to the impact of climate change. as more children take an interest in skincare, dematologists warn using products made for adults on young skin could cause irreversable damage. in sport, we reflect on a special night as olympic champion keely hodgkinson is crowned bbc sports personality of the year to round off a memorable year. good morning. we are going to be topped and tailed by rain today. rain in the north clearing living writers skies, more in the south west later, and it is going to be windy. details coming up. good morning. it's wednesday, 18th december. furious campaigners say a government decision not to compensate women hit by changes to the state pension age is an insult. nine months ago, a parliamentary ombudsman recommended compensation for thousands of women born in the 1950s, who hadn't

been adequately informed about the changes to increase the state pension age, and bring it in line with men. but ministers now say payouts would be neither right, nor affordable, as our cost of living correspondent colletta smith reports. it's been 1a long years of campaigning for women born in the 1950s, and in recent years they've signed up some friends in high places. when in opposition, keir starmer and liz kendall were all too happy to support the movement. but now things have changed. we don't agree with the ombudsman's approach. there'll be no compensation for that group of women, who had their pension pots pushed out of reach. with the hope that we were going to get something from this new labour government, they're all feeling very let down, and i think that's been quite obvious today when i've spoken to one or two of the ladies that are in my group. the age is to claim a state pension had been 60

for women, and 65 for men. from 2010, the state pension age for women was due to gradually increase to 65 over the following decade. but then it was announced that process would happen by 2018, two years sooner than originally announced. this march, the parliamentary 0mbudsman said the change had been unfair and women should be compensated. but the government has decided not to. this was maladministration. we accept that we and we are sorry. but we don't agree to what the ombudsman concluded on injustice and on remedy. even if we had sent those letters out, we provided research which showed it wouldn't have made the difference the ombudsman said. and for that reason, we aren't providing compensation. for this cohort of women, it's a second, unexpected blow within four months, as many of them have also had their winter fuel payment removed.

these are women who have the rug pulled from underneath them in terms of, um, uh, compensation, thinking that they would have a pension payment, having to make plans at the last minute — some women had to sell their house. then they get the cost of living crisis. then they have the winter fuel allowance, again, pulled from them with very little notice at all. the government has made its decision. but if these women have anything to do with it, that might not be the end of the story. colletta smith, bbc news. 0ur chief political correspondent henry zeffman joins us now. this might not be the end of this story? this might not be the end of this sto ? ~ , ., . ., , story? well, fury, of course in resnonse _ story? well, fury, of course in resnonse to — story? well, fury, of course in response to the _ story? well, fury, of course in response to the government l response to the government announcement yesterday from the campaigners, the waspi campaigners. let's remind you, that is women

against state pension inequality. women born in the 1950s whose state pension age was increased by five years. that was decided way back in 1995 whenjohn major was prime minister. these women say they did not get adequate notice from the government. they thought they were going to retire at the age of 60. suddenly at that point realised that they were not going to get the state pension for five more years and their plans were thrown out of sync by that. so you would expect the government to get criticism from those campaigners. what was interesting yesterday was the government was also criticised by some of its own supporters. labour mps questioning why the government had made this decision. not least because the labour party had previously, not under keir starmer�*s leadership, but underjeremy corbyn, committed to full compensation for these waspi women. why did they make these waspi women. why did they make the decision? the government says a flat rate of compensation for these women was just not affordable, or

sensible, given, they say, the on the 20 pass report shows 90% of women were aware of this change in the state pension age. that is the argument of the government is making. it is in arguing that has frustrated the waspi women and some of their own mps but i expect them to stick to it. thank you. we have some money news coming this morning. john can tell us more. in the next hour we'll find out the latest uk inflation figure — the rate at which prices are rising by. 0ur chief economic correspondent dharshini david has been in york to find out how rising prices are impacting people this christmas. 0ne gullible penguin. we've got two cheeses and then one chicken. in york market the countdown for christmas has been under way. but the festive cheer has been mixed for rupert, who imports and sells woollen goods. the costs he pays are settling down, but higher prices elsewhere have taken their toll on customers finances. do you want a wee bag for it? i think i've seen more customers, but certainly a lower spend,

lower average spend. and a lot are using cash, a lot more are using cash. and i think that's that's budgetary, budgeting using cash. they're taking the money out of the bank, and once it's gone, it's gone. for many customers, incomes are rising more quickly, but times are still tight. i'm going to be honest, i'm in my overdraft. so like, i still bought maybe like my family some christmas presents, but i'm still keeping it. i'm still skint, i'm still keeping it tight. i'm probably still- spending just as much. i think it's — i love christmas, | i love buying people presents, but it is a lot tighter. like, your money's not going as far. everybody's got to be cautious this christmas because, you know, things are getting worse, aren't they? walk down any high street in the run up to christmas, and you'll notice that the price of goods are rising less fast. that's why inflation is now a lot lower than its peak of 11%. but the price of services — for example, eating out, travelling, that's still going up relatively fast. painful notjust for us, but a concern too,

for the bank of england. for the bank'sjob is to keep inflation to its 2% target. so while it started cutting interest rates in the summer, economists reckon it won't give borrowers a pre—christmas boost, but wait until february for the next cut, due to lingering risks. it's lunchtime in york market. at this stall they're braced for what 2025 will serve up, including the impact of a bigger tax bill after the national insurance hike announced in the budget. we're going to wait till we get to that point, see what other prices have gone up, like fat for us, fish for us. we're going to have to take that all into account and then possibly act on that after. yeah, yeah, card's good, yeah. such measures means it'll take longer for inflation to come back to target, and so interest rate cuts may be more gradual. 2024 has delivered lower inflation, but there's still some leftovers lingering into the new year. dharshini david bbc news.

ben will bring us that inflation figure at seven o'clock. the man suspected of shooting the chief executive of a health insurance company in new york has been formally indicted for murder. luigi mangione faces one charge of murder in the first degree, and two of murder in the second degree, including one which is terrorism related. the government has said it is confident a deal can still be struck with mauritius over the sovereignty of the chagos islands, after the mauritian prime minister rejected the agreement s original terms. in october, the uk announced it had struck a deal which included leasing back the strategically important military base on diego garcia. negotiations have now restarted. australia is flying in emergency medical teams to vanuatu, following the powerful earthquake that struck the pacific island nation yesterday. at least 1a people are known to have been killed, and more than 200 people have been injured.

the government has set out how it's going to spend £1 billion in england over the next year, tackling homelessness. the number of people living in temporary accommodation is at record levels, and those rough sleeping is on the increase too. 0ur social affairs correspondent michael buchanan reports. homelessness is at record levels. rough sleeping is on the increase, while the number of families in temporary accommodation has never been higher. more than 160,000 children are staying in such council funded properties, many in hotels and bed and breakfasts. ministers say they inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory, and this is their first major down payment on tackling the problem. the bulk of the money, more than £630 million, will be spent on preventing homelessness and paying for temporary accommodation, an increase of almost £200 million from this year. almost £190 million will be spent reducing rough sleeping. homeless charities have welcomed the money, first announced in the budget, but say

more has to be done. i think we need to stop looking at, um, you know, announcements that are sticking plasters. they're very much needed for right now, but so that we don't get the rising numbers of homelessness every single year, we need to be really looking at a long term and sustainable solution. the government says it intends to build 1.5 million homes over the course of this parliament. ministers insist that will include what they've called the largest programme of social and affordable homes in a generation. that will take years to deliver. in the meantime, taxpayers will continue to fund a homelessness crisis caused by decades of underinvestment in the country's housing stock. michael buchanan, bbc news. police forces were not suitably prepared for serious violence and disorder which broke out over the summer — that's according to a police watchdog. after three young girls were fatally stabbed in southport injuly, a riot in the town was quickly followed by more across the country.

in a review, his majesty's inspector of constabulary said that officers showed immense bravery and sacrifice, but missed opportunites to prepare for widespread disorder. one of britain's busiest ferry ports will remain closed for another four weeks after it was damaged by storm darragh at the start of the month. holyhead port on anglesey was originally due to reopen later this week, but it's now been announced that all ferry services will be suspended untiljanuary 15th at the earliest. avanti west coast is warning that strike action will cause significant disruption, after a deal to resolve a dispute was rejected by union members. train managers will walk out on 22 days between new year's eve and the end of next may. if we talk to you about somebody who has played a very famous military pilot, may be being the reason lots

of people have signed up to serve, do you know who i mean? of course. tom cruise! he has been of course. tom cruise! he has been recognised for his outstanding contribution to the us navy. he's been awarded the navy's highest civilian honour, thanks to his lead role in the 1986 smash hit top gun, helping spike military enlistment. idid i did love the sequel. i did love the sequel. i did love the sequel. i did want to sign up myself. tom cruise said he was proud of the extraordinary acknowledgment. let's say a proper good morning to our carol. good morning. ithought our carol. good morning. i thought i'd start by addressing this question. is it going to be a white christmas? well, at the moment we are still more than five days out, so take this with a bit of a pinch of salt. it looks at the moment as if it is probably going to be mild. the answer is no

currently. i will keep you updated as we approach the big day itself. we are starting off with heavy rain across the north of scotland. there is patchy rain and drizzle elsewhere. it is also windy. strong winds across the pennines, in through north west wales, and also west wales. if you are travelling, do take extra care. it could be tricky on some of the higher routes. behind the rain, writers skies, even some sunshine. then the next batch of wet and windy weather comes in from the south—west. temperatures today seven to eight in the north, chillier than yesterday. ten to 13 as we pushed further south. there is the rain i was talking about. it will continue to push across england and wales through the course of the night, eventually clearing. behind it we are looking at showers. increasingly wintry on the tops of the hills in the night. and we are pulling in more of a north—westerly

flow. it will get colder. cold enoughin flow. it will get colder. cold enough in sheltered parts of scotland and northern england, possibly northern ireland, for a touch of frost. further south we are looking at five to seven. tomorrow we start off with the rain clearing away. tomorrow more sunshine than today. a brisk north—westerly wind. showers on the tops of the mountains, especially in the north and west, but a dry day for many of us. temperatures between five and about eight or 9 degrees. thank you. until the fall of former syrian president bashar al—assad, only one place in the country was being governed by the opposition. since 2017, the north western city of idlib was led by authorities linked to the rebel group hts, which is now forming a new administration in damascus. the way they governed idlib could give clues to how they're now planning to lead the whole country —

as our middle east correspondent hugo bachega reports. idlib. this was the rebel stronghold in north—west syria, run by the islamist group hayat tahrir al—sham. hts is now in power in syria, and trying to make its way of governing to the entire country. this is the ccu. this doctor moved from aleppo early in the war, and has witnessed all the changes in idlib since hts took control in 2017, including this hospital, set up in an old warehouse. when hts came to us, we see a lot of development in the idlib. we have a lot of things that we didn't have in the assad regime. we have a college of medicine,

we have the college of pharmacy, we have college of architectures. here, they run an economy like any country. they tax goods, border crossings and trade and run telecommunication and energy companies. the income allows them to provide public services and fund their military operations. we tried to interview a local official, but were told all of them had gone to damascus to help in the formation of the new government. hts has its roots in al-qaeda, and is considered a terrorist organisation by the uk, the us and the un. for years they've been trying to convince the world they've changed, and that they want to build a syria for all syrians. an hour's drive from idlib, in a small christian village, the church bells rang for the first time in a decade on the 8th of december, to celebrate the fall of the assad regime.

people here don't seem concerned that minorities like them could be at risk, with islamists now in charge. 0ur friars they lived under hts. before was very hard, let us say. but for the last two years things start changing. they gave them more freedom to practice their faith. they called for other christians who were refugees in latakia and aleppo to come back to take their land and to take their homes back. do you think they've changed? we hope, we are trust. we trust in god, and we trust in the goodwill of the people. hts dominance has not been without discontent. protests like this one in march have been held against the detention of rivals, and what some say is their authoritarian rule. i'm talking to a lot of people

here and everybody is very positive, everybody is very optimistic. and there's almost no criticism of hts here. no, no, they are now the heroes, to be honest. the syrian revolution people, the rebels also who were fighting assad for 1h years till this day, will not allow any dictators to come again. if they act as dictators the people are ready to say no. from the ruins of a war and a dictatorship, a nation is being reborn. but what kind of nation will it be? hugo bashagha, bbc news, idlib. 19 minutes past six. let's have a look at today's papers. and as we've been reporting, many front pages lead with the government's rejection of payouts for women affected by changes to the state pension age, known as waspi women.

"we have been betrayed", is the mirror's headline. liz kendall, the work and pensions secretary, said that claims of up to £10.5 billion would not be a fair or proportionate use of taxpayers' money. the times also leads with the story. it says labour mps are rebelling over the decision not to pay compensation, with one describing it as "one of those historic injustices that are a stain on society". the telegraph carries an image of us billionaire elon musk with reform uk leader nigel farage and the party's new treasurer nick candy. the paper says mr musk has backed reform and opened discussions about making a major donation to the party. the financial times leads on the death of a russian general accused of using chemical weapons in ukraine. it says that a ukrainian intelligence official told the paper ukraine's security service was responsible for an explosion which killed the high ranking figure.

and inside of the papers today, in the times, there is some good news if you like a glass of wine a night. if you like a glass of wine at night. when! what is the news? apparently it halves the risk of having a heart attack or stroke. this is a research from the university of barcelona. i looked at more than a thousand spaniards who were at high risk of heart disease, with an average age of 69, and they were having a glass of wine, red as white and give them a greater protective effect than previously thought. just one glass. can you make yourself a and invincible by having more? no. a bottle over a week, it says. 0k. are you disappointed? somebody is going to be drinking a lot of champagne because we have a

lottery winner somewhere in the uk. somebody won the euromillions. they have won £177 million, 33,000... why did they wait so long? i don't know. looking for that ticket. £177 million. richerthan know. looking for that ticket. £177 million. richer than dewar leeper and michael buble. in fact, it makes them richer than dewar leeper and michael buble combined. wow, and let me guess, we don't know who they are? no, they have decided to remain anonymous. it might be slightly obvious under the christmas tree. someone is going to have a great christmas. somebody is going to have more than a glass of wine, i think. good luck, well done to them. you know where we are. for hundreds of years, residents in one town in northern canada have lived

alongside their polar bear neighbours. but scientists are warning that climate change could spell danger. as the temperature rises and melts the ice polar bears need to hunt seals, they are being forced spend more time on land, bringing them closer to people. conservation scientists and tourists flock to churchill every year to see the predators, and our science correspondent victoria gill was one of them. churchill, manitoba, on the edge of the canadian arctic. there's a reason they call this place the polar bear capital of the world. we were just driving along the road just outside of churchill by the bay, and in these rocks there's a polar bearjust over here. you can see now why you do not go in these rocks. there are just so many places where these bears can just emerge from and hide.

and he's completely silent. this is a town where people have learned to coexist with polar bears, because as the sea ice forms here on the hudson bay, the bears gather along the shore, waiting for this marine hunting platform to freeze and solidify. that brings both tourists and polar bear scientists here. so the polar bears are starting to gather in this area because there's going to be sea ice here first. and for polar bears, sea ice means food. it gives them access to their main prey — seals. and they're probably very excited for a big meal of seal blubber, because they really haven't been eating much all summer long on land. but as scientists studying these polar bears have discovered, rising temperatures and a loss of sea ice mean that the bears here are now waiting longerfor that big meal. the longer they're on shore, the longer they're fasting, and the longer they might need to start looking for alternative sources of energy and food, and sometimes those sources are us.

a lack of food, scientists say, has caused the western hudson bay polar bear population to crash. so, we had about 1200 polar bears here in the 1980s, and now we have closer to about 618. so we've lost almost about 50% of these polar bears in the last several decades. and we've tied that to, these bears are on land about a month longer than their grandparents were. but while the bear population here is shrinking, the animals are also getting hungrier, and they're spending more time on land, where people live. that poses a particular challenge for churchill and for the rangers, who operate its polar bear alert programme. i came down this trail— and i caught him up on this deck. it was testing the door. what did you do? so at that point, you i you haze them, right? you use your vehicle horns, - cracker shells, and you chase them in a desirable direction, which in this case - would be away from town. this is a place that takes pride in setting an example for how humans

can coexist with these big predators. everyone here that we've spoken to is very aware of it all of the time. they take care of each other and they take care of themselves. they know not to walk alone at night. they know not to do things that would put them in a dangerous situation. and... ..uh, should we go? i can hear cracker shots over there. that means that they may be moving a bear. there's a bear there, it's crossing the road! get in the car! we heard crackers going off, and now the polar bear alert team are moving around. so we're going to get back in the car. you can just see it through the trees there. we could see the polar bear alert team's quad bikes and their trucks moving the bear along. they call it hazing it. essentially, it's chasing it away, but they need to chase it away in the right direction so that it's moving away from people. the bears' existence is tied to the sea ice. but as the climate changes here,

ways of life that have existed for thousands of years are shifting with it. people are adapting. dave daley has raced sled dogs thousands of miles across the arctic. his family business now offers much shorter trips to churchill visitors. i think what i've seen is that the weather has become very unpredictable. you don't know what you're going to get. it must make it hard to do what you do then, because you want to be out in the weather and...? we've adapted. i have, you know, i have my sleds that i designed to go on the snow, and then i, i built four carts that mimic the sleighs, but on wheels. the lengthening period when the bay here is ice—free and becomes open water is set to transform churchill's port in particular. the port is currently closed for nine months of the year, but less ice could extend the length of time that ships can safely come and go. that's why the new marine observatory that opened this year is studying water from the bay inside the lab.

the bay is open water, essentially, on average, essentially about five months a year, and so on its trajectory to become all year round. and my colleague right there, he's actually working specifically on improving the projection of ice conditions to facilitate, to help, better make better decisions make better decisions on the shipping season. this is a town preparing for a future without sea ice in the bay. the town's mayor mike spence says that could present opportunities. what do you think this place could look like in ten years' time? it will be a bustling port. the future looks bright. the fate of the polar bears of the polar bear capital of the world, though, depends on us, and whether we can rein in rising temperatures and preserve the ice that they depend on. we can keep arctic sea ice in the north and protect the species as a whole. sea ice is so much more than just like frozen ocean,

it really is. it's a garden, it's a platform, its access to food. it's life, really. victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba. and you can watch the full documentary, called where the polar bears wait, on bbc iplayer now. coming up... how's this for a bit of light relief? we'll be hearing how a small town in scotland is taking a different approach to its festive display — by giving children's drawings a chance to really shine. that's at 20 past seven. they have asked children to draw or pictures of lights and they have made them into lights to give them a chance to really shine. how gorgeous is that? i love all of them. imagine being 80 years old and walking down the street and seeing your picture in lights? that is what your picture in lights? that is what you should have done. with my christmas lights? my

christmas lights, i was so delighted with them until i saw this, and i realise they are really boring. if you have pictures of your lights, if you have done something equally interesting, maybe not this big, if you like to share your lights, get in touch. you like to share