this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at two. britain and russia admit relations are at their worst for many years — the foreign secretary says he hopes they'll improve. theresa may denies knowing about allegations of innappropriate conduct against damian green before promoting him. catalan separatist parties win a majority in the region's elections — plunging spain into renewed crisis. the prime minister says he is prepared to hold talks. translation: i hope that now, in catalonia, we will have a new phase based on dialogue, cooperation and plurality. also in the next hour, preventing plastic pollution. calls for deposits on plastic bottles and free drinking water fountains, to protect the seas from the effects of plastic debris. more than a million drivers are expected to take to the roads on the last working day before christmas.

in halfan in half an hour, join me sarah campbell as i take a look back to the photocall held here at kensington palace, which introduced prince harry's bride—to—be meghan markle to the world's media. that is in the royal review 2017. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the foreign secretary borisjohnson has acknowledged there are "serious difficulties" in the relationship between russia and the uk — he's on the first visit to moscow by a british foreign secretary for more than five years. in a tense press conference, the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov rejected suggestions that russia had behaved aggressively towards the uk, but agreed that relations are at a "very low level". our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford reports. the first handshake looked warm

enough, but borisjohnson came here promising to talk tough, to warn russia to stop what he called its destabilising actions. it was russia's foreign minister who set the tone. sergei lavrov said relations with britain were at a very low level, and chided the foreign secretary for such public criticism. things aren't easy, borisjohnson agreed, before baffling the russians with talk of crisps. there are increasing exports of british kettle crisps to russia. but both men agreed one thing, that after five years without a visit by a uk foreign minister, it was time to talk face—to—face again. relations broke down over the conflict in ukraine,

still unresolved, still deadly, after almost four years. theresa may recently accused russia of fermenting the crisis here. today, borisjohnson again called the annexation of crimea from ukraine illegal. then there's syria, and russia's controversial military support for president assad. this month, vladimir putin declared mission accomplished in syria, but the threat of terrorism there, the need to build the peace now, is one that concerns britain and russia equally. so, it was that sense of common interest that the foreign secretary underlined, after talks that lasted well over the hour. there is no point in simply sitting on the sidelines and complaining about each other. we have to engage, we have to talk to each other. there were some light moments. sergei lavrov said he trusted borisjohnson so much, he'd used his russian name, boris. boris! but there were frosty

touches, as well. translation: i cannot recall any action by russia that was aggressive in relation to the uk, but we have heard accusations, even insultingly, that we support a criminal regime in syria, that we are aggressors, that we are occupiers, we annex other territories. those are all claims russia denies, even now. relations with moscow have been bad, verging on hostile. borisjohnson came here to address the reasons for that directly. there were no breakthroughs. none were expected, but the first steps towards thawing the chill have now been taken. sarah rainsford, bbc news, moscow. with me in the studio is peter conradi, foreign editor of the sunday times and author of several books on russia. a first visit by a british run secretary to russia by five years,

how significant is it?” secretary to russia by five years, how significant is it? i think the fa ct how significant is it? i think the fact that as it has taken place after such a long period is significant. in terms of it achieving anything, no. it wouldn't be realistic to expect it to have done so. we've had been rehearsing about problems with russia which started eccentrically with the annexation of crimea and has worked through other issues, intervention in syria and cyber hacking and so on —— which started essentially. we've had the russians on the other side saying, not us. same old story, really. but it was important it actually took place between. is this actually took place between. is this a question of breaking the ice after such a long deep freeze between the two countries? yes, and there's a lot of ice in moscow in december! this is probably chipping away at the top of the ice but we aren't going to make our way through to clear water beneath. there are

clearly a lot of disagreements about a lot of things but other also some things the countries can agree on? iranfor example, things the countries can agree on? iran for example, some areas of international politics? koran is slightly more complicated because the russians are very closely allied with the iranians —— tehran is slightly more, located. otherthings such as fighting isis, plus we've got the world cup coming up next year. there's got to be a lot of low—level security cooperation on that as well. the allegations russia is involved in cyber attacks, spreading fake news, interfering in elections in the west, how important is that as an obstacle to improving relations? i think to some extent it's been a bit overblown. it's very clear the russians have been trying to shake things up. by the same token the russians would say look at

western countries, look at the extent to which we have been encouraging pro—democracy movements. i don't think that is the main stumbling block. essentially things like crimea remain a boulder in the rate between better relations. going back to the collapse of communism, when everyone in the west had such high hopes of what russia might become, what has gone wrong in relations between the west and the former soviet union and russia in particular? how long have you got? it isa particular? how long have you got? it is a tale of 25 years of lost opportunities on both sides. hopes of improving relations. just a fundamentalfailure of improving relations. just a fundamental failure by the west to try and think how it was going to integrate russia into the post—communist world. integrate russia into the post-communist world. thank you. that the former first secretary of state damian green made inappropriate advances towards the conservative activist kate maltby — when she promoted him to serve as her deputy. yesterday ms maltby told the bbc

that she had raised concerns about him with a downing street official last year. speaking this morning on a visit to cyprus, the prime minister said she only knew about the allegations when they were published in a newspaper last month. i first learnt of these allegations when kate maltby wrote about them in the times. i recognise that kate maltby was obviously extremely distressed by what had happened. damian green has recognised that, he said that in the letter he wrote to me, and he has apologised. and i think that's absolutely the right thing to do. our political correspondent alex forsythjoins me. we've just heard what the prime minister had to say. where does this story go from here? i think you get the sense of the prime minister and no doubt damian green are keen to draw a line under this. it's worth remembering why damian green was sacked. it wasn't to do with those

allegations by kate maltby of inappropriate behaviour, it was because he said he didn't know about another matter which was pornography found on parliamentary computers in his office. he actually did know. he's always maintained it wasn't his and denied he downloaded or viewed it, but it was that which led to his resignation. nonetheless the other element to this is the wider issue of claims of sexual harassment in westminster. kate maltby who made those claims against damian green said the reason she chose to speak about this is because she is effectively saying she doesn't think enough is being done to make sure this is properly dealt with. damian green has apologised to kate maltby for making her feel uncomfortable although he does dispute her version of events. you get the sense that the debate has come back to what really was the origins of this which is whether or not people are taking allegations of sexual harassment seriously enough. the parties have all toughened their stance in the

wa ke all toughened their stance in the wake of several people being named for having carried out inappropriate behaviour. i think that element of the debate will go on for some time. thank you. a 44—year—old man is being questioned on suspicion of murder, after a woman was stabbed to death while at work in a supermarket in skipton in north yorkshire. the victim — who has been named locally as 30—year—old jodie willsher — was attacked in the aldi store in front of shoppers yesterday afternoon. let's get the latest on this from oui’ let's get the latest on this from our correspondent who is in skipton. what are we hearing from the police on this? they'll still continuing to question a 44—year—old man who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murder. we haven't had any updates since then. it was around 3:30pm yesterday when a man burst into this supermarket and attacked and killed a supermarket worker. she's been named locally as jodie willsher. a supermarket worker. she's been named locally asjodie willsher. she was 30, from skipton in north

yorkshire and she was a mother. customers and staff in the store pinned down the attacker and held him down until police arrived. all morning people have been coming here to the scene and laying flowers, tributes and soft toys, and paying tributes and soft toys, and paying tribute tojodie. they described her asa tribute tojodie. they described her as a lovely, bubbly, friendly, popular and kind woman. as a lovely, bubbly, friendly, popularand kind woman. no as a lovely, bubbly, friendly, popular and kind woman. no one had a bad word to say about her. they said no one could ever have a bad word to say about her. she was the mother of a young girland say about her. she was the mother of a young girl and was married and from the area. very popular, lots of friends have been here, heartbroken at the scene. it's so tragic that this is to happen at any time but people have been saying how even worse it is that it's coming few days before christmas. here at the scene, the supermarket remains closed. there is a large cord and in place covering the car park. there are police guarding the scene and not a lot of activity to be seen in

the supermarket itself. the windows are brightly lit but when you look through them what you can see is trolley is laden with food that had been abandoned in the aisles and food waiting to be scanned at the checkouts. thank you. for nearly 30 years, britons have been carrying these, burgundy, passports, the common colour of the eu. but it's been confirmed this will change when britain leaves — the home office has announced that the covers will revert to blue from 2019. the new design won't carry the eu insignia — and for some brexit campaigners the colour blue has become a symbol of independence. our home affairs correspondent tom symonds reports. the great british passport, shortly not to be available in european burgundy, because, it turns out, brexit means blue. and the e word nowhere to be seen. some never liked, well, the pink one, as this bbc news

report in 1995 made perfectly clear. and for some people, pocket—sized burgundy simply isn't british. the passport is something so many people still have fond memories of, the british passport, that blue companion on your travels with the family for many years. i'm pleased to let people know we are going back to that classic blue and gold design. well, not quite. the last british passport was much bigger, hardback, and a very dark blue. the european one which replaced it way back now in 1988 was floppy, smaller and easier to put in a pocket. the new one, and this isjust a mock—up, is of roughly the same design, but it will keep all of the security features that are currently built into passports to make them hard to copy, and it will add some. my first ever passport. wow, that's interesting. it seems going blue is largely about showing we are going it alone.

reaction? blue, isn't it, back to england. i think it's a shame. we had a fantastic ability to travel around the rest of the world, and were looked upon favourably with our immigration policy, and now it's a bit embarrassing, to be honest. i think the decision was a huge aspect of the country moving forward, and i think in order to move forward there needs to be changes, and if that is distinguished by a single colour, then why not? what's the difference? it's a different colour. i preferred it when we were in europe, everything. just everything, yeah. i don't think it was needed, but we wanted to give a message that we are different, and to that extent it serves a purpose. he says things are looking up. it's the first bit of good news brexiteers have had for a long time. the last few months have been very frustrating. the new passports will be issued from late 2019, when old ones are renewed, or people simply apply for one.

the new colour may split the country as much as brexit itself. perhaps this, the winner of an unofficial passport design competition might have been an even better choice. tom symonds, bbc news, at the passport 0ffice. the headlines on bbc news. borisjohnson boris johnson says borisjohnson says he hopes relations between britain and russia will improve. he's been meeting the russian foreign minister in moscow. theresa may denies she knew about allegations of inappropriate behaviour against damian green before promoting him. she said she first learned about the allegations ina first learned about the allegations in a newspaper. spain's prime minister says he is willing to talk to whoever takes control of the cata la n to whoever takes control of the catalan regional government, as long as they stay within the law. let's get more on the situation in catalonia. the spanish government has been meeting to discuss the results of regional elections in catalonia

which saw separatist parties win a slim majority in the new assembly. the result is a setback for the government in madrid — which called the election after an independence referendum held earlier this year was ruled unlawful. joining us now is the bbc‘s tim willcox, who is in barcelona. this decision to have an election there, has it backfired on the spanish prime minister?|j there, has it backfired on the spanish prime minister? i think it has, ben. yes, although madrid is trying to spin it in a different way, as you would imagine, and the spin they are putting on things is that the popular vote shows there are more people in this region who wa nt to are more people in this region who want to remain part of spain than to leave spain. the harsh political arithmetic of the situation is that none of the unionist parties can form in of a block here to win a majority in the catalan parliament. they need 68 seats out of 135 to form that majority, and nearly parties who can would appear to be

the separatists. this successor nests —— secessionists. it's not a good day for mariano rajoy, even though he's cleaning the victors in this election, the centre—right pro—unionist party which has emerged with the most number of seats, but asi with the most number of seats, but as i say they can't form a coalition. mariano rajoy has been speaking saying he's open to dialogue within the constitution, within the law. which will obviate any discussions about independence as far as the spanish government is concerned. carles puigdemont, the former catalan president in self—imposed exile in brussels has been speaking as well and he's been calling for dialogue and saying that spain can't have it any other which way now. basically that referendum he called on october the 1st when 90% of people voted in favour of separatism on a turnout of under 50%, now that spain has called these elections with a turnout of 82%,

this is the will of the catalan people according to carles puigdemont. translation: politics cannot be done without dialogue. whether he likes the theme we have to discuss, this is what he has to do. we need to find solutions. for whom? for the citizens. mr puigdemont also said he would be prepared to return to spain if he was given certain guarantees. namely that he would be exempt from any prosecution. i do think he can really cou nt prosecution. i do think he can really count on that at the moment, bearing in mind his former deputy, the head of the republican party in catalonia, is in prison in madrid at the moment facing possible charges of sedition and rebellion which carries a jail sentence of 30 years. where are we? have we seen any movement towards healing some of the

divisions between the separatist group and the unity group in catalonia, or are we back at square one? let's speak to our guest from the new york times. i've spoken to you so many times in the past few months and i always feel i'm back in groundhog day. nothing really seems to have changed. it's definitely groundhog day. we unfortunately have a situation where the divisions are deeperand a a situation where the divisions are deeper and a solution seems to be further away. the only thing we know todayis further away. the only thing we know today is that catalan society is deeply divided, split down the middle. as you said, a narrow majority is probably against independence but in terms of the arithmetics of forming a government, that favours the separatists. what can madrid do now? it's going to have to negotiate, isn't it, with the separatist movement but within the separatist movement but within the confines of the constitution? 0therwise the confines of the constitution? otherwise there won't be any movement. you would think so. the

big question is in whose interests it is to negotiate. mariano rajoy has basically managed to, until last night's defeat, managed to strengthen his position at national level. he is a little bit like a politician whose hold on power depends on the national result, and he can forfeit almost the catalan result. this may change now. this may change because it is a setback. these were his elections, this was his chance to swing things around. he's failed at that but it doesn't mean his day is up. you mentioned the national level but isn't he even wea k the national level but isn't he even weak on that front now? they have turned into quite a potent force now

potentially across spain. is he looking mob honourable on a national level? i think he's slightly more vulnerable but three of the four main parties of spain are committed to forming any kind of referendum. the only exception being podemos which is the party that has weakened the most. yes, the balance of power is shifting in madrid but not point that we can say it's a situation that we can say it's a situation that mariano rajoy cannot handle. he's survived many crises, i'm not writing him off today. raphael minder, thank you. that is the situation today, the day after those elections. it looks as if the separatists will be forming the new government at the regional assembly. we won't know for sure untiljanuary when that parliament sets and they will be electing a new speaker of the parliament and things will start

to ta ke the parliament and things will start to take form. in between that we've got a long christmas period for people to work out what they want to do. thank you. drivers, rail passengers and coach travellers are being warned to expect delays as millions of people begin the christmas getaway. highways england has suspended 400 miles of roadworks — but says busy road conditions should be expected. virgin trains says strikes which were due to affect the west coast mainline have been called off, but the company expects there will still be some cancellations. 0ur transport correspondent richard westcott has the latest. it's not the white christmas the kids were hoping for. the midlands motorway, shrouded in fog today. but despite the warnings, the christmas getaway seems to be running smoothly. so, a busy day for you guys? yes, busy. of course, not everyone gets christmas off. the motorways still need patrolling. well, they had called this frantic friday, because they thought that the commuter traffic would be mixing with all the holiday traffic, creating millions morejourneys.

touch wood, though, despite the fog, the roads haven't been too bad so far. at the nearby services, some were taking a little break from the driving. it's been quite quiet, hasn't it? yeah, not too bad at all. it hasn't been busy at all, really. we've come from chippenham, and it's been straight through. even the junction m4 to m5 was fine. it's been quite busy, just zipping about the roads and stuff. the motorway's not been too bad, but the side roads with the snow and stuff will be quite slippy. highways england are temporarily lifting 400 miles of road works to help ease anyjams. airports will also have their busiest day of the season — with the biggest, heathrow, handling 130,000 passengers. another christmas holiday tradition is engineering works on the railways, with a £160 million upgrade programme starting tomorrow. if you're travelling, check online. some services will be cut.

some london stations will be shut or partly shut. including london bridge, where they are putting the finishing touches to a £1 billion rebuild. if you've used london bridge station over the last few years, you know how stressful it's been as they've tried to redevelop it whilst keeping it open as best they can. there's going to be lots of work going on over here over christmas so that these five platforms can open onjanuary the 2nd. it's more frustration for holiday travellers. so why do it at christmas? we do it at this time of year because the railway is closed anyway on christmas day and boxing day. but also, at this time of year, about 50% fewer people travel by train, so in terms of the overall level of impact on passengers, this is the best time of year to do it. back on the roads, it could be busy later today, tomorrow and when the shops are back open after christmas. a bit worrying for adults... well, yeah, it was kind of hyped up,

but we were going to have to make the journey either way. we kind of prepared for it, but it's been a lot better than we thought it would be. but some have got other things on their mind. happy christmas! richard westcott, bbc news, on the m5. 0ur correspondent ian palmer is at euston station in london. it's supposed to be frantic friday, is it frantic on things are under control at the moment at euston station. certainly great relief that the virgin planned industrial action is cancelled, that's made things a lot easier today. the big news is that the third phase of that upgrade at london bridge station will begin tomorrow and that means there will be no services into london bridge london charing cross station between

tomorrow and january end of play the first. if you are travelling on the great western railway mainline, there will be no service from paddington station, that will be closed between christmas eve and the 27th of december. these closures and the work being carried out will disrupt all routes across the country. on the west coast main line there is no service between preston and lancaster. people travelling from london to glasgow are being urged to travel via edinburgh. that will add an extra hour to your journey. what about the roads, what is the situation? the rsc are saying if you haven't completed your road

journey by lunchtime you will experience some congestion. in the run—up to christmas there is going to be around 11.5 million leisure trips by road. today alone there will be1.3 trips by road. today alone there will be 1.3 million trips. just to give you an idea, the friday before christmas of last year and the a303 at stonehenge there was a seven mile tailback at 6pm. that's the east—west road between cornwall and the south—east. that's the sort of congestion they are expecting. the m6 between merseyside and staffordshi re m6 between merseyside and staffordshire is expected to be very busy today, as will be the one and the m4. frankly, if you haven't completed your road trip and are expecting to travel today, you will experience some congestion. 0n the buses, the company national express is putting on its largest christmas schedule to date and if you want to

travel by bus, you're being advised to check online. many thanks. let me bring you up—to—date with bristol airport. departures and arrivals suspended after a plane from frankfurt suspended after a plane from fra nkfu rt left suspended after a plane from frankfurt left the runway while taxiing. passengers were disembarked, no one on board was hurt. arrivals being diverted to exeter and other airports. departures and arrivals are suspended at bristol airport. much more travel information throughout the afternoon on bbc news. now the weather. the weather is not complicating the travel situation for most of us over the next 24 hours. it's pretty quiet, quite mild. there is some low cloud and hill fog for some places but also a few glimpses of brightness. this is how we started the day in shropshire. there was mist and the day in shropshire. there was mistand a the day in shropshire. there was mist and a bit of fog and equally

some blue sky is developing. heading through the afternoon it is mild with temperatures between 8—12 degrees. most of the low cloud and hill fog will be across the western half of the country. further eased some clear spells with that cloud blasting into the evening and overnight. the winds pick up across the north of scotland with rain moving in. fairly heavy for the northern isles of scotland but mostly dry elsewhere. the odd spot of drizzle. saturday pretty similar to today, lots of cloud around, hill fog towards the west. a bit more of a breeze helping to break—up that cloud. north—east england down towards central and eastern england, further west across england and wales, still some mist and hill fog. it is mild and the situation continues into christmas. hello.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has met his russian counterpart, sergei lavrov, in moscow — he acknowledged there are "serious difficulties" between the countries but said he wanted the situation to improve. the prime minister has denied that she knew about claims of inappropriate behaviour made against damian green before she appointed him first secretary of state. theresa may says she wasn't made aware until she read the allegations in the press. the spanish prime minister, mariano rajoy, says he's willing to talk to whoever takes control of the catalan regional government,