While bushfires burn in his country. You are seeing pictures of the home secretary meeting harry dunn. The queen attends a Church Service in sandringham, while the duke of edinburgh spent a second night in hospital receiving treatment for a pre exisiting condition. Coming up in half an hour, well bring you some of the highlights of the Victoria Derbyshire programme over the last year, including election blind dates and our interview with new zealand Prime Ministerjacinda ardern. Hello, good afternoon. A six Year Old Girl has opened a pack of Tesco Christmas cards to find a message saying they were packed by prisoners in china being forced to work against their will. Tesco says its stopped production at the factory while it investigates. Greg mackenzie reports. Ready . Uhhuh. It was six year old schoolgirl florence widdecombe whod sat down at home to write out her Christmas Cards to her friends and family when she discovered one of the cards had already been written out. We were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, there was. Somebody had already written in it. There was a message which read, we are foreign prisoners in shanghai, china, forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify Human Rights Organisations. The first thought was that it was some sort of prank. But on reflection, we realised it was actually potentially quite a serious thing and so i felt very shocked, but i also felt a responsibility to pass it on to Peter Humphrey, as the author asked me to do. The family did just that and contacted the human rights journalist who had spent time at the jail, having been alleged to have taken part in a corruption scandal. Well, i spent two years in captivity in shanghai between 2013 and 2015 and my final nine months of that captivity was in this very prison in this very cell block where this message has come from. So this was written by some of my cell mates from that period who are still there, serving sentences. A tesco spokeswoman says the company was shocked and would never allow prison labour in its supply chain. It has now launched an investigation. Greg mckenzie, bbc news. The family of harry dunn, who was killed outside an raf base in august, have met with the home secretary, priti patel, to discuss the case this morning. Ms patel is considering seeking the extradition of the wife of an american diplomat who has been charged with causing death of the teenager by dangerous driving. Duncan kennedy reports. Hello. Very nice to meet you. The home secretary arrived in harry dunns home village to brief his family in person. Inside, she met harrys dad, tim. This is a good opportunity, and thanks for coming to listen to what we need to say, and then hopefully we can move forward and up and help other people if they ever get into this situation. Priti has come to try and hear from all of you. The fact that priti patel made thisjourney, along with andrea leadsom, the local mp, is a sign ofjust how much impact this case is having at the highest political levels. It is four months since harry dunn died in a Road Accident in northamptonshire. Anne sacoolas, pictured here on her wedding day, is the American Woman who has been charged with causing harrys death by dangerous driving. The home secretary said she was here to explain the extradition process to the family. It was a nice opportunity to hear from them about what they had been experiencing and going through, and to reassure them as well, obviously it has been a very, very difficult and traumatic time for them. Lawyers for Anne Sacoolas say she has been left devastated by this accident, but they say she wont return voluntarily to the united kingdom. Harry dunns family say they are now leaving matters in the hands of british lawyers. It will now be for a judge to decide the merits of extraditing Anne Sacoolas to the united kingdom. That decision will then be passed to the home secretary for a final say on what will happen. Duncan kennedy, bbc news, in northamptonshire. The home secretary was joined by her cabinet colleague and the familys mp, andrea leadsom, who spoke to reporters after the meeting alongside the dunn familys spokesman, radd seiger. It has been fantastic to bring the home secretary, priti patel, to come and see harrys family. Our hearts go out to them. It is just the deepest, deepest tragedy for the dunn family and nothing will bring harry back, but they seem to be quite reassured that priti has set out what the next steps are, and i think we will be able to give them perhaps a little relief, temporarily, while the process continues, but i have assured harrys family i will do everything i can to ensure we getjustice for harry. We know we cannot talk about the legals of this, but what is the next step in terms of extradition . The next step is that the cps sends all of the papers to a judge, and that judge then reviews all of the papers, and all of the different aspects of the case, and then passes papers on to the home office, who then assess them and make their recommendation to the home secretary. Are the family reassured by meeting the home secretary today . Before i answer that, can i thank andrea personally from the bottom of my heart for everything she has done for us over the last few weeks. It has been a tough journey but having our constituency mp visiting us and talking to us regularly has been very welcome and thank you. It has been amazing having the home secretary over today to meet with the family. We feel incredibly reassured that this whole saga will end up being dealt with under the rule of law, which is absolutely critical to all of us, notjust to harrys parents. Dialogue is always good and sometimes there is misunderstandings but when you come together, and you look each other in the eye and resolve any issues, but you hear from some of the most senior politicians in this country that this will be dealt with under the rule of law, absolutely they will go to bed tonight feeling reassured. When you saw Anne Sacoolass lawyers statement saying she will not come back to the uk voluntarily, how did the family react to that . They are angry, they do not understand why this lady is back in america. They feel that she should never have been allowed to go and she should jolly well come back. They are concerned they have one of the finest lawyers in america seeking to undermine our very fair and mature and well developed legal system which has fairness at its heart. This lady is absolutely entitled to a fair trial, she is guilty of nothing at the moment, and if she comes back, and when she comes back, she will get a fair hearing, which is what we are all entitled to. The australian Prime Minister, scott morrison, has defended his governments record on tackling Climate Change as bushfires continue to rage across parts of the country. Under pressure for taking a holiday while the bushfires have been burning, mr morrison conceded there was a link between Global Warming and weather events but said its not credible to make a direct connection to any single fire event. Our correspondent Shaimaa Khalil reports. It feels like a deserted war zone, but this is the aftermath of the catastrophic bushfires that have ravaged New South Wales. And in the village of balmoral, the devastation is everywhere. The Prime Minister, scott morrison, appeared for the first time today after fierce criticism of his holiday in hawaii. It is quite humbling as you come and you speak to families and speak to individuals, you speak to the volunteers, and you see the best of australia on every single occasion, and that is what we are seeing here again today. Russell scholes has been a volunteer firefighter for six years. He was out with his team trying to control the blaze in the village when his own house was burned to the ground. It wasnt until this morning when i came back, because we couldnt get back in here because it was too dangerous, so when i came back this morning, to check the chickens, i then had a look at the property, and thats when, you know, its gone. Russells main worry now is what happens in the next few weeks. There are so many of the brigade that are tired, that is the mental side of it. When you are continually battling something you cant beat. The only thing that will beat this is Mother Nature when she opens the heavens up and puts this out. We cant. We are running out of water here. The catastrophic fires have subsided but the situation is still extremely dangerous here. The roads remain closed off. Balmoral was one of the worst hit areas by saturdays fires and the community is still in shock. Many havent returned to see what happened to their homes and what happened to their village. Just opposite the road from russells shattered house is a very different picture. Craig stayed to defend his home during the fires, using up all the water reserves he had. Flames like a five or six storey building just roaring all around you. Just scared as hell. You dont know what to do. You try not to panic, but we got the job done, so we saved most of the stuff. At the heart of all of this is the divisive Climate Change debate, with many australians linking the ferocity of the fires to the Severe Weather conditions here. Australia is bracing itself for a scorching summer, and many are wondering where the next big fire is going to hit. James morris from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service spoke about the scale of the challenge they face. These fires are massive, the biggest we have ever seen in New South Wales, burning out sincejuly more than 3. 1 million hectares of bush and grassland. We currently have 100 fires burning across New South Wales, and one of those which has been elevated in the last five minutes or so to emergency warning, threatening homes around the Blue Mountains so even though in sydney at the moment, it is just after midnight, where we would typically see very cool, calm and collected nights, we are seeing very erratic fire behaviour, flames 10, 20 metres above the tree tops, threatening homes close by so still very challenging and erratic conditions being seen by firefighters doing a wonderfuljob battling to save as many houses as possible. Unfortunately, saturday we saw catastrophic bushfire conditions right across parts of New South Wales. We believe we have lost around a hundred homes just in that fire alone. We have seen close to a thousand lost in this fire season alone. Devastating times for New South Wales. We have seen eight lives lost, two of those being our own firefighters in recent days, so very hard and challenging times for the crews but they are doing what they do to protect communities across the state. Given the scale of what you are facing, how do you prioritise what you must tackle first . It can be challenging at times, at one point about six weeks ago, we saw 17 fires burning at the emergency warning alert level. That alert level for us means homes and lives are under threat. Typically in previous years we have seen a maximum of four fires at the emergency warning, so to have 17 at that level is massive and it takes a lot of logistical and operational management, from right across New South Wales and a number of Emergency Services but we prioritise as much as possible the areas that those fires are burning in, how many lives and properties. We have thousands of firefighters on the ground each and every day and support from other Emergency Services, from our firefighting counterparts from right across australia and even assistance at the moment from america and canada. What is the Weather Forecast for the next few days . We are very lucky here, we saw our bad weather day on saturday, we now have about four or five days worth of favourable conditions before we start to see conditions elevate once again with hot, dry temperatures, and reports of some wind coming through. Christmas day here, hopefully, will allow some of our firefighters to be able to spend some time at home with their family but considering how dry it is at the moment, we are going to see more than 2,000 firefighters out in the field and not at home with theirfamilies, trying to protect communities in New South Wales. The queen has attended church at sandringham for a carol concert. She was joined by edward, sophie and their son, but without the duke of edinburgh who has spent a second night in a Central London hospital. Prince philip, whos 98, is being treated for a pre existing condition, on the advice of his doctors. 0ur correspondent Alison Freeman is in sandringham and earlier gave us this update. Iam afraid i am afraid we have not had anything new from the palace since friday when he was admitted to king edward vii hospital in london for that pre existing condition, as they called it in their statement. He has been recommended to go there on the advice of his doctors. We do not know what that condition it is or what treatment it is but all weekend there has not seem to be any sense of alarm from the palace or the family. They seem to be carrying on as normal. While Prince Philip was travelling to london to go to hospital, the queen was carrying out her plan journey by train to come to sandringham. This is where the prince normally spends his time. His absence at the moment will be being felt by the royals at the moment. What of those other family activities and the queen and her movements today and in the coming days . We had the first glimpse of the queen on the estate this morning. She arrived by car with her son prince edward, sophie and the two children. They went down this road here which will be familiar to many which is the road they often walk around on on Christmas Day, having been to the service. But todayis having been to the service. But today is an annual engagement in their calendar, if you like, but it is much more low key than the Christmas Day services, the carol service, the queen arrived at 11 oclock in her car with family, as i said, they were inside for about 45 minutes, and we clips of her on her way in and again on her way out. A small crowd of people stood here to wave at them all. A much more sedate affair than we would see on Christmas Day, which is the usual pictures we are used to seeing. The question they will be asking themselves today is whether it is likely that Prince Philip will be back for Christmas Day. We know on Christmas Day last year he didnt join the family at Christmas Day ceremony but was said to be in good health. Whether he will be back at sandringham by Christmas Day itself is still unknown and something we might not know for the next few days. Alison freeman at sandringham. Theres been dramatic scenes off the coast of sardinia where a merchant ship became stranded on a rocky stretch of coast. The ship had unloaded a cargo of coffee and was heading for spain when bad weather forced the captain to try to return to port. Rescue crews manage to reach all 12 crew members, but not before theyd endured some very large waves crashing onto the deck. Nobody was injured. The headlines on bbc news. Tesco suspends Christmas Card production at a chinese factory after a six Year Old Girl in london finds a message claiming that prisoners are being forced to pack them. The home secretary meets the family of harry dunn the teenager killed in a Road Accident in northamptonshire in august. Australias Prime Minister returns to the country after facing criticism for holidaying in hawaii while bushfires engulf three australian states. And in sport. A howler from to a howlerfrom to her gives a howler from to her gives watford the lead against manchester united. They have since doubled it leading 20 with they have since doubled it leading 2 0 with an hour played. Together again, but on different sides now. Jose mourinhos tottenham prepare to face Frank Lampards chelsea in just over an hour. And James Anderson takes two wickets as england draw theirfinal warm up match in south africa. Theres more on all those stories in an hour. Many thanks. More now on one of our main stories. Tesco is investigating allegations that forced labour is used at a chinese factory that produces its charity Christmas Cards. A six Year Old Girl found a message from a prisoner in shanghai, asking for help, in a box bought from the supermarket. It asked the reader to contact a journalist. Florence widdicombe and her father ben have been speaking to the bbc about what happened. We didnt open them on the day we got them. We opened them about a week ago. We were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, somebody had already written in it. 0k, and so, ben, tell me exactly what had happened. Sure. So, about ten days ago, my wife was coming home from work and popped into a tesco to buy some Christmas Cards, because florence and my other children wanted to write Christmas Cards to their friends at school. So, on sunday, a week ago, my wife was here cooking and florence was actually at this table here, just going through the cards and writing to her friends and she opened one up and started laughing and said, oh, mum, look, somebody has already written in this card. Isnt that funny . When my wife looked at the card it said what it did, which is that the card had come from somebody imprisoned in shanghai and was raising Human Rights Concerns and asked whoever found the note to pass it on to Peter Humphreys. What did the card say . The card said that the author was part of a group of foreign prisoners in qing pu prison in shanghai. They were asked or forced to work against their will and please could Human Rights Organisations be made aware and specifically could it be passed on to Peter Humphrey. When you read the details of what had been written in the card, what did it make you feel . Well, at first, incredulity, of course its not what you expect. The first thought was that it must be some sort of prank. But on reflection we realised it was actually potentially quite a serious thing and so i felt very shocked, but i also felt a responsibility to pass it on to Peter Humphrey, as the author asked me to do. You saw a you saw a reference you saw a reference to Peter Humphrey there. Peter humphrey is the journalist who took this story to the sunday times. Here he is on why his name was mentioned in the card and who may have written it. Well, i spent two years in captivity in shanghai between 2013 and 2015. My final nine months of that captivity was in this very prison in this very cell block where this message has come from. So this was written by some of my cell mates from that period who are still there serving sentences. Do you think it was written as a collective or one of them wrote it to you . Would it have been decided as a collective thing to do . Im pretty sure this was written as a collective message. 0bviously, one single hand produced this capital letters handwriting and i think i know who it was. But i will never disclose that name. No. And, tell us about life in the prison. What were the conditions like . What were the other inmates like . The foreigners cell block in qing pu prison had about 150 foreign prisoners in it when i was there. Today it has about 250. These prisoners are living a very bleak daily life. There are 12 prisoners per cell. Each cell is painted in grey. Paint is flaking off the ceilings. They sleep in very rusty iron bunk beds with a mattress which is not more than about one centimetre thick underneath them. In the winter its extremely cold. Theres no heating in the building. In the summer its extremely hot because there is no air conditioning in the building. They get up around 5 30am, 6am every day and they have to go to bed again at about 9 30pm in the evening. The day is punctuated by a highly regimented programme of work or study. It now seems that theres more work done than study. When i was there, manufacturing, labour work, was voluntary. Prisoners could do that as a way to earn the pennies that they need to buy daily necessities like soap and toothpaste and biscuits. But what has happened in the last year or so is that work has become compulsory. So, when i was there, it was a relatively easier situation than it is now. And everyone i know in there at the time was in there for very questionable reasons. I met so many people who i considered to be the victims of wrongful imprisonment, or at least reckless sentencing for minor offences. The journalist Peter Humphrey. About 1 of the population has some form of epilepsy which would suggest more than 60 Million People worldwide. Yet for many, drugs don t work very well. Now a team of Cambridge University scientists has built a tiny Electronic Device that could eventually sit on the brain to work out when the patient is about to have a seizure and deliver a drug to stop it. 0ur science correspondent Richard Westcott reports. In a very, very clean room at Cambridge University, theyre building a device that could one day transform treatment for epilepsy. So, chris, i take it youre not dressing like this forfun, fun as it is yeah, actually, for the electronics were making, its really important to be in an ultra clean environment. No dust, nothing in here . No, no dust, nothing in here. Itll sit on the brain and deliver a drug when it senses a seizure is coming. So, it feels a bit counterintuitive to have a device in your brain. How do you stop it being rejected . The device works very similar to the cells in the brain. It can sense what other nearby cells are doing, and then know exactly when to release chemicals to tell the other cells what to do. Its exactly how the neurones in the brain work. One of the biggest obstacles to treating epilepsy and other Brain Disorders is getting the drug to where it is needed. A thing called the blood brain barrier stops many drugs getting through. This device could bypass that problem. So the benefit of having a small device directly in the brain is that we only deliver drugs where theyre needed, so you mitigate side effects. And because theyre going exactly where theyre needed, theyre highly effective. So we have found a very small amount of a drug can go a very long way, if its delivered in the right location. The only part of the device that actually goes into the brain is this tiny needle here thats the width of two human hairs. If you look at it under the microscope, this red patch here is the drug that is delivered when you need it. And how does it know when you need it . When someones about to have an epileptic seizure, the electrical activity in the brain changes, and sensors on the device pick that up. There are many potential applications for this technology, where we combine the ability to sense with the ability to locally deliver the drug. Other applications we have been looking into, such as treating various cancers, parkinsons disease, chronic pain. Basically, any application where you want to couple the ability to know when to deliver the drugs and then very locally and precisely deliver it where its needed. Its early days, but they hope to be testing in humans within five years. Richard wescott, bbc news, cambridge. Now millions of brussels sprouts will be eaten across britain over the next few days, with supermarkets expecting a 500 increase in sales. The bitter tasting vegetable often divides opinion, but new varieties are being grown to try to win sceptics round. Sam fenwick reports. As you tuck into your christmas dinner, its likely that the sprouts on your plate will have been grown here, in the scottish borders. Theyre planted in rows, and the cool north sea winds make for ideal growing conditions. Its been a very good harvest, weve had a very good growing season, the sprouts are looking very healthy, theyre standing up, theyre looking really good. Sprouts are really good for you they have four times more vitamin c than an orange, but theyre not always everyones favourite vegetable. I dont like sprouts because theyjust make me go eugh the sprouts are tasty. Ive never tried sprouts. Nope, not my thing. Nope. But theres Something Special going on in these scottish fields that might change your opinion of the humble sprout. This variety of sprouts has the compound glucosinolate, been altered in it. Its more of a sweeter tasting sprout, these wont have the bitterness that people associate with sprouts. Sales of sprouts increase by 500 at christmas, tesco alone will sell 90 million of them. And how many sprouts that you peel a day . Do you peel a day . 40 baskets, which is about half a tonne a day. Thats a lot yeah, its a lot. Now, im one of those people that doesnt really like sprouts, ill maybe have three on my plate on my christmas dinner ill move them around, maybe try and hide them under a piece of turkey. But im told its because im not cooking them correctly. Ians here, hes our expert in growing sprouts and cooking them. Ian, what am i doing wrong . I think youre cooking them too long. You mean putting them on the boil in october is too soon . it is. Its the last thing you should cook before you put your plate together for your christmas dinner. Really . Yeah. They only take a few minutes and they stay lovely and green, and they taste really, really nice. These have been boiling for three minutes, and thats them ready now. Here we go, can i pick a little one out . You can have any size you like. Its hot, mind. Its very hot they taste very green. Correct. So, this christmas, maybe its time we gave sprouts a second chance. Mm sam fenwick, bbc news. That is very good. She was kind of won round. Now its time for a look at the weather with darren bett hello there. It is not looking quite as wet over the next few days, particularly across the eastern side of england. We had some rain here earlier on. That has moved through and instead were looking at showers to come in overnight. Quite a brisk wind for many parts of the country, the heavier showers out towards the west. A few getting into eastern parts of england but not many. Enough of a breeze, though, perhaps to keep temperatures to around 3 4 degrees. Where we will have the clearer skies and lighter winds, in the north east of scotland, there will be a frost and it will be a chilly day tomorrow. Otherwise, the main focus of the showers for monday, for a while at least, central and southern scotland, northern ireland, northern england. One or two heavy ones as well. South of that, the odd shower, but on the whole it will be a dry day and there will be some sunshine. We should start to see the number of flood warnings dropping and 11 degrees likely across southern parts of england and wales. As we move into christmas eve, we will see more cloud around, showery bursts of rain and sunshine further north. It gets a bit colder for Christmas Day itself but it should be dry for the most part and there will be some sunshine around as well. Hello. This is bbc news with julian worricker. The headlines tesco suspends Christmas Card production at a chinese factory after a six Year Old Girl in london finds a message claiming that prisoners are being forced to pack them. We were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, there was. Somebody had already written in it. Police in sussex are dealing with a Major Incident in crawley down with reports that two
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