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. yes, ole gunnar solskjaer saying his priority was on getting the players to understand how to play as a team, he says the whole squad will get a chance to prove themselves and even though

he would like to, he hasn't discussed taking the job full—time. more on old trafford later in the hour. thanks hugh, and sarah has all the weather — mixed picture. yes, we have a lot of showers are around today. today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, so solstice, the shortest day of the year, so we solstice, the shortest day of the year, so we will have more on the science behind the saltiest —— solstice as well as a forecast for you in about 30 minutes. thanks sarah. also coming up — safe keeping: a builder wins £76 million on the lottery after finding the winning ticket in the visor of his van six weeks after the draw. hello everyone — this is afternoon live — i'm martine croxall. after almost 36 hours of chaos, gatwick airport has finally re—opened, with managers hoping

to operate the majority of flights today — but passengers are being warned to expect more delays and dozens of cancellations. the airport was closed on wednesday night after drones were seen flying inside its perimeter. the army has now been deployed with specialist equipment to safeguard the airport, but police have so far failed to find those responsible. 0ur correspondent navtej johal is at gatwick. the sight that thousands of travellers have been waiting to see. after a day and a half, aircraft finally landing and taking off early this morning at gatwick airport. good news for many but plenty remain stranded here and face a long journey ahead. so tomorrow we will have to take a train to edinburgh to get our flight to copenhagen. and we have to cancel all our tour from sweden to copenhagen because we have a connecting flight from copenhagen to rome. so this holiday really went wrong for us. and there are ten of us here.

ron has been waiting since wednesday night for a flight to antigua to join his family. he'll now have fly on christmas day. very frustrating. i won't be spending christmas with the family which is, you know, sad, but again, it's all out of my control so there is very little i can do about it. unfortunately, there's no flights to antigua every day so it's not like i canjust say, "i will go tomorrow." today is one of the busiest days of the year for people to be travelling, the final weekend before christmas. and the airport has said that the disruption caused by this incident will continue throughout the weekend. it's coming over your head! could this be the cause of the disruption? this device was spotted near the airfield yesterday. police are yet to find the device or the operator behind it. what has changed is there are a number of mitigating measures in place provided by a number of government agencies and the military to ensure that i have the confidence to be able to reopen my airport.

although the incident is not believed to be terror—related, it has caused a debate around how to protect airports in future. it's clearly a kind of disruptive activity that we have not seen before. this kind of incident is unprecedented anywhere in the world, the disruption of an airport in this way. we are going to have to learn very quickly from what's happened. i plan to convene discussions with other airports around the uk very quickly indeed. it is unclear what methods have been deployed to mitigate the risk to the airport. there are a number of options such as the drone detection technology developed by this american company. we can track them with radar, we can detect the signal between the drone and the controller using rf detection technology. 0n the countermeasure side, we can disrupt that control link between the drone and the controller, and we can also disrupt the drone‘s ability to navigate using gps. for those passengers affected by the problems

of the last two days, an unwelcome holiday headache awaits to find out what they are entitled to. my advice to passengers who are turning up in the hope of getting away is, put your problem in the hands of the airline. it really is their legal responsibility to make sure that you are on your way as swiftly as possible. most scheduled flights be going ahead today. after a turbulent few days the airport is now expecting things to slowly return to normal. 0ur corrspondent navtej johal is at gatwick airport. what is the latest that you can tell us what is the latest that you can tell us about the situation? for the time being, the mood is optimistic year, and it has been throughout most of the day so far. that is because of around 800 or so flights that are scheduled to arrive or depart from

gatwick today, most of them will be going ahead. 155 cancellations have been confirmed so far by the airport earlier today. as i said a moment ago, the situation is that with the expectation of things to return to normal by saturday night. in terms of the investigation to finding out who has been behind this drone incident, we had a police press conference a while ago. as part of that conference, they confirmed that sussex police is working with the met police and the army to find the people or present responsible for this incident. they have also said that when the episode began on wednesday night, the equivalent needed to secure the site as they have from this morning, was not ready. it took them hours to both acquire it and bring it to gatwick airport. in terms of the overall picture, it still remains the case that there are flights that had been delayed and cancelled, the airport

is saying to all passengers and people coming here today, you can still see people are arriving, to check the status of your flight before coming to the airport. a lot of people have been coming here, getting checked in, and then being taken by getting checked in, and then being ta ken by bus getting checked in, and then being taken by bus to heathrow, stansted, even as far away as birmingham. but don't come here unless you have checked the status of your flight first. thank you very much. that is the latest from gatwick airport. gatwick‘s runway may have reopened but thousands of passengers are still stranded with a huge backlog of flights. 155 flights have been cancelled today — on top of the hundreds scrapped yesterday. many are stranded abroad and some of those here are now resorting to alternative travel plans, as john mcmanus reports. st pancras station, just days to christmas, the getaway is on. but many of these people moving through these queues shouldn't be here. the grounding of planes at gatwick airport has meant some last—minute changes to many people's travel plans. many of britain's mainline railway stations are busy

in the run—up to christmas, but the queues behind me are extremely long. a number of eurostar staff told me many of those travelling today had booked in advance but there were also plenty of others who had been forced to swap the plane for the train. it is a similar story at victoria coach station, where travellers who were hoping to fly into gatwick have been forced onto the road instead. some are making the journey to gatwick today in hope rather than expectation of flying, as the christmas getaway continues. where are you trying to get to? italy, rome. family christmas. it's quite annoying. i saw that it has reopened. so hopefully, yeah. has your airline said anything? not really. they keep saying we will probably fly normally, but they don't give us a lot of information. i was talking with my company and they said at the moment it is all right, but we don't know. so they, just go there and see what happens.

i wish but i don't know. and the travel disruption has forced britons abroad to also cancel and rearrange travel plans. alex and joanne were visiting their two faughters in new york city and were supposed to return home yesterday after a five—day trip. we had never heard of that before, causing so much disruption. had we? no, we just panicked, actually, because when we got the text telling is the flight had been cancelled at about 7am this morning, we just wanted to get home. we booked the first flight we could get. as long as this flight back to london is ok in terms of time, it's nothing. but it has been hugely expensive. it's cost us around £7,000 to rebook the flights. we are hoping the insurance will pay up. who knows? this woman was due home in east sussex after a holiday in the dominican republic. she suffers from a number of health conditions and says her medications might run out. she and her sister—in—law are stranded onto the next available flight on the 27th. i brought my main medication

but unfortunately some of my medication has run out so we are hoping to get hold of that today otherwise i'm in big trouble. her son acts as her carer and she is worried she will not be home for christmas. we are going to miss christmas with my family and my son which is really upsetting. he is 17 but he didn't want to come this year because he is obviously nearly a grown up as far as he is concerned. so it would have been my last christmas with him as a child as well. gatwick is slowly starting to return to normal but it's too late for many looking to get home for christmas. john mcmanus, bbc news. helen campbell was meant to fly to jamaica from gatwick yesterday morning with her family, and is now on a coach to birmingham

to get a flight out. shejoins us now. welcome, i am is rated at you and these circumstances. explain where you are and where you are going to?|j circumstances. explain where you are and where you are going to? i am on and where you are going to? i am on a couch heading to birmingham airport. since yesterday morning, 11am, i was supposed to be on a flight, 11am, i was supposed to be on a flight, we were delayed all day today and yesterday, it was cancelled. we were told we could leave this morning, and now we are on our way to birmingham. how well—informed where you kept? on our way to birmingham. how well-informed where you kept? as the company, not very well. the app never had information on it, you would go back every half an hour, there would be no new information. it was down to my husband checking online, checking the news, we were getting more information via that

than from the airport and from the airline. let me get this straight, you were expecting to be lying on a beachin you were expecting to be lying on a beach in the caribbean this morning, instead, you are on a coach to birmingham? yes. right, how confident are you that you will get away this time? we hope, the plane is at birmingham, it landed there yesterday we have been told. hence, we couldn't get to get work. we have been told that that is our dream liner. we need to get all 200 passengers at birmingham to get on that plane. so i don't think we will ta ke that plane. so i don't think we will take off until much later this evening. fingers crossed we will be in the jamaica sometime very late tonight. how much help did you get infinding tonight. how much help did you get in finding accommodation? what is the situation regarding some kind of recompense? absolutely none, the

text m essa g e recompense? absolutely none, the text message read, please make your way home, that was their advice last night at 4pm yesterday afternoon. so there was rush—hour traffic, no hotels around, taxis were cancelling new 01’ hotels around, taxis were cancelling new or not able to get a taxi. all of the luggage had been checked in, so we of the luggage had been checked in, so we then had to go back and take it down through passport security and control to get our luggage out, and control to get our luggage out, and there was no hotels. we got food vouchers, that was it. other than that, my husband had to look online, find accommodation, we had to do it all ourselves. it is a similar tale that lots of people are telling us, but you are on your way, hopefully it will all work out. you will be welcome of the rest when you get to jamaica. have i wonderful trip, i hope it works out all right you for joining us. thank you. one person has died

following a shooting in vienna. austrian media are reporting that another person was injured after shots were fired in the centre of the city. a manhunt is under way. a police spokeswoman says the shooting appears to be a "targeted criminal act" rather than a shooting spree and have ruled out terrorism. we'll bring you more on this as details emerge. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: 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. 30 years after lockerbie — memorial services are held in scotland to remember the 200 and 70 people who were killed. and in sport, caretaker boss of manchester united, 0le gunnar solskjaer, says he would love to remain as there are full—time

manager, but he is not discussing taking thejob manager, but he is not discussing taking the job on a permanent basis also he has held his first press conference this morning. the chief executive of the england and wales cricket board says ben stokes can still be a role model in the sport having been cleared of in august. and the six time 0lympic sprint champion reveals she has given birth to her daughter eight weeks originally. i will have morejust after half past stop. the us defence secretaryjim mattis has become the latest senior figure to resign from donald trump's administration. it follows mr trump's decision to pull all american troops out of syria. in his resignation letter, general mattis warned about the need to "show respect" to allies and to be clear—eyed about america's enemies. 0ur correspondent dan johnson is in washington. is it just is itjust a coincidence, the timing of his recognition and the announcement on syria? there was a

strong sense that it was the final straw forjim mattis. we now have reports that there will be a serious withdrawal of troops from afghanistan, too, something here may also have been opposed to. we could all see the way this was going, the relationship between the men has broken down over the last few and thatjim mattis shares a completely different view of the world and america's place in it from donald trump, that have become increasingly apparent. donald trump had disrespected some international organisations, like the un and nato, he had pulled out of international agreements and and dissolve some of the international coalitions and alliances that have been working together on some of the world's biggest problems and conflicts. that is the world thatjim mattis had been involved in, notjust as defence secretary, but as a marine court general in afghanistan and iraq, he was the kind of person who was committed to the international organisations to in turning good relationships with allies, and he

thought the president's america first policy increasingly looks like america being withdrawn from the world, being isolated and not living up world, being isolated and not living up to its obligations, something he couldn't go along with. also, donald trump has a different view from many about afghanistan, to? indeed, apparently, we don't have an official announcement on this, but he wants to pool troops back from there, so the pentagon is looking at bringing half of the 111,000 troops in afghanistan home, starting in the new year. it is not clear how quickly that will happen, or exactly what those troops will stop doing and comeback, but donald trump may promise us right through his campaign and presidency that he would withdraw us troops from afghanistan and syria as soon as he could. so we shouldn't be surprised about this coming he has been consistent in his message that he would put purely american interests first. he was elected as someone to disrupt the world order, to change

things, so it can't surprisejim mattis that there was tension between himself and the president. but there is concern about who will ta ke but there is concern about who will take over as defence secretary and in some of the other key positions in the white house that have to be filled. what will donald trump's presidency look like in 2019? people sayjim mattis was someone who was able to constrain the president in some ways, restrict what he could do.jim some ways, restrict what he could do. jim mattis's resignation letter says that he ought to have a defence secretary who shares more clearly his own beliefs. if you find that present, how will his foreign policy go forward into next year? it'll be interesting to watch, but it is concerning even for donald trump's supporters. thank you forjoining us. england's chief medical officer has accused the food industry of failing the public, by not doing enough to cut salt and sugar in its products. professor dame sally davies said companies should face taxes on unhealthy food if they fail to improve. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns reports. the warning is clear — at the moment, society is balanced in a way so it is easier to make unhealthy choices and we need to tip

the scales the other way. half of all deaths in england are due to four reasons — bad diet, smoking, drinking too much, and a lack of exercise. the chief medical officer says we can turn this around, but only if food companies take action. we know the industry are not doing enough to make our food healthy. there's too much sugar, too much salt, so far they are failing on this. so if they don't get to it and deliver, we will need government to put in place taxes. and then i have a dream that we could use the taxes raised to subsidise fresh fruit and vegetables for all of us. the government has already introduced a tax on sugary drinks, that came in in april and had raised more than ?0 million by the end of october.

-- £150 —— £150 million. but many companies changed their recipes to cut sugar and so avoid paying the tax. the food and drink federation says its members are making good progress, cutting sugar in the average shopping baskets by 12%. it accepts that there is more work to be done, but argues that taxing unhealthy food is not the way to do it. meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the government has allocated £2110 million less to public health in england next year. catherine burns, bbc news. borisjohnson is understood to have been cleared of breaking the tories' code of conduct with comments he made about women wearing burkas. he had written that they looked liked "letter boxes" or "bank robbers" in a telegraph column in which he argued against a ban on full—face veils. it prompted dozens of complaints but it is understood an independent panel — established by the party — has decided he had been " respectful and tolera nt". at the time, the tory chairman brandon lewis and theresa may called on him to apologise. the conservative party has been accused of not doing enough

to tackle anti—muslim prejudice in its ranks, despite an initiative to boost tolerance and diversity. thousands of pro—independence demonstrators in catalonia have taken to the streets of barcelona to protest at a spanish cabinet meeting taking place there. these are live pictures from the city of barcelona. riot police were engaged in a tense stand—off with protesters as the meeting started. today's date is significant — as it's a year to the day since the elections imposed on the region by the spanish government. we saw many protests against that imposition this time last year. firefighters are coming out in solidarity with many of these demonstrators today. moscow has said checks will be carried out on the bbc world news channel and its websites in russia to see whether they comply

with the country's laws. the russian government says it's responding to yesterday's annoucement by the broadcasting watchdog 0fcom that the moscow—backed tv channel, rt — which broadcasts here — was in breach of impartiality rules. it's 30 years ago today that pan—am flight 103 was blown up in mid—air over the market town of lockerbie. this lunchtime there've been memorial services to commemorate the anniversary, and remember the 270 people who lost their lives. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. bagpipes play. 0n the shortest day, lockerbie remembers its longest night, remembers the lives cut short in the deadliest terror attack the uk has ever suffered. 30 years ago, pan am flight 103 blew up in the skies over the scottish town. 11 people in lockerbie died, their homes are obliterated by the debris which rained down. all 259 on—board to the new york bound fly also lost their lives.

with kindness and compassion, the people of lockerbie looked after the relatives, and the memories of those who died. among them — nicole boulanger — an american student returning home for christmas. her body was never recovered, but her personal possessions and clothes were amongst those collected and carefully washed by volunteers to return to those bereaved. sometimes we get guardian angels in life and that certainly is an example of the love, the dedication come and the caring of a group of people in another country who did not know our children, but who knew how much this would mean to their families. forsome, likejim, who lost his daughter flora in the attack, there are still unanswered questions. overwhelmingly, the tragedy of lockerbie was the needless death of 270 people who could have been protected. having said that, the refusal of our government to come out

of what they know about the truth has been a terrible added burden to many. and for all, the focus today, the families, the suns, the daughters that died. —— the sons. helen was 19 and a passenger on the plane that december night. we miss our daughter and we wonder how she would have done, what her musical career would have been like. would we have been grandparents to her children? we don't know. we still remember her as she was, lively. we are thankful we had her so long. 19 years isn't long, but they were happy years. 30 years on, they love and memories ever strong and in lockerbie, another moment for remembrance and respect. lorna gordon, bbc news, lockerbie. date is 2:25pm.

time for a look at the weather now. the shortest days seems to have come road quickly, what time of the somerset today? this varies depending on where you are, but this is of course the shortest day of the year, the solstice. these are taken in the isle of lewis, so if we look at sunset times today, they will vary a lot. in the north of scotland, it is not even three o'clock, just before 3pm. so they haven't got much family left at all. but if we had further south, we can look at the burying sunset times across the country. the further south and west you get, the sun will stay in the sky longest. so there is a one—hour difference from a nissan sets up there in the north of scotla nd a nissan sets up there in the north of scotland down towards the channel

islands. in jersey, of scotland down towards the channel islands. injersey, the sun will set at a:12pm. so it varies quite a lot, depending on where you are in the country. so what does the winter solstice mean? it is all down to the earth tilting away from the sun, in the northern hemisphere, it is the winter, in the southern hemisphere it is the summer solstice. so it happens tonight at 10:23pm, that is when the north pole is tilting furthest away from the sun, so after that time, it will start to tilt back toward the sun, and it is all downhill from there. so it is the longest night, the shortest period of daylight, but from tomorrow, days will start to get longer, and by the 21st ofjune, we will have almost double the amount of sunlight we have today. it will be nice to feel the days getting a bit longer, went its? hopefully some decent weather with that. but we have had quite a mixed picture across the country, i am

sure you have been asked countless times weather it will snow. yes, will it be a white christmas? i think it will be a great christmas, things are looking cloudy, mild at their the moment, and the festive forecast will stay fairly similar. quite mixed and mild. this shows the showers we have had over the last few hours, most of them have been through the central swathe of the country. more showers through the afternoon, and certainly quite a breeze, especially in the south. the wind will break up the cloud, sunny spells and it is mild, 12—14 in the south, further north across the country, temperature is more typical around the time of year, 6 degrees across northern england, scotland and northern ireland. these are the wind speeds, 20 mph in the south—west, we could see gusts up to around a0 mph this afternoon. what at first and windy conditions in the coast. wind will ease overnight with more showers working in from the west full stop some more rain to

battle through tonight. most of us will dry out by tomorrow morning, and on the most part it is frost free. there could be some frost in eastern scotland and the north—east of england. tomorrow, still low— pressure of england. tomorrow, still low—pressure sitting to the north of scotland, one to showers that there. but a ridge of high pressure building from the south—west, so a quiet day tomorrow in terms of the showers. still a few showers, particularly in the north—west of scotland, northern ireland, perhaps some in the north—west of england. elsewhere, there should be no showers, more sunshine than today, and doctor temperatures around 7—12 degrees. fast forward into the second half of the week, it is still u nsettled second half of the week, it is still unsettled as we head into sunday, and england and wales. 0ff unsettled as we head into sunday, and england and wales. off with the cloud and outbreaks of rain and windy conditions, too. scotland and northern ireland having a better day on sunday compared to further south. some sunshine here, temperatures between a 6—13 degrees across the

country on sunday. and then the all—important country on sunday. and then the all—importa nt festive outlook. country on sunday. and then the all—important festive outlook. into christmas eve, we will start to lose the front from the south—west, but it will be replaced by high pressure. that will build through christmas eve and into christmas day on tuesday as well. high—pressure book—keeping is dry and settled on christmas day itself. it could be some a patchy frost and fog at times, so not totally clear conditions or stop cloudy skies were most of us on christmas day, but it will remain largely mild, and do enjoy the extra few minutes of sunlight over the next couple of days. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: 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. donald trump's defence secretary resigns after the president announces he's pulling us troops out of syria. remembering the victims of the lockerbie bombing, 30 years on. and coming up — the teenager

with autism taking on the world and european karate championships. sport now on afternoon live with hugh. manchester united's new interim boss has been talking about his plans? what is he going to say? 0le gunnar solskjar says he understands many people would want the job full—time, one of the biggestjobs in the world. he is one of those people but he hasn't discussed taking that role on full—time. he didn't set any targets in terms of where they would be at the end of the season. his focus was to get the players to work asa focus was to get the players to work as a team and he said that would come down to communication and man management but the key is to get players to enjoy their football once again, after what has been a

miserable period underjose mourinho. he said i want manchester united to be the kids who love playing football. they take on cardiff in his first match in the premier league tomorrow afternoon. he has got to revitalise his squad and roy keane isn't very happy with the players? he isn't, he is known for his strong character and stronger views and another club legend but he thinks his former team—mate will have his hands full with this current squad. he spoke to radio five live earlier and he took aim at the squad saying some of them had thrown jose mourinho aim at the squad saying some of them had thrownjose mourinho under the bus and they should have no excuses. shame on some of them the way they have treated the manager and the club. managers come and go, pride comes from wedding when the referee blows the whistle. you are playing for your club, your badge,

team— mates for your club, your badge, team—mates and your family, the history and whatever motivates you. you don't hide behind the manager because he don't get on with him or you are not playing in the position you are not playing in the position you want. a lot of modern players, they cannotjust you want. a lot of modern players, they cannot just one week players, they cannot just one week players, they are weak human beings and they live in cooking land. the football association has announce les reed will become their new technical director based at st. george's park. until last month, reed was vice—chairman at premier league side southampton, where he spent eight years. in more than three decades as a coach, he worked at charlton athletic and fulham amongst others and was in the backroom staff of former england boss kevin keegan. reed replaces dan ashworth who will begin working with brighton in the spring. the chief executive of the england and wales cricket board says he hopes hosting next year's world cup could inspire people to play the sport. england host the men's tournament 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 isa it is a once in a generation opportunity. i stand it is a once in a generation opportunity. istand here it is a once in a generation opportunity. i stand here as a kind of giddy with excitement about 2019 and thejob of giddy with excitement about 2019 and the job that i of giddy with excitement about 2019 and thejob that i do of giddy with excitement about 2019 and the job that i do and the opportunities it brings, to do what we are here to do, which is inspired people to pick up a bat and ball and get involved in the game. we know that's what our new strategy is all about. it's about using the power of cricket to connect communities, to enable people to enrich their lives through 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. 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 compared to yesterday, made a lot of progress in terms of the resources that we got here and the options we've got available. as you can see, since the update this morning, the runway has remained open, so some positive news. my heart goes out to the passengers and the public who have been really distressing situation with a level of disruption that we've had here at gatwick airport over the last 36 hours. but painting a better picture as we move forward. why haven't we caught the drone operater? because it is an incredibly difficult offence to detect and to arrest a suspect for.

what i will say is we do have a number of lines of enquiry, we do have persons of interest and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators and there's a huge amount of intelligence that we are trawling through. we obviously have the ongoing request to the public to ring 101 and quote 0peration trebor, should they in particular have any imagery of the drone that has been flying above the airport gatwick. in terms of the motivation, there's a whole spectrum of possibilities from the really high end criminal behaviour that we've seen, all the way down to potentialjust individuals trying to be malicious and trying to disrupt the airport. but we are keeping all options open. what laws exist around drones? and how can a drone cause so much chaos? i'm nowjoined by a drone expert kerry blakeman, who can answer these questions. former chief inspector of westminster police. who is allowed

to fly a drone in this country? basically, any member of the public can go along to any high street store and purchase a drone is similarto store and purchase a drone is similar to this one. they are readily available and if you get one for christmas, it may be you want to fly it in the locality, but you have two ad here to the drone code which stipulates the distances and where you can and cannot fly. what sort of training do you have to have all licensed do you have to poll? as an ordinarily member of the public you can buy one of these drones from the high street and you don't have to have any kind of training. i have taken an approved course via the civil aviation authority for what is called permission to fly for commercial operations. i have taken the two date theory test, and morning flight test and that allows me, with insurance to fly my drone for commercial purposes, such as photography, building inspections

and surveys. in terms of your question, anyone can buy one of these and they can take of from their garden. if they take off within 50 metres from their house, they are not sticking to the drone code. some of them are fitted with gps and some of them are not? this drone here is fitted with gps so it is similartoa drone here is fitted with gps so it is similar to a sat nav and it knows exactly where it is. i cannot fly my drone in restricted areas, so i cannot fly 1000 metres from my local airport, i cannot fly over football stadium or prisons. but there are drone is available on the market that though her gps so they can actually be flown a legally, probably similar to what happened at gatwick yesterday. you're drone looks very small, lightweight, so how much damage could drone like

that do if it was inside the perimeter of gatwick airport as we saw yesterday? indeed, this is a very small one, classed as being under seven kilograms. if it was ingested into an airport engine could have a catastrophic loss of the engine and backward subsequently result in the plane crashing. it is clear the incident yesterday has taken everybody clear the incident yesterday has ta ken everybody by clear the incident yesterday has taken everybody by surprise and there are so many lessons that need to be learned. whilst there is a lot of negative publicity about drones, those that are flown legally, lawfully and safely bring so much pleasure to a lot of people. how do you track someone down if they have used a drone inappropriately? on the piece before, the local police are asking for help from the public with regards to that. that is something we did when i was at in charge at

birmingham airport. the public are the local eyes and ears of the local community. we did get reports from the local plane spotters about people they did not recognise. we did have drones on or near the flight did have drones on or near the flight path but they were not criminal activity it was just people who wanted to take photos of the planes. yesterday was a criminal act. the penalties are severe? they are, there has been a breach of the airport perimeter, flights have been endangered, the safety of the public has been endangered so there is a potential prison sentence should sussex police find the person or persons responsible. an incident like that has such far—reaching ramifications, what extra provisions might have to be made in future, changes to the law potentially to try to regulate drone use, as they

become more and more popular? yes indeed. we have heard the transport secretary saying he will call an emergency meeting with other airports. what we are looking for here, we need an improvement in technology that is probably in the early stages of development. but the public are the eyes and ears of the police and it is important the public report anything, any suspicious behaviour involving the use of drones to 101. thank you very much for talking to us. russia says it will launch an investigation into whether the bbc world news channel and bbc websites comply with the country's laws. the russian government says it's responding to an announcement by the broadcasting watchdog 0fcom yesterday that the moscow—backed tv channel, russia today, which broadcasts here in the uk, was in breach of impartiality rules. in response to 0fcom's ruling, president vladimir putin's spokesman said some bbc reports were politically motivated, questioning its coverage of russia and moscow's actions in syria. the father of a teenager from kent

has described as "miraculous" the change in his autistic son after taking up karate. 16—year—old ishar sandhu only started the martial art a year ago and has already won medals at the world and european championships. he competes in adapted karate kata for people with physical and learning disabilities. here's our sports reporterjuliette parkin. what you see here is a confident, focused and athletic teenager. but only 12 months ago ishar sandhu was a very different person. indecisive, not confident at all. not wanting to make eye contact, not wanting to talk to strangers or any people that he had ever met before. he is now a different individual. ishar‘s father appealed a year ago for his son who has autism and special educational needs.

unable to distract him from computer games karate was suggested and the change, it is claimed, has been remarkable. he has confidence and he is more than happy to come forward and shake your hand and make eye contact and say, hey, i am great, how are you? he has already brought home medals. he competes in a non—fighting display of moves alongside other competitors with learning difficulties. he has won world championship bronze and a of others. bronze and a string of others. the european championship i came third in malta. and the final one, in romania i got a gold medal which was two weeks ago. shift your body weight. ishar‘s teacher has a5 years experience in the sport and he wrote the rule book in this area to create a fair and level playing field regardless of the level

of disability, but he is motivated by other reasons. the medals are fantastic, do not get me wrong, they are really nice and a good benchmark for them and everyone. but i also think the practical side is so important so hopefully through this training we can prevent people with disability from being assaulted and attack. ishar‘s ultimate goal is to become a karate teacher, but for now the focus is to go on moving up the belts and on the world championships next year. jamie is here, in a moment he/she will be telling us what's hot and what's not in the business news. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. gatwick‘s runway reopens with over 800 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. 30 years after lockerbie — memorial services are held in scotland to remember the 200 and 70 people who were killed. in scotland to remember the 270 people who were killed. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. 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 need 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. cha nts chants of a government shutdown in the united states? it is all to do with the budget, he wants about $5 billion to build the wall. a lot of the budget has gone through but it seems to have got stuck in the senate. which is surprising because he has a majority in the senate. it is stuck in the senate, but the republicans have a majority in the

senate, don't they? what happened, they put together a bill they thought was going to clear the way to fund the government until february, when they had this battle yet again. so it was passed in the house by a voice call, they didn't even think they needed to do an individual roll call. it was going to go to the senate and then they got a call from the president who said, unequivocally he will not sign any spending bill unless it has some sort of funding for this border wall. so now, here we are on friday before the christmas break and there is still no funding available for the government past midnight tonight. what will happen? they are not going to say yes to the wall, are they? mrtrump not going to say yes to the wall, are they? mr trump tweeted saying he would be proud to have a government shutdown? yes, a lot of this has to do with the optics. the optics for

mrtrump as saying, do with the optics. the optics for mr trump as saying, he's fighting really ha rd mr trump as saying, he's fighting really hard for border wall and democrats have said absolutely not, we will not put any money towards this border wall. then it plays into a game of how does this play out would—be american people and whether 01’ would—be american people and whether or not people will support the president for being strong on immigration and border security, or they will blame democrats for not allowing the government to continue its funding. there will be a lot of negotiation from here on in, is basically what i am saying. how com plete basically what i am saying. how complete shutdown will it be? will it bea complete shutdown will it be? will it be a complete one or has quite a lot of the funding going to enable the government to be able to work? it is going to be a partial shutdown isafunding it is going to be a partial shutdown is a funding the us government is complicated and it happens in patchwork. parts of the government have already been funded until next

year. part of the government that will be affected are things like the national park service, things like the department of agriculture, the environmental protection and is a an even part of the state department. but it is not a complete government shutdown that we saw in january but it is not a complete government shutdown that we saw injanuary of last year. 0r shutdown that we saw injanuary of last year. or in 2013. it will be a partial government shutdown. ok, thank you very much. have a happy christmas and a nice new year. happy christmas! you last a very important question, you are getting the hang of this. i made it up. the markets? the interesting one is the euro, the pound against the euro is down and looking very weak. we have brexit uncertainty to blame. 0il, down to

53.36 and continuing to fall. 0ver simply, 53.36 and continuing to fall. 0ver supply, slow growth. the dowjones, is up but not by a huge amount. even though there is going to be a shutdown, it doesn't worry the markets too much at the moment. shutdown, it doesn't worry the markets too much at the momentm could be a late night for those having to wrestle with that in a moment. we will see you in an hour. it's six months since 12 boys from the wild boars football team and their coach got trapped in a flooded cave in thailand. after ten days, they were found by british divers, and there then followed a race against time to get them out, with more monsoon rains forecast. 0ur south east asia correspondentjonathan head has been back to the cave, and the community around it. the boys are back. along with a new statue. this tribute to thailand dive, the fatality in an otherwise

miraculous rescue is also a reunion between the boys and their saviours. three of the foreign volunteers who helped get them out of the caves are also here. this is such a contrast with what we saw here five months ago. the boys are paying their respects to the statue of a man who lost his life trying to save them. five months ago, this was a sea of mud, rescuers everywhere and no one had any idea whether they would come out alive. that extraordinary, three—week operation has put this previously little—known side down to thailand's tourist map. from just a handful of visitors a day, it now gets thousands. drawn, notjust by the boys' story, but also by their good fortune. it has become a lucky place, somewhere to buy a lottery ticket. all these lottery tickets, which one is the lucky number? 13, she says. that is the number of the

boys and their coach who went into the cave. this pineapple field was flooded during the rescue, by all the water pumped from the caves. these days, he's making more money by selling the oranges from his orchard. pineapple crop rotted, he explained. we couldn't get into harvest it because of all the vehicles back then. he farming and volunteered to help the rescue was instead. the mini tourist boom is proving something of a bonanza for this community and rescuers have become local celebrities. to be perfectly honest, i prefer a quieter life. i don't think you are going to get it? i am not the one for going out and seeking people treating me asa out and seeking people treating me as a hero, i am out and seeking people treating me as a hero, iam nota hero. out and seeking people treating me as a hero, iam not a hero. just

out and seeking people treating me as a hero, i am not a hero. just in the right place at the right time really. the lives of the boys have now returned to their old routines. although not quite as before. use the body as a shield. this is a coaching session offered by manchester city. the most famous young footballers in the world are still getting plenty of international attention. jonathan head, bbc news, northern thailand. a nonprofit 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 30 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 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 tickets by his partner trish fairhurst and her niece. he made a claim for the prize — the 12th biggest win ever in the uk, last week. i wonder how many others have been put somewhere safe and forgotten about? time for a look at the weather with sarah keith—lucas. hello.

it has been a bit of a grey start to the day out there and as we head through the remainder of today, we are still expecting quite a bit of cloud and some outbreaks of drizzly rain for some of us too. now this picture comes from one of our weather watchers in norfolk. you can see the shower clouds around. there is a little bit of brightness developing here and there as we move through the remainder of the afternoon. but what we've got, we've got this area of low pressure which is heading its way gradually from west to east. so that brought the rain we saw this morning across parts of northern england, northern ireland as well. we've got more showers feeding in from the west as we head into the evening hours, particularly across wales, parts of northern england too. further rain showers pushing in for the north west of scotland and also for northern ireland. it's still quite windy through this evening and into tonight across the southern half of england in particular, some blustery winds here. now for most of us it's going to be a frost—free start to your saturday morning but perhapsjust cold enough for a touch of frost across the north—east of scotland and north east england too. so heading into tomorrow then, what we've got is low pressure still sitting to the north of the uk, but a small ridge of high pressure building in from the south.

so a bit of a mixed picture tomorrow. for most of us it should be largely dry with some sunshine but you will see a scattering of showers feeding in on that north—westerly breeze, particularly affecting northern ireland and also towards the north—west of scotland too. further south—east across the uk, most of us should stay largely dry with some spells of sunshine. temperature—wise between around seven to 12 degrees. not far off typical really for the time of year but quite mild in the south still. now moving on into sunday, we've got the next area of low—pressure approaching from the west. that's set to bring quite a soggy start to your sunday, particularly across england and wales. some of that rain potentially into southern scotland and parts of northern ireland too, but the further north you are, you are more likely to stay largely dry through the course of sunday. the rain lingering the longest further south across the uk. temperatures only around six to eight across scotland, northern england and northern ireland. further south we could see 12 or 13 degrees. now moving ahead into the all—important christmas week. christmas eve could be a little bit damp first thing but we've got a big area of high pressure building. moving ahead on to christmas day, tuesday, we should see largely dry,

settled weather set to continue. so this is your christmas outlook then, dry for most, some patchy frost and fog, mostly cloudy and no snow on the way. bye— bye. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm martine croxall. today at 3: gatwick reopens after more than 30 hours of chaos caused by rogue drones, which paralysed the airport. but many passengers still face the misery of knock—on delays and cancellations. it's cost us about £7,000 to re—book the flights. so hopefully the insurance will pay up, but who knows? 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 we have a better idea

on what direction manchester united might take in the coming months. yes, 0le gunnar solskjaer saying his priority was on getting the players to understand how to play as a team, he says the whole squad will get a chance to prove themselves and even though he would like to, he hasn't discussed taking thejob full—time. more on old trafford later in the hour. thanks hugh, and we'll bejoining you for a full update just after half—past. sarah has all the weather. it is the winter solstice today, the shortest day of the year, so the days will get longerfrom shortest day of the year, so the days will get longer from now on. i will have a full festive forecast for you in about half an hour. also coming up — six months after these boys were trapped in a cave in thailand, they return to thank those involved in their dramatic rescue. hello everyone — this

is afternoon live — i'm martine croxall. after almost 36 hours of chaos, gatwick airport has finally re—opened, with managers hoping to operate the majority of flights today — but passengers are being warned to expect more delays and dozens of cancellations. the airport was closed on wednesday night after rogue drones were seen flying inside its perimeter. the army has now been deployed with specialist equipment to safeguard the airport, but police have so far failed to find those responsible. 0ur correspondent navtej johal has this report from gatwick. the sight that thousands of travellers have been waiting to see. after a day and a half, aircraft finally landing and taking off early this morning at gatwick airport. good news for many but plenty remain stranded here and face a long journey ahead. so tomorrow we will have to take a train to edinburgh to get our flight to copenhagen.

and we have to cancel all our tour from sweden to copenhagen because we have a connecting flight from copenhagen to rome. so this holiday really went wrong for us. and there are ten of us here. ron has been waiting since wednesday night for a flight to antigua to join his family. he'll now have fly on christmas day. very frustrating. i won't be spending christmas with the family which is, you know, sad, but again, it's all out of my control so there is very little i can do about it. unfortunately, there's no flights to antigua every day so it's not like i canjust say, "i will go tomorrow." today is one of the busiest days of the year for people to be travelling, the final weekend before christmas. and the airport has said that the disruption caused by this incident will continue throughout the weekend. it's coming over your head! could this be the cause of the disruption? this device was spotted near the airfield yesterday. police are yet to find the device

or the operator behind it. what has changed is there are a number of mitigating measures in place provided by a number of government agencies and the military to ensure that i have the confidence to be able to reopen my airport. although the incident is not believed to be terror—related, it has caused a debate around how to protect airports in future. it's clearly a kind of disruptive activity that we have not seen before. this kind of incident is unprecedented anywhere in the world, the disruption of an airport in this way. we are going to have to learn very quickly from what's happened. i plan to convene discussions with other airports around the uk very quickly indeed. it is unclear what methods have been deployed to mitigate the risk to the airport. there are a number of options such as the drone detection technology developed by this american company. we can track them with radar, we can detect the signal between the drone and the controller using rf detection technology. 0n the countermeasure side, we can disrupt that control

link between the drone and the controller, and we can also disrupt the drone's ability to navigate using gps. for those passengers affected by the problems of the last two days, an unwelcome holiday headache awaits to find out what they are entitled to. my advice to passengers who are turning up in the hope of getting away is, put your problem in the hands of the airline. it really is their legal responsibility to make sure that you are on your way as swiftly as possible. most scheduled flights be going ahead today. after a turbulent few days the airport is now expecting things to slowly return to normal. well, navtej johal gave us this update from gatwick airport a little earlier. for the time being, the mood is optimistic here, and it has been throughout most of the day so far. that is because of the around 800 or so flights that are scheduled to arrive or depart from gatwick today, most of them will be going ahead.

155 cancellations have been confirmed so far by the airport earlier today. as i said a moment ago, the situation is that they expect things to return to normal by saturday night. in terms of the investigation to finding out who has been behind this drone incident, we had a police press conference a while ago. as part of that conference, they confirmed that sussex police is working with the met police and the army to find the people or person responsible for this incident. they have also said that when the episode began on wednesday night, the equivalent needed to secure the site as they have from this morning, was not ready. —— the equipment they needed. it took them hours to both acquire it and bring it to gatwick airport. in terms of the overall picture, it still remains the case that there are flights that have been delayed and cancelled,

the airport is saying to all passengers and people coming here today, you can still see people are arriving, to check the status of your flight before coming to the airport. a lot of people have been coming here, getting checked in, and then being taken by bus to heathrow, sta nsted, even as far away as birmingham. but don't come here unless you have checked the status of your flight first. that was the latest update from gatwick airport. gatwick‘s runway may have reopened but thousands of passengers are still stranded with a huge backlog of flights. 155 flights have been cancelled today, on top of the hundreds scrapped yesterday many are stranded abroad and some of those here are now resorting to alternative travel plans, as john mcmanus reports. st pancras station, just days to christmas, the getaway is on. but many of these people moving through these queues shouldn't be here. the grounding of planes at gatwick airport has meant some last—minute changes to many people's travel plans. many of britain's mainline

railway stations are busy in the run—up to christmas, but the queues behind me are extremely long. a number of eurostar staff told me many of those travelling today had booked in advance but there were also plenty of others who had been forced to swap the plane for the train. it is a similar story at victoria coach station, where travellers who were hoping to fly into gatwick have been forced onto the road instead. some are making the journey to gatwick today in hope rather than expectation of flying, as the christmas getaway continues. where are you trying to get to? italy, rome. family christmas. it's quite annoying. i saw that it has reopened. so hopefully, yeah. has your airline said anything? not really. they keep saying we will probably fly normally, but they don't give us a lot of information. i was talking with my company and they said at the moment it is all right, but we don't know. so they, just go there

and see what happens. i wish but i don't know. and the travel disruption has forced britons abroad to also cancel and rearrange travel plans. alex and joanne were visiting their two faughters in new york city and were supposed to return home yesterday after a five—day trip. we had never heard of that before, causing so much disruption. had we? no, we just panicked, actually, because when we got the text telling us the flight had been cancelled at about 7am this morning, we just wanted to get home. we booked the first flight we could get. as long as this flight back to london is ok in terms of time, it's nothing. but it has been hugely expensive. it's cost us around £7,000 to rebook the flights. we are hoping the insurance will pay up. who knows? this woman was due home in east sussex after a holiday in the dominican republic. she suffers from a number of health conditions and says her medications might run out. she and her sister—in—law are stranded onto the next available flight on the 27th.

i brought my main medication but unfortunately some of my medication has run out so we are hoping to get hold of that today otherwise i'm in big trouble. her son acts as her carer and she is worried she will not be home for christmas. we are going to miss christmas with my family and my son which is really upsetting. he's 17 but he didn't want to come this year because he is obviously nearly a grown up as far as he is concerned. so it would have been my last christmas with him as a child as well. gatwick is slowly starting to return to normal but it's too late for many looking to get home for christmas. as we've been hearing, the government is looking at giving the police greater powers in relation to the use of drones. let's speak now to

captain janet alexander — a commercial airline pilot who has been flying for the last 20 years. thank you forjoining us this afternoon. how else could this drone at risk have been dealt with at gatwick yesterday to minimise the chaos? i suspect that some of the technologies like frequency jamming and possibly more drastic measures, by the police or the army might have been called for. presumably, early on, in the first few hours, their concern was just to keep the aircraft away, because they are unpredictable. i suspect there will probably hope to be able to track

them back, because a lot of drones asi them back, because a lot of drones as i understand have return to sender type technology, i imagine thatis sender type technology, i imagine that is what they would try to do to start with. what concerns to pilots have about drone usage? they are difficult to see, in comparison to an airliner, they are very small. they move quickly, and in unexpected directions will stop you cannot put it where they will go, even assuming you see them. —— you can't predict. most modern collision avoidance is dependent on both parties having the appropriate technology on board. but these drones don't have that. so he really have very little to do, they caused such a threat. they can cause serious damage to a plane if you fly into one, or if one flies into the engine. what is included in your

training these days to deal with that everything? there is nothing about specific drones per se, but we are trained every six months, we are trained to deal with unexpected failure is or incidents, for example, an engine failure. 0r anything like that, that is part of oui’ anything like that, that is part of our continuing and ongoing training. but you can't. .. inaudible that is what makes them so dangerous. we are hearing the police might get greater powers to deal with drones, but what extra regulations do you think needs to be brought in high—strength usage increases? without question, much tougher licensing, and purchase of

them. you know, they are so easy to buy, and i suspect that changing the softwa re buy, and i suspect that changing the software so that you lose the jeers that capability is probably not, i do know, but i suspect it is not that difficult. —— lose the geosat. you need much tougher laws, the recent legislation is just not tough enough. it needs to be much tougher. thank you forjoining us this afternoon. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: gatwick‘s runway reopens after rogue drones caused the airport to shut down for more than a day. 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. 30 years after lockerbie — memorial services

are held in scotland and the united states to remember the 270 people who were killed. and in sport, manchester united ca reta ker and in sport, manchester united caretaker boss, 0le gunnar solskjaer, says he would love to remain as manager, but hasn't discussed taking the job on a permanent basis. he held his first press c0 nfe re nces permanent basis. he held his first press conferences morning. the chief executive of the england and wales cricket board says ben stokes and wales cricket board says ben sto kes ca n and wales cricket board says ben stokes can still be a role model in the sport having been cleared of a fray in august. and the six time 0lympic sprint champion revealed she has given birth to her daughter eight weeks prematurely. i will be back with more on this story is just after half past. the us defence secretaryjim mattis has become the latest senior figure to resign from donald trump's administration. it follows mr trump's decision to pull all american

troops out of syria. in his resignation letter, general mattis warned about the need to "show respect" to allies and to be clear—eyed about america's enemies. 0ur correspondent dan johnson is in washington. there was a strong sense that it was the final straw forjim mattis. we now have reports that there will be a serious withdrawal of troops from afghanistan, too, something he may also have been opposed to. we could all see the way this was going, the relationship between the two men has broken down over the last few months and that jim mattis shares a completely different view of the world and america's place in it from donald trump, that had become increasingly apparent. donald trump had disrespected some international organisations, like the un and nato, he had pulled out of international agreements and had dissolved some of the international coalitions and global alliances that have been working together on some of the world's biggest problems and conflicts. that is the work thatjim mattis had been involved in,

notjust as defence secretary, but as a marine court general in charge of troops in afghanistan and iraq, he was the kind of person who was committed to the international organisations to maintaining good relationships with allies, and he thought the president's america first policy increasingly looked like america being withdrawn from the world, being isolated and not living up to its obligations, something he couldn't go along with. also, donald trump has a different view from many about afghanistan, too? indeed, apparently, we don't have an official announcement on this, but he wants to pull troops back from there, so the pentagon is looking at bringing half of the 1a,000 troops in afghanistan home, starting in the new year. it is not clear how quickly that will happen, or exactly what those troops will stop doing and come back, but donald trump made promised us right through his campaign and presidency that he would withdraw us troops

from afghanistan and syria as soon as he could. so we shouldn't be surprised about this, he has been consistent in his message that he would put purely american interests first. he was elected as someone to disrupt the world order, to change things, so it can't surprisejim mattis that there was tension between himself and the president. but there is concern about who will take over as defence secretary and in some of the other key positions in the white house that have to be filled. what will donald trump's presidency look like in 2019? people sayjim mattis was someone who was able to constrain the president in some ways, restrict what he could do. jim mattis's resignation letter says that the president ought to have a defence secretary who shares more clearly his own beliefs. if you find that person, how will his foreign policy go forward into next year? it'll be interesting to watch, but it is concerning, even for some of donald trump's supporters. one person has died following a shooting outside a restaurant popular with tourists in central vienna.

another person was injured in the incident and a hunt for the perpetrator is under way. a police spokeswoman said the shooting appears to have been a "targeted criminal act" and ruled out terrorism. england's chief medical officer has accused the food industry of failing the public, by not doing enough to cut salt and sugar in its products. professor dame sally davies said companies should face taxes on unhealthy food if they fail to improve. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns reports. the warning is clear — at the moment, society is balanced in a way so it is easier to make unhealthy choices and we need to tip the scales the other way. half of all deaths in england are due to four reasons — bad diet, smoking, drinking too much, and a lack of exercise. the chief medical officer says we can turn this around, but only if food companies take action. we know the industry are not doing enough to make our food healthy. there's too much sugar, too much salt, so far

they are failing on this. so if they don't get to it and deliver, we will need government to put in place taxes. and then i have a dream that we could use the taxes raised to subsidise fresh fruit and vegetables for all of us. the government has already introduced a tax on sugary drinks, that came in in april and had raised more than £150 million by the end of october. but many companies changed their recipes to cut sugar and so avoid paying the tax. the food and drink federation says its members are making good progress, cutting sugar in the average shopping baskets by 12%. it accepts that there is more work to be done, but argues that taxing unhealthy food is not the way to do it. meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the government has allocated £2a0 million less to public health in england next year. catherine burns, bbc news.

police have interviewed a person under caution following the alleged racial abuse of raheem sterling during manchester city's defeat at chelsea. the incident involving the 2a —year—old occurred during city's 2—0 loss at stamford bridge on the 8th of december. officers from the metropolitan police are reviewing cctv footage to determine whether any offences were committed. chelsea have suspended four people from attending matches while investigations take place but police have not yet made any arrests. borisjohnson is understood to have been cleared of breaking the tories' code of conduct with comments he made about women wearing burqas. he had written that they looked liked "letter boxes" or "bank robbers" in a telegraph column in which he argued against a ban on full—face veils. it prompted dozens of complaints but it is understood an independent panel, established by the party, has decided he had been " respectful and tolera nt". at the time, the tory chairman

brandon lewis and theresa may called on him to apologise. the conservative party has been accused of not doing enough to tackle anti—muslim prejudice in its ranks, despite an initiative to boost tolerance and diversity. thousands of pro—independence demonstrators in catalonia have taken to the streets of barcelona to protest at a spanish cabinet meeting taking place there. riot police were engaged in a tense stand—off with protesters as the meeting started. today's date is significant — as it's a year to the day since the elections imposed on the region by the spanish government. moscow has said checks will be carried out on the bbc world news channel and its websites in russia to see whether they comply with the country's laws. the russian government says it's responding to yesterday's annoucement by the broadcasting watchdog 0fcom that the moscow—backed tv channel, rt, which broadcasts here, was in breach of impartiality rules. it's 30 years ago today that pan—am flight 103 was blown up in mid—air over the market town of lockerbie.

this lunchtime there've been memorial services to commemorate the anniversary, and remember the 270 people who lost their lives. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. bagpipes play. 0n the shortest day, lockerbie remembers its longest night, remembers the lives cut short in the deadliest terror attack the uk has ever suffered. 30 years ago, pan—am flight 103 blew up in the skies over the scottish town. 11 people in lockerbie died, their homes are obliterated by the debris which rained down. all 259 on—board the new york bound fly also lost their lives. with kindness and compassion, the people of lockerbie looked after the relatives, and the memories of those who died. among them — nicole boulanger — an american student returning home for christmas. her body was never recovered, but her personal possessions and clothes were amongst those collected and carefully

washed by volunteers to return to those bereaved. sometimes we get guardian angels in life and that certainly is an example of the love, the dedication come and the caring of a group of people in another country who did not know our children, but who knew how much this would mean to their families. forsome, likejim, who lost his daughter flora in the attack, there are still unanswered questions. overwhelmingly, the tragedy of lockerbie was the needless death of 270 people who could have been protected. having said that, the refusal of our government and the american government to come out with what they know about the truth has been a terrible added burden to many. and for all, the focus today, the families, the sons, the daughters that died.

helga was 19 and a passenger on the plane that december night. we miss our daughter and we wonder how she would have done, what her musical career would have been like. would we have been grandparents to her children? we don't know. we'll still remember her as she was — lively. we are thankful we had her so long. 19 years isn't long, but they were happy years. 30 years on, they love and memories ever strong and in lockerbie, another moment for remembrance and respect. 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 hailstones is expected to run into the tens of millions. i wouldn't want to go out on them either, would you ? i wouldn't want to go out on them either, would you? you could get quite a headache. now it's time for a look at the weather with sarah keith—lucas. it has been a great start to the day, and as the head through the rest of the day, we could see some cloud and outbreaks of rain for some of us as well. this is a picture from norfolk, you can see the shower clouds around, there is some brightness developing here and there as we move through the afternoon. we have got an area of low pressure ridges heading its weight gradually from west to east. that brought the rain across parts of northern england and northern ireland this morning, but we have more showers feeding in from the west through the evening. but a gloomy across wales and northern ireland, further rain showers for the north—west of

scotla nd showers for the north—west of scotland and from northern ireland. it is still quite windy through this evening and tonight across the southern half of england in particular. for most of us, it'll be a frost free start to saturday, but perhaps cold enough for some frost across the north east of scotland and north—east of england. heading into tomorrow, we have low pressure still sitting to the north of the uk, buta still sitting to the north of the uk, but a small ridge of high pressure building in from the south. a mixed picture tomorrow, for most of us, it should be largely dry with sunshine, but there could be some showers feeding in on the north—westerly breeze, particularly affecting northern ireland and the north—west of scotland. further south—east, most of us should stay dry, with some styles of sunshine. temperatures around 7—12 degrees, not far of typicalfor the temperatures around 7—12 degrees, not far of typical for the time of year. quite mild in the south, still. in december, we have the next area of low pressure from the west, thatis area of low pressure from the west, that is set to bring a wet start to sunday, particularly across england and wales. some of the rain into

southern scotland and part of northern ireland, too, but the further north, the more likely to stay largely dry to the course of sunday. the rain will lingerfor the longest further south across the uk. temperatures around 6—8 across scotland, northern england and northern ireland, further south we could see 12 or 13 degrees. now moving ahead to the important christmas eve, this could be a bit damp first christmas eve, this could be a bit dampfirst thing, christmas eve, this could be a bit damp first thing, but the high—pressure is building and moving into christmas day, we should see some largely dry and settled weather set to continue. this is your christmas outlook, dry foremost, patti frost and fog, mostly cloudy, and knows now. —— patchy frost and no snow. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: gatwick reopens after more than 30 hours of chaos caused by rogue drones which paralysed the airport. but many passengers still face the misery of knock—on delays and cancellations. it's cost us about £7,000 to re—book the flights. so hopefully the insurance will pay up, but who knows?

donald trump's defence secretary resigns after the president announces he's pulling us troops out of syria. remembering the victims of the lockerbie bombing, 30 years on. and still to come, santa paws — the dogs bringing christmas cheer to patients in south africa. sport now on afternoon live with hugh. manchester united's new interim manager, 0le gunnar solskjaer, has held his first press conference in thejob. he said he understood many would wa nt he said he understood many would want thejob he said he understood many would want the job at old trafford and

admitted he is one of those people but hasn't discussed taking on that role full—time. he was pressed by the media but wouldn't set any target in terms of where they would end the season. he said the focus was on getting his players to work asa was on getting his players to work as a collective group and that would come down to communication and man management and he said those qualities he adopted from his former boss, sir alex ferguson. he has been my mentor. i didn't think he would be my mental, but i was sitting, since my injury in 2003 at least, i was making all the notes, what he did in certain situations. of course, i have already been in touch with him because there's no one better to get some advice from. he will need it, up against cardiff, his former club who were relegated

from the premier league previously. united's former captain roy keane is always very forthright with his opinions and speaking to radio 5live today, keane took aim at the current squad, saying some of them had thrown former bossjose mourinho ‘under the bus' and that they have "no excuses" shame on some of them the way they have treated the manager and the club. you don't get pried from looking at your manager. managers come and go, pride comes from when the referee blows the whistle. you are playing for your club, your badge, team—mates and your family, the history and whatever motivates you. you don't hide behind the manager because he don't get on with him or you are not playing in the position you want. a lot of them are just weak people.

the football association has announce les reed will become their new technical director based at st george's park. until last month, reed was vice—chairman at premier league side southampton, where he spent eight years. in more than three decades as a coach, he worked at charlton athletic and fulham amongst others and was in the backroom staff of former england boss kevin keegan. reed replaces dan ashworth who will begin working with brighton in the spring. the chief executive of the england and wales cricket board says he hopes hosting next year's world cup could inspire people to play the sport. england host the men's tournament 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 is a once in a generation opportunity. i stand here as a kind of giddy with excitement about 2019 and thejob that i do

and the opportunities it brings, to do what we are here to do, which is inspired people to pick up a bat and ball and get involved in the game. we know that's what our new strategy is all about. it's about using the power of cricket to connect communities, to enable people to enrich their lives through 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. back to our top story today, gatwick‘s runway has reopened

after rogue drones caused the airport to shut down for more than a day. but thousands of passengers remain stranded at the airport. a little earlier i spoke to helen campbell who was meant to fly to jamaica from gatwick yesterday morning with her family and had to get a coach to birmingham to get a flight out. hi, yes, we are on the coach heading to birmingham airport. since yesterday morning, 11am was supposed to be on a flight to montego bay. we were delayed all day yesterday, cancelled. arrived back at gatwick to be told we would be leaving this morning and now we are on the way to birmingham. how well informed where you kept? via tui as a company, not very well. the app was never having information on it. you'd go back every hour and there would be no information. it was only down to my husband checking online, it checking online, checking the bbc news. constantly we were getting more information by that than actually from the airport, from the airline.

so, let me get this straight, you were expecting to be lying on the beach in the caribbean this morning. instead, you are on a coach to birmingham? yes. right, how confident are you you will actually get away this time? we hope, our plane we have been told is at birmingham. it landed there yesterday, hence it couldn't get to gatwick. we have now been told that is our dreamliner, and we need to get all 200 passengers up to birmingham to board the plane. so i don't think we will actually take off until much later this evening. so fingers crossed we will be in jamaica sometime very late tonight. how much help did you get in finding accommodation, what's the situation with regarding some kind of recompense? absolutely none. the text message read,

please make your way home. that was their advice last night, this was at apm yesterday afternoon. rush—hour traffic, no hotels around, taxis cancelling or you can't get a taxi. all of our luggage had been checked in so we then had to go back in, go through passport security control to get our luggage and come back out and there was absolutely nothing, no hotel. we got food vouchers, that was it. other than that, my husband again has had to look online to find accommodation, somewhere to stay, we've had to do it all ourselves. i spoke earlier to a drone expert kerry bla keman, i started by asking him who exactly is allowed to fly a drone in this country. basically, any member of the public can go along to any high street store and purchase a drone similar to this one. they are readily available and if you get one for christmas, to adhere to the drone code

which stipulates the distances and where you can and cannot fly. what sort of training do you have to have or license do you have to hold? as an ordinarily member of the public you can buy one of these drones from the high street and you don't have to have any kind of training. i have taken an approved course via the civil aviation authority for what is called permission to fly for commercial operations. i have taken the two day theory test, and morning flight test and that allows me, with insurance to fly my drone for commercial purposes, such as photography, building inspections and surveys. in terms of your question, anyone can buy one of these and they can take of from their garden. if they take off within 50 metres from their house, they are not sticking to the drone code.

some of them are fitted with gps and some of them are not? how does that help in terms of manoeuvrability and help to keep you out of trouble? this drone here is fitted with gps so it is similar to a sat nav and it knows exactly where it is. i cannot fly my drone in restricted areas, so i cannot fly 1000 metres from my local airport, i cannot fly over football stadium or prisons. but there are drones available on the market that though her gps so they can actually be flown a legally, probably similar to what happened at gatwick yesterday. you're drone looks very small, lightweight, so how much damage could a drone like that do if it was inside the perimeter of gatwick airport as we saw yesterday? indeed, this is a very small one, classed as being under seven kilograms. if it was ingested into an airport engine could have a catastrophic loss of the engine and that

would subsequently result in the plane crashing. it is clear the incident yesterday has taken everybody by surprise and there are so many lessons that need to be learned. whilst there is a lot of negative publicity about drones, those that are flown legally, lawfully and safely bring so much pleasure to a lot of people. how do you track someone down if they have used a drone inappropriately? 0n the piece before, the local police are asking for help from the public with regards to that. that is something we did when i was at in charge at birmingham airport. the public are the local eyes and ears of the local community. we did get reports from the local plane spotters about people they did not recognise. we did have drones on or near the flight path but they were not criminal activities it was just

people who wanted to take photos of the planes. yesterday was a criminal act. the penalties are severe? they are, there has been a breach of the airport perimeter, flights have been endangered, the safety of the public has been endangered so there is a potential prison sentence should sussex police find the person or persons responsible. an incident like that has such far—reaching ramifications, what extra provisions might have to be made in future, changes to the law potentially to try to regulate drone use, as they become more and more popular? yes indeed. we have heard the transport secretary saying he will call an emergency meeting with other airports. what we are looking for here, we need an improvement in technology that is probably in the early stages of development.

but the public are the eyes and ears of the police and it is important the public report anything, any suspicious behaviour involving the use of drones to 101. more than 100 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. jamie is here in a moment. first a look at the headlines on afternoon live gatwick‘s runway reopens after drones caused the airport to shut down for more than a day, 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. 30 years after lockerbie — memorial services are held in scotland to remember the 270 people who were killed. here's your business headlines on afternoon live.

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 deficit 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 need 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. driving back home for christmas?

we are going to talk about a sat nav because i had a problem south of the rotherhithe tunnel. it keeps trying to turn me left. so you are going round in circles? it is when i have passed the same building for a probable time i realise. it would give all times? i won't mention the product line, but it is a standard sat nav on my phone. there is a large number, it is a big market now, sat nav ‘s. talking to claire eva ns, now, sat nav ‘s. talking to claire evans, is it a big market? yes,

there are lots of free sat nav apps now, download them onto your phone. all you want is something that will tell you where to go in a reasonably polite fashion and you will get there, that visit, isn't it? a bit more to it than the latest one, google maps use gps data from thousands of vehicles to track traffic in real time so they give you good up—to—date traffic information. and then another sort of thing, a company called waze and they get members to sign up and they give information and back gives information on traffic and hold—ups more quickly from a traditional sat nav. do they make their money by just putting adverts up?|j nav. do they make their money by just putting adverts up? i assume

show. gps, the american system but there is galileo as well, is there a difference? i am afraid i don't know that technical detail. i know they use gps data to track vehicles and they use that to work out how fast they use that to work out how fast the traffic is flowing. actually, telling how the traffic is going, how does it do that? do you know? the gps data, you set locations and services on your phone so if you open google maps or let your android phone use location services so it knows where you are, that information is fed back to people like google and they use that because they know where you are and how quickly you have travelled from one point to another so they can tell how fast the traffic is flowing. thank you very much. in your case, they will be able to tell how fast you have been going round and round in circles? it will look

like heavy traffic and it will mark up like heavy traffic and it will mark up their information because it will just be me going round in circles. are we going to look at the market? i hope you haven't depended on the market is doing particularly well this year? i can assure you, i have not. the uk market is down by about 1196. not. the uk market is down by about 11%. it has been very odd, in the us especially. the market rose about a000 points and then came down about 6000 points. so you are talking about a huge amount of volatility as it zoomed up and down. a lot of people said we have had a boom in the stock market since the middle of the stock market since the middle of the financial crisis. you can date it march the 9th, 2008. i remember the time well and the banks suddenly

came up with their results saying, they actually were not that badly. they were 0k and then the market turned around, having plummeted and basically it's not stop until about now. people think we could be coming to an end, people are worrying about trade, worrying about the government's shut down we were talking about an hour ago. the dax, they all pretty much unchanged. the dow started sharply but then fell back. the pound is the other big casualty this year. it is pushed long by brexit. the closer we get to the idea of a no deal, the worse the pound. people say it we do get no deal could go down to parity with the euro. really? would it be the first time it has ever happened? we have been very close to it but we have been very close to it but we have never gone below it. little bit

of advice on your holidays is what you should do, put aside a bit of foreign currency every month so that will get you ready for your holiday when you go off, i am presuming in the summer and that way you will smooth out the differences. foreign currency away, you put the eurozone away? you by yourforeign currency away, you put the eurozone away? you by your foreign currency bit by bit over the year. good tip. iam nota bit by bit over the year. good tip. i am not a business presenterfor nothing, you know. thank goodness. jamie, thank you. it's six months since 12 boys from the wild boars football team and their coach got trapped in a flooded cave in thailand. after ten days, they were found by british divers, and there then followed a race against time to get them out, with more monsoon rains forecast. 0ur south east asia correspondentjonathan head has been back to the cave, and the community around it. the boys are back. along with a new statue. this tribute to thai diver,

the fatality in an otherwise miraculous rescue is also a reunion between the boys and their saviours. three of the foreign volunteers who helped get them out of the caves are also here. this is such a contrast with what we saw here five months ago. the boys are paying their respects to the statue of a man who lost his life trying to save them. five months ago, this was a sea of mud, rescuers everywhere and no one had any idea whether they would come out alive. that extraordinary, three—week operation has put this previously little—known site down to thailand's tourist map. from just a handful of visitors a day, it now gets thousands. drawn, notjust by the boys' story, but also by their good fortune. it has become a lucky place, somewhere to buy a lottery ticket. all these lottery tickets, which one is the lucky number? 13, she says.

that is the number of the boys and their coach who went into the cave. this pineapple field was flooded during the rescue, by all the water pumped from the caves. these days, he's making more money by selling the oranges from his orchard. 0ur pineapple crop rotted, he explained. we couldn't get into harvest it because of all the vehicles back then. he stopped farming and volunteered to help the rescuers instead. the mini tourist boom is proving something of a bonanza for this community and rescuers have become local celebrities. to be perfectly honest, i prefer a quieter life. i don't think you are going to get it? i am not the one for going out and seeking people treating me as a hero, iam nota hero. just in the right place

at the right time really. the lives of the boys have now returned to their old routines. although not quite as before. use the body as a shield. this is a coaching session offered by manchester city. the most famous young footballers in the world are still getting plenty of international attention. jonathan head, bbc news, northern thailand. a nonprofit 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 30 years and i'm just the happiest. do 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 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 tickets by his partner trish fairhurst and her niece. he made a claim for the prize — the 12th biggest win ever in the uk — last week. time for a look at the weather with

sarah. hello. it has been a bit of a grey start to the day out there and as we head through the remainder of today, we are still expecting quite a bit of cloud and some outbreaks of drizzly rain for some of us too. now this picture comes from one of our weather watchers in norfolk. you can see the shower clouds around. there is a little bit of brightness developing here and there as we move through the remainder of the afternoon. but what we've got, we've got this area of low pressure which is heading its way gradually from west to east. so that brought the rain we saw this morning across parts of northern england, northern ireland as well. we've got more showers feeding in from the west as we head into the evening hours, particularly across wales, parts of northern england too. further rain showers pushing in for the north west of scotland and also for northern ireland. it's still quite windy through this evening and into tonight across the southern half of england in particular, some blustery winds here. now for most of us it's going to be a frost—free start to your saturday morning but perhapsjust cold enough for a touch of frost across the north—east of scotland and north east england too. so heading into tomorrow then,

what we've got is low pressure still sitting to the north of the uk, but a small ridge of high pressure building in from the south. so a bit of a mixed picture tomorrow. for most of us it should be largely dry with some sunshine but you will see a scattering of showers feeding in on that north—westerly breeze, particularly affecting northern ireland and also towards the north—west of scotland too. further south—east across the uk, most of us should stay largely dry with some spells of sunshine. temperature—wise between around seven to 12 degrees. not far off typical really for the time of year but quite mild in the south still. now moving on into sunday, we've got the next area of low—pressure approaching from the west. that's set to bring quite a soggy start to your sunday, particularly across england and wales. some of that rain potentially into southern scotland and parts of northern ireland too, but the further north you are, you are more likely to stay largely dry through the course of sunday. the rain lingering the longest further south across the uk. temperatures only around six to eight across scotland, northern england and northern ireland. further south we could see 12 or 13 degrees. now moving ahead into the all—important christmas week. christmas eve could be a little bit damp first thing but we've got a big area of high pressure building. moving ahead on to christmas day, tuesday, we should see largely dry,

settled weather set to continue. so this is your christmas outlook then, dry for most, some patchy frost and fog, mostly cloudy and no snow on the way. bye— bye. hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm martine croxall. today at a: police say they have identified "persons of interest" in the hunt for those responsible for drones that halted operations at gatwick airport. we do have a number of lines of enquiry, we do have persons of interest, and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators, and there is a huge amount of intelligence that we are trawling through. the airport's runway‘s reopened — but many passengers still face the misery of knock—on delays and cancellations. in other news — 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 woozencroft — getting a sense of what plans the new manager at manchester united has. well everyone concerned with the club will hope so but new interim boss 0le gunnar solskjaer is putting the focus on getting his players to love football again. we'll see if the fans love it too. more on united later in the hour. thanks hugh, and sarah has all the weather. a mixed picture across the country? that is right, we have had a bit of everything, some blustery showers, some sunshine, but as the sun sets on the winter solstice, i will bring you a fool festive forecast in about half an hour. also coming up — six months after these boys were trapped in a cave in thailand, they return to thank those involved hello everyone — this

is afternoon live — i'm martine croxall. police hunting the operators of drones which paralysed gatwick airport for nearly 36 hours say they have identified a number of "persons of interest" as part of their investigation. terrorism has been ruled out, but detectives say environmental activism is one line of inquiry. military technology has been deployed at the airport allowing planes to take off and land safely. passengers have been warned to expect further delays and cancellations but the airport is expected to be "back to normal" by the end of tomorrow. 0ur correspondent navtej johal sent this report from gatwick. the sight that thousands of travellers have been waiting to see. after a day and a half, aircraft finally landing and taking off early this morning at gatwick airport. good news for many, but plenty remain stranded here and face

a long journey ahead. so, tomorrow we will have to take a train to edinburgh, to get our flight to copenhagen. and we have to cancel all our tour from sweden to copenhagen, because we have a connecting flight from copenhagen to rome. so, this holiday really went wrong for us. and there are ten of us here. ron has been waiting since wednesday night for a flight to antigua to join his family. he'll now have fly on christmas day. very frustrating. it'll mean i won't be spending christmas with the family which is, you know, sad, but again, it's all out of my control so there is very little i can do about it. unfortunately, there's no flights to antigua every day, so it's not like i canjust say, "i'll go tomorrow." today is one of the busiest days of the year for people to be travelling — the final weekend before christmas. and the airport has said that the disruption caused by this incident will continue throughout the weekend. it's coming over your head!

could this be the cause of the disruption? this device was spotted near the airfield yesterday. police are yet to find the device or the operator behind it. what has changed is there are a number of mitigating measures in place, provided by a number of government agencies and the military to ensure that i have the confidence to be able to reopen my airport. although the incident is not believed to be terror—related, it has caused a debate around how to protect airports in future. it's clearly a kind of disruptive activity that we have not seen before. this kind of incident is unprecedented anywhere in the world, the disruption of an airport in this way. we're going to have to learn very quickly from what's happened. i plan to convene discussions with other airports around the uk very quickly indeed. it's unclear what methods have been deployed to mitigate the risk to the airport. there are a number of options, such as the drone detection technology developed by this american company. we can track them with radar, we can detect the signal between the drone and the controller

using rf detection technology. 0n the countermeasure side, we can disrupt that control link between the drone and the controller, and we can also disrupt the drone's ability to navigate, using gps. for those passengers affected by the problems of the last two days, an unwelcome holiday headache awaits to work out what they're entitled to. my advice to passengers who are turning up in the hope of getting away is, put your problem in the hands of the airline. it really is their legal responsibility to make sure that you are on your way as swiftly as possible. most scheduled flights will be going ahead today. after a turbulent few days, the airport is now expecting things to slowly return to normal. 0ur corrspondent navtej johal is at gatwick airport. tell us more about what the police

have been saying. said a couple of hours ago, there was a press conference held by the policejust hours ago, there was a press conference held by the police just a short distance away, and as part of that conference, we were told about the investigation that continues here at gatwick airport and the surrounding area. sussex police have confirmed they are working with the met police and the army to find the person or people responsible for this incident. also, since the incident began, the issue they have had with trying to secure the equipment they have been using to secure the site around gatwick airport, too, it took them hours to acquire the equipment they have been using throughout today, which has enabled the runway to reopen. let's have a listen to what the police had to say just a have a listen to what the police had to sayjust a couple of hours ago. we are in a positive position compared to yesterday, we have a lot of progress in terms of the options we have available. since the update this morning, the runway has

remained open, so some positive news. my heart goes out the passengers and the public that been affected, this is a distressing situation with the level of destruction here at gatwick airport over the last 36 hours. but painting a better picture as we move forward. why have we not call the drone operated? it is incredibly difficult to arrest the suspect and find the suspect for this offence. we have another of lines of enquiry and persons of interest, we are working with our best teams and investigators, there is a huge amount of intelligence we are trawling through. we also have an ongoing request to the public to ring 101 should they have any information of the drone that has been flying above the airport at gatwick. in times of the motivation, there is a hell spectrum of possibilities, from the high end, noel behaviour all the way down to potential individuals trying to be malicious and trying to disrupt the airport. we are keeping all options

open. what is the extent of the ongoing destruction for passengers? in the last few minutes, we have lacked that of the 800 flights that we re lacked that of the 800 flights that were scheduled for today, 161 of them have been cancelled, so most flights are going ahead today. that has made over the last few hours, the passengers we have spoken to have broadly been pretty positive, they have said that most of the flights are going ahead, and the destruction has been relatively limited compared to yesterday. however, the knock—on effect of the last couple of days is still being felt, and there are plenty of passengers who remain stranded. 0ne of them is with me now. you were supposed to be in madeira yesterday morning, expand what has happened over the last couple of days. morning, expand what has happened over the last couple of dayslj morning, expand what has happened over the last couple of days. i flew from jersey last night, and i was meant to be at madeira at 730. let's

got cancelled due to destruction, and it has put me in the position where i've had to be on the phone to british airways all night long to try and sort some flights. i have finally managed to sort myself to go back on the 29th of december. but i will be going back tojersey tonight. you are supposed to be in portugal yesterday morning, instead, it will be nine days on until you finally get there. how have you been feeling? to be honest, really angry. especially, you think this is an airport and because of a drone, you would think that gatwick could protect its own airspace, which is the really annoying fact going round in my head. thinking that i can spend christmas with my family is also frustrating. but we will see. we have seen the news coverage u nfold we have seen the news coverage unfold over the last couple of days, do you have sympathy with those describing this incident is unprecedented, saying this is the kind of thing we haven't seen before? i think my anger has taken over, so i don't system with the

whatsoever. they should really have it under control. —— i don't feel sympathy whatsoever. thank you so much full stop clearly plenty of people still feeling anger, disappointment and frustration, that has been paramount here over the last couple of days full stop but, gatwick airport has told us earlier today that they expect things to return to normal by tomorrow night. the advice for now is to check the status of your flight before you come here. thank you for that update at gatwick. gatwick‘s runway may have reopened but thousands of passengers are still stranded with a huge backlog of flights. 155 flights have been cancelled today, on top of the hundreds scrapped yesterday many are stranded abroad and some of those here are now resorting to alternative travel plans. john mcmanus reports. st pancras station, just days to christmas, the getaway is on. but many of these people moving through these queues shouldn't be here. the grounding of planes at gatwick airport has meant some last—minute changes to many

people's travel plans. many of britain's mainline railway stations are busy in the run—up to christmas, but the queues behind me at st pancras are extremely long. a number of eurostar staff told me that many of those travelling today had booked in advance, but there were also plenty of others who had been forced to swap the plane for the train. it's a similar story at victoria coach station, where travellers who were hoping to fly into gatwick have been forced onto the road instead. some are making the journey to gatwick today in hope rather than expectation of flying, as the christmas getaway continues. where are you trying to get to? italy, rome, yeah. see my family for christmas. it's quite annoying. i saw that it's reopened. so hopefully, yeah. has your airline said anything? no, not really. they keep saying that we will probably fly normally, but they don't give us a lot of information. i was talking with my company and they said that at the moment

it is all right, but we don't know. so they said, just go there and see what happens. i wish, but i don't know. and the travel disruption has forced britons abroad to also cancel and rearrange travel plans. alex and joanne penkul were visiting their two daughters in new york city and were supposed to return home yesterday after a five—day trip. we'd never heard of that before, causing so much disruption. had we? no, we just panicked, actually, because when we got the text to say the flight was cancelled, at about 7am this morning, we just want to get home. so, we just booked the first flight we could get. as long as this flight back to london is ok, in terms of time—wise, it's nothing. but it's been hugely expensive. it's cost us around £7,000 to rebook the flights. we're hoping the insurance will pay up. but who knows? leana grech was due home in east sussex from a holiday in the dominican republic. she and her sister—in—law are stranded until the next available flight on the 27th.

leana suffers from a number of health conditions and she's worried her medication might run out. i did bring my main medication, but, unfortunately, some of my medication has run out. so we are trying to get hold of that, hopefully by today — otherwise, i'm in big trouble. leana's son acts as her carer and she is worried she won't be home for christmas. we are going to miss christmas with our family and my son, which is really upsetting. he's 17, but he didn't want to come this year because he's obviously nearly a grown up, as far as he is concerned. so it would have been my last christmas with him as a child, as well. gatwick is slowly starting to return to normal, but it's too late for many looking to get home for christmas. john mcmanus, bbc news. the us defence secretaryjim mattis has become the latest

senior figure to resign from donald trump's administration. it follows mr trump's decision to pull all american troops out of syria. in his resignation letter, general mattis warned about the need to ‘show respect‘ to allies and to be clear—eyed about america's enemies. 0ur correspondent dan johnson is in washington. there was a strong sense that it was the final straw forjim mattis. we now have reports that there will be a serious withdrawal of troops from afghanistan, too, something he may also have been opposed to. we could all see the way this was going, the relationship between the two men has broken down over the last few months and that jim mattis shares a completely different view of the world and america's place in it from donald trump, that had become increasingly apparent. donald trump had disrespected some international organisations, like the un and nato, he had pulled out of international agreements and had dissolved some of the international coalitions and global alliances that have been working together on some of the world's biggest

problems and conflicts. that is the work thatjim mattis had been involved in, notjust as defence secretary, but as a marine court general in charge of troops in afghanistan and iraq, he was the kind of person who was committed to the international organisations to maintaining good relationships with allies, and he thought the president's america first policy increasingly looked like america being withdrawn from the world, being isolated and not living up to its obligations, something he couldn't go along with. also, donald trump has a different view from many about afghanistan, too? indeed, apparently, we don't have an official announcement on this, but he wants to pull troops back from there, so the pentagon is looking at bringing half of the 1a,000 troops in afghanistan home, starting in the new year. it is not clear how quickly that will happen, or exactly what those troops will stop doing and come back, but donald trump made promised us right

through his campaign and presidency that he would withdraw us troops from afghanistan and syria as soon as he could. so we shouldn't be surprised about this, he has been consistent in his message that he would put purely american interests first. he was elected as someone to disrupt the world order, to change things, so it can't surprisejim mattis that there was tension between himself and the president. but there is concern about who will take over as defence secretary and in some of the other key positions in the white house that have to be filled. what will donald trump's presidency look like in 2019? people sayjim mattis was someone who was able to constrain the president in some ways, restrict what he could do. jim mattis's resignation letter says that the president ought to have a defence secretary who shares more clearly his own beliefs. if he finds that person, how will his foreign policy go forward into next year? it'll be interesting to watch, but it is concerning, even for some of donald trump's supporters.

you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines: police say they have identified "persons of interest" in the hunt for those responsible for drones that halted operations at gatwick airport. us defence secretary james mattis resigns — a day after president trump announces the withdrawal of troops from syria. bagpipes play. 30 years after lockerbie — memorial services are held in scotland and the united states to remember the 270 people who were killed. and in sport, manchester united caretaker boss, 0le gunnar solskjaer, says he would love to remain as manager, but hasn't discussed taking the job on a permanent basis. he held his first press conference this morning. the chief executive of the england and wales cricket board says ben stokes can still be a role model in the sport having been cleared of affray in august. and the six time 0lympic sprint champion, allyson felix,

revealed she has given birth to her daughter eight weeks prematurely. i will be back with more on these stories just after half past. one person has died following a shooting outside a restaurant popular with tourists in central vienna. another person was injured in the incident and a hunt for the perpetrator is under way. a police spokeswoman said the shooting appears to have been a "targeted criminal act" and ruled out terrorism. a fugitive drug trafficker from nottinghamshire has beenjailed for 22 years in france robert dawes was found guilty of importing more than a tonne of cocaine, on a flight to paris, packed in 30 suitcases. the national crime agency say he was a global "big fish", who brokered deals with the italian mafia and colombian cartels. police have interviewed a person under caution following the alleged racial abuse of raheem sterling during manchester city's defeat at chelsea. the incident involving the

2a—year—old occurred during city's 2—0 loss at stamford bridge on the eighth of december. officers from the metropolitan police are reviewing cctv footage to determine whether any offences were committed. chelsea have suspended four people from attending matches while investigations take place, but police have not yet made any arrests. borisjohnson is understood to have been cleared of breaking the tories' code of conduct with comments he made about women wearing burqas. he had written that they looked liked "letter boxes" or "bank robbers" in a telegraph column in which he argued against a ban on full—face veils. it prompted dozens of complaints but it is understood an independent panel, established by the party, has decided he had been " respectful and tolera nt". at the time, the tory chairman brandon lewis and theresa may called on him to apologise. the conservative party has been accused of not doing enough to tackle anti—muslim prejudice in its ranks, despite an initiative to boost tolerance and diversity. it's six months since

twelve boys from the wild boars football team and their coach got trapped in a flooded cave in thailand. after ten days, they were found by british divers, and there then followed a race against time to get them out, with more monsoon rains forecast. 0ur south east asia correspondentjonathan head has been back to the cave, and the community around it. the boys are back. along with a new statue. this tribute to thai diver saman kunan — the sole fatality in an otherwise miraculous rescue — is also a reunion between the boys and their saviours. three of the foreign volunteers who helped to get them out of the caves are also here. these scenes such a contrast with what we saw here just five months ago. the boys are paying their respects to the statue of a man who lost his life trying to save them. five months ago, this was a sea of mud.

there were rescuers everywhere and no—one had any idea whether they would come out alive. that extraordinary three—week operation has put this previously little—known site onto thailand's tourist map. from just a handful of visitors a day, it now gets thousands. drawn notjust by the boys' story, but also by their good fortune. it has become a lucky place, somewhere you buy a lottery ticket. all these lottery tickets, which one is the lucky one? "13", she says. that is the number of the boys and their coach who went into the caves. this man's pineapple field was flooded during the rescue by all the water pumped from the caves. these days, though, he is actually making more money by selling the oranges from his orchard. "0ur pineapple crop rotted," he explained. "we couldn't get into harvest it because of all the vehicles back then."

so he stopped farming and volunteered to help the rescuers instead. the mini tourist boom is proving something of a bonanza for this community. and rescuers like vern unsworth have become local celebrities. to be perfectly honest, i'd prefer a quieter life. i don't think you are going to get it, though. i'm not the one for going out and seeking, you know, people treating me as a hero. i'm not a hero. just in the right place at the right time, really. the lives of the boys have now returned to their old routines, though not quite as before. use the body as a shield, 0k? can you show me that? this is a coaching session offered by manchester city. the most famous young footballers in the world are still getting plenty of international attention. jonathan head, bbc news,

mesai, northern thailand. it's 30 years ago today that pan—am flight 103 was blown up nigsifiéavethe % who lost their lives. later there'll be an event at the arlington cemetery in washington — many passengers were from the usa. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. bagpipes play. 0n the shortest day, lockerbie remembers its longest night, remembers the lives cut short in the deadliest terror attack the uk has ever suffered. 30 years ago, pan—am flight 103 blew up in the skies over the scottish town. 11 people in lockerbie died, their homes obliterated by the debris which rained down. all 259 on—board the new york bound flight also lost their lives. with kindness and compassion,

the people of lockerbie looked after the relatives, and the memories of those who died. among them — nicole boulanger — an american student returning home for christmas. her body was never recovered, but her personal possessions and clothes were amongst those collected and carefully washed by volunteers to return to those bereaved. sometimes we get guardian angels in life and that certainly is an example of the love, the dedication, and the caring of a group of people in another country who did not know our children, but who knew how much this would mean to their families. for some, likejim swire, who lost his daughter flora in the attack, there are still unanswered questions. overwhelmingly, the awful thing about lockerbie was the needless death of 270 innocent people, who could have been protected had the government of the day taken appropriate steps. having said that, the refusal

of our government, and the american government, of course, to come out with what they know about the truth, has been a terrible added burden to many. and for all, the focus today, the families, the sons, the daughters that died. helga mosey was 19 and a passenger on the plane that december night. we miss our daughter, and we wonder how she would have done, what her musical career would have been like. would we have been grandparents to her children? we don't know. we still remember her as she was, lively. and be thankful we had her for so long. 19 years isn't long, but they were happy years. 30 years on, the love and memories ever strong and in lockerbie, another moment for remembrance and respect. lorna gordon, bbc news, lockerbie. time for a look at the weather now with sarah.

the sun is setting ready early at the moment, but that could be slowly starting to change after tonight? that is right, today is the winter solstice, so that the shortest day of the year. the sun has already set, this picture comes from scotland, says a serene sunset there. if we look at the times as sunset, they do vary up and down the country. the sunset in ely shetlands, very early. but as we head south and west with across the uk, the sunset is that bit later. but now, the sun has set wherever you are across the country. in the south and south—west of england, that was where the sunny skies were for longest. but even in the channel isles in jersey, for longest. but even in the channel isles injersey, the sun set about

20 minutes ago. so about one hour later than it did across the northern half of the country. windowsills this means the day will start to get a bit longer? that is right, the days are starting to get longer, it is the point where the northern hemisphere is leaning further away from the sun. that happens at precisely 10:23pm tonight. that is on the earth leans away from the sun, and it starts to wobble back to the northern hemisphere. tonight the longest night, we have already seen the shortest period of daylight, but things are getting longer now in terms of sunlight as well. by the time you get to the 21st ofjune, we will have about double the amount of sunlight. we had about eight hours today, 16 hours by the 21st ofjune. ido today, 16 hours by the 21st ofjune. i do look forward to that, i don't wa nt to i do look forward to that, i don't want to wish my life away! what is the weather going to be like the next few days? it is quite mixed, today it has been a bit ofa it is quite mixed, today it has been a bit of a mixed bag, there have been blustery showers blown in,

quite a cloudy day, too. we keep some of those showers into the evening, particularly across wales, northern england, quite windy across southern parts of england. further north, not quite as windy, but still some blustery showers, particularly for northern ireland and into the west of scotland, too. most places have a frost free net, but there could be some frost across eastern scotla nd could be some frost across eastern scotland and the north—east of england where we have the clear skies first thing tomorrow morning. if you have some last—minute christmas shopping to do over the weekend, saturday is not a bad day. a ridge of high pressure will manage and from the south—west, so a lot of dry weather particularly across england and wales. skull and northern ireland continue to see some showers —— scotland and northern ireland, particularly across the west. it is not quite as blustery as it has been today, temperatures are average for the time of year, 7—12 degrees, still mild across the far south. into the second half of the weekend and there is an area of low pressure which

brings more cloud, rain and windy conditions into the south on sunday. quite a wet start across most parts of england wales and northern ireland. much of northern ireland and scotland should stay dry on sunday, and it will brighten up in the far south, where it we'll be another milestone to come. 6—8 degrees. all eyes on the forecast as we head towards the festive period. into monday, on christmas eve, there isa into monday, on christmas eve, there is a front in the south—west, but it is a front in the south—west, but it is an area of high pressure that is building across the uk. so this is how christmas eve is looking. there will be variable amount of cloud, but it is looking like we should see some sunny spells. but is away from the south—west where we will see some thicker cloud bringing some showers on the weakening front. if it's colder by christmas eve, so temperatures around 2—8 degrees, maybe in double figures across the

south—west. the king had to christmas day itself, it is dry foremost with high pressure in charge, hats summer drizzle, especially in the west. we could see some a patchy frost and fog in the morning. mostly cloudy, but if you spot for sunshine later in the day. of course, it is the winter solstice today, you can find a full explanation of the science behind this on our website. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: police say they have identified "persons of interest" in the hunt for those responsible for drones that halted operations at gatwick airport. we do have a number of lines of enquiry, we do have persons of interest and we're working through those with our best teams, our best investigators and there's a huge amount of intelligence that we're trawling through. the airport's runway‘s reopened but many passengers still face the misery of knock—on delays and cancellations. in other news — donald trump's defence secretary resigns after the president announces he's pulling us troops out of syria. remembering the victims of the lockerbie bombing, 30 years on.

and still to come, santa paws — the dogs bringing christmas cheer to patients in south africa. sport now on afternoon live with hugh. i'm getting an idea of what the new interim manager at manchester united might have up his sleeve? we are familiar with the playing style of 0le gunnar solskjar as a player, but he was relegated in his time as boss of cardiff so it will be a big ask at old trafford. he understands why many people would want the job, including him but he hasn't discussed with the hierarchy at old trafford about taking that role on full—time. he would insert any real

target in terms of where manchester united would end the season instead he just wants to get the players loving the sport again.|j he just wants to get the players loving the sport again. i didn't think twice when they called me to sign me as a player and this is more ofan sign me as a player and this is more of an honour, a privilege to be helping the club for a few months. when you get a job like this and they ask you to sign for six months and you say, i am happy to help out. my and you say, i am happy to help out. myjob is for the next six months, do as well as i can and move the clu b forward do as well as i can and move the club forward as well as i can. i understand there are so many managers, so many managers who would love to be manager of manchester united. 0f love to be manager of manchester united. of course, i am one of them but it's not something we have talked about. it will be due process now for the next six months. your time at cardiff city didn't go as he

would have hoped, did you learn from that, are you better now as a coach, manager and what do you say to the fa ns manager and what do you say to the fans who look at that with concern? definitely. i have sat down and thinking, iam definitely. i have sat down and thinking, i am getting old and my grey hairs are coming. i have had 300, a00 games as a first—team manager. cardiff was a huge step for me and! manager. cardiff was a huge step for me and i have learned a lot, i have evaluated and reflected on it. i have made a few mistakes and if you don't make mistakes, you are not going to learn. unfortunately, i made a few of them, but then again, they are in the premier league now soi they are in the premier league now so i don't think they are too unhappy about it now. roy keane has said some of the

players through the old manager under the bus. you cannot hide behind the manager, whatever you say about the players, they threw him under the bus. they said jose mourinho was falling out with players, what you would when players don't train properly and then to down tools, shame on some of them players. i am down tools, shame on some of them players. iam notjose down tools, shame on some of them players. i am notjose mourinho ‘s greatest fa n, players. i am notjose mourinho ‘s greatest fan, but some players hide behind their agent, the media. bit ofa behind their agent, the media. bit of a joke really. there was an angry confrontation between dillian whyte and dereck chisora as they weighed in ahead of their heavyweight fight on saturday. both fighters came in just over 17 and a half stone, but after the face off there were verbal disagreements between them, which continued back stage. two years ago whyte came out on top on points when these two first met. the winner of the rematch at the 02 could set up a potential title bout next year. 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 is all the sport for now. now on afternoon live, let's go nationwide and see what's happening around the country, in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk. jeff brown is in newcastle to explain the ten—year difference in life expectancy in darlington for people living in neighbourhoods either side of one road. the figures come from the annual report of darlington's director of public health.

and of course, one of the most famous sounds of christmas around the world is the choir of king's college in cambridge. this year is the centenary of the festival of nine lessons and carols from king's. we will talk to susie fowler—watt in norwich about this shortly. but first to jeff. why is it in one street life expectancy in darlington can be so different? it is important to stress, it is notjust about this one street, it is a wider picture. just because you live on the street you won't necessarily live longer than the chap over the road. this is from the town's director of public health and it is the worst health qualities in the borough as a whole. he said there had been an increase in overall life expectancy in the town but in the past eight years it has been tailing off and is the first time that has happened since

victorian times when the data was first collected. while the figure is still rising in the more affluent areas of darlington, it is falling in the poorer parts of the town. he said the aid you could expect to fall victim to a serious illness also had a greater bearing on where you live, between the best and worst performing wards. 15 years for men and 13 years for women, depending on which part of town. he pointed out what he called a sense of fatalism in the poorer communities where it seemed to be accepted as normal to have your first heart attack in your 50s. the borough is the second best performing local authority in the north—west for life expectancy, but it falls well short of the average for england as a whole. 79.5 years men, 83.1, women. and this street, grange road, depending on which side of grange road there is a life expectancy gap of ten years, so men

living to the west of grange road, they live to an average age of 82 but for men in the park east ward, to the other side of grange road, it is closer to 72. we have been speaking to some of the locals to find out what they had to say. theyjust seem to have a better lifestyle on the other side than we do. money and property. better than what we have up here. not a lot you can do, if yourtime is up, yourtime is up. you know what i mean? i go to work and keep myself relatively fit, even though i'm a big lad, i bike to work. it's a much bigger problem, there's all diet and how much eating healthy does actually cost more than eating just processed food. what are the suggestions on how to tackle these differences? one of the key recommendations from the director of public health is a whole system approach, starting by improving the health of children and

young people and their well—being is a worrying trend towards childhood obesity. butchers divisions in the darlington area as to whether you are ina darlington area as to whether you are in a poorer or more affluent pa rt are in a poorer or more affluent part of town. a0% of 11—year—olds are said to be carrying too much weight. nuance to improve the social and health education and put in place a healthy weight plan so they can set themselves targets. for young mothers come he wants to tackle smoking and promote breast—feeding. at the other end of the scale he is calling for an asset based approach to older people's health, recognising the contribution they have to make, the skills they had two other and emphasised the importance of ageing well, which is something we can all take on board. but he very much, let's speak to susie in norwich and the choirfrom kings college cambridge, how did this amazing tradition start 100 yea rs this amazing tradition start 100 years ago? it was in the wake of the

first world war and the chaplain of kings college had fought on the western front and when he came back, he wanted to create something beautiful but would give warmth, delight and a spiritual consolation for those grieving for their loved ones. he devised this and it has hardly changed but what started out as an act of worship for the people of cambridge, is a global phenomenon. the live radio broadcast on christmas eve which started in 1928 is listened to by 75 million across the world and people travel from far afield to camp out and queue for tickets. christmas and carols, first of all is probably the most special moment of the year for us in the choir. it's the moment when we realise that actually this is what the choir has its world famous image for and we are so lucky to be a part of that. what can you say about this service? it is the last one the stevie woods,

who is retiring as director of music after 36 years. it will be very emotional. every year he commissions annual carol for the choir and this year it is mercy divine and the most famous moment is the first verse of 0nce famous moment is the first verse of once in royal david's city. it is sunk so low and the chorister don't know who is going to be singing it. stephen said if you name a chorister to early they get worked up about it. the boy is back and forward just as they are about to go on air. all of this is told in a special programme which goes on bbc two tonight and our camera followed the choirfor tonight and our camera followed the choir for the past 12 months tonight and our camera followed the choirfor the past 12 months and they have gone behind the scenes in this particular service, which is

the highlight of their year. what a thing to have sprung on you. thank you both for taking is a nationwide this afternoon. if you would like to see more on any of those stories you can find them on the bbc iplayer and we go nationwide every weekday afternoon at a:30pm here on afternoon live. england's chief medical officer has accused the food industry of failing the public, by not doing enough to cut salt and sugar in its products. professor dame sally davies said companies should face taxes on unhealthy food if they fail to improve. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns reports. the warning is clear — at the moment, society is balanced in a way so it is easier to make unhealthy choices and we need to tip the scales the other way. half of all deaths in england are due to four reasons — bad diet, smoking, drinking too much, and a lack of exercise. the chief medical officer says we can turn this around, but only if food companies take action. we know the industry are not doing

enough to make our food healthy. there's too much sugar, too much salt, so far they are failing on this. so if they don't get to it and deliver, we will need government to put in place taxes. and then i have a dream that we could use the taxes raised to subsidise fresh fruit and vegetables for all of us. the government has already introduced a tax on sugary drinks, that came in in april and had raised more than £150 million by the end of october. but many companies changed their recipes to cut sugar and so avoid paying the tax. the food and drink federation says its members are making good progress, cutting sugar in the average shopping basket is by 12%. accept that there is more work to be done, but argues that taxing unhealthy food is not the way

to do it. meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the government has allocated £2a0 million less to public health in england next year. catherine burns, bbc news. 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. business news in a moment, but first a look at the headlines on afternoon live: police say they have identified "persons of interest" in the hunt for those responsible for drones that halted operations at gatwick airport. us defence secretary james mattis resigns a day after president trump announces the withdrawal of troops from syria. 30 years after lockerbie — memorial services are held in scotland and the united states to remember the 270 people who were killed. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. business investment fell 1.1%

between july and september compared to the previous quarter. in fact it's fallen for three, three month periods in a row — it's worse run since the economic downturn of 2008, 2009. but separate figures from the office for national statistics showed borrowing fell to £7.2 billion — its lowest november for 1a years. the government is calling for businesses that trade with the eu need 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. car production numbers

disappointing? yes, they are down around 20%. that is compared to this time last year. it is because there is weaker demand, not just time last year. it is because there is weaker demand, notjust in the uk but the export market is down 23% and that is the fifth month in a row. it is related to brexit but there are stricter regulations on emissions and what is going on in terms of trying to get cars that are right in terms of emissions so there is more testing going back is disrupting production as well. business investment has fallen again, is that also brexit related? it does seem like it, down 1.1%, the third quarter in a row and that is the most prolonged fall since the financial crisis. it is the car manufacturers, bmw, nissan who are saying there is uncertainty so they don't know if they will invest but

we have had this trend in a downturn in business investment since the financial crisis, so it is a problem. turbulent year for the global stock markets? look at the ftse100 at the moment it is 11% down and the dowjones, at one point was up 8.5% but now is down over 7%. there is a general malaise in the market and that is our first topic we will talk about with our analyst. laith khalaf, senior analyst, hargreaves lansdown. what do you make of the global markets, it has been a dreadful year at the end of it? the us looked like it would buck the trend but it hasn't happened ? it would buck the trend but it hasn't happened? if you take the last three months of the year it looked pretty good but it has been a grisly end to the year. a number of things have been unsettling, the trade war between the us and china is probably the big thing. more

recently, we have had the us central bank raising interest rates. the markets were expecting that but they we re markets were expecting that but they were probably hoping they would hold fund that has spooked the market is a bit more recently. december is traditionally a good month for the market but it looks like the us will be strongly down over the course of this month. i suspect we will have a similar, jittery start to 2019.” read somewhere, the dowjones is the worst since the 19305, so that read somewhere, the dowjones is the wor5t since the 19305, so that is pretty dreadful. just on the worst since the 19305, so that is pretty dreadful. just on the markets as well, oil, the last time we spoke it was getting just below $60 are now closer to $50. it is great news at the pumps, but in terms of the strength of the global economy, it reflects on how badly we are in terms of the global, the strength of the global economy? hugely, it is a massive indicator of how markets see the prospects for the global economy

and the weaker oil price is very much associated with expecting wea ker much associated with expecting weaker demand looking forward. we are talking about trading around $5a are talking about trading around $5a a barrel now, which is down from $80 a barrel now, which is down from $80 a few months ago. it is going to provide relief in terms of energy and fuel costs but it is not a particularly warming sign for the global economy. quickly and car production, down again. it is not looking too good in 2019? no, the car industry is still struggling with the fallout from the emissions scandal. the backlash against diesel and weak consumer confidence as well. probably one of the big things for the car industry, it is front and centre in terms of the problems that might be seen in terms of no—deal brexit. it exports are lots of cars to the eu, 7000 cars were exported last year but a lot of the components come across the channel, some of them crossing the channel

multiple times. no—deal brexit would be catastrophic for the uk car industry. thank you, that is great stuff. quick look at the markets. the ftse100 is down. the dowjones is recovering but has had a bad week. the brent crude price, $5a, getting closer to 50. the pound is weak, 1.26 against the euro it is about 1.11 so we are getting low to parity, which is worrying if you are trying to go abroad like me. jamie said we should be saving for foreign holidays every month. said we should be saving for foreign holidays every monthlj said we should be saving for foreign holidays every month. i wish i could. a lot of people feel the same, thank you very much. a nonprofit 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 30 years and i'm just the happiest. do 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 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 tickets by his partner trish fairhurst and her niece. he made a claim for the prize, the 12th biggest win ever in the uk, only last week. who says it pays to be tidy?

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. that's it from your afternoon live team for today. time for a look at the weather with sarah. hello. it has been a bit of a grey start to the day out there and as we head through the remainder of today, we are still expecting quite a bit of cloud and some outbreaks of drizzly rain for some of us too. now this picture comes from one of our weather watchers in norfolk. you can see the shower clouds around. there is a little bit of brightness developing here and there as we move through the remainder of the afternoon. but what we've got, we've got this area of low pressure which is heading its way gradually

from west to east. so that brought the rain we saw this morning across parts of northern england, northern ireland as well. we've got more showers feeding in from the west as we head into the evening hours, particularly across wales, parts of northern england too. further rain showers pushing in for the north west of scotland and also for northern ireland. it's still quite windy through this evening and into tonight across the southern half of england in particular, some blustery winds here. now for most of us it's going to be a frost—free start to your saturday morning but perhapsjust cold enough for a touch of frost across the north—east of scotland and north east england too. so heading into tomorrow then, what we've got is low pressure still sitting to the north of the uk, but a small ridge of high pressure building in from the south. so a bit of a mixed picture tomorrow. for most of us it should be largely dry with some sunshine but you will see a scattering of showers feeding in on that north—westerly breeze, particularly affecting northern ireland and also towards the north—west of scotland too. further south—east across the uk, most of us should stay largely dry with some spells of sunshine.

temperature—wise between around seven to 12 degrees. not far off typical really for the time of year but quite mild in the south still. now moving on into sunday, we've got the next area of low—pressure approaching from the west. that's set to bring quite a soggy start to your sunday, particularly across england and wales. some of that rain potentially into southern scotland and parts of northern ireland too, but the further north you are, you are more likely to stay largely dry through the course of sunday. the rain lingering the longest further south across the uk. temperatures only around six to eight across scotland, northern england and northern ireland. further south we could see 12 or 13 degrees. now moving ahead into the all—important christmas week. christmas eve could be a little bit damp first thing but we've got a big area of high pressure building. moving ahead on to christmas day, tuesday, we should see largely dry, settled weather set to continue. so this is your christmas outlook then, dry for most, some patchy frost and fog, mostly cloudy and no snow on the way. bye— bye. today at five: britain's second busiest airport reopens after drones inside the perimeter closed it

for more than 30 hours. as flights resume, the police hunt for whoever was behind the chaos goes on. we do have a number of lines of enquiry, we do have persons of interest, and we are working through those with our best teams, our best investigators, and there is a huge amount of intelligence that we are trawling through. there are still delays and some cancellations, many passengers remain stranded at the airport. it is frustrating and i mean i won't be spending christmas with the family which is sad but again, it is all out of my control. there is very little i can do about it. we'll be live with our reporter at gatwick and talking to an expert on drone defence technology. the other main stories on bbc news at 5: donald trump's defence secretary — jim mattis — becomes the latest