against the wishes of some of her family. let's return new to our top story. five people, including a seven—year—old girl, have died whilst attempting to cross the channel. this is the boat, overloaded with more than 100 people moments before its engine failed. it comes just hours after mps passed the government's controversial rwanda bill designed to prevent these crossings. our correspondent andrew harding was on that beach near wimereux in the early hours of this morning filming as police ran towards the scene. here's his report. a skirmish early this morning on a french beach. 0k, we'rejust running to catch up with some migrants here. the police are trying to stop a small boat from leaving the shore. it turns violent. and the police are failing. the boat is dangerously overloaded. it looks like the migrants who did get onto that boat are in trouble.

but as we watch, we have no idea that people on board are dying, including a seven—year—old girl. to understand how this happened, we need to go back to yesterday afternoon, with crowds jostling at the bus station in calais, anxious to get to the beaches outside town, the smugglers muscling in. the forecast is for a clear, calm night in the channel, perfect conditions for a crossing. young men from syria, from sudan, none put off by news that they might end up being deported from britain to rwanda. are you worried that you might be sent to rwanda by the british? "no, if it is safe and i can study in rwanda, then "that's fine too," he says. you hear that? yeah. you don't want that? no, i don't want. but it's not stopping you today? no. nothing will stop you? no, no, don't stop me. waiting for the migrants along

the french coast line, a high—tech force, funded now by britain, which is spending millions of pounds on drones and other gear to help the french police find and stop the small boats. and yet, compared with the same period last year, the number of crossings has risen. "we need more equipment and more staff," she says, who co—ordinates the police effort here. "our officers are brave, but the number of people getting "on each boat is rising." official footage of french border police in the channel earlier this year, a difficult rescue operation in rough seas. as the number of attempted crossings rises, so does the death toll among migrants. adding to the sense of crisis here, a new development. hundreds of vietnamese have recently begun arriving at the coast. we met this group camped in a forest. the vietnamese people

here seem quite confused about where they're going. they don't even know if they're supposed to end up in england. all they do tell us is they are escaping from gangsters back in vietnam who they owe money to. two years ago, it was albanian migrants, now it's these people from vietnam, swelling the numbers. and so to events overnight. we head to a beach south of calais, a popular launch site for small boats. and we sit for hours in the moonlight and wait. whispers: somebody walking there. i can hear somebody walking nearby there. two shadows, almost certainly smugglers, come to check we are not police. above us, a police plane circles. we've arranged for a bbc cameraman to be on board. the crews spot two groups of migrants on their thermal imaging camera.

they're in the sand dunes and moving towards each other. on the beach, a french foot patrol quickly arrives. surely the migrants will give up now, but they don't. shouting suddenly, the beach erupts with shouting. 0k, we are running with the police as they try to intercept a group of what looks like 60—70 migrants. and now things turn violent, fireworks thrown at the police. several young men pulling out crude weapons. you can see the smugglers here, some of them have sticks, they're trying to protect the migrants as they head towards the sea to stop the police from stopping them. and it works.

a few stragglers are left behind, but the boat is allowed to move out towards open water. look at the child on someone�*s shoulders on the right. could the french police have done more to stop this? we ask one officer. "we are not allowed to go in the water," he replies, "did you notice they had sticks and there were children too? "so we had to be careful." the boat is wildly overloaded. on the right here, you can see another child being led out in an orange life jacket. more than 100 people are trying to squeeze on board. somewhere in the scrum, a seven—year—old girl's last moments. faint shouting it sounds like someone crying for help. rescue boats do arrive a little later, the five dead are taken away. but half the passengers

on the inflatable stay on board and later head off towards the english coast. that's andrew harding, reporting there. prime minister rishi sunak says britain's defence industry is to be put on a "war footing" — because the world is "the most dangerous it has been" since the end of the cold war. his government will increase uk defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030. he's also promised ukraine an extra £500 million of military aid. mr sunak is in the polish capital warsaw, where he's discussing regional security with the head of nato. here's some of what mr sunak had to say at their news conference. as we make our historic commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gdp, we will move past this stop—start piecemeal way of backing ukraine, so that alongside our long—term security guarantee, we are today providing a long—term funding guarantee of at least to the current

level of military support to ukraine for every year it is needed. that is the longest commitment any nation has provided. and it shows that ukraine is not alone and that ukraine will never be alone. earlier, i asked our political correspondent pete saull whether the pm has been under pressure from within his own party to spend more on defence. yes, including from the current defence secretary, grant shapps, actually, who wrote to him in the chancellor, jeremy hunt, before the budget a few months ago saying that he wanted this commitment of 2.5% to happen more quickly. we have had other serving, morejunior defence ministers make similar calls in recent months as well. so the prime minister responding to that today, he's got very happy noises coming out from individuals who have been calling for it. so he has set out the plan to do this now by 2030. it will cost £75 billion over six years. it's worth bearing in mind that borisjohnson, the former

prime minister, made a similar commitment back in 2022. the government saying the difference now is that this is fully funded. labour, though, questioning where exactly the money is going to come from for this. a former defence secretary, ben wallace, very, very happy about it. he's been speaking to the bbc in the past hour or so, and he has said that he has chatted to the prime minister about it and he was talking about this being a real priority for the prime minister in the conservative manifesto as we look towards the general election due at some point later in the year. and his expectation that this is about reprioritizing the pie that is government spending, in his words. so it might be that cash is taken from elsewhere in government budgets to go to defence, rishi sunak stressing that this is really, really important. it is a dangerous moment for the world. he talked about an axis of authoritarian states, i suppose referencing back to the axis of evil, you might remember, you know, 20 years ago

now, when george w bush was the american president. the current uk prime minister talking specifically about russia, china, iran and north korea and the growing threat that those nations face and the need, in his view, to spend more money on defence. protests over the war in gaza have taken hold at a handful of elite us universities as officials scramble to defuse demonstrations. police made a number of arrests at new york university, as emily brown reports. demonstrations about the israel gaza war have taken place at us campuses since the attacks on october 7. but in the past few days, campus demonstrations have escalated across north america. the protest movement was thrust into the spotlight last week after new york city police arrested more than 100 demonstrators at columbia campus. rallies have spread since then. a number of arrests were made at the new york university on monday night, tens of students were arrested at yale earlier in the day, while columbia university cancelled in—person classes. encampments have been set up at the university of california at berkeley,

the massachusetts institute of technology, the university of michigan, emerson college and tufts. in the us, students on both sides say there has been a rise in both anti—semitic and islamophobic incidents since october 7. when asked about the rallies, presidentjoe biden said that he condemned both the anti—semitic protests as well as those who don't understand what's going on with the palestinians. the majority of americans now disapprove of israeli action in gaza. that's according to a recent gallup survey, after a shift in opinions since the outbreak of the current conflict. still to come on the world today: calling home — nasa says its voyager 1 probe, the most distant man—made object in the universe, is sending usable information back to earth again. and i talk to the stars of the ground—breaking short film kaur, which follows the story of a british sikh woman who wants to wear a turban. around the world and across the uk,

this is the world today on bbc news.

four aboriginal spears taken by a british explorer more than 200 four aboriginal spears taken by a british explorer more than 250 years ago will return home to australia. cambridge university is the latest institution to hand back pillaged artefacts at a ceremony with direct descendants of the gweagal people who crafted the spears. earlier, i spoke to ray ingrey, director of the gujaga foundation and a dharawal man of the aboriginal la perouse community. he helped lead the delegation into the ceremony today. i asked him how it felt. it's mixed emotions. we are excited to have these fears finally returned to have these fears finally returned to the homelands they were taken from 250 years ago, but because this was a long campaign, a lot of our old people that started this are no longer with us, so it's a mixed

feelings, but i'm sure when we get home with the spheres of their will be a lot of celebrations. ijust explain if you can't to viewers at home these spears mean to explain if you can't to viewers at home these spears mear- explain if you can't to viewers at home these spears mean to you and indeed the community _ home these spears mean to you and indeed the community -- _ home these spears mean to you and indeed the community -- just - home these spears mean to you and. indeed the community -- just explain indeed the community —— just explain if you can. a£111" indeed the community -- 'ust explain if ou can. . ., , indeed the community -- 'ust explain if ou can. , . if you can. our community has a siritual if you can. our community has a spiritual connection _ if you can. our community has a spiritual connection to _ if you can. our community has a spiritual connection to tools - if you can. our community has a | spiritual connection to tools such as the spears. however, from a historical standpoint, it marks the point in time where the british and aboriginal people first met, and that time started australia's history as we know it today. so for all australians, these fears indicate a point in time where australia as we know it today started to form —— these fears indicate. started to form -- these fears indicate. . , ., indicate. once they arrive in australia. — indicate. once they arrive in australia, what's _ indicate. once they arrive in australia, what's the - indicate. once they arrive in australia, what's the plan . indicate. once they arrive in | australia, what's the plan for indicate. once they arrive in - australia, what's the plan for them? will they be displayed, kept for the local community only? what's going to happen? local community only? what's going to ha en? , ,

local community only? what's going to hauen? , , , ., ., ., to happen? they will be stored at a museum at — to happen? they will be stored at a museum at sydney _ to happen? they will be stored at a museum at sydney university - to happen? they will be stored at a museum at sydney university until| to happen? they will be stored at a i museum at sydney university until an exhibition space within a new visitor centre at a national park is to be constructed. that will take about 18 months, and once it's constructed and open, the spears will be on permanent display for everybody to come and see at the very point they were taken in 1770. nasa says its voyager1 probe, the most distant man—made object in the universe, is sending usable information to earth again after months of spouting gibberish. the spaceship left the solar system in 2012 and is currently more than 15 billion miles from earth, but it can still send data back. our science correspondent victoria gill explains. we have ignition, and we have liftoff. a spacecraft bound for a journey that no one imagined. when voyager1 launched in 1977, its mission was to explore our own solar system. it captured detailed images of saturn's rings and discovered thatjupiter has a ring of its own.

then itjust kept going. and in 2012, it became the first human made object to leave our solar system. but last year, after nearly 50 years in space, something finally went wrong. the data voyager1 was sending back to earth stopped making sense. nasa engineers worked out that a single chip on its decades—old on board computer had stopped working. to fix it, they transmitted an essential piece of code that was on that broken ship back to the spacecraft from mission control. it took 22 and a half hours for that code to reach voyager 1 in interstellar space. but this very remote reboot worked. the craft has now sent readable data reporting its health and status back to earth for the first time in five months. a lot of this technology is �*60s, not �*70s. we are now in 2024, which is quite extraordinary.

i sit here at my age thinking, "good god, this thing is still going," and it's brilliant. the next step is to get scientific information from the craft, to keep learning from its interstellar mission. by next year, though, voyager 1's ability to generate enough power to operate its instruments is set to come to an end, leaving this tiny icon of space exploration to wander the universe — possibly for eternity. victoria gill, bbc news. amazing. now let's turn our attention to the world of movies, and netflix will soon be showing the british south asian drama kaur. it is the first film in history to be based on a story about a british sikh woman who decides to wear a turban for the first time, against her father's wishes. so, safe to say this movie is pretty ground—breaking. let's watch a bit of the trailer now. i always knew from a very young age that this was the path you were meant to take. i'm sorry.

i can't support you if you go through with this, so you need to make a decision. singing earlier, iwasjoined by writer, producer and lead actor parvinder shergill, who plays avani, and nina wadia, who plays her mother, on the netflix film kaur. we just wejust don't get we just don't get the representation. people have heard of mr singh, but what about miss kaur? we really wanted to voice the incredible women in our community and our stories in the household and give them the honour and respect they deserve on a mainstream platform. so tell me about the movie. what is it about? what's the kind of premise? so it's about a british south asian sikh girl who decides to wear a turban for the first time against her father's wishes, and it's about female empowerment, owning who you are and your beauty and your grace. and you play the mother in the film.

nina, tell me a little bit about why you took on this role. what is it about this role that really interested you, got your attention? women in the sikh community, they have choices, and what i love about this one is that the mother's generation has to choose between the love for her daughter and what her daughter wants and the love for her husband and what his wishes are. and there's also the little bit that she has to think about for herself. so it was a really interesting part to play because there were so many different aspects and so many different ways that she could be played, so i like that idea that a woman gets a choice, and what she chooses is very important. and this is going on netflix, this short movie, which is really exciting. it's going to give it a much, much wideraudience. looking at the subject matter and talking to you now, it's interesting, isn't it, because these perspectives aren't often seen in the mainstream? why do you think that is? i mean, we always have this saying in the kaurfilm team, myself and juggy sohal, who created it, if you want to see the change, you have to be

the change yourself. and no—one's going to give us the light to shed our story, so we have a responsibility to do that. and i think times are changing, we have such intricate, stunning stories, but i think it is time for us women, it's time for our stories now, in front of and behind the camera. why it hasn't been done? well, i think that's a big... we could talk about that for ages, but i think times are changing now... absolutely. i mean, 25 years ago, we did goodness gracious me, and that was ground—breaking in that time. but it's still 25 years and we're still having these conversations. that's saying something. so things are changing, but just not fast enough. that's parvinder shergill and nina wadia, talking to me about kaur, which is out on netflix in may. prince louis, the youngest child of the prince and princess of wales, is six years old today for happy birthday! to celebrate the occasion, a new photograph of the beaming louis has been released by a kensington palace. it was taken by his mother, who as we own it was keen to be —— known to be a keen photographer. kate and william have thanked people for the messages they

have received. a potential new treatment for sport related concussion is being trialed in professional rugby union. it is a brain cooling device used to treat head injuries and could eventually be delivered pitch side. felicity kvesic has the story. bigger players and bigger impacts. in rugby, head injuries can be a consequence. scotland centre mark bennett knows. this recent turnover tackle led to a try for edinburgh... ..but it also forced him from the field. afterwards, he used a new brain cooling treatment that aims to aid recovery from concussion. it's a contact sport. there's going to be risks involved. and i knew that when i was going to play. i think that the more research that's happening and the sort of more information that we get, the better. edinburgh is now one of a number of clubs in the united rugby championship that have started trialling the new pitchside treatment for players.

much of the focus in contact sports, including rugby union, has been on preventing head injuries. this, though, is a treatment that can be used immediately after concussion and as part of the return to play protocols. hot concussions, sport related concussions, are potentially worse than cold concussions. and that really brings us into this idea of whenever we identify an athlete with a concussion pitchside, as we do quickly now in rugby, is there that benefit of cooling their brain quicker, and is there then a translated benefit into their concussion recovery? unlike an ice bath or an ice pack, polarcap targets cooling the blood flow to the brain, thereby lowering its energy use. it is used once for 45 to 60 minutes in the acute phase of injury. a recent study concluded that it may reduce symptoms and shorten return

to play time for athletes. concussions are a serious issue for athletes... tests in ice hockey showed that it helped to reduce long term injury absence. the swedish company behind it is led by a former ice hockey player who retired due to concussion. i see the different parts of the concussion issue. i think we should focus on all parts. how can we prevent them from happening? how can we have a safe return to play, which is very, very important? and also, can we treat in the acute phase? well, actually, as of right now, you can. concussion is now at the forefront of minds in many contact sports. could keeping a cool head prove a viable treatment? felicity kvesic, bbc news. now listen to this. screeching the sweet sound of the seaside. but believe or not, what you just

heard was not a seagull — no, it was a nine—year—old boy from chesterfield doing a seagull impression. why, you may wonder? well, he hasjust been competing rather successfully in the gull screeching european championship in belgium. danny savage will try to explain. three, two, one. screeching cheering he's a champion seagull impersonator. as an intrigued crowd of belgian seagull enthusiasts watch on from outside, the judges give nine—year—old cooper nearly top marks, which saw him win the junior category in the european gull screeching competition. screeching he's now a seaside sensation, doing the media rounds about his ornithological status on tv and radio. how special does it feel to be a gold medal winnerfor the uk?

it feels amazing, and it reminds me of the olympics. and now i'm like, "yay, i brought back gold for england!" could you do the seagull for us live here on radio 2? yeah. screeching when he first developed this talent, what did you think? "oh, great! another noise." he's not the quietest child. so it started off as a bit of another annoying sound from cooper, and we kept encouraging him to stop. then once we heard about the competition, it was encouraging him to practice, much to the neighbour's annoyance. sorry, neighbours! screeching there is a serious point to the competition — to put seagulls in a more positive light. they can be seen as annoying scavengers. cooper wallace from chesterfield! but we all like to see a gold—medal—winning brit. add to the list the boy from landlocked chesterfield who can perfectly mimic a seabird. danny savage, bbc news.

imean, i mean, seriously, that is absolutely uncanny! i really want to try my sigel impression, but i have been told in my ear, just don't do it, it is career ending. that was bad, wasn't it? the weather with stav. hello there. it was another chilly day for the time of year pretty much everywhere, but where we had the sunshine across the north and the west of the uk, it didn't feel too bad. but it was chilly further east, where we had thicker cloud, even a few spots of rain. that's the story for the next few days. it will remain — the temperatures — below the seasonal norm, and there will be more cloud always towards eastern areas. and you can see why. this northerly arctic airflow has brought this chilly air to our shores and it's going to hang around for the next few days. high pressure sits out towards the west, hence the northerly wind. we've got low pressure developing out in the north sea.

it's feeding in a lot of cloud, generally in northern and eastern areas, a few showers mixed into there as well. could even see some wintriness over the high ground, as the air is cold enough for that. but where we have clearer skies through tonight, this is where we'll see the lowest of the temperatures, a touch of frost in places. where we have the cloud, temperatures staying above freezing. bit of a grey start, i think, wales, south—west england, certainly down the north sea coasts of both england and scotland. the cloud tends to clear in the south—west, but it continues to be fed in on that northerly breeze across eastern areas. could see a few showers. like i mentioned, they could be wintry over the higher ground. best the sunshine towards the north and the west. perhaps a cooler day a little bit tomorrow. i think for most areas, highs of 13, maybe 1a degrees. single digits on the north sea coast. as we head through wednesday night, we start to see an area of more organised showers, longer spells of rain pushing south into scotland. there will be some snow on the hills. the air is cold enough for that. elsewhere, a chilly night to come. where we've had clearer skies out west, then a touch of frost. some subtle changes, i think, as we head into thursday. we start to see two areas of low pressure beginning to encroach into our shores,

so i think we'll see more cloud around generally, limited sunshine here and there, though the best of the sunshine will probably be through the morning period. showers will get going and they will be of a wintry nature to the hills of scotland and northern england, mainly of rain, i think, across more southern parts of britain and in towards northern ireland. temperature—wise, up to 13 degrees in the south, still chilly in northern and eastern areas. and then as we push to the end of the week, friday and the weekend, it does look like low pressure will start to take over. moving up from the south, it'll bring stronger easterly winds and outbreaks of rain. what it will do is also usher in some slightly warmer air to our shores, generally across southern areas, eventually pushing northwards, but it will be turning more unsettled. take care.

hello, i'm christian fraser. you're watching the context on bbc news. today is a landmark moment in our plan to stop the boats. the safety of rwanda bill has passed in parliament and it will become law within days. there is a real battle going on, on the beach here. there must be more than 100 migrants trying to get to the water. they are letting off firecrackers to try and keep the police away from them. translation: a new tragedy occurred l on a boat overloaded with migrants l earlier this morning at around 5am off the coast of wimereux. there's no doubt we have to stop the

small_ there's no doubt we have to stop the small boat _ there's no doubt we have to stop the small boat crossing. there is no doubt _ small boat crossing. there is no doubt about that. the government has lost control_ doubt about that. the government has lost control of its borders. five dead attempting to cross the english channel — including a child. well bring you our report from calais tonight on thos trying to get here, and the autohrities trying to stop them. the deaths came just hours after the uk government passed the rwanda bill. rishi sunak believes other eu countries will follow suit. we will hear from the danes who have considered rwanda as a third country. and of course, we will check in on the donald trump trial in new york. where prosecutors have presented crucial evidence today on the alleged 2016 conspiracy. the new asylum bill that was passed by the british governmentjust after midnight has been described by the prime minister as "notjust a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration".

within hours it was clearjust how much a change is needed.