that was the last last night. that was the last sighting, but since then, nothing, and that has really given the airport the confidence, in the words of the police, to open and to get people on their way for christmas. thank you very much indeed. weather in a moment, but first, take a look at these pictures from sydney, which is experiencing an early white christmas of sorts. these are hailstones the size of golf balls crashing into the water in sydney harbour. the cost of the damage caused by the giant stones is expected to run into the tens of millions. here's sarah keith lucas. nothing like that here in the uk? no sign of any large hail here, actually no sign of any kind of

wintry precipitation here in the lead up to christmas was that if you are dreaming of a white christmas, you might be a little disappointed. quite a lot of cloud and some showers around. but today, it is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year today. a weather watchers have been out capturing the images of what is a fairly breezy, showery and mild sort of day. this is the scene in norfolk at the moment. we have some shower clouds around there. and much of the country has seen that cloud. the radar over the past few showers shows where we have had most of the showers. through the central swathes of the country, from east anglia, north wales, northern england and northern ireland. but nowhere immune to catching a passing shower through the afternoon. it is quite breezy in the south and that is helping to bring a little bit of sunshine out. pretty mild here. temperatures around 12—14. further north, more typical of the time of year with temperatures around 6—9dc this afternoon was that we will continue to see those showers

blowing in on quite a brisk westerly wind. you will notice the strength of that wind across the southern half of england and wales. more rain moving into wales. more rain moving into wales, northern showers in northern ireland and the western side of this evening. further showers in northern ireland and the western side but for most of us, a frost free night showers moving through fairly quickly overnight, the wind easing in the south but for most of us, a frost free head into the is quietening down for saturday at least. we have a low pressure to north, but a ridge of high pressure building on from the south—west. quite a lot of dry weather on the cards on saturday, especially for england and wales. some showery rain for the west of scotland and northern ireland come into north—west england. the rest of the country should avoid most of those showers and temperatures will be in the region of 7—12. still reasonably mild for this time of year, especially in the south. heading through into some day and we have this low pressure system moving

on. that will bring a soggy start to the day for the bulk of england and wales. perhaps the odd shower in parts of northern ireland. but northern ireland and scotland should keep the sun shine through the day. it will stay pretty cloudy and damp further south. temperatures between 6-13 further south. temperatures between 6—13 on sunday. next week, christmas week, we are interested in the weather. although there could be some rain in the south—west at first, christmas eve looks like we should see high pressure building on that high pressure, for most of us, holds on into christmas day. christmas day looks largely dry although there may be some patchy frost and fog around. mostly cloudy conditions. at least the days are better, getting longer as we are passing the winter solstice. good news, thank you very much indeed! a reminder of our main story this lunchtime. gatwick reopens after more than 30 hours of chaos, with most flights now running as normal, after the army was deployed to protect the airport from drones. that's all from the bbc news at one. so, it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are.

good afternoon, it's 1.30pm and here's your latest sports news. manchester united's new interim manager, ole gunnar solskjaer, has held his first press conference in the job ahead of his first game in charge at cadiff city tomorrow, the only other club, he's managed in the premier league. despite taking cardiff to relegation solskjaer feels he has learnt, especially from his former manager, sir alex ferguson. he has been my mental but i didn't understand early on that he would be my mental because i wasjust understand early on that he would be my mental because i was just sitting and towards ever since my injury in 2003 at least, i was making all the

notes what he did at different situations and of course i have already been in touch with him because there is no one better to get some advice from. manchester united fans have been leaving their views about solskjaer on the bbc sport website all day. sachin says that united fans shouldn't get over enthusiastic but wants the football to do the talking. graham believes that returning to the ‘united way‘ is the priority for the new boss. i guess that means ‘attack, attack, attack‘. and this weekend‘s game against cardiff is the first time james has looked forward to a united game in five years! keep your comments coming in. well those are maybe some of the more positive opinions on the state of things at manchester united but with the club 19 points off the top of the premier league table, united‘s former captain roy keane isn‘t overly pleased with the current squad. shame on some of them how they've

treated that manager and the club. pride comes from winning. managers come and go but pride comes from within. you are playing for your clu b within. you are playing for your club and your team—mates and your history, whatever motivates you. you should not hide behind the manager. a lot of the modern players are weak human beings. the chief executive of the england cricket board says he hopes hosting next year‘s world cup could inspire people to play the sport. england host the cricket world cup for the first time since 1999, before a summer ashes series against australia. tom harrison believes it could give the sport an opportunity to engage with a new audience. it's a once in a generation opportunity. i stand here it cited

about 2019 in the job that i do with all the opportunities it brings for us all the opportunities it brings for us to do what we are here to do which is inspire people to pick up a bat and ball and get involved in the game. that is what our new strategy is all about. it's about using the power of cricket to connect communities and enable people to ta ke communities and enable people to take part in this wonderful sport. six—time olympic sprint champion allyson felix, has revealed that she has given birth to her daughter eight weeks prematurely. the american sprinter says her baby has been in a neo—natal intensive care unit since her birth on the 28th of november but is said to be doing well. in an emotional video posted on social media, felix describes the journey of her pregnancy, with footage of daughter camryn at the end, whom she has described as ‘my little fighter‘. that‘s all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. police in vienna are

responding to a shooting at a restaurant. austrian media are reporting that one person has died and another injured after shots were fired in downtown vienna. a manhunt is underway. we‘ll bring you more on this as details emerge. let‘s return to our main story this lunchtime. after almost 36 hours of chaos, gatwick airport has finally re—opened and is hoping to operate the majority of its flights today but it‘s warning passengers to expect more delays and dozens of cancellations. sussex police have just given this update from the airport. still in the positive position and

we have made progress. since the update this morning the runway has remained open. my heart goes out to the passengers who have been affected. it's really distressing situation with the level of disruption we've had over the last 36 hours. why haven't we caught the drawn operator trusting mark it's a difficult offence to detect and arrest a suspect for. we do have a numberof lines of arrest a suspect for. we do have a number of lines of enquiry and we're working through those with our best investigators. we are trawling through a huge amount of intelligence and we request the public to give us information, if they have any tree of the drone. in terms of the motivation there is a whole spectrum of possibilities from the really high—end criminal behaviour we have seen all the way

down to individuals trying to disrupt the airport. it‘s being called the "turnbull and fry effect" and it‘s led to a rise in the number of men being treated for prostate cancer. former bbc breakfast presenter bill turnbull and the actor stephen fry both spoke out this year about their own experiences and helped raise awareness of the disease. graham satchell has been catching up with bill and introducing him to one of the men he inspired to get tested. come on, then. come on. you have a few days where you‘re in shock, and then you have a few weeks which are pretty dark. on this day, when people are watching this on television, there will be hundreds of people in britain who will get a diagnosis.

hundreds. and all i can say to them is hold tight, and things will... they won‘t get better, but it won‘t be quite as dark as it is now. come on. bill turnbull was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer just over a year ago. ..husband, of course, wasjust marvellous... at around the same time, stephen fry was also diagnosed. because cancer, in the end, that is a word that just rings in your head — i've got cancer. both of them encouraged men who have symptoms, particularly going to the toilet more over the night, to go to the doctor to get tested. men are so much worse going to the doctor than women are, that we somehow — in the same way that we don't ask for directions. we just don't like it. we don‘t want to waste the doctor‘s time, we don‘t want to waste our time,

we don‘t like going to the surgery. why would we do that? naturally, we‘re reluctant to go. now, of course, i‘m a season—ticket holder in my local surgery. and people i haven‘t seen for a0 years got in touch. bill has had love and support from his wife, sesi, his three children, and from hundreds of well—wishers. may the healing properties of your bees work their magic, and restore you to the dance, to the music of time. it‘s lovely. his message urging other men to get checked has had a remarkable impact. ijust happened to have bbc breakfast on in the background, and the news story came up about bill turnbull. some of the symptoms were discussed, that are typical of that sort of cancer, and that kind of rang a few alarm bells for me, because dad had sort of mentioned in passing, ooh, you know, i'm a bit tired, i keep having to get up. so i said, can i phone the gp?

and he said, well, if you do it, yeah. so i phoned the gp the same day. lisa‘s dad, carl, was diagnosed with stage three prostate cancer. he has been having radiotherapy at the royal preston hospital. i'm very stubborn, and i wasn't sure it was something other than old age coming on. however, hearing about it, it followed on from there. so how are we doing today? i'm fine. one in eight men will get prostate cancer. it is the third—biggest cancer killer in the uk. the number of men getting treatment has risen this year by more than a third. the head of the nhs in england has called it the turnbull—fry effect. do you prefer fry—turnbull effect or turnbull—fry effect? i'm prepared to give bill the primary billing, as we say in acting. so billboard—wise, obviously stephen should get bigger billing, because he‘s the great man that he is. i thought bill was terrific.

i thought he was brave, i thought he was rational, i thought he was wise — i mean, everything that is admirable, really. i just thought, terrific, that's what people need to see. and it's clear that it has made a difference. i suppose a formal acknowledgement of the impact we‘ve had is extraordinary. and it‘s — i suppose it brought home to me just what it had actually meant, so that‘s great. carl‘s treatment has gone well. there is every chance he will be given the all—clear. we brought carl and lisa to london to meet bill. hi, bill. hi, how are you? nice to meet you. he's my dad, and i love him very much, and it was heartbreaking when we got the diagnosis. thank you so much. yes, thank you.

i think it was a really brave thing that you did, because it's something very personal, something very devastating to you and your family. i think we just feel hugely indebted to you, so... yeah. i don‘t think you should, but thank you. i appreciate it. thanks very much. it was just something i thought was the right thing to do at the time. it is very heart—warming when people get in touch, and i think, well, i have done at least one useful thing in my life. bill‘s cancer is incurable. but he has been told, with the right care, he may have another ten years. he remains upbeat and positive about the future. that was graham satchell reporting, speaking there to bill turnbull. in a moment we‘ll have all the business news, but first the headlines on bbc news: gatwick‘s runway reopens with over eight hundred planes

scheduled for departure and arrival today, but thousands of passengers remain stranded at the airport. us defence secretary james mattis resigns a day after president trump announces the withdrawal of troops from syria. england‘s chief medical officer calls for a tax on unhealthy food high in sugar and salt, accusing the food industry of ‘failing the public‘. in the business news: there was a £26.5 billion difference between the amount of money flowing in to and out of the uk, what‘s knowns as a balance of payments deficit. the defit was the largest in two years, but the office of national statistics, which released the numbers, said much of it was due higher profits from british companies being paid out to foreign investors. the government is calling for businesses that trade with the eu to prepare for the possibility of a no—deal brexit, describing it as "a call to action now".

hmrc has just published an update to its advice on how firms should prepare for a no—deal scenario. production of cars in the uk tumbled by almost 20% in november, compared with a year earlier, according to the industry‘s trade body. the society of motor manufacturers and traders blamed weaker demand in the uk and in export markets. hmrc has released an update to their "partnership pack" advising businesses on how to prepare for a no—deal brexit. it comes after the government made a plea to businesses that trade with the eu to prepare for the possibility, describing it as "a call to action now". let‘s speak to martin mctague, national policy chairman, federation of small businesses. at first glance it‘s a lot of extra

paperwork isn‘t it? at first glance it‘s a lot of extra paperwork isn't it? absolutely. we have been warning the government that only about 15% of small businesses have made any kind of preparation for any type of brexit less lonely no—deal brexit and with less lonely no—deal brexit and with less tha n less lonely no—deal brexit and with less than 100 days to go this is now a time when i hope mps going away for the christmas holidays are thinking seriously about potential impact their decision will make in the new year. let'sjust look at some of the importing and exporting from the continent. for every item in every lorry load you have to have an import declaration on an export declaration and the safety and security declaration. is that correct? yes. is that every item? every item potentially yes. the most

important thing to remember is that for something like 90% of businesses that are exporting in the uk they deal mainly with the new and during that period they will have dealt with no paperwork whatsoever so all these processes are completely unfamiliar so not only are they dealing with mounting paperwork they are dealing with something they have no previous experience. interestingly, it‘s going to involve outside the eu because at the moment the government says we have trade agreements with 60 countries outside the uk -- agreements with 60 countries outside the uk —— the agreements with 60 countries outside the uk -- the eu agreements with 60 countries outside the uk —— the eu because of trade deal is the eu has done and companies in the uk which do business with those countries, that will disappear because things trade agreements will disappear after the 29th of march. that's right. that is

a dangerous position for many businesses because they have made no preparations whatsoever. they are unable to deal with it because it‘s unfamiliarandi unable to deal with it because it‘s unfamiliarand i think unable to deal with it because it‘s unfamiliar and i think it‘s time for the government to recognise there is no perfect deal but the deal that on the table at the moment is probably the table at the moment is probably the best available and it gives businesses some certainty about the future. what about things like food and hazardous materials because obviously we have an enormous mother food going backwards and forwards across—the—board. what food going backwards and forwards across—the—boa rd. what about food going backwards and forwards across—the—board. what about health checks and things like that? the most scary part of this whole process is something like 70% of the capacity is going to be reduced.

that will not be replaced by any other available ports so you are going to have to do ration those goods that are available to come in. if you are talking about potentially health damaging products or something that could hurt an individual if they don‘t get them, those things will take priority. but food will not take priority over a component that could stop the production line for example. in those circumstances many spawn businesses that are used to being able to provide a just—in—time service will not be able to do it. thank you very much. let‘s have a quick look at the markets. the ftse 100 with very little movement. this one is interesting, moving down sharply again. $1 off the price of oil. the pound against the dollar

looking pretty weak. and against the euro. the pound looking pretty weak and oil looking pretty weak but the ftse is pretty stable. more than a hundred new species of plant and fungi were discovered by the royal botanic gardens at kew in the last year. the discoveries include carnivorous pitcher plants, and exotic orchids. scientists say some could lead to new types of medicines or crops, as helen briggs reports. plants have been on the planet for hundreds of millions of years, but we‘re still discovering more of them, some in the most unlikely of places. this tiny herb was found clinging to the edge of a waterfall in sierra leone. the scientist who found it sent a specimen to kew for identification. it‘s got unique characteristics that are unlike any other plant in that particular family. and that, straight away, indicated to me that we had come across something very unique.

the plant now bears his name, but under threat from development, its future looks bleak, and that‘s the case for many plants which could have hidden potential. it‘s important that we discover these new species to science, work out their conservation risk and manage them for their survival. if they become extinct, we lose opportunities to discover new medicinal applications, new foods, new fibres that humanity is going to need. scientist here at kew have helped discover more than 100 new plants this year alone. it‘s only by naming and cataloguing plants that they can understand the richness of the plant world and how to save what‘s left. this cola plant from cameroon is thought to be a new species, and botanical artist lucy smith is bringing it back to life on the page. by recording the plants of the world

in all their incredible shape and form, botanists hope to highlight the plight of the species that are vanishing before our eyes. helen briggs, bbc news. a non—profit organisation is providing animal—assisted therapy to those living in special care facilities, nursing homes and hospices in johannesburg. the visits by volunteers and their pets provide comfort to patients who interact with them. nomsa maseko reports. sushi, jack and murphy preparing for their big day. the furry friends take their jobs very seriously, administering cuteness and cuddles. they come bearing christmas presents. the therapy dogs are visiting patients at a frail care centre here in johannesburg. say hi. yes, good boy. and a paw.

where's your paw? yes. paws for people is an organisation which offers animal assisted therapy and operates in several parts of south africa. this woman has been staying here at this home for several decades. i have been here for 15 years and i‘m just the happiest. you look forward to every visit? for sure, they are just the best. i can't wait for them to get here. for some of the patient‘s here, this might be the only visit they get during this christmas period, so the therapy dogs are brought here to bring about that christmas cheer. as christmas nears, this is the last visit to this home and residents here have formed a special bond with the dogs and many look forward to more cuddles in the new year. a self—employed builder has been

revealed as the winner of the 76—million pound euromillions jackpot which went unclaimed for six weeks. andrew clark from boston, lincolnshire said that he drove around for six weeks unaware the winning ticket was tucked into the visor of his white van. he was was finally persuaded to check his stash of lottery he made a claim for the prize — the 12th biggest win ever in the uk last week. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. it's it‘s a day of mixed fortunes out there today. it is the winter solstice so the shortest day of the year. the days will get longer from

now on which is good news. a mixed picture in terms of the weather. a lot of showers and cloud but for some of us there are brighter skies breaking through that cloud. it is pretty breezy across the southern pa rt pretty breezy across the southern part of the country. this shows where we‘ve had the rain over the last two hours and it‘s been through this central part of the country. further south things are brightening up further south things are brightening up this afternoon. quite a breeze coming in from the west. and it‘s pretty mild with temperatures around about 12 to 11; degrees in southern pa rt about 12 to 11; degrees in southern part of the country. more showers feeding in from the west as we head through the afternoon. these are the wind speeds and the strongest of the wins will be further south. we could see guests of a0 mph along the south coast. this evening more rain arrives across midlands and part of

wales and further showers will feed into northern ireland and the west of scotland. for most of us it should be a frost free night that there could be a touch of frost for eastern scotland and north—east england so chilly start to the day here. for much of the country saturday is not a bad day although we have got low pressure to the north and there is a right —— ridge of high pressure in the south—west which will mean fewer showers tomorrow. still some showers around particularly across the west of scotla nd particularly across the west of scotland and northern ireland but further east and south most of us stayed dry with sunshine and temperatures between seven and 12 degrees. saturday night into sunday and the next area of low pressure moves in from the south—west. that‘ll breaks a soggy start the sunday across much of england and wales. it does look like the rain and breeze will ease away towards the south later in the day. the best of the sunshine will be across the

northern half of the country. looking towards christmas eve on monday, little bit of rain initially in the south—west of high pressure builds through christmas eve and into christmas day as well so that should quieten things down. we have a lot of dry settled weather in the forecast on christmas eve and christmas day. watch out for some patchy frost and fog around and from now on, they should be more sunlight after the winter solstice. hello, you‘re watching afternoon live — i‘m martine croxall. today at 2: gatwick reopens following more than 30 hours of chaos after the army was deployed to protect the airport from drones. but many passengers still face the misery of knock—on delays and cancellations. it‘s frustrating, i won‘t be spending christmas with the family, which, you know, is sad. but again, it‘s all out of my control, so there‘s very little i can do about it.

donald trump‘s defence secretary resigns after the president announces he‘s pulling us troops out of syria. bagpipes play. remembering the victims of the lockerbie bombing, 30 years on. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with hugh and man utd‘s interim manager has been talking ahead of his first match.