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The Press Preview, a first look at what is on the front pages. In the next half hour then, we'll see what's making the headlines with the broadcaster and commentator, Alex Andreu, and the former Conservatives Special Advisor, Salma Shah. Welcome and great to see both of you. As ever, we take a look at the front pages first. The I, says, Chancellor Rachel Reeves needs a Christmas miracle to boost the economy. Same story for the front of the Financial Times, as the Chancellor admits she has a huge task to turn around the economy in the New Year. Daily Express leads with the King's Christmas message of unity and hope. Front of the Mail, the King on his choice of an ex-hospital chapel for his speech in a message of national healing. It's the same lead story for the Sun newspaper Good Health, Your Majesty, is their headline. To the Telegraph now on the front, the paper says it can reveal Royal Mail staff have been accused of faking deliveries to hit targets for bonuses. The Guardian says it can exclusively reveal that Thameswater intentionally diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental cleanups towards other costs, including bonuses.

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The Mirror reports that seven in 10 people want a bank holiday to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War. On the front of the Times, more than 10,000 serving sailors, soldiers, and air crew cannot go to war because they've been declared medically unfit. The Daily Star warns of a Christmas internet overload as thousands of people across the country watch and stream online content. A reminder by scanning the QR code that you'll see on screen. You can check out the front pages of those newspapers while you listen to our guests. Let's head to Alex and to Salma. Welcome. Thank you for coming in, Christmas Week. It's Christmas messages time, is it not? Starting with the Daily Express on the King, Alex.

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Yeah, I guess the fundamental part of this message is that having had a cancer scare, and a second one actually in the family with Kate, they're refocusing on what is it that matters about this holiday. That's not a bad thing to be putting out there. We saw that echoed to an extent in most of the leaders' messages as well. We've had so many news in the last 10 days. It's usually a period that begins to quiet down, but we've had an overload of news, and all of them take us to the wider picture, to Germany, to the United States. I think it actually helps to say Let's bring the focus down a little bit. Let's just look at the smaller picture, because how do you make a better future? It is through personal relationships. We're not detached from each other. We are a network to each other. It's only by building on the love and companionship with those around us that we have a visible effect, for ordinary people like us.

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You should You put, I have to say. That was lovely. You diverted a little bit to the leader's Christmas messages, including Sakeer Starmer, which we've had. It is time to remind ourselves what's really important is the quote I think you're probably referring to, family, friendship, and fellowship between all people. So how does it all... Has everybody slightly got the same feeling then, do you think, given global affairs are so traumatic to hear day in, day out for people?

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Yes, but I think that sometimes there's an overload of Christmas messages, and I think you can have a head of state in the form of the monarch that is not political, that delivers something like that, and it doesn't feel as cynical. And I do think that to a certain extent, if you just listen to John Craig talking about his analysis of all the leaders' speeches, there It's perhaps I'm jaded because I've been in politics for such a long time, but there is an element of cynicism to it, I think, because it's engineered in a very particular way to create a certain type of focus. Kierstam is going away on his holidays at some point, he's going to be spending some time abroad. Kemi Badenock is obviously trying to compromise or at least compensate for the fact that she doesn't always come across as personable. And Ed Davie is out there plugging a campaign as good as it may be. So I feel that there is a tinge of cynicism around those Christmas messages, which makes me actually value the sovereign's Christmas message a little bit more.

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Indeed. Well, let's take a look at the front of the sun, also going with it, too. Good health, your Majesty. And this is recurring cancer treatment, isn't it? And I think people genuinely feel that that headline sings for them, too. And his Christmas message will focus on health workers as well who have proved so vital to him and proved so vital to the UK.

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To all of us. I mean, it was less than four years ago that we were standing on our doorstep, applauding people who were literally putting their life in danger in order to help us during that very difficult situation. And I find it extraordinary how quickly that has faded from memory in a strange way. We found in our isolation during the pandemic, we found actually an extraordinary an ordinary amount of togetherness because it was something that we were going through altogether. When I see the King and Kiestama and Beydunok, to a certain extent, all of them echo this message of unity, what that says to me is that that's what they're worried about. This feels like a country that is fracturing a little bit, where fissures are appearing, and it's fragmenting a little bit, and people dislike like each other because they let politics get in their way. That's why I think it's so important to say, go back to the personal. This Christmas, we're all going to be spending time with people who disagree with us on a whole host of stuff. And yet we find a personal way to relate to them, to be in the same space as them, to share other things with them, to share food and presence.

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And there's a lesson there, right? That you don't have to agree on everything. Everything. You don't have to have this negative vetting where if you have one view that I find unpalatable, that's it. I put a big X through you and your entire being is alien to me.

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You're feeding me the lines to go straight back to Sakeer Starmer's message, actually, as well as dealing with the economic inheritance, which I know we're going to come on to momentarily. Sakeer said he needed to fix a broken society which manifested itself in summer riots across the country after these South knife attack. It is a wonderful message you're saying, but actually, politics and people are polarized now. We've seen it in America. We see it here in this country. Whether you can ride that ship or whether people want to ride it is another matter, I think.

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Or indeed, some It's not the choices that he's going to make to do that because there was a strength of feeling at the time. Actually, the three of us discussed it as those riots unfolded, which is the two-tier care accusations, the way that the court processes were run for the riots, but not for other things. There is still a lot of anger and resentment. I think we can have calls for unity, but we actually have to be very honest about why those things are breaking down. Just to talk Unfortunately, to talk about the King's Christmas message, there is something that I find very interesting about this, because the stories are really about the fact that there's been a departure from not sitting behind a desk in the palace, as was the late Queen's style. We are seeing in the way that the British monarchy has always evolved, these tiny little subtle changes that actually are enormous, if you think about how the palace is going to think about it and the signal that it sends. It is a bit more of an approachable monarchy. The fact that he's talking about, or will be, according to the reports, his own cancer diagnosis, something that even 40 years ago when I was born, was unthinkable for the sovereign to reference their own personal health in this way.

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So these tiny little things that are not very necessarily obvious to us, the fact that it's not in a palace, the fact that he is referencing his own story to make it relatable to the story of all these people, I think is a really interesting thing.

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And that beautiful tree we found out today, it had been kept secret, has been donated to a hospice, the oldest hospice, I think, in the UK. The visitors there and people there will enjoy looking at that tree and can see on the Christmas Message Day on the broadcast, which is produced by Sky this year, that it's their tree that they see on their TV screens. In the meantime, let's move on to the economy. You slightly feel that the over-optimistic tone, perhaps in secure star was Christmas message, or optimistic, not over-optimistic, I should say, is to divert attention from the economic news we're having and the reports from business leaders, too, in terms of their confidence in whether they invest or not. This suggestion that Rachel Reeves needs a Christmas miracle to boost the economy, this is not a great reading for numbers 10 or 11, is it?

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No. There has been a nexus of things, some of which were mistakes by the government in things that it did or the way it did things, some of which are part of the inheritance that it got from the previous government. The fact that there was, and I'm sure Salma will agree with me, there is a tendency towards the end of an administration when you know you're probably going to be out to put a few difficult things in drawers and say, Let the next people deal with this review and that wage demand, etc. So yes, there are things coming together, but the economy, strangely, is a creature that does depend on psychology. And optimism, as opposed to pessimism does affect business confidence, consumer confidence. It's one of those strange things where the messaging does matter and where I think labor are now realizing that they went overly glum and overly pessimistic at the start. This is why we're seeing effectively the economy grind to a halt, stagnate, not necessarily go down, but stagnate, and it's not what they want, obviously. They're trying to to change their attitude to a slightly more positive.

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Yes, certainly. Let's look at the Financial Times as well. Reeves is near a challenge laid bare as economic growth grinds to a halt. Flatlining, effectively.

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Yes. The reason this is interesting is because we are now getting groups like the Confederation of British Industries actually coming out and saying, This is really hampering us. We previously had the British Retail Consortium and other large employers saying that they had been massively to be affected. What this is saying, and from a couple of independent sources, economists like Capital Economics, saying that actually growth has ground to a halt. It is very difficult to say that you're coming in to find growth, which was the core labor message, and then finding that actually the actions that you have taken has actually eliminated any growth that was projected previously. This is pretty catastrophic for British business, although we have previously discussed people obviously still hold the Conservatives' It's responsible for it, but there are choices.

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It's a stagnating quarter. Catastrophic, I think, is slightly over putting the emphasis.

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We'll see. Lots more still to come in the next part of our program, including another effectively business story, how millions of passengers are taking to the skies as airlines braced for their busiest Christmas season ever, back in a moment. Paris reverberated to the sights, sounds, and smells of conflict.

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There's a focal point to all this anger, and that is Emmanuel Macron. I'm Adam Parsons, Sky's Europe correspondent, based here in Brussels. There are dozens Hons of people desperately clambering to get onto that boat. It is a chaotic scene, but it's been watched by dozens of French police officers on the beach. I've reported on migration across Europe, close up on the ground and understanding that sense of desperation and meeting the criminal gangs behind it. This old fishing boat set off from the Libyan port of Thrabruck. There were 606 people who were on board. We've been distributing life jackets to all the people on board this boat, now the first person is coming on board. This is the ugly side of Italian football.

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In Italy, everything is really organic.

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Football's problems with hooliganism, racism were just dormant, and now they're back and they're getting worse. We cover so many countries, languages, and cultures, and work hard to gain trust to bring you the full story first. Help is slowly reaching these places. It's not just homes, but whole streets like this one that have been reduced to rubble and dust. This is a picture of destruction. Everywhere you look in this mountaintop community, there is absolute devastation. These are the settlers in waiting, keen to start a new life to annex Gaza for Israel.

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The least we can do is just kick out of Berlin.

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Gaza, which is just two miles in that direction, is under back again. Getting the chance to tell people's stories, it's a privilege.

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I'm James Matthews, and I'm Sky's US correspondent, based here in Washington, DC. Donald Trump, it would appear, is about to learn his fate. There's no doubting the strength of this hurricane as it roars through. Sky News, get the full story first. Do you fear a fourth indictment?

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He's from Sky News. He's from Sky News. He's entitled to ask me questions.

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There's always more to the news than a headline. We want to discover, to delve a little deeper, to find out what's really going on. Explanation, analysis, the people at the heart of every story. I'm Neil Patterson, and this is the Skynews Daily podcast. So by the end, we'll hopefully all understand what's going on in the world just that little better. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

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Well, welcome back. You are watching the press preview with me now, Alex, Andreu, and Salmichal. Welcome back to both of you. Let's go to the front page of the Daily Mail. Their lead story is about the King's Message, but on the front page also is a picture of Shah Al-Assad and his wife with the rumors, speculation, and stories that she wants to divorce him and come back to the UK and needs health treatment. Have you managed to get to the bottom of what the truth is in this, or do we still not know?

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I'm afraid. Well, I do not know. Maybe we'll be enlightened when we get the inside pages of the mail.

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Well, it seemed to have a Russian denial today as well. Why I throw it out there?

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There's been a denial. Asma Al-Assad has publicly said that she was treated for leukemia. There has been some discussion about another cancer that may have affected her. Again, something that I can't verify. But there are questions I think, around her treatment in Moscow and other questions that have existed about the fact that she is a dual national with both British and Syrian citizenship. There has been some question as to whether she might want to return for treatment. There has been some question as to whether it might be a way, or perhaps even talking about a divorce, might be a way for redemption, that she may be able to return. But as I say, this is rumor and speculation.

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Does she have an automatic Is it right of return, or could she be refused?

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She could, I think, having worked in the Home Office, I think she could potentially be refused if the Home Secretary takes a decision to strip her of her citizenship, so deprive her of citizenship, because she would not be rendered stateless, which is the only way that that would be illegal. If she still has recourse to her Syrian citizenship, then maybe... I mean, we'd probably need to talk to a lawyer about this, but there is a possibility, I think, that that could happen.

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It's It's very interesting, isn't it? Either way.

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It's very interesting always in these situations to see power drain away from the people who had it, in this case,Assad, and people beginning to peel off him. And we will see what happens. But people who have ceased to be useful to Putin and become quite troublesome in this situation, they don't tend to do very well in Russia.

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So we will see. That's partly what's also interesting, isn't it? Very quickly, two stories. Not sure we're going to get them in. We only got one minute. Ft, Airlines end their year on a high after a rush for Christmas getaway.

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All I can say is this really surprises me. There's an uptick in people wanting to travel on Christmas Day. The last place I want to be at Christmas, anywhere near, is an airport.

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I thought you were going to say an omishable weather. Royal Mail story, front page of the Daily Telegraph. Just very quickly outline the accusation then here, if you can.

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That basically people come round with a pre-written card that says, We tried to deliver you a parcel, but you weren't in, without actually trying to deliver the parcel. So there's some rationing going on. And I think many of us may have a suspicion that several courier companies may do that occasionally when you go to the door and find a card and you think, I wasn't. I haven't left this house.

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The suggestion seemed to be that that's happening because there's a bonus structure in place. If you meet your target, The Royal Mail statement is, There is no bonus incentive that would encourage items to not be delivered. That would be counterintuitive to our business as a delivery company. Their response to that Daily Telegraph story. Goodness, we need more time, don't we? Certainly. Alex, Salma, thank you both very much indeed. See you next time. All the top stories coming up for you in Sky News at 11.

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There's always more to the news than a headline. We want to discover, to delve a little deeper, to find out what's really going on. Explanation, analysis, the people at the heart of every story. I'm Neil Patterson, and this is the Skynews Daily podcast. So by the end, we'll hopefully all understand what's going on in the world just that little better. Available whenever you get your podcast.

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We've got your Sunday Mornings covered. From the front page and the sounds of the streets to the voices of the people who make the major calls and big picture politics beyond Westminster. We'll put you at the heart of our story, and you start to Sunday. I'm ready. Are you? Join me, Trevor Phillips, Sunday Mornings on Sky News.