this is bbc news. the headlines... urgent talks between the queen and prince harry and meghan will be held tomorrow over the royal couple's future. iranians protest after the military finally admits to shooting down a passengerjet, as the arrested british ambassador denies being a part of any demonstrations in tehran. after weeks of criticism, australia's prime minister, scott morrison, proposes an inquiry to look into the bushfire emergency. recognising and remembering the contribution of lgbt personnel to the armed forces. and a look at the mysterious phenomenon of breast—impla nt illness. that's my implants are making me ill in half an hour, here on bbc news.

good morning and welcome to bbc news. the queen has summoned senior members of the royal family to sandringham to discuss future roles for the duke and duchess of sussex, who want to step back from their duties and spend more time in north america. the prince of wales, the duke of cambridge and prince harry will attend the meeting tomorrow, while meghan is expected join over the phone from canada. here's our royal correspondent, nick witchell. it's been described as the "sandringham summit". on the queen's estate in norfolk tomorrow, the queen will come face—to—face with prince harry for the first time since he and his wife issued their personal statement about their future last wednesday. also there will be the prince of wales and prince william, and harry's wife, meghan, the duchess of sussex, is expected to phone in to join the discussion from canada. officials have worked hard in recent days to understand

what the sussexes want. there will, we understand, be a range of possibilities to review. it is hoped next steps will be agreed at the meeting. however, officials are stressing that any decision about the sussexes‘ future status will take time to be implemented. the trickiest area will be to agree the financial position of the sussexes as they seek financial independence. there are likely to be tax implications of any decision to base themselves outside of the united kingdom for any length of time. and buckingham palace will want tight protocols to prevent them cashing in too blatantly on their royal status. and underpinning it all is the human side, a rift most poignantly between two brothers. according to the sunday times, william has spoken to friends of his sadness at the bond which has now been broken. "i've put my arm around my brother all our lives," he is quoted as saying. "i can't do that any more." nicholas witchell, bbc news. our correspondent, leigh milner, is in sandringham where the queen is expected to attend a church

service this morning this is the church the royals use while at sandringham in the winter period. it seems as though the queen herself wants to carry on as if nothing has really happened, business as usual. it has only been a couple of days since meghan and harry announced they are to withdraw from being senior royals. a move which apparently has really hurt the royal family. instead, they want to work to become financially independent, there are many rumours flying around how they will do that, one includes a book deal, another includes public speaking, and, for meghan, she has her acting career. as you can imagine, quite a huge reaction to this by the public, particularly on social media. some are angry, some are happy for the couple. the biggest question of all is what is going to happen next. this is where the royal summit, a big family meeting,

rather important family meeting, will happen here at sandringham tomorrow. we have been told by the palace, the queen, along with the prince of wales, duke of cambridge, duke of sussex, they will meet in sandringham tomorrow to discuss the future of prince harry and his wife, meghan. however, it is looking unlikely the prince of wales will make it as he is currently in amman for a visit. not clear as well what is going to happen over the next couple of days, how long the discussions will take. all we have been told by the palace is they have pretty complicated issues to work through. david mcclure is a royal expert and author of royal legacy, about the wealth of the royal family. i spoke to him earlier and he said a resolution won't be found quickly. we are going into totally new territory. it was tried maybe ten ago when prince edward tried to earn

his own living, set up his own tv company, his wife had her own pr company, his wife had her own pr company, but that did not work. there were conflicts of interest. there were conflicts of interest. there is a genuine problem of having working oils and having paid employment —— working royals. the two don't seem to mix. we are told they want to come to a quick resolution in days, not weeks. what sort of hybrid role do you think will be possible? i don't think anything is possible quickly. there is no way on monday they will get everything sorted at sandringham. it isa everything sorted at sandringham. it is a very complicated issue, there are issues of, what does it mean being a part—time oil? how many public duties do you do? what sort of private work and income is allowa ble ? of private work and income is allowable? —— part time royal? lots of issues of security and taxation. if they spent time in america and canada, there are tax issues. a lot to be done in a very short period of time. they have said they want to

become financially independent which for a couple in their late 30s is probably rather risible to a lot of people listening and watching that sort of statement. where do they stand as independently wealthy people already? they are not short ofa people already? they are not short of a bob or two. we know definitely harry inherited about £7 million from his mother, diana's state. various family trust funds, he gets money from prince charles. together they might be worth £10 million, £15 million. in the long term, if they are not going to be getting so much public money, they will have to be looking for other independent sources of revenue. if they do that, they are going to walk on potentially sensitive political issues, if they write books, go on lecture tours. the monarchy is supposed to be politically neutral. there are potential minefields ahead of them. give up your title, give up

your a ccess of them. give up your title, give up your access to that kind of funding, whether the duchy of cornwall, the sovereign grant, gives you more freedom, surely? good question. ultimately, this hybrid royal role probably won't work. if you are going to step back, unless you can find a totally new system, you might have to step down. just finally, if they decide this isn't for them, how easy would it be for them to come back and assume the roles they have beenin? back and assume the roles they have been in? it is going to look embarrassing. if you're saying, i wa nt embarrassing. if you're saying, i want my independence, and you get bored and you want the royal stardust on your shoulders again, it will be embarrassing. i think... probably no coming back from this. if you make a statement like that, saying you want to be semi—independent from the royal family, it is going to be very difficult to get back to where you were. borisjohnson has travelled to 0man

following the death of sultan qaboos, the longest—serving modern arab ruler. the sultan died on friday at the age of 79 after a long illness. mrjohnson will attend a condolence ceremony today as part of three days of offical mourning. as we've been hearing, he will be joined by prince charles. the defence secretary, ben wallace, and the chief of the defence staff will also be there. the british ambassador to iran has denied taking part in protests in tehran following his arrest last night. rob macaire said he was detained after attending a vigil to pay his respects to the four british nationals who were killed in the ukrainian passenger plane that was shot down by the iranian military on wednesday. the foreign secretary, dominic raab, has said iran was in breach of international law and has called on tehran to descalate tensions in the region. simonjones reports. protests in tehran against the government. for three days, iran had denied it shot down a ukrainian passenger plane. then, in an extraordinary

turnaround, the military finally admitted it had made a disastrous mistake. britain's ambassador to tehran had joined what started as a vigil for the dead in the iranian capital. he left when it turned into a demonstration. but rob macaire was arrested as he stopped at a barbershop for a haircut. he was accused of helping to organise the protests. under the vienna convention, diplomats cannot be detained. this morning on twitter the ambassador said, thanks for the goodwill messages, i can confirm i was not taking part in demonstrations, went to one event advertised as a vigilfor victims. normal to pay respects. some of the victims were british. i left after five minutes when some started chanting. here at the foreign office in london, the foreign secretary dominic raab has described the ambassador's arrest as a flagrant violation of international law. he said the iranian government was at a crossroads moment. it could continue the march towards pariah status with all the political and economic isolation that involves, or it could take steps to de—escalate tensions and engage in diplomacy.

britain is also demanding the investigation in the crash should be comprehensive, transparent and independent. a senior military commander in iran said the plane had been wrongly identified as an american missile. tensions were high in the region following the us‘s assassination of a senior iranian general. 57 of the 176 people who lost their lives were from canada. canada will not rest until we get the accountability, justice and closure that the families deserve. as the mourning continues, so does the anger. simon jones, bbc news. our world affairs correspondent, caroline hawley, has been given more details of the british ambassador's arrest.

look, we havejust got a report on the fars agency, a hardline news agency in iran, and it says that the british ambassador, rob macaire, was arrested as an unidentified foreigner, they did not know who he was, and they said he was released after he was identified as an ambassador by the security forces and after the foreign ministry intervened. you heard there dominic raab has said it is a crossroads moment for iran. it is under pressure at home and abroad. we wait to see now how iran responds. i think far more significant is the wider picture and the context in which the plane crash happened. there have been protests and calls for the supreme leader himself to resign. one thing to note is in the iranian press, there has been coverage

of these protests which is pretty unusual and we wait to see whether the protests gather momentum or whether they peter out and how the iranians respond. they were firing tear gas at the protesters last night. how much of an indication of how the iranian authorities will respond to the protests, the fact president rohani has said that bringing down of this plane was unforgivable? i think it is really interesting. we had three days when the iranians were absolutely and adamantly denying they had been involved and then this extraordinary turnabout, where they said, no, it was us, they came clean, put their hands up. they realised it is a very sensitive moment, they need to cooperate with the international community, they invited investigators in. clearly, there is enormous pressure on the regime and it knows it needs

to handle things very carefully. if it is not going to get into more hot water. it is a ready being squeezed economically by sanctions. they were tightened and donald trump tightened them again in the last few days. for an authoritarian regime to come out and say it has made a mistake is a very significant moment and it is hard to see at the moment how it will play out. it is an incredibly interesting time in iran and of course a pretty dangerous moment still in the middle east, across the middle east, even though tensions have been ratcheted down quite a lot since there were fears last week of an all—out confrontation between the us and iran. caroline hawley, in beirut, thank you. president trump has tweeted his support for the protesters in iran, saying, "to the brave, long—suffering people of iran, i've stood with you since the beginning of my presidency,

and my administration will continue to stand with you. we are following your protests closely and are inspired by your courage." and to help get his message of solidarity across, he also tweeted the same message in farsi. there are just over 20 hours left for the six candidates in the labour leadership to gain the backing they need to get to the next stage of the contest. sir keir starmer, rebecca long—bailey and lisa nandy have the required number of nominations, leaving emily thornberry and clive lewis lobbying to get the backing of at least 22 of their fellow labourmps and meps. registered supporters — who are not full party members — will have 48 hours from 14th to 16th january to secure a vote by paying £25. the ballot will be open from 21st february to 2nd april, with the results announced two days later on 11th april. 0ur political correspondent, tony bonsignore, joins me now.

jess phillips as well, she is part of that group. four at the moment, full of the 16 have got enough at the moment, enough meps or mps nominations to get through to the next stage. rebecca long—bailey, lisa nandy, jess phillips, sir keir starmer, who was way out ahead, 68 nominations. two struggling at the moment, emily thornberry, she has ten, clive lewis, he has four nominations. emily thornberry has been speaking to bbc in the last hour, clearly has 12 to go, not even halfway, but she says she is still pretty confident she can get over the line. can you do it? yeah, i think so. the line. can you do it? yeah, i think 50. what has happened is we think so. what has happened is we have only had a week to get the nominations, a large number of mps have not nominated yet and many wanted to speak to party members, go to the hustings and think about this

because it is a really important decision. from the conversations i have had this weekend, i am confident that as long as there is i'io confident that as long as there is no slippage, i will be fine, get across the line, we will move onto the next stage. it is a long contest and it will have its ups and downs and it will have its ups and downs andl and it will have its ups and downs and i have been a slow starter but i started from a standing start after the general election. she has been a slow starter. when you look at the numbers. but she is confident she can do it. she says there are a lot of her local party and people talking to their constituencies and talking to their constituencies and talking about who they will go for, she will make it —— if she is going to make it, it will have to happen in the next few hours. rebecca long—bailey often labelled as a continuity candidate because she is very close to jeremy corbyn, continuity candidate because she is very close tojeremy corbyn, how helpful is that to her? not hugely, is the honest answer. it is helpful in that she has the support of the

current leadership, looks like she will get the support of momentum, powerful grouping within labour behind jeremy corbyn, and also, there are still an awful lot of labour members who are very supportive of jeremy corbyn. labour members who are very supportive ofjeremy corbyn. the jeremy corbyn project, the ma nifesto. jeremy corbyn project, the manifesto. in that sense, it will be useful. but on the other hand, how far does she want to be associated with the catastrophic election defeat in december? she was asked about this today on sky news. she said, she regretted what happened on anti—semitism and a number of other issues, but when it came to the ma nifesto, issues, but when it came to the manifesto, she was broadly supportive. here is what she had to say. the platform upon which many of those policies were developed was positive and, as i said, it did deal with the reinvestment and reinvigoration of our economy and the shift of wealth and power away from those few minorities that have it to everybody in every single community, but we didn't get that message through, unfortunately.

we need to recognise that. members can vote in this leadership contest. when it wasjeremy corbyn‘s time, when he was elected as leader, we saw a big spike in applications tojoin the party, quite we saw a big spike in applications to join the party, quite a we saw a big spike in applications tojoin the party, quite a cheap thing tojoin at tojoin the party, quite a cheap thing to join at that point. a big variable in all of this. this week, big week for the labour party, not only do we have the deadline for nominations, after that, 48 hour window where people can sign up, pay £25, become a registered supporter, and fate in the leadership contest —— and vote. how are those people going to vote? even though at this stage sir keir starmer looks like the front runner because he has the most nominations, that does not mean necessarily he will win. a lot of unpredictability in this contest. thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news...

urgent talks between the queen and prince harry and meghan will be held tomorrow over the royal couple's future. iranian protests after the military finally admits to shooting down a passengerjet, as the arrested british ambassador denies being a part of any demonstrations in tehran. after weeks of criticism, australia's prime minister, scott morrison, proposes an inquiry to look into the bushfire emergency. sport, and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here'sjohn. hello. good morning. the england cricket squad has been hit by illness yet again. this time it's captainjoe root, who had to miss training in port elizabeth this morning, due to a stomach bug. with the test series against south africa level at 1—1, the 3rd and deciding test starts on thursday. england's tour has been badly affected by illness and injury from the start, with 17 players and support staff laid low by flu—like symptoms, and rory burns and james anderson forced to return

home through injury. serena williams has won her first title for three years. she beat jessica pegula in straight sets in the final of the auckland international — a good sign as she builds up for another shot at a record—equalling 24th grand slam title. the australian open starts a week tomorrow. she donated her winner's cheque of $43,000 to the relief effort of the australian bush fires. novak djokovic is attempting to get serbia back level with spain in sydney. roberto bautista agut beat dusan lajovic in straight sets. if it goes to the deciding doubles, they will be back out on court again, both expected to play in the

doubles, rafa nadal and novak djokovic. liverpool's unbeaten run continues, a record 20th premier league win in their opening 21 matches, the best start to a premier league season. a 1—0 win over tottenham giving them a 16 point lead at the top. that leaves them with a huge 16 point lead at the top of the table. ben croucher wraps up the key moments from yesterday's action. liverpool are a tight—knit bunch, squeezing the life out of anything that gets in their way. if they're growing closer, the distance to everyone else has stretched from gap to crevice to chasm. the holes in tottenham's defence weren't that wide but roberto firmino found one just enough to thread the ball between defender, keeper and post in a 1—0 win in north london. so, should we just hand jurgen klopp the trophy now? what i know about football is if someone gives you the trophy, it is done, but until then, you have to fight as much as you can and that's what we do and the start, as we always said, is the basis. the start is obviously nearly perfect so far, but it's only the start and we have to continue and we will continue because our

contenders are so strong. but blow by blow, they are getting weaker. take second—place leicester — they put nine past southampton the last time they met and now it was southampton‘s number nine turning the tables. commentator: danny ings doesn't miss these days and as soon as he was sent through, you fancied him to score. leicester might have to look over their shoulder with liverpool out of sight. they will find chelsea lurking, clear as a bright yellow football. burnley‘s nick pope had trouble spotting it, though. he saw chelsea's third in their 3—0 win but couldn't do anything about it. commentator: callum hudson-odoi has his first—ever premier league goal. marcus rashford's a seasoned scorer these days, as seasoned as a 22—year—old can be. he celebrated his 200th manchester united game with two goals as they thrashed norwich 4—0. still miles behind liverpool, but at least the gap hasn't got any bigger... ..for now. ben croucher, bbc news. there was no fifth bdo world darts title for england's lisa ashton,

after mikuru suzuki retained her crown. suzuki was ruthless in the final, reeling off three legs in a row to take the first set and going on to win 3—0. that is all from the bbc sport centre for now. you can keep up—to—date on the bbc sport website this morning. i will have another update in the next hour. thank you. after weeks of criticism over the handling of australia's bushfire emergency, the country's prime minister has admitted he could have done things differently. scott morrison says he'll propose a powerful inquiry — a royal comission to look into the official response. he also announced a fund of 76 million australian dollars to help some of those most—affected. he's been speaking to our partner network in australia, abc. there are things that i could have handled on the ground much better. these are very raw, emotional environments. i've got to say that 95% or thereabouts of the responses i have had in these cases have been

very positive and very appreciative. but, david, these are sensitive environments. they are very emotional environments. prime ministers are flesh and blood too in how they engage with people. scott morrison speaking to the abc. 20 years after the end of the ban on gay, lesbian and bisexual people serving in the armed forces, the royal british legion is calling on lgbtq+ veterans and those currently serving to join its lgbtq+ and allies branch. you try saying it! the aim is to recognise and remember the contribution of lgbtq+ personnel to the armed forces, as well as raising awareness of legion services available to them. trevor skingle, who served in the army from 1974 to 1979, described to me what life was like pretending to be straight during his time in the military. it was a bit like living a dual life, except half of me was gone. ifelt like half a person. it wasn't always like that.

when i firstjoined the services, the initial basic training phase and the trade training phase, i was so busy, i couldn't think about anything else. but in the working unit, i suddenly started to realise i really could have done with having a relationship with somebody and my preference would have been with another guy. but obviously, at the time, the ban was still in place. that was a no—no. it was almost like having a split personality, having to hide myself from everybody. hide my real self because i could have gone to prison... i could have been interrogated. i could have been given a dishonourable discharge. you knew that, i imagine, before you signed up. yeah. but the reality much harder to bear. i come from a military family, so my aspiration was to join the services almost from the word go. ijoined in spite of the fact i knew

that i was gay at the time ijoined. the royal british legion is celebrating the first anniversary of this particular branch for the lgbtq+ community. why was it so important to you to join that? i had been in touch with friends, now veterans, former colleagues, but about a year ago, i kept my ear to the ground about what was going on in the military, particularly as i initially started a group called rank 0utsiders with other veterans, and together we were trying to kick off a lobbying process in 1991. i kept my ear to the ground to see what was going on. the ban was lifted in 2000. i still kept my ear to the ground and because i was still occasionally getting homophobic comments

on social media, not i might add from serving personnel. usually, i have to say, and this might seem controversial, but it's older veterans who are stuck in their viewpoints about lesbians and gay men. but then, about a year ago, i suddenly saw this advert for the royal british legion lgbtq+ group, so ijoined. what impact has it had on your life? how have you got involved with them? it has been incredibly cathartic. last year, at pride, i marched as an openly gay man for the first time under a military banner, albeit that was the royal british legion and as a veteran, and i can feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up now... i just felt so proud. this particular weekend, the 20th anniversary, the commemoration of the lifting the ban, it has been a pivotal moment in my life. particularly with the apology made byjohnny mercer on behalf of the government.

that was a real pivotal moment in the house of commons when he said that. although i held it together at the time, the following morning, when i saw the first news item on my news feed, i burst into tears. briefly, how much does it alleviate those sad, difficult and probably traumatic memories when you were serving? it has alleviated it immensely. this morning, i woke up and i thought about what has been going on this week and what has happened and i woke up instead with a smile on my face. trevor speaking to us earlier this morning. this year's brit award nominations have been announced, but there's been some controversy over the lack of females up for the top awards. # counting days since my lover... #

singer lewis capaldi, stormzy and harry styles are in the running for multiple awards and bruce springsteen has been nominted for best male international artist, 3a years after his last win. the ceremony takes place in london next month. now the weather forecast. something by the name of brendan on the way. making an impact tomorrow. hold onto your hats, something still me heading away. enjoy the quieter conditions today. rain around at the moment and central parts which will clear, showers in scotland and northern ireland this afternoon, wintry on higher ground. 0verall, turning drier and sunnier, lighter winds than yesterday, little bit cooler. tonight temperatures will be up cooler. tonight temperatures will be up and down depending on how much cloud and showers push across. in clearer skies, chilly night. temperature is low enough for a touch of frost, may be ice where the ground is wet tomorrow morning. don't be fooled by the morning sunshine, showers quickly starting in the west and in the afternoon,

longer spells of heavy rain with gale force winds if not stronger to ta ke gale force winds if not stronger to take us into the evening rush hour. temperatures fairly academic. we could see winds of 60, 70, may be 80 miles an hour. wet and windy weather spreading. we will keep you updated on bbc news this morning. this is bbc news. the headlines... hello, this is bbc news with martine croxall. the headlines... urgent talks between the queen and prince harry and meghan will be held tomorrow over the royal couple's future. all chant. iranian protests after the military finally admits to shooting down a passengerjet as the arrested british ambassador denies being a part of any demonstrations in tehran. after weeks of criticism, australia's prime minister, scott morrison, proposes an inquiry to look into the bushfire emergency. recognising and remembering the contribution of lgbt personnel