this is bbc news, the headlines... an ethics report into matt gaetz — who was briefly donald trump's nominee for attorney general — says there's "substantial evidence" he paid for sex with a minor and used illicit drugs. a breakfrom tradition — this year the king's christmas message will be delivered from a former hospital chapel, rather than buckingham palace. the uk economy flatlines — revised figures show no growth at all in the last quarter. and one of india's most respected film—makers, shaam benegal, has died at the age of 90. now on bbc news — christmas holiday hacks. it's christmas. well, don't we all love christmas? it is the most wonderful time of the year. and we went to lapland!

we've all got that festive feeling. i just love the food. i love the lights. it's the best time of the year. it's so much festive fun. tis the season for soaking in the sparkles and enjoying the christmas cheer. it's a great time to be together with your family and friends. the lights, the atmosphere, the food. the christmas joy is all around. so whether you're heading to the christmas markets or are just after some winter sun, there are so many options. and the great news is there's still a bargain to be had. this team of experts have got the festive holiday hacks. absolutely the best day to fly on is christmas day. and it can be a really great time, but it can also be very expensive. we've got you covered with tips and tricks on how to save on christmas trips away festive food and even how to avoid travel chaos. i'm afraid that something unexpected always seems to pop up. so let us help you make this season the most wonderful time of the year.

christmas. it's all about the food, let's be honest. from your turkey to pigs in blankets. but keeping everyone fed can cost a fortune. so how can you keep the christmas dinner food bill down? the christmas food shop is typically one of the most expensive outgoings of the christmas period. it's so important that you do a few things. i'm going to start with number one. have a list and stick to it. now, i'm talking to myself here as well because you can go shopping and then you smell bread and then out of nowhere you're detouring. but make sure you stick to the list. what you can also do is look at own brand products in any supermarket that you go to, which does lots of taste tests of really any sort of food you can imagine, including all of your favourite christmas products, from mince pies to champagne. what we will often find is that own brand products are a lot

cheaper and just as good. you're going to be looking at all the things that are on discount, those yellow stickers, and freeze them and do those kinds of things because they'll really help you bring that cost down. in the run up to christmas, i'm always on the lookout for yellow sticker items to make the festive period cheaper. one woman who is the yellow sticker queen is mum jo. she saves a fortune all year round using yellow stickers. i rarely pay full price for any meat and i don't see why it should be different at christmas time. there are plenty of bargains to be had in the superstores at the moment, so don't get stressed out about christmas and don't spend more than you can afford. let's be honest, the christmas holidays can really drag on, so when the kids have finished playing with their presents, how else can we keep them entertained? there are lots and lots of museums spread throughout the country that are completely free. and when we've asked people about their experiences at museums, lots of the free ones are actually rated as the best ones as well.

look at what's going on locally in your area. so for example, are there free christmas lights? are there workshops, for example, that the kids can join? if you look on your council website, you might find that the council are running lots of activities. so there might be free things, low cost things going on that they're running or there's community events. what you're looking at is how to bring the price down of uk attractions, which can be very, very expensive. one way to do this is with rail tickets. lots of us are going to travel over the christmas period and lots of rail tickets have two for one offers on them that can halve the price of your day out. do look at cashback sites. do look at booking online. it's likely to be cheaper. look at going with friends and other family because you might be able to get a discount on group bookings, so always look for ways that you can get those discounts. from cheap days out to a day at the sales. they are everywhere, starting from black friday through to the end of january. but how do you know what's a good deal? of course, at christmas we're going to be bombarded with

stores trying to sell us stuff. "look at this discount, look at this amazing offer." it's important to use price comparison tools to ensure that you are getting the best price possible. you do not have to take the first price you see. make sure you check what's the cheapest price. our tip would be to go to price tracking websites. these are fantastic new bits of technology that track the price of products. and we're talking about millions of products here. and they tell you, actually, it costs a lot less a few weeks ago. it's likely to cost a lot less in the future. and that should give you a little bit of guidance about whether you're paying over the odds. but can you return sale items or unwanted christmas presents? the important thing to say when it comes to your right to return a product bought in store over the christmas period is, well, you don't necessarily have a right to return it. not every store allows you to do that, so it's important to check what the individual store policy is. and indeed, during sales periods, the store may curtail your rights to return. so it's important to be really clear if you think the person may not like this

or want to bring it back, well, make sure you know what the store is saying. it's a little bit different when it comes to online. if you buy a product online, you will always have 14 days after you receive it to go back to the retailer and say, actually, i don't want this anymore, i want my money back. they could remember your consumer rights when you buy things in the sale. under the consumer rights act 2015, things must be fit for purpose, match the description, be of satisfactory quality, and last a reasonable length of time and up to 30 days from purchase. you're entitled to a full refund if there's something wrong with it, but after that time it will be a repair or replacement. so you need to remember that and all the things that you're buying around christmas. it's that time — you're travelling home for christmas, you're off to see family and friends. the festivities can really begin, but there's one big hurdle to overcome first. disruption is likely across the uk today as millions of people start their christmas journeys. it will come as no surprise that the closer you get to christmas, the busier it gets, and also, unfortunately,

the more likely you are to encounter some level of travel chaos. and if you're in the car, helen's got a tip for you. there are apps there that actually monitor the prices for petrol stations and diesel and whatever it is that you might be using. so do check those out. you can save as much as 25p a litre between stations. and i know that because i've done it recently. and what if you're travelling by train? the very simple answer to the question when�*s the best time to book your train tickets for christmas is, well, probably weeks ago. 11 to 12 weeks out is when tickets are made available. that's when you'll find what are known as advance singles, and they can be the cheapest way to get to your destination. also check all the different - ticket types, because sometimes those advance singles have gone up in price a little bit— and the off peak single can work out cheaper. i the difference between a walk up fare when you get to the station and booking perhaps even an hour or two beforehand online can be really, really significant because you can still get those off peak return fares,

so certainly do that. another important tip is to avoid train ticket machines. so when which looked at price comparisons of these, we found that you could be paying up to 150% more for your train ticket than you would if you booked online. make sure you look into railcards and see if there are potential discounts that you can get, and looking into splitting fares as well. but even a cheap ticket can't keep the christmas cheer alive when there's big delays. i've been covering christmas travel disruption for decades, and i'm afraid that something unexpected always seems to pop up. december 2023, for example, we suddenly got the closure of the channel tunnel because of a strike by eurotunnel staff. tens of thousands of people were left stranded today as the christmas getaway began. the stuff of nightmares. what you really don't want to happen. - we have hotels and everything going there. we have activities booked there. i'm losing a whole lot of money on this entire thing. 25,000 of them had their travel plans torn up. and it's unlikely you'll escape disruption on the trains

this year either. network rail loves doing lots of work over christmas and new year. the organisation says far fewer people are travelling than normal and therefore is actually the least disruptive way to do it. make sure you look at the sites and plan well in advance and look at alternatives if necessary. if you're planning to travel- on christmas eve, you can find train services are curtailed early — 5, 6 or 7:00 pm. l and then really across - the whole christmas period up into the new year, you will find lots - of routes are closed - or have reduced service. so what are your rights if your journey is cancelled or delayed ? so make sure you claim if things go wrong. a very high percentage of people don't and it literally takes less than five minutes. the amount of compensation you're able to claim, it doesn't matter what the reason for the delay is, whether it's a storm, whether there's not enough staff, any of those things, and compensation will be due. depending on the length that you are delayed then you will get either 25%, 50% back or 100% back.

and what if you're heading home for christmas on a coach? long distance coach companies are really valuable over christmas and new year, partly because they keep going when railways are closed, and in particular christmas day and boxing day, where you're simply not going to see many trains at all, they will keep going, serving all the airports, generally offering pretty good fares and great service. typically, it will take you longer to get to your destination — up to twice the time it would take you on the train — but it can be very cheap. you know, you can get from birmingham and manchester down to london for a tenner, really, as long as you book even a couple of days in advance. that's christmas at home sorted. but what if you've been saving the pennies and want to jet off during the festive break? i love getting away at christmas because i feel like it's you're in the run up to new year. you want a little bit of a pause moment before you start your new year,

new you, and what better way to do it than by getting away? basically, people start planning christmas almost as soon as the last one is over, because they know that prices tend to soar and places, seats on planes sell out very quickly. right, come on then, experts. top tip number one. if it's so expensive to get last minute christmas deals, how can we keep the cost down? the best day to fly to get the cheapest deals is, quite simply, when nobody else is. you want to go away or abroad? try looking at going on christmas eve or indeed christmas day. that's where you're going to get the best deal. we're seeing more and more flights being operated from airports across the uk. and actually on christmas day itself, you are going to find that relatively few people want to travel, and therefore the fares are much lower. one of the best days to fly over christmas, and indeed the whole year is new year's eve. if you're willing to forgo the fireworks and jools holland,

then you'll find some of the cheapest flights available simply because many people don't want to fly. come back in the second week ofjanuary and really, you're talking about some of the cheapest flights you will see all year. you can actually set flight alerts to let you know when the price goes up and also goes down, and they often will come straight into your inbox. that's a really nice way to make sure you do not miss out on an amazing deal. so bagging a bargain flight is sorted, but where should we bejetting off to? i would be considering one of the great european cities that have more to do with business, places like madrid and milan. frankfurt, geneva, even copenhagen. we have lots of flights from this country to those places, and over christmas very few people going. so you will see really cheap fares. but if you want to go to the canaries or the caribbean, well, you'll be very hard pressed to find anything at any price. if you do find something, it's going to be super expensive.

some of us, we can get really distracted when we see a very cheap price to go somewhere. but you have to factor in everything. think about travel in the area. think about food and accommodation. make sure you are tallying up all the costs first so that you can see which cost is cheaper overall, depending on where you're going. but what if you want a last minute christmas trip? can you keep the cost down? i do sometimes simply leave it to the last minute. if you go to a hoteljust after 6:00 in the evening, typically they will know by then whether they've got any rooms available and they might be prepared to do you a deal, but you also run the risk that you will have simply no room at the inn. widen out your search. lots of the accommodation booking websites will let you do it on a map basis, so zoom out a little bit. check the transport options as well. if you consider some european cities — london, paris — and it's actually very cheap to stay in a couple of zones out and you can still get into the centre very, very quickly and save

a few hundred pounds on your stay. to get the best deal for last minute accommodation, i would definitely be using comparison websites. i also find that by being signed in, if you have any loyalty with these websites, the price can actually go down or they may offer you a free upgrade or a free breakfast. so you've got your cheap room. but what else should you consider? there are some brilliant websites out there, in fact, that tell you the average cost of things at the destination that you're going to. i like to use that index to check that the place that i'm going to is definitely going to be affordable for me. now, it can all get a little bit complicated looking at flights and accommodation. bit complicated looking so is a package deal the way to go at christmas? there is so much scope for things to go wrong over the festive season that you need to be feeling comfortable that, well, if your flight goes wrong just before christmas, and you've got this hotel booked as well. if it's a package, then you'll get all your money back. that won't happen if you've booked a diy holiday. so you've booked your flight, and you're jetting off

for some festive fun. but what i want to know is can you bring your christmas prezzies on the plane? every christmas, people will wrap up presents. absolutely beautiful. a little bit of tinsel. it's going to be just lovely. and i'm afraid security people, and i used to be one at gatwick airport, will, at times, have to take the whole thing apart to check what's inside. i would definitely advise you not to wrap your presents if you're flying abroad, simply put them in a gift bag instead. it'sjust as nice. or do what i used to dojusti wrap everything up in tin foil. if you're not a fan of taking to the air, what are your options? you can look at channel tunnel crossings, you can look at coaches, you can look at ferries. so make sure you're exploring all options. and if you're travelling from the big smoke, you've got plenty of options. we're probably all familiar with the eurostar direct destinations by now — amsterdam and brussels and paris. but indeed, you can get much further than that if you grab a connection to one of those places. you know, you get to paris, have lunch in paris, and then half of europe is your oyster there,

and you can still be there within a day. it can be as cheap as taking a flight and be as quick as well. now, we cannot talk about christmas getaways without mentioning christmas markets. i love them so much. you are going to get completely caught up in the atmosphere. i've been to cologne christmas market. it's actually my favourite christmas market ever. first impressions. the cathedral market has such a warm glow and you cannot beat that view. spread across two squares in the old town, it has more of a traditional feel. and the prices were surprisingly good considering how popular it is. the hot dog, or should i say frankfurters, there were £3.63 and the mulled wine was the same price as well. you can look at eastern europe as well, where the cost of being there can be cheaper. so for example, you could go to poland, you could go to slovakia and you could go to the czech republic. so make sure you check the options there and see what suits your budget.

prague isjust gorgeous. wenceslas square, full of all kinds of market stalls at really good prices. and also poland is . offering great deals. and also poland is offering great deals. you're going to get - the cobblestones where the market will be. they're going to have i the mulled wine, they're going to have the sausage, and you'll have a little bit l of money in your pocket at the end of it as well. | my top tip is to actually go on a sunday. that way you are taking up one day less of annual leave, but also sundays tend to be the cheapest night to stay at hotels, so it's a double win. and one couple that used all of these tips to do a mammoth christmas market tour was meg and reece. in 2023, they visited 12 christmas markets in 12 days and it only cost them £400 each. we started in our home country of wales, then we went off to edinburgh and london before heading over to mainland europe, where we went to brno in czechia and then on to bratislava, budapest, vienna, zagreb, basel, strasbourg, berlin, warsaw and finishing our christmas trip up in krakow. the key to keeping it affordable was flexibility.

we literallyjust went onto a flight comparison site and clicked explore everywhere, which has allowed us to find a really affordable flight to get us into europe. from there, the world really is your oyster. along similar lines, we were really flexible with accommodation. it is so important to do your research because every country is different. and they found some great bargains. if you are on a much tighter budget, it is so affordable to do christmas markets. we've found options that you could visit one christmas market in europe for a couple of nights, from as little as £150 per couple. merry christmas. so deals are out there, but what else do we need to know? one thing to be aware of is the fact that not all of them accept card. some traders will only accept cash, so make sure you've got some local currency. but if you are paying by card, well, try and make sure you've got a card which does not have a foreign transaction fee. always pay in the local currency.

so when you are using your credit card or debit card and it says you want to pay in the local currency, do you want us to convert it into pounds? you are always going to pay more if you accept into pounds. so pick the local currency and you'll be saving a few percent on whatever you're buying. now, seeing santa is every kid's dream, and places like lapland have boomed in popularity. december 2024 will see more flights to see santa claus in finnish lapland than ever before from the uk. and of course, it's a lovely opportunity for the kids to meet father christmas. we're going to see santa! yes! and here's one family that loved seeing santa. hello. we're the byrne family and we went to lapland! he's coming. they thought the holiday would cost thousands, but they managed to stick to the budget. so for the six of us that

went on this holiday, that included the flights from london airport and the accommodation in rovaniemi, as well as the hire of the vehicle, this worked out at £225 per person. we found flights at 6:00 in the morning they were on the release day for £35. £35 back. seeing the children's face when they saw the real santa's in lapland was magical and we would do it all over again in a heartbeat. but what other tips have our experts got? when it comes to lapland, understand that there - are alternative experiences. don't feel like you just have to go to the one i that is the most popular and shiny and bright. i father christmas calls all sorts of destinations home. there are places in northern germany where you might go. even turkey has some claim to the origins of father christmas. so do look around and you might be able to get a similar feel to lapland at half the price. a great alternative to travelling to lapland is actually still going to lapland, but going to the one that's in sweden it's called abisko. i went recently and, oh, my goodness, it's

super affordable. plus you get to take an overnight train from stockholm to get up there, and ijust can imagine it would be the best adventure ever for you and your family to go on together. from one snowy destination to another, every winter, millions hit the slopes. this christmas, there are going to be more flights to ski resorts in europe than ever before on christmas day. and if you are looking for a bargain, then that's the day i would travel out, probably returning on new year's day so you get a complete week. it's not going to be cheap, but it's going to be better than any other days. if it's the first time that you are going skiing, my biggest tip is that you do not need to go to these fancy resorts, because you need to learn how to ski first and therefore go somewhere nice and cheap, where you can make sure you learn how to do it properly, and then you can graduate to the fancy resorts later. i did this for the first time actually, and i went to borovets in bulgaria and i managed to stay

in a lush hotel. there was half board, there was a spa, there was a pool, and i got my ski lessons thrown in as well, and i managed to do a few days away for less than £400 per person. what lots of ski veterans . will say from their holidays in keeping costs down is don't eat and drink on top - of the mountain, or certainly reduce the amount you can, i because the price between how much it is up there _ and the restaurants at the very top, at the actual, you know, i the ski passes where you are, it's going to be far more - expensive than - the town down below. so that can be a really good i way to keep your costs down. the cheapest deals i've found are where you book an apartment. that simply means that you're going to be doing lots of self—catering, which is actually quite fun, particularly if you're in a big family group and you're not going to be paying anything like as much as you would be in a fancy hotel. some package holiday providers do include l the lift pass as well. so do your maths work out how much the flight will be, - how much the hotel will be, how much the ski passes i are on top as well. and it may turn out that -

a package holiday provider can do it cheaper instead. one woman who knows how to bag a bargain when it comes to skiing is mum—of—two hannah west. she's great at getting a last minute ski holiday, paying less than £1,700 for a family of four. it was holding out until the black friday sales and getting £200 off an already discounted holiday that got us this fab price. as a family package, ski holidays work really well for us for peak weeks like christmas, as they often include extras that would usually add loads to the cost of our holiday, and something i do every year to save money before we go skiing is buy our kids, who are still growing second hand ski gear. there's one golden rule when it comes to ski holidays, though. insurance. if you are off skiing, remember to have the correct insurance because a lot of standard insurance policies don't cover this. you're looking at winter sports cover instead. because quite simply, if you haven't got that and you do have an injury, it's going to end up being a very expensive holiday indeed. now, sometimes christmas cheer quickly disappears when you're

abroad and the holiday goes wrong. the first rule, if you're booking any kind of travel abroad, is get insurance at the same time. it's about things that you know that you can't foresee. and if it's not the company's fault, that's when you will need your insurance. when it comes to insurance, i the bare minimum you're really looking for in cover is £5 million. - that's for your- medical insurance. obviously, you're going to need | more if you're going to the us,| if you're going to australia. and do do your research on that insurance, it's very rarely, if ever the cheapest way to do it, buying it from the company that's selling your holiday. so do have a look on all the sites and make sure it is the cover that you want. if you've got medical conditions, make sure you declare them. because if you don't declare them, you may well not be able to claim. when it comes to last minute bargains, i think it's very important to do your due diligence to make sure you know why it is the price that it is, and that's everything from checking what the weather is going to be like in the place you're off to.

is it monsoon season? is that the reason they're trying to lure you in with this amazing deal? another thing that i like to check is the fcdo which is the government website. it's the foreign, commonwealth and development office website. it is so good. it tells you everything from what visas you need, what the political situation is to weather warnings. it's brilliant. and you can also sign up for email updates there that comes straight into your inbox. who would have thought it? turns out tis the season to book your summer holiday. christmas is over. you're looking for a lift? well, i have some really fantastic news for you that now is the best time to book your summer holiday. really from november, december, january. that is the best time to book your summer holiday. we know that at which, because we have tracked the prices of package holidays through almost the whole year, that's when you'll get the best bargain on your europe summer holiday. we always know that the holiday adverts come out injanuary, but sign up for those sites that give you the price monitoring and then you can get your alert for when those prices have come right down and

when you can choose to get it. if you're just getting confused by all these offers of free - child places and low deposit trips, just sit there calmly l working out how much the trip is actually - going to cost in total. ideally, talk to your- local human travel agent and they will be able to work out the best deal for you. . so there you have it. from this christmas to next, that's all your festive holiday hacks sorted. hello. it's been a chilly day across eastern areas of the uk, with the weather slowly turning milder in the west. as the milder air started to arrive we had extensive low cloud, a bit of a fog up over the hills as well, and there's more of that to come over the next few days. in the eastern side of the uk, though in particular, we've got a big jump

in temperatures on the way — temperatures climbing by ten degrees celsius between this afternoon and tuesday afternoon — christmas eve afternoon. the changes are all brought about by this warm front. once that's pushed through, which will happen overnight, we then get these southwesterly winds working in and it's these winds that will be bringing us some exceptionally mild weather. so overnight tonight, a lot of low cloud developing across western areas with some mist and fog patches around coasts and hills, some damp and drizzly weather. we could see some drizzle just about anywhere, to be honest, but it's one of those nights where temperatures will rise hour by hour through the night. and by the end of the night, for many of us, we'll be looking at temperatures into double figures. and so it's going to be a much, much milderstart to the day tomorrow. but a case of really grey, cloudy, drab conditions. bit of morning drizzle slowly fizzling out as the day goes by. probably staying quite damp though for the hebrides and the highlands of scotland. sunny spells in short supply, but you might see a few brighter spells for north—east scotland and perhaps the

eastern side of the pennines. temperatures 13, 14, maybe even 15 celsius. that would make it one of the mildest christmas eves we've ever seen. and this mild southwesterly airflow stays with us for the big day — for christmas itself. and so it's a case of extensive cloud around again, some mist and fog patches around coasts and hills, some damp and drizzly weather. we do have a weather front that's going to be bringing more general rain in across the hebrides and the highlands through the day, but with temperatures across the board double figures —10—13 degrees — there's no chance of it being a white christmas anywhere. indeed, it's going to be a very, very mild christmas. boxing day — little overall change. the changes that we do see are all towards the north of the uk, where we see this band of rain that was across the hebrides and highlands, just sinking a bit further southwards. could bring a few spots of rain into northern ireland, the central belt of scotland, but not really amounting to too much here. the wettest weather will be still affecting parts of highland scotland. this mild spell of weather looks like it's going to hang around for about a week, but there are signs that it could turn colder

in the run—up to new year's day and potentially, for some of us, a bit more wintry.

live from london. this is bbc news. an ethics report into matt gaetz — who was briefly donald trump's nominee for attorney general — says there's "substantial evidence" he paid for sex with a minor and used illicit drugs. in a rare move israel acknowledges it was behind the assassination of hamas leader ismail haniyeh in tehran during the summer. a breakfrom tradition — this year the king's christmas message will be delivered from a former hospital chapel — rather than buckingham palace. and one of india's most respected film—makers, shaam benegal, has died at the age of 90 a long—awaited report into the conduct of the former republican congressman matt gaetz has found "substantial evidence" that he paid women for sex or drugs on numerous occasions, including paying a 17—year—old girl for sex. according to a final

draft of the report