this is bbc news. i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 6.00. the queen has used her christmas message to pay tribute to survivors of the manchester terrorist attack. she recalled meeting some of them in hospital. i describe that hospital visit as a privilege, because the patients i met were an example to us all, showing extraordinary bravery and resilience. meghan markle has made her first public appearance with the royal family in sandringham for a christmas service. in his christmas blessing pope francis calls for a negotiated solution to end the conflict between israel and the palestinians. translation: on this festive day, let us ask the lord for peace for jerusalem and for all the holy land. euston station is open as a shelter today — to serve christmas dinner to hundreds of homeless people in the capital. also: christmas away from home for british armed forces personnel, including those in afghanistan and iraq.

the bbc is at one military base in iraq, as soldiers reflect on christmas away from their loved ones. what do i miss most? a good christmas dinner i think will be the one. you know, mum's cooking. and in half a hour, brexitcast. our correspondents reflect on the behind—the—scenes twists and turns of the negotiations between the eu and the uk. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the queen has paid tribute to manchester and london in her christmas day broadcast, for the way the cities have dealt with terror attacks this year. looking back at 2017, she said their "powerful identities shone through adversity." earlier, she attended

the traditional christmas day service at sandringham, along with other members of the royal family, including prince harry and his fiancee meghan markle. here's our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. it's a day for family, with its own established pattern. for the royal family, that being a visit to church, led by the queen. very much at home already, the royal family's soon—to—be newest member, meghan markle. alert to everything that was going on and waiting for her cue in terms of royal protocol. a neat curtsy as the queen left by car. then walking across to speak to members of the crowd who had been hoping to meet her, before lunch, and then the queen's christmas broadcast. # god save the queen! the central message of this year's broadcast was one of solidarity with two british cities.

this christmas, i think of london and manchester, whose powerful identities shone through over the past 12 months in the face of appalling attacks. the queen said it had been a privilege to witness the extraordinary bravery of young people injured in the manchester attack. very wicked. to target that sort of thing. yes. she spoke about what she called the "sheer awfulness" of the grenfell tower fire. our thoughts and prayers are with all those who died, and those who lost so much. and we are indebted to members of the emergency services, who risked their own lives this past year saving others. television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on christmas day. and there were personal touches. the queen recalled that it's 60 years since she delivered the first live christmas day tv broadcast.

and that is how i imagine you now. six decades on, the presenter has evolved somewhat. and it's 70 years since she and the duke of edinburgh were married. he retired from solo duties this year. but... i know his support and unique sense of humour will remain as strong as ever as we enjoy spending time this christmas with our family, and look forward to welcoming new members into it next year. a christmas message which acknowledges the passage of time, but which reminds us that, more than six decades now after she came to the throne, the queen remains strongly committed to her role as head of state. nicholas witchell, bbc news, buckingham palace. the archbishop of canterbury has used his christmas day sermon to reflect on what he described as "tyrannical leaders around the world." wustin welby said 2017 had seen populist leaders,

deceiving their people. it comes as christmas celebrations in bethlehem have been quiet, after the violence which followed president trump's decision, to recognise jerusalem, as the capital of israel. in rome, pope francis called for an end to the suffering of children, and for peace in the middle east — as the bbc‘s religion editor martin bashir reports. bright sunshine lit up the basilica in st peter's square. but pope francis chose to focus his christmas day message on how conflict and oppression are casting a dark shadow over the world. he said that christmas makes us focus on the christ child, and thereby pay attention to the sufferings of children, particularly in the holy land. "we seejesus in the children of the middle east", he said, "who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between israelis and palestinians". "on this festive day, let us ask the lord for peace forjerusalem". the anglican archbishop

in jerusalem, the most reverend suhail dawani, said that christ himself wept over the city 2,000 years ago, and, with donald trump's decision to officially recognisejerusalem as the capital of israel, that grief continues. when he wept at that time, he wept for the absence of peace and love in the life of people who live here. i'm afraid that our lord jesus is really still weeping for this city. at the nativity scene in bethlehem, a substantial drop in tourists at canterbury cathedral, the archbishop said phil christ was born without any political average, he provides more freedom to individuals and the world's most powerful

leaders, but midway through preaching, his own powers of speech began to fail. unlike the budget, it's not gin! in rome, canterbury and here in jerusalem, it's not gin! in rome, canterbury and here injerusalem, christian leaders have taken the opportunity of this day to challenge the wisdom of this day to challenge the wisdom of the world, that they say puts power before people and has failed to protect the most vulnerable members of society, our children. almost 200,000 people are currently serving as part of the uk armed forces. for many on foreign deployments, it means christmas away from loved ones. yesterday, bbc news visited one military base in iraq as troops prepared to spend today farfrom home. dan johnson reports. i'm not going to pretend that it's not difficult to be in iraq over christmas. of all the families apart this christmas, these are amongst the furthest away for the longest amount of time. this is my first christmas away from home in the army, and to be honest, i'm

here with the lads, i'm here with my guys, here with my friends. so, yeah, it's not with the family, but it's quite good. as you can see, it's a good atmosphere. so, yeah, it's good fun. after 21 years' service, you get used to being away from home. it gets harder when you've got a wife and child at home. obviously you won't get to see your daughter open her presents on christmas day. some improvisation helps give a feel of christmas in the desert. but, of course, not everything can be replicated. they've done quite well, doing it with old tyres etc. what do i miss most? a good christmas dinner i think will be the one. you know, mum's cooking. it's a reminder that british troops are still serving in iraq, rebuilding the country, and others around the world. work that doesn't stop for christmas. dan johnson, bbc news. london's euston station has been turned into a shelter for the homeless, as rail workers

and charity staff served around 200 rough sleepers a full christmas lunch today. volunteers worked overnight, after the last train left on christmas eve, transforming the concourse with decorations, and laying out tables. caroline davies reports. festive preparation under the departures board, as network rail volunteers prepare for their homeless guests. they're part of our community, they're here every day and i think some places would maybe just shun them away, but for us, they are an important part of the community. they're here, we have to engage, we have to look after them and make sure that they're safe. local charities invited 200 guests to enjoy some festive music and a four—course meal. a meal which was only possible thanks to the donations from 45 different businesses and groups. jed has been squatting

since he was 18. it's unique. they've got this space on christmas day, quite interesting to see somewhere like this on christmas day, see it put to some good use. jesse now squats, too, but spent many years living in a tent moving around the uk. it's nice. it's a nice relaxing environment. it takes the usual chaos out of our lives, you know? as well as leaving well fed, guests were also given sleeping bags and thermal clothes to help them endure the winter cold. for these guests, for now, some christmas cheer on the concourse. christmas is meant to be a time of giving for all — but one family from west yorkshire has gone further than most with their seasonal goodwill. the clarkes from halifax collected clothes, sleeping bags and food, and drove to calais. they've been giving them to some of the thousands of refugees and migrants still in the area, despite the closure of the so—called jungle camp. here's their story,

in their own words. i'm katie clarke from halifax, west yorkshire. good morning! we have had people leaving donations. thanks very much, that's great, and they are clearly marked. so we've filled our van up with mats, sleeping bags, blankets, hats, socks, gloves. bye, everyone. my name's andy clarke. there are some people who say that they should stay where they are and try to manage it within their countries. i mean, my own personal view is that you don't move away from your family of origin, your friends of origin, your culture, your religion, from your home, everything, and put yourself into the most precarious positions, if there is not an extremely good, valid reason for doing that. nice to meet you.

a lot of the individuals that we speak to are professional people. unfortunately, they have felt that their lives are in danger and that's why they've had to move. i'm nikki. i think they are probablyjust trying to keep themselves busy, aren't they, playing football. we met some guys who really kindly took us to show where they had been living. so we followed them down this little path that started to get muddier and muddier. it looks like chaos, doesn't it? it's just really, really shocking, and it's really sad that anybody has to live like that. we can't go back. in my country, there is a very dangerous guy. that is why we live here. here is safe. i know it is not a good life, but we are safe. seeing the living conditions and the desperation, yeah, things were shocking, but it was also really quite, quite nice to have that opportunity to talk to them. ten people have been killed

in a suicide bomb attack close to afg hanistan‘s national intelligence agency in the capital, kabul. the bomber targeted people as they arrived for work. the so—called islamic state group said it carried out the attack. anbarasan ethi—rajan reports. the mangled remains of the car hit by the suicide bombing. most of the passengers of the car died in the impact of the explosion. the bomber was on foot, and detonated before the security guards could stop him. two guards were among the dead. several people were injured. translation: i heard a big boom, and realised it was an explosion. i was so scared. and then the security forces arrived. translation: the sound was so loud, it was dusty, and people were fleeing from every corner. security forces came quite soon. and, fearing the possibility of a second explosion,

they stopped people getting close to the area. the islamic state group said it carried out the attack. it comes a week after militants stormed a building near the same intelligence agency. in may, a truck bomb killed at least 150 people in the heavily protected diplomatic district. the repeated attacks raised questions over the ability of the security forces to prevent such incidents. as a bitter power struggle continues between the afghan presidency and local leaders, some are worried that the political crisis is distracting the government's efforts in tackling the growing islamist insurgency. a bus has ploughed into an underpass near a moscow train station killing at least four people and injuring a number of others. the bus swerved off one of the russian capital's busiest roads, close to the slavyansky boulevard metro

station this morning. the driver has been arrested by police. the russian opposition leader alexei navalny, who's an outspoken critic of vladamir putin, has been formally barred from competing in next year's presidential election. the central electoral commission says he's ineligible, because of a disputed corruption conviction, which he says is politically motivated. he's urged his supporters to boycott the vote, in march. translation: it would exclude millions from the political system itself, because it won't allow them to take part in the election in any way, and this is what your decision is about. the headlines on bbc news: the queen has paid tribute to how the people of manchester and london dealt with this year's terror attacks in her christmas day broadcast. meghan markle has made her first public appearance with the royal family, as she attended the traditional christmas day service at the church on the queen's sandringham estate in norfolk.

in his christmas blessing pope francis calls for a negotiated solution to end the conflict between israel and the palestinians. you've heard of recycyling — but these days the new buzzword is upcycling — transforming rubbish into objects of desire. a non—profit workshop in austria — supported by the city government — is working with the long—term unemployed — to make furniture, ornaments and jewellery out of old household appliances. bethany bell reports from vienna. it's beautiful, but it is actually all made from rubbish. the process starts here at this workshop. workers remove hazardous substances from old computers and appliances. the leftovers are sent either for recycling, or upstairs, to the trash design team. what we do is that we collect specific kinds of garbage — that means electric

and electronic equipment. we make, design objects and jewellery, and we offer the old garbage an opportunity to get reused, or to get upcycled. they turn vinyl records into clocks, and dead keyboards into rings. the glass from washing machine doors become sandblasted bowls, complete with patterns. and it's notjust about transforming trash. lives are changed here, too. many of the people who work here are the long—term unemployed. susann says she has been given a new chance. translation: it is cool. i find it really super. you make something new out of old stuff, but it hurts me when i have to cut up these old records. i had an old abba album and i thought "no!", and then it became a notebook.

but that's the way it goes. some of vienna's famous christmas markets are also getting in on the act. trash design is on offer, alongside the gingerbread and mulled wine. the workshop has its own stalls, where products are on sale, often for pretty prices. these items have come a long way from the city's rubbish dumps to the magnificent surroundings of one of austria's old royal palaces, and when it comes to christmas presents this year, the designers are hoping that it will be upcycling all the way. bethany bell, bbc news, vienna. disappointed that your dreams of a white christmas didn't come true? well, a group of five british women have got more than their fair share of snow. they're on a historical journey of a lifetime, using ski power alone to cross the antartic unaided. earlier today my colleague christian fraser spoke to expedition leader major natalie taylor who told us more about theirjourney.

oh, well, we have 2a hours of daylight currently in antarctica. there are six women from the british army. at the moment we've done eight hours of skiing today. it was —20 when we started, and it's about —25 with wind chill. but we've been really blessed with beautiful sunshine, if not a little cold and draughty when we're skiing. we're currently in the tents now, melting snow, having our christmas dinner, which for me is mashed potato and chicken which has been dehydrated and rehydrated with water. oh, that sounds very appetising! tell us what's gone right and what's gone wrong so far on the expedition. oh, well, day two of the expedition, we were going up a glacier across to the south pole, then crossing the antarctic landmass. on day two there were 60 knot winds. so we had to stop skiing quite

quickly and put the tents up, which required all six of us to put one tent up. normally two of us can do it, but with the wind we had to work together to get the tent up. also, one of our team—mates, sandy, got a bit ill and we had to work as a team to help distribute the weight and get her through nine days of not feeling great. what's gone well is the team have worked really well together and got to the south pole, and we've been really blessed with amazing weather at the south pole. we've had good visibility, if not a bit cold, so we can navigate easily. we should make the point that women are underrepresented on expeditions like this. so you're making a point, but you're also hoping to provide some scientific data. explain that to us. yes, that's one of the really exciting part of the expedition that sometimes doesn't get spoken about. we're going to hopefully do the largest body of evidence collected of women and men across the antarctic. the previous expedition, last year, from the men collected some data. we're looking at how our body uses energy and if it gets

metabolised in a different way after we've spent such a long time crossing antarctica. we're also looking at our hormones and see if there is a change in our fertility and things when we are out on the ice for so long. just to see how that affects women in general. and to see if that can change things. we're also wearing a sports bra with a special device in to measure our heart rate and breathing rate, so we'll have a whole load of data to look at, to see what happens to women when they push themselves to these kind of extreme limits. you've already mentioned how you're working as a team. how do you plan out your day? it's one of the harshest environments you're working in. how do you decide what you will do on the route for a particular day, and how do you rest enough? yes, it's really quite a simple life we have. we're on tokyo time now, so we can have the sun behind us, so we can navigate by shadow as well as the compass. we get up at 6:30am,

and whoever is on cooking duty gets up and puts the stove on, and that takes effort because it's so cold you have to wear gloves. we start skiing at 8am. 0ur tents go down, we pack our sledges up and we ski on a set bearing, set direction for the next few hundred kilometres, and then when we get to a certain latitude and longitude, we change our bearing to miss crevasses. every day is the same. we ski for nine hours, and we finish skiing about 6pm, then it takes about 2.5 hours for our evening routine. if we're lucky, we can be in bed for 9:30pm so we can get nine hours of sleep before we start all over again the next day. in other words, it's all very

exhausting! it might be deepest winter at home, but england's cricketers will step out into the summer sunshine in australia later today for the first session of the next ashes test. they have already lost the series but organisers expect a sell out the ashes gone, and still they come. there's a reason england's fans are called the barmy army. when they're not watching cricket, they're playing it. and they've called up mr root to their team. not the england captain, but his brother, billy — a professional himself, who has had to watchjoe lose the urn with everyone else. i think he will always enjoy the challenge of it. i think there will be times where he is frustrated. but i think it is the sort of thing he will enjoy taking on, a tough challenge like this. challenge is an understatement. comment and criticism comes with cricket in australia. in the past week, root‘s had to watch the ashes go, and had to listen to his captaincy be described as "soft and childlike" by former australian skipper ricky ponting. he doesn't spend any time in our dressing room. he doesn't spend much time around the squad, so. i don't think i go about things

as a little boy, for sure. i have my own way of doing things. i think it is important that you don't try and be something that you're not. now he takes his team into a test like no other. boxing day in melbourne is a national occasion, notjust a sporting one. australian values of history, tradition and competition mean there will be no going easy on england. this is the notorious bay 13 of the mcg. home to the most raucous supporters in cricket. and they will be reminding which ever poor english fielder who has the misfortune of being posted near to them exactly what the score is in this series, and how bad it could yet get for them. words can't hurt england, but runs do. steve smith provides them, and the aussie captain will play, despite injuring his hand in training. ashes series can numb as well as inflict pain. it's been a good summer so far. 0bviously, won back the urn, which was the objective at the start of the series, and we've now got an opportunity to keep winning. that's been my message to the boys.

don't worry about 5—0 at this stage, you've got to win this one first. even on christmas morning, even with the series decided, they come to watch practise in melbourne. more than 90,000 will be here on boxing day to pick over the ashes leftovers. patrick gearey, bbc news, in melbourne. it's the strictly come dancing christmas special tonight — joe mcfadden might have been crowned this year champion, but today it's the turn of former contestants to waltz their way onto the dance floor. tim muffett caught up with the dancers and celebrities in rehearsals. well, they have me doing a viennese waltz with brendan, which is lovely. it's just nice she's finally got a decent partner to dance with, instead of that anton fella. it didn't take long. about 45 seconds. merry christmas, anton! a bit of a royal theme this year, isn't it? you have been to buckingham palace, met the duchess of cornwall. you had a cheeky cha—cha with her. i got a little cheeky cha—cha, i'm not going to lie. i enjoyed it, i think she did too. she is a very close friend of craig, apparently.

is she? so he says. so he does have a friend! everyone says strictly changes your life, have you been dancing ever since? this is my normal now, that's what changed. music starts up. cue dramatic music! this is now my life. we're just watching it back now, to see if there is any tiny improvements that we could make. compared to brian connolly, how does colin rate? they are two completely styles of dancers. so that would be really unfair of me to compare. i love you, brian, i love you, colin. is this your own special routine you're working out here, what is this bit? this is a bit of a group dance, we are doing a jive. well, it's a jive for colin, to me it'sjust running round. people say strictly changes your life, it makes people dance all the time. did it have that effect? absolutely. before i used to just listen to music. now it's like, oh,

you do a foxtrot to this, oh, you do a quickstep to this, oh, this is a jive. does that make you dull at dinner parties? no, i kind of keep it in! what was it like being back on this dance floor? right now, it feels 0k. when i hear the, "kimberley dancing thejive", i'm going to be like... what are the unusual requests you get for the christmas special? we have had practice reindeer ears — they're the same as normal reindeer ears. this is pasha's shiny reindeer tummy. i am seeing a mustard yellow velour thing here, what is it? gold! sorry, sorry. jeremy vine's golden shoes. they are. they are huge. they are a 12. it has a special coating on it. the jeremy vine coating. wipe down, after your christmas dinner. that's good. i've got to do that in my dance. i have to descend from the ceiling on some sort of star, because when i did strictly, i was never allowed to fly. massive shoes. they made gold shoes, and there may be nobody else who can wear size 12 gold shoes —

apart from audley harrison. music starts up. the audley harrison music! yes. that's right, i forgot. you must never say the words "audley harrison". # i wish it could be christmas every day... you know the words! you're on in a minute! how different is the atmosphere on a christmas special, compared to the highly competitive live shows every saturday? does it feel different? we get a christmas lunch, then there's a cheese and biscuit party. we never have cheese and biscuit parties. cheese isn't good for the voice, though, is it? dairy products? no. are you competitive with each other? not really. dave arch over here, are they competitive with each other? laughter. cheering and applause. you can watch the strictly come dancing christmas special

in the next few minutes, at 6:30pm on bbc one. we don't want you to turn over, obviously! we'd much rather you watched the weather forecast. well, as forecast, not a flake of snow in sight across the uk. however, it will be turning tonight and later on tonight across the southern uplands of scotland, maybe the highlands, there could be a little bit of snow, maybe two to five centimetres in one or two areas, possibly even the welsh hills, but this will be really right up there in the hills. for most of us, a chilly night on the way. there will be some showers around, maybe even some very windy weather for a time across the south and the south—west and, by the end of the night, temperatures there two or three degrees above freezing, so watch out for icy patches first thing on boxing day. boxing day itself, a lot of sunshine around for much of the country, but quickly through the morning the weather will go downhill across the south—west. the winds will strengthen. out in the hills in wales, there might be a bit of snow, too. the best of the weather

throughout boxing day will be across northern and eastern areas, then watch what happens during boxing day evening, and it looks as though we could have some snow across the welsh hills and maybe the pennines as well, and wet elsewhere. this is bbc news. our latest headlines: the queen has paid tribute to how the people of manchester and london dealt with this year's terror attacks. in her christmas day broadcast, she mentioned meeting the manchester attack survivors in hospital. i describe that hospital visit as a privilege, because the patients i met were an example to us all, showing extraordinary bravery and resilience. meghan markle has made her first public appearance