>> good morning, i'm ellie costello alongside ben leo and this is saturday morning live. >> very good morning to you. great to have your company this morning. and we've got an action packed show in store, all of the day's top stories with journalist and broadcaster candice holdsworth and the writer and podcaster louis oakley. >> the princess of wales hosted her annual carol concert at westminster abbey last night with a message of love and empathy. ingrid seward will join us very shortly to share what happened. >> great to see her back. we'll also be heading stateside in what's been another busy week. president joe biden. he issued a presidential pardon for his son, hunter. journalist nelson aspen will explain what's been happening. >> and later this hour, we'll be speaking to big brother finalist emma morgan about life outside the house and what's next for

her. >> this morning. hope you're well. thank you for your company this morning. i know breakfast have been calling for christmas tree pictures, some amazing christmas trees out there, some very nice trees. it's a shame we thought we'd try and be a little bit different and call for some elf on the shelf pictures. are you aware of what elf on the shelf is.7 >> shelf is? >> i've seen it. i don't have kids. but it's you. you've got these elves, right? and every morning you change positions and the children think that the elves are watching them. >> it's very american. so it's this american import that we do here in the uk now. so for example, a couple of mornings ago we had elves coming off the light shade. wow. so the kids will come down and say, oh my gosh, the naughty elves have been up to no good. so anyway, every morning throughout christmas, i think it's absolutely a mammoth task. i don't know how my wife does it, but we want to see your pictures. we've got this one from doctor renee hoenderkamp who's daughter poppy has been loving the elf's escapades in recent mornings. have we got it?

here we go. oh. naughty elf. he's been in the cereal. >> cereal this morning. see, i wouldn't have the creativity to change the position every morning. you have to do something new every morning. but the idea is that the elves are reporting back to santa. yeah. so the kids have to behave themselves throughout the month of december. >> the issue is that i've heard from lots of mums who have been on sort of nights out, and they're hungover in the morning. i'll make up. artist lisa or helen had the same problem, been on a massive night out, got really boozy, hungover in the morning and she'd forgot that she had to do elf on the shelf. so at three in the morning, stumbled downstairs. oh no. it's as i said, it's a mammoth task, but get those pictures coming in gbnews.com/yoursay. or if you're on twitter @gbnews and we'll try and show them throughout the show. >> and if you ask us as well, ellie costello tv and ben leo ben leo 444. yep, rolls off the tongue. we'll spot those as well and get them into our producer. but before we do anything else, sam francis has all your news headlines. >> ben. ellie. thank you very much. good morning to you. well, this morning we are going to be

covering the weather in detail. so let's start there . and so let's start there. and trains, planes, bridges, sports, festivals and festive events have been disrupted as storm daragh is bringing a risk to life weather alert across parts of the uk. that rare red warning is in place with gusts of more than 90 miles an hour recorded overnight in wales, leaving over 30,000 homes without power so far. the government sent a mobile phone alert to 3 million people, warning residents to stay indoors, but some claimed they didn't receive that message well. passengers have also been describing terrifying descents and harrowing landings in those strong winds as air traffic restrictions are currently in place at heathrow and gatwick airport, and heavy rain is also expected across much of the uk, with amber warnings for flooding in wales and disruption forecast throughout most of this weekend . throughout most of this weekend. and turning to the rails where passengers across the uk are facing wide, widespread disruption, as well as services struggle to cope with the impact of the storm. cancellations,

delays and suspensions are in place as operators including crosscountry, great western railway and avanti west coast are urging passengers to avoid travel unless absolutely essential. avanti has suspended all services between holyhead and chester, while routes around wolverhampton and across the network are heavily affected. critics, though, have said this morning that the chaos highlights a lack of preparedness for extreme weather, leaving passengers stranded and frustrated . prince stranded and frustrated. prince william is set to meet donald trump in paris today ahead of notre dame's cathedral grand reopening ceremony. the prince of wales will discuss the uk us special relationship with the president elect and meet outgoing first lady jill biden , outgoing first lady jill biden, while the ceremony, hosted by the french president, features the french president, features the opening of the cathedral's huge doors, the reawakening of its organ and the first mass there since its restoration. it's also prince william's first visit to the capital of france since 2017. following his trip after the brexit referendum .

after the brexit referendum. here. meanwhile, protesters are set to gather outside downing street this afternoon demanding de—escalation between russia and the west , the stop the war the west, the stop the war coalition and the campaign for nuclear disarmament have declared today an emergency day of action, with local events across the uk. activists are urging world leaders to withdraw missiles from ukraine and avoid what they call the nuclear brink . what they call the nuclear brink. turning to south korea , where turning to south korea, where mps have in the last half hour or so started voting on whether to impeach president yoon suk yeol. to impeach president yoon suk yeol . but it's already set to yeol. but it's already set to fail. 194 mps are in the chamber currently , but 106 from yoon's currently, but 106 from yoon's people power party walked out in protest, leaving opposition members chanting traitors and get back in the vote. the impeachment requires 200 votes to pass, but most ruling party mps are boycotting the session. it follows mr yoon's apology for declaring martial law earlier this week, a move that critics have called an attempted coup .

have called an attempted coup. the next vote can't happen until wednesday. deepening south korea's political crisis . more korea's political crisis. more than a million children are being pushed into poverty because of high housing costs, according to a new report today. the resolution foundation says 27% of children in poverty would not be below the poverty line if housing were more affordable. those in private rents are hit hardest. the charity is calling on the government to make tackling housing costs a key focus of its child poverty strategy, and the report highlights the urgent need for action as families struggle to make ends meet and the countdown to christmas is on. it begins in earnest this weekend as the survey shows today, the 7th of december is the uk's most popular day to put up a christmas tree with nearly a third of us getting festive. today, the second and third saturdays in december follow as top choices, but some get a head start decorating in november. there's even a rare few who will wait until christmas eve to snap up heavily discounted trees. those are the latest headlines

for now. i'll be back with you for now. i'll be back with you for a full round up and of course, a recap on all the weather news in around an hour. now though, it's over to ben and ellie for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code or go to gbnews.com/alerts . gbnews.com/alerts. >> thanks, sam and welcome to saturday morning live. now it is awful out there. i've been outside. >> oh, it's blowing a gale, i tell you, it's blowing a hoolie, as the irish would say. raining cats and dogs. >> i almost died. going to get your coffee this morning. >> oh, you got me a coffee? yes. you know you did. sorry. you did. you treated me to breakfast this morning, didn't you? you know, i did. i know, sorry. >> and it was raining, and it was windy and everything was flying around. oh, you're very lucky. >> thank you so much for doing that. >> but we haven't even got the worst of it. no, we're not in wales. we're not in southwest england. where there is a rare

red weather warning. millions of people across the country are being urged to stay at home. gusts as high as 92mph are being brought by storm dara. they're hitting the country and there's amber weather warnings as well. >> yeah, some really epic pictures and videos doing the rounds online. so the met office, i think they said around 3 million people as part of that 3 million people as part