this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 7.00: 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. and coming up in half an hour, join us for weather world. we're with the people who can make snow — but not as you know, because none of this is real. plus a look back at the year's biggest weather stories and storms. 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 means 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 too 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." justin 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 canterbury cathedral, the archbishop said phil christ at canterbury cathedral, the archbishop said though christ was born without any political leverage, he provides more freedom to individuals than 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, christian leaders have taken the opportunity 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. so 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. 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 police watchdog is investigating after a man died when the car in which he was a passenger crashed, as it was being pursued by officers. the collision happened early this morning in liverpool. a man was arrested at the scene. forces must refer cases that involve a death after police contact to the watchdog. 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 ethirajan 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 then realised it was an explosion. i was so scared. and then the security forces arrived. translation: the sound was so loud, then 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 41—year—old man who was stabbed in a restaurant on teesside on christmas eve has died. mazhar ali, from stockton on tees, was stabbed inside manjaros restaurant in middlesbrough, yesterday afternoon. he was taken to the james cook hospital in midlesbrough, but died this morning. a 20—year—old man was arrested yesterday and remains in police custody. south yorkshire police have launched

an investigation following the death of a 30—year—old man in barnsley. emergency services were called to a property in the worsbrough area this morning. a 27—year—old woman who was also at the property has been arrested on suspicion of murder and currently remains in police custody. a forensic post—mortem is expected to be carried out this evening. 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. 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. music: deck the halls. 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. a man who was found unconscious in a ditch yesterday afternoon has been identified. the man, who is thought to be in his 20s, is in a serious condition in hospital. he was stumbled upon by a dog walker in merrow in surrey. police then issued pictures of his clothing in an attempt to identify him and a relative came forward. officers are still working to establish how he ended up in the ditch. 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. 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 at the melbourne cricket ground as they try to rescue some pride. patrick gearey reports. 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. the case of a british woman who appeared in court today accused of smuggling drugs into egypt

has been adjourned. laura plummer‘s sister says the hearing has been put back 2a hours after the defendant became visibly upset. the 33—year—old shop worker from hull was arrested in october when she was found with 290 tramadol tablets in her suitcase. the painkiller is legal in the uk, but not in egypt. 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, 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. heather menzies—urich, who played louisa von trapp in the sound of music, has died aged 68. she was diagnosed with brain cancerfour weeks ago

and died on christmas eve. born heather menzies in toronto, she was 15 when the musical film was released in 1965. it went on to win 10 0scars, including best picture. 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 bit 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 at about 6pm, then it takes about 2.5 hours for our evening routine. if we're lucky, we can be in bed by 9:30pm so we can get nine hours of sleep before we start all over again the next day. christmas is of course marked in many different ways around the world. funnily enough, many celebrations seem to involve water. take a look. it's a bit like english weather here at the moment, but we're just delighted to be here. lovely people, lovely atmosphere. i'm afraid we've got silly hats on, but that's part of the deal. merry christmas! well, obviously, tea is incredibly british. merry christmas and a happy new year.

cheering. my my favourite is the collapsing christmas tree! we're talking about water and the wet stuff. 0n the cards? a lot of wet stuff out there because it is raining heavily across parts of wales, south—west england, the midlands. gusty winds with that, as well. it is a mild merry christmas for most, but things are 110w christmas for most, but things are now changing across the uk. colder air moving in, scotland, northern ireland, some wet weather in scotland, colder air moving in but we are watching the chance for rain turning into snow before midnight to give technical white christmas for some of us. if you're still dreaming, hope isn't all lost but i

have to say there are difficult travelling conditions out there for some. let's look at how it is now. this band of rain with the heavy downpours pushing east through england and wales and gusty winds. that will clear through, but it's this area here that becomes slow moving into parts of southern scotland, the northern pennines. and north—east england. it is this where we will see an area of rain turning to sleet and snow in places, even to relatively low levels. be aware of that through the night. a few wintry showers running into northern scotland. colder, low single figures in sunspots. along with this wintry weather in scotland it will turn icy in places after the wet weather as we go into tomorrow morning. for many of us as boxing day starts, quite a bit of fine weather out there, but the wintry start, parts of southern scotland, north—east england. this becomes an area of rain petering out as it moves further south across northern

england through the day. northern scotla nd england through the day. northern scotland getting frequent wintry showers coming through. for many, sunny day although it is a cold day. it'll be fresh for a walk outside, but get it in early. south—west england, south wales. during the afternoon, another area of heavy rain moving in and brisk winds, as well. another spell of soaking weather, but mild with that. 10 degrees in plymouth late in the afternoon. this becomes very interesting tomorrow evening. why? because it will push northwards. as it does so, pushing into colder air. we could well see some sleet and snow developing through parts of wales, the midlands, the district, southern areas of northern england. still some uncertainty about the exact position of this weather system and who will see the wintry as to whether. it's likely to come with the heaviest downpours along with the heaviest downpours along with this system. as it pulls away eastwards through the night and into wednesday morning, could see a bit of snow into the cotswolds, maybe vigil turns, as well. this is a

system certainly wet watching. for the northern half of the uk, many having a dry night going into wednesday morning but it'll be cold, frosty, i seek in places, too. a lot going on in the weather over the next few days. there are met office weather warnings in force for rain, snow, ice. it has been quite quiet, quite mild, but things are changing. keep across the weather warnings and don't get caught out if you're travelling. 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,