this is bbc world news. the headlines. nearly 1,000 homes have been destroyed as australia's bushfires continue to burn out of control. another extreme heatwave is due to set in later this week. pro—democracy protesters in hong kong have clashed with police in shopping malls and popular tourist areas. some activists threw umbrellas and other objects at police, who responded by beating protesters with batons and firing tear gas. the duke of edinburgh, the husband of queen elizabeth, has left hospital after spending four nights under observation. he'll spend christmas with the royal family at the queen's sandringham estate in eastern england. pilgrims from around the world havejoined locals in the historic town of bethlehem for christmas eve celebrations. the festivities centre on the church of nativity where a midnight mass will shortly be held.

now on bbc news, a special programme from the team at our world. in lapland, temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, threatening the livelihood of its indigenous sami people. erika benke has been to arctic finland to hear from sami women about their fears for the future. lapland is europe's great last wilderness. it stretches across norway, sweden, finland and russia, north of the arctic circle. the far north of finland is the home of the sami, europe's only indigenous people, who still live off the land.

but the life of the sami people is changing. climate change is affecting the arctic more than any other part of the earth. you can't rely on that you know how nature acts or how animals act because everything seems to be changing. the melting ice is opening up opportunities for shipping routes and there is talk of a new railway. it's the worst nightmare we are facing at the moment. which could threaten the sami people's way of life. how can you put a price target for a culture? —— a price tag. we have come to lapland to talk to sami women about the challenges they face. nature gives if we give back. we can't just take.

anna comes from a family of sami reindeer herders who still make a living off the land. it's the start of the calving season and anna is checking up on the reindeer with a finnish relative. the reindeer are about to give birth. these are extra feed, pellets needed for the mother reindeer so that they are in good condition.

eero is the herder of this fence here. he's the husband of my niece. female reindeer have antlers during the winter and during the spring so that they can chase away the male ones from good food places, places where the reindeer moss is growing. these reindeer are female and they are about to give birth — some in a couple of days, some in a couple of weeks. they are so beautiful. reindeer herds roam free in lapland.

but when it's calving time, anna's family fences them in to make sure the reindeer get enough food before the calves are born. over the centuries, sami people have made a living from reindeer herding. it's still a key part of their culture. but now, fewer than 10% of them are involved in it. reindeer herding is getting much harder. normally, there would be a lot more snow on the ground in the forest at this time of the year. but the climate is changing and it's threatening the family's herd. usually, winter came in the end of october and now it can be in december. during the winter, there can be

really warm periods that get the snow to melt. winter should be approximately nine months of the year and now it's maybe six months. temperatures in the winter fluctuate a lot more than they did in the past, which is making it more difficult for reindeer to find food. usually, reindeer can dig through any amount of snow. so whether it's two metres, it can smell the reindeer moss and find itand dig it. but when the snow melts, then this food, the basic best food of reindeer, this reindeer moss, freezes, the reindeer can't dig it. they can't even smell it through the ice. that's starvation then. and starvation means that the reindeer herder has to take extra food.

and, of course, then it affects the income of reindeer herder. the number of reindeer herders is decreasing in finland. over the last 20 years, it's declined by almost half. now, there are fewer than 5,000. many find it difficult to cope with the huge amount of unpredictability in reindeer herding posed by the changing climate. you can't rely on what you used to know about winter, how winters are. you can't rely on that you know how nature acts or how animals are, because everything seems to be changing. people that live from the nature, sami people over here, have adapted and adapted over decades, almost over

centuries, i'd say. life here has always changed. but then we are reaching the point where these changes are not such things that you can add up to. people don't feel safe anymore and that starts to affect their mental health. —— that you can adapt to. 100km from anna's reindeer, in the far north—eastern corner of finland, close to the russian border, heini lives in a very remote house. the nearest supermarket is 90km away. most sami people in northern lapland live in places like this and they are very much connected to their natural environment. we built this house ourselves

and i think log house itself is eco—friendly. we heat the house with wood, but we do have running water and electricity, like in any other house. we are no eco—warriors, we are just ordinary people who want to do our best. in early spring, heini and herfamily drink birchjuice. she usually starts tapping the trees in may. but this year, for the first time, the juice was ready in april. we get winter very late. it can be december that we get permanent snow. for instance, this february, spring comes very early so we have shorter winters.

here are photos of my family. here are my grandmothers. and here is my great—grandfather. he is ice fishing here. he's doing traditional ice fishing. heini is an artisan. she makes a living by teaching traditional sami handicrafts. what i'm making here is a saamcic. it's a married women's hat. when women get married, it gets...she will have this crown for herself. it is as a crown. the saamcic is the most difficult handicraft that i ever tried, and this is truly, truly

very difficult handicraft. traditionally, every woman did handicrafts, but not this one, because this was special. only some handicraft masters were doing this. heini uses reindeer skin to make shoes. but more rain in the summer has affected her ability to produce them. here are my latest. ijust made this ready, these we were waiting for years in our shed for me to make these ready. this, i made these for myself. they're a little more fancy. the reindeerfur shoes. and these are already too small for my children. here is how we do it. we just...we skin the reindeer legs. and then we just put them to dry like this. and this is how it should be.

but here, we can see moulded ones. it tells us that the summers are more wet than those are used to be. five hours‘ drive to the west, close to the norwegian and swedish borders, alen is a northern sami handicraft master. she is 84 years old and she's visiting her niece to make traditional sami clothes with her.

climate change is damaging traditional sami livelihoods. but that's not the only threat. as temperatures rise and the sea ice melts, there's now the opportunity for a shipping route to open through the arctic. and plans are being developed for a railway to be built across lapland, threatening to cut

through reindeer herding territory. finland's ministry of transport favours the route from rovaniemi, the capital of finnish lapland, along the shore of lake inari, and terminating in kirkenes in norway. supporters say the railway will boost lapland's economy, but the finnish government says no decision has been made on the construction of the railway or its routeing. but the sami parliament is fiercely opposed to the plans. an arctic railway through rovaniemi to kirkenes, through our very heartlands of three different sami language groups in finland would be such infrastructure which will be the end to the sami culture.

we live from the nature and it will cut the reindeer grazing areas into two. there will be more forest logging, for example. it will be transporting oil and gas products from norway and russia. it will bring the mining industry to the sami homeland area in finland. it's the worst nightmare we are facing at the moment, a concrete one. of course, climate change is another one. but it's not as concrete as the arctic railway. heini, the handicrafter, who lives close to the russian border, has found out that a proposal for the arctic railway has been included in the development plan for finnish lapland. those plans i have seen. so it seems like it would go straight through our house.

and my opinion is it would be a genocide. if the plans for the railway are approved, it's likely that heini would be forced to move. it's a painful reminder of the past. heini is a skolt sami. many of her people were forced leave their ancestral homes in russia and resettle in finland in 1944. all these kind of mining plans are our big nightmare here. yeah, we're very afraid of those. that is why skolt samis had to move after the second world war. nazis did want to have this nickel mining in petsamo. we are only few. in finland skolt samis are around 600. and everyone has kind of tried to work to maintain the culture,

keep the language alive. and if we have to fight against this kind of international greed it takes too much of our time and energy away. everything is only measured by money. but how can you put a price tag for our culture? back in inari, anna is getting ready to go ice fishing. we are trying to put the last hooks in. anna does fishing all year round. and she takes great pride in supplying her family and friends with fresh fish.

now the bait is in the hook. so the weight takes the bait down there in a good depth and this is how it stays. the stick stays there because this is holding or however big pike there will be. and then, well, tomorrow morning i will come and check if there is movement in there. 20 years ago, the lake would freeze over by the end of october. last year, anna had to wait until the middle of december before she could to go on the ice. and the ice starts melting earlier than it used to in the spring,

making it increasingly dangerous to fish. the new conditions, of course, the people need to learn again to get to know them. so some people drown when learning. and that's, of course, a tragedy every time it happens. sami people are the people of winter. if the winter disappears it would be really strange, really hard to continue on the cycle of the year that doesn't have the real cycle. if the fishermen will adapt, then maybe the fish won't adapt to warming waters. so my biggest fear is that fish will disappear. 0ne fall, one winter the nets

will start being empty. anna believes that reindeer herding and fishing wouldn't survive if the arctic railway is built and new mines open up in the area. what is the reason for these building plans? it is the greed of people, big companies want to give more profits to their shareholders. we need to be and we have to be active in this fight to save our world, to save our reindeers, to save our clean drinking water and where the fish can live and this... itisa...

it's a trade off, like, both ways. nature gives if we give back. we can't just take. will climate change destroy the forests and the lakes in europe's last great wilderness? willa new industrial railway wipe out sami culture or will it bring jobs and an economic boom to northern lapland ? we don't know. for now, the questions remain unanswered.

for those hoping to benefit from and enjoy a widespread white christmas, it's not happening this year. but if you want a break from the it's not happening this year. but if you want a breakfrom the rain, it will happen briefly because this ridge of high pressure is time for christmas day. but local high pressure is on far away, boxing day will be different. more rain pushing north and east across the uk. 0nce look at that and beyond. start with how christmas day is looking. plenty of sunshine after a frosty start and places. cloud in north—west scotland and england. high cloud spilling into parts of the south west in

northern ireland ahead of that weather system coming in from the atlantic. for the most part it is a fine, dry christmas day, just the odd shower especially early on towards northern parts of scotland, it will feel a bit colder. if you are travelling, 0k during the day but bear in mind going to the evening particularly between north, central and eastern parts of income it could turn foggy in places. but notice this weather system to the west moving in, outbursts of rain, temperatures heading up as you go through the night and into boxing day. here come the fronts, the break from the rain is all too brief. this first spell of rain is continuing its journey north and east during boxing day and we have fairly brisk rents more specially to the south west. you can see the snow out of this and the higher parts of the pennines, hills and mountains of scotla nd pennines, hills and mountains of scotland as it moves on through. a bit of a break but then later in the day we could well see more rain heading into wales, south—west england. it will be turning mild

there for the south west, a process that continues into friday as this warm front pushes its way northwards but again with another spell of rain. that will on friday gradually pushed north and east and clear way. behind that will start to brighten up behind that will start to brighten up in behind that will start to brighten upina behind that will start to brighten up in a few spots but a good deal of cloud in the west, down and drizzly another place. especially on the hills. as for those temperatures, the warm front work at how highly we are into double figures on friday. going into saturday we keep that theme. high pressure across the continent, the full fair coming up from the south, high—pressure actually settling things for us. keeping the flow of real mild air for the time of your coming our way. temperatures widespread over the weekend in double figures. and a lot of dry weather as well. across england and wales but still some weather systems brushing parts of northern ireland and scotland. held at bay held here by that ridge of high pressure to the south. very

mild fields of things on saturday and again going into sunday. you see the arrows indicating where the area is coming from and still the potential northern ireland, scotland and parts of northern england if those weather systems are close enough to see a little bit of wet weather. look how ridiculously mild thatis weather. look how ridiculously mild that is by sunday. those look like the weather systems will move on through though as we go into monday as it turns briefly cooler but into next week it does look as though temperatures will stay at or perhaps a little bit above average for the time of year but it stays unsettled. into the start of 2020 and potentially as the new year begins, the deeper of low pressure could turn quite stormy. it is a long way off but put it there for not to raise the possibility and of course we will keep you updated on that potential on weather for the week ahead. back later.

this is bbc news. i'm clive myrie. the headlines at 10pm. a nine—year—old british girl, her 16—year—old brother, and their father have died after drowning in a swimming pool at a holiday resort in the costa del sol. prince philip has been discharged from hospital, and is now spending christmas with the queen, at sandringham. and the queen will use tomorrow's christmas day message to say the past year has been "quite bumpy" — adding that "small steps" can heal divisions. the wildlife victims of australia's bushfires, that are being helped by emergency crews, working around the clock. # silent night... pilgrims from around the world are in bethlehem, for the yuletide celebrations... and in half an hour, i'll be looking back