this is bbc news. i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 4: 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. we were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, there was... somebody had already written in it. a man's been arrested in sussex on suspicion of murder after the deaths of two women outside a house in crawley down. the home secretary meets the family of harry dunn, the teenager killed in a road accident in northamptonshire in august. it is very, very difficult in terms of what they are going through right now. all our sympathies and thoughts are with them.

australia's prime minister apologises for holidaying in hawaii as wildfires continue to sweep across three states. if the queen attends a church service in sandringham while the duke of edinburgh spent a second night in hospital receiving treatment for a pre—exisiting condition. and coming up, rhe bbc‘s media editor meets the editor of private eye magazine at 17:30. a walk through the year in media with ian hislop. hello, good afternoon. a six—year—old girl has opened a pack of tesco christmas cards to find a message saying they were packed by prisoners in china being forced to work against their will.

tesco says it's stopped production at the factory while it investigates. greg mackenzie reports. ready? uh-huh. it was six—year—old schoolgirl florence widdecombe who'd sat down at home to write out her christmas cards to her friends and family when she discovered one of the cards had already been written out. we were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, there was... somebody had already written in it. there was a message which read, we are foreign prisoners in shanghai, qingpu prison, china, forced to work against our will. please help us and notify human rights organisations. there was also requested to notify the human rights journalist there was also requested to notify the human rightsjournalist peter humphrey. the first thought was that it was some sort of

prank. but on reflection, we realised it was actually potentially quite a serious thing and so i felt very shocked, but i also felt a responsibility to pass it on to peter humphrey, as the author asked me to do. the family did just that and contacted the human rights journalist who had spent time at the jail, having been alleged to have taken part in a corruption scandal. well, i spent two years in captivity in shanghai between 2013 and 2015 and my final nine months of that captivity was in this very prison in this very cell block where this message has come from. so this was written by some of my cell—mates from that period who are still there, serving sentences. a tesco spokeswoman says the company was shocked and would never allow prison labour in its supply chain. it has now launched an investigation. greg mckenzie, bbc news. a man is this afternoon being held on suspicion of murder following the deaths of two women in sussex. police are investigating

after the alleged stabbing outside a property at crawley down shortly after 10 o'clock this morning. sussex police said that they also found a man seriously injured inside the property. he was taken to royal sussex county hospital in brighton. the lead detective has said it was isolated incident with no ongoing risk to members of the public. he went on to explain, "this is a fast—moving investigation which will see significant police resources deployed to the scene for the forseeable future. you can see more detail on the screen now through the sussex police online feed. thoughts very much with the friends and family of the two women who have sadly lost their lives. this is one of the chief inspectors involved in the investigation. this is the scene

outside the property in question. the police say anyone with information about the incident are being asked to report online or they can call 101, and being asked to report online or they can callioi, and if being asked to report online or they can call 101, and if they do that, they should coat the name of the operation, dean land. the operation is said to be ongoing at this stage with no further information. that is the scene at the crawley down. two women have lost their lives in that incident. the family of harry dunn, who was killed outside an raf base in august, have met with the home secretary, priti patel, to discuss the case this morning. ms patel is considering seeking the extradition of the wife of an american diplomat, who has been charged with causing death of the teenager by dangerous driving. duncan kennedy reports. hello. very nice to meet you. the home secretary arrived in harry dunn's home village to brief his family in person.

inside, she met harry's dad, tim. this is a good opportunity, and thanks for coming to listen to what we need to say, and then hopefully we can move forward and up and help other people if they ever get into this situation. priti has come to try and hear from all of you. the fact that priti patel made thisjourney, along with andrea leadsom, the local mp, is a sign ofjust how much impact this case is having at the highest political levels. it is four months since harry dunn died in a road accident in northamptonshire. anne sacoolas, pictured here on her wedding day, is the american woman who has been charged with causing harry's death by dangerous driving. the home secretary said she was here to explain the extradition process to the family. it was a nice opportunity to hear from them about what they had been experiencing and going through, and to reassure them as well,

obviously it has been a very, very difficult and traumatic time for them. lawyers for anne sacoolas say she has been left devastated by this accident, but they say she won't return voluntarily to the united kingdom. harry dunn's family say they are now leaving matters in the hands of british lawyers. it will now be for a judge to decide the merits of extraditing anne sacoolas to the united kingdom. that decision will then be passed to the home secretary for a final say on what will happen. duncan kennedy, bbc news, in northamptonshire. the home secretary was joined by her cabinet colleague and the family's mp, andrea leadsom, who spoke to reporters after the meeting alongside the dunn family's spokesman, radd seiger. it has been fantastic to bring the home secretary, priti patel, to come and see harry's family. our hearts go out to them. it is just the deepest,

deepest tragedy for the dunn family and nothing will bring harry back, but they seem to be quite reassured that priti has set out what the next steps are, and i think we will be able to give them perhaps a little relief, temporarily, while the process continues, but i have assured harry's family i will do everything i can to ensure we get justice for harry. we know we cannot talk about the legals of this, but what is the next step in terms of extradition? the next step is that the cps sends all of the papers to a judge, and thatjudge then reviews all of the papers, and all of the different aspects of the case, and then passes papers on to the home office, who then assess them and make their recommendation to the home secretary. are the family reassured by meeting the home secretary today? before i answer that, can i thank andrea personally from the bottom of my heart for everything she has done for us over the last few weeks.

it has been a toughjourney but having our constituency mp visiting us and talking to us regularly has been very welcome and thank you. it has been amazing having the home secretary over today to meet with the family. we feel incredibly reassured that this whole saga will end up being dealt with under the rule of law, which is absolutely critical to all of us, notjust to harry's parents. dialogue is always good and sometimes there is misunderstandings but when you come together, and you look each other in the eye and resolve any issues, but you hear from some of the most senior politicians in this country that this will be dealt with under the rule of law, absolutely they will go to bed tonight feeling reassured. when you saw the statement from the lawyer of anne sacoolas, saying she will not come back to the uk voluntarily, how did the family react?

they are angry, they do not understand why this lady is back in america. they feel she should never have been allowed to go and she should jolly well come back. they are concerned they have one of the finest lawyers in america seeking to undermine our very fair and well developed legal system which has fairness at its heart. this lady is entitled to a fair trial, she is guilty of nothing at the moment, and if and when she comes back, she will get a fair hearing, which is what we are all entitled to. the australian prime minister, scott morrison, has defended his government's record on tackling climate change as bushfires continue to rage across parts of the country. under pressure for taking a holiday while the bushfires have been burning, mr morrison conceded there was a link between global warming and weather events but said it's not credible to make a direct connection to any single fire event. our correspondent shaimaa khalil reports.

it feels like a deserted war zone, but this is the aftermath of the catastrophic bushfires that have ravaged new south wales. and in the village of balmoral, the devastation is everywhere. the prime minister, scott morrison, appeared for the first time today after fierce criticism of his holiday in hawaii. it is quite humbling as you come and you speak to families and speak to individuals, you speak to the volunteers, and you see the best of australia on every single occasion, and that is what we are seeing here again today. russell scholes has been a volunteer firefighter for six years. he was out with his team trying to control the blaze in the village when his own house was burned to the ground. it wasn't until this morning when i came back, because we couldn't get back in here because it was too dangerous, so when i came back this morning, to check the chickens, i then had a look at the property, and that's when, you know, it's gone. russell's main worry

now is what happens in the next few weeks. there are so many of the brigade that are tired, that is the mental side of it. when you are continually battling something you can't beat. the only thing that will beat this is mother nature when she opens the heavens up and puts this out. we can't. we are running out of water here. the catastrophic fires have subsided but the situation is still extremely dangerous here. the roads remain closed off. balmoral was one of the worst hit areas by saturday's fires and the community is still in shock. many haven't returned to see what happened to their homes and what happened to their village. just opposite the road from russell's shattered house is a very different picture. craig stayed to defend his home during the fires, using up all the water reserves he had. flames like a five or six storey building just roaring all around you. just scared as hell.

you don't know what to do. you try not to panic, but we got the job done, so we saved most of the stuff. at the heart of all of this is the divisive climate change debate, with many australians linking the ferocity of the fires to the severe weather conditions here. australia is bracing itself for a scorching summer, and many are wondering where the next big fire is going to hit. james morris from the new south wales rural fire service spoke about the scale of the challenge they face. these fires are massive, the biggest we have ever seen in new south wales, burning out sincejuly more than 3.1 million hectares of bush and grassland. we currently have 100 fires burning across new south wales, and one of those which has been elevated in the last five minutes or so to emergency warning, threatening homes around the blue mountains so even though in sydney

at the moment, it is just after midnight, where we would typically see very cool, calm and collected nights, we are seeing very erratic fire behaviour, flames 10, 20 metres above the tree tops, threatening homes close by so still very challenging and erratic conditions being seen by firefighters doing a wonderfuljob battling to save as many houses as possible. unfortunately, saturday we saw catastrophic bushfire conditions right across parts of new south wales. we believe we have lost around a hundred homes just in that fire alone. we have seen close to a thousand lost in this fire season alone. devastating times for new south wales. we have seen eight lives lost, two of those being our own firefighters in recent days, so very hard and challenging times for the crews but they are doing what they do to protect communities across the state. given the scale of what you are facing, how do you prioritise what you must tackle first?

it can be challenging at times, at one point about six weeks ago, we saw 17 fires burning at the emergency warning alert level. that alert level for us means homes and lives are under threat. typically in previous years we have seen a maximum of four fires at the emergency warning, so to have 17 at that level is massive and it takes a lot of logistical and operational management, from right across new south wales and a number of emergency services but we prioritise as much as possible the areas that those fires are burning in, how many lives and properties. we have thousands of firefighters on the ground each and every day and support from other emergency services, from our firefighting counterparts from right across australia and even assistance at the moment from america and canada. what is the weather forecast for the next few days? we are very lucky here, we saw our bad weather day on saturday, we now have about four or five days' worth of favourable conditions

before we start to see conditions elevate once again with hot, dry temperatures, and reports of some wind coming through. christmas day here, hopefully, will allow some of our firefighters to be able to spend some time at home with their family but considering how dry it is at the moment, we are going to see more than 2,000 firefighters out in the field and not at home with theirfamilies, trying to protect communities in new south wales. 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. 0ur correspondent alison freeman is in sandringham and earlier gave us this update. i am afraid we have not had anything new from the palace since friday when he was admitted to king edward vii hospital in london for that pre—existing

condition, as they called it in their statement. he has been recommended to go there on the advice of his doctors. we do not know what that condition is or what treatment there is, but there does not seem to be, and there hasn't been all weekend, any sort of sense of alarm from the palace or the family. they seem to be carrying on as normal. in fact, while prince philip was travelling to london to go to hospital, the queen was carrying out her planned journey by train to come to sandringham. this is where the prince normally lives and spends his time. his absence will be being felt by the royals, we think. what of those other family activities and the queen and her movements today and in the coming days? we had the first glimpse of the queen on the estate this morning. she arrived by car with her son prince edward, sophie and their two children. they went down this road here, which will be familiar to many

as the road they often walk around on on christmas day, having been to the service. today is an annual engagement in their calendar, if you like, they normally come here, but it is much more low—key than the christmas day service today. it is a carol service and the queen arrived in her car with her family at about 11 o'clock and they were inside for about 45 minutes and we caught a glimpse of her on her way in and a glimpse on her way out. a small crowd of people stood here to wave at them, but a much more sedate affair than we would see on christmas day, which are the usual pictures we are used to seeing. the question they will be asking themselves today is whether it is likely that prince philip will be back for christmas day. we know on christmas day last year he didn'tjoin the family at the christmas day ceremony but he was said to be in good health. whether he will be back at sandringham by christmas day itself is still unknown and something we might not know for the next few days.

the headlines on bbc news. tesco suspends christmas card production at a chinese factory — after a six—year—old girl in london finds a message claiming prisoners are being forced to pack them. a man's been arrested in sussex on suspicion of murder after the deaths of two women outside a house in crawley down. 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, good afternoon. big win for watford, big defeat for manchester united in the first premier league game of the day. a howlerfrom david de gea gifted watford their opening goal scored by ismaila sarr. you won't want to see that again. —— he won't want to see. things went from bad to worse after aaron wan—bissaka's foul on sarr.

watford were awarded a penalty — a chance for redemption from de dea. but troy deeney made it a second. not even the introduction of paul pogba — returning after a near three—month absence — could raise united. it finished 2—0, watford's first home win of the season but they're still bottom. united remain eighth in the table. we didn't deserve to win the game by the way we performed. too slow in possession and too slow to win the ball. when they scored we didn't have enough to get back. chelsea kick off against spurs in less than 15 minutes time, and it's a game that puts frank lampard up against jose mourinho for the first time in the premier league. they had huge success together as player and manager at chelsea, and lampard got the better of mourinho as manager in the league cup last year when they were at derby and manchester united respectively.

sometimes when you come across someone you have sometimes when you come across someone you have worked with or a clu b someone you have worked with or a club you have worked with it pushes you on that little bit more in the best possible way. tottenham and chelsea. i know that other that game has enough anyway and then you have jose mourinho their who will want to beat us. would it mean a bit more for you because he is there? in my professional head, yes. when i go up against the best, going up against pep guardiola and jurgen klopp this season, of course you want to say, cani season, of course you want to say, can i show against these incredible managers what i can do and what my team can do so it will be a similar feeling. i will be always grateful to him for what he gave me as a player. and nothing is going to change. i love the guy. i will always love the guy. i hope he loses on sunday. bad news for aston villa — they've confirmed that midfielderjohn mcginn has broken his ankle. it happened just seven minutes into their defeat at home to southampton yesterday.

mcginn got his studs caught in the turf. villa haven't said how long he'll be out for, but it does make him a doubt for scotland's euro 2020 play—off semi—final against israel on 26th march. jimmy anderson got himself a couple of wickets as england drew their final warm—up match in south africa. anderson hasn't played a test match since getting injured in the first ashes test against australia in august. he got through 19 overs in a match that had been downgraded from first—class status because of illness in the england squad. england play the first test against south africa in centurion on boxing day. gareth anscombe will miss wales' tour of new zealand next year — the fly half has suffered a setback in his recovery from a knee injury. anscombe missed the recent rugby world cup, after the injury sustained in a warm up game against england in august. his club side 0spreys said he'll need to have a second operation. new wales coach wayne pivac says he won't be fit in time to face the all blacks injuly.

british freestyle skier izzy atkin has won her first world cup medal in the big air event. she took bronze in atlanta, thanks to a brilliant second jump. she also finished third at the world championships this year, and in 2018 she became the first briton to win an olympic skiing medal, with bronze in the slopestyle. big air will make its winter 0lympics debut at beijing 2022. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. gavin, thank you very much indeed. 80 flood warnings remain in place across england — with large parts of the south and east, the midlands and yorkshire on alert to expect further flooding. dozens of homes have already flooded, and villages across the south—east have been left underwater following persistent rain — this is alfriston in east sussex after the nearby cuckmere river burst its banks. the banks of the medway in kent have also become overwhelmed. this is a caravan park in the village of yalding

near maidstone — with water as far as the eye can see. earlier, we heard from the environment agency who were talking about how parts of surrey have also been impacted. well, there has been a lot of heavy rainfall in surrey. we have had a lot of flood warnings out in the surrey area. in the centre of leatherhead we have deployed temporary defences. those will remain until the weather outlook calms. in the coming days, it's very important that people remain vigilant, check flood warnings. but we do expect the outlook to calm as we head towards christmas. flooding might be affecting roads in the south east, but rail services are being disrupted everywhere from london to south wales and the west of england. 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 explains what's causing delays this weekend.

let's put this in context, paddington station is going to be closed from christmas eve onwards until the end of next weekend because of the traditional festive rail engineering works. they are doing an awful lot of work between here and reading. and so gwr, which ru ns here and reading. and so gwr, which runs trains from here to the west of england and south wales, have told everybody, get yourjourney is done by monday. lots of people have taken that advice. it is extremely busy here. but unfortunately, as you say, more than 20 trains have been cancelled. that's because of basically 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 volu nta ry. don't want to. it is entirely voluntary. and coming up to christmas, evidently a lot of train crews have decided we are going to spend time with the family, which is of course fair enough. we have got mostly trains to and from cardiff and bristol temple meads cancelled, but also some to and from swansea and also the early arrival from exeter didn't run. anybody who has

got a ticket for a cancelled train will be accommodated on other trains, and of course, you can claim compensation if you are delayed as a result. just going up to the north—west, very similar problems on northern rail, so no trains on the line from manchester piccadilly to crewe via 0rkney edge, at least stopping trains, nothing to liverpool, blackpool and a reduced service to buxton as well. simon calder at paddington. let's take a look at some more of today's top stories. a 26—year—old woman has died ? following a crash involving a car and a national express coach in south—west london. both vehicles caught fire after colliding in battersea in the early hours of this morning. the driver of the car remains in a critical condition. the coach had been travelling from gatwick airport to victoria station. there's been dramatic scenes off the coast of sardinia, where a merchant ship became stranded on a rocky stretch of coast.

the ship had unloaded a cargo of coffee and was heading for spain when bad weather forced the captain to try and return to port. rescue crews manage to reach all 12 crew members, but not before they'd endured some very large waves crashing onto the deck. nobody was injured. dozens of pesto products are being recalled overfears they may contain traces of peanuts without it being listed on the label. the products, all made by sauce maker sacla, also include own—brand jars of pesto from supermarkets waitrose and aldi. the food standards agency has issued an allergy alert, warning that 25 products may be affected. 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. 0ur 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, 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 being rejected? the device works very similar to the cells in the brain. 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. 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. 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, 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. now, millions of brussel sprouts will be eaten across britain over the next few days, with supermarkets expecting a 500% increase in sales. the bitter—tasting vegetable often divides opinion, but new varieties are being grown to try to win skeptics round. to try to win sceptics round. sam fenwick reports. as you tuck into your christmas dinner, it's likely that the sprouts on your plate will have been grown here, in the scottish borders. they're planted in rows, and the cool north sea winds make for ideal growing conditions. it's been a very good harvest, we've had a very good growing season, the sprouts are looking very healthy, they're standing up, they're looking really good. sprouts are really good for you — they have four times more

vitamin c than an orange, but they're not always everyone's favourite vegetable. i don't like sprouts because theyjust make me go "eugh"! the sprouts are tasty. i've never tried sprouts. nope, not my thing. nope. but there's something special going on in these scottish fields that might change your opinion of the humble sprout. this variety of sprouts has the compound glucosinolate, been altered in it. it's more of a sweeter—tasting sprout, these won't have the bitterness that people associate with sprouts. sales of sprouts increase by 500% at christmas, tesco alone will sell 90 million of them. and how many sprouts do you peel a day? 40 baskets, which is about half a tonne a day. that's a lot! yeah, it's a lot. now, i'm one of those people that doesn't really like sprouts,

i'll maybe have three on my plate on my christmas dinner — i'll move them around, maybe try and hide them under a piece of turkey. but i'm told it's because i'm not cooking them correctly. ian's here, he's our expert in growing sprouts and cooking them. ian, what am i doing wrong? i think you're cooking them too long. you mean putting them on the boil in october is too soon?! it is. it's the last thing you should cook before you put your plate together for your christmas dinner. really? yeah. they only take a few minutes and they stay lovely and green, and they taste really, really nice. these have been boiling for three minutes, and that's them ready now. here we go, can i pick a little one out? you can have any size you like. it's hot, mind. it's very hot! they taste very green. correct. so, this christmas, maybe it's time we gave sprouts a second chance. mm! sam fenwick, bbc news. that is very good.

i almost believed her. now the weather forecast with darren bent. —— darren bett. hello there. it is not looking quite as wet over the next few days, particularly across the eastern side of england. we had some rain here earlier on. that has moved through and instead we're looking at showers to come in overnight. quite a brisk wind for many parts of the country, the heavier showers out towards the west. a few getting into eastern parts of england but not many. enough of a breeze, though, to perhaps keep temperatures to around 3—4 degrees. where we will have the clearer skies and lighter winds, in the north—east of scotland, there will be a frost and it will be a chilly day tomorrow. otherwise the main focus of the showers for monday, for a while at least, central and southern scotland, northern ireland, northern england. some heavy ones as well. south of that, the odd shower, but on the whole it will be a dry day and there will be some sunshine. we should start to see the number of flood warnings dropping and 11 degrees likely across southern parts of england and wales. as we move into christmas eve, we will see more cloud around,

showery bursts of rain and sunshine further north. it gets a bit colder for christmas day itself but it hello, this is bbc news with julian worricker. the headlines: 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. we were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, there was... somebody had already written in it. a man's arrested on suspicion of murder after two women are found dead outside a house in the village of crawley down, in west sussex. the home secretary meets the family of harry dunn, the teenager killed in a road accident in northamptonshire in august. it is very, very difficult in terms of what they are going through right now. all our sympathies and thoughts are with them.

australia's prime minister apologises for holidaying in hawaii as wildfires continue to sweep across three states. the queen attends a church service in sandringham while the duke of edinburgh remains in hospital receiving treatment for a pre—exisiting condition. now on bbc news, private eye's editor, ian hislop, joins the bbc‘s media editor, amol rajan, to look back on a fascinating year of front covers, cartoons and satire. hello. ian. come in. good to see you. now, you are everywhere. thank you for having us in, thank you so much. how do you come up with a private eye cover like those? well, this was when theresa may, who — do you remember her? she was around at the

beginning of the year. um, she used to be prime minister. anyway, she left and we had to think "how can we pay tribute to mrs may?" so i thought "perha ps a blank page will be good" and so we have the theresa may memorial issue — her legacy in full. and a little thing at the bottom, saying "er, thank you". which, again, seems quite cruel, but was quite funny at the time. do you know how each of those — do you ever keep tabs on how each of those sell? yeah. yeah, that was a seller. i'm afraid that was popular! and nigel farage? nigel farage. this is great. he's always good. partly because he always does photo opportunities, so having been accused of having a party full of fruitca kes, he does a photo op eating a fruit cake. i mean, it is fantastic. i mean, he does thejoke for us. boris johnson's private borisjohnson's private life has furnish you with ideas and this time

you had a pretty busy one with jennifer arcuri. there was a proper public interest in the story, public money had gone to those women who dances around the lap dancing pole but essentially the joke was that borisjohnson had but essentially the joke was that boris johnson had been but essentially the joke was that borisjohnson had been caught out. he is saying, i need technology lessons, and she is saying, floppy disk or hard drive. there is a properjob, with boris into his new girlfriend, i do not lie to women any more, and she says, except the queen. that is not a legal problem. that is the supreme courtjudgment. this is ourjob, reporting. and you sometimes jump on anniversaries, too. yes. this is when boris became prime minister, which many people equate with an event as unlikely as landing on the moon. but he did, and there's this brilliant picture of him just going into number 10, so we did it as the lunar landing, a souvenir issue — one small step for man and a giant

leap in the dark for mankind! and put it in black and white. and in terms of your annual, when you've got a year to get through — you've done many of these annuals, of course — when you've got to curate a year, what you were saying a moment ago is whatjournalism is about, what is your starting point with thinking about how we deal with this? do you just think "let's get the bestjokes" or do you think "we really need to reflect the yea r"? i try and get the bestjokes and if we've been dull about a particular subject or have not covered it well, i try and leave it out. i mean, we're exhaustive, but the idea is to be entertaining. you've been personally committed, haven't you, to trying to reverse the decline of the english cartoonist. yes. why have you and private eye kept up with your investment in cartoons? um, because, um, people like them and the mag sells. no, obviously, it's a much more elevated reason than that. no, i love cartoons! and i think that one of the things that print can do is reproduce sort of beautiful drawings that are funny.

and english cartooning tradition is very old and i think absolutely remarkable. so i am basically — i doubled the number of cartoons um, and people said, "well, you know, there aren't any young cartoonists. you won't get anyone." it is funny — if you offer money, people become cartoonists! it's amazing. we have got a brilliant raft of young cartoonists. i mean, this is a genuine skill and there are lots of people who do it really well. i mentioned politics, which is what most of your covers are about. now, we seem to be in an age of polarisation, don't we? and genuine diffeences. and genuine differences. why has that happened, do you think? is is the delayed effect of a financial crash? um, i think the referendum was a question about, you know, whether you are essentially happy with the way britain is or not, whether you think it is too unequal, whether you think you have been left behind by the international world that has come into business, whether you would rather your life was structured in different ways. in the end, for me, it wasn't really

about europe at all. i mean, the question that people answered was a question about themselves. it's perfectly reasonable, but it did not have anything to do with the eu. so we managed to politicise, essentially, a cultural divide. which is why we have ended up with three years of people shouting at each other. and interestingly, the last three years has furnished your covers with some very loud characters. what does that do for satire, though? does satire become easier or harder when you have the stranger—than—life characters? i mean, it does two things. one is everybody says to you "satire is over now because you cannot satirize trump — he's doing it to himself". or, you know, "boris is funny," you know? "there's nothing more to add." which is not true. but you have to work harder. because you have to find the areas where they are vulnerable, the areas where they genuinely are funny and where you can get under their skin. obviously, it's incredibly flattering where we have done some joke

about trump which turned up in a tweet, saying, "this was unfunny and not clever and not funny" and that is the ultimate prize. and to find that boris is furious by something, that's what you want. does he still get — does he ever get in touch? do his people ever get in touch? i mean, he's blssed your cover many, many, many times. do you think boris is still cheesed off when he sees himself, perhaps with jennifer arcuri, on your front page? oh, i do hope so! what's your technique for dealing with people who are readily offended online? well, i'm not online, which helps. have you found that that's hard to sustain over the course of the development of the internet? you've two children in their 20s — i mean, what do they think with the fact that dad is not online? i've no idea, presumably because i haven't looked online!

no, it's very restful. i do recommend it! i think i could get used to that idea. unfortunately, the bbc‘s media editor may not be allowed to do that. one of the things about the age which we live is that the truth seems up for grabs in a way that it has not been for a long time — maybe not ever in the course of your career. do you think it is fair to say that these days, the penalty or sanction faced by those caught lying has almost disappeared ? there are people getting away with lying as never before. i mean, i do think it is a real problem now, the idea of fake news, and that is one of the things that is why i don't spend a lot of time online, because i'm infuriated by, you know, perfectly reasonable people who say to me, "pfft! i notice you did not run that story about hillary clinton murdering everybody". and i said "i did not run it because it is not true". and they said "i read it online!" and these are people who, they say to you, "the mainstream media, ian, is just full of lies" and then they believe the biggest and stupidest lie that someone in a bedroom has written up on the internet and sent out as a blog. i mean, there's a real divide between the sort of supposedly scepticism, sort of fierce refusal

to believe anything you read in the normal media, and then believing almost anything you read online. and this is weird and it makes it — it makes the idea of truth polluted, which, as we know from the history of fake news, this is what the original putin doctrine was and this is what trump wants. he does not want you to believe this rubbish he pumps out. he wants you to believe nothing. and yet, i know that people watching this on bbc or listening to this via a bbc podcast will think that, "actually, the bbc is part of the problem". that there is, you know — these days, if you want to go viral, you say, "there is a conspiracy of silence at the bbc". whether or not there is one or not, why are people so keen to believe conspiracy theories about a cover—up by journalists? in other words, why is trust injournalism so low? well, i mean, we have not distinguished ourselves over past 20 years! you know, the phone hacking thing was not good. the levison enquiry was not marvellous. so, i mean — i mean, there is a reason for people to be fully sceptical

slightly sceptical about journalism. but it is in much the same way as the, you know, sceptical about politicians. but i believe that — and i have said this before — but that being sceptical is not the same as being cynical. it does not mean you believe in nothing, you try and assess and evaluate. there is really good journalism going on. the alternative is literally sitting at home thinking "i wonder what i believe". is the really striking about the election campaign that we saw at the end of 2019 that a lot of the fake news was actually pumped out by official channels. it was coming from the main parties. is that not really what fake news is, and is that notjust old—fashioned political spin? i think the thing that really shocked everyone in that political campaign was not the idea that hidden on the internet somewhere, there were messages going out that were being paid for and we did not know about. i mean, it is reasonable to criticise.

it was the fact that political parties were pretending they were fact—checking outputs or pretending they were another outfit in order to pump out their own messages. the old —fashioned political spin is "we are the tory party and we promise you 80,000 more trees, houses, nurses" whatever it is. "we are labour party, we have 80,000 and another 80,000 nurses, trees," whatever. that is old—fashioned political spin — that's what people know about. the fake messaging and then when you get caught out and you say, "oh, it was a joke". it is satire. no, it is not satire. we are doing bloody satire. get the tory party out of it. you said in the past you don't talk much about your voting habits but you said you were a democrat and believe in democracy. as you look around the world, do you think we are in this sort of period of democratic recession which is a correction that has been readjusted but in order to survive,

or do you have to think we are entering a darker, post—democratic age? no, i don't believe that, but that i am on the whole quite optimistic. i mean, we are in the middle of a cult of the strongman and a lot of leadership around the world is very autocratic. and populist movements have, i think, done democracy no favours in forgetting the normal checks and balances and the structures and sort of boring sets of standards and values that allow democracy to function. none of that is very encouraging. but essentially, i think most periods — and one of the good things about getting older — think "this is a terrible time" and "british politics has never been so divisive?" and i think "poll tax, riots, the miners‘ strike" — that was not a cohesive period.

in british politics. and you know, i was quote my mother—in—law said to me "i have never been so worried as i am now about the world". and i said "you were a teenager in 1939". and she said, "so i was". i do think that you have to keep a certain amount of perspective. i'm conscious as i see that behind you, there are endless letters. in terms of threats you have had this year, legal and otherwise — you have had many legal threats over the year — how does this year rank in terms of the threats to ruin you and your family's welfare? interesting, because i think that something about brexit, people must be a bit more depressed. we have had quite a lot of very rich people suing. what sort of stuff? mostly russian or thereabouts. about money and why it's in london, where it is going to, so we've had quite a lot of that.

is there ever any danger that these cases are going to end up bankrupting you and private eye? that's why i have a wooden table. we will see. we survive on the favour of our readers. they pay up and that is where our money comes from. and, you know, most of our stories are about unexplained wealth. you know where ours is from and we don't know where theirs is from. so that's the difference. ian hislop, thank you very much indeed. 0ver over the next few days we should see the number of flood warnings dropping, it does look dry but still some rain around. earlier today there was still over 70 flood warnings on rivers in england. we have had some rain today, it is showers that will follow in as the breeze picks up through this evening and overnight. some showers across western areas a little heavier, further east across eastern parts of england, not too many showers but

enough breeze to keep temperatures around three or 4 degrees. where we have clearer skies and lighter winds in north—eastern scotland we are likely to find a frost and a chilly day on monday. the focus of the showers at least for a while will be across central southern scotland, northern ireland and northern england tomorrow. there will be a few showers further south but not many and a lot of places will be dry, quite a bit of sunshine, hence the number of flood warnings likely to drop. and quite mild across southern parts of england and wales, temperatures 11 degrees here. in the south—west, we will see rain arriving in the evening on that weather front. there is arriving in the evening on that weatherfront. there is another one coming in behind that as we head into tuesday as well. so, some cloud and some outbreaks of rain but on the whole this should be light rain and we may well find across northern england it tends to dry off during the afternoon, and but for a few showers in the north—west, much of scotla nd showers in the north—west, much of scotland and northern ireland should be dry with some sunshine. it is slightly cooler here, temperatures of six or seven celsius. those temperatures will drop away during the evening is that wetter weather

falls away, and in time for santa arriving we have a ridge of high pressure m ove arriving we have a ridge of high pressure move again and that will settle things in for christmas day itself. chilly start, may be a touch of frost here and there and one or two mist and fog patches, but on the whole it looks like it will be a dry day and a fair bit of sunshine around, especially in the morning. across wales and south—west it will cloud over in the afternoon but staying dry until the evening. those temperatures a bit lower on christmas day, 6—9dc. we have more wet and windy weather arriving overnight and into boxing day. this weather system has a bit more about it, for a while the weather fronts moving northwards and eastwards. for many of us, spell of rain, bit heavy for a while. just for a while, we will find some snow over the pennines, perhaps the southern uplands as well, with the wind is blowing and more showers into wales and south—west. the winds will tend to ease down, the rain easing off in the afternoon, still quite mild in the afternoon, still quite mild in the south.

australia's prime minister admits global warming has affected the bushfires raging for weeks. firefighters in the state of new south wales are still battling to bring more than 100 blazes under control. the father of the teenager killed in a crash with an american woman meets the home secretary, as the government considers asking for the driver's extradition. the girl whose tesco christmas cards contained a message saying they were packaged by prisoners in china. we talk to tom hanks on playing a children's tv presenter in his latest film — and what it's taught he him about himself. iam kind i am kind of loud. iam kind of loud. i i am kind of loud. i am iam kind of loud. iam needy i am kind of loud. i am needy in some ways. i probably have attention disorder. —— attention deficit disorder.

good evening. the australian prime minister, scott morrison, has defended his government's record on tackling climate change, as bushfires continue to rage across parts of the country. under pressure for being on holiday when two firefighters died, he's now said there is a link between global warming and the ferocity and extent of this year's fires. more than 100 are still burning in new south wales, as our correspondent shaimaa khalil reports. it feels like a deserted war zone. but this is the aftermath of the catastrophic bushfires that have ravaged new south wales. in the village of balmoral, the devastation is everywhere. the prime minister, scott morrison, appearing for the first time today after fierce criticism of his holiday in hawaii, conceded that more needed to be done to tackle global warming, with scientists saying that drier

conditions brought about by climate change have worsened the impact of bushfires. we must take action on climate change. we are taking action on climate change. there is no argument about the links between — in my view and the government's view, and any government of this country — about the links between broader issues of global climate change and weather events around the world. russell scholes has been a volunteer firefighter for six years. he was out with his team, trying to control the blaze in the village, when his own house was burnt to the ground. so many of the brigade are tired. that's the mental side of it, when you are continually battling something you can't beat. the only thing that will beat this is mother nature, when she decides to open the heavens up and put it out. so we can't. we are running out of water here. catastrophic fires have subsided, but the situation is still extremely dangerous here. the roads remain closed off.

balmoral was one of the worst hit areas by saturday's fires, and the community is still very much in shock. many have not returned to see what happened to their homes and what happened to their village. just opposite the road from russell's shattered house is a very different picture. craig hurley stayed to defend his home during the fires, using up all the water reserves he had. flames like a five or six storey building, just roaring all around you. just scary as hell. you don't know what to do. trying not to panic, but, yeah, we got the job done, so we saved most of the stuff. australia's bracing itself for a scorching summer and many are wondering where the next big fire is going to hit. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, balmoral, new south wales. the home secretary has met the father of harry dunn, the 19—year—old who died in a car crash outside an raf base in northamptonshire in august. priti patel said she wanted to reassure the family.

the government is considering whether to ask for the extradition from the united states of the driver charged over the crash, anne sacoolas. duncan kennedy reports. the home secretary arrived at harry dunn's home village to brief his family in person. hello, good to meet you. inside, harry's dad, tim, said he welcomed the gesture. this isa said he welcomed the gesture. this is a good opportunity and thank you for coming to listen to what we need to say, and hopefully we can move forward with the situation. priti has come to try and hear from all of you. the fact that priti patel and andrea leadsom, the local mp, came here is a sign of how much impact the case is having. harry dunn was killed last august when his motorbike collided with a car. anne sacoolas, here on her wedding day,

was charged this week with causing harry's death by dangerous driving, but she left written, claiming diplomatic immunity. the home secretary said she would do all she could. it was a nice opportunity to hear from them about what they have been experiencing, what they have been experiencing, what they have been going through, and to reassure them. it has been a difficult and traumatic time for them. at the crash scene today, harry dunn's best friends arrived to put up a christmas tree in his honour, and they say they all miss him terribly at what was his favourite time of year. at what was his favourite time of yea r. lawyers at what was his favourite time of year. lawyers for answer clueless say she is also devastated by the tragedy but says she won't return to the uk voluntarily. —— lawyers four and the coolest. harry dunnfamily say that is unacceptable. they have one of the finest lawyers in america seeking to undermine our legal system, which has fairness at its heart. this will be a difficult

christmas for everybody involved at a judge will now look at the merits of extradition, and the home secretary will make a final decision. duncan kennedy, bbc news, northamptonshire. the duke of edinburgh remains in the london hospital where he was admitted on friday for treatment for a pre—existing condition. 0ur correspondent greg mckenzie is at the king edward vi! hospital now. greg. well, yes, the duke was admitted here to the king edward vi! hospital on friday morning, with what buckingham palace have described as a pre—existing condition. today, the queen was seen attending a church service at sandringham this morning. as for the duke, reports suggest he has been laughing and joking with many has been laughing and joking with ma ny staff has been laughing and joking with many staff members here, and it's hoped he will be well enough to travel back up to norfolk to spend the christmas with the rest of the royal family. a six—year—old girl has opened

a pack of tesco christmas cards to find a message saying they were packed by prisoners in china being forced to work against their will. tesco says it's stopped production at the factory while it investigates. jon donnison has more it was a year old schoolgirl florence widdicombe who had sat down at home to write out her christmas cards to her friends and family and she discovered one of the cards had already been written out. we were writing it and on about my sixth or eighth card, there was somebody older who had written in it. the message read, we are foreign prisoners in shanghai qingpu prison, china, forced to work against our will. please help us and notify human rights organisation. the first thought was it was a prank, but on reflection we realised it was actually potentially quite a serious thing, and so i felt very shocked

but i also felt a responsibility to pass it on to peter humphreys, is the author asked me to do. the family did that and got in touch with the human rightsjournalist, peter humphrey, who the message in the card had suggested they contact. he himself had spent time in qingpu prison for his part in an alleged corruption scandal. i spent two yea rs corruption scandal. i spent two years in captivity in shanghai between 2013 and 2015, and my final nine months of captivity was in this very present, in this very cell block where the message has come from, and these prisoners are living a very bleak daily life. there are 12 prisoners per cell and they sleep in very rusty iron bunk beds they —— with a mattress not more than one centimetre thick. a tesco