this is bbc world news, the headlines: kurdish officials in northern syria say they've done a deal with the syrian government for the country's army to deploy along the length of the border with turkey. it's an attempt to forestall the turkish offensive against the kurds. exit polls in poland suggest the governing law and justice party has won an improved mandate in the general election. they took just over 43% of the vote. an exit poll in tunisia indicates that the independent candidate kais saied has won a resounding victory in the presidential run—off election. the poll shows mr saied with more than seventy per cent of the vote. -- 7096. and brigid kosgei of kenya has set

a new women's world record for the marathon, in chicago. she knocked more than a minute off the previous best time to finish in two hours, 1a minutes and four seconds. at ten o'clock, mishal husain will be here with a full round up of the day's news. now in the our world programme, michael buchanan meets people in hartlepool in the north east of england to find out how government cuts have affected their lives. on the north—east coast of england lies one of britain's poorest towns. a lack of work, a lack of money, has left a proud area struggling badly. drug abuse is rife, killing people at a faster rate than almost anywhere else in england.

for a year, this town has become my second home, witnessing a firsthand its fears... i've lost one son. don't want to lose another. ..and the dedication of those battling its demons. he bought us a sandwich in the doorway — bought us a cheeseburger. that contributed to him turning his life around? poverty and deprivation aren't unique to this town. but here, they have gripped too many people who can't see a way out. so, why are you at the food bank? because i've got a shortage of food at home. ijust don't have anything to eat. this is a side of britain we rarely see. this is hartlepool. it is saturday night. sergeant kevin rutherford and his colleague have been called to an incident in the town centre, a suspected drugs overdose. it never stops. it doesn't matter what day of the week it is, it never stops.

it doesn't matter if it's 9:00am in the morning or 1:00am in the morning on a saturday, i would say there's a lot of drugs, there's a lot of alcohol. the woman is believed to have taken a combination of psychoactive drugs, an emerging problem in hartlepool, another challenge for the town's stretched police force. since 2010, cleveland police have had its budget cut by a third. almost 500 officers have gone. tonight, there are just ten of them available, should any of hartlepool‘s 93,000 residents need immediate help. screaming. cuts have many consequences. expensive equipment lies idle. there is no—one to staff this custody suite, a visual impact of the uk government's essentially ongoing reduction in public—sector spending, a policy that has been

in place since 2010. this has been, like, out of action now for a month, month—and—a—half. we've got the holding room there, where the prisoner would come in before he's presented to the custody sergeant. and used to have, like, the custody sergeant and two detention staff, but that got cut to one. so i think we've got 1a cells in here, if you want to come and have a look. i think if you go back, like eight, nine years ago, everything was here and it was like a little community. but i miss it. it makes the job easier, if you've got everything where we need it. another emergency call, this time for a man having a mental health breakdown. stop banging your head against the door. you're going to hurt yourself. i don't care! he is also alleged to have harassed a woman, so kevin and his colleague arrest him. but, as the local custody suite is closed,

they have to drive to another town 25 minutes away. as kevin and his colleague deal with that incident, another 999 call has come through. two officers have gone to deal with that one. so, as we speak, 3:10am on saturday night, there are now no response officers available should there be another incident in hartlepool just now. the lack of police has allowed the drug trade to thrive, as martin and angela can testify. they take me to a house where they sometimes shoot up, usually heroin or crack cocaine. so you sleep in the room with the window smashed? yeah, yeah. must get cold, huh? 0h, do you? scattered throughout, the paraphernalia of a destructive habit that impedes both senses and speech. drugs are an equally massive part

of your family as well? yeah, ‘cause two of them have died of it. and my brother is on it, he's on it, and me and my twin sister's on it. so it's taken all of them. of the five kids... two died, and the three that's left are still on it. yeah. there is a danger that your parents will outlive all five of their children. i know. my mum sits there, and she sits

and waits for a knock on the door — when‘s one of her next kids going to be dead? do you have a fear that you'll never stop? yeah. i do. yeah. thinking about when and where you're going to get your next one from. yeah, yeah, yeah. life is equally tough for tom and roz, their day is blighted by drugs, too. all right, then, son. today they're off to meet their son terry, who is being freed from prison after serving four months in jail for shoplifting to feed his drug habit. no, we'll be there in about 5—10 minutes. all right, then. love you, bye. their other son, shaun, died of a drugs overdose last year.

i love you. i don't want to go through this anymore, terry. i've lost one son. don't want to lose another. a long—term user, terry knows keeping clean won't be easy, but promises to make his mum and dad proud of him. temptation‘s still there, obviously, because i've been on them for a lot of years. but hopefully i'm going to try and beat that this time. the boys were still at school when they first started using, terry introducing younger brother shaun to drugs. one day he came home from school, i remember, and he sat on the worktop in the kitchen, and hejust started crying. i said, shaun, what's the matter? he said, "mum, i don't know how to tell you." i said, "what?" he said, "i've been using drugs."

and i said, "well, how have you got into that?" and he said, through terry and a couple of mates. he said, "i need help." and that's when we started looking for help, which there was none really in the town. for nearly two decades they watched as their sons‘ lives became defined by drugs, powerless to stop them spiralling towards addiction and criminality. then, in october 2018, tom and roz got the news they had long feared. shaun had been found dead. i wasjust numb — numb. yeah. it was the worst thing any parent could go through. it's horrible. i'll never, ever forget it. it broke my heart. he's my baby. 33—year—old's no age. when the police came to take us

out to view his body, i actually took a picture of him laid there, 'cause i was hoping... we were hoping that it would have shocked terry. but... a few days after his release from prison, i bump into terry in the town centre. terry, how you doing? i'm doing fine, yeah. it's a week later, since we met you. yeah, and i'll tell the truth, i've had one go of crack. but i went in and i told my mum straight away. and she said, right, anymore, and that's it. so that is the end. so you promised, promised, promised last week that you wouldn't go back to it. i know, it wasjust, like, i bumped into an old friend yesterday. and so all you've had since you came out is one crack pipe? 0ne crack pipe and a few drinks.

and so all you've had since you came out is one crack pipe? 0ne crack pipe and a few drinks. and that's been it? and that's been it. and no more? no more. and when you told your mother that you'd had the crack pipe, what did she say? 0h, she wasn't happy, wasn't happy at all. but i promised her, i swore on my brother's ashes, that i'm not going to take no more. at the centre of hartlepool‘s drug problem is poverty — a destructive mix of deprivation, helplessness and hopelessness. the town has the highest levels of unemployment in britain, the highest proportion of households where no—one works. many of the jobs that do exist are of lower quality, and wages lag the national average. if you arrive in hartlepool by train, then this is the first place that you come to. it's called church street. lots of the businesses are shut down, and on any particular day, it can feel that the busiest place here is actually

the food bank. amid growing need, more people are turning to charities to make ends meet. this food bank is one of nine places that have opened since 2010, providing food parcels and hot meals to those who have nothing. among today's clients, i meet ian batty, a former retail manager who lost his job after being injured in a car accident. ian has had to come to the food bank as his welfare benefits have been stopped. i've got a shortage of food at home. ijust don't have anything to eat. and what do they expect you to live on? that's a good question, and i can't answer that. i've sold personal belongings and furniture in my flat to buy food, and pay bills. when you're not getting many fresh vegetables, you have to go for the healthy rice.

ian invites me back to his flat, which he fears he'll shortly lose. i've painted the walls and i've put up netting to make it private, and started to make it a home. mm—hm. up until the money stopped, and then of course no budget to continue, really. so my wardrobe is missing, the chest of drawers is gone, and i'm living out of that suitcase down there. there are my clothes in there. i do sufferfrom insomnia, terribly. i can't sleep. yeah. so i'm awake at 2:00am, and then again at 5:00am, and then i'm up and about by about 6:00am in the morning, because i just... i go for walks, long walks along the beach, just to get — clear my head of the anxiety and the pressure. i climb the walls in here. hartlepool used to matter greatly, a town with a glorious history

of shipbuilding and steelmaking. its seaside resort everyone worked and everyone played, its seaside resort crammed in summer. but the town started to suffer in the 1960s. as those heavy industries closed down, they were replaced by unemployment and decay. for decades, hartlepool was ignored and overlooked. but, in the 1990s and early 2000s, government invested in the town, regenerating some areas to attract private investors. the marina was an effort to change perceptions of hartlepool. the old shipyards, well, they were never coming back, so this was built instead. and, to a degree, it succeeded. there are people getting jobs from what happened here. but it wasn't enough. the public sector remained the bedrock of the town, so when the uk government decided to slash spending in 2010, hartlepool struggled to cope. welfare payments crucial to many here were cut, removing tens of millions of pounds

from the town's economy. 0ther cuts have seen the courthouse close and health services reduced. babies can no longer be born in the town's hospital. hartlepool has warmly welcomed me on each visit, opening its heart to a one—time stranger, so four months later, i've come back to catch up with some of those i've gotten to know. for tom and roz, life remains a struggle. 0ctober marks the first anniversary of shaun's death, but their thoughts are also with the living. terry has relapsed into severe drug addiction. he's worse than ever, though, now. is he? i stopped him coming up here ‘cause he was bothering his mum all the time for her

pills or her money. and he only comes up if he wants any money. and i said, i've got no money. you might as well go. but he tries and tries. when did you last see him? saturday. well, you did, i never. yeah, saturday. how is he? his body is a mess, with these abscesses and that, like, on his legs. and he had one on his side there, didn't he? ‘cause he‘s injecting all over the place? yeah. i even got him a necklace and put some of shaun's ashes in it for him. he's kept that, like, but it hasn't changed him in anyway. i think he just thinks he's invincible. drug addiction is a precarious, unpredictable illness, a fact hammered home to me when i met up with martin and angela again. since i last saw them, martin‘s life has dramatically deteriorated. he got crushed between a train and a railway platform, shattering his pelvis

in ten different places. how did you end up being hit by a train? he thought he‘d catch it by the tracks. it threw him in the air. can i ask, when you were hit by the train, were you high at the time? but, when you look at your condition now, do you think drugs were a factor?

yeah. you do, don‘t you? truthfully, someone must have been looking down... you wish they‘d turned the machine off? don‘t talk like that. it was desperately sad to see martin in that state, tearful, sick of life. as i head to meet up with sergeant rutherford again, i hope that life is easierfor him. cleveland police have requested another 100 cops, which they‘re going through the process now of adding 25 or 20 a month. and the ones now have just come through the probation, and they‘re really good cops.

really keen, which is what you need. but you still have the issue of going down to middlesborough when you arrest somebody here? yeah, custody‘s still shut. and there‘s no real plan to reopen it? no. and you‘re changing jobs yourself. yeah, hopefully. yes. you do get burned out. doing response, i‘ve done it for, what, 11 years now, and you do get burnt out. and i need to move onto something else. as we are filming, kevin is approached by carl, a former homeless heroin user he met last december, and who is now trying to turn his life around. he bought us a sandwich in the doorway, bought us a cheeseburger. i believe it was new year‘s eve. it was either christmas eve or new year‘s eve. what helped me starting to be able to care and love myself was to realise people do care about me, and that was just a great help. i've only been in hartlepool about three years, but i've been an addict for 16 years now. a lot of people in hartlepool have given me ten minutes of their time,

but that ten minutes of conversation could save someone's life. yeah. i think now, since i've got clean for the last month and a half, i'm starting to feel more emotions. 'cause that's what heroin does, it blocks everything out. i didn't care whether i died the next day. that decision to buy that cheeseburger that night, that ten minutes or five minutes you spent with him, that contributed to him turning his life around. that must be brilliant for you. it‘s brilliant to see someone, ‘cause in 11 years i‘ve probably seen about half a dozen people who have gotten clean, legitimately gotten clean. and if that‘s what you‘ve done, that‘s fantastic. and your life will change around. oh, no, mate, iwant to thank you so much. carl‘s story of hope is testament to the power of a close—knit community. good services may be in short supply, but there are many good people ready to help. but you have to want to help

yourself too, which brings me back to terry. before leaving hartlepool, i want to find him one more time. as carl has shown, it is possible to stop drugs, to start overcoming addiction. with perseverance, perhaps, even terry‘s 20—year—long habit can be beaten. but, when i find him, he‘s a shadow of his former self. he‘s lost three stone, around 20 kg, a fix always more important than food. so terry, it‘s been a while since we‘ve met. how are you doing? all right. you‘re back on it, aren‘t you? yeah. what happened ? ijust relapsed, from prison. and i‘ve got ulcers in my legs, so... it‘s not good. not good at all. been discharged from hospital last week. and, like, i was at shaun‘s memorial last week. went over everything with mum, and that. got his ashes around my neck, and... i‘m just lost without him,

to tell you the truth. what will it take for you to stop? i want to go into rehab, but i‘ve got no—one to help me get in one. how often do you take at the moment? how many times a day? just once, twice a day. and you wear shaun‘s ashes, do you? yes, i‘ve got them around my neck. remind you of what happened to him. yeah. it could happen to you. i know. it‘s what my mum‘s worried about. are you not scared? yeah, definitely. part of roz‘s mourning is to get a tattoo of shaun inked on her arm. she knows she may well outlive terry, too.

i see he swore on his brother‘s life, and on his ashes, he was going to go off the drugs. no, i think he‘s got worse, because he‘s grieving. isaid, terry, you have to be ready yourself. it‘s no good saying you‘re going to do it for other people. i said, you‘ve got to actually do it yourself. that is a very good likeness. just what he looked like. what does it mean to you? it means everything. yeah. really everything. brilliant, isn‘t it? yep. i hope that things improve for you. the next time we see you, you‘ll probably have a lot of tattoos, will you? there is an infectious warmth and resilience to the people here. they care, but does anyone else? while the government says austerity is now over, it doesn‘t feel that way here.

hartlepool needs help. hartlepool needs hope. that time again when we look at the forthcoming weeks weather and see if it matches up with your plans for the week. satellite imagery from sunday shows the waving weather front, bringing so the waving weather front, bringing so much cloud and rain is to so many of us, but bear in mind, this area of us, but bear in mind, this area of cloud as well, that is a new area of cloud as well, that is a new area of low pressure which will be a bit of low pressure which will be a bit ofa of low pressure which will be a bit of a play on monday. it was pretty worked, my word, it really was,

wasn‘t just parts of worked, my word, it really was, wasn‘tjust parts of lincolnshire, you see the rain was really quite extensive, but any sort of guarantee of something slightly drier and brighter, northern parts of scotland, then, very nicely indeed. will it stay that way? i suspect not. this is the way monday shaping up, that same weather front is going to come back to the south—eastern quarter, right from the word go. the other area of cloud i was talking about, the area of low pressure bringing this amount of rain through cornwall, pembrokeshire, and come the afternoon northern ireland and on towards the western side of scotland. just not quite sure whether the wave in front, very difficult to forecast just how far north and west this rain is going to come. could be a sliver in between the two systems, certainly northern eastern parts of scotland should get away with a half decent sort of day. that wave and the weather front through monday night, first part of tuesday will bring a lot of rain to the extent that the met office already have a weather warning out

there, rain in central eastern parts of england. come the day on tuesday, england and wales, you have got to plan for the outdoors, well this is the day for you, western side of scotla nd the day for you, western side of scotland faring nicely, northern ireland too, that rain is there as a player for the northern and north—eastern parts of scotland. temperatures ranging from 11 to 16, quite a breezy little end to the day as the weather front moves in from the atlantic. just moving a wee bit faster than we had thought over the last day or two. to the extent, many of you will get away to a pretty wet start to the day on wednesday, at least it gets out of the way. for the notable exception is —— save for the notable exception is —— save for the notable exception is —— save for the notable exception is for the east of scotland in the far south—east of england. a fair amount of dry weather to be had and temperatures in the range of 11 to 16. that has got us to the middle pa rt 16. that has got us to the middle part of the week, what can we say about it? rain at times for many of us, quite windy, temperatures not

bad for the time of year, nothing to write home about. second half of the week, dominated by the area of low pressure and more showery rain, and you get more than your fair share of showers if you are closer to the centre of the lows. western side, bulk of the showers, which, i don‘t doubt, at times, will be heavy, rumble of thunder could gang together, for a longer spell of rain. northern and eastern parts, the most part, are going to see a drier, brighter day. temperatures, 11 to 16. friday, not a great deal of difference, transferring from west to east in the first part of the weekend. a run of north weste rli es, the weekend. a run of north westerlies, drier, brighter, thanks to the influence of the ridge of high pressure, but then into the start of next week, things again go to mild and wet and windy. short sharp shock of something slightly cooler and breezy coming in from the north—west, colours drain away. into the start of next week, as i say, back to mild and wet and windy.

the united states is to pull all its troops