today at six: the shift in drug crimes from city to country — a bbc investigation. police in england and wales are seeing more offences in small towns and villages — the gangs target the vulnerable. they're all from deprived backgrounds generally. from, you know, they've either been in care or on at risk registers, constantly missing from homes. today, boris johnson orders a review into jail sentences for violent and serious crime — his latest law and order initiative. we'll be asking if more prison time actually cuts crime. also tonight: flights in and out of hong kong are cancelled as the chinese authorities ramp up the pressure on protesters. a national shortage of hrt drugs —

women are being told to see gps about alternatives. the idea that i may go to my doctor's and not be able to get the hrt is worrying. i don't want to go back to being that hormonal anxiety mess that i was beforehand. it's the glorious twelfth — as the grouse shooting season starts, labour questions its impact on the countryside. and coming up on bbc news, the england rugby world cup squad is announced, with the uncapped ruaridh mcconnochie included. we tell you who else made the cut. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. an investigation by bbc news has found that drug crime may be

shifting from the big cities to the countryside. in the last five years the number of offences in urban areas has fallen, but risen in rural areas. dealers — known as county lines gangs because they operate across borders often using young people to traffick drugs — have expanded their networks into suburbs and smaller towns. city—based drug gangs use the homes of addicts as a base for their dealing. it's called cuckooing. our special correspondent, ed thomas, has followed the drug trail to north wales. county lines in 2019. they‘ re making thousands. can you blame them? if it was legal, they would all be out of business. protecting users and safeguarding children. if they arrested one or two, you can guarantee there would be maybe another ten available. for three months we followed a county line from liverpool to north wales. with teenage drug runners moving

heroin and crack hundreds of miles every week. sue's daily routine is 20 years in the making. i feel like i've got a cold, but after this i feel normal. i am just taking it to feel normal. first heroin, then crack. each county line can make up to £5,000 a day. i have just come to have a look. two lines have been in sue's home. it is called cuckooing, when dealers move in, selling drugs. first, in 2017, mohammed from a london gang took over sue's flat to deal in heroin and crack. then last year, this teenager, who we can't name, arrived from liverpool. he was caught with thousands

of pounds worth of illegal drugs. so you are getting the free crack, you weren't stealing? you are never going to get rid of the drug problem. in llandudno, pc carl barlow‘s priority is to protect users and children. in the top flat we suspect there are some people cuckooing at the moment. day and night we watched him visiting heroin and crack users. some in crisis. all at risk. i was worried that there are young teenagers in this flat now selling crack and heroin. there are thousands of vulnerable, long—term users across wales. this woman admitted to using heroin

while carl was in the house. right, you ask any of the users, have i ever locked them up for having personal bits on them. are we talking crack here, or heroin? both. what's the point? there's no way that i would be allowed back into these properties without a warrant and stuff like that, if they knew that i was going to go in there and lock them all up for possessing personal use heroin and crack cocaine. and this is why, to safeguard children. how old are you? 16. right. school—age children sent to north wales. well don't come to llandudno selling drugs then. because i need to get in those addresses to check there are no kids in there. and if i am not let in the address, i can't do that. they are all from deprived backgrounds generally.

they have either been in care, or on the at risk register, they are constantly missing from homes. then there is the violence. mark mason was chased in a car and stabbed to death in rhyl by a liverpool gang. in connah‘s quay, teenager matthew cassidy from merseyside was murdered by a county lines rival. nobody here? no. just have a quick look, yeah? yeah. police are worried about kate. at risk of being cuckooed. nobody has been here? would you tell us if they had? of course i would. these people need to be told to stay away from me. i don't know what they have done in the past. i've certainly not hurt anyone. 0r sold any drugs to anybody. the message... it is a horrible thing to do. ..has already been sent. it is terrifying. and it's not fair. no.

it's not. every single ground floor window, apart from the door, has been put through. my biggest concern is that the people who have done this will come back and do it again and again. atjust 2a, this woman is using heroin. how long does it take to get heroin and crack on this estate? two seconds. two seconds? yeah. it's quite rare for a 24—year—old to be using heroin. no. i'm the youngest in the whole town. are you? yeah. only four weeks before this filming her mum died after using heroin. how many people around here are taking it? near enough the whole town. heroin? yeah. it is never—ending.

what needs to change? it's difficult. the only way you would stop the drug supplies from the 0cgs and the county lines, is if the drugs were legalised. mohammed was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. sue faces eviction. the national crime agency says the police alone cannot solve county lines. ed thomas, bbc news, north wales. drugs offences, especially those involving violence, are the kinds of crimes the prime minister says he wants to target. today, in his latest law and order initiative, borisjohnson ordered a review into sentencing for violent criminals. critics say there's no evidence that more time in prison cuts crime, and that england and wales already has the largest prison population in western europe. here's our home editor, mark easton.

a drive—by shooting in birmingham. a 20—year—old man killed as he played football. four days on, still no arrests, and a community still in shock. i'm feeling nervous. especially my son, he's scared, he's really, really scared. it's the kind of high profile crime that's feeding current anxiety and prompting a u—turn in government policy. after years of cuts to the criminal justice system, suddenly there's money and resources. i believe in passionately backing the police... more cops with more powers, courts locking up more people for longer. amid hints of a general election this autumn boris johnson wants to sound tough. i want to see several things happen, i want to see a review of sentencing because i think too many serious sexual and violent offenders are not getting the sentences that they deserve. what's noticeable in the prime minister's rhetoric though is the absence of evidence,

of detail, as to how they're going to do this, how they're going to pay for it, and how it's going to make a positive difference to violent crime. there's a promise of 10,000 more prison places in england and wales but it's a promise we heard in 2015 and 2016 and again, in 2017. britain already incarcerates more of its population than any country in western europe and if they do manage the extra places it will cost an additional quarter of a billion pounds every year. what i'm very pleased about is not only the 10,000 prison places, we have now got an announcement of £85 million more for the crown prosecution service. you have already cut hundred million from the crown prosecution service budget so why is 85 million good news? the reality of the matter is, of course, this is fantastic new funding, new support... you've taken the money away! and i've spoken to the director of public prosecutions this morning, he is extremely pleased. i'm sure he is because he's had 100 million taken out of his budget.

85 million coming into the cps... so there's still a £50 million cut. we are absolutely delighted with the news. can i ask you about the 10,000 prisoners that you're going to be having. how much is that going to cost? can ijust stop you? stop, against the wall. get against the fence! police across england and wales have now been told they can stop and search people without needing reasonable suspicion of a crime. earlier this year the power was trialled in seven force areas but such was the concern about possible damage to community relations that reviews were planned after six months and a year. just three months in and without any formal evaluation, the government is expanding it across the country. random stop and search in and of itself, does not bring down violent crime and knife crime. it's about what works. crime has risen up the list of public concerns. people want something done but whether easier stop and search, tougher sentencing and more prisoners is the answer, well, the evidence is thin. mark is here with me.

do the kind of initiative is the prime minister is talking about address the kind of problems ed thomas is reporting on? well, almost a decade of cuts to the criminal justice system have made it less able to do with the crime threat, they muscularity of the drugs gangs whose network extends to every corner of the country, their fingerprints on the knife crime we see in our cities and in drive—by shootings. the additional resources, if and when they arrive, will mean that police are better placed to counter those kinds of threats and will come i think, make the system more efficient than it is now. but while there is a rising public concern about violent crime, actually we ought to remember that the level of violent crime is historically low. it's 70% down and where it was in the mid—90s. your risk of being a victim of violence is the lowest since records began. that must be important when we think about how best to spend the billions

of pounds, the announcements of the past couple of days actually represent. mark, thank you. and in tomorrow's programme we will have a special report on the children who go missing from care homes, who police fear have been targetted by drugs gangs. hong kong international airport was brought to a standstill today, with all flights cancelled after anti—government protesters occupied parts of the terminal. the demonstrations started injune, in opposition to a proposed law that would have made it easier for suspects to be sent to mainland china for trial. today the chinese authorities linked the protesters to terrorism. jonathan head reports from hong kong. as the last passengers arrived at this, normally one of the world's busiest airports, they were greeted with a chorus of appeals from young hong kongers to support their struggle. they have been here for four days. in such numbers today, that the authorities took the drastic step of shutting the airport down, prompting some protesters to flee, fearing the police

were about to attack. well, they closed this airport down about three hours ago, and yet there are still hundreds of confused passengers looking for information. very few have them have been told that there's possibility of the police storming in here. to be honest, with so many people milling around, it's hard to understand how the hong kong police could come in and clear out those protesters. catherine morgan and her daughter helen were due to fly back to britain, but theirflight, like all the others, was cancelled. we flew in from taipei this morning and were fine until we got to arrivals. there was a mass protest. everything closed down. i get my a—level results on thursday, so i am hoping i get back for them and that we are not on a flight. 0ne protester walked around with an apology to all stranded passengers. 0thers offered food and drink. this closure is causing massive disruption and will do more

harm to hong kong's economy. but these young activists believe they have to keep going. george, you may see now it is a very different scene. in the last hour the protesters have left the airport because they fear that riot police would have come. you can see officials peeling off the posters that have been here for the last few days, trying to restart the airport inafew days, trying to restart the airport in a few hours. there has been massive disruption. this is one of the biggest hubs in the region. strong language now from china about these protests, describing it today as like terrorism, extreme atrocities, very strong language considering there has not been a great deal of violence, certainly not suffered by the police. most of it has been carried out by the police. but hearing this language from china now, warning it will react with an iron fist, does bring forth the prospect that at some point if these protests continue the

way they have, and they have been successful in disrupting hong kong, that china will step in with unforeseen consequences for this entire region. jonathan, thank you. the time is 6:16. our top story this evening. an investigation by bbc news has found that drug crime may be shifting from the big cities to the countryside. and still to come — we hear from the mo salah fan who broke his nose trying to meet his hero. coming up on sportsday on bbc news, all eyes are on andy murray as he makes his return to singles action at the cincinnati masters. this week marks 50 years since the beginning of the troubles in northern ireland, a conflict which resulted in the deaths of more

than 3,500 people. 0ur ireland correspondent emma vardy has been speaking to people in belfast about their memories of the sectarian fighting which led to the british army being deployed on the streets of the city in august 1969. i was in my house that night, and the land rovers and all the vehicles, we saw passing the window, and i thought, what are they here for? few would've guessed this was to be the start of one of the most prolonged military deployments in british history. ifelt really bad because, you know, these guns were pointing at me. a civil rights campaign and street protests aimed at ending discrimination against catholics escalated into violence between the nationalist and unionist communities. people sometimes had wardrobes in front of their living room windows and furniture was shifted around, just in case a stray bullet came into the street. mina lived in a mainly

protestant area at the time. just streets away, catholics were being driven from their homes. you could see the flames and the shouting, incredible. whole streets were burnt to the ground. basically it was just gutted and the smell, the sounds even of the wood still splintering even after two weeks. at first, for patricia, seeing british soldiers in catholic areas was a relief. but it was short—lived. people here gave tea to soldiers, i mean, that was part of the irish tradition. you welcome the stranger. we thought they were going to stop, get all this stopped, and itjust didn't happen. explosion. the provisional ira began an armed campaign. its aim — removing the british presence in northern ireland. loyalistsjoined paramilitary groups to fight back. i was a 20—year—old fireman. we would get a call and we just turn out to it.

the first thing i always remember is you'd get the terrible smell, the acrid smell of brick dust. our policy always was save life, save property and, if you can, save yourself. a curfew was imposed as thousands of troops carried out house—to—house searches. like many in her area, patricia joined sinn fein — the political wing of the provisional ira. i think the curfew was the turning point in terms of how the catholic population, nationalist population, saw the soldiers. and then they became the enemy. nationalist and unionist communities became further divided. here, the catholic community of ardoyne separated from their protestant neighbours just across the road. in 50 years, after the barricades first went up, these two communities still live apart. northern ireland is now a very different place than the dark days of the summer of 1969.

peace has brought prosperity, but divisions remain — scars that are difficult to heal. the hardest part, i would say, was waking up every morning and finding more catholics killed. i found that... that would've made me think, we need to stop here. to this day, do you believe the ira attacks were justified? yes. you cannot qualify or quantify the harm the troubles or the conflict has done to northern ireland, and will we ever get back to normal again? well, i don't know. looking back at the start of the troubles, 50 years on. there's a shortage of hormone replacement therapy — or hrt. it's used by around a million women in the uk, mainly to help with symptoms linked to the menopause. many of the most commonly prescribed

forms of the treatment are out of stock at chemists. the government's blaming what it's calling "manufacturing delays", as our health editor hugh pym reports. the last tablet they had available, which caused terrible side—effects that were almost as difficult to live with as having no hrt. according to my doctor, there are no patches for at least three months, if not longer. the last time i went into the chemist, the pharmacist said, we don't know whether we will be getting them back in at all. these are anxious times for some women on hrt. problems obtaining the medication can cause distressing symptoms and there are shortages of some products. 0ne campaigner trying to raise awareness of the menopause told me how worrying even the thought of not getting hrt could be. i suffered very, very badly. i was very anxious. i had depression, i had paranoia,

as well as the physical symptoms. the idea that i might go to my doctor's and not be able to get hrt is worrying. i don't want to go back to being that hormonal anxiety mess. gps who prescribe these therapies say there is confusion for them as well as for the patients who need the medication. the product they have been used to, and are stable on and very happy with, is suddenly not available. they are having to go to their gp for alternatives. sometimes they are having to go back and forth between pharmacy and gp. one of the challenges we have is that gps don't know at any one time what products are available at the pharmacy. supply problems can happen in the pharmaceutical industry, but this time they have had a ripple effect, taking in many patients. it seems to be, in my understanding, a lack of a particular ingredient with a particular manufacturer, which has caused the knock on for other manufacturers, having to increase their supply to meet demand. so this is all the medication i have left.

government advice is for patients to consult their gps about alternatives. but some women have told us there is a fundamental problem which has to be addressed. i am just afraid that a lot of these symptoms are going to come back. and it really eats into the quality of life. these are not just superficial niggles. you know, these are things that are essential for everyday living. wildfires have contiued to rage on the spanish island of gran canaria. the fires, which started on saturday near the town of artenara, have forced hundreds of locals and tourists to be evacuated from the area. a 55—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the fires. labour has called for a review into grouse shooting — questioning its impact on the environment. the four—month grouse shooting season starts today — known as the glorious twelfth. shooters will be heading to moors in scotland and northern england.

a scottish government review is already under way. lorna gordon is in angus now. campaigners who want to see an end to grouse shooting say there's nothing glorious about the 12th. estates like this say they work hard to maintain this landscape while at the same time bringing in money and jobs to relatively isolated parts of the country. now, labour is calling for a complete review of the sport under review in scotland is already under review in scotland is already under way. the first shoot of the season, in the angus glens. across the country hundreds of thousands of acres of moorland are actively managed so grouse shooting can take place. estates like this one say this makes them the friend of the environment, not the enemy, and that shooting supportsjobs in remote rural areas.

they are almost the lifeblood of a glen like this, because the other options for employment and economic and cultural activity are so limited. but the argument is it's bad for the environment. what would you say to that? i would say that is absolutely wrong. it is places like this which conserve wading birds. this is where the curlew, the lapwing, the golden plover come back to breed in the summer, and if the conditions aren't right for them, they will go. but campaigners complain the impact on the environment had been too high. in some areas they say it has led to the erosion of land. in others that birds of prey have been illegally targeted, poisoned, trapped. we are not seeking a ban on grouse shooting. what we are seeking is management for grouse shooting that is legal, sustainable and accountable, and it's none of those three things at the moment. what we have is an industry where self—regulation has patently failed. and we would like to see that brought under proper control. a review by the scottish government into grouse moor management is expected later this year but may not resolve the debate between those who want grouse shooting

to end for good and those who believe it's a tradition that is important to sustaining the future of the countryside. lorna gordon, bbc news, in the angus glens. a ten—year—old liverpool fan had his dreams come true at the weekend, when he met the club's strker mo salah in the most unexpected way. louis fowler crashed into a lamp—post and broke his nose when he and his brother were chasing mo salah's car. spotting the youngster, the striker came round again to check louis was ok, later posing for pictures. so, mo salah comes out of his car. sometimes they stop if you run after them, sometimes they stop anyway. so, i ran with my brother. and because in my excitement i wasn't focusing on what was in front of me, i was obviously looking to the left, because that was where mo salah's car was. and then, obviously, iran into a lamp post. i think that that's, like, really kind—hearted of him. it's a great choice. i love him very much,

because he's amazing. victoria: ahh! time for a look at the weather. here's stav da naos. good evening. plenty of showers around. this week looking fairly u nsettled around. this week looking fairly unsettled with low pressure system moving in to bring spells of wet and windy weather. it's going to be called for the time of year certainly for the next few days. we've had a scattering across the south—east and in the channel. starting to move off into the near continent. turning dry across the south—east. heavy downpours in parts of northern ireland and scotland. they will crush the irish sea and push into north west england —— cross the irish sea. there will be lengthy clear skies tonight and with those winds coming in from the north—west, quite a chilly night with temperatures in mid—single digits across the north. we start

tomorrow morning on a chilly night. largely dry and bright with some sunshine and a scattering of showers around but not as many as today. tuesday looking like one of the better days this week, dry with plenty of sunshine for many. with lighter winds, strong sunshine, we should feel warmer with top temperatures around 19—21. still cool in the north. tuesday night into wednesday, a tangle of weather fronts pushing in from the west to bring outbreaks of rain across the ukfor bring outbreaks of rain across the uk for wednesday. southern scotland could bring the best of the dry weather, windy and wet further south. 0riginal high pressure here, find before wet and windy weather moving in.

that's all from the bbc news at six, so it's goodbye from me , and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... all flights all flights tearing from hong kong's international airport been cancelled as pro democracy protesters crowd the terminal. if you give us universal suffrage, we will have a mechanism, a democratic and peaceful mechanism, a democratic and peaceful mechanism to solve our complex. bbc investigation finds drug crime and cities are down but rural numbers are going up. sentencing policies for violent and sexual offenders as the government pushes out new policies on law and order. he discusses trade policy on the telephone with donald trump and

impress him