so please welcome the 2018 helen rollason award winner, the extraordinary billy monger. congratulations, billy. yeah, thank you so much. you were so composed on the stage. did you have any clue about what you are going to say? i had an idea what i was going to say. unfortunately, i got cut off a little bit early. yeah, you got cut off. so, this is your moment, when they stopped you, what were you going to say about your mum and dad? i was going to say how strong they were for me at the right time. because my dad, he doesn't say it that often, but he blamed himself quite a bit for my accident, because he's the one that got me into racing. but no matter whether he wanted me to race or not, i was going to do it anyway. just basically thank him for being so influential in my life and getting me to where i am now. because without them, i'd be nothing. the 2018 sports personality of the year is geraint thomas! you know, it's been 22 years now i've been riding the bike.

12 years as a professional. my ninth tour de france. yeah, nothing went wrong. there was no bad luck. which is unusual for you. yeah, yeah. no punctures, crashes or anything. don't drop it. sports personality, everybody! see you! sally nugent with that report. time for a look at the weather. here's matt taylor. ata at a turbulent weather at the weekend, it has started very pleasant. already this morning, someone pleasant. already this morning, someone in northern ireland has spotted grey cloud. here is the satellite imagery, this strip of cloud linked to a potent a of low pressure to the west. all of that cloud also links into further areas of low pressure down across the atla ntic to of low pressure down across the atlantic to come in later this week. out there at the moment, enjoy the

sunshine. central and eastern areas, plenty to come. on the chilly side, temperature is in the single figures. double figures in the west. showers moving across western areas, particularly around irish sea coastal districts. around 11 celsius, the breezes picking up. it will pick up further into tonight. gail is developing quite widely into western areas. continuing to see one oi’ western areas. continuing to see one or two splashes of rain across the uk. the bulk of the more persistent rain spreading across ireland and the western isles of scotland, cornwall and far western areas of wales. an east— west split, gail strengthening. here is where we start tomorrow with lots of heavy rain. brightening up to sunshine and showers in northern ireland. brightening up in the afternoon, western pa rt of brightening up in the afternoon, western part of scotland, north—west england and western parts of wales. rain spreading eastwards across england, except east anglia and the south—east. touching 50 or 60 mph in

some western areas. that will temper the fuel so dutch temper the feel, everywhere seeing double figures to the afternoon. the south—east will see some of the wettest of the weather, that clears through. an area of low pressure to the west feeding in shower clouds through the night and into much of wednesday across southern and western parts. some of those heavy, with hail and thunder. some sunshine in between. the further north and east you are, you will avoid some of the showers. evenif you will avoid some of the showers. even if you see some coming your way, the bulk of the day will be dry, with some sunshine. a little bit cooler, temperatures in single figures away from the far south. a chilly night to take us into thursday. low pressure is still with us. thursday. low pressure is still with us. that is is away and the next weather system works in for friday. sunshine and showers for thursday, but fewer showers compared with wednesday. more in the way of cloud and rainfor wednesday. more in the way of cloud and rain for inland and wales on

friday, turning mild to take us into the weekend. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, good afternoon. you're watching bbc news and i'm katherine downes. it's 1.30pm and here's your latest sports news. the four english sides left in the champions league have learned who'll they'll face in the last 16. manchester united face a tough tie against french league leaders paris st—germain. while it's german opposition for the other three — manchester city have drawn fc shalke, tottenham hotspur will face borussia dortmund whilst for liverpool it's two—time winners bayern munich. meanwhile celtic have been drawn to face spanish side valencia in the last 32 of the europa league. valencia finished third in their champions league group, behind juventus and manchester united. arsenal will play bate borisov of belarus, while 2013 champions chelsea take on swedish side malmo. the full list of fixtures is on the bbc sport website. manchester united are just an average side —

just a decent cup team — that's according to former captain roy keane, after they were beaten 3—1 by liverpool at anfield. xherdan shaqiri came off the bench and scored twice to consign jose mourinho's side to another defeat. it's been the worst start manchester united have ever had to a premier league season. but mourinho prefered to focus n the strengths of the opposition. every one of their players is fast, their transitions are phenomenal, but with our qualities, we managed to balance the game, and in the second half was when the game was progressively dying, was when i think probably a huge percentage of those in the stadium were starting to feel this is going to end i—i. fantastic game. the whole 93, 95 minutes was just, we were in charge of the game and dominated it and they came up, we had to stay in the game,

so we did, and second half just do it and do it, be kind of annoying, do it and do it, and then shaq came on and scored these two goals, it was just brilliant. arsenal's 22—match unbeaten run came to a dramatic end on the south coast, they were beaten 3—2 by southampton, in ralph hassenhutl‘s first home match in charge. the match looked destined for a draw until substitute charlie austin scored the winner in the 85th minute. the victory takes southampton out of the relegation zone and up to 17th. rangers have gone back to the top of the table in the scottish premiership, after a narrow 1—0 win over hamilton at ibrox. daniel candeias scored the only goal of the game early in the first half and managed to hold on. the three points were enough to move them above kilmarnock on goal difference. celtic‘s busy schedule looks like it

might be taking its toll. the champions are down in third after their shock 2—0 defeat at hibernian. florian kamberi sealed the win for 8th placed hibs tour de france winner geraint thomas was voted bbc sports personality of the year last night. the first welshman to win cycling's greatest prize, he beat harry kane who came third, and lewis hamilton in second. his surprise at the announcement was obvious — but he later said it was a huge honour. you dream of winning races and the aftermath, and you don't think about what is going to happen to you, but then obviously to win things like this for sure is probably the biggest thing i could win outside of a bike race, you know? it is a public vote and everything, and that is humbling, and i'm really grateful to everyone. and you can find more about what

happened at sports personality as well as the champions league draws, on the website. that's all the sport for now. thank you, katherine, see you later on. chester zoo says £125,000 pounds donated by the public in response to a fire at the weekend will be spent on what it describes as conservation projects. the fire destroyed much of the roof of one of its enclosures on saturday. but the zoo says the cost of repairs will be covered by insurance. bosses at the site, which has now reopened, have praised the hard work of keepers and thanked the public for their support. juliette phillips reports. chester zoo has described it as one of the toughest days in its history and you can see why. the fire that ripped through the monsoon forest building has now been put out, but the damage caused is still being keenly felt. monsoon forest at chester zoo is a complex environment with stick insects to snails to fish to frogs,

some of the small animals have very sadly perished but what we're really happy with is that we managed to save all of the large mammals. zoo workers rescued animals including endangered sumatran apes by getting them into outdoor enclosures. they worked with the fire service whose investigations into the fire are progressing. we are confident we know where the fire started and we are confident it was accidental. we are trying to determine the exact cause of that. the building itself was built three years ago as part of the £40 million project. it's the largest indoor zoo exhibit in the uk. the fire meant part of the zoo was closed off but that did not seem to put off visitors. we wanted to come even more to support everyone. ijust hope they can rebuild and carry on doing what they do. it's a really difficult situation but at least, you know, we can still come to the zoo. the fundraising page set up

by the zoo reached £50,000 target within hours, the rebuild here will take some time. investigations into the cause of the fire are continuing. juliet phillips, bbc news. a climber has died after a fall on ben nevis. the man, aged 21, was airlifted to hospital but medical staff were unable to save him. it happened yesterday in the tower gully area of britain's highest mountain. the family of the man, who has not been named, have been informed of his death. a second man was rescued and is being treated for his injuries. more than half of teachers in england say children in their schools will go hungry this christmas. that's according to a survey by the national education union. nearly two thirds reported that more and more families will be unable to afford proper shoes and clothes. john maguire has been talking to teachers and parents at one south london school to see how

they are coping. it's christmas time, and so much going on. very busy time of year, but... hopianne platt provides a lifeline. she works for the charity school home support. as the name suggests, it helps families ensure their children are in school and learning even if they're struggling to make ends meet. some of the parents here at this south london primary school prefer not to be identified. the stigma of the financial struggle especially acute at christmas. i haven't even started, you know, buying any presents for the children. i haven't got the money yet, but i'll try and work it out how much i'll get. i've done all of these hours, all of this work... tanya has been through tough times and believes the more people talk, the more they share, the better chance they have. it got to the point where i was able to buy food, but then i got myself into a financial situation

with the council. it took me a lot of months. i made sure i had the bare essentials, like the food. the national education union surveyed its members and found child poverty is having an increasing impact on schools. 53% of the teachers said there are children in their school who'll go hungry over christmas. 63% said the past three years has seen an increase in families unable to afford adequate winter clothing or shoes, and 46% believe there's been a rise in the number of problems with housing. we find many children are homeless, to a certain extent, sharing accommodation, three—bedroom flat will be shared by four families so each family's living in one of the rooms. so accommodation is a huge issue. sometimes it's feeding the children, bathing them, because there's such a rush for the bathroom and toilets and stuff like that. the government says teachers shouldn't have to step in to tackle

these issues and it's already taking action to make sure it, they don't have to. since 2010, there's 300,000 fewer children living in absolute poverty and it spends £90 billion a year on welfare for people most in need. meanwhile, charities work to fill in the gaps. sometimes it's more busy, like the christmas period now more definitely, because the needs are greater as we discussed with the challenges around poverty with christmas. there's never a dull moment, there's always a child, a family, to support, someone to look out for. and that support, the bridge between families and school, for many people is vital. john maguire, bbc news, london. from today, the directors of firms which make unsolicited phone calls can be fined as much as half a million pounds, under new rules. previously, only the business making the calls was liable , and some directors had escaped

penalties by declaring bankruptcy and setting up a new firm. it's estimated people were on the receiving end of almost four billion nuisance phone calls and texts last year, but only a small number of companies were fined. in a moment we'll have all the business news, but first the headlines on bbc news. a man pleads guilty to murdering a mother and daughter in solihull. janbaz tarin killed his wife and her mother. theresa may will tell mps that holding a second brexit referendum would break faith with the public and damage the integrity of british politics. a change in how student loans are recorded in the public finances will add £12 billion to the deficit. i'm ben bland. in the business news no sign of any festive cheer for the retail sector —

in what should be a busy run—up to christmas. and the pinch is being felt online too. the retailer asos warns that economic uncertainty plus weaker consumer confidence is hitting the rate of growth it's forecasting for its sales and profits. it said even cutting prices to match rivals has not shifted more clothes. its shares fell — as did other retailers on the stocks markets. that news comes as figures reveal a 24% rise in restaurant closures in the year to september, compared with the previous 12 months. the restaruant industry is suffering as it battles with overcapacity as consumer spending slows. and fashion and home furnishings retailer laura ashley will close about a0 stores in the uk as it plans to expand its the chain has already closed around a0 uk stores since 2015. we've spoken quite often about the pressures facing high street retailers. but now there's evidence that some online retailers are also grappling

with tough trading conditions. the chief executive of asos — nick beighton — says the fashion industry is currently experiencing an "unprecedented level of discounting". but despite that, a505 is now predicting its sales will grow by 15% rather than up to 25% for this trading year. it's also hitting their profits forecast. joining us now is the retail analyst catherine shuttleworth. often when we talk about the woes of the high retailers, reserve it is because people are spending money online instead, but this suggests they are not even doing that. so where has asos, once the titan of online fashion, gone wrong? they are discounting by up to 60%, and there are more places to shop online than ever before, and asos has got a lot

of online competition. they were no longer the only people who sell a fixed—price delivery, and they also got rid of their reward scheme this year, right at a time when the shoppers are feeling the pinch, feeling they have a little less money than last year and feeling very spooked by all of this talk about brexit and what that will do to the economy. all of those factors together mean their sales are really slowing down. on the face of it, you look at it and you think that people say bad news because if people are not spending, that affects jobs and growth of businesses, but does it suggest that perhaps people are being a bit more responsible and environmentally when it comes to their fashion, environmentally when it comes to theirfashion, not buying environmentally when it comes to their fashion, not buying as environmentally when it comes to theirfashion, not buying as much and making their current clothes last a bit longer? the impact of the discussion this year about the environmental impact of buying

clothes, throwing them away, fast fashion, definitely starting to have an effect in terms of the millennial market, and there is a kind of feeling of peak stuff, people feel like they have got enough stuff and they want to buy into experiences, so they want to buy into experiences, so they are rejecting things at the casual dining market you talked about, because they are looking for experiences that are just about going and doing things with friends, not going out for quick meal but things like crazy golf, going out bowling, going away for the weekend, those things are growing, but to find that they have to stop spending on clothes and cheap meals. you touched on the restaurants point, couple of reminder today that while we are focusing on the online pressures , while we are focusing on the online pressures, there is always nearby a reminder of the difficult conditions in bricks and mortar stores, so restau ra nt in bricks and mortar stores, so restaurant closures are up, laura ashley closing a0 stores in the uk, that high—street problem is not abating any time soon. absolutely not. we heard last week from

bonmarche, and we have even heard that victoria beckham's businesses struggling, they are not high—street retailer, but they are still struggling. we are being very mindful about spending money and we are buying less wherever we can. thank you very much, and i'm sure victoria beckham will be grateful for the clarification that she is not a high—street retailer. let's round up some of the name business stories for you. energy firm sse has scrapped its plan to merge its retail business with rival npower, blaming "very challenging market conditions". the deal would have created the uk's second—biggest energy supplier. the deal had been cleared by the regulator —

but the two said last month they would have to renegotiate it because of the government's new price cap. an early estimate of costs for hs2— which mps had when they were approving the high—speed rail project — was "enormously wrong". that's what a former hs2 boss has told bbc panorama. doug thornton said the figure underestimated the value of many properties hs2 needed to purchase along the proposed route and thousands more had not been budgeted for. mr thornton said the figure mps saw was hundreds of millions of pounds too low. he was later dismissed. hs2 rejects claims mps were misled. malaysia has filed criminal charges against goldman sachs and two former employees in connection with a corruption and money laundering probe at the country's investment fund, imdb. the us bank has been under scrutiny for its role in helping to raise funds for the imalaysia development fund. it is being investigated in at least six countries. goldman sachs called the charges "misdirected" and said it would "vigorously defend them". a i,000mph race car project has been saved after an entrepreneur stepped in to buy the business. the bloodhound supersonic vehicle, built with a jet engine bolted to a rocket, is almost finished. its future was in jeopardy amid a failure to secure investment

which forced the firm financing it into administration. uk shares fell as that profit warning from online fashion store asos reinforced woes about slow sales during the busy holiday season. asos shares plunged over a0% to their lowest in nearly four years, knocking roughly 1.5 billion pounds off the company's market value. among big fallers on the main index were high street retailers next and marks & spencer. asos rival boohoo also saw its shares fall. high street chains were the worst performers on the ftse250 index with jd sports fashion and dixons both down. also weighing on investor confidence was property data showing that asking prices suffered their biggest fall over a two—month period since 2012. brexit—sensitive house—builders persimmon and berkeley were each down too. that's all the business news. i'm sorry, it's all rather grim news

from the business. and just before christmas! i will try to sort out something later on in the afternoon. are present, maybe. in moscow. vladimir putin has called for his government to take charge of rap music — after a series of concerts were cancelled across russia. the president admits it would be impossible to ban the music outright — so says the state should play a greater role in controlling it. tim allman has more. this is husky, one of russia's most popular rappers. in his songs he has mocked and criticised the authorities. he recently spent time in jail after staging an impromptu performance when one of his concerts was cancelled. unlikely to be a fan, vladimir putin, who it seems has a beef with the entire rap industry. speaking at a meeting of his council for culture and art he said rap rested upon three pillars.

but he admitted it is impossible to stop it and it should be ta ken over and navigated in a particular way. of course the russian state has a contentious relationship with popular music. the protest group, pussy riot, is among those who have fallen foul of the authorities. this is probably the sort of thing you have in mind when you think of russian music. a military band accompanying a marshalled parade. it's not clear how the russian government might take control of rap music. # sex bomb...

but if this police choir is anything to go by, the possibilities are endless. hunting for honey in the wild is one of the oldest traditions in rural nepal — and it's also an extremely dangerous one. the hunters have to make a difficult and trickyjourney to the beehives which hang from the rocks high in the mountains. a bbc team travelled to the remote lum—joong district of nepal to find out why so many villagers are willing to risk their lives to collect the honey. there we are, the honey hunters of nepal. now it's time for a look at the weather. we can cross the newsroom to matt taylor. quite changeable this week, but far more pleasant than it was. lots of sunshine around across central and eastern areas, this is the scene at

lunchtime in oxford, blue skies overhead. but further west, a different story, and that is the story for the country. this links into an area of low pressure, and into an area of low pressure, and into further areas of low pressure in the north atlantic which will come oui’ in the north atlantic which will come our way later this week. so enjoy the sunshine this afternoon, central and eastern parts in particular. showers pushing with the cloud in the west, moving their way from south to north, the southerly winds developing lifting temperatures across central areas, but that will pick up as we go through this evening and overnight. widespread gale is developing here, eastern areas with frost specifically, the showers lifting as the breeze strengthens later on, by the breeze strengthens later on, by the end of the night across ireland, the end of the night across ireland, the far west of scotland and wales, and cornwall as well as the isles of scilly, and set to turn increasingly wet. a wet start to tomorrow morning for those commuting in the west, brightening up quickly in the morning, one or two showers, western

england and wales and into the afternoon, that rain will spread across the rest of england, the exception being east anglia and the south—east. a gusty day wherever you are, gales possible just south—east. a gusty day wherever you are, gales possiblejust about anywhere, 60 mph gusts around, and that will temper what will otherwise bea that will temper what will otherwise be a reasonably mild day, with temperatures up to 13 degrees. tuesday evening, eastern parts of east anglia will see heavy rain and that clears through, low pressure just to the west of us for wednesday. not quite as windy as tuesday, but frequent showers to the south and west, some of them heavy with hail and thunder. other parts may get away with dryness throughout wednesday, sunny spells, back to being fresher with temperatures down into single figures. it does mean thursday morning will be a rather cold one, but this area of low pressure starts to ease temporarily before we see the next weather

system work its way in, so sunshine and showers for thursday, most of us largely dry, but by friday turning cloudy and wet from the south—west. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm rebecca jones. today at 2. a man pleads guilty to killing his wife and her mother in a savage knife attack in solihull this summer. we were trying to get to them, but what we then know is that tragically, whilst in contact with us, the offence took place. and this was a brutal murder of two defenceless ladies, by a man who had spent the day hunting them down. theresa may is to tell mps today that another brexit referendum would break faith with the british people — some ministers say parliament should decide the next step. we need to find out where the will of parliament is, where the majority of mps will vote in parliament,

and nothing should be off the table. we should consider all options. it's notjust the high street that's suffering — now a profits warning from the online retailer asos