this is bbc news i'm ben brown. the headlines at 12pm: australia's prime minister apologises for holidaying in hawaii as wildfires continue to sweep across three states. i get it, that people would have been upset to know that i was holidaying with my family while theirfamilies were under great stress. tesco suspends christmas card production at a chinese factory — after a six—year—old girl in london finds a message claiming that prisoners are being forced to pack them. the home secretary meets the family of harry dunn — the teenager killed in a road accident in northamptonshire in august. a nativity scene by banksy appears at a hotel in bethlehem in the west bank. and coming up, it's the click christmas special, that's in half an hour, here on bbc news.

that's in half an hour, here on bbc news. good afternoon. the australian prime minister, scott morrison, has acknowledged public anger at his decision to go on holiday while his country faces a bushfire crisis. mr morrison said if he could go back, he would have made a different choice. the fires are expected to worsen with more hot dry weather expected. mr morrison did acknowledge the role of climate change, but said warming temperatures couldn't be connected to any single fire. gareth barlow reports. this is the remarkable, almost apocalyptic, scene facing firefighters tackling australia's deadly and devastating wildfires.

fire chiefs described saturday as an awful day. as thousands of personnel tackle raging infernos, the country's prime minister, scott morrison, has been heavily criticised for being on holiday in hawaii, a trip he's now cut short. i get it that people would have been upset to know that i was holidaying with my family while their families were under great stress. they know that i'm not going to stand there and hold a hose, i'm not a trained firefighter. i'm comforted by the fact that australians would like me to be here, just simply so i can be here. an area the size of belgium has been torched by the fires. hundreds of homes have been destroyed with vast swathes of the landscape decimated by fire. scores of blazes continue to grip the country. the relentless nature of this season is certainly taking a toll and so too is the geographic spread of the activity.

you might recall, for several months, between july and into end of september, most of our effort was really concentrated in north—east new south wales. we've now got fires spreading from north—east new south wales, the queensland border, down to the south coast of new south wales. this week has seen record high temperatures repeatedly broken. scott morrison's government has long defended the use of fossil fuels and the prime minister has previously criticised local politicians who've linked the fires to climate change. but with australia hotting up and public pressure rising, the pm said the government would take action on climate change. there is no argument about the links between... in my view and the government's view, and any government in this country, about the links between broader issues of global climate change and weather events around the world. but i'm sure people, equally, would acknowledge that the direct connection to any single fire event is not a credible suggestion to make that link. so, we must take action on climate change,

we are taking action on climate change. arson, lightning strikes, even self combusting piles of manure, have all been blamed for triggering the blazes. first, though, the authorities have to try and take control of the flames before they can try and control the causes to prevent future fires. gareth barlow, bbc news. our correspondent shiamaa khalil is in balmoral, one of the worst hit places in new south wales. i'm just going to try and make my way to one of the houses over there. you just have to watch every step you take. i mean, there's still smoke coming out of tree trunks, still smouldering. watch it. and itjust gets you right in the throat, it becomes very hard to breathe. we also have to be very careful about the trees around us. some of them have been completely burnt out. they're still standing.

they could fall any time. but just look over there. look at that. look at that smoke, and just beyond it, look at that devastation. nothing has escaped those fires. nothing escaped the flames. and the destruction is absolute. you can see why firefighters are saying it's too dangerous for people to come back to these areas. this house has been completely destroyed. i mean, you can see the remains of what used to be a kitchen, cars completely out, but really, what they're afraid of now are those trees. the fact that these trees have been completely burned, and some of them have fallen off. that's the danger now, and that's why people are not allowed back to those areas. joining me now from sydney is emergency and risk management expert, andrew gissing.

it looks like the sort of bushfires are more and more frequent in australia, what do you think the australian authorities need to do to prepare more for fighting these fires? you're exactly right. we have been experiencing more severe fire weather over recent times. also seeing that move forward under climate change conditions. what we need to focus on is more around mitigation and that's notjust a round brush fire fighting, but it's about disaster mitigation in our country. we are moving more and more into our disaster season of bushfires, severe storms, and tropical cyclones. the rising cost of disasters in terms of financial loss is really important to take action on. what about people living in areas where bushfires are likely? in the long term, should the government be stopping people living

in some of these places? well, there already is fairly sound land use planning practices in australia. one of the key things is about looking at how we can do things differently, especially in terms of bushfire firefighting. you know, spending more money in terms of research and innovation. it would be really important moving forward, in the coming decades. but it really focusing on technologies which are able to rapidly identify ignitions and move resources around fire grounds rapidly, to put these ignitions out and extinguish them, such that fires can't spread so rapidly into the future. there has been some criticism that the firefighters, many of them simply volunteers, that australia needs a professional bushfire fighting force, that can really have the know—how to tackle these fires, as well as can be done. there is a round about 280,000 emergency

service firefighters already in australia. that's quite a large amount. australia's firefighters are some of the best in the world and best coordinated already. where we need to be thinking it's perhaps these calls for these national forces are short—sighted in some ways. most of the time, they probably sit fairly idle and on the days where they would actually need to be working out there and fighting these fires, they would be on these catastrophic fire days where it's essentially so difficult to extinguish and control these fires anyway, so the resources that would be applied would not necessarily be overly effective. what we need to do is focus on mitigation and research and mitigation. we need to extinguish these fires quicker before they spread into the future. andrew, thank you for talking to us. tesco has suspended production at a factory in china following allegations forced prison labour was used to pack

charity christmas cards. it comes after the sunday times reported a six—year—old girl from south london found a message from shanghai prisoners hidden in a box of cards. the message said "please help us and notify human rights organisation. organisations." earlier, i spoke to our correspondent, greg mckenzie. it was a six—year—old from south london who was sitting down writing her christmas cards to her friends and family and discovered one of the christmas cards in this £1.50 box from tesco had already been written in, in block capitals, a message reporting to be from a prisoner in shanghai. it simply read, "we are foreign prisoners in shanghai qing pu "prison in china, forced to work against our will. "please help us and notify human rights organisations. " the families did that and they contacted the human rights the family did that and they contacted the human rights journalist peter humphrey, that was part of the message.

it said to the recipient, "please contact peter" and peter since went to the sunday times with the story. tesco have issued a statement. they say they are shocked and would never allow prison labour in their supply chain. they said they were shocked by the allegations and immediately halted production at the factory where these cards are produced and have launched an investigation. tesco say they have contributed £300,000 to charities from the sale of their christmas cards and that goes to various charities in the uk. an investigation is ongoing. 88 flood warnings remain in place across the south, the midlands, and the east of england, and one other in wales — following another night of heavy rain. yesterday, a tornado swept through parts of surrey, damaging cars and houses and ripping up trees. this report from james o'hara. this is what days of relentless rain

falling on to already—saturated ground looks like. more than 100 mobile homes had to be evacuated at a caravan park in yalding in kent. residents are unlikely to be able to return home for several days. in pulborough in west sussex, the sand bags are being put to the test. as the river rises, these vehicles didn't stand a chance. we've got more rain on sunday, and more rain on monday as well, so it's not going to get any better. i think the key thing here is it's not going to get to the severe situation, where we've got significant number of properties... it's going to remain high until christmas, but after that, we've got a drier period, so hopefully things will calm down then. but this was the sight that greeted motorists on the m25 near chertsey in surrey. a tornado sucking up things from the ground and throwing them around. it left a trail of damage to these houses. residents say they couldn't believe what they were seeing. with christmas approaching, millions of people will be taking

to the roads in the coming days. they're set to endure what police are calling miserable driving conditions, hoping theirjourneys don't end like this. james o'hara, bbc news. the home secretary, priti patel is meeting the family of harry duun as the government considers whether to begin extradition proceedings against an american woman accused of their son's death. anne sacoolas is charged with causing death by dangerous driving following a crash in northamptonshire in august. mrs sacoolas left for the us following the incident, claiming diplomatic immunity. the home secretary was joined by her cabinet colleague and the dunn's local mp, andrea leadsom who has been supporting their campaign. the queen has attended church at sandringham for a carol concert. she was joined by edward, sophie and their son — but without the duke of edinburgh who has spent a second night in a central london hospital.

prince philip, who's 98, is being treated for a pre—existing condition, on the advice of his doctors. our correspondent simon jones sent this update from the king edward vii hospital. well, there's been no official update overnight from the palace. in fact, we haven't heard anything from them formally since friday, when prince philip was admitted to hospital. i think it's worth reiterating what they said back then. they stressed the decision to bring him here was precautionary on the advice of his doctor. i don't think we can read too much into the fact we're not getting regular updates from the palace, because in previous years when prince philip has been in hospital, we heard very little from them until the point when he was ready to be released from hospital. they're still not saying what he's being treated for. we know that in the past he has had an operation on his hip. he has also had a stent fitted to deal with a blocked artery. he also had surgery on his abdomen.

the reason there is some concern is he is obviously 98 years old. and we've seen very little of him in public in the last couple of years. he retired from official royal duties. he used to carry out some 300 engagements a year. he was one of the busiest royals. but now he's rarely seen in public. he did, of course, at the start of the year, have a nasty car accident, though he emerged from that pretty much unscathed. he was seen at a wedding in windsor back in may but few sightings since then. overall, i think the palace are optimistic he may be well enough to be released in time for christmas to travel back to sandringham tojoin the queen. although, of course, he did miss christmas celebrations back in 2011 with the royal family, because he was in hospital then having an operation. simonjones reported. as the christmas getaway continues, rail passengers in south wales, the west of england, the london area and the northwest are facing disruption because of widespread train cancellations. gwr, which runs services in and out of london paddington,

has cancelled more than 20 inter—city expresses because of staff shortages. simon calder, travel editor of the independent, is at the station and can bring us up to date on problems there and elsewhere in the country. simon, what has gone wrong with gwr? well, let's put this in context. paddington station will be closed through christmas eve onwards until the end of next weekend, because of the end of next weekend, because of the traditional festive rail engineering works. they're doing an awful lot of work between here and reading. gwr, which runs trains from here to the west of england and south wales had told everybody get your journey is south wales had told everybody get yourjourney is done by monday. lots of people have taken that advice and it is extremely busy. unfortunately, as you say, more than 20 trains have been cancelled. that's because a lot of rail employment agreements mean that staff don't have to work on

sundays if they don't want to. it is entirely voluntary. coming up to christmas, evidently, a lot of train crews have decided we will spend time with family, which is of course fair enough. mostly trains to and from cardiff and bristol temple meads cancelled but also some to and from swansea and the early arrival from swansea and the early arrival from exeter didn't run. anybody who has a ticket for a cancelled train will be accommodated on other trains. of course, you can claim compensation if you are delayed as a result. just going up to the north—west, similar problems on northern rail. no trains from manchester piccadilly to crewe, nothing from liverpool to blackpool north and a reduced service from manchester to buxton as well. those are some of the problem is, is everything else running smoothly in other places? i would like to say so but of course this is absolutely

peak time for travel. many people have a great deal of emotional investment in getting where they need to be. on the other side of london, london waterloo, they are entering the fourth week of a strike by members of the rmt union in dispute with south western railway because of the role of guards. i half service and various other problems around the rail network. if you are travelling by train at this time of yearand you are travelling by train at this time of year and probably any time of year, always good to check before you get to the station. indeed. very quickly, what about the roads, simon? they are looking very busy, just going into lunchtime. particular warnings from the rac about the m1 northbound from bedfordshire to northamptonshire and our old friend the m2 between the gatwick turn up and the m23 all the way past heathrow to the m40. simon,

thanks. happy christmas. simon calderfrom the thanks. happy christmas. simon calder from the independent. the headlines on bbc news... australia's prime minister returns to the country after facing criticism for holidaying in hawaii while bushfires engulf three australian states. tesco suspends christmas card production at a chinese factory — after a six—year—old girl in london finds a message claiming that prisoners are being forced to pack them. the home secretary meets the family of harry dunn — the teenager killed in a road accident in northamptonshire in august. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's holly. good afternoon. liverpool bossjurgen klopp has praised his players for "passing test after test" after they won the club world cup for the first time. they beat flamengo of brazil in extra—time in the final in doha — roberto firmino scoring the winning goal, just as he had in the semifinal.

it's liverpool's second trophy of the season so far, after they beat chelsea to win the uefa super cup in august. the uefa super cup in august. game after game, after game, they are really showing their desire to make the next step, showing their desire to win the next game, showing their desire to win the next challenge. i said before the game i didn't know exactly how it would feel. now i can say, its outstanding. absolutely sensational. i'm so proud of the boys and, yeah, couldn't be better. liverpool now turn their attentions back to winning the premier league — they're ten points clear at the top — while fifa have ambitious plans of their own, for the club world cup. olly foster has been following the tournament in doha for us. that's the club world cup done for another year. it'll be back in qatar in 12 months. the european domination of recent years continues. liverpool worthy winners,

upgrading their european champions league title to a world title now. juergen klopp speaking about how he didn't really know how to feel about this tournament but he now knows that it's sensational, he said. absolutely outstanding. they head back to the premier league winter now to see if they could stay in front of the chasing pack. ten points clear at the moment ahead of leicester city and wouldn't they just love to add a premier league title? their first in the top division in england for almost three decades. to all those other titles they won this year. as for this tournament, well, it will stay with the six continents, the best from them, next year, before it expands hugely in china in 2021. 24 teams will be involved. many clubs and associations from around the world have their reservations about that, as fifa tried to expand their own as fifa try to expand their own interests into the club game around the world. that will become a tournament every four years. we will see exactly

how that beds down. as for liverpool, they are world champions and very, very worthy winners. fallon sherrock has told us she sees no reason why she can't win the pdc world darts championship, after making it through to the third round. on tuesday, she became the first woman to win a match in the competition, and last night, she beat the 11th seed mensur soljovic by 3—1. and although she knows she's doing something very special, she says she's managing to stay relatively calm going into each match. when i went up there last night, i just forgot all about what i'd done on tuesday and focused on the game. i totally forgot about everything else, so i didn't put pressure on myself. and, again, it's alljust trying to sink in at the moment. it's still not sunk in. i'm still in disbelief about what's going on. i have definitely, like, helped put women's darts on the map. i've definitely heard a lot of stories about how i have inspired

more younger people to play, younger girls, more women to take up the sport. ifeel so proud of myself because i'm encouraging more people to play. it's a great sport to get into and i feel really proud of myself that i'm helping everyone else discover it and enjoy it for themselves. what a great response she's had as well. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. thank you very much. let's return to our top story in australia where the prime minister, scott morrision has acknowledged public anger at his decision to go on holiday while his country faces a bushfire crisis. the fires are expected to worsen with more hot, dry weather expected. mr morrison did acknowledge the role of climate change, but said warming temperatures couldn't be connected to any single fire. james o'doherty is a political journalist based in canberra. hejoins me now.

thank you very much indeed for being with us. how much trouble is the prime minister in over this? he's been made to look pretty ridiculous, hasn't he, going on holiday all the way to hawaii at a time when these bushfires are raging in state after state ? bushfires are raging in state after state? a fair amount of trouble indeed, ben and for two reasons. scott morrison was on holiday in hawaii at a time when these catastrophic fires were burning across australia, particularly in new south wales, where a number of people have already died and around 700 or 800 homes have been lost by two big fires in particular. scott morrison made this decision to go away with his family to hawaii some seven weeks ago he says, but he cut short his holiday during the week after the tragic loss of two firefighters, who died fighting those fires. 32 byjeff keating and

36—year—old andrew, both with small babies. scott morrison was under pressure for taking the holiday but also his office has been under pressure for the way in which it had handled the fact that he had taken his holiday. it was a fairly secretive affair and at one point, the office of the prime minister even denied that he was in hawaii, something which scott morrison admitted to later in the week before saying he would fly home early to deal with this bushfire crisis. early in the week, when he spoke from hawaii, scott morrison said he's not holding a hose and he is not the one with operational responsibility for fighting these fires, but he didn't realise that he needed to get back to australia. and he to be seen to be doing something to ease the tension and calm the people who are at risk of losing their homes and lives during these fires. james, he is under pressure not only for taking that holiday in hawaii, but also for his views on climate change? scott morrison said

that climate change is a factor in the way that these fires are burning. but he said climate change can't be linked to any one specific fire. he said there are many reasons that fires can start. one of the main one is here that we are having a debate about now is reduction burns, are we doing enough to reduce some of that pure load helping these fires burn in such an out—of—control fashion. scott morrison has his hands tied on this one because the export of coal to countries like china is a big part of australia's economy and he said australia only makes up for economy and he said australia only makes upfor1.3% economy and he said australia only makes up for 1.3% of global emissions. he knows that if we were to stop exporting coal, it would be a big damage to our entire economy. scott morrison needs to say that coal is still important for australia. he doesn't want to go too much into blaming these fires on climate change. that is definitely a prime minister, michael mccormack, who was acting whilst he was away on

holiday, has said that more action needs to be taken on climate change in the wake of these fires. scott morrison so far not committing australia to any further action beyond its commitment under the paris climate targets. what do australians make of the prime minister's handling of this crisis? is this going to inflict political damage on him in the future? you have to say it will deftly take some shine off scott morrison after he won these elections in may of this year —— definitely take. he will definitely lose some skin over this one. part of the reason that these fires are such a big discussion point in australia is that whilst we have had more deadly bushfires in the past, these fires are so large, burning over 3 million hectares or so. it is impacting very badly on syd ney so. it is impacting very badly on sydney and new south wales. the air quality has been so bad from the smoke caused by these raging bush fires that everyone is acutely aware

of the danger that these fires are posing. and the impact it is have having their daily lives. he will do some skin over the fact he took this holiday —— impact it is having on. and he potentially mishandled this holiday will stop it remains to be seen whether or not these bushfires and the response will get worse or better —— mishandled this holiday. over the rest of the bushfire season. good to talk to you, james. political journalist season. good to talk to you, james. politicaljournalist based in camera. thank you. about 1% of the population has some form of epilepsy, which would suggest more than 60 million people worldwide. yet for many, drugs don t work very well. now a team of cambridge university scientists has built a tiny electronic device that could eventually sit on the brain — to work out when the patient is about to have a seizure — and deliver a drug to stop it. our science correspondent, richard westcott, reports. in a very, very clean room at cambridge university, they're building a device that could one day transform treatment for epilepsy.

so, chris, i take it you're not dressing like this forfun, fun as it is? yeah, yeah, no, actually, for the electronics we're making, it's really important to be in an ultra—clean environment. no dust, nothing in here? no, no dust, nothing in here. it'll sit on the brain and deliver a drug when it senses a seizure is coming. so, it feels a bit counterintuitive to have a device in your brain. how do you stop it kind of being rejected ? so, actually, the device works very similarly to the cells in the brain. it that it can sense what other nearby cells are doing, and then know exactly when to release chemicals to tell the other cells what to do. it's exactly how the neurones in the brain work. one of the biggest obstacles to treating epilepsy and other brain disorders is getting the drug to where it is needed. a thing called the blood—brain barrier stops many drugs getting through. this device could bypass that problem. so, the benefit of having a small

device directly in the brain is that we only deliver drugs where they're needed, so you mitigate side effects. and because they're going exactly where they're needed, they're highly effective. so we have found a very small amount of a drug can go a very long way, if it's delivered in the right location. the only part of the device that actually goes into the brain is this tiny needle here that's the width of two human hairs. and if you look at it under the microscope, this red patch here is the drug that is delivered when you need it. and how does it know when you need it? when someone's about to have an epileptic seizure, the electrical activity in the brain changes, and sensors on the device pick that up. so, there are many potential applications for this technology, where we combine the ability to sense with the ability to locally deliver the drug. other applications we have been looking into, for such as treating various cancers, parkinson's disease, chronic pain. basically, any application where you want to couple the ability to know when to deliver the drugs and then very locally and precisely deliver it where it's needed. it's early days, but they hope to be testing in humans

within five years. richard wescott, bbc news, cambridge. a nativity scene by banksy has appeared at a hotel in bethlehem in the west bank. dubbed the "scar of bethlehem", the work shows jesus's manger by israel's separation barrier, which appears to have been pierced by a blast. the work is a collaboration between the hotel's owners and the artist, whose described it as a "modified nativity". now it's time for a look at the weather with alina. hello, parts of south and south—east england have had almost another inch of rain in the last 24—hours. 20 to 25 milimetres in places. still in excess of 90 flood warnings across england, all of the details are on our website. this morning's rain soon clearing away from eastern coasts. behind it, some spells of sunshine. in fact, all of us will see some sunshine today. but showers already piling in to western areas of the uk,