good morning. welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today: a wait of months for hundreds of thousands of washing machine owners who've been told their appliances are dangerous and need replacing. jeremy corbyn faces fury from some labour mps at a meeting held to to discuss the party's poor election result. doctors test a new type of chemotherapy, which could be more effective and have fewer side—effects for cancer patients. a shake—up of the rules on overd rafts. new measures come into force today for banks and building societies, and they could cost you much more. i'll have the details. history at the darts

as fallon sherrock becomes the first woman to beat a man at the pdc world championship at ally pally. why dennis the shetland pony is in the front line in the battle against loneliness this christmas. good morning. we have some dense fog and icy patches to watch out for this morning. generally speaking, eastern areas will be drier and brighter in the west, it will be wet and increasingly windy stop i will have more details in 15 minutes. it's wednesday 18 december. hundreds of thousands of people are facing a wait of months to have their faulty and potentially dangerous washing machines replaced. whirlpool recalled 500,000 appliances yesterday because of a fire risk, but customers are struggling to get information because of problems with its website. the company was already dealing with problems with its dryers

as dan johnson reports. more than half a million of these washers are at risk of sparking a fire if a part in the door lock overheats. it has happened to 79 machines already. that prompted a clear warning to customers. it is a serious situation, and we are encouraging them to make contact at oui’ encouraging them to make contact at our uk call centre, which is open seven days. 0r our uk call centre, which is open seven days. or they can go online and they can actually use a model checker to determine whether or not their unit is one of the affected products. but the website whirlpool set up crashed yesterday, and so did the phone line as well. they announced this re—: said they could plan for it, but it looked like they couldn't cope with the response from their customers, so on the company's twitter feed, there is their customers, so on the company's twitterfeed, there is now a list their customers, so on the company's twitter feed, there is now a list of the models that are affected. the

advice is to unplug the machine and wait for a repair or advice is to unplug the machine and waitfora repairora advice is to unplug the machine and wait for a repair or a replacement. 0r wait for a repair or a replacement. or you wait for a repair or a replacement. 0ryou can wait for a repair or a replacement. or you can reduce the risk by running it at a lower temperature. fires started by whirlpool tumble dryers were much more serious. the washing machines haven't caused anything on this scale. repairs and replacements won't begin until january at the earliest and could ta ke january at the earliest and could take months, leaving many customers without a washing machine over christmas. avoiding further damage to the compa ny‘s christmas. avoiding further damage to the company's reputation now depends on how smoothly it handles this recall. and we'll speak to the vice—president of whirlpool just after 7:00 this morning. if you want, get in touch with us about that as well. jeremy corbyn is facing fury from his party after he apologised for the outcome of the election at the first meeting of labour mps since the vote. many have blamed mr corbyn directly for the result, and last night he was criticised not just for the campaign, but also for his lack of remorse.

sorry sometimes is the hardest word to say and it certainly seems that was the case this evening from leadership of the party because we had the words devastated and saddened, but actually with the privilege of leadership also comes responsibility, and the leadership of the party need to take responsibility for this defeat and say sorry not to the people who are returned as mps, but to the mps who have lost their seats, but actually most importantly, the people who desperately need a labour government. 0ur political correspondent nick eardley is in westminster. it sounds like so many people coming out of this meeting said it was tense and that was an understatement. there is a "going on in the labor party and some of the mps who are still in parliament are absolutely furious at the leadership for the weight oversaw the election campaign, also for the fact that jeremy corbyn hasn't stood down yet and that some of his allies are seeking to blame brexit rather than

perhaps leadership or some of the policies that were in the manifesto for that big loss last week. this morning we get another potential successof morning we get another potential successor to mr corbin setting up what he says what went wrong. you know him as the man who oversaw labour's argument on brexit in the last parliament. he is saying the party needs to remain on broad church. that means having the left—wing activists that supported mrcorbin, left—wing activists that supported mr corbin, but also move more to the centre who might have big fans of tony blair back in the day. he is thinking about standing which is your hands are saying if i get enough support, i will go for it. speaking of tony blair, he is going to be giving his tuppence worth this morning as well, saying that the party needs to get rid of what he calls ultra left sectarianism. that meansjeremy calls ultra left sectarianism. that means jeremy corbyn supporters. there is a big, big battle going on internally in the labor party to try and figure out what went wrong. but

also to try and figure out the future direction of the party, and i have a feeling that it is going to be fairly messy over the next few weeks. thank you very much for the update. around 9,000 nurses in northern ireland will stage a 12—hour strike today over ongoing disputes about pay and staffing levels. it's the first time members of the royal college of nursing have ever taken part in strike action. all emergency departments will remain open, but some routine appointments will be cancelled and a number of minor injury units will be closed. edel coulter, one of the nurses striking today, explained why she's taking action. it is not something that i ever imagined myself doing, it is not something that any nurse imagines themselves doing but myjob is to be an advocate for patients and that is what i have to do. no—one else is going to stand up for patients and say enough is enough. we need more staff, we need more skilled staff and we need to invest in training.

we will talk about that later as well. doctors in the uk are the first in the world to trial a new way of delivering chemotherapy, which could improve its success rate and lead to fewer side—effects. the royal marsden hospital in surrey is testing acoustic cluster therapy, which uses ultrasound waves to target tumours without attacking nearby healthy cells. 0ur health correspondent, laura foster, has more. nerves are common when you're a patient in hospital, even more so when you are the first person in the world to receive a new treatment. you feel quite vulnerable, but it's also very exciting. am i a guinea pig? it's quite nerve—racking. this is acoustic cluster therapy, which aims to make anti—cancer drugs more effective. but how? one problem with chemotherapy is that the drugs flow around your whole body. acoustic cluster therapy is going for a more targeted approach. here, patients are also given micro—droplets. an ultrasound machine detects when these arrive at the tumour

and turns them into gas bubbles, filling and stretching the micro—vessels inside the tumour. it means more of the drugs are pumped into the tumour directly. then, hopefully, the lesions will respond better, the cancer will shrink more so then you can cure maybe more patients who are in that situation. this trial is at a very early stage and it's still not clear whether there might be any long—term side—effects to the treatment. but if chemotherapy can be made more effective, then it could mean fewer people suffering the side—effects such as nausea and hair loss, and it could make those difficult tumours, the ones that were previously thought to be untreatable, could mean they start responding to chemotherapy drugs too. you hope that there's a more easy away or more gentle way of treating people. hopefully, you know, this will happen. one day there will be a chemo where you don't have these side—effects. but they will need to be many more tests and trials before we can get close to that.

laura foster, bbc news, sutton. president trump is set to face a trial in the us senate if, as expected, the house of representatives votes in favour of impeaching him today. if convicted by the senate, he would be removed from office, something that's never happened in us history. in a public letter, mr trump has accused the democratic speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, and her party of "subverting democracy" with an "illegal, partisan attempted coup." christmas may be a time of good will, but we all know that when you have all the family round, tempers can sometimes become frayed. well, now, your smart speaker can act as a peacemaker. really? apparently. amazon says it has has programmed its alexa devices to change the subject during family arguments. when you ask it to step in, it'll ask you questions like, "what would your superpower be and why?" 0r whether jam or cream

should be added to a scone first, or who your celebrity crush is. the idea is that the new conversation starters will help you forget all about your quarrel. do not start the jam or the cream first argument which went on for hours and days last time. cream. no, it is not. leave it! butter, jam and cream on top because thatis butter, jam and cream on top because that is a nice stuff on top. anyway... i am that is a nice stuff on top. anyway... iam not that is a nice stuff on top. anyway... i am not sure it would work out between us. with that particular incident. no, not on that issue. it is meant to be a peacemaker. there is no peacemaking at all. jam or cream? igo jam or cream? i go cream first. you are a heathen! 0h, you are a heathen! oh, yes! that has made my day. i don't want to get involved in this. it is time for you to go, john. ten minutes in... a bit of history? history made at the pdc

world darts championship, —— she is the first to win a championship at ali valley. everyone was supporting her. you have to feel for her opponent —— ally pally. great scenes last night. what a win and it was. the 25—year—old hit six 1805. and it was. the 25—year—old hit six 180s. she said afterwards that she had proven something for women stars. —— for women's darts. she's the fifth woman to compete in the tournament since qualifying was introduced for women last year. hopefully we will hear from her a little bit later. liverpool are right in the middle of a strange 2a hours. their youngest ever side were thrashed 5—0 by aston villa in the quarterfinals of the carabao cup last night. they play the semifinals tonight. meanwhile, more than 3,000 miles away the senior team are gearing up for their first fixture at the club world cup in qatar. they play the mexican side monterrey in doha this evening and it's live on bbc two.

and the top league in italy have apologised after using images of monkeys in their artwork for an anti—racism campaign. the chief executive of serie a says he "realised it was inappropriate." and those pictures were due to be hung on the wall of city h0. we wait to see whether that will happen. i presume not in light of that. her sanction that in the first place? —— who? at no point did anyone say i don't think this is a good idea. you have to ask questions of the people in the room deciding that at the time. staggering. thank you. to put it out there and then withdraw it, it is embarrassing. the artist tried to defend it in the lead organisers at that point didn't come in and apologise. it is only 110w come in and apologise. it is only now there has been a wave of criticism the world over. they have

gone, actually, perhaps we should apologise for this. thank you. see what little bit later. here's carol with a look at this morning's weather. it is quite cold out this morning. in some parts of the country temperatures are pretty low, but in others as you come further south they are not too low at all. this morning if you are travelling, one thing to watch out for is dense fog patches. some of it will be slow to clear and some of it willjust lift into some low cloud and we have also got the risk of ice. later we will have strong winds coming in gales across the west. have a transient ridge of high pressure against us, not much in the way a wind to move the fog along so you can see across pa rt the fog along so you can see across part of the midlands into east anglia, lincolnshire, that is where we have some patchy fog lifting into the cloud. 0ther eastern areas are drier and brighter, some might even see some sunshine. in the west, rain this morning steadily having northwoods. then the wind will start

to pick up, particularly late in the day. we are looking at five and six in the north, three in newcastle. if you are stuck under any fog, damages will struggle. further south, ten and 11. heading on through the evening and overnight, the rain moves evening and overnight, the rain m oves a cross evening and overnight, the rain moves across the uk, the winds strengthen, we have gales with exposure particularly around the irish sea and the good chance that later we may welljust irish sea and the good chance that later we may well just see some strong winds affecting part of western scotland for example, the isle of skye, that kind of area. 0vernight with all the cloud in the rain in the wind of course coming from the south, it does mean that it is not going to be particularly cold for most of us, not as cold as the nightjust gone. for most of us, not as cold as the night just gone. 0n for most of us, not as cold as the nightjust gone. on thursday the front will move north and east, taking the rain with them. showers behind, still quite breezy but the breezes coming from a southerly direction so look at all the amber and yellow on the chart. chasing

away the cold blue. that tells you that tomorrow is going to be mild particulars over this time of year. through the day we have showers coming up from the south, some of them merging to live longer spells of rain. the further north you are, the drier and brighter it will be. 0ne the drier and brighter it will be. one thing you will certainly notice is the difference in temperature. tomorrow most of the uk will see temperatures in double figures. look at this, 12, 13 and 1a in the south. closer to 8.5 is where we should be at this stage of december, not 1a. if you like it that bit warmer, it is not going to last, not at that level a nyway. is not going to last, not at that level anyway. friday, a bit of uncertainty about the detail of the forecast for friday and saturday. we have rain pushing northwoods, an area of low pressure and behind it something drier and brighter. the other thing is the ground is already saturated, particularly so in some southern areas, so we certainly don't need any more rain. 0n southern areas, so we certainly don't need any more rain. on friday we are looking at eight about 11, so

we are looking at eight about 11, so we have said goodbye to 1a. as we head on through friday night into saturday, again, this is what we think will happen, see the low pressure put away up into the north of scotland, showers behind and later on we will see more rain again falling in areas where we don't particularly wa nt falling in areas where we don't particularly want it. temperatures by then seven to ten. interesting weather, isn't it? see you later. let's take a look at today's papers. the daily mirror leads on our main story — whirlpool‘s recall of half a million washing machines. the paper says the firm as "sparked fury" by saying it won't replace them until the new year. we will be speaking to the boss a bit later on. in the express, the prime minister is being urged to deal with a shortage of hormone replacement therapy drugs. the paper describes it as a scandal and says thousands of women are calling for an end to the "agony" of the "drugs crisis" the sun says itv stars

are furious about love island host caroline flack‘s departure from the show, after she was charged with assault. they claim she was "forced to quit" and say the channel has "failed to support her". and online, the huffington post has a story about harry dunn, the teenager who was killed in a crash involving an american diplomats wife who has since returned to the us. remember, we have spoken to the family quite a lot 0n breakfast. the article quotes the foreign secretary, dominic raab, urging anne sacoolas to "do the right thing" and come back to the uk. we have ben and john here. you are folding carefully. interesting here, confirmation of something we pro bally confirmation of something we probally already know but new figures from the department of transport yesterday suggesting that the expense of travelling by bus has now forced of people using buses to the lowest level in nearly 50 years. from a high of 42% using buses in the 1950s to now just from a high of 42% using buses in the 1950s to nowjust 4% of all journeys that we take on the bus. it

blames high prices and it also strips out london and it says hi subsidies in the capital in that bus journeys there are at a record but elsewhere, the graph really does demonstrate the fall off and a lot of people will talk about cuts to services and of course the high cost, it just doesn't services and of course the high cost, itjust doesn't make it viable. elsewhere, technology this morning saying mobile phone firms will be banned from selling locked mobiles. you have to pay a lot of money to get out of it. all you have to run the end of your contract. what they are suggesting and this is a proposalfrom what they are suggesting and this is a proposal from the what they are suggesting and this is a proposalfrom the regulator that actually switching should be much easier and therefore firms shouldn't be able to sell phones that are locked only to one network, and that would make a significant difference of the cost of them if nothing else. thank you. what every football fan wants to hear. we want to win loads of trophies. because it is a really wacky 24 hours for football because they played in the league cup last

night and now up world cup tonight because of under 23 's night and now up world cup tonight because of under 23 '5 last night but the first squat around in doha at the moment because they are prioritising that competition because if you win it, you can essentially call yourself the best clu b essentially call yourself the best club side in world football. inevitable perhaps but it is crazy that this fixture congestion may have. james norman says they want to learn that mr ian nicholas of trophies. they are only a few games away of winning that huge accolade. this is an interesting story about how chewing gum can be quite useful. this is one of the whoppers make old est this is one of the whoppers make oldest pieces of chewing gum... disgusting. i am not sure where they found it. it was 5700 years ago and what they have done is extracted the dna from that bit of chewing gum and put together a picture of the girl who they think, what she might have looked like. revealing that she was

a teenager. from dna? it is an incredible thing. what about the pose? creative license! can we get back to the story here? the things they do know about the chewing gum, maybe not the pose, that she had dark hair, dark skin, blue eyes and also they know what she ate because that was on the gum. dark and hazelnuts. hence the dark in the pose. 0k? —— duck. this went through the house while they were asleep. the little bedroom which was destroyed, normally some of their children would be sleeping in it but they were staying someone else. they felt amassed —— massive side in the night. they were

supposed to be having christmas. there is an amazing quote. 315, there was a huge thud. i had no idea what was happening, i ran downstairs and noticed a lorry in the corner of the house. unbelievable! —— massive thud. s you know where they won't be going to do the repairs! 0ne one final one. toilet seats. a slanted toilet seat. i thought it was too early to talk about this. this is all about reducing the amount of time we spend on lavatory breaks because on average in london apparently 30 minutes a day is spent on the toilet. 40 minutes a day in leeds. less than five minutes in birmingham, if you are interested, but if you sleep the toilet seat 13 degrees it means that it is less comfortable to sit on and therefore you spend less amount of time on it, texting, doing what's up. people

using instagram or whatever on the loo... i know you turn up your nose up loo... i know you turn up your nose up but this is what it is was apparently, according to this company, they estimate that toilet breaks cost british businesses... we have reached a new low. £4 billion a year! this is a business a story that will come my way, i can feel it. anyway, see you all later. that's the end of that, then. we've been hearing this morning how some whirlpool washing machine owners will be left with no way to do their laundry over christmas, after the company recalled half a million machines. customers have had trouble getting information because of website problems, and the advice being put out by whirlpool has been criticised for being confusing. we have adam french, a consumer rights expert, at which? to help us through this.

it seems that it virtually every turn, there have been mistakes made by and now they say to customers awash at 20 degrees but be careful, essentially, isn't it? —— whirlpool put up it is a shambles, to be honest. the advice whirlpool are putting out on what to do if you have an affected washing machine is extremely difficult to make. i am not sure how easy it is for you to assess the risk you are taking by using a machine at 20 degrees versus unplugging it and not using it whatsoever and then to compound issues, we have heard from countless people on facebook, on twitter, unable to get onto the website, unable to get onto the website, unable to get through on the phone lines. 0nce unable to get through on the phone lines. once they are aware they have an affected model. 0r lines. once they are aware they have an affected model. or even to figure out if they have an affected model or not. we have managed to get hold of the full list of affected washing

machines and that is available at our website. which.co.uk/whirlpool. iurge our website. which.co.uk/whirlpool. i urge anyone to check that information as soon as possible. what should people do? go and find the list, but if you have an affected machine, what are you saying people should do?m affected machine, what are you saying people should do? it is extremely difficult. the official advice is extremely confusing, to be honest. personally, ifi advice is extremely confusing, to be honest. personally, if i was in that situation, i would find it difficult to work out whether to continue running that machine at 20 degrees, mind you, this is christmas, family coming home, there is every chance you would be putting on a few more loads than usual, so you may want to continue running it at 20 degrees but i would urge anyone who does it to keep an eye on it, don't run it overnight or while you are out of

the house, or you could unplug it stop if you are forced to use a launderette service, i would encourage you to keep hold of any receipts and whirlpool should be re— compensating you for that money if you have to fork out extra funds. 0ne you have to fork out extra funds. one big thing we have two remember is this won't happen untiljanuary, that recall. even if you have an affected machine, we have no idea how long it will be left in your house before it is repaired or replaced by well pull. looking at how they handled the tumble dryer recall, in the last few years, some people were telling us they were waiting up to a year to finally get that repaired. radically, that is an unacceptable situation and something whirlpool urgently needs to address in the new year. they have had a concerning number of issues. do you think whirlpool are almost too big for the regulators? we have a real concern that whirlpool are really setting the agenda when it comes to

this recall. there is a chance that this recall. there is a chance that this is the tail wagging the dog when it comes to how they have been interacting with the regulator and setting out how this recall will work. look at the way it has been communicated already, the website is not up and running, the advice is confusing and to add insult to injury, people are not being issued a refund for these effectively u nsafe fire a refund for these effectively unsafe fire risk machines. they have been linked to something like 80 fires. we think people should be offered a refund. comejanuary when this recall gets up and running, this recall gets up and running, this is a huge issue that should be happening for any customers. these machines bit —— were being sold up until the end of last year. he is new machines and people should be offered their money back. the trust we have in whirlpool and hotpoint

and indecit, especially with the dryer problem, people should be able to get their money back. and go to a brand that they trust. and if you're worried that your machine may be one of those affected, then whirlpool want you to check your model number on its website — but you may need to be patient as there have been problems and it is currently down. there is also a call centre number which you can try — it's 0800 3161442. the phone number was not working earlier this morning. we have one of the bosses from whirlpool on the programme i think it is at 7:10. the bosses from whirlpool on the programme i think it is at 7:10. we will try and get some answers for you. he is the vice president so he should know what he is talking about. time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are.

good morning, i'm sonja jessup. more than 170,000 people in the capital will be homeless this christmas, according to the charity shelter. it's thought the numbers have increased by more than 7,000 in the past three years. they include those who are sleeping rough but also others in hostels and bed and breakfast accomodation. in the capital, in particular, there isa in the capital, in particular, there is a huge inflation in rent so the cost of private renting is going up and up. meanwhile, housing benefit and up. meanwhile, housing benefit and local housing allowance have been frozen. so the gap between the two has just been getting wider and wider and then people are evicted and they can't find anywhere else to go. the government says they are working with councils to reduce homelessness, providing councils with more than a billion pounds to tackle it. politicians at city hall are calling on the mayor to make sure

the amount of dust on the tube is monitored. transport for london has commissioned studies on levels of pollution underground, but so far theirfindings have not been published. the london assembly's environment committee is paticularly concerned about the impact on contract cleaners working down there. a family from hemel hempstead are hoping for a christmas number one again — with a song about sausage rolls. # singing, i love sausage rolls. it would make the youtuber ladbaby the first act to have two consecutive christmas no.1s since the spice girls. all the proceeds go to the foodbank charity the trussle trust. let's take a look at the travel situation now. there are minor delays on tfl rail services, between reading and paddington, due to a problem with the track. that's also affecting trains in and out of paddington. other lines on the tube reportedly running well. in the west end, shaftesbury avenue is closed from high holborn to cambridge circus for gas works.

and a quick look at the a13 where the usual delays are building coming in to central london through dagenham. now the weather with kate kinsella. good morning. a ratherfoggy start, at least for some of us this morning because of especially the further north and west you are, that is where the densest of the fog seems to be. the met office has a yellow weather warning. visibility in those places are considerably reduced. really dangerous driving conditions was not like i said, out towards the home counties, the west of london. some sunshine, though, once that moves north and more cloud moving in as we move into the afternoon. the winds are strengthening today as well for top not feeling as cold as yesterday, ten or 11 celsius the maximum temperature. we hang onto the mild air overnight and with that, the wind and the rain. some heavy and persistent rain overnight and into thursday morning. the minimum temperature as a result, not dropping too far, it will be quite a

mild night, between seven and eight celsius was not a rather wet start for thursday. pulses of rain coming and going throughout some brighter spells but the temperature, perhaps the mildest of the week at 14 celsius. it stays unsettled as we head through to the weekend. there's more from me in around half an hour, and you can also check out our website. now, back to louise and dan. bye for now. hello. this is breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. we'll bring you all the latest news and sport in a moment. we news and sport in a moment. have the weather as but also on breakfast this morning: news and sport in a moment. continuing our focus on loneliness, we'll meet dennis, the shetland pony who's spending christmas visiting people with learning disabilities. also this morning, we'll bejoined byjulie bailey who uncovered one of the worst hospital scandals in the history of the nhs, and is now the focus of docu—drama the cure. and after 9:00, the stars of this year's bbc four christmas ghost story, martin's close, will be here.

it is spooky by the way. they will be here. here's a summary of today's main stories from bbc news. hundreds of thousands of people are facing a wait of months to have their faulty and potentially dangerous washing machines replaced. whirlpool recalled 500,000 appliances yesterday because the door locking system can overheat, causing a fire risk, but customers are struggling to get information because of problems with its website. the company was already dealing with problems with its dryers. earlier we spoke to a consumer expert who gave us advice about whether you should use your washing machine over the christmas period. this is over christmas as well. the family coming home for christmas, there is every chance he will be putting on a few more loads than usual. you may want to run it at 20 degrees but i would advise anyone who chooses to do that to keep an

eye on it, don't leave it running overnight or while you are out of the house. you can stop using it. i would encourage you to keep hold of any receipts you have for laundry service and we expect whirlpool to compensate you for that money if you have to fork out any extra funds. tony blair is warning that labour will be "replaced" as a serious political force if it tries to whitewash the scale of its election defeat. the ex—prime minister will unveil research today suggesting labour's problems go far deeper than the unpopularity of jeremy corbyn and its brexit stance. mr corbyn faced fury within his party at the first meeting of labour mps last night where he was criticised for both the campaign and his lack of remorse. more than a third of gps have cut their hours in the last year. it says many dock desire blaming demands of the job. it found more than one in ten are taking time off due to stress.

during the election, the conservatives promised an extra 6,000 gps within the next five years. doctors in the uk are the first in the world to trial a new way of delivering chemotherapy, which could improve its success rate and lead to fewer side—effects. the royal marsden hospital in surrey is in the early stages of testing acoustic cluster therapy, which uses ultrasound waves to target tumours without attacking nearby healthy cells. it's hoped the technique could reduce hair loss, nausea and tiredness. president trump is set to face a trial in the us senate if, as expected, the house of representatives votes in favour of impeaching him today. if convicted by the senate, he would be removed from office, something that's never happened in us history. in a public letter, mr trump has accused the democratic speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, and her party of "subverting democracy" with an "illegal, partisan attempted coup. " the second series of killing eve has been the biggest show of the year so far on the bbc iplayer.

the spy thriller notched up 40.4 million views on the streaming platform. that's about 13 million more than line of duty in second place. peaky blinders' fifth series was the third biggest with 26.6 million requests. big numbers, aren't they? that is a lot. are people watching it three times or something? i have no idea. they all count, don't they. i have watched it once. have you watched it? no, it is on the list. it is a long list. what is top of the list? peaky blinders what is top of the list? pea ky blinders probably. i occasionally dip into it. classic. there might be a few people watching a rerun of the darts last night in fairness. amazing scenes! history made at the pdc world darts championship at alexandra palace. louise is wearing pink in her honour. iam happy.

looks like you have been watching as well. these things don'tjust happen naturally, do they? it was amazing. she had to come from behind. fallon sherrock says she's proven something for women's dart that women can play the men and beat them. the 25—year—old needed a double 18 to beat ted evetts which she nailed with her second throw to book her place in the second round. she plays again on saturday. she's only the fifth woman to play at the tournament, a proper qualifying path was only introduced last year, guaranteeing two places for women in the 96—strong field. and sherrock took to social media last night after the win, saying she's buzzing to have made history. she said that she's done it for the girls. she certainly has. two games, two continents in less than two days. it's a crazy 24 hours for liverpool as the fixtures mount up. let's start in chronological order with the senior squad away in qatar to play the club world cup, last night their youngest side in history played in their league cup tie against aston villa, who proved experience counts. jonathan kodja scoring twice for villa while wesley rounded off a 5—0 win.

meanwhile, more than 3,000 miles away in qatar, the first team were watching that game on tv as the club prioritises the club world cup, in the hope they can call themselves the best club side in the world come the end of the week. they take on mexican side monterey later for the right to play brazilian side flamengo in saturday's final. there has been some criticism over the decision to hold the tournament in qatar. the boss says he is the wrong person to address concerns over the country by the human rights record. there is a time, we are here, we arrived here, we were fairly welcome, everything is fine, everything is organised like it should be. that is our situation. organising the competition, wherever it is in the world, fifa did that, so it is in the world, fifa did that, so they have other people organising it, they have to think about these kinds of things and athletes shouldn't. the other three league cup

quarterfinals take place tonight. manchester city travel to face league one side oxford united. mikel arteta will travel with the squad. city's assistant coach is in talks with arsenal about becoming their new manager. he made 150 appearances for arsenal, but has spent the last three years as assistant to the city boss pep guardiola. it is part of our group and our staff and will stay here. so, when we have any news, new news, i will know it, you will know it and we will know what happens. now he is here, tomorrow will travel with us. if he trains today, a training session and that is good. the man in charge of italy's top football league has apologised for a controversial anti—racism campaign. serie a used images of monkeys in the artwork, which drew heavy criticism from lots of italian clubs as well as anti—discrimination organisations. the league's chief executive luigi de siervo said he "realised that the artwork was inappropriate."

tyson fury has agreed to meet anthonyjoshua in the ring. but for now, at least, only as a sparring partner. fury has accepted joshua's offer to spar ahead of his expected world heavyweight title rematch with deontay wilder, and he did it in typical tyson fury fashion. have a look at this. really, really love to have you in camp, work out for this fight and give him a proper beating. i would love to. i hope you mean it because i would love to have you in the training camp with me. thanks very much by the way, and congratulations. you wonder how training that camp is going to be, don't you? always entertaining. great stuff. finally, skateboarding will feature as a new sport at next year's tokyo 0lympics, but not at the paralympics. japanese skateboarder ryu sei uchi desperately hopes that one day it will be. he was born with perfect

vision, but he's now almost completely blind. he now needs a cane to navigate in his local skatepark near tokyo. just unbelievable. dropping in off large ramps and riding rails are all done by feel rather than sight. all by the use of his cane, as you can say. that is unbelievable, isn't it? absolutely incredible. there you go. on the basis of that, wouldn't it be amazing? just uses his cane to navigate his way around. the speed, the distances, all those things you have to factor in. it is incredible. nothing is impossible, is it? australia has experienced its hottest day on record, with the national average temperature reaching 40.9 degrees celcius, breaking the mark of 40.3 set six years ago. it comes as the nation battles a severe drought and a bushfire crisis. we'rejoined now from melbourne by luke heagerty from the country fire authority. good morning. good to speak to you.

first of all, tell us about these temperatures and how high has been where you are and what has it been like? good morning. in melbourne today we have reached about 39 degrees and we are expecting the heat to return on friday, expecting around 43 degrees in melbourne. but about 47 degrees in the north of the state in a town called mildura. very warm conditions for us at this time of year, thankfully, from a firefighting point of view, have not seen particularly strong winds, and thatis seen particularly strong winds, and that is often the challenge that we see is that when the winds pick up, it is quite gusty and that is what drives the significant fires that we are seeing in new south wales and queensland so far this year. how do you prepare for it? are you waiting and watching? what are you doing? 0ur journey and watching? what are you doing? 0urjourney to prepare for and watching? what are you doing? 0ur journey to prepare for days and watching? what are you doing? 0urjourney to prepare for days like this starts many months in advance, working with the community, encouraging landowners and property owners to prepare their property and

to make a plan for what is about to happen. so we know that summer in australia, we know we are going to have challenging days like we have seen today and what we will see again later in the week, the key at classes at the community know what they are doing as well. we have our firefighting equipment ready to go, have 57 firefighting aircraft operating in available in victoria at the moment, the critical thing for us as community members knowing what they are going to do, deciding whether they will stay and defend their properties whether they will move to larger towns so they are not at risk of fires when we see the fires developed. we are seeing pictures of the fires that have been happening. you said defend their properties, first of all, and prepare their properties. how do you prepare their properties. how do you prepare a property? a lot of the work that residents can undertake in terms of preparing their properties removing the fuel load, so the smaller leaves, bark coming off trees that is immediately surrounding their property and

clearing the grass around their property. what that means is when fires reach the edge of properties, they no longer have any fuel to burn through, and so it creates what we called a buffer zone for those residents so that there is a greater chance of them defending their properties. some residents do have larger equipment that they utilise, sprinkler systems, hoses and the like, residents put a lot of planning into these sorts of situations and are very certain about what their plan is going to be, and that involves being prepared with all of that equipment. really briefly, it is notjust the fires, coping generally with that heat is tough. what advice are people being given? certainly encouraging the community to restrict any activities that they don't need to undertake in a sort of weather, so staying in those cooler places, air—conditioned shopping centres and the like, but also, just realising that this is decemberfor us, we

also, just realising that this is december for us, we still have a couple of months of summer to go and we have seen these temperatures pop up we have seen these temperatures pop up quite early in summer and in parts of spring as well, so we know that people need to continue to be aware of what is happening around them, and not only look at the fire risk but the heat health risk as well. best of luck. i hope the weather stays on your side at least with the wind. thank you so much. incredible temperatures, aren't they? a big shake up of the way banks and building societies charge for overd rafts comes into force today. ben is here. we were talking about this, one of the big banks has changed its rules on overd rafts. the city watchdog, the financial conduct authority, has been looking at overdrafts for a while now, over concerns that banks are taking advantage of vulnerable customers. a lot of people use overdrafts as a form of borrowing. some of the numbers are staggering. around 19 million people a year use

an arranged overdraft — that's where the bank has agreed that customers can go borrow a certain amount of money each month. but 14 million use unauthorised overd rafts — that's where it hasn't been agreed with the bank in advance and can cost a lot. it's all very lucrative for the banks. in 2017, they made £2.5 billion from overdraft fees. the regulator is going to bring in some new changes and they could ultimately cost people a bit more even though it suggests, well, the banks are unhappy how much they are being charged. so what changes today? well, one of the most simple, but most effective chanegs will be that the balance shown on a cash machine or online account can no longer include an overdraft. so you have 50 quid and you haven't over d raft so you have 50 quid and you haven't over draft of 250 quid, it tells you you have 300. they will make that

illegal. —— and you have an overdraft of 250 quid. they will not include the overdraft anymore. banks will also have to use one simple annual interest rate and from next year, won't be able to charging more for unarranged overd rafts than for arranged overdrafts. there are different rates applicable for both authorised and unauthorised ove rd rafts. they'll also have to publish overdraft prices more clearly. that's so it's much more obvious to customers what they're paying, and lenders will be have to identify customers showing signs of financial strain. the regulator says seven in ten people who use an overdraft will be better off or the same

as a result of the changes. the banks i suspect will be less happy. given they make a lot of money from this. here's carol with a look at this morning's weather. it looks nice behind you! in australia, as we have been hearing, record—breaking temperatures. what they do in australia is they average the whole temperature for the whole of the country and they came out yesterday at 40.9. that means some places would be lower than that but some higher. in south australia, the temperature yesterday reached 46.5dc stop in fahrenheit, that is 115 .7 degrees. they show you some pictures, you can see a lot of smoke connected to the fires. they are close to the coast as well. they are really burning strongly. the thing is with the heat, the smoke is getting trapped as well so that means that air quality is

particularly poor. the heat is set to continue for the next few days. it looks like it will drift east and it could potentially get closer to 50 celsius. that is extreme heat. back at home, morning fog and later some rain coming our way and strengthening wins. rain and strengthening wins. rain and strengthening wings already coming in through the aisles of silly. —— past of lincolnshire, east anglia, some down the south coast and northern ireland. —— isles of scilly. eastern areas today are generally drier and brighter but the fog areas towards the rest. you can see the rain coming our way and the rain continuing to strengthen. around isles of scilly, 45 mph but later trails along the irish sea coastline. temperatures, if you are stuck under the fog around the

newcastle area, will only get up as high as three that under the reign further south and west, we are looking at about ten. do this evening and overnight, the rain crosses all of us as it moves northwards was top gale through the irish sea and the low pressure building through us, as it pushes close to the western isles, we could see also gales here as well. something we are keeping a close eye on. behind it, look at the difference in the temperatures, not a particular cold night for some of us but it will be in some pockets. temperatures down to about three or fourin temperatures down to about three or four in some towns and cities in the north. through the course of thursday, you can see how we have a front moving north, a front moving east and also the isobars. not as windy tomorrow but it was still be breezy. the thing is, the breezes coming from a south which is a milder direction for us though it won't be a cold day tomorrow. the first band of rain moving north, the second moving east. some of the showers emerged to give a longer spells across england and wales and

heading into northern england, southern scotland and northern ireland through the day so the driest of conditions further north you travel the temperatures, most of us in double figures. 40 degrees in london for the pretty mild for this time of year. normally it would be closer to eight or maybe even nine. as we had only to friday, it will still be pretty wet. already we have saturated grounds in parts of england so we won't need any more rain that we will get it as it pushes northwards. the detail of this could change. it is an area of low pressure, a complex one, other areas of low pressure develops within it as well. to the north—west of it, a fair bit of cloud and to the south, we think it will brighten up. showers coming in across the southern counties as well. still in the mild air, temperatures dipping a touch. if you remember, 14 in london tomorrow and we are likely to be 11 as we head on into friday. depending what happens on friday, it will have an impact on what happens on

saturday and the weekend as well. we see that area of low pressure drift off to the north and behind it, or settled, a few showers, a lot of dry weather, before this next area of low pressure scripts across southern areas, bringing more rain. the weather for us is certainly continuing with an unsettled theme. this is dennis. he's a therapeutic shetland pony and he's taking on a very important job this christmas. as part of a project set up by the charity mencap, he's visiting people with learning disabilities over the festive season to help combat loneliness. fiona lamdin has been to find out more. 28—year—old dennis getting ready for the biggest day of his year. he is a miniature shetland pony and at this christmas party, he is the star of the show. he doesn't want to play ball. the charity mencap say people with learning disabilities are seven

times more likely to be lonely over christmas. i have felt a bit lonely but not too often. ed is 49 and has cerebral palsy and needs round—the—clock care. cerebral palsy and needs round-the-clock care. hello, you. this year, it will be hosting his friends so they are not alone on christmas day. i don't think anybody should be alone at christmas. that horrifies me because they haven't got no friends. no families. 0r no—one to talk to. nothing to do. you know, they stay shut up in their own little world, if you like. and it is important that we bring people together at this time of year. the charity believe inclusion is key. we need to work on changing attitudes

to people with disabilities are not a lot of people are frightened, frightened of saying the wrong thing, they don't know how to approach people and it isjust thing, they don't know how to approach people and it is just a case of treating everybody the same. we have been told mince pies are dennis' favourite trees but he is only allowed one per yearfor the op—ed, would you like to give it to him? go on. this is a first for me. flat hand. isn't having him come and visit you here? yes, it is very nice. very friendly. aren't you, dennis? he feels smooth. there is no doubt dennis has been a huge success today. if you let go of that and hold your hand nice and flat, there you go and he will lick your hand. i get quite emotional when i see

people's faces change. two it is such a lovely thing to do and a lovely thing to see. and he has his own story. sophie saved him five yea rs own story. sophie saved him five years ago from becoming horsemeat. when he is at home, he can be a handful but when he gets to a setting like this, he settles, call asa setting like this, he settles, call as a cucumber and just let let's everybody but him and i am sure he absolutely everybody but him and i am sure he a bsolutely loves everybody but him and i am sure he absolutely loves it. how about i wear the antlers instead? shall i put the antlers on? yes, go on. neigh! neigh! i am excited dennis will be here later. hello, everybody. if you are looking to add some festive sparkle to your christmas gateau, you may have some inspiration for you in the studio. christmas gateau, you may have some inspiration for you in the studiolj was remarkably still there for a moment, look at that. royal baker david duncan is one of the most

decorated cake makers in the uk. royal baker david duncan is one of the most decorated cake makers in the uk — with a glitzy client list that includes bon jovi, j.k rowling, and the fashion house, dior. he's here today to give us some baking tips — and he's brought an extra special treat too. what kind of cake is it? toffee. a nice light cream. are we allowed to eatit? nice light cream. are we allowed to eat it? have a bite of the couch. how long does it take to construct a ca ke how long does it take to construct a cake like this? it was myself and the head designer and we managed to do this in a day but normally a couple of days. you have made all sorts of cakes including for the queen. tell us about the snowman one which i think you have done for us. we worked on a snowman, almost like

a demonstration cake yesterday. it was to show what you can do from a supermarket christmas cake. people can buy a christmas cake in the supermarket and then... yes and easily turn it into something a bit exciting, a bit different than a standard cake. everything we are using is purchased from the supermarket so it is easily accessible. look at that, it is lovely. you are doing it quite fast and we can't quite follow it! laughs. tell us about some of your favourite cakes you have made. there has been a few of us over the years. some of the most memorable things, we created a huge giant party box where a presenter from a business jump where a presenter from a business jump out from inside the cake. we created this in our store in edinburgh. we made this cake and it was around about eight foot long by about four foot wide. we had was around about eight foot long by about fourfoot wide. we had it was around about eight foot long by about four foot wide. we had it all finished off, all looking great and then we went to actually leave the shop with it and we realised we hadn't measured the door and we were afoot, about half a foot too big so

the cake took is that long to make and it was cheaper and easierfor us to ta ke and it was cheaper and easierfor us to take a jigsaw and cut out a piece of the door to fit it through. you are not a professional baker but you are not a professional baker but you are now? i am now. when i started off in it, everything is a standard now, i came in straight from school andi now, i came in straight from school and i was more from the side of art, clay and sculpture and then when i started at myjob, i did a waiting —— wedding cake with my grandmother... it has developed from there. thank you very much four this cake! if you want to know how to make your christmas themed cake, head over to our facebook page for the recipe. and given that we're in the christmas spirit, we would love to see some of your festive cake designs. so send them our way and we can show them later in the programme. you can email us at bbcbrea kfast@bbc. co. uk or share your thoughts with other

viewers on our facebook page. and you can tweet about today's stories using the hashtag #bbcbreakfast. time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london. i'm sonja jessup. more than 170,000 people in the capital will be homeless this christmas according to the charity shelter. it's thought the numbers have increased by more than 7,000 in the past three years. they include those who are sleeping rough, but also others in hostels and bed and breakfast accomodation. in the capital, in particular, there is a huge inflation in rents so the cost of private renting is going up and up. meanwhile, housing benefit and local housing allowance have been frozen. so the gap between the two has just been getting wider and wider and what's happening is people are then being evicted and they can't find anywhere else to go. the government says it's providing councils with more

than a billion pounds to help tackle homelessness. politicians at city hall are calling on the mayor to make sure the amount of dust on the tube is monitored. transport for london has commissioned studies on levels of pollution underground, but so far, their findings have not been published. the london assembly's environment committee is particularly concerned about the impact on contract cleaners working down there. a family from hemel hempstead are hoping for a christmas no1 again with a song about sausage rolls. it would make the youtuber ladbaby the first act to have two consecutive christmas no.1s since the spice girls. all the proceeds go to the foodbank charity the trussle trust. let's take a look at the travel situation now. there are minor delays on tfl rail services— between reading and paddington, due to a problem with the track. that's also affecting trains in and out of paddington. other lines on the tube reportedly running well.

in the west end, shaftesbury avenue is closed from high holborn to cambridge circus for gas works. and a quick look at the a13 where the usual delays are building coming in to central london through dagenham. now the weather with kate kinsella. good morning. a rather foggy start, at least for some of us this morning, especially the further north and west you are, that's where the densest of the fog seems to be. the met office has a yellow weather warning. visibility in those places considerably reduced. really dangerous driving conditions. like i said, out towards the home counties, the west of london is where it is at its thickest. some sunshine, though. once that moves north, more cloud moving in as we head into the afternoon. the winds strengthening today as well. it's not feeling as cold as yesterday, 10 or 11 celsius the maximum temperature. we hang onto the mild air overnight. with that, the wind and the rain.

some heavy and persistent rain overnight and into thursday morning. the minimum temperature as a result, not dropping too far, it is going to be quite a mild night, between seven and eight celsius. so a rather wet start for thursday. we'll see pulses of rain coming and going throughout. some brighter spells in there but the temperature perhaps the mildest of the week at 14 celsius. it stays unsettled as we head through to the weekend. there's more from me in around half an hour— and you can also check out our website at the usual address bye for now. good morning. welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. 0ur headlines today: a wait of months for hundreds of thousands of washing machine owners who've been told their appliances are dangerous and need replacing. former prime minister tony blair warns that labour will be replaced as a serious political force if it tries to whitewash the scale of its election defeat. doctors test a new type

of chemotherapy, which could be more effective and have fewer side—effects for cancer patients. good morning. a shake—up of the rules on overd rafts. new measures come into force today for banks and building societies, and they could cost you much more. i'll have the details. good morning. history at the darts as fallon sherrock becomes the first woman to beat a man at the pdc world championship at ally pally. good morning. have fog and icy patches to watch out for this morning. some of the fog will only lift into low cloud, the brightest conditions will be in the s. —— middle east. in the west we have rain and strengthening winds. more in15 rain and strengthening winds. more in 15 minutes. good morning. it's wednesday the 18th of december. our top story: hundreds of thousands of people are facing a wait of months to have their faulty

and potentially dangerous washing machines replaced. whirlpool recalled 500 , 000 appliances yesterday because of a fire risk, but customers are struggling to get information because of problems with its website. the company was already dealing with problems with its dryers, as dan johnson reports. more than 500,000 of these washers are at risk of sparking a fire if a part in the door lock overheats. it's happened to 79 indesit and hotpoint machines already. that prompted a clear warning to customers. it's a serious situation, and we're encouraging them to make contact at our uk call centre, which is open seven days a week, or they can go online and they can actually use the model checker to determine whether or not their unit is one of the affected products. but the website whirlpool set up crashed yesterday, and so did the phone line too. now, they announced this recall. they said they'd planned for it, but it looked like they couldn't cope with the response from their customers. so on the company's twitter feed,

there's now a list of the models that are affected. the advice is to unplug the machine and wait for a repair or a replacement or you can reduce the risk by running it at a lower temperature. fires started by whirlpool tumble dryers were much more serious. the washing machines haven't caused anything on this scale. but repairs and replacements won't begin until january at the earliest, and could take months, leaving many customers without a washing machine over christmas. avoiding further damage to the company's reputation now depends on how smoothly it handles this recall. dan johnson, bbc news. i know lots of you will want information. and we'll speak to the vice—president of whirlpool in just a few minutes. tony blair is warning that labour will be replaced as a serious political force if they try to whitewash the scale of its election defeat. the ex—prime minister

will unveil research today, suggesting labour's problems go far deeper than the unpopularity ofjeremy corbyn and its brexit stance. 0ur political correspondent nick eardley is in westminster. tell me what you know tony blair is going to say. still a bit of a bogeyman for some on the labour left, but others will be listening quite intently because tony blair is the last labour leader who won a general election, and his argument will be that the party really needs to start reinventing itself to be a progressive force, a progressive alternative to the conservative party, and if it doesn't do that, it will essentially be replaced as the main opposition party in british politics. he has also published some research which has been done by his think tank says it is notjust about replacing the driver, it is about getting a whole new bus as well. what does it mean? it is notjust jeremy corbyn but it is the direction of labour, there will be

some really important warnings from mr blair today as labour does that whole soul—searching thing after its catastrophic election last week. you mentioned the soul—searching. we know labour mp that a tense meeting last night, talking tojeremy corbyn. absolutely bruising, louise. mr corbin turned up and said i think this was largely down to exit national corbyn. the party being squeezed and down to the media not treating us fairly. some of his mps are not buying it. a2 .5 hour meeting in the afternoon, pointing the finger at mr corbyn and saying actually it was not those things, it was you. the party didn't get its message across properly and you, as leader, were a problem as well. have a listen to one labour mp speaking last night, rachel reeves. sorry is sometimes the hardest word to say. and it certainly seemed that was the case this evening

from leadership of the party because we had the words 'devastated' and 'saddened', but actually, with the privilege of leadership also comes responsibility, and the leadership of the party need to take responsibility for this defeat and say sorry not to the people who are returned as mp5, but to the mp5 who have lost their seats, but actually, most importantly, the people who desperately need a labour government. mr corbyn is going, but probably not until the end of march. these arguments will go on and on and on over the next few weeks and months. 0ne over the next few weeks and months. one person this morning saying he seriously thinking about standing, which is basically shorthand for wa nts to which is basically shorthand for wants to stand, wants to see if he will get enough support. he wants to keep labour a broad church on the left and mr corbyn ‘s supporters and the centrist tony blair supported both finding a home there. it is a potentially bruising a few months ahead for the party still. thank you very much. we are speaking to the mpsa very much. we are speaking to the mps a little later here on brea kfast. around 9,000 nurses

in northern ireland will stage a 12—hour strike today over ongoing disputes about pay and staffing levels. it's the first time members of the royal college of nursing have ever taken part in strike action. 0ur northern ireland correspondent, chris page, is outside royal ulster hospital. good morning to you. talk to us about disruption. it is unprecedented action, isn't it? that's right. we are an hour away from a walk out the likes of which has never been seen anywhere in the uk. 9000 nurses at hospitals across northern ireland will be going on strike. there are several trade unions involved, the royal college of nursing has been in existence for 103 years and never before as its members taken a strike action. in addition, the nurses, also paramedics are taking industrial action today, social workers, support staff. why are they doing

it? basically they want the page to come into line with the colleagues in england and scotland and wales. adr has fallen behind the rest of the uk. the striking workers want to pay to be brought up to that level. nurses say that over the last eight yea rs nurses say that over the last eight years the pay has dropped in real terms by 15%. they say that is creating a dangerous level of understaffing for patients because vacancies understaffing for patients because vacancies cannot understaffing for patients because vacancies cannot be filled because people are not prepared to work for the relatively low pay. that is a situation here in northern ireland. there will be major disruption. if you have not been contacted by your hospital, you should turn up for your appointment as usual. we will be speaking to the health secretary about that and other issues as well in about half—an—hour. doctors in the uk are the first in the world to trial a new way of delivering chemotherapy, which could improve its success rate and lead to fewer side—effects. the royal marsden hospital in surrey

is testing acoustic cluster therapy, which uses ultrasound waves to target tumours without attacking nearby healthy cells. 0ur health correspondent, laura foster, has more. nerves are common when you're a patient in hospital, even more so when you are the first person in the world to receive a new treatment. you feel quite vulnerable, but it's also very exciting. am i a guinea pig? it's quite nerve—racking. this is acoustic cluster therapy, which aims to make anti—cancer drugs more effective. but how? one problem with chemotherapy is that the drugs flow around your whole body. acoustic cluster therapy is going for a more targeted approach. here, patients are also given micro—droplets. an ultrasound machine detects when these arrive at the tumour and turns them into gas bubbles, filling and stretching the micro—vessels inside the tumour. it means more of the drugs are pumped into the tumour directly. then, hopefully,

the lesions will respond better, the cancer will shrink more so then you can cure maybe more patients who are in that situation. this trial is at a very early stage and it's still not clear whether there might be any long—term side—effects to the treatment. but if chemotherapy can be made more effective, then it could mean fewer people suffering the side—effects such as nausea and hair loss, and it could make those difficult tumours, the ones that were previously thought to be untreatable, could mean they start responding to chemotherapy drugs too. you hope that there's a more easy way or a more gentle way of treating people. hopefully, you know, this will happen. one day there will be a chemo where you don't have these side—effects. but there would need to be many more tests and trials before we can get close to that. laura foster, bbc news, sutton. australia has experienced its hottest day on record. the average national temperature reaching a high of 40.9 degrees celsius. it comes as fire services continue to battle a drought and a bushfire crisis.

tuesday's temperature tipped the mercury past the previous record of 40.3 set in 2013. forecasters predict the most intense heat could come later in the week, so the record could be broken yet again. you know what happens at christmas sometimes when family and friends get together? sometimes it had a bit tense. tempers can fry on occasions, can't they. but there is may some help from your smart speaker that can a p pa re ntly from your smart speaker that can apparently act as a smart speaker. —— peacemaker. amazon says it has has programmed its alexa devices to change the subject during family arguments. when you ask it to step in, it'll ask you questions like, "what would your superpower be and why?", whetherjam or cream should be added to a scone first, or who your celebrity crush is. the idea is the new conversation starters will help you forget all about your quarrel. i wonder if that will work?

who knows? good luck, everybody. let's return to our top story this morning. the company whirlpool is making the headlines again this morning after another product recall. this time, washing machine owners could be waiting months for their faulty appliances to be replaced or repaired. 500,000 have been recalled because of a fire risk. the company has recently been dealing with a similar problem with its tumble dryers. we can speak now to whirlpool‘s vice—president, jeff noel. good morning to you. thank you very much forjoining us. so many questions that we really need to get a nswered questions that we really need to get answered this morning. when did you know this was the problem? we identified there was a situation several weeks ago. we look at how to understand what was the cause and to know exactly what units were potentially going to be affected. we then went to the regulators to make them fully known of the situation, committed to do everything that it will take to make the situation right, and the step one is to really

communicate with the customers and thatis communicate with the customers and that is what we are doing today. go back a step. you say several weeks ago. these are a fire risk, in people bother mccombs and you didn't alert them then. we did and we letting them know today was not the most important thing to do when you identify a situation like this is to make sure you understand the pattern. were you still selling them when you knew they were a fire risk? as soon as we identify the situation, as a matter of fact, we quit manufacturing these products in february 2018. will you still selling them when you knew there we re selling them when you knew there were a fire risk? as soon as we identified there was a situation, we notified all of those in the retailing sector that they need to be off the floor, but by the way, these products were stopped manufacturing in february 2018. i don't believe there were many products in the marketplace but we did contact all the retailers so that they could remove them, they

would know how to contact us that we could replace those products, and thatis could replace those products, and that is why we are communicating with our customers today. tell me about today. we know that you have said people to get in contact with you, we have been looking at your website overnight. it is still not working. we are frustrated with that situation as well. we have worked through the night to communicate with our customers. our call centre will be open at eight o'clock and we will be open at eight o'clock and we will have extended hours to be open seven days a week. we think we have identified the root cause, have worked with a third—party provider and testing out the system this morning, we hope to have the website that online earlier this afternoon or even perhaps... to accept that is not good enough? it is not good enough for me but we have to continue to work through this process because step one is to communicate with our customers. this isa communicate with our customers. this is a good opportunity for you to communicate. so, if people are able to find out that they have a faulty washing machine, get through to your

website will get through to your customer services, and we will make sure we have it on our social media as well, what do they do? they have this machine in the house that is currently a fire risk. we ask them to re m ove currently a fire risk. we ask them to remove all the risks associated with the machine, unplug it. if they are going to continue to use the product, we ask them to use the cold water wash cycle at 20 celsius because we know that by using the cold water wash cycle, they will significantly reduce the risks associated with this machine. significantly reduce the risks associated with this machinem significantly reduce the risks associated with this machine. it is associated with this machine. it is a bit confusing. they unplug the machine and the other thing is say is you set at 20 degrees. is it safe or not? to remove the risk associated with the product, we asked consumers to unplug it. if they continue to use the product, only use it on a cold water wash cycle at 20 degrees which we know significantly reduces the risk. cycle at 20 degrees which we know significantly reduces the riskm doesn't take away the risk, just reduces it? it significantly reduces it and also it allows us to then

communicate with our customers so that we can begin the process of removing the risk from the home with a like—for—like free replacement where we come in and we remove the old product we can do a full repair that will take care of the risk for our customers. what would you do if you had one in your home?|j our customers. what would you do if you had one in your home? i would continue to use the product on the cold water wash cycle and with all the patients and customers, i would be making sure that i call a professional today, a service technician and i would speak directly with them about my situation and i would get information directly from the professional about the usage guidance and what i need to be doing next to get this problem removed from my home. you have committed to repair or to replace... when? we will start this process early in january and we will be doing so shortly after the holidays and we have been working tirelessly because this is a complex situation and i wish you could be done overnight, i

truly do, but we are working flat out to make sure we have all the people trained, we doubled the staff, adding service engineers. we are working with third parties to make sure we can do the deliveries and to make sure most importantly to remove the problem from the home, recycle it properly and make sure it does not... this is not the first time you have had problems with a product. we know very well about what happened with the tumble dryers. some people had to wait months to get theirs repaired or replaced. is that what is going to happen again? i believe that the first step is to communicate with the customer and we believe that our dedicated 2500 staff in the uk are going to work tirelessly to resolve this issue for all of our customers. can you give us a date? all i can tell you is the most important thing to do is first communicate with customers, that is why we are doing this and that is why i am the show today. the next thing to do is

register. people are watching this morning and they have been in touch asking when will this happen? would you give us a timeframe when will happen? when people will be safe in their homes. as soon as they make contact with us, as soon as we can get them registered, all of our employees will work flat out to get theseissues employees will work flat out to get these issues taking care of, remove these issues taking care of, remove the product from the home free of charge, and the free repair. all 2500 of our team are committed to doing just that. people want to know, it is christmas time. is it weeks they have to wait? months? which is it? we will commence this process in early january and we will do everything we can to do it as expeditiously and professionally and a proper way as is possible. will you give people money back mr mark we are going to make sure that they get a free like—for—like replacement, we come into the home and remove the product. what if they wa nt and remove the product. what if they want a different product? given what has happened with this product, they wa nt has happened with this product, they want their money back. has happened with this product, they want their money backlj has happened with this product, they want their money back. i don't want to speak for every customer out

there. but i want them to make contact and talk to a professional so that we can understand their situation and we can work to make sure that we remove this problem from their home in the proper way. we are 100% dedicated and committed to working with each and every one of our customers to resolve the situation. in the meantime, while people will be trying to cope with not being able to wash their clothes, they may have to go to the laundress. will you pay the bills? there is not a situation we can probably do that. our responsibilities to the situation —— let risk from customer's homes, people public homes and that is what we are committed to doing and that is why we are working tirelessly to make sure we can take care of each and every one of the people that are customers. will you do you have been really clear you want to communicate with customers, it is an individual conversation. will you consider compensation? i want every customer to call us so we can continue the

relationships we have with them, understand the situation and that is exactly why we have worked tirelessly to make sure the call centre is open and that is also why we are making sure that we have people there to respond to their needs. look, this is a concerning situation. i fully understand the frustrations that our customers are going through but you first have to allow us to communicate with you, and secondly i have to say we appreciate your patience, and most importantly, we apologise for this particular situation. and if you're worried that your machine may be one of those affected, then whirlpool want you to check your model number on its website, but you may need to be patient as there have been problems and it is currently down. there is also a call centre number which you can try. it's 0800 3161442.

here's carol with a look at this morning's weather. if you haven't been out and about yet, it chile! —— it is cold! if you haven't been out and about yet, it chile! -- it is cold! we start with the australian heat because we have had record—breaking heat was at the highest temperature recorded yesterday was in southern australia where the mercury reached 46.5dc. that is 115.7 fahrenheit. what the australians do is record every temperature and take an average so the average temperature yesterday was 40.9. 0ver average so the average temperature yesterday was 40.9. over the next few days, the heat will continue and drift eastwards. it is not out of the possibility that some places could hit 50 celsius was up and the problem is, with the bushfires, the

smoke is being trapped and the air quality is poor. at home, dense fog. also the risk of icy patches and the wind already picking up across the aisles of silly where there will be gales in the west, later especially and also some rain the fog we have will be slow to lift and we also have this set of fronts coming in bringing in rain and southerly winds —— isles of scilly. it will be pretty gusty in the south—west across areas adjacent to the irish sea and the rain will also come in, especially up the west coast. lifting into low cloud but essentially eastern areas will be drier and brighter, some of us are seeing sunshine and temperatures is six in aberdeen and ten in plymouth but if you are stuck under the fog, it will peg the temperature back.

the strongest winds will be in the west and we could see gales around the outer hebrides and the western isles. temperature wise, behind this wet weather, drier conditions are coming in this is what you can expect towns and cities. tomorrow, our first fronts expect towns and cities. tomorrow, ourfirst fronts going expect towns and cities. tomorrow, our first fronts going east, expect towns and cities. tomorrow, ourfirst fronts going east, our second front going north. still breezy and still coming up from the south. normally you would expect to see the blue colours denoting cold weather but we are looking at yellows a nd weather but we are looking at yellows and ambers though tomorrow when the rain clears, showers following behind and some emerged to give longer spells of rain but it is the temperatures tomorrow that will be of note because for a lot of us, we're looking at double figures for some of us, really high for this time of year. up to about 40 degrees in london.

last month, more than 300 gymnasts from 37 nations met injapan to compete at the trampoline, tumbling and dmt world championships. it was a particularly successful event for the british men's and women's tumbling teams — who both came home with gold. they're back together this morning in wakefield, where holly hamilton has gone to see them in action. it isa it is a bit more impressive than what most of us manage to do when we tumble out of bed. as you mentioned, if you are watching breakfast a couple of weeks ago, you will have seen us talking about the trampoline tumbling and dmt trampoline championships. in total, we took away seven medals, including 54 tumbling which is what you are seeing behind me and for the men and women's team tumbling event, two gold medals. introducing megan. show us what you can do. let us see this

in action. don't they make it look easy? megan, come on down here. megan had a lot of pressure on her during this event in tokyo. she was last up in the women's team event and you can imagine the pressure on her shoulders knowing what she had to do to clinch gold. congratulations, welcome back. before we get into the event, explain tumbling. in theory, it sounds simple, but it is not, is it? lunait sounds simple, but it is not, is it? luna it is the hundred metres sprint of gymnastics. it used to be called to power tumbling. it is a big, powerful sport. we go quite fast. to power tumbling. it is a big, powerful sport. we go quite fastlj do wonder how you can stop, to be perfectly honest with you. here is your gold medal stop talk me through what that felt like. you were the last one up and got the highest score. i felt like it was a lot of pressure but i felt like i knew what

i was doing. my teammates supported me and my coaches so... it wasn't just about the women, was it, megan? the men were up after user that put pressure on them. come on up, elliott. knowing the fact that you had to perform after these girls had one goal, what was it like? it was so no one goal, what was it like? it was so no fracking just watching the girls absolutely inspired us to go and do our job. girls absolutely inspired us to go and do ourjob. you won silver in the individual tumbling event and a second year of the road you one silver? loonie yes. tell us what it was like to be out there as an event like this was not because tumbling is not an olympic event to be there in atmosphere, what was it like?m was amazing, to watch everyone compete and do so well. to get the silver medal, it was super. finally

christophe, being out there in tokyo with these guys and getting that level of success and one thing i wa nt to level of success and one thing i want to highlight, it is individually funded. you have the support of british gymnastics but you are having to fund everything yourself? yes i guess that cements in the team, we are all on the same path, we all have to support ourselves but it means we look to each other for support so as a team, actually, it is always a great atmosphere and realty —— cheer each other on and that is why we get the success we got recently. allan great to see you and have you all here this morning stop. later on we will see something special. it looks really good! time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london, i'm sonja jessup. more than 170,000 people in the capital will be homeless this christmas, according to the charity shelter. it's thought the numbers have increased by more

than 7,000 in the past three years. they include those who are sleeping rough but also others in hostels and bed and breakfast accomodation. in the capital, in particular, there is a huge inflation in rents so the cost of private renting is going up and up. meanwhile, housing benefit and local housing allowance have been frozen. so the gap between the two has just been getting wider and wider and what's happening is people are then being evicted and they can't find anywhere else to go. the government says it's providing councils with more than a billion pounds to help tackle homelessness. politicians at city hall are calling on the mayor to make sure the amount of dust on the tube is monitored. transport for london has commissioned studies on levels of pollution underground, but so far theirfindings have not been published. the london assembly's environment committee is particularly concerned about the impact on contract cleaners working down there. a family from hemel hempstead

are hoping for a christmas no1 again— with a song about sausage rolls. it would make the youtuber ladbaby the first act to have two consecutive christmas no.1s since the spice girls. all the proceeds go to the foodbank charity the trussle trust. let's take a look at the travel situation now. the good news is tfl rail services running normally again following a problem with the track. but it's still affecting gwr trains in and out of paddington. all lines on the tube though reportedly running well. still no south western trains between epsom to ewell west because of a landslip — reduced service on the rest of the network because of industrial action and a quick look at the a13 where the usual delays are building coming in to central london through dagenham now the weather with kate kinsella. good morning.

it's a rather foggy start, at least for some of us this morning, especially the further north and west you are, that's where the densest of the fog seems to be. the met office has a yellow weather warning. visibility in those places considerably reduced. really dangerous driving conditions. like i said, out towards the home counties, the west of london is where it is at its thickest. some sunshine, though. once that moves north, more cloud moving in as we head into the afternoon. the winds strengthening today as well. it's not feeling as cold as yesterday, 10 or 11 celsius the maximum temperature. we hang onto the mild air overnight. with that, the wind and the rain. some heavy and persistent rain overnight and into thursday morning. the minimum temperature as a result, not dropping too far, it is going to be quite a mild night, between seven and eight celsius. so a rather wet start for thursday. we'll see pulses of rain coming and going throughout. some brighter spells in there but the temperature perhaps the mildest of the week at 14 celsius. it stays unsettled as we head through to the weekend. there's more from me

in around half an hour — and you can also check our website. now back to louise and dan. bye for now . hello. this is breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. i don't let someone does not ijust left something somewhere. someone has found my phone! here's a summary of this morning's main stories from bbc news. hundreds of thousands of people are facing a wait of months to have their faulty and potentially dangerous washing machines replaced. whirlpool recalled 500 , 000 appliances yesterday because the door locking system can overheat, causing a fire risk, but customers are struggling to get information because of problems with its website. the company was already dealing with problems with its dryers. well, earlier, we spoke to whirlpool‘s vice—president, jeff noel, who couldn't give a time frame as to when repairs will happen. this is a concerning situation. i

fully understand the frustrations that our customers are going through, but you first have to allow us to communicate with you, and secondly, i have to say we appreciate your patience, and most importantly, we apologise for this particular situation. tony blair is warning that labour will be replaced as a serious political force if it tries to whitewash the scale of its election defeat. the ex—prime minister will unveil research today suggesting labour's problems go far deeper than the unpopularity ofjeremy corbyn and its brexit stance. mr corbyn faced fury within his party at the first meeting of labour mps last night, where he was criticised for both the campaign and his lack of remorse. around 9,000 nurses in northern ireland will stage a 12—hour strike today over ongoing disputes about pay and staffing levels. it's the first time members of the royal college of nursing have ever taken part in strike action. all emergency departments will remain open, but some routine appointments will be cancelled and a number of minor injury units

will be closed. two global car giants are merging in a deal worth nearly £40 million. fiat chrysler, which also makes alfa romeo, jeep and maserati cars, is to merge with peugeot, which also manufactures vauxhall and citroen vehicles. the deal will create the world's fourth largest carmaker, selling 9 million vehicles a year. we will be back with carol and little bit later on. she has details on our weather and the record—breaking temperatures in australia. john is here with a little bit of different history being made in the darts. unbelievable last night. history made at the pdc world darts championship at ally pally. absolutely amazing scenes. she will be hoping now having reaching the second round she can follow it up again. really special night for her last night. she said she has proven something for women stars that they

can play the men and beat them. the 25—year—old needed a double 18 to beat ted evetts, which she nailed with her second throw to book her place in the second round. she plays again on saturday. she's only the fifth woman to play at the tournament. a proper qualifying path was only introduced last year, guaranteeing two places for women in the 96—strong field. and sherrock took to social media last night after the win, saying she's buzzing to have made history. she said that she's done it for the girls. two games, two continents in less than two days — it's a crazy 24 hours for liverpool as the fixtures mount up. with the senior squad in qatar, liverpool fielded their youngest side in history against aston villa in the quarterfinals of the league cup last night and were well beaten, jonathan kodja scoring twice as wesley rounded off a 5—0 win for villa. liverpool's first team watched on in doha. they play mexican side monterey in the club world cup later. if they qualify and then win saturday's final, they can call themselves the best club side in the world.

there's been criticism over the decision to hold the tournament in qatar, managerjurgen klopp says he's the wrong person to address concerns over the country's human rights record. there's a time, we are here, we arrived here, we were very welcome, everything is fine, everything is organised like it should be. that's our situation here. organising the competition, wherever it is in the world, that fifa did that, so they have — other people who organise it have to think about these kinds of things and athletes shouldn't. the manchester city boss, pep guardiola, says he expects mikel arteta to make a quick decision over the arsenaljob. arteta is guardiola's number two, and will be with city for their league cup tie against oxford united tonight. he is in talks with arsenal though about becoming their new manager. it is part of our group and our staff and will stay here. so, when we have any news, new news, i will know it,

you will know it and after, we will know what happens. now he is here, tomorrow will travel with us. he trained today, we prepare a training session in the game and that is good. the man in charge of italy's top football league has apologised —— tyson fury‘s agreed to meet anthonyjoshua in the ring.. —— ring. but for now, just as sparring partners after accepting aj's offer to help fury out ahead of his world heavyweight title rematch with deontay wilder. and he did it in typical tyson fury fashion. really, really love to have you in camp, work out for this fight and give deontay wilder a proper beating. um...love to. i hope you mean it because i'd love to have you in the training camp with me. thanks very much by the way, and well done in your last fight. congratulations. iam sure i am sure he will get a little more serious when they get in the ring together. i imagine so. the gloves are off, it is all friendly and all

very entertaining. but when the gloves are on, serious business. hopefully we have last night's dart hero with us later. excellent. thank you. the health service was one of the big themes of the general election campaign and it seems it's still top of the agenda after last week's result. today, the government is announcing how it hopes to support new nurses, and at yesterday's cabinet meeting the prime minister took the opportunity to reiterate some of his pledges. people have a higher level of expectation and we must deliver for them. how many new hospitals are we going to build? how many more nurses are we going to hire? 50,000! you know the odds. 0k. those are the numbers. we can speak now to the health secretary, matt hancock. cani can i ask you, there was some confusion over those numbers during the election campaign. it is not 50,000 new nurses? it is 50,000 more nurses, and a large part of that

will be new nurses entering. but also there has been significant pressure on nurses in recent years and more are leaving the profession that i want to see. which is something we will come true. but you say it is not 50,000 more nurses, it is not 50,000 more than we currently have. you are retaining 18,500 of those. the number of nurses in the nhs will be 50,000 more than it is today. that is the commitment and we are going to make that commitment, i am absolutely determined about it and hence today's announcement. it is really good news that we are introducing a training ground, —— grant, a minimum of 5000, up to £8,000 for applicants, student nurses who need childcare support or who are going into a speciality like mental health where we have particular shortages. the deadline for applications for next, to go, to become a student nurse next year is the 15th of january and straight

after the election, this is an incredibly important commitment to get moving on hiring more nurses, and so we have come straightaway to make this policy commitment, not just a manifesto commitment, but now i government policy. so if you are watching and you want to be a nurse, then apply. it is an amazing profession, incredibly rewarding, the most trusted in the country. my grandmother was a nurse and i learned what a wonderful profession it was and i hope lots and lots of people will consider going into nursing, especially with this extra financial support. i want to clarify the 50,000. let's say for example, ifi the 50,000. let's say for example, if i was to give you a pay rise of £50,000 and then you found out that actually 18,500 of that money you are already getting. that is not a pay rise of £50,000. you are muddling up net and gross. the commitment is that we will increase the number of nurses in the nhs by

50,000. but 18,500 of those are already in the nhs. and lots of nurses leave the nhs each year some because they are retiring. they are not new nurses. the point is that you increase the number of nurses in the nhs both by helping to ensure nurses don't leave and by having you nurses don't leave and by having you nurses enter. what matters to a patient is are there enough nurses by their bedside when they are ill? for that, you need more nurses in the nhs. it doesn't matter to a patient particularly whether the nurse is new... whether it is somebody who might otherwise have it does matter, this is a government, thanit does matter, this is a government, than it is not clear. it is crystal clear. you asked about it on almost every interview you do, and it has been unclear because people asking you questions stop let me just set it out again, as i understand that

some people have not found it as straightforward to get the difference between net and gross, between more nurses and between new nurses. the commitment is that we will increase the number of nurses by 50,000. so on the latest figures, there are 280,599 full—time equivalent nurses currently in the nhs. we will increase that figure by 50,000. that is the commitment. and you can do that both by hiring more nurses in, new nurses, and by encouraging nurses not to leave. so we are putting in a package of measures so that few nurses leave. if you are nurses leave... just listen to me. that is how these tend to work best. if you are nurses leave and there is an increase in the number of new nurses, both of

those things increase the number of nurses in the nhs. it is a really straightforward commitment that we will increase the number of nurses in the nhs by 50,000. 0k. will increase the number of nurses in the nhs by 50,000. ok. i find these interviews work if you try and a nswer these interviews work if you try and answer the question. i will ask you again. because you are saying, i understand about this net and gross thing, but people leaving does not mean that they are joining. you are saying we are making... we will make a 50,000. yes, 50,000 more... but they are already there. so they are not joining they are already there. so they are notjoining the they are already there. so they are not joining the nhs. they are already there. so they are notjoining the nhs. they already work for the nhs. we can go through the numbers if you like, but the thing is this. every year at the moment around 27,000 nurses around leave the nhs. i want to reduce that number. even if we didn't have any new nurses, just by reducing the number who leave, you would end up

with more nurses in the nhs. that contributes, that retention of existing nurses contributes to increasing the number of nurses in the nhs, and that is very important. also, we are going to have new nurses, and the combination of increasing retention, which means fewer nurses leaving, and having more new nurses, including without bursary today, so if you are watching and you want to become a nurse and you don't think at the moment you have the financial resources to do it, we are putting in place at extra support on top of all the existing support, the combination of reducing the number of nurses, and having new nurses coming through, that leads to an increase in the total number of nurses in the nhs, which is what matters from my point of view, running the nhs and from a patient of my point of view, for ensuring that there is patient care and that there are enough nurses on the wards. think of it this way. if you

have a nurse who is currently feeling under pressure and he or she might leave and we put in place a retention package to help them to stay, if they were going to leave and instead they stay, then i have more nurses in the nhs and that is a good thing. so that is what we are doing and it is all about making sure that the nhs gets the support that it needs. 0ver sure that the nhs gets the support that it needs. over the next five yea rs. that it needs. over the next five years. i have asked you enough questions and i will allow the viewer to make up their mind if that is clear or not. can i ask you about the grant you have mentioned and you are going to talk about it today because the royal college of traffic noise —— that nurses have welcomed that grant, it is a same amount of money you took away in 2017 so you are putting that money back in. what about student fees? those nurses are still having to pay 9000 years —— £9,000 a year in fees.

bye for now . the good news is we have a 5000 more nurses than this time last year at the nhs. we have already managed to increase the number but because i wa nt increase the number but because i want 50,000 more over the next five yea rs, want 50,000 more over the next five yea rs , we want 50,000 more over the next five yea rs, we have want 50,000 more over the next five years, we have to double the rate of increase. need to attract more people into nursing as a profession. that is why we need to have the training ground. some new government, and we have set outjust how important the nhs is to the public of cause and and we are absolutely determined to meet those commitments. all of these manifesto commitments. all of these manifesto commitments including this one on nurses and increasing the number of nurses, are very, very nurses and increasing the number of nurses, are very, very important because we understand the trust that has been placed in us with this big new majority that we have got. that is why i am up early and straightaway getting on with trying

to attract more people to become nurses. this training ground is more targeted, help with childcare costs. 0ne targeted, help with childcare costs. one of the things we must have seen a falloff is mature students and stu d e nts a falloff is mature students and students applying. we want to attract people of all ages to join the wonderful profession of nursing. mr hancock, good to talk to you. here's carol with a look at this morning's weather. it is misty, cold, all sorts of things going on. that is right. dense fog around as well, especially across parts of england. some of it will lift into low cloud and drifted north and if you are trapped under it, it means temperatures will be pecked back. we also have rain not too far away from northern ireland.

and that will spread. it will also be windy. gales later. we have a ready had gusts in the isles of scilly. we have fog lifting into locale allowed that will drift north. —— low cloud. it is the west that will see the rain. also strengthening wins. later as i mentioned touching gale force in areas exposed to the irish sea. as you can see through this evening at overnight, the band of rain continues to mock —— migrate north. it will still be windy with transient snow on the hills of scotla nd transient snow on the hills of scotland and behind it, some of us will see drier conditions. it will bea will see drier conditions. it will be a chilly night for some which averages in towns and cities falling to about five in edinburgh and glasgow, nine in cardiff. and then as we had through tomorrow, our first band of rain had ceased and our other one heads north but we

will see a plethora of showers, some emerging to give longer spells of rain. the driest conditions the further north that you do travel, still quite breezy not as windy as today but the breeze is coming from a southerly direction which is a milder direction for us so most of the uk will have to averages in double figures and some for example in london could hit 40 degrees. the average this time of the year is just over eight. —— 14 degrees. a big shake up of the way banks and building societies charge for overd rafts comes into force today. ben is here. we have talked about this over the last couple of weeks because individual banks have been changing how much they charge. the city watchdog, the financial conduct authority, has been looking at overdrafts for a while now over concerns that banks are taking advantage of vulnerable customers. a lot of people use overdrafts as a form of borrowing. people that are using it notjust as an emergency but everyday spending. around 19 million people a year use an arranged overdraft —

that's where the bank has agreed that customers can go borrow a certain amount of money each month. that is relatively cheap compared to an unauthorised overdraft. but, 14 million use unauthorised overd rafts — that's where it hasn't been agreed with the bank in advance and can cost a lot. you are essentially dipping into money that hasn't been discussed with them so they charge you much more for it. it's all very lucrative for the banks. in 2017, they made £2.5 billion from overdraft fees. it is really big business for them and the regulator stepping in and saying look, something has to change so what changes today? well, one of the most simple, but most effective changes will be that the balance shown on a cash machine or online account can no longer include an overdraft. if it says that you have 50 quid but you have an overdraft of 250 quid, tells you the available balance is 300 pounds. the available funds

should only reflect the actual money in your bank account, not the overdraft that you have agreed with the bank. the money that you can have and the money that you can borrow is not yours. that might encourage people to save a little bit more and not spend the overdraft. they have also asked for banks to use one simple overdraft charge and that will be for both arranged and unauthorised overdraft. it is likely many people will see their rates go up because it will be one set rate. the idea is to make it more transparent, that people know what they are paying. the idea is to help vulnerable customers, people who are using them more regularly. rather than just for emergencies at the end of the month and therefore they will have a duty to report those to the bank to make sure they can get the necessary help. so a lot of changes.

the initial changes come into force today and to some a little later. the regulator says seven in ten people who use an overdraft will be better off or the same as a result of the changes. the banks i suspect will be less happy. they are making so much money from this. i think that is probably right, thanks, ben. the former police and crime commissioner ron hogg who became a motor neurone disease campaigner after he was diagnosed with the illness has died aged 68. you may remember we spoke to ron and his wife two months ago about the impact mnd was having on their lives. let's have another look. ijust sometimes think i just sometimes think i ijust sometimes think i am going to wa ke ijust sometimes think i am going to wake up and this isjust ijust sometimes think i am going to wake up and this is just going to ijust sometimes think i am going to wake up and this isjust going to be a nightmare. you arejust becoming more and more other shell of who you were. one of the most shocking aspects of ron hogg's motor neuron disease is just how quickly since his diagnosis in july disease is just how quickly since his diagnosis injuly it is changing his diagnosis injuly it is changing his life. i have gone from being a

key partner running a police force early this year to a state of almost total dependency now. festival we want to say thank you to him and his family for speaking about how mnd was affecting their lives. we're joined now by the director of the motor neurone disease association, chris james. it isa it is a really devastating thing to happen to people. just tell us a little bit, about him first of all. ron was an amazing man with mnd and certainly from the point of diagnosis, he wanted to campaign and raise awareness of the disease because he understood that mnd doesn't get the attention that perhaps some other conditions and diseases do so he wanted to raise awareness and show people, i think it isa awareness and show people, i think it is a brutal nature of mnd, the impact it has on the individual and the families and carers. those stories are so powerful. we heard ron and again doddie weir who spoke

so well. sports personality of the year on the weekend. it affects people in different ways. it can be a very rapidly progressing diseases soa a very rapidly progressing diseases so a third of people die within a year of diagnosis and half within two years so it can progress really rapidly. everybody‘s journey is different and it affects people in different and it affects people in different ways but people often lose the ability to speak, to move, and ultimately to breathe. what is going on in their bodies when it happens? what it does is it attack the spine and brain and it affects the nerves that control movement so you will gradually lose the movement that you have. that is what is happening so that body is shutting down and you also get trapped and not being able to move at all. i saw some reports from the university of exeter, they think they have found the cause of mnd. what sort of difference could

that make to people suffering with it at the moment? it is very interesting research and what is happening at the university of exeter, they found anotherjigsaw in what is an extremely complex puzzle. the central neuro system —— central nervous system is very difficult place to access was up it takes us further down the line in looking at getting a treatment and ultimately a cu re getting a treatment and ultimately a cure for and it does make mnd. getting a treatment and ultimately a cure for and it does make mndi getting a treatment and ultimately a cure for and it does make mnd. i was going to ask you that, is it a far away, do you think? we have seen really strong progress in research over the last ten years. we hope that in the next few years, we will have some treatment perhaps coming on trialfor have some treatment perhaps coming on trial for people with mnd so they can begin taking those drugs. what we wa nt can begin taking those drugs. what we want to do is take the drugs out of the laboratory and into the clinics so people can start using them but it is a really complex disease. when you hear stories like early where's again, to go back to what he said on sunday, does it have an effect on fundraising? does it have the effect on awareness and

both of those equally important? absolutely, both equally important was up we desperately need more funds into research, it is extremely expensive and we need more money so we can refund —— find those research projects. awareness is hugely important for people with mnd and theirfamilies important for people with mnd and their families and carers important for people with mnd and theirfamilies and carers because it means they can also get the best possible treatment, care and best possible treatment, care and best possible quality of life they can get. when doddie weir speaks about mnd, people listen and it makes a massive difference and a great tribute to him. will you made us all cry... he was so eloquent about it as well. he is very brave, living his life with mnd in public was not thatis his life with mnd in public was not that is very hard because of he is coping with a very brutal disease, asi coping with a very brutal disease, as i his family who we talked about on sunday night as well. they are caring for him. it is really important that we respect that for him because he is doing a tremendous job. thank you. it shows a very clear picture of somebody who was so physically impressive, representing

his country. time now to get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning from bbc london. i'm sonja jessup. more than 170,000 people in the capital will be homeless this christmas according to the charity shelter. it's thought the numbers have increased by more than 7,000 in the past three years. they include those who are sleeping rough, but also others in hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation. in the capital, in particular, there is a huge inflation in rents so the cost of private renting is going up and up. meanwhile, housing benefit and local housing allowance have been frozen. so the gap between the two has just been getting wider and wider and what's happening is people are then being evicted and they can't find anywhere else to go. the government says it's

providing councils with more than a billion pounds to help tackle homelessness. volunteers will be replanting hundreds of trees in a reading park today after they were accidentally cut down by the council. 800 saplings were given the chop by maintenance staff at palmer park last month. the council called it a " regrettable error", saying the trees weren't marked or clearly visible among nettles and brambles. a family from hemel hempstead are hoping for a christmas number one again, with a song about sausage rolls. it would make the youtuber ladbaby the first act to have two consecutive christmas number ones since the spice girls. all the proceeds go to the foodbank charity the trussle trust. let's take a look at the travel situation now. the good news is tfl rail services runnign normally again following a problem with the track. but it's still affecting gwr trains in and out of paddington. the bakerloo line has severe delays

due to a signal failure. still no south western trains between epsom to ewell west because of a landslip — reduced service on the rest of the network because of industrial action. and millbank is closed, you can see, from lambeth bridge to parliament square for works ahead of the state opening of parliament tomorrow. now, the weather with kate kinsella. good morning. it's a rather foggy start, at least for some of us this morning, especially the further north and west you are, that's where the densest of the fog seems to be. the met office has a yellow weather warning. visibility in those places considerably reduced. really dangerous driving conditions. like i said, out towards the home counties, the west of london is where it is at its thickest. some sunshine, though. once that moves north, more cloud moving in as we head into the afternoon. the winds strengthening today as well. it's not feeling as cold as yesterday, 10 or 11 celsius the maximum temperature. we hang onto the mild air overnight. with that, the wind and the rain. some heavy and persistent rain overnight and into thursday morning. the minimum temperature as a result, not dropping too far, it is going to be quite a mild

night, between seven and eight celsius. so a rather wet start for thursday. we'll see pulses of rain coming and going throughout. some brighter spells in there but the temperature perhaps the mildest of the week at 14 celsius. it stays unsettled as we head through to the weekend. there's more from me in around half an hour and you can also check out the latest news, travel and weather on our website. good morning, welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. 0ur headlines today... a wait of months for hundreds of thousands of washing machine owners who've been told their appliances are dangerous and need replacing. former prime minister tony blair warns that labour will be "replaced" as a serious political force if it tries to "whitewash" the scale of its election defeat. two of the world's largest car makers agree a £40 billion merger. the tie—up between fiat chrysler

and peugeot will create the world's fourth—largest carmaker selling 9 million vehicles a year. history at the darts as fallon sherrock becomes the first woman to beat a man at the pdc world championship at ally pally. i'm live with great britain's gold medal winning tumbling teams. i'm medal winning tumbling teams. here in wakefield. up i'm here in wakefield. they picked up titles in tokyo last month. later in the programme we will see exactly what they are capable of, so expect a bit more of this... we have some dense fog patches around this morning, and also some icy patches to watch out for. generally speaking, the east brighter than the west, the west seeing rain and strengthening wind. more in 15 minutes.

it's wednesday the 18th of december. our top story... hundreds of thousands of people are facing a wait of months to have their faulty and potentially dangerous washing machines replaced. whirlpool recalled half a million appliances yesterday because of a fire risk, but customers are struggling to get information because of problems with its website. the company was already dealing with problems with its dryers, as dan johnson reports. more than 500,000 of these washers are at risk of sparking a fire if a part in the door lock overheats. it's happened to 79 indesit and hotpoint machines already. that prompted a clear warning to customers. it's a serious situation, and we're encouraging them to make as soon as they make contact with us and as soon as we get them registered, all our employees will work flat out to get these issues taken care of, remove the product from the home free of charge or provide a full repair. all 2500 of our team provide a full repair. all 2500 of ourteam are provide a full repair. all 2500 of our team are committed to doing just that and more.

but the website whirlpool set up crashed yesterday, and so did the phone line, too. now, they announced this recall. they said they'd planned for it, but it looked like they couldn't cope with the response from their customers. so on the company's twitter feed, there's now a list of the models that are affected. the advice is to unplug the machine and wait for a repair or a replacement, or you can reduce the risk by running it at a lower temperature. fires started by whirlpool tumble dryers were much more serious. the washing machines haven't caused anything on this scale. but repairs and replacements won't begin until january at the earliest, and could take months, leaving many customers without a washing machine over christmas. avoiding further damage to the company's reputation now depends on how smoothly it handles this recall. dan johnson, bbc news. tony blair is warning that labour will be "replaced" as a serious political force if it tries to "whitewash" the scale

of its election defeat. the ex—prime minister will unveil research today suggesting labour's problems go far deeper than the unpopularity of jeremy corbyn and its brexit stance. 0ur political correspondent nick eardley is in westminster. nick, these are some strong words from the former prime minister? there will be a massive battle for the future of the labour party over the future of the labour party over the next few months. tony blair will basically be arguing today that it needs to reinvent itself and get back closer to the political centre ground, as he sees it, or it will risk losing its place as the main progressive opposition. in the uk. for the last few years tony blair has been running a think tank that will release a report today that makes it pretty clear where it thinks the blame lies. it will blame what it calls sectarian left—wing groups in the party, basically shorthand for those people who have been supporting jeremy corbyn over the last few years. tony blair is

still a bit of a bogeyman to some in the labour party but he is the last labour leader to win an election, so i think labour leader to win an election, so ithinka labour leader to win an election, so i think a lot of folk will to him today. we know there was a tense meeting last night betweenjeremy corbyn and labour mps. we are getting a sense coming out of that how lots of them feel. the first time he had faced mps since the general election, and it was scathing. two and a half hours, mp after mp pointing the finger at jeremy corbyn saying, you got it wrong. it was partly down to your leadership and partly down to how your team oversaw the election campaign. mr corbyn continues to say he thinks it is down to brexit and the media not treating him fairly but clearly some of his mps not buying it. all the attention moving out of who stands to be the new leader. sir keir starmer is setting out his stall this morning, calling for unity saying that labour should bea for unity saying that labour should be a broad church. the next few

weeks and months could be pretty bruising for the labour party as it tries to figure out its future. we will speak to one of the mps who was at that meeting at around 8:30am. nick eardley, thank you. two global car giants are merging, in a deal worth nearly £40 billion. ben's here with more. it's a lot of money, what you would call a mega two of the world's biggest to create the four largest to stop this is just a small list of some of the big brands. the psa group, peugeot, citroen, 0peland vauxhall. 0n the fiat chrysler side, which also includes alfa romeo, jeep and maserati, all coming together under one brand. it's all part of the car maker's attempts to take on new arrivals. we know nissan, renault and mitsubishi have their own tie—up. this means with the rise of electric vehicles and all the technology going into car making

there, the traditional ones, which we have many of here, will be forced to compete a lot harder. creating the world's fourth largest car maker, no details yet on what it'll mean forjobs maker, no details yet on what it'll mean for jobs but maker, no details yet on what it'll mean forjobs but the combined firm will have 400,000 staff, selling nine mean —— million vehicles every year. they say £3.1 billion is how much they will make on savings, that's the economies of scale coming together to cut costs. it's a pretty tough time to be a car—maker right now given we are moving towards electric vehicles. a lot of focus on how they make this work and crucially what it means for prices and sales. it's interesting seeing all those different brands. it's a consolidation of the market. originally all separate, and those consolidations are continuing in the market. around 9,000 nurses in northern ireland will stage a 12—hour strike today, over ongoing disputes about pay and staffing levels.

it s the first time members of the royal college of nursing have ever taken part in strike action. 0ur northern ireland correspondent, chris page, is outside ulster hospital. chris, will this cause any distruption? there is a bit of a delay on the line, but talk us through what's happening today. the nurses' walk—out has begun in the last few minutes officially. a strike of which has never been seen before like this anywhere in the uk, 9000 nurses going on strike. particularly significant for members of the union forming the picket here at the ulster hospital, the royal college of nursing, never before have its members take part in strike action. paramedics, administrative staff, social workers also striking with several trade unions involved. they wa nt to several trade unions involved. they want to be paid the same as their collea g u es want to be paid the same as their colleagues in the rest of the uk. pay for nhs staff here has fallen behind those people in england,

scotla nd behind those people in england, scotland and wales. there has been no devolved government in northern ireland for nearly three years now, which is why no uplift in pay has been brought in in northern ireland. nurses say their pay has dropped 15% in real terms over the last eight yea rs. in real terms over the last eight years. there will be disruption at hospitals across northern ireland today. services that are deemed critical like cancer treatments will be covered and emergency departments will remain open for stop hundreds of appointments have been cancelled. hospital say if you have not been contacted already then you should turn up as usual. chris page, thank you that information. australia has experienced its hottest day on record — the average national temperature reaching a high of 40.9 degrees celcius. it comes as fire services continue to battle a drought and a bushfire crisis. tuesday's temperature tipped the mercury past the previous record of 40.3 set in 2013. forecasters predict the most intense heat could come later in the week, so the record could be broken yet again.

president trump is set to face a trial in the us senate if — as expected — the house of representatives votes in favour of impeaching him today. if convicted by the senate, he would be removed from office — something that's never happened in us history. in a public letter, mr trump has accused the democratic speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, and her party of "subverting democracy" with an "illegal, partisan attempted coup". christmas may be a time of good will, but we all know that when you have all the family round, tempers can sometimes become frayed. well, now your smart speaker can act as peacemaker. amazon says it has programmed its devices to change the subject during family arguments. when you ask it to step in, it'll ask you questions like "what would your superpower be and why?", whetherjam or cream should be added to a scone first,

or who your celebrity crush is. the idea is the new conversation starters will help you forget all about your quarrel. it wouldn't distract us because we have an eternal argument aboutjam or cream first. not a good thing to ask. i'm sure the nation are with me when it comes to jam first and then cream. no, they are not. we did do a poll last time. your polling is questionable. i think it's incredibly trustworthy. the boss of whirlpool has told breakfast there's no time frame for repairs or replacements to faulty machines that were recalled yesterday. customers have had trouble getting information because of website problems, and the advice being put out by the company has been criticised for being confusing. but the vice president said the advice was clear. this is a concerning situation. i fully understand the frustrations

that our customers are going through, but you first have to allow us to communicate with you and secondly, i have to say we appreciate your patience. and most importantly, we apologise for this particular situation. we can talk about what you can do. thomasjervis is a lawyer with leigh day solicitors, who has represented people with faulty whirlpool products, and becky rooney is an unlucky customer who has had both a faulty hotpoint tumble dryer and washing machine. tell us what happened to you. our first tumble dryer was caught up in the recall so we had that replaced. i've actually had two mac washing machines catch fire. i bought the first one and it lasted about a year before catching fire in november of 2016, so after quite a long battle with whirlpool they replaced it with a new one that then caught fire in march of this year. we were speaking to the vice president and he said they had known there had been a

problem for several weeks. they had known there had been a problem for several weekslj they had known there had been a problem for several weeks. i heard that. my first machine was 2015, and the next one was march of 2019. when you went back to whirlpool with various complaints, what attitude where you met with? it was awful, they were very aggressive and quite intimidating. they said we have to escalate it to our legal team. they we re very escalate it to our legal team. they were very resistant to give me any sort of refund. they kept saying that they would repair it. this is the third appliance i have had from them that has been dangerous. i don't want their products in my house any more. tell us how bad the fires were. i was very lucky in all honesty because we happen to be there. my first fire, i had my—year—old baby and an elderly mother in the kitchen. suddenly there was smoke billowing out from there was smoke billowing out from the back of the machine. we unplugged it and threw it out into the garden! the second one developed

a fault. we pulled it out to take a look and while we were looking at it, it was plugged in and the machine started to turn with the door open. i have young children so thatis door open. i have young children so that is quite frightening. we had the top off and the door lock caught fire. you are one of many customers who have been in a similar situation. not many have had to washing machines and a tumble dryer as well. thomas, how many people have been in contact with you? have you devoted a lot of time to this?” have been litigating on behalf of consumers against whirlpool for more than five years. hundreds of people have come to me to talk about the issues they report with their whirlpool products. this isjust the latest in a long line of disasters for whirlpool products. it's simply not good enough. we talked to the vice president earlier and he said they will replace them, try to mend them, but there was no timeframe. what should they be doing in this

situation? i was really surprised to hear those comments. because whirlpool told their american investors back on the 23rd october that they would ring fence $105 million to sort out these issues, reported issues with whirlpool washing machines. sol reported issues with whirlpool washing machines. so i am not clear why it is being announced just before christmas for stop i am also not clear why consumers are now going to have to wait until the new year. there was a disaster with theirtumble year. there was a disaster with their tumble dryers. they were criticised in parliament, leading consumer groups, campaigners. the same sorts of issues where consumers we re same sorts of issues where consumers were being fobbed off, having to wait weeks and months. the same sort of scenario. and also confusing advice to consumers as well. on fridayjust gone, i settled a group

action with the residents of the shepherd's bush tower block fire, which was allegedly due to a whirlpool tumble dryer. it's reported that there was confusing advice in that case. their starting position was, it is still safe to use if you are with the machine. they later change that advice after calls from the london fire brigade. but here we have confusing advice again. how can you say, if you don't wa nt again. how can you say, if you don't want to contact us straightaway you can still use the washing machine on a20 can still use the washing machine on a 20 degrees cycle? as far as i am concerned, you don't need a lawyer to tell you a product is either safe or not. i asked that exact question to the vice president. isn't it simple, you need to get these things out of people's homes and give them refunds now. becky, we asked a

gentleman from which earlier, and he said his feeling that whirlpool were almost too big for the regulators. eventually you have hopefully got a resolution, but it has taken an awful long time and they need to listen to you. they are. we had this conversation a minute ago. they are so vast, huge. the vice president was saying that he has 2500 service engineers but when you look at the number of machines out there, what will that do really? i think they are selling products that potentially are very dangerous. and the regulation point, no company should be above the law. but you have a multinational company here that seems to be calling the shots. lessons don't seem to be being learned. i think there needs to be a public enquiry that the government needs to call for in respect of the whirlpool products, and a shake—up

of the product recall system because the regulation is not fit for purpose. thank you both for coming to speak to us. and if you're worried that your machine may be one of those affected, then whirlpool want you to check your model number on its website — but you may need to be patient as there have been problems and it is currently down. we spoke to the vice president about it. they said it is not acceptable and it should be ready by this afternoon. there is also a call centre number which you can try — it's 0800 3161442. the advice they gave us was to only run it at 20 degrees or unplug it. that's what the vice president told us at bbc breakfast. many questions still to be answered this morning but sending your concerns and comments on this story this morning. find us on the normal numbers and social media. let's go outside in a minute to meet a shetland pony. how is it doing out there? here's carol with a look

at this morning's weather. it depends where you are. dense fog around this morning that will be slow to live. some will become low cloud and drift north especially across parts of england. we have ice as well with the risk of ice and untreated surfaces. we also will see some rain coming in across northern ireland and south—west england initially with the wind strengthening. already gusts of wind around the isles of scilly in the high 50s. gales will be later in the day. adjacent to the irish sea. first thing this morning, fog lifting into low cloud and drifting north. dry weather across central and eastern areas to begin with and even a bit of sunshine. those weather fronts coming from the west will introduce thicker cloud and then rain and it will be windy. windy across the isles of scilly and west and wales at the moment but it will pick up later. temperatures, looking at five in lerwick and 11 in

plymouth. through the evening and overnight, the rain will push across all of us, moving north, some transient snow over the hills in scotland. gales across the irish sea coasts, this area of low pressure drifting past the western isles and 0uter drifting past the western isles and outer hebrides and here we could see gales. temperatures, this is what you expect in towns and cities but it will be lower than that in rural areas. tomorrow, the weatherfront going east initially, the weather front going north. we still have a southerly wind. the wind is not as strong tomorrow but the fact it is southerly is salient. normally at this time of year we would see blue on the temperature, air mass chart, but we're looking at yellow and amber indicating it will be mild for the of year. rain to get rid of but more rain coming up from the south. driest conditions the furthest north. but conditions tomorrow, compared to today and the last few

days, temperatures will be in double figures. 13 in london, but somebody could hit 14 degrees. the average in london at this time of year is just over eight. as we move from thursday into friday, a little element of uncertainty into exactly the detail of friday. but we think we will have an area of low pressure move across us taking rain with it and heading north—east. behind it, something brighter following. north—east. behind it, something brighterfollowing. some north—east. behind it, something brighter following. some showers around and cloud across the north west with temperatures down a little bit. not as low as they have been. eight in the north and ten and 11 in the south. the outlook remains u nsettled. louise has just popped louise hasjust popped outside. we can introduce you to dennis. dennis the shetland pony, looked after by sophie. he has a very importantjob

this christmas. as part of a project set up by the charity mencap, he's visiting people with learning disabilities over the festive season to help combat loneliness. louise should be out there in a moment. fiona lamdin has been to find out more. 28—year—old dennis getting ready for the biggest day of his year. he's a miniature shetland pony and at this christmas party, he is the star of the show. he doesn't want to play ball, does he not? laughs. the charity mencap say people with learning disabilities are seven times more likely to be lonely over christmas. i have felt a bit lonely but not too oft. ed's 49 and has cerebral palsy and needs round—the—clock care. hello, you. this year, ed'll be hosting his friends so they're not alone on christmas day. i don't think anybody should be alone at christmas. that horrifies me because, you know, they haven't got no friends.

no family, some of them. 0r no—one to talk to. nothing to do. you know, they stay shut up in their own little world, if you like. and it's important that we bring people together at this time of year. and the charity believe inclusion is key. we need to work on changing everybody's attitude to people with learning disabilities. a lot of people are frightened, they're frightened of saying the wrong thing, they don't know how to approach people, and it'sjust a case of treating everybody the same. we've been told mince pies are dennis's favourite treats but he's only allowed one a year. ed, would you like to give it to him? go on, then. this is a first for me. go on then, nice flat hand, like this.

is it nice having him come and visit you here? yes, dennis is very good because he's friends with us, dennis. very friendly. aren't you, dennis? what does he feel like? he feels smooth. there's no doubt dennis has been a huge success today. are you enjoying that? if you let go of that and just hold your hand nice and flat, there we go, and he will lick your hand. i get quite emotional when i see people's faces change. it's just a lovely thing to do and a lovely thing to see. and he has his own story. sophie saved him five years ago from becoming horsemeat. when he's at home, he can be quite a handful but as soon as he gets to a setting like this, he completely settles, cool as a cucumber and just lets everybody fuss him and i'm sure he absolutely loves it. look, how about if i wear the antlers instead? go on, you put the antlers on then, ed. shall i put the antlers on?

yeah, go on. neigh! fiona lamdin, bbc news. i'm outside with sophie and dennis now. lovely to see you. this is a big adventure for him. it certainly is, he has travelled all the way from west wales yesterday. we stayed with a friend and here he is. tell usa with a friend and here he is. tell us a bit about him. you said he can be feisty outside sometimes. absolutely. we think dennis is between 25 and 28 years old. i brought him from a local horse sales for the grand sum of £30. he had an uncertain future when i got him but since then he has kept my former racehorses company. as you can see, he's a bit of a handful but once he is indoors and starts to see various

people, he is absolutely fantastic. they can be very calming can't they. they can be very calming can't they. they are. and once he is indoors, he is fantastic. that's how we started going out and about visiting lots of services and people with learning disabilities. how did you come up with the idea to take a horse indoors? my grandparents had alzheimer's years ago. they use to follow what i did with the horses. i thought it would be a really nice thing to be able to take the horse to them when they were no longer able to travel. i spoke to the manager at the care home and they said to bring him in. it went from strength to strength. with the work ido strength to strength. with the work i do with mencap, i thought it would be really nice to visit people with learning disabilities.” be really nice to visit people with learning disabilities. i feel very lucky to be out here, but at home i have two mini rescued shetland ponies that i absolutely adore. they

are very ponies that i absolutely adore. they are very affectionate animals. they are very affectionate animals. they are absolutely lovely. he is so gentle. when he is in the side he goes into quiet mode. i'm sure he knows people need that calmness around them. he's just great. knows people need that calmness around them. he'sjust great. thank you for bringing him in today. dennis, you were brilliant and thank you for behaving. i'm sorry for not bringing you anything to eat. let's get the news, travel and weather where you are. good morning. it has been a rather foggy start for many of us. that dense fog across central areas of the uk. that will gradually clearer weight with bright skies developing across eastern areas. into the west, we have rain and gales developing. linked into this area of low pressure. it is a large area of low pressure. it is a large area of low pressure and you can see the weather front moving its way and across northern ireland, eventually pushing into western scotland, wales, the

south—west of england. further east, largely dry and the fog could be stubborn to clear away from some eastern areas, but there will be some sunny spells. temperatures, it can be rather chilly, three degrees in newcastle and 11 degrees in london. across western parts, by this evening, winds really strengthen with very heavy rain moving into the south—west, gusts of 60, 70 moving into the south—west, gusts of 60,70 mph around moving into the south—west, gusts of 60, 70 mph around exposed coastal areas and 50, 55 further england. that continues to spread east through the night tonight. a swell of cloud and rain towards the north west. temperatures won't be anywhere near as low as last night. they will stay up at around 7—12dc. and into thursday, this weather front moving eastwards. still this area of low pressure towards the west. the winds coming in from the south. and that isa mild coming in from the south. and that is a mild direction at this time of year. is a mild direction at this time of yea r. frost is a mild direction at this time of year. frost free mornings towards the end of the week. and temperatures generally in double figures. throughout the day on

thursday, more rain spreads in from the south. that pushes north and east through the day, sunny spells for a time across scotland and northern ireland before the cloud they here. further rain spreads into they here. further rain spreads into the south—west and some of it could be on the heavy side. temperatures generally 12—14dc. through the end of the week generally, quite u nsettled. of the week generally, quite unsettled. mild, but wet at at times, with some fairly strong winds, particularly later today and into tomorrow. goodbye for now.

this is worklife, from bbc news, with sally bundock and karin giannone. as the latest star wars film bursts onto cinema screens from today, we ask, what is the future of cinemas in this age of online streaming? live from london, that's our top story, on wednesday the 18th of december. movie theatres strike back against the rise of streaming, with uk cinemas hoping to set a record for 2019 ticket sales. also in the programme...