it's the czech republic's deadliest mass shooting in decades. and a us judge frees an oklahoma man who spent 48 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. the united nations security council's vote calling for "urgent humanitarian pauses" in the israel—gaza war has been delayed again until friday. despite intense talks, the us says it still has serious concerns over the wording. the negotiations come as the world food programme says that all of gaza's 2.2 million people are suffering acute shortages and almost 600,000 are starving, as israel continues an almost complete blockade. a security council resolution to let more aid in has been delayed since monday as member states try to work out a draft

that the united states won't veto. the us says it wants to make sure israel still has control over goods moving into gaza, to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. 0ur united nations correspondent, nada tawfik, has the latest from new york. what i heard from one diplomat is that they've made more progress today than they have all week and that they are narrowing the gaps. what we have received is the latest draft resolution and it is different in key aspects from the last proposal. instead of calling for a suspension of hostilities, the draft now calls for urgent steps to immediate allowance of safe and unhindered humanitarian access with creating conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities, so the wording there toned down from the original draft. the resolution on the table now also appoints a senior humanitarian and reconstruction co—ordinator that will then

appoint a un mechanism to try to speed up aid into gaza. so it is all quite a mouthful but these are the proposals on the table. this was made to try to prevent a us veto to get the united states on board with this resolution. meanwhile, the israeli army says that it has destroyed a significant tunnel network used by hamas to move weapons and supplies in gaza. israel says it has killed more than 2,000 palestinian fighters since a week—long truce collapsed at the start of this month. as the fighting continues, negotiations are ongoing in egypt to try and broker a new truce and secure the release of more israeli hostages. elsewhere, the world health organization has said northern gaza has been left without a functional hospital due to lack of fuel, staff and supplies. a team leader said that hospitals have now become hospices. meanwhile, officials from gaza's hamas—run health ministry say more than 20,000 people have been killed since the israeli offensive began, including thousands

of children. yollande knell reports from jerusalem. in khan younis, drones and shelling are the soundtrack of this war. a new day in gaza brings no escape from the relentless bombardment. for little riyan, the attacks have taken a cruel toll. her uncle now cares for her in a local hospital. when herfamily�*s home was hit by an israeli strike last month, she lost her parents and her brother and sister. she was crushed and has had a brain haemorrhage. "her situation�*s very difficult," he says. "she really needs to be taken abroad for treatment, but so far we've not managed to send her out." deep in gaza, israeli troops take on hamas fighters in fierce urban battles. israel says the war here won't end until hamas is toppled from power — and eliminated.

it believes hamas leaders are now probably hiding in tunnels like these. this footage shows an underground network connecting places where they used to live in gaza city, the israeli army says. we can't independently verify these images, but they appear to show passages with blast doors and electricity. this israeli officer says new extensions were being built. deep down. a tunnel which was built for the last few months. you can see here the lift, heavy—duty lift. with such immense suffering in gaza, there are new international calls for at least a humanitarian pause that could see more aid going in and the release of more israeli hostages. hamas is insisting on a full ceasefire. britain says it's pushing for a new un resolution. everything that can be done must be done to get aid into gaza to help people in the desperate situation

they're in, and on that level we've been talking about the united nations security council resolution, where we are very keen to see consensus arrived at. more than 20,000 people have been killed in gaza in the past 2.5 months, local health officials say. as diplomatic efforts wind on, that number is continuing to grow. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. earlier i spoke about gaza's deepening humanitarian crisis with lecturing fellow at duke university rachel george. welcome. you'll have seen today from the world health 0rganization talking about northern gaza and saying essentially there is no more functioning hospitals there. talk to us about what that means for anyone i suppose who is still in the area, civilians who have not managed to get out?

absolutely and thank you, it is a really horrific situation. as you said, there are reports of no more functioning hospitals in northern gaza, the closure of al—ahli hospital and al—shifa hospital means there are simply no areas that the civilians, those who remain, are able to seek the care they need. the world health organization has said hospitals are becoming hospices and indeed the lack of fuel, power, medical supplies and health workers means that there really is no fair chance for getting medical care that people need in that area. israel did claim that some five hospital buildings were directly involved in harbouring hamas terrorists, warned 20 hospitals in the north to evacuate, but there are civilians in need there and there are special concerns forwomen, children and those requiring support in the area. as you would have been tracking this week as well, we know diplomats in the united nations have been

in these negotiations all week, trying to get the resolution for a halt in fighting to get the aid in. it's been delayed once again this evening. at this stage, you've studied the humanitarian system, what do you make of the un system's ability to make any impact on this situation right now? absolutely. it is a great question. we know this has been a delayed vote, it is down to technicalities, the idea we are hearing now that the idea of the wording for steps toward humanitarian access for suspension of hostilities rather than cessation, it is a small move to try and support some sort of solution here to get immediate access for the humanitarian crisis. the issue is that we know that humanitarian corridors, ceasefires and pauses are really quite limited tools in conflicts and in fact between 1989 and 2000 more than 2,000 ceasefires were declared globally. each year about a third of ongoing civil conflicts observe at least one

ceasefire by the evidence is that they are pretty limited in their impacts and in fact, if temporary, they can lead to future escalations. so here that is where my concern is. we know this is a really important tool, but if if surgically and creatively delivered can quell some violence, but look to sudan where we have seen at least 16 failed ceasefires in that conflict, we've seen violations of humanitarian corridors in many areas, so evenjust getting to the step is going to be a hurdle. the next step would be successfully delivering it. before you even get there, if you look at international humanitarian law and study it, as you do of course, what we know is that civilian infrastructure, hospitals, they are all meant to be protected under international humanitarian aid law. the idf though has said that hamas has been using hospitals, for example, as bases, command centres and so on, so does that complicate things in this instance? absolutely. unfortunately, it does.

so, as you've said, international law is clear, article 18 of the first geneva convention guarantees that civilian hospitals may in no circumstances be the object of an attack and article 20 goes on to protect healthcare workers. however, the blurred line that israel can point to in this law is when these hospitals move from being purely hospitals to being sort of military...areas of military activity and in fact launching attacks. this is where the grey area of international law is failing the humanitarian needs of this crisis. where we have seen violations before in ukraine, some 15% of medicalfacilities have been attacked, sudan again, maybe 70% of sudan's medical facilities no longer function, so international law is failing to protect medical facilities and that's where we're seeing israel able to sort of point to these blurred lines

and the human civilian costs that are ensuing are really tragic. rachel george, lecturing fellow at duke university. thank you for walking us through all of that. appreciate it. thank you. the czech government has declared a national day of mourning after a mass shooting in which at least 14 people were killed and dozens more injured. it happened in the heart of prague and is the deadliest attack in modern czech history. on thursday afternoon the gunman opened fire at charles university's faculty of arts in the city's old town. an area that is a major tourist attraction. police killed the gunman at the scene and say he was a student at the university. the gunman�*s father had been found dead at his home earlier in the day. the bbc�*s sarah rainsford has more. the centre of prague was transformed today into a major crime scene. armed police rushed towards a university building as a government stalked the corridors there.

at that point, he was still on the loose. these were the scenes at charles university — desperate students clinging for their lives to a ledge. their fear of falling overtaken by their fear of the gunmen, metres away on the roof. as the shooting began, students had to barricade themselves into classrooms, told to hide with the lights off. students had to lock up themselves in their room. they put furniture in front of the doors. they were ready to fight with the suspect if the suspect will come inside the room where they have been locked. down below, crowds scattered in fear. ordered to clear the area and take cover, although many had no idea what danger they were running from.

prague is full of tourists this time of year. some described hearing shots fired and panic. multiple ambulances were sent to the scene. some of those injured are in a very serious condition. gunshots weren't obvious at first. i remember the first one, i looked atjoe and said, "is that... 7" — almost questioning myself. then you saw people running and heard screams and you thought, "it can't be". you tell yourself, you see it on the news and think, you are not going to be in it. in that situation. and then you hear another one, and another one. and we were like — and we heard police sirens and it became clear we need to get out of here. the attacker has now been named as local media as david kozak. they say he made disturbing posts leading up to the shooting on a social

media account. translation: l have no - understanding of the motive yet. i'm talking about a high performing student who got inspired by another heinous act elsewhere in the world. this evening the czech government announced the man behind the attack had been eliminated, as they put it. his father had been found dead at his home earlier in the day. the motive is not clear yet but the government says there is no link to international terrorism. it is the worst shooting in this country in decades and a huge shock. sarah rainsford, bbc news, prague. 48 years after being wrongly imprisoned for murder, glynn simmons was declared innocent by a judge in the state of oklahoma. simmons is now understood to be the longest—serving inmate to be declared innocent of a crime. earlier, i spoke tojohn coyle, an attorney for glynn simmons, and ali meyer, an oklahoma

reporter who has investigated this case for decades. john, i'd like to start with you if i may. this is undoubtedly a moment in us history. what does it mean to you. most importantly, as well, what does it mean to glynn simmons? how is he feeling right now? well, glynn is one of the most gracious people that i've had the privilege of knowing. and he just walks around with this glow on his face. he can't believe that after that long in prison, he's free. free now for the rest of his life. i mean, of course, both joe norwood, the other lawyer, and myself, we take great pride in what happened to glynn, and when he got out. but it was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen in my whole life when the judge ordered that the shackles be removed from his hands and that he be freed.

ali, i hope you don't mind me quoting something that i saw the former governor of oklahoma, david walters, write about in x, formerly known as twitter. he called your reporting efforts, "like a dog with a bone"", because you had been at this case, reporting on it for years. what kept you investigating this all this time? 20 years. it's hard to imagine sticking with any story for 20 years, is it not. i first interviewed glynn in prison in 2003 — a 25—year—old pup reporter. what kept me going was knowing that something wrong had gone on in this case. knowing that his trial was unfair, and knowing that an innocent man was imprisoned for a crime he did not do. that would keep anyone going. what was that feeling? was it gut instinct? was it sifting through the evidence? i would say the facts of the case. we're all familiar with dna exoneration over the years. we know that mistakes happen. but the difficult thing about glynn's case is that there was no dna.

there was no physical evidence introduced in trial at all. the entire case rested on the eyewitness testimony of an 18—year—old girl who had been shot in the back of the head. and in 1975, that was good enough to get a death penalty conviction and send a man to death row. but what we know today is eyewitness testimony is flawed and trauma is a factor. what she could see at the time was a factor. and he would just never be convicted under what we now know today to be fair in trial. john, tell us more about that. what did that breakthrough feel like? when did you know that you were at the turning point? well, i thought because of all the work, really, almost all of the work in this case was done by ale meyer and her reporting — it was terrific. we knew that we had a chance in this last year if we really pushed this case hard because of the flawed eyewitness testimony. and we learned that police had

actually withheld from us a report where one of the witnesses did not, in fact, identify glynn simmons. they identified another person. and as we went through the evidence, much like ali has, and through all of it, itjust appeared that glynn didn't do the crime. so we got all of his relatives that saw him in louisiana at the time that the murder occurred. he was in louisiana at a family gathering and we had about 15 of them who made the sacrifice, came to oklahoma and testified to what happened those 23, 2a years ago.

so, ali, here we are today. you've followed every nuance and twist and turn of this casement and i knowjohn has described glynn essentially radiating happiness. but it can't be easy, you know. he was imprisoned since he was 22. how has he been trying to get his life back on track? what's that been like for him? asjohn has said, he is ecstatic. glynn will tell you — he manifested these past few months his whole life. he knew he wasn't guilty of this crime and he envisioned and he dreamed about this day and his dream came through when he had two capable lawyers who helped him win this case in court. he is gracious. he is giving back to the community. we all thought that he would probably decide to go back to louisiana, his home town, but he decided instead to stay in oklahoma and to make a difference in this community. he is speaking to other groups of people about his wrongful

incarceration, and really wants to contribute to the criminal justice movement. and john, we've got about a minute left. but what about financial compensation? of course, you can't get that time become. but is there financial compensation for something like this? yes, he sure will. he'll get financial compensation, of only $175,000 from the state. but then, we are planning now to file a federal lawsuit on his behalf against the jurisdictions and the police departments that locked him up in the first place. and for that, we hope to get enough money to really make glynn to be able to live comfortably in the last years of his life. you know, we got to set some kind of example around this country about locking up people wrongfully, and about picking on black people particularly. and it's better than it was 23

years ago, but it's got a long way to go. thank you so much to you both. great to talk to you. thank you. attorneyjohn coyle and journalist ali meyer. the united nations says the civil war in sudan is the world's largest displacement crisis. more than seven million people have fled their homes since the conflict began in april. the humanitarian situation has deterioriated following the suspension of aid from the un and red cross, who said it was too dangerous to operate. here's our correspondent kalkidan yibetal. hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the city of wad madani in the span of a few days. now, this is sudan's second largest city, which has been described as a sanctuary and a safe haven for people who flee violence. since fighting broke out in april, many people have come from khartoum and other parts of the country seeking refugee here. it was a sort of humanitarian hub, where many aid agencies

operate based here. now, after the rsf forces raided the city earlier this week, things were turning from bad to worse. many people were already impacted by the conflict and who have been left without homes are now finding themselves on the move again. many are scattered out of the city and they are fleeing the violence on foot without much on their backs. and in the past few days, reports of summary executions, sexual violence and looting of property have been reported. health facilities, including hospitals, have been attacked. relief agencies are announcing that they're suspending their operations in the city of wad madani because they find it difficult to operate after the city was captured by the rsf. this could only mean bad news for the millions who are desperately dependant on aid. rights organisations and western countries have been sounding the alarm bells, and calling for the protection

of civilians as this war drags on. but civilians continue to pay a heavy prays. british and french border officials are claiming success in reducing the number of small boats crossing the english channel by more than a third this year. the uk has spent millions of dollars to help the french stop illegal migration to england, but tens of thousands of people are still attempting the dangerous journey. 0ur correspondent andrew harding reports from calais, france. a cold, clear night on a beach south of calais, french police on patrol. a beefed—up force, looking to block small boats with migrants from setting off across the channel. so here's the inflatable. we're told it's just been abandoned. in fact, you can see here where the police have already slashed it to make sure that the migrants can't use it again. we're told about 50 people were trying to get

into the water just a few yards away. these are the inner tubes that they were going to use, instead of life jackets. extraordinary to think 50 people, cramming inside this flimsy thing, to try and get across to england. nearby, just before dawn, we find two families who failed to cross tonight huddled at a bus stop. the boat was broken and i don't going. the water was up. did the waves get bigger? yeah. so you had to come back? yeah. 17—year—old faiza, from iraq, asked us to hide her identity. i have no place to going. you're very sad? yeah, very sad. we have no chance. what will happen to you? i have no idea. just sitting, unsure how my life is...

bad to bad to bad. so you've got one of the waiting areas over, behind. daytime, up the coast, in calais. french police talk tactics with their british counterparts — a sign of growing cooperation. britain is now providing france almost half a billion pounds for equipment like drones, and to double the manpower to tackle the smugglers. so, is it making a difference? "the results speak for themselves," says mathilde potel, from the french border police. "this year, the number of crossings has dropped by 35%." we have seen significant improvements in prevention of small boat launches. we've seen a reduction in the number of arriving individuals this year in this way. and overall, we are continuing to see the fruits of our labour and of our investment, as these additional resources come on board throughout the next year. it is a big drop and,

yet, in a muddy clearing near calais, the crowds keep coming — from afghanistan, from sudan — ready to risk death in the channel and ignoring warnings that britain may send them to rwanda. it worries you, but it's not stopping you? not stopping us. i'm still trying to go to uk, but hope they don't send us to rwanda, yeah. suddenly, a rush to leave, as the smugglers usher one group away for another attempted crossing tonight. andrew harding reporting there. you're watching abc news live from washington, dc. a£111" from washington, dc. our colleagues _ from washington, dc. our colleagues in _ from washington, dc. our colleagues in london - from washington, dc. 0ur colleagues in london take over now —— abc news. hello. at long last, we've reached that turning point to the year in which days gradually start to stretch out. once again, it is the winter solstice today, barely five hours and 50 minutes of daylight at lerwick. but come the 20th ofjune

next year, there'll be nearly 19 hours. now, the weather today, though, not quite as windy as it was yesterday, this is the remnants of storm pia and it's going to cause huge problems around parts of northeast germany and poland. we're though still in the wake of it with plenty of cloud pushing its way in and weather fronts, which will stop the temperature from dropping too much tonight across much of the uk, the exception being northern scotland. so cold and winter here, icy conditions around, more snow flurries in shetland and a bit of snow mixed in with the rain in northern scotland but turning bright at later in the day. brightening up too across wales, southern parts of england, the channel islands after a cloudy start with some patchy drizzle. but this zone from southwest scotland, northern ireland through northern england towards east anglia, staying rather cloudy throughout the day. outbreaks of rain. now, while it's not as windy as yesterday, that northwest wind is still going to be quite gusty in places and it will limit the way things feel. maybe not quite as mild as it was during thursday, but barely above freezing in shetland. now with that cold air in place, weatherfront pushing its way in through friday night into saturday, we could see some significant

snow in the mountains of scotland, icy conditions around as well. but you can see just how limited that cold air is placed — the blue colours on the chart elsewhere, another very mild night to take us into the weekend. but for the weekend, high pressure is established way towards the southwest, toppling around it, the cloud, more weatherfronts, but also much, much milder air. if anything, temperatures will creep up even further this weekend. the exception being on the northern side of that weatherfront, significant snow, as i said, in parts of scotland, even to lower levels for a time, never reaching the mild air towards shetland through the day and rain will continue to fall across western scotland throughout. so, there could be some flooding issues here. six degrees in aberdeen, three in lerwick, most though around 12 or 13 degrees. as we go into sunday, well, we've got a weather front which willjust straddle the country bringing more cloud, outbreaks of rain. so christmas eve, there will be some scattered rain, a little bit of brightness, but it could potentially be one of the warmest christmas eves on record. temperatures up

to around 15 degrees. that warmth continues into christmas day, a grey one rather than a white one. but if you wanted to get out for a good walk on boxing day, it's looking good.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. are the machines about to take over? that basic fear seems to underpin much of the discussion about artificial intelligence, and parallel developments such as synthetic biology. the latest wave of tech advances offers us extraordinary new possibilities, but do we flawed human beings have the will and the means to contain and control them? well, my guest is mustafa suleyman, ceo of inflection ai and the author of a challenging book on al and us. is that a doomed relationship?