13/12/2016 Victoria Derbyshire

I'm Victoria Derbyshire, welcome to the programme.

There are no trains on any route in Southern's

Rail drivers are on strike in a row over who pushes the button.

The buttons on the doors, who should operate them? These drivers say it

should not be them, but it has caused chaos for commuters across

southern Britain today. We will have all the details in a moment.

That us go about your own experiences.

After four years of bitter fighting, Syrian government forces

are on the brink of retaking Aleppo, the country's largest city.

Some residents are warning of atrocities in the city.

I don't believe any more in the United Nations, in the international

community. Not satisfied with what is going on.

We'll talk to people on the ground throughout

The winner of the album of the year goes to... The God test that is

Adele! Plus, Adele was the big

winner at the BBC's She could not turn up to receive

those are walled in person. Hello, welcome to the programme,

we're live until 11am. Throughout the morning we'll bring

you the latest breaking news and developing stories and,

as always, really keen to hear Tell us your experience

of commuting on Southern Rail. If you text, you will be charged

at the standard network rate. The Government says it's prepared

to consider banning strikes on the railways as thousands

of passengers in the south-east of England find themselves

unable to get to work. Train drivers on Southern Rail began

a 48-hour strike at midnight, the latest action in

the long-running dispute The Transport Secretary Chris

Grayling says he will look at changing the law over strike

action on the railways It is a long-running dispute that

has forced people to change jobs and move houses because they cannot

rely on the trains. Now the drivers are joining in,

it is about to get much worse. There is nothing at all

going from stations I am I pay ?230 a month, I have been late

to work or home from work A lot of people are paying

for a season ticket, It will wipe out more than 2,000

daily services on some The unions keep saying no, they

could solve this morning if they sit down, sort out a deal and call of

the strikes. It is not fair on the passengers that they pursue this

political agenda. Southern wants its drivers to take

over the job of closing the doors. Currently, the on-board

guard does it. The company says a third

of Britain's services The unions disagree,

saying that the guard has a much-better view of the doors

than the driver and can see The Government says

automated trains are vital The unions fear it is going to lead

to getting rid of a second Whatever happens here

could be repeated on other Duncan Kennedy is at Horsham

station in West Sussex. It looks spectacularly un-busy

there. A very deserted train station. We normally get 30,000

people coming through here over the course of a day, 10,000 during

rush-hour. Look at the concourse, it is deserted. It has been like that

ever since we arrived at 5am. Something like 300,000 journeys are

made on Southern Rail during the day, none of those are operating

today. We spoke to the station manager at a few moments ago, he

looks after 27 other stations, he said the rock solid strike means no

trains are moving on Southern Rail white --. The train drivers say they

should not open the doors because it is not safe. The idea was brought in

in the 1980s when trains were much shorter, four carriages, a couple of

hundred people. Now trains have ten carriages, a thousand people, and

they should have somebody else on board to open the doors and they say

it is not safe to continue driving the trains with that system in

place. We have a commuter here, you are one of the thousands who cannot

get to work, school, college. What do you make of that? It is

ridiculous and annoying, I can't get where I need to go, I missed three

weeks of class. Sometimes I buy a ticket and I get halfway and then

have to go back to London Victoria to get home. Do your college note

you are not turning up? I managed to get a lift in today, so I am waiting

for that. It is the same tomorrow, hopefully I can get a lift. Other

than that, it is difficult to get in. We have some of the drivers

behind you, they say they are doing it for safety purposes. Who do you

blame for the problems? I don't know about safety. We don't know. We are

standing on the platform a lot of the time, they talk about driver

surfaces -- shortages, signal issues. It is a bigger problem than

just drivers. It is an entire mess, I don't know what the issue is. Two

more strikes, tomorrow and Friday. There are some services running on

Thames Link and the Gatwick Express, but they are subject to delays,

because there might be an issue about people crossing picket lines

at. But as far as Southern Rail are concerned, no trains, same again

tomorrow and on Friday. Unless there is a breakthrough. These are some of

your messages. Cassius says, it is not about buttons, it is about the

Government trying to crush unions. Terry says, safety and care for

passengers are paramount, Southern Rail and the Government want to shed

jobs. Elizabeth says, what is more inconvenient, a day of disruption or

long term compromised safety of workers and passengers? If you are a

commuter, let me know your own views.

Annita is in the BBC Newsroom with a summary

Syrian government forces say they are close to taking full

control of Aleppo after a four-year battle for the city.

Rebel fighters are now trapped in a small pocket of their former

stronghold in the east, along with thousands of civilians,

and have come under intense bombardment.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed alarm at reports

of atrocities against large numbers of civilians.

The sound of gunfire, this time in celebration,

on the streets of Aleppo, as the news breaks that the Syrian

We are all happy at this liberation, and we have finally seen

For much of the past four years, this city has been divided.

The rebels in control of the east, the government the west.

Since September, the Syrian army, supported by its Russian

and the Iranian allies, has battled intensely to take

Lives have been lost, the city destroyed, people displaced.

Now, where the fighting is over, determined to go home, some return,

carrying the few belongings they've managed to salvage.

But in the last rebel-held areas, many civilians are still

As the army closed in further, it's claimed the bombardment

The United Nations has expressed its alarm over reports

of atrocities against a large number of civilians, including

Victory for the regime over the rebels in Aleppo would mark

a turning point in the war in Syria, but at what cost?

A damning review by the Care Quality Commission has found that the NHS

is putting lives at risk by failing to learn from the

The regulator concluded there isn't a single trust in England

investigating deaths properly, that the health service is often

defensive about errors, and families are regularly

The NHS has said the "whole system must do better".

Her lust for life is helping Rhiannon and Richard

Their first child, Kate, died in 2009, just six hours old.

Her death was avoidable but repeated failures by the NHS to properly

investigate what happened meant it took the family seven years

We'll never give up on Kate, we'll never give up on her,

and we'll never give up on trying to ensure that no other family goes

through what we went through, no other baby suffers like Kate did

She should be here, she should have decorated that tree with us.

Today's report says the family's experience is far too common.

No health trust in England is properly investigating deaths,

according to the Care Quality Commission.

That means lessons aren't being learned, so other people

are dying unnecessarily, and the families of the dead

are often ignored or dismissed by the NHS.

I was shocked by the extent of the problem across the country.

The consequences are first of all that we may miss

opportunities to prevent deaths in the future or certainly

improve care in the future, and of course at the same time

we miss the opportunity to be open with families and carers.

The Health Secretary is likely to force the NHS to regularly

publish figures from numbers of preventable deaths

when he responds to the damning report later.

Around 3,500 Post Office workers are to go on strike for five days

next week in a dispute over jobs, pensions and branch closures.

The Communication Workers Union says the walkout will start next Monday

The Post Office says it will be "business as usual" in the vast

majority of its branches, despite the industrial action.

An extremely rare book handwritten and illustrated by the Harry Potter

author JK Rowling goes on sale today.

The copy of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard is one of only seven

produced by the writer, and is estimated to reach over

It contains a personal inscription to her editor, Barry Cunningham,

who famously accepted the first Harry Potter book for publication.

What's very special about this is it was originally intended

as a very personal and perhaps private gift to six people

who were instrumental or important in the history of the publication

It certainly isn't common to get a manuscript of this length,

over 6,000 words, and it's a very special and unique item.

Adele has dominated the BBC Music Awards for the second year in a row.

She picked up song and album of the year, but was not there in person to

pick up the boards. Robbie Williams did the honours. Coldplay accepted

their prize for best British artist as they walked on stage in

Australia. That's a summary of the latest BBC

News, more at 9:30am. We will talk to four or five would

be commuters, people who normally catch a train on the Southern Rail

network and who have not been able to today because of the strike. If

you normally use the network, let us know your views. The strike action

today, tomorrow and Friday. After 10am will bring together for people

whose livelihoods are being badly affected by the strike and the boss

of the union Aslef. If you have personal experiences, do let me know

and I can feed them into the conversation.

If you text, you will be charged at the standard network rate.

Let's get some sport now and join Olly Foster at the BBC Sport Centre.

We're going to focus on football, because it's been award season,

with a couple of prestigious honours handed out?

You talk about who the best player in the world is, they will talk

about Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

For the last nine years either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo's turn this year, the fourth time he's won it.

Ronaldo helped Real Madrid win their 11th European Cup back in May,

he then captained Portugal to their first major trophy,

the European Championship, over the summer.

48 goals in 52 matches in the calendar year.

He got more than twice as many voting points as Messi.

Their rivalry has almost become defined by who gets

this gong every year, so Ronaldo was very happy,

we going to hear from him or not? We'd like to.

It is the dream come true again and I never thought in my mind to win

four times the golden ball. So I'm so pleased. I'm so happy. I have to

thank all my team-mates, the national team, Real Madrid, all the

people, all the players who helped to win this individual award.

He looked quite emotional there? It is a big deal for him. He won it

three times before, but like I say getting one over on Lionel Messi is

a big deal for Cristiano Ronaldo. What about British players? How did

they fair? Pretty good. Two in the top ten. We had Gareth Bale sixth,

Real Madrid and he helped Wales get into the semifinals at the European

Championship. Brilliant for him this year as well, but Jamie Vardy, what

he did for Leicester. He came eighth in the voting. His goals propelled

them to that incredible title last season. It is a weird voting system

and he only got ten voting points Vardy to get into the top ten.

Cristiano Ronaldo got 700 odd, there were reports that there was one

journalist of the 173 who voted who thought that Jamie Vardy was the

best player in the world. One of Vardy's Leicester team-mates came

seventh and picked up the BBC African Player of the Year yesterday

as well. A good individual prize for him as well. Congratulations.

Cheers, Olly. More from Olly throughout the morning.

What's going on in Aleppo, Syria's second city?

For four years it has been a key battleground in the Syrian civil

war, a battle between Syrian soldiers fighting on behalf

of their president, President Assad and those who oppose the way

As a result, Aleppo has ended up divided roughly in half,

with opposition supporters and what are called rebel fighters

controlling the east and the Syrian government the west.

You may possibly be immune to reports of the fighting there.

It's been going on for a long time after all, and nothing

Apart from more people being killed of course.

But reports today say the battle of Aleppo is reaching its bloody

conclusion because Syrian government forces say they're close to taking

And there are warnings this morning of atrocities in the east.

It is feared civilians - dads, brothers, mums,

sisters, children - are being slaughtered

Syrian state TV shows some people in parts of the city celebrating,

after the army swept through more rebel districts.

Some posts on social media tell a very different story.

Residents have been posting their wills and saying goodbye

to their families because they don't expect to survive.

Look at this tweet from someone inside Aleppo.

Rebel fighters are trapped in a small pocket in the east along with

thousands of civilians. We don't know. It is impossible to say how

many and they have come under bombardment from the Syrian Army

backed up by Russian planes dropping bombs.

The UN secretary general has expressed alarm at reports of

atrocities against large numbers of civilians.

This tweet is from Bana. : This was retweeted 7,700 times. That

will not do her any good, though, will it? The White Helmets have

tweeted this: We have not been able to verify all

of the tweets we've shown. On the programme yesterday we spoke

to Abdul Kafi Alhamado an English He told us about the desperate

situation people were facing. The situation in Aleppo is the

doomsday. Really it is the doomsday. It is the doomsday. Just when I'm

coming here to the internet centre I have to take maybe 15 minutes

although it is so close to my house because bombs, bombs are everywhere.

People are running. They don't know where. Just running. Some people are

injured in the streets. No one can dare go to help them. Some of them,

some people are under the rubble. No one can help them. They just leave

them until they die under the rubble. These houses are their

graves. Bombs here are like rain. People don't know what to do. For

me, I risked my life. I risked my life to go out because it is so

dangerous. No one can move ten meters or 20 without you know having

bombs close to them. People, most of them now don't have houses because

all those people who moved from areas that were controlled by the

regime now are in our areas. It is so dangerous and the bombs are like

rain. They make very, very huge numbers of casualties and kill

people. That was Abdul talking to us live

yesterday. Abdul is now posting his final

message on social media Don't believe anymore in the United

Nations. Don't believe anymore in the international community. Don't

think that they are not satisfied with what's going on. We are being

killed. We are facing one of the most difficult or the most serious

or the most horrible massacres that is in the new history. Russia

doesn't want us to go out alive. They want us dead. Assad is the

same. Exactly yesterday there were many celebrations on the other part

of Aleppo. They were celebrating on our bodies. It's OK. This is life.

At least we know that... We were free people. We wanted freedom.

Wow, we wanted freedom. Let's speak to Caroline Anning from

Save The Children. Mohamed you say you've lost contact

with your friends and relatives in Aleppo. When was the last time you

spoke to them? Twonchts days ago actually in the evening. That was

the last time I spoke to them and they were saying do anything that

you can to help us like try to go to the street or anything, just get out

of there. Right. When you hear that last video message saying we don't

believe in the United Nations anymore, he's right, isn't he? Yeah,

I mean, that's what I actually was hearing from all my friends. They

said they lost faith in humanity at all now. They don't believe that the

world can see them, see what's happening there and leave them there

and like just continue as if nothing is happening. Caroline, it's, I

mean, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do, do you think that's

fair? Well, I don't think it is fair to say that there is nothing that

anybody can do. We have the ability as the international community to

solve anything, I think, if people would really put their effort into

it and we've failed. I mean what is true is we have utterly failed to

protect civilians and children in particular in east Aleppo. Let me

interrupt. Nothing is going to change now, the Syrian Government

forces, if what they say is true, that they have nearly re-taken the

whole of Aleppo, nothing is going to stop that from happening and

therefore, nothing is going to stop more civilians potentially being

killed? Well, I have to disagree and say I think that we can stop

civilians being killed. We still have that opportunity. So you're

right the Syrian army has taken 98% of the territory that was opposition

held in east Aleppo. That seems like that's now a fact. That area is

going to fall, but that doesn't mean that we can't still protect the aid

workers and the civilians, the children that are still trapped in

that area. Now that the military situation is at an end we see no

reason why we can't now have a ceasefire and allow for the safe

passage monitored by the Red Cross and the UN to allow people out of

those areas, to at least save some lives to, at least make sure that

those aid workers and those children are able to leave safely.

But if there is to be a ceasefire, if you were President Assad, you

would not agree to that until you had re-taken 100% of Aleppo which

means more people will be killed in the meantime? Well, that's

something, you know, Britain, the UK Parliament is meeting this morning.

We sit on the UN Security Council, with the Russians who have been key

allies of the Syrian Government and supported them through this. We

shouldn't ever say that anything is impossible. Yes, they might want to

take the rest of the territory, but does that mean we can't open up safe

routes to get civilians out? I don't think so. We have seen it done in

other conflicts and it can be done here. We have done it for too long

that we have thrown our hands up and said Syria is impossible and Aleppo

is impossible this. Is the outcome that people lie and people leave

their homes. We will talk to someone who is in the west of Aleppo who is

working there for the international committee of the Red Cross. I hope

you can hear us OK. Clearly, being in the west is very different from

being in the east, the west is run by President Assad and his

Government effectively. But what are you hearing from those who are

trapped in the east as Syrian soldiers try to re-take what is

still held by rebel fighters and opposition activists?

From the people who fled from the eastern side to the western side

right now are in collective service under the control of the local

authorities. There is stories of immense human suffering. The stories

that are unbelievable. Stories of really a deep, deep suffering on the

individual, of the difficult choices those people have to make every day.

Very, very tragic humanitarian situation in the places from where

they have to flee or where they currently are. This is our main

concern for the time being. The fate of the civilians, whatever they

choose to do, whether they stay or they decide to flee, they must be

protected and it is in the interests of the fighting sites to protect

them. To protect them and let the humanitarian organisations such as

the Red Crescent to reach them with their humanitarian aid. Are you

getting reports from people in the east about civilians being

slaughtered on the streets? We are hearing a lot of reports and social

media and the TV programmes are full of the different accounts and stuff.

I mean honestly, right now it is very difficult to know what is true

what is not true. For us, the main concern is to reach those people and

we are offering or service because this is our mandate there, is what

we have been doing for over 150 years. We are offering those

services to the fighting sides to implement any provision of their

mutual agreements for the sake of the civilians that will allow

civilians to get humanitarian aid or allow them to be evacuated in safety

and we are ready. There must be agreement between the sides.

This message from Tony says there is not enough independent reporting

from Aleppo, we don't actually know what is going on. For one thing

Aleppo has been under siege since the summer Thomason is the start of

July, so no international aid agencies have been able to go in,

and no journalists are there either. But we have trusted partners there,

hundreds of aid workers, people we have worked with for a number of

years, and while I can't go into the city, we speak to them every day, we

have monitoring mechanisms, and what we do know is that indiscriminate

bombing is happening on civilian areas, hospitals and schools have

been hit, hundreds of children have been killed, and there is almost no

food left. Those are things we can guarantee. We cannot consider every

incident or story to be verified, but we know there is immense human

suffering, and there has been for months. What do you want the

international community to do? It is not an issue of whether we can or

can't do something. We have always been able to do something. What has

been missing is the lack of political will. Our policymakers

have been scapegoating random issues and facts on the ground to make

excuses for their in action. We can ensure the safety of civilians if we

have the political will to do so. We can ensure a ceasefire if we have

the political will to do so. I appeal to everyone watching, we have

seen horrible footage, up from Aleppo, we have heard appeals from

the residents, and I appeal to everybody watching this to get in

touch with your elected officials, to let them know that they must take

action, they must call for action by the Government, by the UK Government

or other governments. To take action to ensure civilian protection in

Aleppo and in Syria as a whole. When you say, get in touch with your

elected representatives in Britain to ask them to take action, what is

the action you want them to take? In East Aleppo we see massacres of

people on the ground, heavy bombardment. We need to ensure

safety of civilians, safe passage. In particle terms, that is the

international community saying to God Amir Putin and Bashar al-Assad,

and various other fighters who have joined, pause for a moment, you have

nearly taken Aleppo, but just let the civilians out? They are not

going to do that. Even more, stop the bombardment. When we say let the

civilians out and keep bombing, the issue is the bombing as well. We

need to find a solution for Syria. While policymakers have said they

want a political solution, what progress have we seen on this track?

We have let Assad and Russia bomb Syria for the last five plus years,

and we have not done anything about it. We need to protect the Lee

Evans, whether that means allowing those who want to get out safe

passage, and also to stop the bombs that are coming from the air. Thank

you very much. What drives

men and women to join We speak to a man in Germany

who went to live with them in Syria And after 10am, the second largest

home care provider in the UK, tell us they can't afford to operate

on the money they're being paid. Annita is in the BBC Newsroom

with a summary of the news. The Government says it's prepared

to consider banning strikes on the railways as thousands

of passengers in the south-east of England find themselves

unable to get to work. Drivers from the Aslef union began

a 48-hour walkout at midnight, with a further 24-hour strike

set for Friday. There will be no trains on any route

and people are warned not to travel. Passengers have already suffered

months of disruption in the dispute over the role of conductors.

Syrian government forces say they are close to taking full

control of Aleppo after a four-year battle for the city.

Rebel fighters are now trapped in a small pocket of their former

stronghold in the east, along with thousands of civilians,

and have come under intense bombardment.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed alarm at reports

of atrocities against large numbers of civilians.

A damning review by the Care Quality Commission has found that the NHS

is putting lives at risk by failing to learn from the

The regulator concluded there isn't a single trust in England

investigating deaths properly, that the health service is often

defensive about errors, and families are regularly

The NHS has said the "whole system must do better".

Around 3,500 Post Office workers are to go on strike

for five days next week, in a dispute over jobs,

The Communication Workers Union says the walkout at the larger

Crown Post Offices will start next Monday and include Christmas Eve.

The Post Office says it will be "business as usual" in the vast

Adele has dominated the BBC Music Awards

She picked up Song Of The Year for Hello and Album Of The Year for 25.

She wasn't there in person to receive the awards,

leaving Robbie Williams to do the honours.

Coldplay were another absent winner, accepting their prize

for Best British Artist as they walked

That's a summary of the latest BBC News, more at 10am.

Messages about the Southern Rail strike. Ian says, I agree with the

unions are. I think they are right, if something goes wrong, how can one

person, the driver, react when he is supposed to drive the train? Guards

and conductors perform a valuable and much appreciated service. I

would pay more to know I am safe. Southern Rail say that there would

not just be only the driver on the train, there would be another member

of staff. Samuel says, I am a Southern Rail user, I have never

been so does outside with any service in my life. There is no such

thing as compromise anymore. Here are the sport headlines

now with Olly Foster. Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon

d'Or, but the world's Mike Best footballer. He finished a shred of

Lionel Messi. He won the European cup with Real Madrid and the

European Championships Portugal. Arabs bail and Jamie Vardy came

sixth and eighth. Walter Swinburn has died at 55, he

won the Derby three times. His most famous victory was on-board Shergar

in 1981. History will be made in the Ashes

Series next year, the match in Adelaide will be the first day night

Test match between England and Australia.

I am back after 10am. Sorry, I was going to move over

there, then I thought, I am going to stay right where I am! I have the

latest inflation figures, it has risen 18 at it. The dish prices

index shows it rose by 1.2% in the year to November, compared with a

0.9% rise in the year to October. Hundreds of thousands of rail

passengers are dealing with travel chaos this morning after a walkout

by Southern Rail train drivers. There will be no

trains on any route. It all started in a row over

who would push the button to activate the train doors,

drivers or conductors. # I asked the unions,

when will it end? So not really looking forward

to probably having to stand Can't get a seat in most

trains on normal days, and then when there is a strike,

it's just doubly disrupted. And right now I've left a bit later,

I'm not sure when I'm I've heard that people are just

giving up and driving to Brighton. # I asked the Government,

when will it end? I'm just fed up to

the back teeth of this. Week after week, and the same

thing all the time. It's extremely tiring

and inconvenient and I have no idea what time I'll get

home this evening. # Clowns to the left of me,

jokers to the right. The past couple of weeks I've been

coming home 40 minutes later, Maybe they'll run,

maybe they won't run. Maybe I'll get to see my kids

before they go to bed And that's all down to people

who are, at best, incompetent. Regular Southern Rail

commuters say they're constantly met with delays,

cancellations and Some say they fear losing their jobs

because they're constantly late, businesses say it's

affecting their trade. Some have given up their jobs

because they cannot cope with the commute anymore.

We can speak now to some fairly frustrated commuters.

Peter Izzard commutes up to London five times a week and spends over

Emma Green from Littlehampton has quit her job because the commute to

Matt Steel says he gave up his job in London to work locally in Horsham

in West Sussex because the commute had become so bad.

Lee Lockwood says his work are not happy, he's worried about his boss.

I pay over ?4000 per year. What do you think about what is going on? It

is an absolute debacle. It is a war of attrition between the unions and

the train companies. The service is deteriorating each day. Total and

utter uncertainty. When you leave work in the evening, you have got

absolutely no idea how atrocious your journey will be, how long it

will take, and whether you will get home at all. It is awful. Emma, you

have quit your job because the commute to London from Littlehampton

lost too much. That is a massive decision to make. Give us an insight

into why you were so hacked off. I had started a new job in June.

Having previously committed, I thought it would be fine, there

would be no problems, but very quickly come up within a week, I was

having journeys home of anything up to four and a half hours, and it

should take an hour and a half. I could not bear it, I was talking to

my son on the train because I could not put him to bed, and crying. Cool

because I was letting him down and my family down, and I had enough.

Have you been able to get other work? Yes, I now commute to

Portsmouth, and our's Drive, so I don't have to step foot on a

Southern Rail trainer. Tell us what you did as a result of these

journeys. Very similar to Emma. I had previously committed to London.

I noticed from the beginning of the year that things were getting worse.

That is even before the strikes started. I made the decision that I

was no longer going to carry on in the job I was doing and find a job

closer to home, because I was not seeing my family, it was incredibly

stressful, because you did not know what kind of day you were going to

have, often the journeys home were worse than the journeys up, so you

ended up not seeing your children and getting home in time, you could

not make arrangements with friends, because used to -- you did not know

when you are going to be back. I was glad I changed jobs.

Lee what about your situation? It is horrific. When it is strike day it

is running better for myself. The service is abysmal. You don't know

what's happening from one day to the next. It is getting steadily worse.

It is chaos, a commute to work should be not too bad, it is the

worst part of my day and that includes my eight hour day. I'm

lucky if I get home half an hour late. My partner is fed-up of me

being miserable. I'm fed-up of it. I pay ?55.20 a week, the reason I

don't pay for monthly or yearly tickets, I don't know where I stand

one day to the next. Touf judge it by week. I want to ask all of you

where you stand on the issue of driver-only trains. Should the

driver be the one that closes the doors as opposed a to a conductor.

Now Southern say it wouldn't just be a driver, but there would be another

member of staff on the train, do you care? Would it be safer? What do you

say Peter? Part of the Southern Network is run by Thameslink and

Thameslink are driver-only trains. So no one complains about that. It

is part of the same franchise. My view is, look, it is as deemed as

safe and Southern are saying allegedly there will be another

member of the train crew on the train. So I think the issue here is

one of job preservation in my opinion. What do you say, Emma? The

thing is, you've got so many people affected by this. It really actually

doesn't matter now. They need to get around a table and talk about it and

put something in place which is going to improve our lives.

Lee, what about yourself? No, guards should be on the train. It is safer

for many people, you know, it is reassuring to see people on the

train like guards just keeping an eye on yourself. You only saw what

happened at Forest Hill, a guy running amok with a knife, whether

there was a guard, if the driver is in his cab, he doesn't know what's

going on inside the carriage, there could be someone taking badly ill,

there could be someone with bad inat any time. I have seen a woman try

and get a bike off a train, the train doors have shut on the bike,

it is crushing the bike, the driver is still trying to slam the door

shut not even seeing what is going on, it took three of us to open the

doors it get the bike through the doors, the bike was crushed, but the

driver didn't care. I heard the boss of the company on the radio this

morning saying it wouldn't just be the driver on that train. There

would be another member of staff to do, to help with the squashed bike

in the doors for example? You You need to see it to believe it. The

guards are going to strike for a reason. They don't want to do it.

The commuters is on the side, you know. Matt, where are you, the boss

said there will be no job losses? I would prefer a guard being

responsible for closing the doors. I think that sort of this reliance on

the CCTV camera that has a view up the side of the train, I appreciate

on the Thameslink trains wruf got long, straight platforms that maybe

that would work, the platforms are curved, you can't get a proper view

down the back of the train unless you have a member of staff who steps

off the train and looks up and down it and gets back on and closes the

door when they know it is safe. You can't do that with a CCTV camera. Do

you back the strike then? I think I would. Having been a commuter for

quite a while on Southern, this is not just about the doors. This is

the fact that Southern sort of, you know, lost the confidence of their

staff years ago. You would hear the guards talking on the train about

little things happening to their shifts, to the way that they are

working and they were getting more and more fed-up and the door thing

was just a catalyst for the fact that the management and the unions

stopped talking a long time ago and entered a trench warfare. Yes yes or

no from all four of you if you wouldn't mind. The Transport

Secretary says he wouldn't rule out banning strikes on railways. Peter,

would you support that, yes or no? Yes. Emma? No. Matt? No. Lee? No.

Are you sure? Well... You know, I just want it to end. Chris Grayling,

he hasn't got a clue what's going on. If he did see and it is plain to

see for everyone this service abysmal. It has got to end. It has

to. You know, it is no good. It is people's lives, you know, are being

ruined here and it is just not right. It is just not right. Thank

you very much. Your frustration is coming through

loud and clear. Sandra says, "Southern Trains

management should be sacked. They handled the dispute badly causing 21

days strikes. The drivers and the guards aren't striking for more

money, but for safety. They lose their pay when they strike. The

public are treated disgracefully." Coming up, Adele dominates

the BBC Music Awards We'll have the latest

on all the winners and losers. Breaking news on the

rate of inflation. Our Economics Editor,

Kamal Ahmed, is here. What is inflation? Higher prices.

OK. What are the figures today? Well, they show a significant

increase. We've been warned for a number of months since the

referendum to leave the European Union that prices would be or might

be going up, that's because the fall in sterling, we import a lot of food

and a lot of fuel, if we have a weaker currency prices will be going

up. Today, we have seen the first real evidence of that. The inflation

number has gone up from 0.9% to 1.2%. So quite a big increase, but

of course, that is still quite a small number, but if prices are

higher, the pound in people's pocket doesn't go as far and clothing

prices have increased. The price of fuel has increased and interestingly

a lot of the gadgets that buy have increased. A lot of the computer

firms have put up the prices of phones and of iPads and of tablets.

But the big issue will be for next year people will be seeing these

higher prices feeding through into the economy at the same time as

their real n the actual amount they're earning is flat and that

becomes the big issue that people's incomes are not keeping up with the

price increases and that goes to this whole big debate about the just

managing families, finding it tougher and tougher to make the

household finances work. Thank you very much.

The second largest home care provider group says had to to pull

out of contracts with councils because they can't afford to operate

on the money they are being paid. They provide care at home to 10,000

elderly people. Alan Long is the Chief Executive of the group.

The UK home care association says companies like yours should get

?16.70 per hour to allow you to provide decent care for people in

their own homes as well as paying your staff a legal wage. What is the

lowest amount per hour that you have been offered? Under ?13 an hour. I

think, you know, just to say ?16.70 is the minimum and based on somebody

earning the minimum Living Wage and I believe actually that home care

now, the skills required to deliver the kind of service that elderly

people need to stay safe in their own home, it is not a minimum wage

job. So the comparison you gave is right. The minimum is ?16.70, but

actually there are councils asking for providers to deliver the service

for under ?13 in the UK at the moment. What do you think of that?

Well, I appreciate councils have had massive cuts it their budgets and

that of course, social care is the biggest single spend that councils

have, but it can't be right even with that situation that councils

are effectively asking providers to, I think, breach Living Wage, minimum

wage regulations because certainly based on our calculations you can't

deliver that service legally at those really low rates. Well, you

could, if you took less in profit, I assume? Well, we don't make any

profit at all and we're not alone in that as a provider. You must make

some profit. No, we don't. So you run this company and you absolutely

break even, you don't make a penny more? No, we're in a fortunate

position unlike many care providers, we deliver other services such as

housing services. Now, at the moment, we have been open and frank

about that, our housing services are effectively subsidising our care

services which is why we have been able to keep, you know, services

going as long as we have with many councils. If it wasn't for our

housing based services and on our care services, you can see we have

lost as many providers, a significant amount of money and

we've done that because we believe that in the long-term there has to

be a solution found to deliver a decent service to elderly people in

this country. OK, so how many more contracts are you going to pull out

of? Well, I hope none. Obviously recently the Living Wage change for

next year has been announced. Living Wage is going up again next year and

there is various other cost increases. We don't want to pull out

of any contracts because the effect on that for our staff is significant

and of course the effect on that for service users is significant. You've

already pulled out of three local authority contracts? Yes, but based

on what happened in April last year, again we have long discussions with

councils as you can imagine, we don't just pull out of contracts

overnight. Up to last year we never pulled out of any, when you are

being asked to deliver a service at rates which are ?4 below the minimum

that's been identified for care, I think, it is the responsible to do.

Because if providers do continue to accept these kind of contracts at

frankly ridiculous rates, nothing will change.

So as I understand it, you have got 90 contracts with councils and

commissioning groups. How many of the 90 are offering you below the

minimum deemed right by the UK home care association? Increasingly few

now. So because we have been much more, you notion we have been much

more selective and many of the councils that we work with have, you

know, are paying more than the ?16.70. I think the really smart

councils are ones who have recognised that, you know, you're

asking me questions about the hourly rate at the moment. The real cost is

not so much the hourly rate, it is whether the quality of care that's

provided by the provider can lead to the recipient actually recovering

their independence so they don't get admitted into residential care or

into hospitals before they need to be and as well as being a much more

expensive setting in residential care and in hospitals, for most

people, it is where they don't want to be.

Alan Long the Chief Executive of the Mears Group. Latest news and sport

before the weather. A big meteor shower coming. Never

seen one. Is tonight the night? Not for you, Victoria. Disappointing,

no. It is a Geminid meteor shower. It peaks at 2am. It is favoured to

see it from the Northern Hemisphere, but you will be able to see it from

the Southern Hemisphere as well. You need clear skies to see it at its

best and the best viewing areas are Northern Scotland and Wales. But the

other thing is tonight, the moon size we've got a super moon, it is

99.8% full. It is a big, bright moon which may impact how much of the

meteors that you actually see. But having said that, those particular

meteors are very bright. So there is a good chance you will. If you don't

see them tonight, look out for the next couple of nights. If you are

looking for them, they come in spurts. So you will see a blast of

them and then there will be a lull and then you may see another blast

of them. They sound amazing. I would love to see them. I have never seen

one either. Well, get home to Northern Scotland then! What are you

saying? Thank you very much, Victoria, on

that note! We have got a dull, damp and murky start and really that's

the way it is going to continue. We have had clear skies across the far

north of Scotland. So here we have got sunshine. It was also a cold

start with frost. But as you can see from the yellow plume across the

chart, it is going to be a mild day. For the next few days, it will be

mild. It is as we head into the weekend we start to see things cool

down with night-time frosts. when you are going to be back. I was

glad I changed jobs. Through the afternoon we should see

some brighter breaks, and we will hang onto them across northern

Scotland. For Northern Ireland, a fine afternoon, pleasant for this

stage of December. As we come further south, we have the rain

moving north, through the Southern uplands, the central lowlands and

the Highlands. Move south again, a lot of cloud across northern

England. Some spots of rain, nothing too heavy. Across the Midlands, into

East Anglia, Essex Kent, Southern counties, a lot of cloud. One or two

brighter breaks, but they will be the exception, and that extends into

south-west England. That is a high temperature in Plymouth. A lot of

cloud around for Wales. The rain moves north as we go through the

course of the night, hence a better chance of seeing the media shower in

North Wales and North Scotland. Under the weather front introduces

heavier rain and strengthening winds. As we go through tomorrow, it

is not moving particularly quickly and it is bumping into a ridge of

high pressure, so the progress will be slow. I had of the rain, a lot of

dry weather, sunshine, and a bit more cloud along the east coast.

Behind it, things improve, it will dry out and brighten up. For western

Scotland and Northern Ireland we could see quite a lot of rain. The

temperatures are above average for December. For Thursday, the weather

front tries to get into that area of high pressure, but it loses the

battle and comes in as a band of cloud, some patchy rain. Later,

another one comes from the West, introducing more wet and windy

weather. The temperatures coming down a bit in the north but still

pretty high in the South. Hello, it's Tuesday, it's 10am,

I'm Victoria Derbyshire. There are no trains on any

route on Southern's Drivers are on strike in a row over

who pushes the door button. I wish there was another way for

them to resolve their dispute. This is the problem, I have university,

exams, and there are no trains, so how am I supposed to get there

today? A complete meltdown in Aleppo, that

is how you when are describing the situation. Residents are warning of

atrocities. We are not satisfied that we are

being killed, that we are facing one of the most difficult or the most

serious or the most horrible massacres in history.

Although, at the BBC Music Awards, guess who was the big winner.

The winner of the album of the year goes to... The goddess that is

Adele! Here's Annita in the BBC Newsroom

with a summary of today's news. The Government says it's prepared

to consider banning strikes on the railways as thousands

of passengers in the south-east of England find themselves

unable to get to work. Train drivers on Southern Rail

began a 48-hour strike at midnight, the latest action

in the long-running dispute The Transport Secretary Chris

Grayling says he will look at changing the law over strike

action on the railways It is a long-running dispute that

has forced people to change jobs and move houses because they cannot

rely on the trains. Now the drivers are joining in,

it is about to get much worse. There is nothing at all

going from stations I am I pay ?230 a month, I have been late

to work or home from work A lot of people are paying

for a season ticket, It will wipe out more than 2,000

daily services on some They could solve this this

morning if they sit down, sort out a deal and call

off the strikes. It is not fair on the passengers

that they pursue this Southern wants its drivers to take

over the job of closing the doors. Currently, the on-board

guard does it. The company says a third

of Britain's services already work that way and it has

been deemed safe. The unions disagree,

saying that the guard has a much-better view of the doors

than the driver and can see The Government says

automated trains are vital The unions fear it is going to lead

to getting rid of a second Whatever happens here

could be repeated on other UK inflation rose to 1.2%

in November, the highest rate Increases in the prices of clothing,

fuel and hotel and restaurant charges were behind

the slightly But there were falls in air fares

and food and non-alcoholic drinks. The United Nations has received

reports of pro-government forces entering houses in eastern Aleppo

and killing those inside, including women and children. It says it has

evidence of 82 civilians being shot on the spot. Have an forces say they

are close to taking full control of the city after a four-year battle.

Rebel fighters are now trapped in a small pocket of their former

stronghold in the east, along with thousands of civilians,

and have come under intense bombardment.

And speaking from west Aleppo, Pawel Krzysiek

from the International Committee Of The Red Cross told us earlier

in this programme that those civilians have to be the priority.

Very, very tragic humanitarian situation in the places from where

they had to flee or where they currently are. This is our main

concern for the time being, the fate of the civilians. Whatever they

choose to do, where ever they stay or they decide to flee, they must be

protected. They must be protected and the humanitarian organisations

should be allowed to reach them with their humanitarian aid.

Adele has dominated the BBC Music Awards

She picked up Song Of The Year for Hello and Album Of The Year for 25.

She wasn't there in person to receive the awards,

leaving Robbie Williams to do the honours.

Coldplay were another absent winner, accepting their prize

for Best British Artist as they walked

That's a summary of the latest BBC News.

Let's get some more sport now with Olly Foster.

For the past nine years, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

have hoovered up the award for the best footballer

It's Ronaldo's turn this year, winning it for a fourth time,

finishing ahead of five-time winner Lionel Messi.

He won the European Cup with Real Madrid and the European Championship

with Portugal and has scored 48 goals in 52 matches in 2016.

Gareth Bale and Jamie Vardy came sixth and eighth in the voting.

I never thought in my mind to win four times the Golden Ball.

So I'm so pleased, I'm so happy I have an opportunity

to thank all my team-mates, the national team, Real Madrid,

all the people, all the players who helped me to win.

Leicester's Riyadh Mahrez was seventh in the voting

for the Ballon d'Or, but he came out on top in the BBC

The Algerian's goals and assists were key

to Leicester's Premier League title last season.

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has pleaded guilty

to drink driving and been banned from driving for 18 months.

He did not contest the charge that he was over the limit, but in a

statement he said the judge accepted he had not intentionally consumed

alcohol. He is Muslim and says he has always refused alcohol. He was

arrested in London last month and has been fined's fined ?54,000.

In the last hour, Sale Sharks have announced the signing

of the Super League winger Denny Solomona from Castleford.

This comes after the player failed to report for preseason training

He announced he had retired from the game.

He had two years left on his contract and has now signed

a three-year deal with Sharks after switching codes.

The announcement could now result in legal action,

with Castleford threatening to take the issue to the High Court.

One of the great jockeys Walter Swinburn has died at 55, he won the

Derby three times. His most famous victory came in 1981, on-board the

horse Shergar. He was just 19 in that race. He was nicknamed the

choir boy and went on to become a successful trainer following his

retirement as a jockey. That is all this board for now, I am

back with the headlines in half an hour.

Let me read a couple of messages to do with Aleppo. Ron says, I see the

do something brigade have been on this morning. Call your MP? LOL. Joe

Q -- Joe Public does not care about Aleppo, stop droning on. We will

continue droning on. It was that there was a complete meltdown of

humour T in Aleppo. But they are just words, so we will talk about

what the UN can do. -- meltdown of humanity.

More than 800 men and women from the UK are believed to have

travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the so called Islamic State.

According to the British authorities, about half

And how should governments deal with those who want to come back?

Our reporter James Longman went to Germany to meet one young man

who went to live under the Islamic State in Syria

He spoke exclusively to this programme about what happened.

You may find some of his views offensive, but they are challenged

and they're important to hear to understand why people

Thousands of men and some women from all over Europe have travelled

About 850 have left from the UK, and something

But what makes them leave them the first place?

I went to Dresden in Germany to meet young one man who went

to live in the caliphate, but decided that life

We are searching for the purpose of life.

My friend came to me and he said, "Yeah, I've read some Islam

So I came to the point that Islam is a way of life.

And it all happened in quite a quick period?

Yes, it was in two or three months, I think.

So you went from someone who hadn't really thought about Islam...

To being someone who believed in it deeply and started to have very

clear ideas about the world and about what was wrong with it?

So, at this time, the so-called caliph had made an announcement

to get Muslims to go over to the Islamic State.

It was that there is, of course, a caliphate,

an Islamic caliphate, where you can live as a Muslim.

But I think the main fact was that there was war and that,

yeah, that someone has to help the families that don't have houses,

no food and, yeah, that was my main factor.

I think a lot of people watching this will look at you and think,

how could you look at IS and think that that was a good place to go?

Yeah, I thought, of course, it's a group who spent terror

But IS is also a state, an Islamic state, so I...

Well, it depends if you believe their propaganda, doesn't it?

Because surely their actions then negate their claim

The time that you went, already a certain number of Western

journalists and aid workers had been beheaded, publicly beheaded.

And then the Yazidis, who were infamously raped

All of these things had been well publicised.

So for you to still believe that this was a truly Islamic place,

I think a lot of people might find that, regardless of your own beliefs

in Islam, might find that difficult to believe.

Of course, difficulty, because, yeah, it's Islamic State who do

very dangerous things, who kill people and this is,

I mean, you could also live in Germany and be a good Muslim.

You could be an aid worker in any country in the world

But my opinion was in this time I want to practice Islam

in the highest level, and if you're here in Germany,

there's girls running with free bodies outside,

and if you see this as a Muslim, it's not good.

So I want to live in a country where the Islamic rules are the highest,

and also the caliphate, it's the only caliphate

At the time that you went, a lot of Muslim scholars

from around the world, people who have been reading

the Koran and studying the Koran a lot longer than you had,

were saying don't go, these are not real Muslims.

Did you listen, did you hear that advice?

And what did you make of it at the time?

My opinion, joined there and to only live in the Islamic state and not...

TRANSLATION: Samuel was always a calm boy.

He played a lot, had friends hung out with as he got older.

We raise them all within the Christian faith.

Samuel was confirmed, and after that he started searching,

You was always looking for the meaning of life,

and there's plenty about that to be found on the internet.

We never realised and never thought that he would go to Syria.

Or you are a fighter on the front line, or a normal fighter.

Normal fighter, front-line fighter, suicide bomber?

There was no option for humanitarian worker, was there?

Why did you think that fighting was wrong?

I think killing people for Islam or for any religion

But Max very definitely wanted to fight?

Because I think he took you to a gun range, you went shooting together

So did you practice shooting before you went to Syria?

I think people might find it strange that you went to practice

shooting before you went to be a humanitarian worker?

I think if you go in a place of war, you have to know how

Did you see or hear any of the bombardments, the airstrikes?

I was making my night prayer and then seconds later the bomb

behind the school came on the ground.

What were you doing on a daily basis?

We're making some groups of Arabic lessons.

So where did you start to think that you wanted to leave?

I knew when they wanted to have me for a fight.

And then I decided for me to leave IS.

TRANSLATION: Day and night we prayed the bombs would not hit him.

We tried everything to get in contact with him.

We were constantly at the computer writing e-mails to him,

TRANSLATION: Dear Sammy, please come back.

Take this pain and heartbreak away from your parents.

Most of all, take this burden of yourself so your little sister

Believe me, dear Sammy, war cannot be a way to tackle injustice.

Reading these e-mails, there came more feelings up,

and childhood came back, and all those feelings came to me.

And I realised that, yeah, I need my family,

and my friends need me, and the family.

So did you think you would die at that point?

Yeah, of course I thought about this.

Someone watching, again, might find this story

Mostly because you're a white European convert to Islam.

This was at a time inside the so-called Islamic State

where they were using videos to try to recruit other people

from Europe, other people from Western countries.

You would have been very, very important to IS because you're

This is the image they want to show the world.

The idea that you could just travel freely anywhere you wanted

and go and get your phone, I think it's difficult

Yeah, but it was not a problem to give us our phones.

I go inside the bus stop and my father is sitting

TRANSLATION: There is a story in the Bible, the story

It's about a father who gave his son his inheritance.

The son went into the world and squandered the inheritance,

and then came home in the hope that his father would let him back

The father stood, knowing fully that the son would come home.

He stood waiting for him the whole time.

When the son came home, the two hugged and it was exactly like that

Both of us cried and we held each other tight.

So what's your feeling towards the so-called Islamic State now?

I think they are a group of terrorists who do brutal things,

But I think that the Islamic State, only the state, is...

Yeah, who try to live in the Islamic way.

Even if the Islamic State was started by terrorists, you still

I think the concept is OK but what they do is not OK.

You obviously love your son very much, it's clear.

Do you worry maybe that your love for him maybe blinds you to maybe

the reality of what he was thinking before he went to Syria,

TRANSLATION: Of course something like that is possible.

But, as a parent, you have a feeling for whether your child

is telling the truth or not, and you feel in your heart,

Is his motive for coming home honest?

We are completely convinced that things are exactly

All I can say is that we feel it as parents.

So if you still have many of the opinions that you had

before you went to Syria, why are you not a danger now

I think I wasn't a danger if I was also here in Germany.

What I don't say is that I will kill some people,

Of course they have to check me, what I have done in Syria.

But it's impossible for them to know, isn't it?

It's very difficult for them to prove anything.

But, yeah, they have to wait for other people who came

back from IS to Germany, that's the only way, I think.

Finding proof that a crime has been committed is the major test every

government faces when dealing with people returning from IS.

How can the German authorities be sure that Samuel is telling

the truth and, more importantly, how can anyone know that the people

coming back have completely abandoned the worldviews that drove

We can now speak to Laura Zahra McDonald founder of Connect Futures,

a social enterprise that specialises in tackling extremism.

They featured Samuel Wendt in a series of films

And Rupert Sutton, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society,

which is a right-wing foreign policy think-tank.

Samuel Wendt clearly still believes in the idea of a so-called Islamic

caliphate, but is that OK as long as he's given up any idea of violence?

Yes and that's maybe the biggest question of all what we mean by

de-radicalisation as opposed to disengagement? When we look at

examples around the world about people removing themselves from

groups, very often they haven't completely given up their ideas.

Ireland is a good example. People who supported the Republican cause

and used violence as a means to get to their ideals, but recounted the

violence, but still remain Republican. It is a similar

situation there. What's your view, Rupert? Well, think when peel are

radicalised they are combining an ideology they believe in strongly

with the capability or the intent to do harm and that's where people

become dangerous. One of the keys for people returning from Syria,

particularly those who have either been acquitted of offences, but

still maintain their views, is about ensuring that we perhaps bring them

back, put them closer to the more protective kind of elements that

they might not have had before they travelled and bring them closer to

their families and provide support they might need in terms of mental

health support, perhaps... When you say bring them closer to their

families. You can't, you know the official, authorities, Government,

local councils, can't engineer that, can they? They can't fully but

Government does have a role to play in that. One thing the Government

can do before people travel and become extreme as part of the

Prevent programme is seek to provide as wide a range of services as

possible that can provide families with the support they need to reach

out to somebody who might have more extreme views. So that could be

getting them to sit down with a mentor or getting them to sit down

with somebody who understands how individuals can find themselves very

isolated What do you think? Yeah, I was going to say so preventative

approach is really important and that's where we have been making our

films which we've crowd funded to try and get the experience of those

who have been there and done that out there and have the difficult

conversations particularly with young people, but the question of

support when people have returned and including those people who have

been convicted and are leaving prisons, I think there is 418 so far

who have left of which two-thirds have not accepted the support that

is currently provided. So the question therefore, is how do we

better provide a rewhat bill tative system and a programme that's more

holistic in first of all preventing people from the grass-roots of going

there in the first place? It really winds people up when we talk about

support for those who have been convicted. I understand where you're

coming from, but you can see how it works.

When people return, the full force of the law is brought to bear. It

was in Germany, Samuel was found not guilty. The difficulty of convicting

people who have become involved, even if they did not fight, shows we

need to consider how we deal with offences around proscribed

organisations like Islamic State. Is it enough that you can be convicted

of involvement with a prescribed organisation just for fighting or

providing support? Is there a way we can develop the laws to understand

that if you work as part of that organisation, even if you are not

carrying a gun, there is still an offence you can be convicted of? At

once people are acquitted, there needs to be that continuation of

involvement with the authorities, that can't be the end of the

process. We need to make sure the Government has as wide ranging and

consistent a policy as possible, so individuals receive the same support

regardless of what happened. The situation in Aleppo is described

as a complete meltdown of humanity by the UN. Google talk live to a

representative from the UN and we will hear from some more civilians

in the east of the city who said they are facing an absolutely

desperate situation. We are facing one of the most

difficult or the most serious or be most horrible massacre that is in

the history. Also, much more parochial, we will

talk about the BBC Music Awards, where Adele was the big winner for

the second year in a row. This is the best night of my life!

With the news, here's Annita in the BBC Newsroom.

The Government says it's prepared to consider banning strikes

on the railways as thousands of passengers in the south-east

of England find themselves unable to get to work.

Drivers from the Aslef union began a 48-hour walkout

on the Southern Rail network at midnight, with a further 24-hour

There will be no trains on any route and people are warned not to travel.

Passengers have already suffered months of disruption in the dispute

The United Nations warns it has received reports of pro-government

forces entering houses in east Aleppo and killing those inside,

The UN says it has reliable evidence of 82 civilians

Syrian government forces say they are close to taking

full control of the city after a four-year

Rebel fighters are now trapped in a small pocket of their former

stronghold in the east, along with thousands of civilians.

We'll have more on the situation in Aleppo shortly.

UK inflation rose to 1.2% in November, the highest rate

Increases in the prices of clothing, fuel and hotel and restaurant

charges were behind the slightly

But there were falls in air fares and food and non-alcoholic drinks.

Join me for BBC Newsroom Live at 11am.

Here are the sport headlines now with Olly Foster.

These are our headlines this morning.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d'Or,

the world's best footballer award, for a fourth time.

He finished ahead of five-time winner Lionel Messi.

He won the European Cup with Real Madrid and the European

Gareth Bale and Jamie Vardy came sixth and eighth.

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has been banned

from driving for 18 months after pleading guilty

He has released a statement saying the judge accepted that he had "not

Toure, who is Muslim, was arrested in East London

Sale Sharks have signed the super league record try scorer from

Castleford. He had announced his retirement from the 13 man game

despite having two years left on his contract. His former club

threatening to take the matter to the High Court.

And, one of the great jockeys, Walter Swinburn, has

His most-famous victory was on Shergar, when he was

Nicknamed the Choirboy, he went on to become a successful

trainer following his retirement as a jockey.

That is all the sport from me, I am back on BBC News through the rest of

the day. The United Nations has expressed

alarm at reports of massacres against large numbers of people,

including children, in Aleppo as the Syrian army comes close

to defeating opposition fighters. The rebels are now trapped in a tiny

area under heavy bombardment, Although we have no idea exactly how

many. You may possibly be immune

to reports of the fighting there. It's been going on for a long time,

after all, and nothing Apart from more people

being killed, of course. But there are warnings this morning

of yet more atrocities in the east. It's feared civilians, dads,

brothers, mums, sisters, children, are being slaughtered

on the streets. Syrian state TV shows some people

in parts of the city celebrating after the army swept

through more rebel districts. Some posts on social media tell

a very different story. Residents have been posting

their wills and saying goodbye to their families because they don't

expect to survive. This tweet from someone

inside Aleppo. The White helmets are a Syrian

volunteer group. We haven't been able to verify

all of the tweets we've shown. On the programme yesterday we spoke

to Abdul Kafi Alhamado, an English teacher in eastern

Aleppo. We can now speak to the UN's

humanitarian adviser We heard from one resident who no

longer believes in the United Nations, and he is right not to,

isn't he? I would not blame him, because the United Nations members

have not been able to enable conditions for the humanitarian

employees of the organisations, including me as an adviser, to come

to the relief of the vulnerable civilians of East Aleppo, nor

organise their escape. We have had four major initiatives since East

Aleppo became besieged in July. Each of them has failed, because the

parties to this conflict and their sponsors have not agreed to enable

our access or safety and security of those to escape. That we are trying

again today, there are still thousands of people in desperate

situations that could get out, so we are trying again today, we are

trying every day and night for weeks. We are not giving up as long

as there are people in this who need our support. When you say you are

trying again today, can you give our audience and insight into what that

trying actually involves? You pick up the phone, who do you talk to? We

do have contact to those inside. The desperate civilians. We have even

more graphic reports that the tweet he referred to. Then we talk to the

armed groups inside, to make sure that they are willing to enable

escape. Then we go to the Russian diplomat and the Russian military

directly. We go to the Syrian Government, both the civilian and

the monetary authorities, and we ask for a safe corridor. A pause in the

fighting so we can send enough few calls to the front line point to

receive those who can come to that point or ask to enter into the

battle scene, to get them out. Again and again, day and night, we have

tried this, and each time it has halted because one side says, no, we

will condition this on something else, or, no, we cannot guarantee to

stop the fighting, we were attacked and our ago, so we will not halt our

fighting. It has been endless, this lack of humanity, and the lack of

willingness, ability, to enable basic humanity. You said you had had

more graphic reports that some of the social media messages that we

read out. What facts do you have about the situation in the east of

Aleppo? What I am concerned with are the reports that some of the

victorious militia, if you like, taking over areas, shooting

civilians. Men, but also women and children. Health workers and others.

These are reports that we cannot independently verify, but these are

eyewitness accounts that are sent to us, and it is heartbreaking to be a

humanitarian, have colleagues outside, brave colleagues, who have

the supplies and the willingness to evacuate, and are being denied

access. We will see whether these reports of atrocities are all or

some true. There will be an hour of accountability, investigations, I

hope. Today, our urgency is to help people out of the rubble, the

wounded as well as the vulnerable still inside.

Let's get the latest from our correspondent

From what we understand from Syrian state TV, the pro-government forces

now control around 98 sent of East Aleppo, the rebels have been pushed

back into an area in the south-east. Fighting is still going on, the

rebels still hold for neighbourhoods. It is an area of

around three square kilometres, according to Syrian state military.

Tens of thousands still trapped in that area. The fear from rebels and

activists in those areas is that a bombardment will inflict further

casualties and more loss of life, because they are in such a condensed

area at the moment. Even while there is and joy in the West, rumours of

the war coming to an end, it has not finished just yet.

The Government may consider banning strikes on the railways. Phil is in.

Where are we? Two things are going on. The Government say there is

nothing they can do about the current dispute at Southern Rail, I

had a chat with Chris Grayling, he is adamant he cannot sort it out

because he does not have the legal powers to resolve it. It might seem

extraordinary, we have 300,000 people who cannot get into work,

2000 services cancelled, a rail minister who resigned because of the

gift buckle, and yet the Secretary of State says there is the Vicky can

do, but he says once the dispute is over he will look at the possibility

of new strike laws to make sure this cannot happen again. He is not

specific about what he is talking about, it could be a ban on strikes

on the railways, which would be a nuclear option, no other European

country does that, it would run into all sorts of human rights

legislation, so it would be extraordinarily difficult to do, but

he says he is prepared to look at tougher strike laws. This is what he

said this morning. Eople from the grass-roots of going

there in the first place? It really winds people up when we talk about

support for those who have been convicted. I understand where you're

coming from, but you can see how it works.

Raez We are going to have to look at all options when the strike is over,

but right now the important thing is to get the trains running again and

to get people back to work and to get people back travelling again.

The Government only tightened up the law, what about a year or so ago? So

whether they could actually do it is another thing altogether. You sense

that pretty much commuters are just stuck in the middle here between

unions, pretty much determined to stand their ground and the company

also prepared to stand their ground and a Secretary of State who is

adamant that at the moment there is nothing he can do.

That was Norman Smith at Westminster.

Andy McDonald is the Labour Shadow Transport Minister.

Heather Barrie is a small business owner.

Ann Matthews is small business owner.

Ann tell us about your business. I have got a small catering vehicle.

We sell coffee and porridge and flapjacks to commuters at Brighton

train station. How is business going? Not great at all. There is a

massive drop, we've noticed over the past eight or ninety months in

general foot fall really. Are you going to have to shut up shop? Yeah,

that's correct. We've taken the decision to actually finish trading

on 23rd December. Wow. How do you feel about that? It is not great. We

have been running this for the last two-and-a-half years. It was new. It

was exciting. It was something really good to do at that point, but

it is not working now. Would you mind Ann just showing us around? Can

you move the camera so we can see your mobile tea shop. We have a

coffee machine in this little corner here. Lovely cabinet here full of

flapjacks. More flapjacks up here. Thank you. Thank you, Ann. Let me

bring in Heather then, how much have you lost because of the strikes? It

will be about ?3,000 in turnover. That's just gone. I can't make it

back once the days have gone, you can't get them back. What is your

business? I run a coffee bar similar to Ann's, I am at arrunnedle train

station. I have noticed on the days when it is just the RMT out, there

are still obviously, there is still commuters and I have to look after

them because they have had torrid journeys the day before, but then on

the days with ASLEF going out, there is no trains, I have no business and

there is nobody there today at all. So I have no income.

We were hoping to talk to the General secretary of ASLEF, Mike

Whelan, he was due to be here, but he hasn't been able to join us.

Let's talk to Andy McDonald who is Labour's transport spokesman. Do you

condemn the strikes, Mr McDonald? This is dreadful the impact this is

having on small businesses and they have lost jobs as a result. I

reserve my condemnation for a Secretary of State who seems to want

to absent himself from this situation. This is a complete

failure of industrial relations and what a Secretary of State should be

doing is getting involved and resolving this and I urge him to

call the parties in, to start talks now without any preconditions and

let's get this resolved. It is resolvable and the people who have

been suffering for all of these weeks and months deserve that

attention by the Secretary of State. I hear your condemnation of the

Government. Do you condemn strike action? Well, Victoria, the courts

have decided that this is a legitimate dispute. The substance of

it isn't about money or terms and conditions, it is about passenger

safety and for me to condemn a strike that's focussed on that is to

effectively say that it is perfectly OK to run these sorts of risks and

they are significant and serious risks and I will never get myself

into a situation where I'm going to be prepared to compromise on

people's safety, that's what this is about. Well, let's talk ton and

Heather. Is it about passenger safety? I have to say I see both

sides of the argument, but I think they have such, I am a train

traveller as well. I want somebody on the train. So I think they have

got a legitimate argument. There will be someone on the train. There

will be the driver and another member of staff. Which I totally

understand. There won't be a guard/conductor? It seems it is

petty that it has come down to who opens the doors, but Southern have

lots of curved platformses. It feels like these two bull elephants are

going at each other and it is everybody, I don't know anybody who

hasn't been affected, it is businesses, mums and students,

everybody has been affected by this and there doesn't seem to be an end.

There is no political will to do anything.

Mr McDonald, to come back to you for a moment, Chris Grayling was saying

this morning that he wrote last night after the court action last

night, he wrote last night to the unions in order to get back around

the table and still hasn't had a response? It is with conditions.

What I'm saying is different. I'm saying have the talks without any

preconditions. That's how you get discussions and negotiations going.

I don't know which way he wants to play this, because on the one hand

he says he can't do anything and yet he is making this proposal. If he is

making the proposal, take the conditions off it and gets the talks

going today. The RMT put forward a proposal that would have accepted

the transmission to on board supervisors, but retaining the same

safety critical competencies whilst new protocols are established in

conjunction with the drivers. That would bring this dispute to an end

immediately and I urge him to take that opportunity to take that offer

and get on with this rather than threatening people with bans on

strikes. I mean, where on earth are we going with that? You don't like

that idea then? That's a horrendous idea to suggest that people would

not have the right to progress their grievances and concerns. This is

about passenger safety at the end of the day. We know for a fact that

there are significant dangers in asking drivers to supervise the...

Well do we know for a fact? A third of the rail network this is exactly

what happens? Horses for courses when you have got the circumstances

that permit driver-only operation, but when you have a known risk and

when the rail safety standards board say whilst there is nothing wrong in

the mechanism DOO makes an accident more likely to happen and if it does

happen, it will be severe. Now, we have seen people dragged down

platforms and sustaining life changing injuries. This is not

something we can just ignore and hope will go away. If we ban people

bringing this to our attention in the way the unions are, what are we

going to do? Allow the whole thing to let rip? We are having a

conversation about injuries and perhaps even worse. So let's avoid

that. Let's get this sorted out and let's listen to people's proper and

legitimate concerns about safety. Go ahead Ann. At Brighton train station

there are two different services. One has conductors at the moment,

guards and the other one doesn't. They're driver honl operated, what's

the difference? They're both leaving the same train station and they have

had the same number of commuters and they are both going to London. Why

do they operate differently? What's the difference? I don't know

the answer to that, Ann, do you Mr McDonald? I don't know about those

specific circumstances, but when you have got 12 carriages and curved

platforms it is putting responsibility on the driver to view

12 and perhaps even more screens that are no bigger than a mobile

phone and to make a decision about the safe dispatch of the train and

we see the scenes of thousands of people crowding upon these platforms

and to put that responsibility upon a driver to say off you g the train

can safely dispatch, is asking for trouble. I think we have got to take

proper note of their concerns. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ann. Thank you for coming on the programme. I wish

you all the best, I really do. Heather, thank you for coming into

the studio. Good luck with your business. Thank you so much.

Adele has dominated the BBC Music Awards for a second year

in a row without ever making an appearance.

She picked up two of the main prizes - Song of the Year,

for Hello, and Album of the Year, for 25.

But Robbie Wlliams, John Legend and the 1975 were plus a rather

strange Ricky Wilson from Kaiser Chiefs posing

A warning, there is flash photography coming up.

So the winner of the BBC Radio 2 Album of the Year goes to...

We just got told about winning this beautiful BBC

We're about to go on stage in Australia.

# It goes a little something like this.

Bieber at the Beeb, Olly Murs, Tom Odell, Bastille's day.

This is the best moment of my whole life.

She can't be here but she sent me instead to accept

Our music reporter, Mark Savage was there last

Does it matter if people who win these awards aren't there? Three

awards went to two that weren't there. They are not giving the

awards to the people who have turned up which is happens at a lot of

these ceremonies. The BBC's argument is we gave it to the right people

and it is a shame they couldn't make it, but Adele is on holiday, she is

on a break from her World Tour and Coldplay are in Australia play to go

millions of people. Who else picked up gongs and what was Ricky Wilson

playing at? Ricky Wilson was stood next to me on the red carpet asking

strange questions! Did you know it was him? I called over the PA to

say, "I think you need to be wary of this guy." They were all in on T

some of the questions he was asking, I was thinking, "I wouldn't get away

with this." Like what? Well, he was asking people what they had for

dinner and whether they were going to burp it up on stage! The 1975 won

the Best Live performance of the year. It sounds like an all right

night. It was a good night out. I only had three hours sleep! I'm

bleary. He gets up at 4. .15am. On the programme tomorrow,

British actor Douglas Booth and we meet the women desperate

to find their sugar daddy.