieving for that person from when they become an alcoholic, you lose your parent anyway. when that person actually dies, ifelt this horrible relief, and then a lot of shame associated with feeling that relief as well. i had a good family, a good support system. we had our mam and my siblings and a big extended family and we used to talk about it a lot within the family but it was not something i sought help for externally until i became an adult. if you, or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised you can find details of where you can find support at www. bbc. co. uk/actionline

or call 0800 — 066 — 066. lines are open 24 hours a day with recorded information and calls are free of charge. following the livestreaming of a terror attack in new zealand two weeks ago, the debate over who should regulate social networking sites, is back in the spotlight. facebook boss mark zuckerberg has called for more government regulation on the internet, and the australian government has announced plans for new laws which put more accountability on the social networking sites. sophia tran—thomson has this report. he founded the biggest social network in the world. a role that comes with a serious social responsibility. now mark zuckerberg says it is time regulators and governments play a more active role in controlling internet content. in an open letter, he has called for regulation of what he describes as harmful content online, saying private firms can't do it alone. he says there should be new rules relating to political advertising and the creation of common standards. there should be effective privacy and data protection for all users

with countries adopting a common framework. and he has called for data portability, meaning people should be able to move data from one service to another. it comes as facebook faces questions over its role in the cambridge analytica scandal about data misuse during election campaigns and two weeks after a gunman used facebook to livestream his attack on a mosque in new zealand. but while zuckerberg says those at the top need to step up, some governments say it is the social media giants who are responsible. on saturday, australia's prime minister announced plans to introduce laws which could see the networking sites fined and executives sent to prison if they fail to quickly remove violent material from their platforms. the social media laws we will be introducing are about calling out the social media companies on their responsibilities. they have a responsibility when they put these platforms into public use to make sure they are safe and that they cannot be weaponised by terrorists.

the debate over who is responsible for regulation is farfrom over, as is the question of how to monitor social media content globally and to what level. catherine miller is director of policy at doteveryone — an independent think tank that champions responsible technology, and asked her what she made of mr zuckerberg's remarks. it is not the first time mark zuckerberg has called for regulation, when he faced questioning in congress last year he said we need regulation but the right regulation, and i suppose this article is an indication of what facebook thinks the right regulation is. it is focusing on content moderation, on the integrity of elections, on privacy and on data portability. on the integrity of elections that has been raised by what happened in the united states, concerns there may have been attempts to try and influence the online coverage and advertisements people received during our election.

presumably that is not hugely contentious but there is a bit about moderating content. for a lot of internet users that is contentious and has proved for facebook especially to be highly controversial, not least what happened with the live streaming of the terrible massacre in christchurch. this article feels in response to that moment and the sense of unbelievable outrage you could have someone streaming a mass murderfor over a quarter of an hour without any intervention at all. the interesting thing with this is that it may seem incredible there is no regulation of this in the first place and that this is news worthy to be asking governments to regulate, but you have to remember that companies like facebook come from the west coast of the united states where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.

so nobody even raises concern about it because it is essential to the character of the american system? absolutely, but you see in the united kingdom it is not an absolute right and you see the problems of taking this absolutist approach to freedom of speech. what occurs if you have people streaming a mass murder? in ukraine we are getting the results of the first round of the election there who is to decide who succeeds petro poroshenko. if the chocolate millionaire, it has been set. these are life pictures. these are the returns that appear to have come from the electoral commission. what they tell us is that mr poroshenko is in second place, 19% of the vote. nobody has got a majority of 50%. there were 30 odd candidates, so partly surprising. in

third place the former prime minister yulia tymoshenko. she will now be eliminated. that meant on the left and he is particularly interesting because he is actually a comedian. volodymyr zelensky. he is even more than just a comedian. comedian. volodymyr zelensky. he is even more thanjust a comedian. he is actually a man who made his name playing a man who accidentally becomes president, would you believe. and now he is running for president. he wants to be president and as you can see, he is ten points ahead in the polls. this result depends on what happens to all the other percentages from the other 20 plus candidates, nearly 30 who will be eliminated. where their votes of the second time around. he will obviously pick up some of them. so will mr poroshenko. not beyond the bounds of possibility that mr poroshenko pulls through around two. nothing less that is an impressive showing by mr volodymyr zelensky, who is very much caught the nation. caught some of that rather

satirical, disrespectfulfeeling towards politics in ukraine which have been messy to the saviour meets in recent years. you may recall because five years ago the time of the protests when the previous pro—russian president was hounded from office and mr poroshenko won the subsequent election. russia annexed crimea which had been regarded as part of ukraine anti—impose various sanctions. crimea is now part of russia, as far as russia is concerned. and he felt that they held that that is contested by the rest of europe. it will be interesting to see if volodymyr zelensky wins that second mmp volodymyr zelensky wins that second ramp later this month, and how he deals with the pressures of being a politician and just plain one. slovakia has elected its first female head of state. the anti—corruption campaigner zuzana chaputova won around 58% of the vote in a run—off against the governing party's marosh shefchovich. ms chaputova is a prominent environmental lawyer but has almost no previous political experience.

she ran as an outsider for the liberal progressive slovakia party, framing the election as a struggle between good and evil. a man has been charged in connection with an incident near london's st pancras station on friday evening. terry maher, from north london, faces charges of obstructing the railway and causing a public nuisance. it relates to an incident where a man spent the night sat on top of the station roof, causing a number of rail services, including eurostar, to be severely disrupted. mr maher will appear before magistrates tomorrow. the husband of a british—iranian woman who is currently in prison in iran has delivered a mother's day card to her on the steps of the iranian embassy, as part of his campaign for her release. nazanin zaghari ratcliffe was jailed for five years in 2016 on spying charges which she denies. with more here's our correspondent sangita myska. almost three years ago, nazinin zaghari—ratcliffe was stopped by iranian police

at tehran airport. she was about to fly home with her child but was instead arrested and accused of spying. seen here with her daughter gabriella, just before being jailed for five years, the british government and herfamily have repeatedly called for her release. today, on mother's day, her husband, who has tirelessly campaigned on behalf of his wife, delivered a card and dozens of flowers to the iranian embassy. it's a message, this is the third mother's day that nazinin is a way. this year we are back in front of the iranian embassy, the message is flowers, it's a soft one. the reason for flowers is that is what prisoners are given when they are released, it's mother's day and hopefully that she will be home soon. the foreign secretaryjeremy hunt

was in iran late last year to push for her release. he recently took the unusual step of granting nazinin diplomatic protection in the hope that iranians would be compelled to release her. yet 40—year—old nazinin remains injail. separated from her daughter for yet another year. the government has pledged another £200 million for councils in england to improve roads. £50 million will be available to fix pot holes the rest being used to fund and reward improvements in road repair techniques such as developing new, more durable road surfaces. it's been described as uber, but for haircuts — a new london barber service is offering male grooming on the go. dougal shaw has more.

this may look like an ordinary van on an ordinary street but there's something a bit different going on here. this is actually a mobile barbershop. it's a sight londoners might have to get used to if one young entrepreneur has his way. so when we originally created the idea, we modelled the customer model, we modelled the experience around someone like me, young, black male. he's been running his business for a year now from these offices in brixton, south london. more than 17,000 people have downloaded the app used to book the barber vans. he has a fleet of three which are fully booked, working morning to night. the idea behind the service is that a new generation of young black men doesn't have time to be waiting around in barber shops anymore. even though for many years they were an important social hub for the black community. and remain so. i'm 23, i'm managing properties and i work part—time. so i don't have time to go to a barbershop and wait for my turn. i can communicate him like a client rather than having the whole, like, background noise and everyone debating and everyone screaming. the team say that they were surprised by the demand for the service in the commercial areas of central london

where a new breed of successful black professional can't find the kind of barbershops they want. the service has also attracted white and asian clients as well. and whoever uses the service, parking is always a consideration. but not everyone is convinced that the traditional barbershop has had its day. it's for socialisation and entertaining people around the community. when they all want to have fun, they come to the barbershop. there's a lot ofjokes that is going on in the barbershop. so we keep the place entertained. doug shaw, bbc news. sadly when i go, there is never long enough for a conversation. now it's time for a look at the weather with helen willetts. hello there. it has felt much chillier across england and wales, even with sunshine today because we have changed the type of air across us, and to add insult to injury it has been pretty windy in southern parts. but we have had a lovely day for the most part.