as you would expect. over thirteen thousand migrants have been removed from the uk since labour took power — but the government admits the rate of illegal channel crossings is still too high. and santas on the run! the mexican capital comes alive as hundreds of father christmases speed through the city! houses have been destroyed along with schools in the hospital and personnel are

there to assist. ocean territory of mayotte, which has been devastated by cyclone chido. local authorities say several hundred people, possibly thousands, have died. residents have spoken of apocalyptic scenes there. the mayor of the capital, mamoudzou, said nothing had been spared. houses have been destroyed, along with schools and the hospital. up strength crossing the mozambique channel. nickjohnson reports. winds of more than 140mph batter the french island territory. it's thought to be mayotte�*s worst cyclone in a century. islanders take shelter in any way they can. it takes three people to keep the door closed from the power of the storm. "there's nothing left here," this man says. most of the archipelago�*s 300,000 inhabitants live in shanty towns. tens of thousands have lost their homes. electricity and water supplies have been affected, and internet services are down. a local firefighter said even buildings built to withstand earthquakes have collapsed. the french government has sent a military transport

plane with supplies and emergency workers. the french prime minister, francois bayrou, who's only been in the job since friday, has held an emergency meeting in paris. translation: what matters isn't only the short term - and the rescue and help we can provide, but also the medium term with the supply of water and food, in particular for sensitive facilities, including prisons and detention centres. a combination of severe damage, an impoverished population and isolated location mean mayotte's death toll is expected to rise. nickjohnson, bbc news. as you heard there, the cyclone is now bringing torrential rains to northern mozambique. guy taylor is the spokesman for unicef in mozambique and hejoins us from pemba. good devey on the programme, just describe the situation with the weather conditions alike. �* , with the weather conditions alike. 3 . , with the weather conditions alike. �*, . ., alike. it's largely passed over mozambique _ alike. it's largely passed over mozambique and _ alike. it's largely passed over mozambique and we - alike. it's largely passed over mozambique and we were - alike. it's largely passed over mozambique and we were hit| alike. it's largely passed over - mozambique and we were hit very hard in the early hours of the

morning when the cyclone arrived in mozambique and it brought winds of over 20 km an hour and very intense rainfall and we've been out in the city since in the aftermath of the impact and so, many houses destroyed or seriously damaged in health care facilities, schools put out of action and obviously, people tried to get the last year that are very serious impact is very difficult situation here in mozambique.— difficult situation here in mozambique. difficult situation here in mozambiaue. �* . . , mozambique. and what are they doinu in mozambique. and what are they doing in terms _ mozambique. and what are they doing in terms of— mozambique. and what are they doing in terms of crisis - doing in terms of crisis response there.- doing in terms of crisis response there. we saw the clone response there. we saw the cyclone coming _ response there. we saw the cyclone coming as _ response there. we saw the cyclone coming as many - response there. we saw the i cyclone coming as many others did and we are able to prepare and we had large amounts of support with the warehouse i and began distributing those to the hardest hit and water purification some the medications, supplies to prevent and treat the spread of

waterborne diseases which is another serious concern for us given the large volume of rainfall. �* ., , ., ., , given the large volume of rainfall. �* ., , ., ., rainfall. and lots of homes and medical facilities _ rainfall. and lots of homes and medical facilities and _ rainfall. and lots of homes and medical facilities and schools l medical facilities and schools damaged and what about the longer—term challenges that the country is going to face it would help will you be able to offer? figs would help will you be able to offer? �* , , ., , offer? as you see, the challenges _ offer? as you see, the challenges in - offer? as you see, the - challenges in mozambique is offer? as you see, the _ challenges in mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world and the provinces been hit by him one of the poorest provinces here, we have millions here in need of humanitarian assistance and i will only make the situation worse for them and in the immediate term about loss of critical services and medical treatments in schools and clean water and sanitation in preventing the spread of disease and as i mentioned, read about the spread of

diseases like cholera and malaria over the longer—term. fix, malaria over the longer—term. a major aid organisation on the ground and is there any sign of international aid or help coming?— international aid or help coming? international aid or help comina? ~ ., ., ~ , coming? we are working very closely together _ coming? we are working very closely together with - coming? we are working very closely together with the - coming? we are working very closely together with the un | closely together with the un partners and from our international supporters and we are very concerned about this scale of the need come particularly as exacerbated in a very difficult situation and we are calling urgently for additionalfunding and we are calling urgently for additional funding and the needs of the people here who were in a very difficult and very precarious situation. thank you forjoining us. the uk has announced a fifty million pound humanitarian aid package to help the most vulnerable syrians, including refugees across the region. foreign secretary, david lammy, announced the new emergency aid following talks injordan yeserday, alongside international leaders from the european union, the middle east, and the us, with the aim to build

long—term stability across the middle east. the intervention comes a week after the collapse of the assad regime. hts remains a prescribed organisation but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact as you would expect. we want to see a representative government and an inclusive government. we want to see chemical weapons stockpile secured and not used and we want to ensure that there is not continuing violence and for all of those reasons, using all of the channels that we have available that are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence led channels, we seek to deal with hts where we have to. one of those welcoming the aid announcement is asif hussain, whose charity skt welfare has been operating in syria since 2012.

it will go some way to supporting syrian civilians and alleviating the suffering of the syrians and since 2011, we have a number of different ways we help them through food distribution, emergency health care. we have our own hospital underground and the province that is been there saving life since 2014. we have built six villages, we have just completed, 3000 homes for families that have been living in tents and some of the farms will come to the welfare of the united nations as we carry out work on behalf of the different united nations agencies and that could be the un agency orfor example, even the world health organization and carrying out work on behalf of the governmental organisations within syria. our team is quitejubilant because some of them have actually been in prison themselves and were released and had family members there werejust recently released as well and our hospital has treated no fewer than ten people that were released from various prisons and damascus and were travelling to idlib province and treating them, helping them in any way they can and that includes

psychosocial support, psychological support and mental health is a crucial thing for those who have been released and the team is as happy as you can expect them to be because they have severed themselves under the regime and also now, they're in a position where they can help their fellow syrians and we a move for by implementing bigger and better plans and hopefully rebuild a much brighter syria and a much brighter future for syria. we have had some experience where hts have controlled and it's important to understand that they have had at least five to seven years of serving the people in our experiences been that it is the military wing but also the administrative wing and they're trying to help well, the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says he's spoken with us president—elect donald trump about developments in syria.

the two spoke on saturday night, with the israeli prime minister saying they have no interest in a conflict with syria. mr netanyahu says they also spoke about a recent push to secure the release of israeli and foreign hostages held by hamas in gaza. the un envoy for syria has said he hopes for a swift end to sanctions imposed on the group that led the offensive against the former president, bashar al—assad. on his first visit to damascus since assad left a week ago, geir pedersen said that reviving law and order — and security — are of paramount importance. he also said it was critical the country receives increased immedidate humanitarian assistance inside syria — and that he supported the lifting of sanctions against the islamist rebels who now govern the country. the sanctions are not un sanctions. they are sanctions imposed by the united states and the european union. do you support lifting them? yes, i think we need an orderly process and i am very much looking forward to continuing my discussions with the syrian caretaker government and the authorities here.

it comes as the united states has made "direct contact" with the rebel group hts which now controls the country. the us currently still designates the rebel group as a terrorist organisation. america's top diplomat — secretary of state — antony blinken has been speaking injordan after a summit on syria's future with representatives from several arab countries, turkey and europe, he said it was important for the us to communicate with the islamist group. america and our partners have an important stake in helping the syrian people chart this new path. we know what happens inside of syria can have terrible consequences well beyond its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism. we know we cannot underestimate the challenges of this moment. meanwhile, syria's de—facto leader, ahmed al—sharaa, has condemned israel for its continued airstrikes on his country. 0ur middle east correspondent, lina sinjab, in damascus has more on those comments. this is the first time

that ahmed al—shara, known as al—jolani, the leader of the hayat tahrir al—sham, comes out to comment on israeli air strikes. it's been a week since the toppling of the president, bashar al—assad, but also a week of israeli air strikes on syria, nearly 400 throughout the week and 60 this night. so mr al—shara is under pressure that he has to make comments, that he has to address this issue. he has been under criticism from, you know, syrians here. so he made his statement saying that israel is using false pretexts in its attacks on syria, but at the same time made sure that he doesn't want to engage in any conflict — he's focused on rebuilding syria, on rebuilding the economy. and this is what we are seeing today. it is the first week, the first day of the week after the toppling of assad.

universities are open. i'm actually now in damascus, university students are pouring in to the university, going to classes. the children went to school this morning as well. public institutions are open, so everything is going back into action. and it seems that, you know, this is the focus of this interim government. in a meeting yesterday, mr al—shara told people, told journalists that he wants to rebuild the country, that he may also nominate himself as a president for syria in case the people wanted him. and it seems that this is the time where also there is international diplomatic efforts to support i the transition to power, i provided that this transition the transition to power, provided that this transition will be inclusive and that the government is going to be representative of all syrian society, protects minorities�* rights, and protects women's rights. so while this new leadership is getting a lot of support from around the world, but also is being watched of its actions and how they are going to move ahead and not turn this country into an islamist state government. syria is under sanctions that

really crippled the economy, crippled the livelihood of people, so many activists are now calling for the us and for the world to lift these sanctions. and having hts in power, and it is a designated also on the terrorist list, may hinder support or, you know, financial support coming into the country. so it seems that, you know, many countries are reconsidering how to deal with hayat tahrir al—sham and also watching how mr al—sharaa and the interim government are going to work. it's three months of transitional government that after that should be an inclusive government that includes all denominations of the syrian society. israel says it will close down its embassy in dublin in light of "the extreme anti—israel policies of

the irish government". in a statement, foreign minister gideon saar cited ireland's decision to recognise a palestinian state earlier this year and dublin's announcement of support for south africa's legal action accusing israel of genocide over its assault on gaza. irish prime minister simon harris has reacted calling israel's decision "deeply regrettable" and saying that he "utterly rejected" the assertion that ireland is anti—israel. "ireland is pro—peace, pro—human rights and pro—international law", he has tweeted. two people have been arrested after what police called �*a hazardous drone operation�* near boston's logan airport airspace. the arrests come after a spate of drone sightings in recent weeks across six states in the north eastern united states. 0ur north america correspondent rowan bridge has more. this follows an operation by boston harbour police run half past four yesterday afternoon, boston police say they were alerted to an object flying dangerously close to boston's

local international airport and they use detection devices to work out and is coming from one of the islands off the coast of boston and they went out to the island where there were three people who were then chasing them down. two of whom they're able to catch and arrest 42—year—old robert duffy and 32—year—old jeremy. they are now in custody and police say they are also managing to get hold of the backpack with a drone that one of the men was carrying and they now have been charged with trespassing and effectively on land that they did not have permission to be on. and they may face further charges because this is the very start of this investigation but clearly flying a drone close to an international airport to be extremely serious and causing damage to helicopters or planes directly or causing them to divert which causes risks of its own. , ., �* ., h,

its own. given that we've also been hearing _ its own. given that we've also been hearing about _ its own. given that we've also been hearing about drone - been hearing about drone activity in newjersey? been hearing about drone activity in new jersey? yes, there's been _ activity in new jersey? yes, there's been a _ activity in new jersey? yes, there's been a spate - activity in new jersey? yes, there's been a spate of - activity in newjersey? yes, i there's been a spate of drone reports that of common sense mid—november and a lot of them, they've covered a lot of states in the united states but particularly around newjersey particularly around new jersey and particularly around newjersey and some of them of been extremely large. there are two metres across and not the sort of hobbyist drones that he thinks police seem to have captured in boston and there have been a level of alert and alarm which is been rising over weeks as more of the sightings of commission and the fbi have said they've had more than 300 tips about these in the white house actually came out on thursday to say as far as they're concerned, at the moment, there's no known threat to the public or national security but that is not really done much to alleviate concerns among politicians and indeed, the homeland security secretary was out this morning with

federal resources and technology and personnel were going to be sent to newjersey to help train track down these drones. police are on the hunt for the driver of a stolen here in the uk, police are on the hunt for the driver of a stolen porsche after a toddler was killed in an apparent hit and run. the two—year—old died from his injuries and four other adults were hurt in the incident in smethwick in the west midlands. police say the driver of the sports car, which had been stolen earlier in december, fled the scene. in london — a woman has died in a triple shooting that has left a man fighting for his life in hospital. police were called to harlesden, in north—west london, just after 9 o'clock last night, where a woman, believed to be in her 40s, died at the scene. two men, both in there 30s were also injured. police have described the incident as "truly shocking" and say a team of experienced detectives are working to identify who is responsible. here, in the uk, the home secretary, yvette cooper, has refused to set out a timetable to reduce the number of small

boats crossing the channel — despite admitting the figures are "far too high". it comes as the home office said it was on track to return the highest number of failed asylum seekers in five years, with more than 13,000 people sent to their home countries since the election injuly. damian grammaticas reports. immigration enforcement, raids seeking to root out those in the uk without the right permissions. this is one arm of the government's strategy. it says deportations have gone up. and in italy this weekend, the other arm of the strategy. the home secretary shared the stage with ministers from the front—line mediterranean states, france, italy and malta. how are you? this is about building partnerships with countries either where migrant routes start or which they pass through. yvette cooper meeting her italian counterpart said it's about recognising migration is complex and can't be solved by empty slogans. there is a history of home secretaries and prime ministers making grand promises but never

actually having a proper plan. the approach we are taking to this is really step—by—step. we are putting in place the things that we need, the agreements with other countries, the stronger returns arrangements, the much stronger law enforcement, the operations with germany to go after the smugglers, supply chains, the operations with italy to go after the illicit finance. earlier in the week in london, it was ministers from northern europe she was meeting. germany has agreed to change its laws so it can try to stop the supply of small boats used to cross the channel. arrivals this way have totalled over 311,000 this year. last year it was 29,000. two years ago, a record 45,000. while the number returned is 13,500 since the election. the conservatives say they would seek to reinstate their rwanda scheme, which labour scrapped. we would aim to resurrect a deterrence—style scheme. now, whether the rwanda scheme is still available

in five years' time, we will have to see. but certainly a deterrent scheme like that, where if somebody crosses the channel, dangerously, illegally, and unnecessarily, unnecessarily because france is safe, they will rapidly be removed somewhere else. and if you do that, it's common sense that the people who are thinking of crossing simply won't do so. the government says with rwanda not a single enforced return happened despite hundreds of millions sent. the idea was a gimmick that did nothing to deter. as yvette cooper was in italy, another rescue and more lives lost in the mediterranean, all part of the chain the government is trying to break. damian grammaticas, bbc news. seven people have been taken to hospital in fiji after suspected alcohol poisoning. it s believed all those affected were guests at a resort where they drank cocktails in the bar on saturday night and fell ill shortly afterwards.

it comes just a few weeks after the death of six tourists in laos because of suspected methanol poisoning. 0ur reporter — who's from fiji — vandhna bhan has the details. it happened at this 5—star resort. very different now, that's unlike the incident you mentioned in laos, where that happened at a backpackers hostel. fiji, unlike parts of southeast asia, isn't known to be a backpackers haven because it is expensive. it's predominantly tailored towards your honeymooners and your family holidays. so a different demographic there. now, the ministry of health of fiji have said that those hospitalised are aged between 18 and 56. four of them are australian, one american and two foreigners who live in fiji. so expatriates. again, a different demographic because in laos we saw it was predominantly teenagers and young adults who were affected, some who sadly died because of bootleg alcohol.

now it's key to note that in fiji, bootleg alcohol or fake alcohol is not necessarily a large issue like it is in parts of southeast asia. fiji are very careful and protective about their tourism image because it is their largest industry. it makes up for about 40% of their gdp. so i can imagine there are lots of questions here in regards to how this happened at a luxury resort. so the police are taking this very seriously. it is, of course, in the early stages of this investigation. they have been at the resort interviewing people, seeing if others may have also suffered similar symptoms by drinking this drink, which we don't know exactly what that drink was at the bar that they had. the ministry of health is advising the public to just be cautious over the festive period for what they're consuming, and australia has also released a warning to travellers to fiji just to be wary of spiked drinks. and this is a busy period for travellers in the southern hemisphere to fiji as it is summer, and we are aware that

two australian families are receiving consular support. but again, this is an unusual and out of the ordinary situation for fiji, so i can imagine authorities will want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. two russian oil tankers have sunk in bad weather in the kerch strait that separates russia from occupied crimea. footage shows one tanker split in half. an operation is underway to rescue the crews and assess the extent of the oil spill. russia has been using a fleet of so—called �*ghost�* tankers to evade western sanctions. many of these are old and poorly maintained. the five remaining members of the so called "bali nine" drug ring have been freed and flown back to australia — after almost 20 years in an indonesian prison. the five australians were jailed for their roles in a heroin smuggling plot in bali in 2005. after years of advocay from the australian government, the group were flown back to australia today, after a deal struck

between the two governments. the case made news worldwide when the gangs two ringleaders were executed by firing squad in 2015. prime minister anthony alba—nee—see revealed the remaining men have returned as free citizens and will not have to serve out their life sentences in australian prisons. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of thousands in corsica, in his first visit to the staunchly catholic french mediterranean island. pope francis arrived in the papal plane on sunday morning before moving through the packed streets of the capital ajaccio in his pope mobile. his final appointment after the open—air mass was a meeting with president emmanuel macron at the airport ahead of his departure. it comes a week after the pope declined an invitation to attend the reopening of notre dame cathedral in paris, following its post—fire restoration. before we go — there's just time to bring you these pictures we've had in from mexico city. it's an annual event — where hundreds of competitors — their children even pets dress up as santa claus and run

through the capital. they run along three routes — of which the longest is ten kilometers. the shortest route is one kilometre which organisers says is reserved for athletes with dogs and strollers. the event is sold out online for runners and their dogs — and it might be hot — but you can't take part without wearing the mandatory santa suit during the run. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. much of the country today had a fine and largely dry one, and it was milder than it was yesterday, despite the lack of sunshine. now this mild theme is here to stay, certainly for the first half of this upcoming week, but it will be dominated by low pressure, so it will be wet and windy

at times, and then all areas will be turning colder from thursday onwards, with an increasing chance of wintry showers on hills in the north. at the moment though, we're in this wedge of milder air, rather cloudy skies because of a lot of moisture there. and on this boundary between the mild and colder air across northern scotland, we've got a weather front which is going to bring persistent rain, which will drive into the western highlands, rainfall totals really mounting up even as we head into monday as well. elsewhere, apart from some drizzle across western hills, it will be mostly dry. variable cloud and a mild night to come, so it starts mild on monday for all areas. we've got that rain still piling into the north and west of scotland, particularly the north—west highlands. elsewhere, variable cloud, some sunshine, a bit of drizzle i think, across western hills, but mild again with temperatures into 10 to 13 celsius.

but we've got some concerns of the amount of rain just falling across the north—west highlands by the end of monday into early tuesday. some of the worst affected areas could be up to 150mm, so that could cause some localised flooding and some travel disruption. but as we move into tuesday, that weather front eventually starts to shift northwards as we start to pick up a southerly wind thanks to a renewed area of low pressure. and again it will be a mild start to tuesday. here it is, a new area of low pressure, more isobars on the charts. this one's a bit more powerful than we've had over the weekend, so it looks like it'll be windier with gales around irish sea coasts. outbreaks of rain for northern ireland and into western scotland again, areas that really don't need any more rain. but i think the midlands eastwards are large parts of eastern england should stay dry all day on tuesday, but rather cloudy with limited sunshine. mild double figure values for most, wet, windy weather with gales spreads across the country during tuesday night. another area of low pressure will arrive later on wednesday, but we're in between the weather systems for wednesday, so we should see quite a bit of dry weather across the northern half of the country with some sunshine. a few showers across western scotland and then we'll start to see wet and windy weather

pushing up from the south across england, wales into northern ireland. given some sunshine we could be up to 15 degrees across eastern england. it does turn colder for the end of the week. wintry showers across northern hills. a bit of sunshine in the south.

this is bbc news, the headlines... hundreds of people are feared dead after a cyclone hits the french indian ocean territory of mayotte. £50 million for syria — britain's foreign secretary pledges money to help vulnerable people and refugees, and confirms the uk is in contact with the country's rebel leaders. hts remains a proscribed organisation but we can have

diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect. 0ver13,000 migrants have been removed from the uk since labour took power — but the government admits the rate of illegal channel crossings is still too high. now on bbc news, it's sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm 0lly foster. derby despairfor pep guardiola, the city slump continues as they lose late on to manchester united. it went the distance at hampden park, celtic winning

the scottish league cup final on penalties against