this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at 4.00pm. britain and russia admit relations are at their worst for years — on a visit to moscow the foreign secretary says he hopes they'll improve. there is no point in us sitting on the sidelines and complaining about each other, we have to engage. theresa may denies knowing about allegations of inappropriate conduct against damian green before she promoted him. after catalan separatist parties win a majority in the region's elections — spain's prime minister says he's prepared to talk. translation: i hope that now, in catalonia, we will have a new phase based on dialogue, cooperation and plurality. police in wales say they've foiled several dangerous far—right extremist attacks in the last three years. also in this hour —

preventing plastic pollution. calls for deposits on plastic bottles and free drinking water fountains, to protect the seas from plastic debris. millions are expected to be on the move today as the christmas getaway begins. 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, ba rys. ba rys!

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. speaking a short time ago the foreign secretary said he needed to

talk frankly about the current state of the relationship between russia and the uk. my feelings today are tinged with sadness, deep sadness, because the ice floes did crack in the 1990s, but the truth is that we've now been carried far apart on our respective bergs by the turbulent currents of recent history. and i cannot, and must not, conceal the obstructions in our relationship today. as our prime minister theresa may has said, we cannot ignore the areas where we are at odds. we cannot accept the annexation of crimea, the war in the donbass, or russia's efforts to destabilise its neighbours in countries in europe such as the western balkans. we disapprove of russia's sustained campaign of cyber

espionage and disruption. i know that when i say this, i may be accused of excessive frankness. but it still has to be said, because it is a vital part of my message that we have issues between us, serious issues that must be addressed. and earlier the bbc‘s diplomatic correspondent james landale was with me in the studio talking about the obstacles in russia and the uk's relationship. it's kind of strange that the foreign secretary goes all the way to russia to rehearse the differences between the two nations. but i think the reason he does that is because it gives him the opportunity to talk about the other side of the coin. in other words, by being frank and robust it means that he can deliver the messages that other allies also want to send to the russians. say, look, the west considers its behaviour to be unacceptable and here is why.

that also allows him to get onto the other side of the coin, namely that there are other issues where their commonality is of interest. but actually the uk and the west have a vital national interest to discuss and open dialogues with russia, whether it's north korea, syria or the iran nuclear deal. he said earlier there's no point in shouting each other from the sidelines, complaining about each other, which in a sense implies that is what's been going on for the past few years, do you think the ice is now broken? i think they are both on the same ice talking to each other, but it's still pretty frosty beneath their feet. as a result of this visit, the first visit in five years by a british foreign secretary, there are now officials who have slightly better relations because they've had to do all the work to build up to this trip. there's a huge amount of diplomatic

logistical work that goes on. those people now have slightly better relationships with their russian counterparts. it means the relationship between the borisjohnson and sergey lavrov is better. sergey lavrov has been foreign minister for 13 years. before that he was the ambassador to the un. boris johnson has been foreign secretary for 18 months, he's a spring chicken. that relationship is a little bit better, which means that if for example the americans decided to pull out of the iran nuclear deal, the uk and russia are two of the nations outside iran that have to help pick up the pieces, could they do something to protect some of that deal to keep the iranians onside. that kind of discussion needs a relationship. if you're just shouting at each other from the sidelines it's hard to do that. as a result of these visits, it's a little less hard to have that kind of conversation in the future. theresa may has denied she knew about claims 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. the prime minister speaking earlier. earlier i spoke to bbc political correspondent alex forsyth in westminster. 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 a whole other matter, which was pornography found

on parliamentary computers in his office. he actually did know. he's always maintained that pornography wasn't his, 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's chosen 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 disputes her version of events. you get the sense now that the debate has come back to what really was the origins of all of this which was whether or not people are taking allegations of sexual harassment seriously enough. all the parties have toughened their stance in the wake of several people being named her having carried out inappropriate behaviour. i think that element of this debate

will go on for some time. the spanish prime minister mariano rajoy says he's prepared to hold talks with whoever takes control of the catalan regional government, as long as they stay within the law. mr rajoy and his government met this morning to discuss the results of regional elections in catalonia which saw separatist parties win a slim majority in the new assembly. he said he hoped the elections usher in a "new phase" of politics "based in dialogue". joining us now from barcelona is the bbc‘s tim willcox. does this look like it's going to usherin does this look like it's going to usher in a new phase as mariano rajoy would like to see and a new dialogue? i don't think one should be too optimistic at the moment. he says he's prepared to have dialogue but within the constitution. carles puigdemont has always said he's to

have dialogue as well as long as the issue of independence is on the table. both men are miles apart on this front. madrid has been trying to spin this result which wasn't good news for mariano rajoy, having called these elections. the spin from madrid is the share of the popular vote, the largest share has gone to the pro—unity party ciudadanos. they've emerged with the greatest number of seats. but the crucial problem for that party is that they cannot form a working coalition in the catalan parliament here. you need 68 seats to form a majority and the unionists cannot do that. only the separatists can. which means that mr puigdemont has the largest number of seats after ciudadanos and they can put together

a block which gives them 70 seats, which means madrid will have to talk to the secessionists as they were doing in the run—up to the start of this crisis, back in october when we saw that referendum when 90% of people voted in favour of independence from spain but only on a turnout of less than 50%. mariano rajoy call this election and it's backfired on him, hasn't it? rajoy call this election and it's backfired on him, hasn't mm rajoy call this election and it's backfired on him, hasn't it? it has. he was hoping that it would wrong—foot the secessionists. even his deputy was saying this vote they hoped would decapitate the secessionists, the separatist cause. this region is split right down the middle, it doesn't seem that attitudes have changed that much from when the first referendum was held on october one. this region is split. you've got 52% of people who say they want to remain part of

spain, 48% who say they want to be separate from spain and voted for the separatist parties. actually if you look back at events from the heavy—handed police tactics on october one, the tail end of that backlash is still affecting mariano rajoy. just on a personal level, mariano rajoy‘s party which is in power in madrid, in the previous government here the party had 11 seats. yesterday they were reduced to three. it's been a humiliation for mariano rajoy. he hasn't met any of his objectives and he's going to have to work with the separatists. thank you. iman has been injured in an explosion at a house in leeds. west yorkshire police said it happened at 3pm this afternoon at a house on

silk mill drivejust 3pm this afternoon at a house on silk mill drive just north of the city centre. no one else is believed to have been inside the property at the time of the incident. 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. our correspondent olivia richwald gave us an update from the scene. they're 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 asjodie willsher. she was 30, from the skipton area 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 tribute tojodie. they've described her 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 girl, and was married and from this area. very popular, lots of friends have been here, heartbroken at the scene. it's so tragic for this to happen at any time, but people have been saying how even worse it is that it's come a few days before christmas. here at the scene, the supermarket remains closed. there is a large cordon 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 trolleys laden with food that had been abandoned in the aisles and food waiting to be scanned at the checkouts. the headlines on bbc news.

borisjohnson says he hopes relations between britain and russia will improve — as he meets the russian foreign minister in moscow. theresa may denies she knew about allegations of inappropriate behaviour against damian green before promoting him, saying she first learnt about them in a newspaper. spain's prime minister says he's willing to talk to whoever takes control of the catalan regional government, as long as they stay within the law. in sport, alex oxlade—chamberlain makes his first return to the emirates tonight has arsenal host liverpool in the first of the festive premier league fixtures. india's rohit sharma equals the record for the fastest t20 international century, reaching three figures in just 35 balls in their match against sri lanka. mason crane says he's ready to make his debut for england

in the fourth ashes test. he'll button is held with tom curran for a place. more sport in an hour's time. a group of mps has called for a deposit scheme for plastic bottles to try and reduce pollution in the oceans. the committee suggested a deposit of between io—20p per bottle. it's also called for more public water fountains so people can top up refillable bottles. here's our environment analyst roger harrabin. the uk uses around 13 billion plastic bottles every year. nearly half are put into landfill, incinerated or left as litter. many ultimately find their way into the sea. the mps are urging the government to introduce a deposit—and—return

scheme for bottles as soon as possible. they want a new rule obliging all cafes, pubs and restaurants to provide free tap water so people can top up their own refillable bottles. and they want many more public water fountains. we want people to think before they leave the house, will i be needing water? to re—use the bottles they've got. we want people to be able to fill up for free in cafes and restaurants. and we want then to capture the bottles that we do use, so we have a sustainable, resource—efficient economy. but crucially, so that we end up with far fewer of these bottles in our streets and on our beaches and in the sea. the mps also propose a sliding scale of charges on plastic packaging — so firms using easy—to—recycle materials pay least, and those using complex materials pay most. ministers say they're consulting with firms to find the best solutions to what they acknowledge is a serious problem with plastic waste.

far—right extremists in wales have been prevented from carrying out violent attacks in the last three years, according to a home office advisor. one man from newport was preparing for a so called "race war" by making explosives. welsh anti—terrorism police say they devote half their time to countering far right extremism. jordan davies has this report. the facebook page of a group called the infidels of south wales. among these are images of nazi salutes and slogans. it's not hard to find content from welsh organisations like this. but they aren't banned, and there is no suggestion here they are violent. but there is concern that parts of the south wales valleys remain strongholds for the far right. nigel co—founded the violent ultra—right—wing combat i8. he was active in wales as far back as the 80s,

trying to hijack causes to further his then beliefs. south wales was seen as a big area where we could not only go in and support the miners, offering food and picket line support, but it was also very much about once we were into that community we could open up and support other things. he believes far right groups are still using these tactics here. his organisation, small steps, now works in wales educating people against the dangers of the far right. recent official figures show... nick daines works with the home office to de—radicalise potential extremists.

he says the mindset of some is becoming more extreme. i don't often come across very scary people in terms of using the kind of perspective of that person is psychopathic. but there have been a couple, one of which i'd say has been based in south wales, that was very high risk. welsh anti—terror police say they spend half their time countering the extreme right, but active membership of far right groups in wales is still relatively small. travellers are being warned to expect delays as millions begin the great christmas getaway. highways england has suspended 400 miles of road works but says busy road

conditions are expected. virgin trains says strikes which were due to affect the west coast main line have been called off. our 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 have been 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. our correspondent ian palmer has the latest from euston station in london. 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 or london charing cross station and january end of play the 1st. 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 works being carried out will disrupt all routes across the country. on the west coast mainline 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?

there were predictions of a lot of gridlock, but is it that bad this afternoon? the rac 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 be 1.3 million trips. just to give you an idea, the friday before christmas of last year on 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 staffordshire is expected to be very busy today, as will be the m1 and the m4. frankly, if you haven't completed your road trip and are expecting to travel today, you will experience some congestion.

on 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. well, an incident at bristol airport involving a plane has caused significant delays this afternoon. our reporter, pam caulfield, is there with the latest. now, what we know is that at 11:36am this morning a flight was coming in from frankfurt. as it came down on the runway it left the runway while taxiing. we don't know how that's been caused yet, but all the 25 passengers on board are safe. they were taken into the airport by coach. at the moment, that plane is being towed away from the runway, so that has been causing a lot of disruption. we know that 16 arrivals have been diverted, and there are five cancellations.

as for departures, there are five cancellations there as well, and there are eight flights' worth of passengers waiting around in the airport to find out what's happening. we've had some tweets coming in, nigel says there are scenes of utter chaos inside the airport at the moment. as you can imagine, it is one of the busiest travel days of the year with the run—up to christmas. 190,000 passengers are due to travel from here through the airport until the 1st of january. the advice is check before setting off, look at the airport website, and we'll bring you more when we know more. let's bring you the latest on what we we re let's bring you the latest on what we were telling you about in leeds where a man has been injured in an explosion. west yorkshire police say the blast happened just before 3pm

this afternoon. this is at a house on silk mill drive just north of the city centre in leeds. quite a lot of damage as you can see. david lipsky stay a few doors down and has been explaining what he saw. just this big bang. i thought the plane had come down. the next—door neighbour ran out and i ran out and she thought the same as me. we thought a plane had come down she was shaking. i was shaking when i saw that. the top flat. i thought, if anybody is in their... david hanley, who witnessed what happened. there was a man injured in an explosion at a house in leeds. more than that as we get it and i can tell you that in the united states, president trump has been signing

into law his overhaul of the us tax code. we can have a listen to what he said as he signed that into law. we will sign this right now, this is something i am very proud of, great for our country and the american people. thank you all. they are, donald trump signing that tax bill, he apparently said he was watching the morning dew this morning and they were saying, will he keep his promise and sign this by christmas? he called down to his advisers and said, get it ready, we have to sign it. that is why it has been signed into law, the us tax bill. we have talked about the troubled situation around the country, let's see what the weather is doing. frantic friday continues. around the country, let's see what the weather is doing. frantic friday continues. sarah around the country, let's see what the weather is doing. frantic friday continues. sarah has around the country, let's see what the weather is doing. frantic friday continues. sarah has the around the country, let's see what the weather is doing. frantic friday continues. sarah has the details. the weather should not cause much

disruption, if you have plans to get away from christmas it is very quiet out there, mild and cloudy with hill fog to content with this evening. particularly over hills in the western half of the country, further eased some mist and fog so pretty murky, grey start to saturday morning. once the sun comes up we should start to see a few holes in the cloud, particularly across parts of eastern scotland, eastern england and northern ireland. more cloud and hill fog across the hills of wales and the north—west and temperatures around 10—12d. some rain across northern and western scotland on christmas initially and that sinks scythed through the day, could be heavy for west of scotland, perhaps bringing localised flooding through christmas eve and christmas day but further south, mild and cloudy and christmas day, the wind picks up across england and wales with the odd shower. the rain moves through southern scotland, northern england and west wales and we start to see

something cold from the north, the odd flake of snow across the odd scottish mountain. this is bbc news — our latest 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, as long as they stay within the law. his comments come after separatist parties won a majority in the region's elections. let's get the latest sport news... thank you. a big game tonight in

football, the last to arsenal and liverpool met on a friday night was in 1989 liverpool met on a friday night was in1989 and liverpool met on a friday night was in 1989 and was the final of the season in 1989 and was the final of the season and the gunnersjuan mata claim the league title in dramatic circumstances. with both clubs languishing behind manchester city, jurgen klopp's liverpool don't want to head home for christmas with a defeat tonight. we have to be ready for a different challenge on friday, it is arsenal and they have quite a talented group. and they can create chances as well. and we need to be spot on football the players need to be spot—on in this specific part of the game. rangers have appointed graeme murty as manager until the end of the season. he's been in temporary charge since the sacking of pedro caixinha and had been given thejob until the end of the year at least after the club failed in their attempts to talk

to aberdeen boss derek mcinnes about taking over. rangers are currently third in the scottish premiership. the ashes might be lost but england still have selection issues to consider with the fourth test starting on boxing day. with craig overton expected to miss the game, they're likely to decide between two potential debutants for the mcg. if they pick mason crane, the 20—year—old would become the youngest specialist spinner to make his debut for england since 1927. and he'd be playing at the home of the greatest leg spinner in history, shane warne. we have had a couple of chats in the morning, we will catch up more as the tour goes on. he is the best ever and i want to pick his brains. what did he say? nothing yet about bowling just yet. we will wait until he can see me up close and personal. hopefully i will get a game in the next couple of games and he can then let me know. australia hope tim payne can play at

the mcg despite delaying his rival in melbourne due to family reasons. the australians have not called up any replacement but they are yet to need cover for mitchell starc, the leading wicket taker in the ashes as a heel injury and could miss the next test. the home side are 3—0 up in the series with two matches to play. and batsmen peter handscomb, who played withjoe root at yorkshire last summer, has some sympathy. i feel forjoe. on yorkshire last summer, has some sympathy. ifeelforjoe. on the flip side, we want to win this ashes 5-0 flip side, we want to win this ashes 5—0 and we have said that from the start. we are going on the right track but obviously it is tough for joe, his second or third series as captain of his country and i dare say he will be feeling the pressure at the moment but marty is a smart cricketer with a good hit on his shoulders. meanwhile, rohit sharma has equalled the fastest century in t20 international history this afternoon in india's match against sri lanka. he reached three figures in just 35 balls — the same as south africa's david miller.

rohit was eventually out for 118 — a record high score for india. finally, cricket has only been included at the commonwealth games once — that was back in 1998, with south africa beating australia in the final. but now, with birmingham being awarded the event for 2022, there's a chance it could return. but it's not clear whether the competition would be men's, women's or mixed. it needs to work for everyone. and we just need to see what that looks like. but i think it would be a disservice to speculate on exactly what that is going to look like. what is important is that cricket does have a place in the commonwealth games, it is one of the optional sports in our constitution so it already has its mark, it is just how we make that happen. that's all the sport for now. now on afternoon live,

let's go nationwide and see what's happening around the country in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. peter levy is in hull and can tell me about the teams of brussel sprout pickers and packers behind our christmas dinners. they are my favourite christmas food! and in a moment i'll be talking to charlie rose in tunbridge wells to find out about seven—year—old lilly osborne, who has collected almost 850 presents to give to other children who, as she puts it, won't be with their mummies and daddies this christmas. but first to peter in hull. this is a hugely busy time for the sprite farmers? indeed. congratulations on getting the big story of the day. for the past seven

days, sprite farmers have been working 24 hours a day to get our sprites on the table. they cannot do this too early, they have to leave this too early, they have to leave this too early, they have to leave this to the last minutes of the sprouts are very fresh for supermarket standards. they are part of the brassica industry, worth £500 million and these pictures were filmed at a farm. they are cutting 150 tonnes of sprouts every day, that equals 70 million sprouts and that equals 70 million sprouts and thatis that equals 70 million sprouts and that is just from one farm and there are many more farms. as you can see, for a lincolnshire, it is very big business. and your favourite? i don't understand why people don't eat them all year round. out of all the sprouts groan, one third are ageing over the christmas period. 0k. huge sadistic. ageing over the christmas period. ok. huge sadistic. notjust sprouts are farmed in lincolnshire? very big

free cabbages. apparently carriages is our nutritional marvel and there are fields and fields of them grown in boston in south lincolnshire and also cheese. this is cheese being made today in lincolnshire, with locally grazed cars' milk. it won't be ready and sold until next christmas. work done today but not ready until next christmas. and finally, one farmer to today says, who knows how we will manage after brexit because we use migrant labour and they are worried how we will harvest those enormous crops with no staff? who could have put brexit could even get into a christmas feature about sprouts. great to talk to you. thank you very much. charlie isn't tunbridge wells. this little girl, lilly. she sounds like a very special young lady. girl, lilly. she sounds like a very specialyoung lady. good afternoon.

lilly's mother has had a series of problems which means home life is not suitable for her any more so she is living with auntie in kent but last year, lilly had a very tough christmas, there wasn't much money at andy had to buy her a new bed and clothes so this year, lilly was wrapping up christmas presents and when she was doing so she the idea of getting gifts for other children who, like, won't be with their birth pa rents who, like, won't be with their birth parents at christmas. her auntie got involved, she wrote a post on her facebook page asking for people to contribute. she had an enormous response and before she neared, hundreds of were offering presents to what lilly and her auntie were up to what lilly and her auntie were up to and the project snowballed and throughout the local community in sevenoaks, throughout the local community in sevenoa ks, many people throughout the local community in sevenoaks, many people were chipping m, sevenoaks, many people were chipping in, including many organisations and also the local funeral company got involved. the upshot is 840 presents

for children who are in care and they have been distributed to children throughout the local community here in kent and throughout the region. community here in kent and throughout the regionlj community here in kent and throughout the region. i gather she has plans for next christmas also? she has. lilly and andy have ramped up she has. lilly and andy have ramped up all sorts of gifts, dvds, vintage toys, games and all sorts of presents and they had divided them up, which ones would be suitable for boys and labelled the ones for girls for the ones suitable for girls and for the ones suitable for girls and for next year they wanted to do an even bigger collection, with even more people involved. to bring smiles to even more children's faces for christmas 2018. we will bring you that full story over on bbc one at 6:30pm on south today. charlie rose. thank you very much. and thanks to peter in hull and a very happy christmas to both of you. if you would like to see more on any

of those stories, you can access them on the bbc iplayer and a reminder that we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at 4:30pm here on afternoon live... a leading cyber—security expert says parents must become much more tech savvy to stop hackers turning toys against their children. professor bill buchanan of edinburgh napier university studies threat analysis, cryptography and digital forensics. he says parents need to understand the risks. kenneth macdonald has been telling me more. it is christmas, but this is all year round so many digital toys flying off the shelves at the moment. it is worth thinking about and not just perhaps santa's advisers who are telling him what to purchase but also there might be unexpected

connected toys coming into the house as a result of doting relatives. with any kind of connected device, notjust a toy, people are going to try to crack it and they will try to get in there in some way, the moment it goes on the web. if you are lucky these are people wearing white hats, these hackers will try to find an exploit and warn people about it, if it is a black hat hacker, they might try to do something dodgy and they might also put that on the internet for everybody else. there are issues surrounding that but let me show you something i have prepared earlier. isn't this cute? grown—ups can connect the toy to an app, tickle it and record a message for the youngster to pick up. hello! nice to hear from you, hope to hear from you soon. it has received the message. we then use this in here

to play back the message. hello, nice to hearfrom you... what could possibly go wrong? somebody else can hack into the toy to leave a kind of message junior might not like. exterminate! annihilate, destroy! professor buchanan is an expert in cyber—security but warns this is a game anybody can play. there are very few things that can hide from the internet, once something has been broken the whole world can know better. the company that makes the teddy bear says they are already improving their toys against vulnerabilities but elsewhere the growing number of connected toys means the number of hacks is growing. this has become a poster girl for the vulnerabilities of connected toys. she has been banned in germany as a security risk. the professor says it means santa and those advising him need to be more tech savvy. if the toy is going to connect to the internet and be available, they need to understand the risks involved in that.

toys are just one aspect of the internet of things to which increasing numbers of household objects are connected. inexpensive security cameras can be hijacked to keep an eye on their owners and you could be looking at a spy in your front room right now. the television is smart, your tv connects to the internet and can listen to you and make sense of what you are saying. santa could be bringing wi—fi kettles but some of them have security holes. the default passport is 000 and along with this, this particular kettle gives away your wi—fi password. the manufacturer says this is an old version and it has been updated to remove the issue and those currently available are safe. kenneth, still with us, where does the responsibility lie when it comes to privacy?

with the consumers or manufacturers? both. this is sociological as well as technological as an issue, manufacturers fighting the onward rush of people trying to hack equipment using sophisticated ways. it is also about us taking for granted this digital technology. and not checking for things like, what is the default password on this? does it have a lock—out? the default password on that security camera was 123456, which you could have guessed or maybe have got by using a programme that downloads from the web and does a brute force attack to fight its way in. there are these issues to be considered all the time and because people will always try to exploit this and try to fight back, connected toys and items like kettles, it is what they call the internet of things, growing all the time, a new frontier.

as with any frontier land, you find that those in the black hats have their fun before the law turns later on. kenneth macdonald, there. in a moment, a look at how the financial markets in europe closed the day, but first, the headlines on bbc news... borisjohnson says he hopes relations between britain and russia will improve as he meets the russian foreign minister in moscow. theresa may denies she knew about allegations of inappropriate behaviour against damian green before promoting him, saying she first learnt about them in a newspaper. spain's prime minister says he's willing to talk to whoever takes control of the catalan regional government as long as they stay within the law. let's talk about the markets. the

final day of trading on the ftse before christmas, london's top—flight index retreated from yesterday's record highs, despite consumer and retail stocks in trying a festive boost. let's look back at what has moved the markets this year and ahead to what expect in 2018. joining us is lawrence gosling, the editor in chief at investment week. thank you for being with us. how do you sum up this year? are really surprising one, people came into 2017 very nervous about the backdrop, particularly brexit and the effect it will have on the stirling. they missed the fact in the uk at a weak sterling was good for exports so as we have gone through the year the economic data has been more favourable for the uk. actually, the uk market has reacted accordingly. we have seen another

sa nta cla us accordingly. we have seen another santa claus rally in the last four weeks with the stock market getting to new heights. i have never heard that before. sounds good! you mentioned brexit, what about the other geopolitical influences that have moved the market? if you look backin have moved the market? if you look back in europe, we had lots of elections in france, germany, austria and the netherlands and there was a feeling that one of these would have a significant impact on the stock markets and in many ways most of the results went the way that people had predicted and hoped for so the markets largely rode through that and got back to concentrating on fundamentals, what will companies do in terms of profits and laws and the underlying economies. against that we had the us and although mr trump has not achieved very much until the last couple of days with his tax reforms, we have had a strong us economy and that has filtered across the atlantic. 2018 is around the corner. what are we expecting and what are you expecting on the markets next

year? it will be much the same. if you look to the first quarter we have a possible election in italy which some people are worried about. that might have an effect. the weak sterling is going to be very good for parts of the uk economy, 7% of the ftse 100 for parts of the uk economy, 7% of the ftse100 companies earn revenue from overseas so the ftse100 companies earn revenue from overseas so the weaker currency helps. clearly we have issues like north korea which will never quite go away so there is this mix of mostly of what we heard this year and also not as important and is lied in 2017. thank you for your thoughts. lawrence gosling, 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. earlier i spoke to the journalist and editor of standpoint magazine,

danieljohnson, and ash sarkar, senior editor at novara media, to hear their views on the announcement. it will be a modern, high—tech passport with biometrics and all that stuff. we have not yet been told what the wording will be, whether it will still be her britannic majesty and all that, i imagine it will say citizens rather than subject these days. to see this as going back is perhaps not quite the right way to do it, this is not about nostalgia, this is about britain being proudly independent, reasserting its sovereignty, its independence and values. i think that cannot be bad. how on earth could we continue to have the old burgundy passport when we are no longer part of the eu? ash, we have heard from nigel farage saying a return to british

passports means we are becoming a proper country again, getting our individuality and national identity back? in a literal sense, passports are all about national identity but this idea that britain was not a sovereign country with the burgundy passport is nonsense. the eu has never had the power to impose passport designs and britain voluntarily changed its design to what is a fetching burgundy back in the 80s under thatcher and many other eu nations have kept individual designs, including some quite nice shades of blue, a nice black number that i'm quite keen on and i find this shade of blue quite tacky. after brexit, would you be happy to keep the current burgundy passport but without the words eu on it? i am aggressively indifferent.

the reason is i think this is quite a cheap and hollow victory and the reason why nigel farage has hailed this as the first major win for leave voters is actually because brexit negotiations have not been covering this nation's political classes in glory and a recent report by the financial times showed that output is 0.9% lower than it would have been had we voted to stay in the eu, costing roughly £350 million each week and i thought this was supposed to be going towards the nhs. to discuss nigel farage further, is he overstating this when he says this return to the blue british passport is getting our country back again and getting our individuality and national identity back? is that an overstatement? of course! but passports do matter in the same way that other symbols of national identity matter, such as currency, the pound

sterling, or the flag, the unionjack, these things matter to people and everyone has a passport, practically. so we do mind what it says on it and what colour it is and that sort of thing. more interesting than just discussing whether or not we like the shade of blue is thinking, what is this about? what does it mean? and will britain step up to the plate and show that it still has something unique to offer the world? debating the merits and otherwise of the new british passport as they see it, which is coming in after we leave the eu. that is about it from me, let's check out the latest weather forecast with sarah keith—lucas... weather forecast with sarah keith-lucas. .. were passed the winter solstice so we have three

seconds more daylight today compared to yesterday, not much sunshine but a few glimpses of blue skies. this was the sunsetting in topsham ca ptu red was the sunsetting in topsham captured by one of our weather watchers. as we head through the next couple of days, no great changes. the outlook towards christmas is for things to stay mild, cloudy and pretty breezy, some rain on the way across northern parts of the country, particularly through christmas eve and christmas day, courtesy of this weather front. for the meantime, high—pressure dominates from any parts so cloudy and mild through this evening and tonight, lots of low cloud and hill fog for northern and western parts of the country, slightly clearer skies further east but even here you are likely to have mist and fog patches. a murky start to saturday and pretty mild, certainly frost free and overnight temperatures are not dissimilar to the daytime highs. saturday similar to today, largely cloudy, some mist and hill fog, especially for the west and more of

a breeze developing through the day so that should help break up that cloud, allowing sunshine from any central and eastern parts, northern ireland having a brighter day but some rain arriving across the northern half of scotland, quite persistent over the next few days for parts of western scotland. temperatures around 10—12, still mild. saturday night and that rain in the north and west sinks further south across northern ireland and southern scotland and to the side of that most places stay dry, cloudy and breezy so another mild night to come as we head into christmas eve. christmas eve is dominated by this weather front across scotland and later into northern ireland so quite windy, gales in the far north as well as persistent rain and the potential for localised flooding across parts of western scotland. further south, you are likely to stay dry with a few drizzly showers towards the west, some brighter spells in the east and top temperatures around ten or 11

degrees on christmas eve. christmas day, still the weather front, clearing out of northern ireland, through southern scotland, into northern england and pushing into west wales. windy to the south and east of that across england and wales, mild at ten or 11 degrees, colder air moving in from the north suffer most of us it will not be a white christmas but who could be a fla ke white christmas but who could be a flake of snow over the mountains of scotland. today at five — britain and russia acknowledge relations between the two countries are at their worst for many years. boris johnson, meeting his counterpart in moscow,

says both sides want them to improve. there is no point sitting on the sidelines and complaining about each other. we have to engage, we have to talk to each other. after catalan separatist parties win a majority in the snap elections — spain's prime minister says he will talk to whoever takes over the the regional government. the woman stabbed to death in a supermarket in skipton is named locally asjodie willsher — a 44—year—old man is being questioned on suspicion of murder. 30 years of burgundy passports are coming to an end — the government confirms british passports will revert to blue