Coming up later this hour. With just over a month to go until the winter just over a month to go until the Winter Olympics in south korea, i will be checking out some of team gbs will be checking out some of team gbs biggest medal prospect in part for the pyeongchang in path to pyeongchang. Good morning, and welcome to bbc news. Merry christmas. The queen will pay tribute to the cities of manchester and london in her Christmas Day broadcast for the way in which they dealt with this years terrorist attacks. Shes at her estate at sandringham with other members of the royal family, including prince harry and his fiancee, Meghan Markle. 0ur royal correspondent, nicholas witchell, reports. The queen recorded this years broadcast a few days ago at buckingham palace. Its main theme is the importance of home, a place she describes as a source of warmth and love. Looking back over the events of 2017, she praises the cities of london and manchester. The queen visited the victims of the bombing a
To take wickets on the opening day of the fourth ashes test. Good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. The family of a british woman accused of smuggling drugs into egypt says shes been sentenced to three years in jail. Laura plummer, whos 33 and from hull, was arrested in october with 290 tablets of the painkiller tramadol, which is banned in egypt. She says she was carrying them for her egyptian partners back pain, and didnt realise they were illegal. Ms plummer is to appeal. We will be live with our correspondent in egypt in the next little while. The universities minister, jojohnson, will use a speech today to warn that academic institutions must protect free speech. Hell say students must be able to both hear and challenge controversial views during their years of study. Some universities and student groups have refused entry to speakers, as Edward Curwen reports. Time spent at University Must open minds, not close them. Thats the view ofjojohnson, the universities minister, who wil
Sochi 2014 and beyond. Great britain look set to win a bobsleigh bronze medal, the 10c banned three more russian athletes for doping. We had our moment stolen, basically. I feel like we fought so hard, knowing we were good enough to get on the podium. Its hard to take. As were seeing across all sports in the world right now, this is happening all too frequently. Its a really sad state. It would have been a massive family achievement, more than anything. Theres no escaping that, it would have been different. The funding would have been much higher. Obviously, the personal reward of it. Potentially, though, there would have been opportunities for us to further our careers. We did come third but until weve got the medal. How much would you like it to be resolved by pyeongchang . One of the things that is mentioned is, how do you feel about your moment being stolen away from you . In some cases, that could be corrected by being presented with a medal in the pyeongchang. Silver for Great Br
Oh, theyve gone down, theyve all gone down i cant believe it christies been penalised again. Its been tough. I cant even describe how hard it was. I suffered a lot after it, in my normal life too. I had a crash at the game. I received a lot of Death Threats and online abuse from the South Koreans. It changed me as a person. You know, i lost a lot of confidence from it. But since then i have actually had a massive turnaround. Christie, the first british woman to win a short track world title people became fans and they were really sorry for how people had treated me. And actually the majority of the South Koreans really support me. I think its nice to see how much ive moved forward since then. Im a totally different skater. Ive developed so much. I dont know how ill survive if it happens again and i have a terrible olympics and i mess it up. When i go to the olympics, im hoping to win a gold medal. I definitely want it more than anything else. But at the same time, part of me does need
Corruption on an unprecedented scale. 1,000 russian athletes are accused of doping. The russian government organised and directed a sophisticated doping programme. From london 2012, through to sochi 2014 and beyond. Great britain look set to win a bobsleigh bronze medal, nearly four years after the sochi Winter Olympics. The 10c banned three more russian athletes for doping. Weve been stolen our moment, basically. I feel like we fought so hard, knowing we were good enough to get on the podium. Its hard to take. As were seeing across all sports in the world right now, this is happening all too frequently. Its a really sad state. My life would have been different, you know. It would have been a massive family achievement, more than anything. Theres no escaping that, it would have been different. The funding would have been much higher. Obviously, the personal reward of it. Potentially, though, there would have been opportunities for us to further our careers. So we did come third but unt