good evening — you're watching bbc news with me annita mcveigh. we'll be joined by bbc one viewers for a full round up of the day's news with sophie raworth. but first — more than 70 migrants in small boats have been rescued trying to cross the channel to the uk. 49 people in four boats were met by border force officers and brought to england, while a further two boats were dealt with by french authorities. the coastguard said it had been co—ordinating several search and rescue operations. the home office has said it would try to return anyone who arrived in the uk illegally back to mainland europe. the bbc‘s jonthan joseph explained what happens to those migrants picked up by british authorities. those that have reached britain

will have been given medical checks, like the maggots that have been treated in france, likely they have —— migrants. been suffering from hypothermia. they will then be interviewed by immigration officials in dover. their cases assessed, they will be put in government accommodation whilst there asylum claims, assuming they put those in the, are processed. if the minor involved in this was unaccompanied, they will be taken to a reception centre in kent. there are concerns from some migrant charities that human traffickers in france are using the forthcoming january deadline for brexit as an incentive to try to get more migrants to make this crossing at the moment. so it is possible we will see more of these cases in the coming weeks. more on the news that thousands of people have lost their homes after a typhoon ripped through the phillipines. at least sixteen people have been killed. the chairman of the philippine red cross richard gordon, spoke to the bbc, about how people

are trying to cope. well, first of all the access is difficult because people are stranded, you have to bring the goods you have to deliver, several islands have been affected. a lot of people have lost their homes, and they need food, they need hot meals. we are serving hot meals, it's not enough, obviously, we are trying our best to do that. lifelines like power has been affected, there is a complete blackout in certain areas which will be solved in two or three weeks. water has been interrupted in certain areas. so, there is an awful lot of things to be done. the rescue phase is over. we are giving support in terms of relief, water, food, a lot of first aid interventions. certainly our doctors will be providing beds for hospitals that have lost their roof.

certainly our doctors will be providing beds for hospitals that have lost their roof. we are also fighting the earthquake and recent typhoon, we are not finished there. definitely there is a lot to do, with vaccinations for polio, measles and the like. definitely there is a lot to do, with vaccinations for polio, measles and the like. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 and 11:30 this evening in the papers. 0ur guestsjoining me tonight are nigel nelson, the political editor at the sunday mirror

and sunday people, and the political commentator, jo phillips.

good evening. spanish police have named a british holiday—maker and his two children, who drowned in a hotel swimming pool on the costa del sol on christmas eve. gabriel diya, who was 52 and from london, died with his 16—year—old son praise—emmanuel and his nine—year—old daughter comfort. the family had been staying at the club la costa world resort, near fuengirola. an investigation into what happened is under way. the owners of the hotel have described it as a "tragic accident". helena wilkinson reports. this is gabriel diya, the

52—year—old father who died trying to rescue his daughter. and here he is with nine—year—old comfort. they were on a family holiday when on christmas eve, she got into difficulty in this hotel swimming pool despite her father's efforts, she also died, as did her 16—year—old brother, praise—emmanuel, who also tried to help. postmortem examinations confirmed that all three drowned. a 14—year—old girl, the children's sister, the alarm. the children's sister, raised the alarm. today in south—east london, neighbours of the family has been speaking of their shock. they were just beautiful, lovely people. i'm absolutely devastated. i cannot... i'm still trying to get it in my head that this has really happened to them. it's just so cruel. it's just so unfair. yes, it's shocking, shocking, to hear somebody died by drowning, especially, who went for holiday. it is a bit shocking.

mr diya was a parish pastor. one of the churches he was associated with has paid tribute, saying their thoughts were with his family and friends at this difficult time. the foreign office says it's continuing to support a british woman in spain, thought to be the children's mother, and the resort has tonight said it is continuing to fully cooperate with authorities and offer any assistance it asks for. it also says it's helping support bereaved family members. the hotel owners have described the incident as a tragic accident, and say the investigation found no concerns relating to the pool or procedures in place. but questions remain as to precisely what happened to a father and his two children on their christmas holiday in spain. helena wilkinson, bbc news. at least 16 people have died and many more are missing after a typhoon hit the phillippines on christmas eve.

the storm brought winds of 120 mph at its height and has left a trail of devastation through the centre of the country. james waterhouse reports. typhoon phanfone first arrived on tuesday night. with it came winds of almost 120 mph, causing devastation and fear. the storm then worked its way over the islands of the central philippines. 0nly today is there a sense of the damage caused. buildings were torn apart, roofs blown off. whole villages were devastated as the typhoon swept through, leaving residents to pick through the debris left behind. it was so powerful, even large boats were overturned. the philippines is no stranger to tropical storms and typhoons, with around 20 arriving each year. the most powerful one to hit land ever in the world,

typhoon haiyan, struck in 2013, leaving more than 6,000 people dead. today, as a country rebuilds, the red cross warns it could take weeks to bring back power and running water. not only that, many people are still missing. james waterhouse, bbc news. the home office says 49 migrants were rescued in the english channel in the early hours of this morning when four small boats were spotted travelling towards the coast of kent. two border force vessels intercepted them. the migrants, who said they were iranian, iraqi and afghan are being interviewed by officials. rescue workers in the alps are searching for people who may have been caught up in avalanches that hit two ski resorts in austria and switzerland. in andermatt, in central switzerland, several people were freed from the snow after this morning's avalanche. two of them suffered minor injuries. but the authorities fear more people may have been buried. police say a man shot dead on christmas eve was attacked

in front of his family after a night out. 36—year—old flamur beqiri, who was a swedish national, was killed in battersea in south—west london at about 9pm. neighbours described hearing multiple gunshots followed by a woman screaming for help. the seychelles off the coast of east africa is setting itself up as a hub for marine preservation. the first ever large—scale coral reef restoration project began there — and now they are starting to see results. with over half of the world's reefs already lost because of rising sea temperatures, there's hope this tiny chain of islands could hold the key to saving coralfrom extinction. catherine byaruhanga has more. they're called the reef rescuers. atina and chloe work in the indian ocean trying to find ways of saving the world's dying coral. today, they're checking on their nursery. it's a manmade coralfarm and one of the biggest in the world.

this is a large—scale coral reef restoration project. the nursery that we use is a rope nursery. so our coral fragments are actually placed inside a rope and then they are hung mid—water. over half the world's reefs have already been lost because of climate change. coral gets its colour and its energy from the algae which live inside it. as the water gets warmer, though, the algae becomes toxic, so the coral evicts it. this is called bleaching. with its food source expelled, the coral often die. from the nursery, the small coral are brought down and cemented to the ocean floor. within minutes, fish swim to what the reef rescuers call super coral. 0ur coral gardening methodology identifies resilient colonies by visiting reefs shortly

after bleaching events and looking at which colonies have survived, and have some level of confidence that they are resilient and will make our restoration site resilient forfurther climate change events. the nursery is also an open water classroom. from the surface, i can see hundreds of coral beneath me. scientists have come from all over the world to learn how it's done here. this technique has already been taken to countries like colombia and the maldives, and next are kenya, tanzania and mauritius. the reef rescuers‘ project was born here on cousin island, a thriving world—class nature reserve. cousin island was the desired prize... it was set up by nirmal shah. he's been running conservation projects here for over three decades and he's already thinking about the next big idea. so all these experiences we've

learned from scratch. we know the entire technique now. so the next step is to grow corals on land, tinker around with them until they become resilient to climate change and plant them back. scientists predict most of the world's coral will be gone by 2050. innovation might be the only way to preserve them. catherine byaru hanga, bbc news, the seychelles. the hit tv show gavin and stacey returned to our screens last night after almost a decade away, and pulled in the highest christmas day tv audience in 12 years. an average of 11.6 million people tuned in for the show‘s christmas special, according to initial figures, with the queen's christmas broadcast in second place. 0ur entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba has more. # step into christmas, step into christmas... it's been close to ten years since the show‘s last episode. its return, greeted with elation from fans and the biggest christmas day audience for more

than a decade. maybe some cheese and rose! its absence for so long helped last night's one—off special, continuing the story of a boy from billericay and a girl from barry island... why am i stood here? easy, this is where i first told you i love you. ..feel like must—watch, appointment to view television, for millions. i will now show you the big, glamorous sets we use. during filming, james corden, who co—wrote the story with ruthjones, spoke about why they had brought the programme back. sorry, everyone, but dinner‘s going to be ever so slightly delayed. it is more a sense of, i think, of ruth and me just thinking, why don't we explore it and see if there's anything there, if there is a story there? we just did what we did the first time round, really, which was sit in a room and talk about it and see what we have. # you were handsome, you were pretty # queen of new york city # when the band finished playing,

they howled out for more... christmas day viewing figures have been in decline, partly because of the growth of streaming services, partly because the programmes were often festive editions of shows already regular parts of the schedule. gavin and stacey's success could perhaps lead to more favourites from the past returning to our christmas tv screens. lizo mzimba, bbc news. it's christmas! with all the boxing day sport, here's chetan pathak at the bbc sport centre. good evening, sophie. james anderson made an instant impact on his return from injury. england's leading wicket—ta ker struck with the first ball of the day and helped his side into a strong position after day one of the first test against south africa. patrick gearey reports. in centurion, a nod to a man who has gone well beyond 100. test match 150, forjimmy anderson. ball number one. he's always had that knack. having spent four months fighting back from injury, he won't care if the radar is out,

as long as the batsman is. for so many years, he has shared the toil and the spoils with stuart board. the catcher here, ben stokes, sports personality of the year, who'd had to spend some of christmas visiting his father in hospital. this series is supposed to mark the start of england's future, a time for men like sam curran, freshfaced but fierce. this blend of the generations had south africa 111—5, and that was their captain. time for others to lead. quinton de kock lives for the fight. he is a master of the counterpunch. with every run he made, the day seemed hotter, the afternoon longer. fine if you are in your boxing day chair, butjust as another centurion centurion was about to be saluted, curran stopped de kock. he'd end with four wickets for the day but south africa managed to eke out more troublesome runs, which may be valuable later in the match. south africa lost their ninth wicket in the closing minutes but they are not yet all out. so england finish boxing day

with leftovers remaining. patrick gearey, bbc news. now to football and the premier league. match of the day follows the news so if you don't want to know the scores, you'll need to look away now. liverpool are 13 points clear at the top of the premier league tonight after an outstanding 4—0 win at second placed leicester city. roberto firmino, who got the winner in the club world cup final in qatar on saturday, scored twice. carlo ancelotti got his everton career off to a winning start as they beat burnley1—0 at goodison park. dominic calvert—lewin made the difference late in the second half to extend his side's unbeaten league run to five matches. however, arsenal's new manager mikel arteta could only manage a draw in his first game in charge. bournemouth‘s dan gosling's first—half goal put the hosts in front but pierre—emerick aubameyang's close—range finish ensured a point for the gunners, who are now 11th in the table. elsewhere, there was an upset at stamford bridge as chelsea lost 2—0 to southampton. tottenham beat brighton 2—1. there were wins for crystal

palace and aston villa. sheffield united drew 1—1 with watford. manchester united beat newcastle 4—1. celtic maintained their lead at the top of the scottish premiership with a 2—1win over st mirren, whilst second placed rangers beat kilmarnock1—0. earlier, hibs won back—to—back edinburgh derbies for the first time since the 1970s. two goals from martin boyle sealing a 2—0 win over hearts, who remain bottom. in one of the biggest races of the national hunt season, the king george vi chase, clan des 0beaux made it back—to—back wins with a dominant victory at kempton. sam twiston—davies guided the seven—year—old, part—owned by sir alex ferguson, to victory by some 21 lengths. there's plenty more on the bbc sport website but that's all from me, sophie. that's it. you can get a first look at tomorrow's front pages on the bbc news channel in a moment. but from all of us here — goodnight.

hello. this is bbc news. more on the news that gavin and stacey was the most—watched christmas day tv in more than a decade. an average of 11.6 million people watched it on bbc one last night. earlier i spoke to tv critic emma bullimore who says the audience will now be wondering if there are more gavin and stacey episodes to come. i'm so happy to be talking about

properly brilliant figures because sometimes at christmas we have to sort of get excited and say welcome a 6 million is really good these days but these were properly good figures, a peak of over 12 million and that's just on the night. once you have consolidated figures once everyone has watched on iplayer you're going to be looking at 1a or 15 million. that's a proper christmas special. that's something that people have planned their evening around and have been genuinely excited about watching. that's really significant because lots of people say now i've got netflix, no one sits around together as a family and watches anything, everyone is doing their own thing. it shows us that if it's good enough or special enough people will build their day around it. people will sit down and watch live tv. a lot of 16 or 3a—year—olds and certainly in the younger half of that age range, people will not have seen this with a series originally went out, they may have watch them more recently preparation for this. but what does that say about this combination of factors, and the writing

about the programme? it's a special thinkable when it said, is right nothing touches people in the same way. the last time we had something like this was the carolina royal family and people thought this is going to be brilliant, i'm looking forward to it but gavin and stacey has that same want an idea that that's your family, that's my family and although it's worth watching it's not so boring that nothing happens, they don't go over the top. it's not something ridiculous that would not have at it in everyday life, and that's what make it feel relatable and special and gives you that christmas and tingling feeling. when it comes back you think, oh please that the characters be the same in the writing be the same, and it was. it managed to keep everything that was good about it, and reproduced it for this christmas, that is no mean feat. i read a couple of interviews with ruthjones in the run—up to this she was talking about going out

to la to write this with james cordon, without success last night, how much pressure is there going to be for another series, not a christmas special? there would have been pressure had adjusted well but the fact that they left on a cliffhanger and being very naughty, they knew what they were doing, it people are definitely to see what happened what did he say, was the answer to that big question? if they did not want to see already that definitely do now. because they said we will not do any more and then they did no one is going to believe them. every interview they do for the rest of their lives people will be asking about this because they want more. as you say, the best christmas day tv ratings for more than a decade. people will be looking at this and wondering how this sort of success can be replicated. especially when you've got terrestrial tv competing against so many other different platforms now. and that is generally a good thing. it keeps the quality of tv really

high, higher than it has been for a long time. your game has to be good. i think what we need for christmas and for something special is either every union of characters like gavin and stacey or something we would never get the chance to see at any point of the year. if you make it special and unique and does not matter if it's on netflix or bbc, wherever it is people will sit and watch it. there's no room for laziness it has to be brilliant. people looking at this thinking what can we bring back for next year? what can we do that is special enough to have this effect and certainly the bbc will be to ruth and james and saying please give us another one. thousands of people across the country have been taking part in the traditional boxing day swim dip — braving a swim in chilly waters. some events were called off because of strong winds. but as rebecca ricks reports from the south west of england — even blustery conditions didn't stop eccentrics and the christmas spirit. three, two, one. whether it is to cure

a festive hangover, raise the money for charity orjust because, a swim in the sea the activity of choice for hundreds of west country folk. not as cold as i thought but i can't feel my toes now. they're very exhilarating. it catches your breath but you've got to do it, it's for charity. for many swimmers in paignton, it's a boxing day tradition. we be doing it every year for the last couple of years, and we said it is like a baptism. a baptism. but much colder. we've done it for ten years, to be fair i think it is the warmest year we've ever done it. we are doing it for our great grandmother. further around the coast in seaton and sidmouth, organisers were forced to cancel both of the boxing day swims, pleading with people not to enter the water for their own safety. the paignton swim has only been cancelled once in a0 years, but today organisers were keeping a very close eye on the weather. we had the coast guard here nine o'clock,

advising us as to whether it was suitable to go in. it was a bit blurry, a bit windy, but the sea was as you can see calm, relatively calm, and the coastguard said he had no problems with us going in. in exmouth, thousands of people packed onto the sea front for a christmas day swim, and in bute, the sun made for this rather spectacular scene. stay with us for sportsday after our headlines — and then at 10:40 — the papers. time now for a look at the weather with ben rich. good evening. many swapped out a dry and often sunny christmas day for a grey and often soggy boxing day. this was how it looked to the south—east of london for one of our weather watchers. some brightness, certainly some dry weatherfor a time across the far north of scotland, and more of us will see drier weather. there will be quite a lot of cloud,

and it will start to turn a little bit milder. rain across western areas as we go through tonight, rain across wales and the south west tending to pull away, rain continuing through northern ireland, into western scotland, some rain getting into north—west england. turning milder in western areas, but further east, particularly northern england and parts of scotland, cold enough for a touch of frost. into tomorrow, a warm front pushing eastwards, bringing patchy rain, another frontal system bringing rain into the north—west, between those two weather fronts a south—westerly wind sucking some increasingly mild air in ourdirection. here's friday, that warm front bringing patchy rain eastwards, across parts of scotland and northern england. our next frontal system bringing rain into western scotland and northern ireland. elsewhere a lot of dry weather, cloud, some glimmers of sunshine breaking through. western parts will feel milder, 12 celsius for belfast, plymouth, further east,

single digits for the time being. frontal system still running across the north west on saturday, brisk winds as well. further south and east, we are looking at a lot of dry weather. largely dry on saturday. cloud around but sunny breaks, largely fine for northern ireland, rain clipping into the north—west. eastern scotland dry, the western side seen outbreaks of rain. all of us just about by this stage in double figures. it stays very mild as we get into sunday, we should see more sunshine developing across england, wales, the south and east of scotland. still some outbreaks of rain at times, temperatures of 11—14 degrees in one or two places. as we head into the last couple of days of 2019, most will see dry weather, some rain in the north—west, and it will stay fairly mild.

hello — this is bbc news. the headlines.

spanish police have named the three british holidaymakers who died in a swimming pool on christmas eve. gabriel diya and his two children drowned at a hotel on the costa del sol. anyone that knew them would say the same thing. they were just beautiful, lovely people. more than 70 migrants in small boats have been rescued trying to cross the channel to the uk. at least 16 people are dead and many missing after a typhoon rips through the philippines leaving a trail of devastation. rescuers have been looking for possible victims of four avalanches that have hit ski resorts in austria and switzerland. before the papers — it's sportsday. ..