rain. and it looks fairly decent —— rain. fine weather eventually. friday, and into the weekend, high pressure still dominating the weather across much of western europe. weather fronts trying to squeeze in around it. we are anticipating some rain. probably across scotland early in the morning, maybe lasting into the afternoon as well. to the south of that it will stay dry and double—figure temperatures right gci’oss double—figure temperatures right across the country, should be close to around five or six this time of year, if that. that was saturday. here is a lookout sunday. a similar picture. high pressure to the south. weather fronts the north —— picture. high pressure to the south. weatherfronts the north —— i look at. otherwise, brightand weatherfronts the north —— i look at. otherwise, bright and sunny spells. we have wind blowing out of that direction that brings breaks to the east of the pennines. io degrees, or even 12 expected in london on sunday. new year's eve, this is the big night, this is an indication that the winds will be

light across the uk, there might be mist and fog around first thing in the morning, but the rain is right out was the north—west of us. close to my head. the weather front moving around this area of high pressure. settled conditions, but settled does not mean necessarily sunny weather. it could be that bob in the morning, particularly across parts of england and wales. new year's eve itself, at the stroke of midnight, the high pressure is not going anywhere, it is certainly with us. most likely to stay dry across the vast majority of the country. and the winds will be light as well. new year's day itself, once again, the high is with us, a lots of dry weather around, a few spots of rain in the very far north of the country, and eight or nine celsius. that is new year's day 2019. here is the beginning of january, the first few days, the high pressure is here. we're starting to see these weather systems may be incorrect, getting closer and closer. perhaps in the

first few days of 2019 we could see something a little bit more unsubtle —— encroach. one thing we are fairly confident with is that it will stay fairly mild, any likelihood of gold weather coming from eastern europe is very low. goodbye. —— coldweather. hello, this is bbc news. we will be taking a look at tomorrow morning's papers in a moment. first the headlines: president trump makes an unannounced trip to us troops in iraq, just days after his defence secretary resigned over american strategy in the region. despite queues for the boxing day sales, the number of people visiting the high street today falls for the third year in a row. japan confirms it will restart commercial whale hunting in july, defying an international ban. sister wendy beckett, the nun who became famous around the world as an art historian

and broadcaster, has died at the age of 88. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are the political commentatorjo phillips, and nigel nelson, who is the political editor of the sunday mirror and sunday people. most of tomorrow's front pages are now in. the financial times says retailers had little reason for cheer on boxing day, as the christmas sales season got off to a disappointing start. the telegraph says schools and parents are being urged to play their part in helping to preserve the environment, as the government is to double the 5p charge for plastic bags to 10p. the i also reports on the new 10p charge for plastic bags, and it adds that the public‘s use

of plastic bags has fallen by almost 90% in three years. the daily mail reports that almost half of nhs hospitals in england have put up car parking fees, despite the government pledging to crack down on charges. the same story is covered in the mirror, which has campaigned on the issue. it says that some hospitals have even doubled their parking prices. the guardian claims that parents are abandoning attempts to maintain contact with their children because of deep cuts to legal aid which, it says, have caused disarray in family courts. the express reports on the soaring number of people falling deeper into debt, with that number thought to be as high as 3 million across the uk. and the times carries a warning from the defence secretary, gavin williamson, who is concerned about the apparent threat of spying from chinese telecoms giant huawei ahead of a 5g rollout in the uk. the company strongly rejects any suggestion that it is a secuirty threat. so a varied set of front pages.

let's see what our reviewers make of it all. starting off with... and i've lost my list, so you can tell me. the telegraph. to wrap your child's savages in plastic. so this is michael gove, the environment secretary, and the education secretary, and the education secretary, both coming out with a new drive to try and discourage people from using plastic. so michael gove is bringing in a 10p charge, so that is doubling the 5p charge, so that is doubling the 5p charge on plastic bags. it is astonishing, though, isn't it? almost 90% drop since that first came in, and that will now be extended to convenience stores as well, not just the

extended to convenience stores as well, notjust the big supermarkets. and the message from the education secretary is to schools and parents to say don't keep wrapping stuff in clingfilm, try and move away from cartons of drinks with straws, all sort of commonsense stuff, but i know nigel thinks... sort of commonsense stuff, but i know nigel thinks. .. yes, sort of commonsense stuff, but i know nigelthinks... yes, nigel sort of commonsense stuff, but i know nigel thinks. .. yes, nigel has a firm line on this. i have indeed, i appreciate that the plastic bag charge according to these new figures has reduced the number we use per person from 140 to 19. that is good, rate for the fish, who used to swallow them, fantastic. i would like to see us tackle the tricky bits in supermarkets and stores where food is packaged unnecessarily, especially fruit and vegetables, which can be sold loose, and it is that that i object to the way that michael gove behaves, he goes for what i always think are easy targets. he has done it to us in the house of commons, he is now charging 25p a cup, if you want a

takeaway cup. can't have any more elastic cutlery, apart from which he can't replace —— knives which he can't replace —— knives which he can't replace. what is wrong with that? what is wrong with that, it doesn't show much imagination. if you get a wooden stir and go like that, you will get a splinter in your mouth. if michael gove introduced proper wooden spoons, thatis introduced proper wooden spoons, that is great. what i am arguing is, if you are really serious about saving the planet, you actually go notjust for the easy saving the planet, you actually go not just for the easy targets, but also for the harder ones. and that's why are in supermarkets, if you legislate for plastic bags, which is effectively a tax, then what you should be doing is making sure the supermarkets are not selling lots of clingfilm, non— biodegradable rubbish bags, wrapping up fruit and

vegetables the way they do... our supermarkets are already doing that. wu makes some are indeed, but the ones i have been in recently are not doing it. going on to the ft, speaking of shops, they have a front page about boxing day ringing little cheer to the retailers who had been hoping for a sales bonanza. no real surprise because i think we all know the high streets across the country are ina the high streets across the country are in a pretty sorry state, but of course boxing day has traditionally been a big day. a sort of litmus test, in a way. apart from central london where footfall was up, largely down to foreign tourists obviously coming to oxford street and regent street and places like that, outside of london it has been quite a significant drop, down 3% on last year. so there is a combination of things, black friday, whatever they call it, there is online shopping, there are sales throughout the year, there is the demise of the biggest sort of department stores

like house of fraser, debenams, and a lot of those, so it is quite an interesting time, i think —— debenhams. yesterday the government announced there will be a fund that councils can apply for. but i think we have got to have another think about how we shop, and actually, in about how we shop, and actually, in a sense, if people were going to greengrocers to buy their fruit and vegeta bles greengrocers to buy their fruit and vegetables instead of supermarkets, they could get things in a paper bag and they wouldn't. .. they could get things in a paper bag and they wouldn't... they they could get things in a paper bag and they wouldn't. .. they would actually have a reason to go into the high street. it would regenerate the high street. it would regenerate the high street. it would regenerate the high street, exactly. donald trump has been on his travels, a surprise visit to the troops in iraq. he suddenly popped up there. this comes against a backdrop of announcements of withdrawing troops from syria and his defence secretary, james mattis, resigning. presumably this was a morale booster, i'm not sure if it was for

donald trump or the troops he was going to visit. not sure what he was doing there. probably didn't know where he was. very sandy and a big bunker. wider backdrop is him saying america can't be the world's police any more, a little bit more isolationist, pulling troops out of afghanistan, he says not pulling troops out of iraq, in fact. no, but he is only a couple of hundred kilometres from the syrian border, on this visit. you would have to be perhaps not necessarily too cynical to wonder whether he has gone there to wonder whether he has gone there to do the morale boosting thing, it is very secret, and visits always are, president and leaders in the war zones, are, president and leaders in the war zones, but it is the first time he has been to a war zone. he has been president for two years now. he's got all sorts of rubbish going on at home, not least of all a partial shutdown of government, the american economy is on the wobble,

and he needs to pay for his border with mexico, so you have two asked whether he is doing that to cut the cost of troop deployments, so it is not just the sort of cost of troop deployments, so it is notjust the sort of philosophical thing, but actually to pay for other things. apparently quite a lot of his aides oppose this, obviouslyjim mattis has resigned, but he is making decisions like this, pulling troops out of syria, effectively by himself, which is maybe what a president should do. well, yes, but you should be taking advice from the people you actually know —— people who actually know, your advisers. and strategically it is ridiculous to say the battle is over. we all know that isis is not defeated, they may be on the run, there may be a defeat somewhere out there, but they are not defeated yet. he is the elected commander in chief, so he can do what he wants. well, he can do what he wants, but should he do what he wants? you may have the power to do it, but not necessarily

the right. the times have parents citing hayfever is to get children into their favourite school. thousands of parents are claiming that children have exceptional medical or social needs to get them into the best state schools, amid complaints that more people are playing the system. according to the times, anyway. when you read the story, i think it is a little bit sort of snippy, this story, actually. snippy, what does that mean? well, it is saying a lot of people are playing the system but it sounds to me as though some of the reasons that people are... the problem is if other people get in because they have got the reasons for reasons that are accepted, it excludes kids who live closer to that school's catchment area, that is the real problem. what if you've actually got health reasons, or one of the reasons, it is done in a sneery way about somebody wanting to be near grandparents to do the

school run. well, actually, if that makes life easier and cute don't have the nurseries or after—school clu bs have the nurseries or after—school clubs or getting too early or sitting in traffic or something, isn't that better? some of the reasons are genuine. parents should be able to get children into the school of their choice. in the old days it used to be if you wanted to get your kit into a church school, you went to church. if you make the effort to go and do that, i think it is only reasonable you might get your kids in. me and nigelwent is only reasonable you might get your kids in. me and nigel went to the same school, actually, not a lot of people know that. it is only fair to point out that you were in different yea rs. to point out that you were in different years. we will leave the viewer is to guess who was above who in terms of seniority. the express, moving swiftly on, 3 million britons swamped by debts. alarm over the soaring number of ha rd—working families struggling to pay the bills. that's right, this is figures from the debt charity step change,

and nearly 40% of the new people who have come on their books are behind in at least one of the essential charges. it doesn't quite explain whether or not something like universal credit might have an impact on this, or who these people are, but the idea that 3 million people are actually now struggling... but it is an extraordinarily unusual story for the express. it is a surprising story for the express. they even make the point that those who go into the red are often accused of living extravagant lifestyles, but experts say the real problem is hard working people. and a lot of people in trouble and universal credit are hard—working people. let us know draw to a close with a story about curtains. that is a joke iam story about curtains. that is a joke i am recycling. very good. curtains are being put in the shade,

according to the telegraph, by shutters and blinds. saying that curtains could become a thing in the pastis curtains could become a thing in the past is more expensive shutters and blinds are increasingly replacing curtains. it is curtains for curtains. it is curtains for curtains. that is an even better one. well, you know, we have our moments. it is interesting. it is a matter of personal choice. we doing a quick scientific poll showing that we cover all bases. you have got shutters and blinds. we cover all bases. you have got shutters and blindslj we cover all bases. you have got shutters and blinds. i have blinds and curtains and you have blinds and curtains. but what i would really like is shutters. everytime you go on holiday to a european country and you have the shutters, think they are magnificent. it isjust want, want, want, shutters! iwould are magnificent. it isjust want, want, want, shutters! i would be perfectly happy with that. our curtains going out of fashion? are they a bit old—fashioned?” curtains going out of fashion? are they a bit old-fashioned? i suspect when people have makeovers and redo

houses, i suppose shutters and blinds are, perhaps, less... maybe they are more modern, more contemporary. by producers and carpets are going out of fashion. contemporary. by producers and carpets are going out of fashionlj carpets are going out of fashion.” do not have carpets. i have rugs and wooden floors. what have you got? we have carpets. and a wooden floor as well. it is a matter of choice. but that will be another knock on the head of the high street. right. for fabric shops and is... but then charter and blown shops will do better. they will. -- blown shops. people might fall out of love with them. they are hard to clean. thank you so much. we will see you again in 2019. next week, in fact. the first day of 2019. we can't keep you out of the studio. nigel and jo, thank you so much was a happy christmas and happy new year to you both.

that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it is all there for you seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers, and if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. a big thank you to my guests this evening, jo phillips and nigel nelson. it is goodnight from me. up next is the travel show. first, this week, we are off the finnish lapland, where the scenery might be classic christmas card, but the winters are brutal and you have to be tough to survive. we sent ade to inari lake, north of the arctic circle, to meet the local sami people and find out what it takes to survive there. finnish lapland is as close as it gets to a winter wonderland.

more than 1 million tourists come here each year in search of the northern lights, santa and his reindeer. the sami are the indigenous people who live in this part of the world, from northern norway, sweden, finland, and the far north—eastern part of russia. there are around 6000 samis left in this part of finland and here, they are known as the inari sami because most of them live around the lake, which is 250 kilometres north of the arctic circle. i have never been so far north. after landing in the town of ivalo, a 1.5—hour flight from helsinki, i meet my first inari friend. hello.

welcome to finland! nice to meet you. nice to meet you, i'm johanna. wow, look at your outfit! you look amazing. thank you. is this our transport? yes. it is going to be our transport for the trip. we have so many things planned for you here. i'm looking forward to it. i am loving that hat. that's the way forward. it's really warm. life here must be really tough. there's snow on the ground for seven months of the year, and the most practical way to move around is by snowmobile. so this is the best way to get there? yeah. there's no other way to get there. so this is how i'm rolling, and you're going to teach me how i'm rolling.

nice to meet you. tell me about this machine, my friend. these are the things that were a revolution in our life here. they came about 50 or 60 years ago to finland, and it made things much easier. what did you use before these? skis. and reindeer. old school. normally when you drive on a track, you have your feet in here and your hands on the bar. if you want to go right, you pull right, left for left. the brake is on the left. this is the panic button. so if you lose control, something happens, you just hit that button. so i hit that button and then i go...? it's so hard to believe that i am on a snowmobile going across lake inari in finland, and beneath me is thousands and thousands of gallons of water. it's just crazy. this place is so beautiful. i wasn't expecting that! around 30 years ago, the inari sami culture was on the verge of extinction.

inevitably, there's been a drift to the cities, to an easier life. traditional cultures experience that loss the world over. but these days, tourism is creating jobs, allowing some young sami to move back home. ade preparing for those long winter nights north of the arctic circle in finland. now think of winter in austria's tyrol region and you might think of wrapping up warm for the ski season. but step away from the ski slopes and you may come face—to—face with a whole other chilling seasonal tradition. now, at this time of year, you'll see many capital cities around the world decked out in festive lights — most of which come down

at the start of january. but over in the netherlands, the canals of amsterdam are being lit up for the first time as part of an innovative art project, that will stay in place right through to the end of january. we went to meet some of the people behind the idea. music plays. it was all starting at the moment that amsterdam was a little bit dull and dark in wintertime, and then the first works of art were introduced into the canals, and that was about seven, eight years ago. i think they light up the hearts and minds of the people in amsterdam. it's really a nice thing to see — all the works of art coming to life, towards the months of

december and january. i think what's new this year in the festival is the way you can approach the works of art. you can use the boat, making a beautiful boat tour. but you also can bike around town, you can walk around town. we've really made different routes to experience all the different works of art. it's nice to see all those installations of light, but the importance of darkness, the importance of rest, of not being part of the system, is, of course, very, very much there are as well. music plays. it's been quite a long project, actually. it started — i had the idea a whole year ago now.

so you can enter from anywhere in the world. you submit a kind of — it literally could be a sketch on a napkin or you could really work it up to a visual, as long as the idea is there. i think there were 600 entries this year, they get whittled down to about 100 and then from that, they go through a next round ofjudging and then they pick the final pieces to light up the city. a couple kind of not talking, on the phones, and then a girl or a guy. initially, there were four figures on the bench, for the first idea. we removed one of them so that it becomes more interactive with the public. and it was kind of easiest, i guess. the sculpture arrived on monday and we had a slight issue with the transport. so sadly, it got damaged along the way. it arrived with two broken hands and a cracked ankle, and the bench was a bit damaged, but we worked through it. the guys from the festival have been amazing, to help. we finally fixed it last night. it is an important aspect and part of our lives but i think it has taken people away from reality, like, people going to gigs film through their phones, rather than actually enjoying it and spectating through their eyes. i'd just like people to kind of stop and take a second to reconnect with people around them

as opposed to their phones. we have a lot of people just coming and saying, "wow, that looks like my son." we had two old men that came along and sat down in between, and it hasjust been really funny to kind of see everyone's reaction to it because everyone just gets it, everyone can relate to it. it's a good thing to think about. this is a festival, it's nice to enjoy, it's also very important that injanuary, the lights go out again and we relax a little bit. and don't forget, if you would like to see the longer version of the programme, you can catch up with all of our recent adventures on the bbc iplayer, and we are also on social media too. the details of those accounts can be found on our website but in the meantime, from me, carmen roberts, and the rest of the travel show team here in kobe, it is goodbye. good evening. maybe you are back to

work in the morning may the festive fun continues, either way you'll wa nt to fun continues, either way you'll want to know what the weather has in store. actually, it is more of the same, really. dry weatherto store. actually, it is more of the same, really. dry weather to come tomorrow and in the next few days. but a lot of cloudy weather as well. this is how it looks at the moment. lots of cloud around, patchy rain in the north of scotland. north—east scotla nd the north of scotland. north—east scotland lead in the night chris bell is developing. southern england and wales as the sky is clear we could see fog patches, but some chilly conditions developing in the centre of the big towns and cities are three orfour degrees centre of the big towns and cities are three or four degrees by the morning. in the countryside may be down to freezing. here we will see the best of the sunshine tomorrow after fog has cleared. the best of the sunshine tomorrow afterfog has cleared. some the best of the sunshine tomorrow after fog has cleared. some sunny skies for north—east england, northern and eastern scotland, maybe the north—east of wales and merseyside. out to be had through the day, the odd spot of drizzle. ——

cloud. temperatures 8— 12 degrees. relatively mild for the time of year. friday, pretty mild. rain in the north on saturday. that is all from me for now. i wish you a good night. hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm ben bland. our top stories: president trump pays a surprise christmas visit to american troops in iraq. his first presidential trip to a combat zone. a strong rebound on wall street — the dow index has broken a record and gained more than 1,000 points in a single trading session for the first time ever. russia's president vladimir putin witnesses the final test of a hyper—sonic missile which he says can penetrate any missile defence system. and sister wendy beckett, whose passion for art made her a television star, has died at the age of 88.