over 13,000 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. and thousands gather for mass in corsica, as pope francis visits the island for the first time. hello, i'm samantha simmonds. it's feared that thousands of people may have been killed by cyclone chido in the french archipelago of mayotte in the indian ocean. a local official has been quoted as saying that the death toll may be in the thousands. residents have spoken of apocalyptic scenes in mayotte. the mayor of the capital, mam—oud—zou, said nothing had been spared. houses have been destroyed, along with schools and the hospital. french emergency personnel

are now on mayotte to chido has now reached northern mozambique after picking up strength crossing the mozambique channel. nickjohnson reports. in a television interview, the prefect of mayotte said hundreds, even thousands of people may have been killed. i think be several hundreds and perhaps thousands died but given the violent storm, we all experienced it in our flesh with our loved ones. i was myself with my colleagues. we found ourselves filling the door. inevitably, much higher

count. we will try to do this but it will obviously be up to us to. 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. sewers. there's nothing left here. this man says most of the archipelago�*s 300,000 inhabitants live in shantytowns. 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. 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. guy taylor is the spokesperson for unicef in mozambique, and he explained what the situation is like there and the challenges that lay ahead. we were hit very hard in the early hours of this morning when cyclone chido arrived in mozambique as an intense tropical cyclone. it brought winds of over 200km an hour and, as you said, very intense rainfall. and we've been out in the city today seeing some of the aftermath of that impact, so many houses destroyed or seriously damaged, health care facilities,

schools put out of action. and obviously people are trying to pull together their lives after a very serious impact, so a very difficult situation here in mozambique. and what is unicef doing in terms of its crisis response there? yeah. well, fortunately, we saw this cyclone coming, as many others did, and that enabled us to prepare. we pre—positioned large quantities of essential supplies in pemba, where we have a warehouse, and we've already begun distributing those to the hardest hit. so things like water purification supplies, medications, supplies to prevent and treat the spread of cholera and other waterborne diseases, which is another serious concern for us, given the large volume of rainfall. and, as you said, lots of homes, medical facilities, schools damaged. what are the longer term challenges the country

is now going to face, and what help are you going to be able to offer? yeah. well, as you say, the longer term challenges are what we're particularly concerned about. i mean, mozambique is one of the poorest and then, as i mentioned, we're also worried about the spread of diseases like cholera and malaria over the longer term. so you're a major aid organisation that's there on the ground. is there any sign of any more international aid or help coming? we're working very closely together with other un partners and with support from our international supporters. we are very concerned about the scale of the need, particularly as it's exacerbating an already very difficult situation.

and so we're calling urgently for additionalfunding to help us meet the needs of the people here who are really in a very, very difficult and very precarious situation. guy taylor from unicef. the uk has announced a £50 million 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 proscribed 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, an inclusive government, we want to see chemical weapon stockpiles secured and not used,

and we want to ensure that there is not continuing violence. and so, for all of those reasons, using all the channels that we have available — and those are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence—led channels — we seek to deal with hts when we have to. one of those welcoming the aid announcement is asif hussain, whose charity skt welfare has been operating in syria since 2012. we certainly go some way to supporting the vulnerable syrians and alleviating their suffering. skt welfare has been on the ground since 2011. we have a number of different ways we help them — through food distribution, emergency health care. so we have our own hospital on the ground in in idlib province that's been there saving lives since 2014. we've built six villages. we've just completed our sixth village, providing over 3,000 homes for families that have been living in tents.

and so some of the funds will come to skt welfare, we're hoping, through the united nations, because we carry out work on the behalf of the the different united nations agencies. so that could be un, unhcr, for example, even the world health organization. so skt welfare does carry out work on the behalf of other non—governmental organisations within syria. so our team firstly is is quite jubilant because some of them have actually been in prison themselves and were released. they've had family members that were that were just recently released as well. 0ur hospital has treated no fewer than ten people that were released from the various prisons in damascus who had travelled, who lived in idlib province, but they were just happy to get back. 0ur hospital was there, treating them, helping them in any which way they can. that includes psychosocial support, psychological support as well. you know, mental health is a crucial thing, especially for those that have been released. the team on the ground is happy, as you expect them to be, firstly, because they've kind of suffered themselves

under the assad regime, but also now they're in a position where they can freely operate and help their fellow syrians. and, you know, we can start to move forward by implementing bigger and better plans and hopefully together rebuild a much brighter syria. 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, and i have said it all along, are not un

sanctions. they are sanctions imposed by the united states and the european union, and maybe a few others. reporter: do ou maybe a few others. reporter: do you support _ maybe a few others. reporter: do you support lifting _ maybe a few others. reporter: do you support lifting then? - maybe a few others. reporter: do you support lifting then? a i do you support lifting then? a i think we need, as i said, an orderly process and i very much look forward to orderly process and i very much look forward— look forward to continuing my discussions _ look forward to continuing my discussions with _ look forward to continuing my discussions with the - look forward to continuing my discussions with the syrian i discussions with the syrian caretaker government and the authorities there. meanwhile, syria's de—facto leader, ahmed al—sharaa, has condemned israel for its continued air strikes 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 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 his 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. 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. two people have been arrested after what police called a hazardous drone operation the boston's logan airport. the arrests come after many drone sightings over six weeks. 0ur

correspondents rowan bridge is following events in washington. bring us up today? this happened _ bring us up today? this happened yesterday - bring us up today? ti 3 happened yesterday boston police said they spotted a device at around 4:30pm, the boston harbour police were dispatched, there were three people they tried to track down, they managed to get hold of two of them, one escape. the two arrested were 42—year—old robert duffy and 32—year—old joni volko can be recovered a backpack with a drone in it. those men are due to appear in court charged with trespass, they were on land they were not officially meant to be on. it is safe they could face further charges because this is an ongoing investigation into what happened. to find a drill near

an airport is extremely dangerous, it can cause potential damage to the aircraft door to the helicopter which could potentially be very serious and they could cause aircraft you have to divert their course at the last minute, carrying major risks too. minute, carrying ma'or risks too. . ., too. in recent weeks we have heard about _ too. in recent weeks we have heard about drone _ too. in recent weeks we have heard about drone activity . heard about drone activity across the skies in the us, so put this into context? there has been — put this into context? there has been a _ put this into context? there has been a real— put this into context? there has been a real frenzy - put this into context? there l has been a real frenzy around this issue since mid november when the first reported sightings of these drones happens, they started off around the newjersey area and spread to a number of states mainly in the north—east of the united states but also some spotted in southern california too, i wasjust spotted in southern california too, i was just reading a briefing given by some of the federal authorities and the fbi talked about how they said up a tip line because the emergency services were being inundated with calls about these drones, some were up to almost two metres across. the fbi says they have now had 5000 calls to

their tip line around these drones but they say most of them they think are not anything suspicious, in fact they suspect a number of them are actually aircraft that have just been misidentified at night is being drones. having said that, they are not dismissing this issue, they accept there is something going on with drones flying around the north—east and nobody is exactly sure where they have come from. such is the level of concern about this, the homeland security secretary was out on tv this morning saying extra federal resources are being sent to newjersey to try to reinforce the effort to make out what is going on.— out what is going on. rowan bride out what is going on. rowan bridge in — out what is going on. rowan bridge in washington, - out what is going on. rowan bridge in washington, thank you. now it's time for a look at today's sport with karthi. a busy weekend of sport and a fascintating manchester derby in the premier league with a dramatic final few minutes giving

machester united victory. gvadiol had given manchester city a first half lead but united hit back with two goals in two mintues right at the end of the game at the etihad stadim — the first, a penalty scored by bruno fernandes, the second from amad diallo to complete the turnaround and give the new united manager ruben amorim an important derby win. we were in the game for 90 minutes, and that is very good. we talk about the arsenal game, we were playing well in the first half, but i felt it would not believable that we would win, today was so much different. we believe age, we managed to score, we deserved the win. the reality is the game was not exceptional for our side, i know_ exceptional for our side, i know the _ exceptional for our side, i know the situation for many, many— know the situation for many, many reasons but the reality is that we — many reasons but the reality is that we are not winning games and we — that we are not winning games and we are not good enough. i'm the boss — and we are not good enough. i'm the boss here, the manager, i

have _ the boss here, the manager, i have to — the boss here, the manager, i have to find a solution, i don't _ have to find a solution, i don't find it. that is the realitx _ tottenham are in action agianst southampton where the visitors scored five goals in the first half — it's currently 5—0. chelsea recovering from their epicjourney to kazakhstan in the europa conference league on thursday are back at home to brentford. and they have the lead at stamford bridge — marc cucurella with the goal. and crystal palace were 3—1 winners away at brighton, ismaila sarr scoring twice for the visitors. some other news from the english premier league this sunday and it's all over between gary o'neil and wolves, they lost 2—1 in injury time to isiwch town on saturday with 0'neill accusing his players of bad decision—making. frustrations came to the fore at full—time with wolves players rayan ait—nouri sent off for an altercation. they'd lost four leauge matches in a row and find themselves in 19th place in the prmeier legae table.

celtic have won the scottish league cup, beating rangers in a thrilling match which was evenutally decided by a penalty shoot out. after rangers' ridvan yilmaz�*s effort was saved by kasper schmeichel, it was daizen maeda who scored to win the trophy for celtic. it was 3—3 after 90 minutes and extra time. the result continues brendan rodgers's record of never having lost at hampden park, and leaves rangers boss phillippe clement still looking for his first derby victory i think it was a great final, a celtic rangers game that finishes 3—3 at extra time and goes to penalty, people get their money's worth but ultimately you want to be on the right side, and we were. let's round up some of the big restults around the rest of europe. in italy, fiorentina lost ground in the serie a title race

as they were beaten 1—0 at bologna and missed the chance to claim a club record ninth straight league win. in spain's la liga, atletico madrid have beaten getafe 1—0 to move level on points with league leaders barcelona who are currently in action against leganes. they are down 1—0 after 19 minutes. centuries from maia bouchier and nat sciver—brunt helped england to a score of 395 on the opening day of their one—off test against south africa in bloemfontein. bouchier hit 126 on her test debut, sharing in a 174—run partnership with sciver—brunt, who scored the fastest women's test hundred from 96 balls, before being run out. england declared nine wickets down and south africa closed the day on 17 without loss. and that's all the sport for now. samantha will be back a little later. studio: thank you, karthi, we will see you then. 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 north—west london, just after nine o'clock on saturday, where a woman, believed to be in her 40s, died at the scene. two men 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. 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 a 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 3a,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 deterrent—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. but the government says with rwanda not a single enforced return happened despite hundreds of millions spent. the idea was a gimmick that did nothing to deter. and 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. brazilian presiden, luiz inacio lula da silva has been released from hospital after two emergency surgeries to fix a bleed on his brain. the 79—year old spoke publicly at a hospital press conference in sao paulo, saying he was "healed" and "just needed to take care of himself". he stressed that he was keen to get back to work as soon as possible with his medical team's blessing. the pope has wrapped up the first—ever papl visit to the french island of corsica. —— the first ever papal visit. pope francis arrived in the papal plane on sunday morning before moving

through the packed streets of the capital ajaccio in his pope mobile. he held an open—air mass, before meeting with president emmanuel macron at the airport ahead of his departure. that is it from me at the moment, you can stay up to date with all of the bbc�*s top stories on the bbc news website. stay with us here on bbc news. i will be back a little later. 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 clouds, 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 coast. 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. and thousands gather for mass in corsica, as pope francis visits the island for the first time. now on bbc news — undercover people smugglers. the face of a migrant in the middle of the channel trying to reach safety in the uk. behind every migrant, there are people smugglers.

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