hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us. at least 30 people have been killed and more than 160 injured in ukraine after a wave of aerial attacks across the country on friday. ukrainian officials called it the largest missile bombardment of the war so far, saying it has "never seen so many locations "targeted simultaneously." cities hit include kyiv, lviv in the west, odesa in the south, and dnipro, kharkiv and zaporizhzhia in eastern ukraine. this was the scene in dnipro, where a maternity hospital and a shopping centre were hit. at an emergency un security council meeting on friday, countries including the uk, japan and france condemned the russian attack as appalling. translation: russia | is deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure and killing innocent people. this violation of international humanitarian law must be added to the long list of atrocities already committed by russia since the launching of its war of aggression. meanwhile, poland has

put its air defence forces on high alert after a suspected russian missile briefly entered polish airspace on friday. and russian officials say one person has been killed in an overnight ukrainian strike on the russian city of belgorod. from kyiv, our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse reports. it is and always has been the whole of ukraine which is under attack. kyiv is still moscow's biggest prize. air defences have improved here, but this attack proved too much. translation: i was woken up at 7:30 by a horrible sound. i it was so frightening, the missile was flying and everything was buzzing, so noisy. you are left in no doubt that this was a direct missile strike — the scale of the damage, the size of the blast zone, the heat caused. you're more used to seeing damage caused by falling debris when a missile is intercepted, but this reflects the scale

of this russian attack. and scenes like this are being replicated right across ukraine. a lucky escape in kharkiv in the north—east. this city is familiar with missile strikes, but not 20 in a single morning. a shopping centre in dnipro in the east, as well as a maternity hospital, were hit. it didn't stop there. this is the port city of odesa in the south, where a residential block was struck. zaporizhzhia wasn't spared either, where at least eight were killed. even lviv in the west, which sometimes feels far from this invasion, wasn't immune this time. "all military targets were hit", as far as russia's defence ministry was concerned. while moscow is trying

to damage ukrainian morale, president zelensky is trying to boost it, by visiting troops in avdiivka, one of the most hostile parts of the front line. "it's hard," he said. "it's about pain and losses, and these are the people "who keep ukraine alive." his air force says it had never seen so many missiles in one attack. in a war where moscow routinely strikes cities it can't occupy, that is saying something. james waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. to the war in the middle east now. the united nations says an estimated 150,000 palestinians are being forced to flee areas of central gaza, as israeli forces advance on refugee camps there. an israeli airstrike is reported to have killed 20 already displaced people in rafah, a town that many people have fled to in recent days. meanwhile, a hamas delegation has arrived in cairo for talks about a possible truce. hamas is designated a terror organisation by many western governments.

0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil sent this report from jerusalem. explosions a massive israeli bombing in northern gaza turns an extensive network of hamas tunnels into dust. these idf pictures show a well—equipped infrastructure of long and branched—out tunnels in which the army says senior hamas members moved and operated. in central gaza, more than 150,000 people were ordered to evacuate two of the area's biggest refugee camps. and this is where they were told to go for safety — the area of deir al—balah, itself reeling from the aftermath of strikes. translation: we were sitting in our homes peacefully - and all of a sudden, a missile hit and destroyed my house, my neighbour's house, the whole neighbourhood. my children are displaced now, we don't know where to go. have mercy on us, help us. it's a devastating situation. people are sleeping

on the streets. in rafah, now gaza's most densely populated city, according to the un, there's no let—up in the bombardment. children were killed here, 26 people were killed here. i'm terrified. i'm scared and the thought of me being killed or my other brother being killed, it'sjust crossing my mind repeatedly. i already lost my older brother, i can't lose my younger brother. and this is what egypt's ceasefire proposal is up against — an expanding military operation in gaza and a continuing barrage of hamas rockets into israel. a delegation of hamas members is in cairo now forfurther discussions, but there is no guarantee that either side is going to agree to this. and if they do, it will be a long, drawn—out process. for now, the displacement continues, and gazans are running out of places to go.

shaimaa khalil, bbc news, jerusalem. israel says it launched an extensive series of strikes against hezbollah targets in neighbouring lebanon. it says the attacks are in response to missiles fired over the border. these pictures released by the israeli defence forces show them hitting what they describe as "hezbollah infrastructure" near wadi hamul in lebanon. israel says they hit a number of targets, including missile launch sites and a military compound. israel and hezbollah have traded strikes in the wake of hamas's 7 october attacks. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has warned that the lebanese capital beirut would be "turned into gaza" if hezbollah started an all—out war. the us—mexico border has been in focus this week, with top officials from both countries agreeing on thursday to work more closely to tackle a record number of migrant crossings. the agreement came a day after us secretary of state antony blinken met mexican president andres manuel lopez 0brador in mexico city. members of us congress have pressured the biden administration to take

action as border states try to handle migrants. texas has taken drastic measures as record numbers of vulnerable people cross the border. earlier this month its governor passed a state law allowing the arrest of those who cross the border unlawfully. since last april, greg abbott's administration has sent tens of thousands of migrants to mostly democrat—run cities. one of the primary recipients, new york city, now requires that charter buses transporting migrants provide 32 hours notice before arrival. as both mexican and us authorities crack down on immigration, many people headed to the shared border are facing uncertainty in the depths of winter. a short while ago i spoke to mexico's former ambassador to china, jorge guajardo. ambassador, earlier this week we saw the us secretary of state and homeland security secretary meet with the mexican president, they were meeting to discuss migration in mexico city.

and we saw the mexican president say that they had met important agreements. he didn't say exactly what those agreements are but what do you think they might have been? do you think any real progress was made here? well, i think the fact that they are talking about a shared problem is progress in and of itself. there is an issue happening at the border and the fact that mexico and the us are both addressing it as partners i think is great progress. i am not privy to the agreements but i am very optimistic of the fact that they are talking in a respectful, creative and constructive way, so that's how partners are supposed to work, so i was very heartened by this visit. the us has been clear it wants to see mexico take on an even bigger role in curbing the flow of migration into the us and the mexican president said he is willing to do that, to help. how can mexico do so? i mean, what concrete measures could it take to actually curb this massive flow that we're seeing at the moment? well, first of all, there are things mexico can do,

of course, is enforce migratory laws in our southern border with guatemala. but also, there are issues about taking in the immigrants that are not coming into the united states in mexico. in fact, a lot of them are staying to work in monterey — that's my home town in mexico — and there is a big haitian community that initially headed to the united states, were not allowed to go into the united states or are waiting in mexico, and they have been absorbed into the labour force. so, in that sense, that has also helped, but a lot of the issues are, for instance, many of the immigrants crossing the border right now are not mexican — in fact, a big majority are not mexican — and the us is sending them back to mexico and mexico doesn't necessarily have a budget to repatriate to their respective countries, many of whom are from faraway places. so, in that sense, probably working together, we can share the burden, the economic burden, of repatriating the immigrants in the most humane way possible. i want to ask you about

what you said about some migrants coming and staying in some towns and working because we spoke to a republican congressman tony gonzales earlier. his district is upon the us—mexico border, as you're aware, and he says he wants to see mexico do more to curb humanitarian and work visas for people who don't intend to use them. this is what he said. what ends up happening is people from all over the world going to — use mexico city, get these humanitarian visas, legally transit through mexico city and then, they illegally enter the united states. what do you think of that? well, whether or not they enter the us illegally or not, i think that's something for the united states to decide. however, i'm sure you have read in the news all this phenomenon of new shoring in mexico, all this new investment coming into mexico, most of it coming into monterrey — again, where i'm from. and one just assumes that mexico has an endless supply of labour. in fact, that is not the case. there is high labour turnover,

there is need for more labour and a lot of these immigrants — and again, i am mentioning the haitians because if you travel to monterrey, you'll see a big haitian community that has been incorporated into the labour force. working in factories in monterrey, you see a lot of central americans. now, those are notjust getting visas to transit to the united states. maybe they initially did — the fact is nowadays, they are working in monterrey. so how do you convince more people in the mexican perspective to stay and not travel under the us? they are not

necessarily mexicans coming to the us, there are a lot of chinese, africans, central americans, venezuelans, huge numbers of venezuelans and cubans. we have to enforce our immigration laws in our southern border so they don't cross into the country and take advantage of a lax situation to reach the us border — but those who do come with a polite, humanitarian plight, i think mexico, it has a long tradition of absorbing immigrants, granting asylum, maybe we can incorporate them into the labour force within mexico and i think that is a that is already being done. another item the congressmen mentioned to us is to discuss some of the push factors that are creating some of these migration flows we are seeing from countries like venezuela, nicaragua, when people are fleeing violence and also economic hardship. what do you want to see the us do, together with mexico, to address some of those push factors ? immigration is a global phenomenon. it is happening in indonesia, it is happening with bangladesh, people migrating to indonesia, it is happening in europe with syrians migrating, it is a global issue. there are many reasons my people migrate. some are related to climate change, to poverty, to social unrest, to violence, there are many things we can do to help — but at the end of the day

we have to assume the trend leads to greater migratory flows and movements. so we have to be aware, and if we're not going to be absorbing them, at least we have to provide a humane way to deal with the issue. cruelty is no way to deal with migrants, and oftentimes we get confused and think using them as a political ball helps, it doesn't. it is a very tragic situation that forces people to migrate, and i guess it is on us to give them a humane treatment. ambassador, really good to get your perspective on this issue, thank you forjoining us. let's turn to some important news around the world. lawyers for the russian opposition activist, ksenia fadeyeva, say she's been jailed for nine years for extremism. she had led jailed opposition leader alexi navalany's now—banned organisation in the siberian city of tomsk. her supporters say she will appeal to the highest court. the sentence comes as president vladimir putin vies for re—election in march. turkey's interior minster says that security forces have detained at least 29 people suspected of having links to the islamic state.

the raids on friday came a week after police arrested more than 300 people with alleged ties to the group, part of a security drive in the run up to new year festivities. us prosecutors say they do not plan to conduct a second trial against sam bankman—fried, who was convicted last month of stealing from customers of his now—bankrupt ftx cryptocurrency exchange. in a letter filed in federal court in manhattan, prosecutors said much of the evidence that would be offered at a second trial was already presented at the first trial, and there was a "strong public interest in a prompt resolution" of the matter. it's been a busy week in us politics in the lead up to the 2024 presidential elections. the state of maine opted to kick republican front—runner donald trump off the primary ballot. that decision won't take effect pending an appeal. but it follows a similar ruling in colorado. they both found the former president ineligible to hold office because of his actions after the 2020 election, arguing he engaged in insurrection. mr trump is expected to appeal the decision in maine.

let's take a look at the states where mr trump's elligibility is being questioned. colorado and maine — the states that have opted to remove him — are in bright red on this map. but it is a different story elsewhere. in dark red are michigan and minnesota, whose top courts have both rejected efforts to take mr trump off the primary ballot, and california, whose secretary of state has decided to keep mr trump on the ballot there. we're still waiting to see which way 0regon goes — a similar case there is pending. the campaign season officially kicks off in iowa in a little more than two weeks. i spoke to rina shah and luke broadwater. we have these conflicting decisions that we see from these various states. it's getting confusing but luke, what do you think, looking at the reaction from the trump campaign, what has the impact has been so far? right, well, trump is obviously using these rulings to try to rally support around him. he often likes to portray himself as under attack

by thejudiciary, by the courts, to try to rally his base to send him more money for his campaign. he has had some success with rallying his base behind him in the past when there has been adverse court decisions. ultimately this case is going to have to be decided by the supreme court because there are conflicting court rulings in different states. you can see how it could be very, very bad for donald trump if he is kicked off the ballot in state after state after state, so the supreme court will have to decide, does the 14th amendment apply to donald trump's conduct? is he an insurrectionist who does not deserve be on the ballot? do you agree this ultimately has to be decided by the supreme court, rina? i find the cases in colorado and maine clear—cut and constitutional conservatives should cheer these decisions because they are rooted in legality, in the us constitution.

that's the reason given here and for colorado of course it was the supreme court there, sojurors, and in maine it was unilaterally decided by the secretary of state. if we are a nation of laws, the laws on the book should apply to states doing what they wish, expressing the will of their people to have who they believe should be on the ballot and who should not be on the ballot. the very complicating matter he is the conflict of federalism which always seems to complicate our politics. it's the division between the federal government and state government and its the aftermath of these two decisions that have been extremely recent. what i continue hearing from republicans who actually don't even support trump is that voters should decide at the ballot box, not jurors or bureaucrats, but again i say that this is a decision in which states can do what they wish to do and then of course the supreme court could choose to take these cases up or not to, but again it's about the will of the people and the laws on the books have said

the secretary of state in maine can make this decision and the supreme court of colorado can make this decision. again, rooted in the 14th amendment. i want to get your thought on that because we also spoke with the maine secretary of state last night after the decision who said she felt duty bound by precisely her state's laws but at the same time republican voters and republicans say this is disenfranchising voters. you could make a good argument that if you read the plaintext of the 14th amendment, which i think she did and also the court in colorado did, that this applies very clearly to donald trump and if you have an evidentiary hearing and hear the facts of what happened on 6 january and the build—up to it, he should be disqualified. that said, a lot of people don't like the politics of that. they think that voters should decide about who can be on the ballot, who can

be the next president, and so if this does get decided by the supreme court which i think eventually the supreme court will have to rule on this, they are going to have to weigh that textual reading of the constitution against a decision that will be wildly unpopular with many republicans and many people who think the voters should determine whether trump is the next president, not the courts. rina shah, one more question and as luke mentioned earlier, will this just benefit the former president donald trump? donald trump being disqualified from certain states' ballots does not help him at all. if he goes on to be the gop's nominee, which after mid—march there is a point of no return, if nobody else in the gop primary field can do the delegate math, catch up to trump at that point, he becomes the presumptive nominee going into the summer convention.

this is a situation which our founding fathers built in the mechanism in the 14th amendment to leave out a person that they felt had engaged in insurrection, that activity, to not be able to be eligible to lead the country. i don't see how this is so controversial and there are many who say we are already in the waters of a constitutional dilemma. i don't believe it to be so. again, this could get kicked to the supreme court who can make a decision that would overturn a state's decision. pulling back for a moment, it's important to realise the politics here, one big thing is that the same people that were applauding the supreme court decision to kick the issue of abortion back to the states are the same people now saying that the state should not be able to disqualify trump from the ballot. it does not make sense, it is a bit hypocritical, and it's very (audio cuts) look at the constitution. we'll have to see what the supreme court does, but i want to ask you both about a very different topic —

foreign policy — which does not often play a consequential role in presidential elections, but if you look at what's happening now with the gaza—israel war, it's been deeply divisive here in the us, and we're pulling up a pole from the new york times and siena college last week which showed voters broadly disapprove of president biden's handling of the conflict. luke, in general this has been a question that's deeply divided democrats as well, hasn't it? right. biden is in a very tough place here politically. the democratic party is very much divided about how to respond to the war in gaza. he has been, president biden, a staunch supporter of israel and there are a lot of people in the democratic base who believe he should insist on some restraints on israel, that there should not be the type of bombing that's going on in gaza right now where so many innocent people are getting killed. there is a divide on the democrat side and on the republican side

they will be opposed to what biden does no matter what, so that is why you see his poll numbers so low on the issue of the war in gaza. republicans are uniformly against him no matter what and then there is a divide among democrats. rinas do you think this is going to end up hurting president biden, as many people have speculated, particularly among arab—american and muslim american voters? i already see this hurting biden. many of these muslim voters have felt betrayed by biden. the same voters feel that why does the us have to have israel's back at every turn? it would take a longer segment to get into that but the reality is this that you can be as supportive of the jewish community, of the jewish people, you could be against what happened on 7 october but you also don't have to be pro the actions of this israeli government and by that i mean netanyahu and his people. so there is a lot of grey area

here but for muslim americans that betrayal is so severe and i must say we are more technologically connected to the ballot box than ever before and in the same way we we're technologically connected to what is happening and therefore it really, really touches american hearts and minds in a way that you don't even have to be a muslim american feel the way you feel about how our administration has really failed us in not taking the proper steps, and being too supportive of netanyahu and his actions in the aftermath of 7 october. this is something biden has to correct course on and i don't find it that controversial to say that. (audio cuts) commited here are so severe on a daily basis. thank you. we will see what the biden administration does policy but good to get your thoughts night. thank you so much. thank you. the us military�*s robot space plane blasted off from florida

on its seventh mission. it's the first launch atop the spacex falcon heavy rocket, which is capable of delivering rockets into a higher orbit than ever before. the launch followed more than two weeks of false starts and delays due to poor weather and technical issues. the pentagon disclosed few details about the mission, but said the space plane will carry out a series of classified experiments. its previous trip lasted more than 900 days. one more thing we want to show you before we go. and we're just a couple of days away from new years eve, but the confetti is already falling in new york city's times square. take a look at these images. organisers of the big new year's eve celebrations did a test run for when an estimated 3,000 pounds of confetti will fall from rooftops overlooking times square. the entertainment company leading the festivities said no details can be overlooked, including the quality of the confetti. on new year's night, volunteer dispersal engineers will drop the confetti on the street

to usher in 202a. that's all for our show at the cell. our colleagues in that it will take over with an update of the headlines at the top of the next hour. i am sumi somaskanda in washington. thank you for watching. hello. well, new year's eve is just around the corner. obviously, a lot happening, but we've also got some bad weather on the way. and here's some advice for you this weekend — with the very heavy rain and the gale force winds, there could be some disruption, certainly some delays are likely. and on top of that, we've got snow on the way for the northern hills and mountains. and here's the area of low pressure as it approaches us during the course of early saturday. now, ahead of it, the weather's actually not too bad. there'll be some clear spells and some chilly, frosty weather in scotland but elsewhere, you can see that milder weather already setting in. so, here's the low pressure — lots of isobars here. obviously, the more isobars there are, the stronger

the winds. here's that weather front as it sweeps across ireland towards the west of england, wales and scotland. some snow there, blizzards across the mountains. temperatures around 12 degrees in the south, ten in liverpool. further north, it will be colder. now, how about that really rough weather? well, it'll happen along this cold front here. very strong winds around coastal areas, exposed spots 60, maybe even 70 miles an hour. very windy inland, too. notice how that weather front curls into the centre of this low pressure. and that cold front actually doesn't reach eastern areas until very late — early hours of sunday, in fact. so, the low pressure barrels across the uk into new year's eve and, actually, many of us find ourselves in the centre of that low. why is that important? well, actually, the winds are very light in the heart of the low here. that also means that any showers will linger for a long period of time. there's just a few sunny spells around. the stronger winds will be towards the south. and then, if we head towards midnight, this is roughly what it will look like. i mean, this forecast will still change —

the details and the positions of these showers — but, broadly speaking, notice this patchy nature of rain and also, the clear spells at the stroke of midnight. so, further north, i think this is where the best of the weather will be, here around central and north—western scotland. further south across the uk, we've got the strong winds and also those frequent showers. and then, new year's day, another area of low pressure heads our way, another set of weather fronts, a more prolonged spell of rain. so, really, the first week of 2024 is looking very unsettled. relatively mild with those temperatures typically around sort of ten — 8—10 degrees, i think, for most of us. that's it from me. bye— bye.

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. i'm on a journey to explore azerbaijan. neither asia nor europe, this is a country where a colourful past and prosperous present intertwine. the price of the caviar in azerbaijan is like four times less than in the uk. filled with ancient wonders, it's a place where the natural world has shaped its history for generations.

a unique country, with nine climate zones. it borders russia to the north, iran to the south, with the caspian sea on one side, and georgia and armenia on the other. i want to explore the many faces of azerbaijan, both old and new, through its people, culture and food to find out more about this diverse and complex country. baku is a swing! it's a jazz! fish, yeah! my favourite — i love fish. nazrin, hi. and, there are horses! yeah. i didn't know we're going to have horses. i'm also here to find out why the likes of you and me, potential tourists, are seen as the bright new hope as an alternative to black gold. so, welcome to azerbaijan.

when you look at the guidebook, or on travel websites,