the headlines: the united nations has called for an independent investigation into an airstrike that killed at least 44 people in a migrant centre near the libyan capital, tripoli. the top un official there has described it as a possible war crime. the government and rebels both blame each other. there's been an angry exchange of words between china and britain over the protests in hong kong. the british foreign secretary has warned of "serious consequences" for china if the rights of people living in the territory are infringed. in response, chinese officials accuse the uk of indulging "colonial era fantasies". boeing is giving $100 million to help families affected by the two crashes of the company's 737 max planes in indonesia and ethiopia. the payment, stretching over several years, is independent of lawsuits filed in the wake of the disasters in which 346 people were killed.

it is about half past two in the morning. you up—to—date on the headlines. now on bbc news, wednesday in parliament. hello, and welcome to wednesday in parliament. coming up: labour anger at the possibility the uk will leave the eu without a deal... doesn't the prime minister accept the best thing to do would be to go back to the people and let them decide which way we go? but theresa may hits back. labour want to block brexit, and that would be a betrayal of the many by the few. a bereaved mother welcomes a fund to pay for child funerals. martin's fund is a legacy for my son, and will be a comfort to every parent that will need to use it in the future. so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

cheering. and can the red squirrel survive the threat from its nasty grey cousin? without exception, where there are live greys, there will be dead reds. but first: it wasn't so long ago that you couldn't get through a single parliamentary debate without brexit coming up — little else was talked about in westminster. but since the deadline was extended until the end of october, it's gone a bit quiet on that front. but all that changed on wednesday. the spark was a hint by the chancellor philip hammond the day before that he might vote against a new conservative government that wanted to leave the eu without a deal. and of course, the comments by the two conservative leadership candidates that they were willing to accept a no—deal outcome. brexit was once again unleashed — first at prime minister's questions... the chancellor says that a no—deal brexit would cause a £90 billion hit to the public finances. the former foreign secretary says concerns about no deal are "confected hysteria". who does the prime

minister think is right? the figure that was quoted was actually publicly available at the time and appeared in the government's economic analysis in relation to these matters. but can i also say to the right honourable gentlemen that if he is worried about no deal — i have done everything i can to ensure we leave the eu with a deal. i can look workers in the eye and tell them i voted to leave with a deal that protectsjobs. the right honourable gentlemen can't do that because he's voted three times for no deal. the labour leader referred to the announcement by vauxhall that their new model would be built at ellesmere port in cheshire only if a satisfactory brexit deal was reached. why doesn't she speak to both of the candidates that succeed her, and just remind them that as they trade insults over no—deal, it's thousands ofjobs that are at risk the more they ratchet up their rhetoric?

the right honourable gentleman was saying, "what would i say to workers at ellesmere port"? i'll tell him what i would say to workers at ellesmere port — i and the vast majority of conservative members in this house voted to protect theirjobs! the labour party — the labour party whipped three times against a deal. the labour party whipped three times for no—deal. the threat to those ellesmere port jobs is from the labour party! as i recall it, mr speaker, it was this party that put a motion forward to take no—deal off the table. theresa may mocked him. "it was the labour party that put a motion to abandon no deal to take it off the table through into this house." the trouble is when it came to the votes that mattered, when it came to the votes that would actually have an impact on stopping no—deal, the labour party whipped against them. absolutely typical of the right

honourable gentlemen — all mouth and trousers! this government, mr speaker, is now in irrelevance. the two candidates to succeed... the two candidates to succeed her have only got fantasy plans. since she and her successors have no answers, doesn't the prime minister accept the best thing to do would be to go back to the people and let them decide which way we go? theresa may responded with a question of her own. where does the labour party stand on brexit? the shadow brexit secretary doesn't support brexit. the shadow foreign secretary doesn't support brexit. the shadow chancellor doesn't support brexit. the labour deputy leader doesn't support brexit. labour want to block brexit, and that would be a betrayal of the many by the few. but it seems 49 minutes of parliamentary scrutiny at pmqs weren't enough for theresa may.

and so she embarked on a statement to the commons about her recent travels to the 620 injapan, and first about the summit she'd been to in brussels, where the top eu jobs were being divided up. but a conservative quoted a former british ambassador, who thought one particular country was getting too big a slice of the action. nine of the 28 european commissioners have german leaders in their cabinets. there are six german directors general. he says it is germany's view that is sought by the commission before it acts, and by other member states before they decide in the council ministers by majority vote behind closed doors. is this not a grave concern, and is it not a reason why we should leave the european union by 31 october? that didn't go down well with another conservative who wanted to thank the uk's eu allies.

they should ignore the sometimes childish and unfortunate anti—german rhetoric that occasionally comes from our benches. if i may take the opportunity to congratulate the chancellor sitting next to her on the clear statements he has been making in recent days about the obvious danger to our economy from a no—deal brexit? after having to negotiate with these people for so many dreary months, the prime minister must be mightily relieved she'll no longer have to go to brussels. but what advice would she give to her successor in dealing with these people? would she recommend the injunction that no deal is better than a bad deal? can i say to my honourable friend that i have always believed no deal was better than a bad deal, but i believe we negotiated a good deal. the advice i would give to my successor is to act at all times in the best interest of this country. i believe it's in our best interest to be able to leave the european union with a good deal. but it is up to my successor to find a majority in this house to enable us to leave the european union.

well, as i mentioned, the other element of theresa may's statement was the g20 summit. and this was probably the most memorable image of her trip — the frosty handshake with the russia's president putin. the prime minister told the commons she didn't believe in shying away from difficult conversations. i told him there can be no normalisation of our bilateral relationship until russia stops the irresponsible activity that threatens the uk and its allies. the use of a deadly nerve agent on the streets of our country was a despicable act which led to the death of dawn sturgess. i was clear the uk has irrefutable evidence that russia was behind the attack, and we want to see the two individuals responsible brought tojustice. while the uk remains open to a different relationship — for that to happen, the russian government must choose a different path. i'd like tojoin with the prime minister by endorsing her robust response to russia, and that it must end its destabilising activity. those responsible for the poisoning of sergei and yulia skripal should be brought to justice, and the russian state must take responsibility

and allowjustice to prevail. i congratulate the prime minister on the wonderful face that she adopted when she was holding president putin's hand. it had more ice in it than the polar ice cap, and it said it all. can i perhaps also reassure the right honourable gentlemen that unlike the polar icecap on this issue, i'm not melting. laughter. you're watching wednesday in parliament with me, mandy baker. don't forget that if you miss our daily round—up, or if you'd like to watch this again — and why wouldn't you — it's available on the bbc iplayer. now there's never a shortage of political argument or disagreement in the commons, but there are warmer moments, too. the labour mp carolyn harris has spoken movingly on several occasions about the death of her eight—year—old son, martin, in a car accident in 1989. mrs harris had to borrow money to pay for his funeral. since becoming an mp, she's campaigned for bereaved parents to receive financial help.

i have at times been impatient. i have at times been frustrated. but i've always known it was the right thing to do. now the prime minister, the honourable members for chelmsford and colchester, and indeed the civil servants have delivered on my requests, and i understand that from 23july, the children's funeral fund will be operational. i thank everyone involved in making this happen — the organisations that have supported me, colleagues who've encouraged me, my family who write me to revisit our loss, my team who have held my hand, and you, mr speaker, for your understanding. martin's fund is a legacy for my son, and will be a comfort to every parent that will need to use it in the future. so from the bottom of my heart, thank you. cheering.

people across politics and beyond are inspired by the way she has behaved. and we are unwavering in our admiration for her. she said sometimes she's been impatient — sometimes you have to be impatient, because it's that impatience that spurs others on. i'm pleased that we've been able to introduce this fund, and i would echo the speaker's comments in commending the honourable lady for the way she has championed this cause. as i say, we share and are concerned about her own personal sadness that she went through. but she has taken that and put it to good benefit for families up and down the country. theresa may paying tribute to carolyn harris. the international development secretary has said the uk and its allies must be ready to counter the re—emergence of islamic state — or daesh mark ii, as he called it. he told mps the uk had to continue to invest in development and work closely with countries under threat.

rory stewart said the group had until recently controlled a third of iraq and syria, and had now lost its final piece of territory. their sudden rise and fall — morally troubling, profoundly threatening, and almost unprecedented — carries deep lessons and warnings for britain and indeed the nations of the world. given the extreme fragility of several nations not just in the middle east, he had a warning. it was terrifyingly easy for an insurgency group to establish themselves on both sides of the border. they may have lost their territory for now, but the underlying conditions remain, and could allow insurgents to establish themselves again. and even without holding territory, daesh remains a significant terroristic threat. on iraq, does he share the growing international concern about arbitrary, draconian, and legally unsound way in which the iraqi authorities are conducting trials of alleged jihadist collaborators, and the resentment caused amongst the sunni community in iraqi? what discussions are taking place

regarding the huge numbers of detained suspected daesh fighters? in total, more than 55,000 suspected daesh fighters and their families have been detained in syria and iraq. at the heart of all this has to be the question of daesh mark ii — in other words, the question of how we prevent all the same conditions, resentments, abuses, and lack of public services and corruption which led to the emergence of daesh in its first form back in 2004—05, and in its new form in 2011—12 re—emerging again? and that means that we have to work with the iraqi government and indeed with those areas in syria controlled by the scf to ensure that people's rights are respected, that reconstruction money is going, and above all, that sunni arabs feel they have a stake in a political settlement.

i'm sure the secretary of state will recognise some of the issues in relation to reconciliation are compounded by corruption in the pre—existing infrastructure of the iraqi government — notably corruption in mosul through the implementation of the impact of international aid because of the mayor of mosul. ultimately, the reason daesh was defeated was by seizing and holding territory, they gave up the terrorist's best weapon — the cloak of invisibility. contact and cooperation from other companies is now necessary, sojust how will that be done in libya, where it's not sure who's in charge, and northern nigeria, where daesh are free to roam, in afghanistan, where daesh are attempting to connect in area that they once had influenced. the reality is, the areas where the islamic state has established itself in those three

countries are almost entirely outside government control. they are areas which not only you are i would be unable to visit, but soldiers or police from the central capital would be unable to access. so security has to come first, but that security itself needs to be based on some kind of trust in the regime in the centre, and it is this problem that is going to be the real problem going forward. rory stewart. peers have backed a campaign to give anonymity to sexual offence suspects before they're charged. a petition, which has been signed by nearly 20 thousand people so far, calls for the reputations of all innocent suspects, whether they're famous or not, to be protected. the petition has been backed by sir cliff richard, whose home was raided by police in 2014, during an investigation into a sexual assault claim. he was never arrested. the government believes that there should, in general, be the right to anonymity before the point of charge, in respect of all offences. but there will be exceptional circumstances where there are legitimate policing reasons for naming a suspect.

my lords, does not this petition bring home to us all the misery and distress, not just by well—known figures, but by scores of innocent men and women, up and down our country, whose lives have been ruined because police officers decided that allegations of child sex abuse should always be believed, and divulge their names before charges were laid. in one notorious case, the police went further, who can forget the truly shocking spectacle of a senior police officer standing outside sir edward heath's house in salisbury, and appealing for evidence through which his reputation could be destroyed. the police are frail a basis for relying on arriving at the facts of these matters,

and it's desperately necessary to have an independent view. in the case of sir edward heath, which was mentioned, the police said that the evidence was compelling, and true, we now know that it was essentially made up. is it not a deplorable that in cases like these, the police, instead of acting as the custodians of civil liberties, and the rule of law, are acting as a major threat to them. the best way forward, really, is to have a presumption in favour of anonymity, but to provide the courts with a right to discipline the presumption in the event the court is satisfied that there is good reason on application by either party, for example to obtain evidence, which might assist the prosecution or the defence. the college police has authorised professional practise guidance on relationships with the media, highlights the importance of respecting suspect's right to privacy, and it states the police will not name those arrested, or suspected of a crime, save in exceptional circumstances, where there is a legitimate policing purpose to do so.

and the naming of an arrested person before they are charged, must be authorised by a chief officer, who must ensure that the crown prosecution service is consulted. in the janna case, the police pre—charged placed an advert in the local media with a phone number, calling on so—called accusers to come forward, and they did, with the result that there was a flood of compensation claims under the criminal injuries compensation scheme, from people, most of whom, had criminal records. and all of which have now been withdrawn. there's something wrong with the arrangements as they currently exist. and this petition, which has been signed by all these people, is very important, and should be taken seriously by the government. my lords, i am not suggesting at all that the petition is not

being taken seriously. but what i, what i would say is that the independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse is taking a very robust approach to the institutional approaches and responses to those historical allegations of child sexual abuse. lady williams. every year, more than 20 tonnes of plastic is used by just two supermarkets. waitrose and iceland. some of it will be recycled, some of it won't. some of the packaging can be recycled, some of it can't. the commons environment, food and rural affairs committee is investigating. 0ne committee member raised an investigation by which? that found big differences in how much packaging was recyclable at different supermarkets, and how much was even correctly labelled, so consumers knew what they could do with it. so 11 supermarkets we looked at, iceland were at the bottom of the pile, with only 38%

of the samples were actually labelled correctly, so that's... yeah, that's a good example of the cyclical nature of updating and labelling of products, so products, depending on whether they are being chilled, frozen, go through a lifecycle, and the labelling is only updated within the context of that lifecycle, so you are typically only somewhere between 1—3 year cycle of updating information. between now and, sort of december of this year, we will have changed and updated about 40% of our packaging on the shelf, so walking into iceland today, versus walking into iceland in december this year, you will see a very different picture in terms of our labelling. so absolutely, we are fully committed to making sure that our labelling is up to date, accurate, consistent, but it is right across the packaging sector, that cyclical nature of packaging updates, everyone is in different stages of the cycle. right, so if you are at 38%,

you are saying that you have changed labelling about 40%. about 40% will have changed between, yeah, between. 38%, you know, is absolutely vital. we are going somewhere. no, that's 40 out of 100%. all right. the target is 100%. the target is absolutely 100%, you know, we want every label on every pack to be right, up—to—date and consistent, easy to read. alan brown reminded waitrose that it had come fourth bottom. as having 17,000 own label lines, we don't update all of those every year. obviously we also wouldn't want to create any further waste, and from those packaging goods, because they label change takes place. so we would look to the natural cycle of a category, or a redesign, or repositioning of a brand, then we would look to update all of the labelling. naturally as a retailer, you would be competent to label your product, you know, the meat or the apples or the pears as being exactly what they are.

and we as consumers would expect to buy that. so why don't you actually, why don't we actually expect the packaging to be labelled properly as well? surely to a degree, you are miss—selling, albeit the packaging, and i'm just not sure that you are under 50%, all of you, and you don't seem to be that concerned really. and yet, you know, why have you got to that situation, obviously your eye was off the ball. and you are not giving us any dates to when we will get to much higher, you know 38—40%, i don't think even do you expect? do you expect a pat on the back for that? that's, that's, well that, we will have touched 40% of our products in totality. right. our expectation, our aim is to get to 100%. but when? well from where we are now, we will have touched 40% of our products. by the end of this year, that's a huge scale of change for a business like ours.

it does beg the question is why you are in the space you are in, because you know, if this pressure hadn't come on from the public and from the desire to have more recycling and less plastics used, i'm not sure, you know, we would be in this position. and so why have you got into that position? i mean not you, just iceland and waitrose, why generally have we taken the eye off the ball? i wouldn't say we've taken the eye off the ball. well you wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't taken the eye off the ball. the information that we are giving the consumer should be 100%, and that is what we are looking to get to, and we will do that as quickly as we can. karen grayley from waitrose. finally, are you sitting comfortably? this is a tale about a tail, a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was nootkin.

—— nutkin. and that, although you couldn't see her, was trudy harrison, talking about one of her constituents. and the lake in ireland as beatrix potter describes, is of course saint herbert's island, in my copeland constituency. she was speaking at the start of a debate on the threat facing the uk's red squirrels. disease, woodland destruction, and human beings are partly to blame for the fall in numbers. the decline of the red squirrel is, i believe, a national tragedy. from an estimated two and a half million recorded over 100 years ago, to the latest count of 140,000 red squirrels across the uk, withjust 15,000 left in england. but the biggest factor in the decline of the red, is the rise of the grey. some bright spark in 1876 thought it would be a great idea to bring over the larger, more prolifically breeding grey squirrel from north america, it was brought to cheshire in england. the grey squirrel out competes our native reds for habitat, food, and reproduction, and they carry, but are not affected

by, the vital virus, squirrel pox. it is now estimated that we have three—and—a—half million grey squirrels living in the uk, againstjust the 140,000 red squirrels, and it is widely agreed by scientists, government departments, wildlife trusts, and conservationists that grey squirrels and red squirrels cannot cohabitate. without exception, where there are live greys, there will be dead reds. trudy harrison favoured shooting grey squirrels to give the red ones a chance. a neighbouring mp wasn't sure about that. i congratulate her for securing this debate, and we in ferness are with her on preserving the red squirrel, but what does she say to those detractors who would say she's in fact nothing more than a squirrel racist? a fellow conservative agreed firm action was needed. unless we find a way of sending the grey squirrel back where it came to, where it came from, rather, from the united states, we exterminated from the united kingdom, ithink,

extreme and unlikely we will keep the little blade is under control. but a labour mp had a more ingenious solution, involving pine martens. because the greys are slower, the pine martens are more likely to attack them and catch them. the reds being faster and nimble and smaller are more likely to escape. the environment minister said the red squirrel was already protected. the passion about protecting our red squirrels is something that i think touches many honourable members and right honourable members. it's important that we keep our focus on making sure that iconic native species, both of the fauna and flora, are important in the future, it is a key part of our 25 year environment plan. the environment minister, therese coffey. and that all we've got time for. i'll be back again at the same time tomorrow, but for now from me,

mandy baker, goodbye. hello there. for some parts of the uk, the next couple of days will bring blue skies, sunshine and warmth. but in other places, it will look and feel very different. this is how it looked in the far north of scotland on wednesday. on the satellite picture, you can see the way in which this cloud has been approaching, pushing in from the north—west, and as this cloud makes a bit more progress, we will see some outbreaks of rain. so, as we head through thursday, rain initially across the northern and the western isles will increasingly spread across the northern half of mainland scotland. the heaviest rain always across hills in the west. to the east of high ground, the rain very showery, very patchy in nature. more cloud filtering into northern england, northern ireland through the day, but the further south you are, we're going to see quite a lot of sunshine and some real warmth. 24 degrees for birmingham, 26 degrees in london, so that's the sort of temperature we could well attain at wimbledon

during thursday afternoon. certainly sunny skies overhead, very light winds as well. the day ends on a sunny note across the southern half of the uk. but further north, we have our cloud, we have our outbreaks of patchy rain, sinking a little further southwards, and then a new push of slightly heavier, more persistent rain gets into the far north—west of scotland by the end of the night. quite a mild night, as well — lows of 11—15 degrees. so, as we go into friday, high pressure still trying to hold on across the south. some fine weather here, but these frontal systems will continue to bring some outbreaks of rain across the north of the uk. certainly a lot of cloud into northern ireland, north—west england and scotland, some rain once again pushing down across the northern half of scotland through the day. ahead of that, in the sunshine, some real warmth — 26, maybe 27 degrees. but underneath the cloud, with the outbreaks of rain, it will feel cooler — 17 degrees in aberdeen, 18 in belfast.

and that is a sign of things to come, because as we move out of friday into the weekend, these frontal systems in the north will make some progress further south, and as this cold front here moves southwards, it will open the door to some cooler air. the winds switching round to north or north—westerlies. this band of cloud sinking southwards, maybe getting stuck across southern england and south wales for a time. could be the odd spot of rain here on saturday. elsewhere, patchy cloud and sunny spells, but with those north or north—westerly winds, not especially brisk for most of us, butjust bringing a slightly cooler feel, so temperatures 13 degrees in aberdeen, maybe 22 in london. and we keep those slightly lower temperatures as we head into sunday. a lot of dry weather, a lot of cloud as well, but some spells of sunshine. welcome to bbc news.

i'm mike embley. our top stories: an air strike on a migrant centre leaves dozens dead in libya. un officials say it may be a war crime. china tells the uk to keep out of its affairs as the row over britain's support for hong kong's protesters deepens the uk government chose to stand on the wrong side. it has made inappropriate remarks. boeing promises $100 million for families of those killed in the 737 max crashes. and can cuba's tourism industry stay afloat after us sanctions force cruise liners to wave goodbye?