this is bbc news. the headlines 11:003m. urgent talks between the queen and prince harry and meghan will be held tomorrow over the royal couple's future. iranians 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 to the armed forces. and the dateline london panel discuss iran and harry and meghan. that's in half an hour, here on 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 the 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.

anna whitelock is a royal commentator and historian. shejoins us from cambridge. thank you very much forjoining us. to what extent should this episode in hours or prompt us to regard royalty perhaps differently from in the past? notjust the obvious privilege? well, i think we are in a time of transition, and it's a time of transition, and it's a time of transition that really properly won't kick off until the end of the queens reign, but we are beginning to see an articulation of this problem in a sense between modernity and how that works with a monarchy which, of course, is based on tradition, president, ritual and that goes back centuries. in a sense it is an adequate —— anna karina

stick institution. how does that fit into the modern age, particularly with harry and meghan who do have a public and media profile and it's time to figure out what they can do within the royalfamily, figure out what they can do within the royal family, but figure out what they can do within the royalfamily, but clearly, as they say, they want to also do their own thing and play by their own rules, and that is what they are going to try to figure out tomorrow at sandringham. what are the rules they are going to sign up to to try and avoid really, as far as the valleys is concerned, the awful events of the last few days. what about whether it is going to be only harry and meghan taken the decision if the royalfamily is only harry and meghan taken the decision if the royal family is to become smaller? this is a conversation which has already started and prince charles has talked in the past about a slimmed down family when he inherits

the throne and, indeed, i think the queen has signalled this through images, portraits that have been released in recent months, not least the portrait just released in recent months, not least the portraitjust recently where the queen as they are with prince charles, prince william and prince george who, of course, are the next three kings. they are the successes and they are what really matters. charles has talked about slimming things down beyond that so i think this was a conversation that was already in play and by all accounts harry and meghan have expressed the fa ct harry and meghan have expressed the fact they wanted to forge a different kind of role and william and charles and, indeed, the queen we re and charles and, indeed, the queen were responsive and receptive to that. i think it has been the pace that. i think it has been the pace that they have initiated and of course, that an announcement that com pletely course, that an announcement that completely wrong—footed buckingham palace. it hadn't been consulted beforehand. that is what has really thrown this crisis into the open in this quite dramatic way. to what extent do the public, then,

need to reassess how they view the monarchy or those particular royal family, this iteration of the monarchy? in one sense we want them to be separate from us, to be different, but in another way we wa nt to different, but in another way we want to realise or see the similarities between us and them? absolutely. there is a trade—off between privilege and expectation and they seem to have privilege that we expect things of them. but then we expect things of them. but then we also talk about, you know, the fa ct we also talk about, you know, the fact that they should be more like us. fact that they should be more like us. at the very heart of it is a monarchy which is founded on a belief that they are something other than us, or certainly the monarchy is. i think there is a huge tension and just listening to the kinds of debate that is being heard, people on phone in shows, even people who said they don't care clearly have an opinion and that opinion is divided between people who say, you know, they need to earn a living, you know, for goodness‘ sake, we should just let them do their own thing. if

they are unhappy why on earth do we wa nt they are unhappy why on earth do we want unhappy young people in the 21st—ce ntu ry want unhappy young people in the 21st—century britain representing us? others say, look, theyjust have to kind of shut up and get on with thejob which has been given to kind of shut up and get on with the job which has been given to them, like it or not, and what are they doing? the poor queen. i think there is a split in the country to some extent along age lines. the older people tend to be more focused perhaps in the queen and the fact that harry and meghan have not treated her with the respect she deserves. younger people are saying give them a break, what are they supposed to do? this is an outdated institution and these people are trying to be forward—thinking, progressive and responsive to the wider public opinion about trying to be accountable and do their own thing. thank you very much. in the last few minutes the queen has arrived at the church in sandringham.

our correspondent leigh milner there for us now. i assume a little bit more interest in the queen arriving today? certainly. just ten minutes ago she made her way down this driveway, through those gates to the church for the service which began at 11am. behind these blue barriers where plenty of well—wishers and over there you can just see a few of the stepladders still remaining. photographers were fighting very quick lips of her majesty as she came past. i‘ve been looking over and they have been frantically checking to see if they got a good picture. she came first, she smiled and waved to the well—wishers. i‘m not entirely sure just yet but i‘m sure i saw prince philip in the front, and perhaps prince william in the back, but i‘m not entirely sure about that. she made her way through and you could just hear the faint

sound of the church music. that will get under way and probably for about the next hour or so she will remain inside the church. this is going to bea inside the church. this is going to be a very difficult day for the queen. as we have been hearing, a turbulent week for the royals. it‘s almost as if he‘s saying, it‘s business as usual. a similar situation happened last year, actually, when she came to the carol service when prince william... prince philip, surrey, was in hospitalfor prince philip, surrey, was in hospital for three days. she still came to church. as head of the church, she feels that is her responsibility and business as usual. late last night we have been hearing that the palace announced the queen will be meeting face—to—face with prince harry. also the prince of cambridge will be attending in person and it is presumed the duke of sussex went to be, possibly attending the meeting

via video link and also meghan, who is in canada. this is a crucial meeting, a royal summit. they are going to be discussing the future roles of harry and meghan after they announced they will step back as those senior royals. a move which has apparently hurt the royal family. how they will move on from this, time will tell. thank you very much. borisjohnson has travelled to oman 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.

in a tweet rob maccaire said he was detained for half an hour 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. 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. we arejoined by we are joined by the special correspondent for the persian service. very unusual to see protest of this scale in the country? we have seen bigger protests but this is the first that we‘ve seen after the events of the last week or so, after the attack on the iranian general, the killing of the general by the americans. firing missiles at american airbase in iraq and then after that, immediately after that, the shooting down of the pain that now, three days later, the iranian authorities have accepted response ability for it. there is quite a bit of anger at what is going on.

ba refa ced of anger at what is going on. barefaced lies by the iranian authorities about the shooting down of this aeroplane for three days, misleading the public in a big, big way. there is quite a bit of anger in various places. we saw demonstrations in tiran at various universities and we have reports of protests in a couple of other cities across the country. today we are already getting reports that riot police are out in force in many cities, including tiran, anticipating more today. given that the president has said that the shooting down of that plane was unforgivable, how long are they likely to let these protests go on? if they have the choice they would put an end to it today, but i‘m not sure whether that is possible.

having seen the sort of thing happening in iran before, my own impression is that this might go on for days in various parts of the country and iranians authorities will put riot police everywhere out on the streets to make sure it doesn‘t happen. already the government is highly embarrassed. people are on the streets shouting slogans against the iranian revolutionary guards and we haven‘t seen that before. very direct slogans against the iranian leader for having supported this campaign of lies and not taking responsibility earlier for killing so responsibility earlier for killing so many people, many of them iranians, young iranians. for the moment, thank you very much.

there are just over a few 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 the 16th of january to secure a vote by paying £25. the ballot will be open from 21st february to the 2nd of april, with the results announced two days later on the 4th april. our political correspondent tony bonsignore gave us this update. rebecca long—bailey, lisa nandy, jess phillips and sir keir starmer, who is way out ahead with 68 nominations at the moment. there are two struggling at the moment which is emily thornbury — she‘s got 10 — and clive lewis who‘s only got four nominations.

emily has been speaking to bbc in the last hour or so. she‘s got 12 to go so not even halfway there, but she says she is still pretty confident that she can get over the line. can you do it? i think so. what's happened is we've only had a week to get those nominations in. there is a large number of mps who haven't nominated yet and many of them have wanted to speak to their party members and go to the hustings and think about this because it's obviously a very important decision. from the conversations i've had this weekend, i'm fairly confident that i'll be fine. i will get across the line and, you know, then we will move onto the next stage. it is a long contest and it will have its ups and downs and i've been a slow starter but i did start from a standing start after the general election. she has been a slow starter. when you look at the numbers. she is confident she can do it and she says there is a lot of her local party people talking to their constituencies and talking about who they are going to go for. if she‘s going to make

it is going to have to happen in the next few hours. rebecca long—bailey is often labelled as the continuity candidate because she was very close to jeremy corbyn. how helpful to her is that? not hugely, is the honest answer. it‘s helpful in that she‘s got the support of the current leadership. it looks like she‘s going to get the support of momentum, this powerful grouping within labour who are behind jeremy corbyn, and also there are still an awful lot of labour members who are very supportive of jeremy corbyn about thejeremy corbyn project. in that sense, it‘s going to be useful to her but on the other hand, how far does she want to be associated with that catastrophic election defeat in december? she was asked about this today on sky news and she said, well, she regretted what happened, for example on anti—semitism and a number of other issues but when it came to the manifesto she was broadly supportive. here‘s what she had to say.

the platform on which many of those policies was developed was a positive one 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 and every single community. we didn‘t get that message through and we need to recognise that. members can vote in this leadership contest. when it was jeremy corbyn‘s time, when he was elected as leader, we saw a big spike in applications tojoin the party. quite a cheap thing to join on that point, wasn‘t it? and there is a big variable this and this week is a big one for the labour party because not only do we have the deadline for nominations but after that there is a 48—hour window when people can sign up, pay £25 and become what is known as a registered supporter and then vote in that leadership contest from late february

to the start of april. how are those people going to vote? even though at this stage sir keir starmer looks like the front runner because he‘s got the most nominations, that doesn‘t necessarily mean he‘s going to win. a lot of unpredictability in this contest. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘sjohn. good morning. the england cricket squad has been hit by illness yet again. this time it‘s captain joe 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 i—all, 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 winners cheque of £33,000 pounds to the relief effort of the australian bush fires. karolina pliskova held on to her brisbane international title, despite a spiritied performance from madison keys. pliskova said the tough three—set win was the ideal preparation for the australian open. the former world number one reached the semi—finals last year but she‘s yet to win a grand slam singles title. novak djokovic is attempting to get serbia back on level terms with spain, in the final of the atp cup in sydney. roberto bautista agut beat dusan lajovic in straight sets to put the spaniards ahead. and world number two

djokovic broke world number one rafael nadal twice in the first set of their singles match, to take it 6—2. it‘s going with serve in the second set. the pair could be back on court again straight after this match — they‘re both expected to play if the tie goes to a deciding doubles. 16 points clear in the premier league following a record number of wins this season — liverpool manager jurgen klopp feels there remains room for improvement. no other team has started a season as well as liverpool in europe‘s top five leagues — a one nil win over tottenham gave them their 20th win from their opening 21 matches —not that they‘ll sit back and rest on that record run. i will continue this so strong so said he will not get up, whatever pep guardiola says. then we have to play there and stuff like this. stuff like this. i know i will have

to do with that, i will do the same but so far, so really good. another record could fall today if sergio aguero scores twice for manchester city in the late kick off against aston villa. the argentine would become the highest foreign goalscorer in the premier league. thierry henry is the current record—holder, with 175 goals — aguero isjust one behind. there was no fifth bdo world darts title for england‘s lisa ashton, after mikuru suzuki retained her crown last night. suzuki was ruthless in the final, reeling off three legs in a row to take the first set and going on to win 3—nil. she said the result didn‘t show how tough a game it had been — ashton hadn‘t dropped a set before the final. that‘s all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website.

you can see how far the gap has grown. that is the sport website for all of that. i will be back for another update in the next hour. thank you, john. 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 most 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 all lgbtq+ veterans and those currently serving, to join its "allies branch". the aim is to recognise and remember the contribution of gay personnel to the armed forces as well as raising awareness of the legion services available to them. trevor skingle, who served in the army from 1974 ? 1979, described to me, what life was like pretending to be straight during his time in the military.

i kept my ear to the ground about what was going on in the military, particularly as i initially started a group called rank outsiders 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. trevor speaking to us earlier this morning. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with matt. stormy weather on the way into tomorrow but a quiet day today. quite a few showers. lincolnshire, east midlands and east anglia will clear with a couple of showers dotted around into the afternoon. if you are out for an afternoon walk, you are out for an afternoon walk, you may need a waterproof. quite chilly where the showers are falling as snow. temperatures take a dip tonight and they may rise as the temperatures pushed through. dropping again later with temperatures causing frost in some areas. some ice around the northern

half of scotland. the morning commute may seem dry and sunny but do not be fooled because the cloud will increase, more persistent and torrential rain working its way into the afternoon towards the evening rush hour. the winds will be strengthening as well and we could see damaging and disruptive gusts of 60, 70 see damaging and disruptive gusts of 60,70 or80 mph on see damaging and disruptive gusts of 60,70 or 80 mph on western areas. that will spread its way eastwards during the evening rush hour into the first part of monday evening. more in half an hour.

hello, 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 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 to the armed forces. now on bbc news, it‘s dateline london and the panel this week discuss iran and harry and meghan.

hello and welcome to dateline london, the programme that brings together some of the uk‘s leading columnists with foreign correspondents who file their stories for the folks back home with the dateline london. this week — iran admits what it repeatedly denied that one of its missiles downed a passenger plane, killing the 176 people on board. was it international pressure or anger at home which forced the confession? as harry and meghan, the duke and duchess of sussex, decide they want out of most of the royal role, is a life of good works on the other side of the atlantic, an escape route or a dead end? with me, jeffrey kofman, a canadian,

in whose homeland the sussexes