it was all so different when he first came on the scene back in 1995, as plain old pete. since then, the bright clothes and the mohawks, designed by his hairdresser wife, have seen him become a huge character in a sport awash with big personalities. it gives me confidence, i'm a very shy guy away from the sport. whenjo puts it all on, i become the character of snakebite on the stage that you see in the loud outfits and the crazy hairdos. it's been a memorable world championships, not least for the emergence of fallon sherrock, the first woman to beat a man in the tournament. peter wright's win with decades in the making. a great lesson for sherrick and other newcomers to never give up. natalie pirks, bbc news. congratulations to snakebite. time for a look at the weather, here's lucy martin.

we've had a picture of some rain sentin we've had a picture of some rain sent in by one of our weather watchers. it is cooler, and here is why. we have these two weather fronts spreading gradually south—east. bring yourself and rein and dragging in something noticeably fresher. we have seen this band of rain pushing in from the north—west gci’oss rain pushing in from the north—west across scotland and northern ireland as we go through this afternoon, it will continue to push through south—east. behind it, a brief dry interlude with some brightness for north—east scotland, with an expanded array not far off. with that there will be some hail and thunder and even snow to around 500 metres. there is a lot of cloud to be had and the cloud could be thick enough for the odd spot of drizzle. looks like a blustery day across the board. gusts of between 55—65 mph in

exposed spots. and a mild day with temperatures widely in double figures. the maximum, around 12 celsius. going through tonight, that cloud remains and pushes its way south—east with that cold air feeding in from the north—west, remaining windy across shetland then the wins will tend to ease. a marked difference where you see clearer skies, but staying milder under the cloud in the cell. a milder start across southern england with some patchy outbreaks of rain bursting and it will gradually brighten up and it will gradually brighten up and by the time we get to the mid—afternoon, plenty of sunny spells across the board. some shower speeding into the north—west, wintry for northern scotland over higher ground and at lower levels in shetland, and take a look at those temperatures, noticeably colder than today. into the weekend, high pressure takes charge. some weather fronts further towards the north. here, a greater chance of seeing more in the way of cloud and outbreaks of rain but on saturday

plenty of sunshine to be had across england and wales, and some patchy outbreaks of rain and the far north of scotland. temperatures between seven and 10 celsius. sunday, breezy in the north—west with a greater chance of rain in scotland and northern ireland and the best of the blackness to be had across england and wales with some good spells of sunshine, and temperatures round about 10 celsius the maximum. a reminder of our top story. a state of emergency is declared in new south wales, as australia's bush fires rage and the death toll rises. that's all from the bbc news at one so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. it was an order to leave that stretched from batemans bay on the new south wales south coast to the victorian border. good afternoon. i'm gavin ramjaun and this is your latest sports news. england will make a late decision on whether to play fast

bowlerjofra archer, in their second test against south africa — which starts in cape town tomorrow. archer was unable to play a full part in training after suffering with soreness in his right elbow. fellow fast—bowler mark wood is yet to return to match fitness while spinnerjack leach has been ruled out through illness. i think all options are on the table at this point and i think having as much information as we can, making sure that we see what results come back from that scan, seeing where he is. we don't want to go into a game with him being not 100% and we don't wa nt to with him being not 100% and we don't want to potentially see him miss a lot more cricket when he is not —— when he is playing and not fit to play. we need to make a balanced decision of the back of it. australia and new zealand's players will wear black armbands, in tribute to those affected by widespread bushfires in australia when the teams meet in the third test in sydney. it gets under way

later tonight uk time. there'll also be a minute's applause to honour the country's firefighters. earlier we spoke to our sydney correspondent phil mercer. both the australian and new zealand teams were hosted by the australian prime minister scott morrison at his official residence here in sydney a few days ago. and they said that they would wear black arm bands in acknowledgement of the bushfire crisis that is sweeping many australian states, cricketing authorities here also saying they will be ——there will be fundraising efforts during the sydney test match similar to those that raised money for breast cancer. the charity set up by glenn mcgrath. so australian cricketing authorities well aware that this test coming ——is coming at a time of great crisis for this country and we also hear that in a practical way, the umpires

will be allowed to suspend play if smoke from the bushfires sweeps over the ground as it has done the city of sydney many, many times in recent weeks. phil mercer there. saracens‘ long—standing chairman nigel wray has retired. the club was found to be in breach of the salary cap regulations last november and handed a 35—point deduction for this season and fined £5.3 million. wray said in a statement that he felt it was time to "step down and just enjoy being a fan of this incredible rugby club." wray will continue to bankroll the club — offering what he's called "the required financial support". edward griffiths has returned as interim chief executive officer. the new pdc darts world champion peter wright has told the bbc he took on the "snakebite" image to act as a mask to hide a shy inner person. wright, who's famed for his mohican hairstyles and snakebite emblems, beat world number one michael van gerwen at alexandra palace last night. he had three chances at a double 10 to beat the defending champion. he missed the first two, but made it with his final dart to win the title for the first time at the age of 49.

it's the first time he's won the title after losing ten of his 11 majorfinals. it's crazy, obviously it's been a dream of mine to be the world champion and now, you know, i've finally done it and it's... i didn't sleep at all last night, it's settled in. it was terrible. i've had no sleep. so it's actually sunk in that i am world champion. and i'm just over the moon! nick kyrgios has pledged to donate 200 australian dollars, around £106, for each ace he hits in tennis events held in australia injanuary to help those affected by the bushfires. you can find more on that, and all of today's stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport let's return to our main story this hour. thousands of people are fleeing

south eastern australia right now amid more forecasts of the weather conditions that led to wildfires, which have killed 18 people in the last few weeks and destroyed more than a thousand homes. the country's prime minister has defended his government's response and urged people stuck in traffic to remain calm and patient. helen willetts from the bbc weather centre looks at the climactic conditions that have increased the severity of this year's fires. bushfires have been raging throughout australia before summer even began. this year they've continued to become more widespread and catastrophic. in the last couple of weeks, burning widely, as we can see from this graphic in southern and eastern areas towards the end of december. one of the main drivers for this intense heat and these bushfires is something called the indian ocean dipole. and it's been strongly positive this year, one of the strongest we've seen and it's when we get warmer

waters pulling across the western side of the indian ocean inducing more rain, we've seen 300% of the average rainfall in some parts of the east of africa and devastating flooding, in contrast to that, cooler water pools further east across the indian ocean, so around the waters of australia, which inhibits the rainfall and it's slowed down the monsoon. so, as a result, much of australia have had their driest spring on record, also the second warmest spring on record, so you're left with exceptionally dry land and dry land heats up more quickly than damp land, particularly in these long daylight hours of summer. so all the sun's energy is used to heat rather than heat and evaporate. whilst the indian ocean dipole is the main driver, the main climatic driver for what we've seen, we've also got a secondary issue, the southern annular mode.

which is the strong westerly winds, that are normally further south across, as can see, the antarctic ocean but actually, through the latter part of spring/early summer, they drifted further northwards and that happens from time to time but it means we've got stronger westerly winds, dry winds, blowing into the eastern side of australia, exacerbating the bushfires and bringing more dry airand, of course, blowing the smoke into highly populated areas. so temperature records have been tumbling already and looking at how the heat has happened over the last 100 years, you can see, taken from the average, the anomalies are gradually increasing, the average temperature is gradually rising across australia and we've onlyjust got to the end of december. normally the hot days in australia are recorded in january and february, into the depths of summer but we've already seen records being smashed by day and by night. the australia prime minister scott morrison has been visiting the affected area of cobargo in new south wales, where two people

were killed on new year's eve, and was met with anger from local residents. let's go. heckling. how about the money for our forgotten corner of new south wales, prime minister? how come we only had four trucks to defend our town? because out town doesn't have a lot of money but we have hearts of gold, mr prime minister. bleep. nah, you're an idiot, mate. you really are. you won't be getting any votes down here, buddy. you are an idiot. who votes liberal around here? nobody. no liberal votes. you are out, son. you are out. bleep. bye! bleep. what about the people who have nowhere to live? you are not welcome! bleep.

get in the car and bleep off. bleep. he cut short his visit. and the prime minister gave his reaction to that reception. i know people are feeling very raw. you've been welcomed in many parts but you've been not so welcome here at the showground. some people feel you've let them down. well, i'm not surprised people are feeling very raw at the moment and that's why i came today, to be here, to see for myself, to offer what comfort i could but you can't always in every circumstance, everybody understands that. i appreciate the welcome i've received, jenny and i, but, at the same time,

i understand the very strong feelings people have. they've lost everything. of the many dramatic images of the australian bushfires, this one is on several newspaper front pages this morning. this photo, taken in the town of lake conjola in new south wales, shows a kangaroo leaping past a burning house. it was taken yesterday by freelance photojournalist matthew abbott. speaking to the bbc, he described how he came to take the photo. this was in lake conjola. i'd been working along the highway for most of the morning where the fire had jumped over. and i'd been in several locations and i came to the area, there had been a couple of thousand tourists trapped there. and i came down the main street

and this one house was on fire. there was lots of neighbours trying to put the house out. trying to remove garbage bins that were melting and trying to protect their own properties with hoses. i was there taking photographs. when i saw a bunch of kangaroos were fleeing another blaze. and theyjust happened to hop right past this house that was engulfed by flames. these fires, they are unprecedented. they are moving into areas that we haven't seen before. australia is currently experiencing its worst drought in history, since european history. and this is, you know, providing a lot of fuel and very dry conditions which is exactly what fires thrive on. so for the last six weeks i've been photographing fires all over the state and they've sort of been moving slowly further east towards the coastline.

and itjust so happened that a lot of these fires actually reached the coastal areas in the busiest week of the year. this part of the country is very popular with tourists. and there's thousands of tourists here, basically on holiday, that had been caught in the middle of these massive fires. it is a dangerous job. there are times when you wonder should i go down this road, should i hold back? but i've been learning how to do this for quite some time now, from other photographers that are much more experienced than i am. and so i'm just trying to make the best calls that i can but it's very important for photographers to be able to be there and see these things as they happen. and you know, this image is testament to that, it's been seen around the world. and it gives an idea ofjust how serious this current crisis is for australians. these fires, they sort of create their own weather

systems so, you know, you can expect a fire coming from one side and then, you know, they started doing what is called spot fires and the next minute, the area that you are in can be burning from all different angles. it's incredibly windy, there's embers flying through the air. it's so smoky you can hardly see at some points. you cannot really drive. it's very dangerous to drive sometimes, so, yes, it's definitely...it‘s a precarious working environment. and it's very dangerous for these tourists that are trapped in these parts. as far as i'm aware, there's still many areas where tourists are trapped, they are not able to leave and that's because, you know, there are several trees that have fallen over the road, there are power lines that are down and it's going to take days, potentially, to reach some of these people. a town in victoria has navy ships that are actually deploying to pick

up some of these stranded tourists. holidaymakers stranded on the south coast of the new south wales were today given a window to get out of the danger zone. food and fuel supplies were dwindling and those able to drive out, faced long queues. australia's abc news correspondent philippa mcdonald reports. it was an order to leave that stretched from batemans bay on the new south wales south coast to the victorian border. we want to go, like, we've been told to leave, but we can't leave if we don't have fuel. getting petrol or diesel proved a challenge for thousands stranded since before new year's eve. they queued overnight and for hours today. i'm trying to get my son and daughter—in—law back to canberra. yeah, in two days, i've been stuck.

i thought we'd better get a bit of fuel while we can. a precious resource in an emergency, where power is still out in much of the region. we've basically evacuated the whole part, as i advised earlier? yes, yes. the others, some of them haven't got anywhere to go and probably the oval is the safest place. the rural fire services' priority is to evacuate tens of thousands of holiday—makers before saturday's forecast for treacherous conditions. we are expecting to once again see extreme fire danger through this area of the south coast. but it's more towards the top end of that extreme fire danger, so we are expecting conditions to be worse than we saw on new year's eve. a week—long state of emergency kicks in from tomorrow. i think the big thing that we've got under way at the moment is it's the largest mass relocation of people out of the region that we've ever seen. from tomorrow, they will be subject to forced evacuations, road closures, road openings, and anything else we need to do

as a state to keep our residents safe and to keep properties safe. with the princes highway reopened, ros smith was taking the opportunity of getting her elderly parents to a safer place. i hope we've got a house when we get home. you'll be all right, mum. ijust want to get them somewhere where they can be comfortable and close to a hospital. susan baldwin and herfamily lost everything in the fires, and are now staying in a local hotel. there is nothing left. our house is just a shell. the shed just looks like a big tin can sitting there. here, people are on edge. this is the fifth call—out in five weeks and two in the last two days. it's doing serious damage. you can see the flames coming. most holiday—makers here have heeded the warnings, having seen first—hand devastation of new year's eve fires, the rfs says those leaving it till the last minute risk being trapped for another week or worse. philippa macdonald,

abc news, batemans bay. the son of a volunteer who died fighting australian bushfires has been presented with his father's medal for bravery at his funeral. one—year—old harvey keaton, wore a uniform, and sucked his dummy as received his father's posthumous medal at thursday's funeral near sydney. dozens of firefighters formed a guard of honour to salute mr keaton‘s coffin. more now on the news that rail fares will rise by an average of nearly 3% today, despite another year of poor performance by train companies. passengers will have to pay an average of 2.7% more for train tickets. however, figures from network rail show that only 65% of trains arrived at their scheduled station on time in the 12 months to december 2019. our correspondent victoria fritz has been gauging the reaction to the increase at london bridge station.

london bridge is one of the busiest stations in the country and its recently had a £1 billion face—lift, and its redevelopment of places like this, which is how the whole those rail fare increases every single year. so this year tickets are going up by 2.7% across england and wales on average, and most people, the majority of people, over 50% of passengers don't believe that they are getting good value for money and how can you blame them after what appears for most commuters to be a year of calamity on the rail network. let speak to sara nelson and claire walker, sara, do you think that the rail industry is delivering for passengers? if you ask passengers, as we do, we speak to thousands of passengers a year and we ask about their sense of value for money only half are satisfied, so a third of commuters, so i think the answer is no. claire, one of the things

they are looking at is changing the ticketing system and trailing more flexible tickets. do you think that would help or confuse people further? i think any step for more flexible fares is a really important step forward but we've been waiting some time for this in the way that people are working, working from home, different shift patterns, working part time has really changed and what we are seeing is a rail system and a fairs system that is no longer fair for those workers. so what would make it fair? what are you hearing from passengers? we know they find the fairs system complex and difficult to understand. you never know if you're getting the right to get all the best value ticket and we like to see something that simple and easy to understand that offers the good value that you can get when you get these and other deals in advance, or the split ticketing. we'd like that to be available to everyone, not just those in the know.

what about businesses? they bare the brunt when everyone is late coming in out of stations like this. businesses are less satisfied with the railway than they were this time last year so they are seeing a decline in satisfaction. they are also frustrated that they are not able to get the talent and people that they need, to get in on time and move them around to meet customers and supply chains effectively and affordably. claire walker and sara nelson, thank you. the train companies themselves will say that 98% of every pound spent actually goes back into the railways, and they are saying to expect a year of action when it comes to the railways and that's what the transport secretary is saying today as he launches these new trials. there will be an independent review that is coming back with its final recommendations in the first few weeks of this year, the first month of the year, so we have to wait and see whether they actually come up with real solutions to fix what is a pretty broken relationship between the public and this part public, part private railway system.

a fire at a zoo in germany on new year's eve has killed at least 30 animals. the fire struck krefeld zoo's monkey house. officials there called it an incomprehensible tragedy. it's thought flying new year's eve lanterns might have sparked the blaze. daniel mckerrell reports. at krefeld zoo in germany, new year celebrations turned to tragedy. by dawn on new year's day, the zoo's monkey house had burned to the ground, leaving only the metal skeleton behind. two chimpanzees managed to survive the fire, but dozens of animals were killed, many of them highly endangered primates. translation: for us, it is especially tragic that the residents of the monkey house, birds and mammals were victims of the fire last night. among them were apes like orangutans from borneo, lowland gorillas from central africa and chimpanzees from west africa, all of them highly endangered species who will no longer be seen in ourzoo. an investigation into what started

the fire is under way. and it is suspected that sky lanterns, small paper hot air balloons lit during new year's celebrations had drifted into the zoo and set fire to the enclosure. translation: some witnesses saw these lanterns flying close to the zoo and very low, so we could assume they landed in the area. and in the same timeframe. we have witnesses saying that they landed on the roof as well. so unless we find another cause for the fire, it looks like these lanterns were the cause of it. while a family of gorillas in a nearby enclosure were unharmed by the flames, it has been reported that europe's oldest breeding silverback gorilla, massa, was killed. at the entrance to the zoo, a small memorial to the victims of the fire has been made by locals keen to pay their respects. one message on a piece of cardboard simply asks "why?" a dog has been found abandoned

in a church in blackpool with a note from its former owner saying ‘i'm so sorry‘ for leaving the animal. the staffordshire bull terrier—cross, who has now been named cracker, was found at the sacred heart church in blackpool. the note went on to say that the decision to abandon cracker was not taken easily. the rspca is now looking after cracker. now it's time for a look at the weather with lucy martin. hello, there. a glorious start to the day for some of us with this beautiful sunrise photo sent in by our weather watchers. it is looking like a mild day for the time of year, but it is also windy with rain for some. that rain moving in in two bands, gradually working its way south and east. behind it, we are going to drag in some noticeably fresher air. you can see we are still in this yellow and orange colour, that is the milder air mass, but waiting in the wings, that blue colour is going to spread south east as we go through today and tonight.

you can see that initial band of rain pushes its way into southern scotland, parts of north—west england and wales. a brief drier interlude behind it, perhaps some brightness and the next band of rain not far off. there could be some hail, thunder and even snow mixed in with that. ahead of the rain, lots of cloud around, could be thick enough for the odd spot of drizzle but will be mostly dry and a blustery day across the board. the wind is strongest in northern and western areas, exposed spots could see gusts around 50—60 mph. the temperature is mild for the time of the year, a maximum of around 11—12 celsius. as we go through this evening and overnight, the winds will tend to ease, those weather fronts will sink further south and east. staying fairly blustery, though, across shetland, we could see one or two showers falling to snow at lower levels and a marked difference in temperatures. where we have the clearer skies, the temperatures dipping away. a noticeably mild start in the south, we will see some cloud early on and it will gradually brighten up as we move into the late afternoon.

a scattering of showers pushing in on a north—westerly breeze. again, we will hold onto some pretty strong wind gust across shetland, gusts of up to 60—70 miles an hour here, and any showers in shetland could fall as snow, but a noticeably cooler feel to things tomorrow. as we move into the weekend, then, high pressure pushes in, so we are looking at a fair amount of dry weather to come, and there will be some brightness. always a little bit more in the way of cloud further north on saturday, and the potential to see some outbreaks of rain for northern parts of scotland. the temperatures, about 9—10 celsius, the maximum. and again, fairly breezy. the wind will tend to pick up on the north and west as we move in to sunday, cloudy skies from northern ireland and scotland again, with a greater chance of seeing some rain. the best of the brightness across england and wales, the temperature a maximum of 10 celsius. goodbye.

hello, you're watching afternoon live — i'm simon mccoy. today at 2: a week—long state of emergency in australia — with a warning that a heatwave forecast for the weekend could make the bushfires worse. there are fears of fuel shortages — thousands take to their cars to flee the areas under threat. australia's prime minister scott morrison cuts short a visit to one devastated community as people there heckle him. how come we only have four trucks to defend our time? we don't have much money. delays and cancellations on the railways — but most fares still go up an average of 2.7% from today. artificial intelligence ‘outperforms' doctors in diagnosing breast cancerfrom mammograms — according to the latest study.