used at polling stations. all of this comes at a cost. this snap december election means more than 40,000 polling stations right across the uk will have to get ready pretty quickly. including here at aberdeen football club where they have their own polling station at the ground. so, back to this dad. does he think this election is worth the money? that's £10. we have had election after election after election. let's not have an election every two or three years. whatever political interests, they've all got the public at heart. so, why don't they sit down together and say, there's got to be another way? here in aberdeen, they'll be braving the cold to cast their vote, and some will be hoping they won't need to again for a while. ben hunte, bbc news, aberdeen.

that's it from aberdeen. we'll have more on the bbc news channel throughout the day. time for a look at the weather. good afternoon. earlier we saw the flooding and extreme weather in venice, behind me is a video of some very heavy snow in north—west spain, it's more like midwinter in cold conditions so very severe weather gci’oss conditions so very severe weather across much of the central western mediterranean attributed to an area of low pressure bringing heavy snow over the alps and dreary weather to oui’ over the alps and dreary weather to our shores that will continue to feed in easterly winds, cloud and rain and more persistent rain pushing into the south waste in the latter pa rt pushing into the south waste in the latter part of the day. the best of the brightness in the afternoon will be western scotland and northern ireland but a chilly day for most.

this evening and tonight we hold on to the cloud, rain moving west, much of scotla nd to the cloud, rain moving west, much of scotland and northern ireland stays dry but cold with frost and fog, elsewhere we hold on to the cloud with rain and lows around 4 degrees. for the weekend we hold on to the chilly theme so it will stay rather unsettled, some sunshine but this is the picture for saturday, we have a weather front encroaching from the north—west that will bring rain to western scotland and northern ireland later on saturday but a cloudy picture, really, perhaps a little brightness across southern england, most of the rain across southern scotland and northern england and some sunshine for western scotland and northern ireland but another chilly one. a mixed picture on saturday night, it stays cloudy for most, rain at

times, where skies are clear it will be chilly but most places cold on to the cloud, temperatures now lower than 3 the cloud, temperatures now lower than3 or4. the cloud, temperatures now lower than 3 or 4. in two sunday we have that weather front for the north—west, sinking south so it could be wet for southern scotland and northern england, affecting areas which have already seen flooding. the best sunshine for parts of scotland and northern ireland as high pressure comes in from the atlantic, here it is pushing across much of the country next week, monday and tuesday it should look fine but low pressure perches in from the atlantic and that will bring wet and windy weather around the middle of the week so we start off next week fine and dry, still chilly and then it will turn wet and windy midweek but as winds come in from the south, it turns slightly milder. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin

the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon, im lizzie greenwood—hughes, it's 1.30pm and here is your latest sports news. it's set to be a big afternoon for rafael nadal. he must beat stefanos tsitsipas to reach the semi finals of the season—ending world tour finals in london. defeat for novak djokovic yesterday meant nadal will definitely end the year as the world number one — and the spaniard admits it's been a 12 months to remember. very positive year for me. i achieved two slams and i achieved in rome and montreal. i had a very solid year for my side especially with other problems i had at the beginning of the season. i have had a very positive year. nadal against tsitsipas will be live on bbc two and the winner

will face roger federer in the semi—finals. the evening match is between daniil medvedev and the defending champion alexander zverev. medvedev needs a straight sets win and both of them need rafael nadal to lose to stand any chance of qualifying. raheem sterling has tried again to draw a line under his altercation withjoe gomez. gomez was booed by some fans as he came on in england's 7—0 win over montenegro last night while sterling was watching from the stands, forced to sit out as punishment for the alertcation at england's training camp. and as the final whistle blew at wembley sterling tweeted...

no england player should be booed while they are wearing this shirt, never. i don't get it. all of the players, particularly disappointed with that. the reason i wanted to getjoe on the pitch is he's been with the september, october. also, i know i'm going to start raheem on sunday and get him back on the pitch as well because it was important for both of them to get back on the field with england and show everybody we are all in this now. england picked sam curran ahead of chris woakes for the final warm—up game before their two test series against new zealand. curran was wicketless though as new zealand a made 302—6 before declaring. england will resume on 26—1 later, having lost the wicket of rory burns. it's good to get out there and be in a competitive environment again.

these warm up games are good from a bowlers point of view to get over centre the legs, spend a day in the field and get back into the feel of a match, i guess. you can do on the prep in the nets but you can never replicate anything until you get out of there and get the competitive juices flowing. china's triple olympic champion swimmer sun yang has told an appeal hearing that he missed a doping test because the testers failed to prove their identity. sun was cleared of wrongdoing by the international swimming federation in january. but the world anti—doping agency is appealing against the decision at the court of arbitration for sport in switzerland. he has previously served month doping suspension in 2013. the coach of the great britain lions rugby league side wayne bennett says he isn't interested in the criticism he's recieving. the team have lost all three of their matches so far on their 2019 tour including both games against new zealand. bennett has been accused of treating the team like england, rather than great britain —

but he insists he isn't concerned. first and foremost, i'm not interested. i've been a long—term coach so if criticism helped me a lesson but it doesn't. we have played three world—class teams in the international field. played three world—class teams in the internationalfield. that's the biggest losing margin, eight points 01’ biggest losing margin, eight points or two points. that game is live on bbc two from 6.30am. i'll have more for you in the next hour. welcome back to the maritime museum here in aberdeen. i'm very close to the harbour on the historic ship row thanks to the hospitality of the

staff here getting us out of the cold. let me tell you that today we had around 10,000 responses already from you asking lots of questions about the election, many of those have been driven by the fact that the prime minister has been doing interviews with the bbc today. healthy number about scotland as well. we are going to try and answer some of them joining me now is lynsey bews from bbc scotland. welcome back. let's crack on with the first one from richard in aberdeen. if we in scotland left the uk, would we be surrendering sovereignty to the eu to the same extent as we do now to westminster? the snp policy is for an independent scotla nd the snp policy is for an independent scotland to become a member state of the european union. that membership could look broadly similar to the membership of the uk currently has with the european union but the uk has a couple of opt outs on the schengen zone, prospect checks on boarders, and on the euro as well.

exactly bother relationship scotland and the eu would look likely depend on discussions and negotiations when that happened. i think it is interesting with a question of sovereignty because what you will hear from sovereignty because what you will hearfrom snp sovereignty because what you will hear from snp supporters who back in scotla nd hear from snp supporters who back in scotland leaving the union is, if we are leaving the uk and taking control of our own affairs in that respect, why aren't we also leaving the european union? there is a chunk of snp supporters to leave the eu so they could go forward without argument of leaving the union and joining another one. it depends on how you view that relationship and richard does make use of the word surrendering there is an interesting term. let's move on to another question. how did the snp see how scotla nd question. how did the snp see how scotland could be self—sufficient without the uk contribution and how

will it satisfy the eu criteria for membership? this is an interesting one. spending per person is higher in scotland than the rest of the uk when you look at the figures, £1600 last year. the snp puts forward a new economic case for how they would run an independent scotland last year. they looked at what the deficit would be. that is the cost of funding public services versus taxation. they said it could take 5-10 taxation. they said it could take 5—10 years to tackle that deficit. in the meantime, they also put forward a range of policy proposals forward a range of policy proposals for growing scotland boss mike economy out of the uk. thus things like migration, increasing the number of people who are contributing to the workforce and increasing exports as well. they have a different approach on immigration than the rest of the uk and they say that is important to scotland, boosting the labour market. those tax-raising powers are

devolved. they are devolved to an extent that they don't have control over things like corporation tax so how would they handle that? they call that the full basket of taxes. how would they run the economy if they have full control over its? they also talked about discipline spending when trying to reduce the deficit over that period of time. that it was seized upon by the political opponents who said they could be quite significant cuts to public services in scotland. tracy in glasgow asks, how will tactical voting work in scotland? that is a good question. is there likely to be a remain alliance? we are not seeing these alliances in scotland. you might think the snp and the liberal democrats, in the same position on brexit, so you might think they would come together. but they are miles apart on the issue of scottish independence and that is why that

alliance hasn't worked. the other thing to look at is the position of the snp in scotland, they see every seatin the snp in scotland, they see every seat in scotland as being winnable for them and they are second place in all of the seas that the conservatives have. there isn't a motivation for to step aside in any of those seats and let the liberal democrats to come forward. the green party, we might have expected to get together with the snp and stand aside and not split that independence vote. that hasn't happened. the greens are also positioning ahead of the 2020100 elections, they want a proud member of the seats in scotland this time around, around 20 seats. a unionist alliance, that is not happening because of different positions on brexit. we are not seeing that same kind of tactical alliance between the parties. a very complex picture because you're not talking about

brexit but independence, as well. the next question is from dumfries, we are getting a good spread of questions from around scotland. scotla nd questions from around scotland. scotland has independence, will they remain in the eu, if england leave? interestingly asks, would that mean they would be a hard border? the snp have been looking at the irish border what has been going on there. asi border what has been going on there. as i said, it is the snp policy for scotla nd as i said, it is the snp policy for scotland to be part of the european union even if the uk as a whole force through with brexit and we end up force through with brexit and we end up leaving. this question is tricky because it does depend on what happens with brexit, it is hard to a nswer happens with brexit, it is hard to answer and it depends on what the future relationship looks like between the rest of the uk and the european union. nicola sturgeon says she doesn't want to see hard brought there between england and scotland, it doesn't have to be one, they could be ways of working for some head opponents are saying, if you

have different tariffs, and customs arrangements, look at the northern ireland situation, it would be impossible to avoid hard border. that is a tricky one to answer without knowing exactly what the future relationship between the uk and the eu looks like. the growth commission recognises the potential difficulty there because it talks about the brexit example and how the uk might disentangle itself from the eu and how complicated that is. trying to disentangle scotland from the rest of the uk equally very complex. thomas in motherwell now, asking the prime minister has increased funding for police, education nhs which had devolved matters so is the extra money on these promised by the prime minister for england? we've had all these promises from all the parties on things like nhs but the health

service, education, justice, that is devolved to the scottish parliament. the policies they are setting out it won't impact on health and education in the same way or pier. when they are spending on the nhs, south of the border, the barnett formula is used to calculate the money that should come to scotland because scotla nd should come to scotland because scotland is contributing. it is up to the scottish government to know how it spends that extra money. just because extra money as part of the health service in england doesn't mean the scottish government has to spend it on the nhs, they can spend it on other priorities. then we have a question about member of the snp —— can members of the snp stand in england, wales and northern ireland? if you think back to the 2015 general election, nicola sturgeon joked about she could stand candidates in other parts of the uk.

in theory, yes, it could happen but why would it happen? 0k. in theory, yes, it could happen but why would it happen? ok. that is a straightforward a nswer why would it happen? ok. that is a straightforward answer for that. we've got time for just straightforward answer for that. we've got time forjust one more question, this is from graham in 0rkney. has any research there and then into how many english firms and employees would relocate in the event of scottish independence? i'm not aware of any specific research as such but it is an argument the snp has advanced the same, scotland isa snp has advanced the same, scotland is a member state of the eu could be a gateway to europe, we could attract businesses north of the border. the counter argument is scotland's existing treaty relationship with the rest of the uk and how that could be impacted by brexit. thank you very much for all that detail. lynsey bews, scotland political correspondent. as those questions indicated, the election is complex because you have the leave,

remain brexit debate coming right up against the yes, no independence debate and that is producing complex calculations for voters and their motivations and how they will cast their vote on the 12th of december. much more from aberdeen throughout the rest of the day. right now, back to the studio. the headlines on bbc news — labour promises free full—fibre broadband for every home in the uk by 2030. it would be funded by taxing big internet companies and part of bt would be nationalised. swans in the streets as heavy rain brings more misery to communities hit by flooding. a warning that more than 20,000 young people in england will be homeless this christmas.

more than 200 flood warnings have been issued for england and wales today, with more rain forecast in some areas already struggling with water levels. flooding and landslides have caused major disruption to rail services across the midlands, and more than 100 schools in the west midlands have shut. leaders of six councils across the north of england have called for a "massive increase" in government funding to help affected areas. 0ur correspondentjim reed spent the day in south yorkshire, which was hit by flooding last friday, to find out what people there think about politicians‘ response. the water level in this part of south yorkshire had been dropping over the last couple of days. the river here had been as high as that bank you can see behind me over there. but the rain has started to come down again this afternoon in dribs and drabs. the forecast is not great and people we've been speaking

to living in these houses along the river here say, at the moment they are sitting there crossing their fingers hoping everything is going to be ok. the prime minister in this area, we've had lots of politicians around. is that something that is a positive thing? are you happy they are paying attention or does it feel a bit like they are electioneering? well, it has got to work. we're getting on telly, aren't we. something's got to happen from this, surely, got to do. so, yeah, fetch them all. the more the merrier, if they want to come up. you don't mind them coming in and getting a photo opportunity? no, i mean a few get in the way a little bit better, no, it's been fine. you don't mind people turning up or speaking...? it's when they come just for the cameras, look like they're helping but they're actually not. that's when it gets frustrating? yes, and they're in the way. the latest on the floods there in south yorkshire. a 70—year—old man has died after getting caught up in the clashes in hong kong earlier this week.

the man died after being hit on the head during clashes between government supporters and protesters in the border town of sheung shui. officials say he was a 70—year—old cleaner who was on a lunchbreak and taking photographs of the protests. the hong kong government has called a group of protesters in london a "violent mob", after the territory's justice secretary, teresa cheng, was accosted last night. the pictures have flashing light throughout. ms cheng who was in london on official duties, was mobbed on her way to a speaking event, by around 30 protesters shouting "murderer" and "shameful" in english and cantonese, when she fell and hurt her arm. it's not clear whether she was pushed, but the government of hong kong and china's embassy in britain have both condemned the group of protesters. the number of children being admitted to hospital in england with a severe allergic reaction has risen every year for the past five years. nhs figures show over 1,700 children were treated for anaphylactic shock in the last year compared

to more than 1,000 in 2013. children under 10 were most likely to be affected. taylor swift has said her performance at the upcoming american music awards is in doubt because she is being barred from performing her own songs. in a message to fans on social media, the singer said music managers scooter braun and scott borchetta would not let her perform songs from her past albums, which they own the rights to. she said a netflix documentary about her life had also been put in jeopardy. braun and borchetta have not yet responded. a row has broken out in switzerland over government plans to abandon the country's emergency supply of coffee. it is swiss policy to store goods deemed essential in case of emergency, including enough basic foodstuffs, to last the population for three months.

the strategy evolved out of two world wars, when neutral switzerland, surrounded by conflict, could not feed itself. imogen foulkes reports from berne. switzerland prides itself on being prepared, a nuclear bunker for every citizen, instructions on how to cope in any emergency and tonnes of stockpiled food, fuel and medicines. including 15,000 tonnes of coffee. now though, the government says the coffee isn't necessary. translation: coffee isn't essential, it doesn't have any calories. 0urjob in the government is to provide our citizens with nutritional items so they can survive. that means food with calories and coffee doesn't have that. but the swiss are among the world's biggest coffee drinkers, consuming a staggering eight kilograms each year. for many people here,

a day without coffee, even in an emergency, seems unthinkable. translation: if i absolutely had to, i suppose i could do without coffee but i really don't think it's a good idea to stop stockpiling it. oh, dear, i suppose i'd have to switch to tea. it's like my shower in the morning, i can't do without coffee. and so, after a storm of protest the swiss government says it will reconsider. switzerland's millions of coffee drinkers are hopeful their precious stockpile will stay in the warehouses alongside the sugar and flour, just in case. now here's an interesting attempt at a world record. 101 people from different countries trying to be the "most nationalities in a sauna". it was a succesful attempt by finland to reclaim the title from china, where the record had been

broken in 2013 for 99 nationalities in a sauna. the organisers asked foreign embassies in helsinki to help in their efforts to recruit people from other countries. now, don't adjust your tv set, what you're looking at is not a herd of chunky zebras, but merely a group of well—disguised cows. according to research by a team of japanese scientists, painting a cow to look something like a zebra can reduce fly bites by up to 50%. the scientists believe the striped pattern confuses the fly‘s motion detection and deters the pests. and they hope that the painted deterent could become an environmentally friendly alternative to potentially harmful pesticides.

after 2pm geeta guru murthy will be here with the days news former us ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch will appear in front of the house intelligence committee for the second open impeachment proceedings. we will be dipping in and out of that throughout the afternoon, with the latest from capitol hill. now it's time for a look at the weather. it has been raining heavily which is added to the woes of people in northern england. hello, there. low pressure will be sticking around for the next few days, certainly into the weekend, it looks like it will remain unsettled. cloud around at times, further rain, too, but there will be sunshine as well. it will remain quite chilly for the time of year.

this big area of low pressure has brought all sorts of problems to the central western mediterranean. heavy snow for the arts. flooding rains across parts of italy. and also affecting us bringing us quite a lot of cloud and rain, and pretty chilly air from the north east. this afternoon, it stays fairly chilly, not as cold as in the last few days. a lot of cloud, outbreaks of rain for england and wales, pepping up across the south and east this evening and overnight. the weather front lying across southern scotland, northern england, wales and the south west. a few clear spells in the south east. the longest clear spells will be in the north west, quite chilly to start saturday. we still have low pressure for most of saturday, this weather front bringing further patchy cloud and outbreaks of rain to parts of southern eastern scotland, northern england, parts of wales and the south west. some holes breaking in the cloud across the midlands and south east allowing sunny spells, and a few chows. fine weather for northern ireland but to the west, this weather front is slowly making inroads as we head

through saturday night. a stagnant picture on saturday night, variable cloud, outbreaks of rain continuing across southern scotland, northern england, with rain piling into the north west as this next weather front moves in. again, a chilly night to start sunday. sunday looks pretty cloudy across southern scotland, northern england. rain here affecting the areas affected by the floods, that could be an issue. it will slowly slip southwards. brighter skies for much of scotland and northern ireland, quite a nice day on sunday. we could see a little bit of brightness across the far south east but it will be another chilly day. a ridge of high pressure builds in from the west monday and tuesday. we look to the atlantic to this area of low pressure which will swing into bring us more rain, but we will start to see winds from the south turning milder. next week, we start fine, then, more rain, quite windy at times, as low pressure moves in, and with southerly winds pushing in,

it will turn milder.

hello, you're watching afternoon live. today at 2pm... labour promises free full—fibre broadband for every home in the uk by 2030. together we will build a new public service delivering the fastest broadband, free to everyone. this will be all at the heart of labour's plans to transform the future of our economy and our society. what we won't be doing is some crackpot scheme that would involve many, many tens of billions of taxpayers' money nationalising a british business. swans in the streets as heavy rain brings more misery