last few years were obviously, the last few years were affected by covid, but this year around 750 guests will be watching inside the studio. now, we already know a few of the big winners, lionel messi has been named the world star of the air, of course he captained argentina to the world cup at the weekend, and we also know that usain bolt will receive a lifetime achievement award. but of course the big question is who will be named the bbc sports personality of the year, it is a public vote, remember, you can vote by phone or online, and details of how you can do that will be given out during the programme, which gets under way at 6:45pm, and of course it is live on bbc sports personality of the year, it is a public vote, remember, you can vote by phone or online, and details of how you can do that will be given out during the programme, which gets under way at 6:45pm, and of course it is live on bbc one,

reeta. many thanks. time for a look at the weather, here's stav danaos. it is going to be mild for the run—up to christmas, a conveyor system will bring fairly strong winds, nights generally frost free, and you can see that conveyor belt of mild air running in from the atlantic, the cold are never too far away, and it looks like it could make a return to our shores during christmas. we have got another belt of heavy rain spreading across southern parts of britain through the night. further north, scattered showers, but quite a lot of dry weather around with clear skies, so chillier tonight than the last few, down to 2—3 in the south, but around 6—7 further north. scotland and northern ireland tomorrow will be bright with some sunshine, a few showers across northern scotland, england and wales, grey, murky and misty with patchy light rain and drizzle. in the south, fairly mild, more chilly further north, certainly of a high ground. for friday, heavy rain pushing from the south—west,

slowly pushing northwards, so they could be a lot of surface water and a lot of standing water around, spray on the roads. to the north, generally dry out with one or two showers, to the south it will be bright once the rain moves northwards, again staying mild. as we head through the christmas period, christmas eve, christmas day, staying mild and unsettled, with his low—pressure out to the west, but as it pulls away towards the east during the christmas period, it opens the floodgates for colder air initially across scotland and northern ireland, spreading southwards, so we are likely to see the greatest chance of snow showers across the north—west corner of scotland, exposed to cold north—westerly winds, mostly in the form of showers, but if you wintry showers further south over the high ground in the north pennines through the christmas period. all areas will start to turn a bit colder through boxing day right across the uk. stay tuned for the details. thanks, stav.

and that's bbc news at six on wednesday 21st december. you can keep up with all the latest developments on bbc website. i'll be back with the news at ten, but the news continues here on bbc one, as now it's time tojoin our colleagues across the nations and regions for the news where you are. good night. welcome to bbc london. coming up this evening... billionaire businessman elon musk sissy will step down as chief executive of the online platform twitter as soon as he finds someone as he put it, foolish enough to take thejob. it was as he put it, foolish enough to take the job. it was the result of his own pull on site asking it follows the result of his own poll on the site, asking users whether he should step down. the result was overwelmingly, yes. here's our technology editor, zoe kleinman. it's not a good day. it's been interesting week for elon musk and it's only wednesday. last night he took to twitter.

he sent a tweet confirming that he is looking for a new chief executive to take overfrom him as the boss. he wrote, "i will resign as ceo as soon as i find someone foolish enough to take thejob." it's all come about because of a poll musk tweeted on sunday asking whether he should remain in charge. more than 17 million people voted and 57.5% said he should step down. at the end of october, the multi—billionaire musk strode defiantly into twitter hq in san francisco carrying a sink. that was his way of announcing he was now in charge. and he didn't hang about in bringing in some enormous changes. after one week, he laid off half the workforce. he reinstated some controversial high—profile accounts. introduced a subscription fee for a new blue tick service, and banned some journalists who he accused of sharing his location. then he tried to block twitter users from mentioning their presence on rival social networks. he was beginning to attract scrutiny from regulators. clearly there are a lot of people who are upset

with the things he's been doing at twitter and the constant changes back and forth. look, everybody has to go through the process of debating different sides of things. the issue is you don't usually make all of that public. you don't make every step along the way public. and that's what he's doing. elon musk is no longer the world's richest man. the share price of his other firm, the electric car—maker tesla, has fallen with investors complaining that musk is neglecting it. and he has other businesses to run too, including spacex, which launches rockets into earth's orbit and has plans to take humans to mars. musk has problems in his in—tray. so who wants to be twitter�*s new chief executive? it's a difficultjob. elon musk will still own the firm, he'll still have a role, and, undoubtedly, he will still prolifically tweet about it. zoe kleinman, bbc news. the body representing many of britain's pubs, says

a majority are considering cutting opening hours this winter, because of staff shortages and rising energy bills. the british beer and pub association, says more than 85 per cent of public houses, are considering closing for at least one day a week. bbc analysis has also found that 331 food service firms, like cafes, pubs and catering companies, say they're going bankrupt, filing for insolvency in november. that's up 57 per cent compared to the same time last year. in all, well over 6,000 hospitality firms, have begun insolvency proceedings, since 2020. with more, here's our business reporter, noor nanji. the drinks are flowing at the barn pub near rugby, but it might be an early night. it's shutting at 8pm tonight instead of ten. one of a range of measures it's taking to keep going. we start off seven days a week cos we thought it was important to be open continuously so that people could just pop in. but then, sadly, that didn't

happen so we were busy predominantly thursday to sunday. so we've reflected that by closing our kitchen monday, tuesday, wednesday, and then just staying open as normal for the weekends. if no—one's come in, etc, our staff have got the choice, if they know there's no regulars coming in, that they can close early because at the end of the day it does cost quite a bit of money to keep this building heated, etc. we're all used to popping into our local pub at any time of day and ordering a drink or some food. but for pubs like this one, the cost of staying open all day are rising. many pubs also don't have enough staff to keep the doors open. the barn pub is not alone. a new survey from the british beer and pub association, seen by the bbc, found 86% of pubs are considering reducing trading hours over the winter. 85% are considering closing completely on one or two days of the week. it's warned that more support is needed otherwise many more businesses will be forced

to close, notjust temporarily, but for good. these are really difficult times for our pubs. they're making extremely difficult decisions. they want to stay open and provide that warm place for their consumers to come into this winter, but at the same time, they're experiencing soaring inflation and eye—watering energy bills, and these costs are really eradicating any profitability whatsoever. the government says it has introduced measures to help hospitality firms, including with energy bills, although a decision on extending that support will now not be made until the new year. it's also introduced relief on business rates and extended a freeze on alcohol duty. back at the barn pub, customers understand why it's having to change its hours. it's very sad, really, for both the customer and for the, you know, the people that work here that provide excellent service, etc. i understand why they're doing it, but you need i a place to meet up. you need to get out, . you need to participate with other people.

for now, the message is clear — get your last orders in early here. noor nanji, bbc news. live to the scene at the white house at the moment were as you can see, there is a red carpet out where the ukrainian president vladimir zelinski is due to visit the white house and he is expected to be arriving within the next hour. and getting the red carpet all wind—up and this is due to be president zelensky�*s first overseas visit to the white house and we can never look there. we can see a wider shot to be his first overseas trip since russia invaded ukraine in february. you'll be welcomed at the white house by president biden before congress. you're on bbc news, it is time for sports day.

hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm laura mcghie. tonight, we'll find out who from the six contenders will be crowned the 2022 sports personality of the year. and i will be live on the red carpet with all the build—up to the awards tonight. arsenal women are in action in theirfinal champions league group game. they're cruising through as group winners in their tie against zurich. in the league cup, manchester united need to beat burnley to go a step closer to winning their first silverware under erik ten hag. also coming up in the programme. ange postecoglou says the rest of the scottish premiership should treat the challenges of his celtic side and rangers differently. this is what you expect. i don't get that.