live from washington, this is bbc news. south korea's main opposition leader has been stabbed during a public event. the country's president has called the attack �*unacceptable'. at least eight people have been killed after a major earthquake struck japan. thousands evacuated from coastal areas, though all tsunami warnings have now been lifted. israel's supreme court strikes down judicial reforms that sparked widespread protests last year. it's seen as a blow to prime minister benjamin netanyahu. and from the house of mouse and into the public domain, disney's copyright on its earliest version of mickey expires.

hello, i'm helena humphrey. we have a story developing in south korea, where the country's main opposition leader has been stabbed. a warning that we are about to show you some graphic images. lee jae—myun was touring the site of a proposed airport in the southern port city of busan when he was attacked by an unidentified man. south korea's yonhap news agency says the assailant approached him claiming to be a supporter and asked for an autograph, before stabbing him on the left side of his neck with a weapon approximately 20 to 30 centimeters long. yonhap says mr lee remained conscious throughout, and was rushed to a local trauma ward for treatment the attacker was arrested at the scene. the 59——year—old mr lee is the leader of south korea's democratic party, and was the close runner—up in the 2022 presidential election. through a spokesperson, the country's president,

yoon seok—yeol said he was deeply concerned for mr lee's safety, and that he has directed police and relevant authorities to get him the best possible treatment and quickly find the truth about the incident. he added that south korean society could not tolerate violence under any circumstances. turning now to japan where authorities are still assessing the damage after a powerful earthquake struck the country on new year's day. at least a dozen people are reported dead, according to local media. thousands of rescue personnel have been dispatched tuesday, but are struggling to navigate badly damaged roads. the epicentre of the 7.6 magnitude quake, was in the province of noto. tremors were felt hundreds of miles away in the capital tokyo. tens of thousands of people were told to head to higher ground. tsunami warnings have now been lifted. several aftershocks have been reported in the region. these are the latest images coming from wajima city, which was particularly hard hit.

you can see crews battling several fires amid collapsed buildings. and here — firefighters are working to rescue people believed to be trapped under the ruins of a seven—storey building. both the uk and us have said they're ready to provide any necessary assistance to japan. prime minister kishida has described the damage as "extensive." translation: the self defence forces will face many difficulties reaching the disaster hit areas because roads have been cut off, people and buildings will be rescued as soon as possible before buildings collapse. i have ordered officials to do everything they can to get to disaster hit areas. the bbc�*s suranjana tewari has this report from japan. this footage from inside someone's home captures the moment the powerful earthquake struck. some staff at this news network took cover, while others wanted to cover the story.

the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struckjust after 4:00 in the afternoon, local time. it was caught on camera in this supermarket. there was chaos and confusion. tsunami warnings were issued, then downgraded, on the ishikawa coastline, and people were told to head to higher ground. translation: | would| like to ask all residents to continue to pay close attention to the occurrence of this strong earthquake. if you are in a region where a tsunami is expected, please evacuate as soon as possible. more than 140 kilometres from the epicentre, this video was taken by english teacher barnie davis. itjust kept going. it was really long. the fridge door was opening and shutting, pictures were going all over the place, everything fell off the shelves. it was pretty dramatic. barnie and his family went

to the local evacuation centre until he was told it was safe to return home. but then... literally just as we're talking, my phone's given us an alert, there's been another little earthquake up north again. the whole evening, there have been aftershocks. despite the damage to roads and buildings, this earthquake is not as severe as 2011, when a magnitude nine quake triggered a tsunami, leading to a nuclear meltdown at the fukushima power plant. this time, all nuclear facilities are currently unaffected. 0ur reporter suranjana tewari was injapan when the quake hit. shejoined mejust hours ago with more. tell us the latest on the ground where you are. authorities have downgraded

the latest tsunami warning, they issued an issue in ishiwaka prefecture as soon as the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck, did trigger waves of one metre across the west coast as japan, even as far as south korea. what we do know is buildings have been damaged. some fires were started. some people have died and many more remain trapped. the army have been deployed to try and help with the response. i am actually in a neighbouring prefecture, nagano, in the mountains and i was here on holiday and i actually, we got an alert on our phones, because japan has a very sophisticated tsunami and earthquake warning system, we got alerts on our phones and sirens before we felt the shaking as far as this neighbouring prefecture. for people who have had to evacuate, what kind of conditions have they been staying in? do we have any idea about the level of destruction or when they will be

able to go back home? the big fear is that coastal area and the fear of the earthquake triggering a tsunami, the government says around 100,000 people have been asked to move to higher ground. many people spent the night in evacuation centres, again because japan is a hotbed of seismic activity, it has a lot of these plans in place, these preparations in place, so everyone knows where their local evacuation centre would be. and the other issue though is electricity power cuts, tens of thousands of homes do not have electricity and we are sitting nearfreezing temperatures in some areas that are affected. for people who are affected who did not manage to evacuate on—time, tell us the search and rescue operations that continue and the potential

sadly for the death toll to rise? it was night injapan, the earthquake struck at 4pm and it became dark very quickly, in winter it becomes very dark quickly, overnight it was not clear how bad the damage has been, the authorities have said it is quite difficult to access the quake—hit areas because of roadblocks but because the roads have been damaged in the area, and responders are struggling to reach people but now that the sun has gone up, they will be able to see how much damage there is been, we are hearing reports of damage to infrastructure and the transport network has also been affected. briefly, you mentioned you received a text message alert have there been any

reports of people saying they were not warned about the possibility of a large—scale earthquake? not as far as we have seen, as i mentioned because japan has so many earthquakes, there is such a big threat of earthquakes they have a very sophisticated warning system. i will say the, i received the alert and very quickly we felt the ground shaking and we were quite far away from the epicentre, i can imagine if people were closer they may not have had that much time to seek shelter. but what we do know is this earthquake is not as big as the big one in 2011 which triggered a nuclear disaster at fukushima, that is the big concern, the nuclear plants along the coast but authorities have said those nuclear plants have not been affected by this latest earthquake or the after—shocks. thank you so much for bringing us up to date. in a major decision,

israel's supreme court has struck down the controversialjudicial reforms that were a centrepiece of prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government agenda. the reforms sparked months of mass protests last year. the change would have limited the power of the top court to overturn laws it deems unconstitutional. mr netanyahu has argued that the changes are required to reset the balance between the judges and politicians. but critics say it would have severely weakened the judicial system, preventing proper oversight of the government. the court was split in its decision, with eightjudges voting in favour of striking down the law, while seven voted to uphold it. israel's justice minister and architect of the law, yariv levin, criticised thejudges, calling the decision undemocratic. but opposition leader yair lapid welcomed the verdict saying on x, that the court had "faithfully fulfilled its role "in protecting the citizens of israel." from jerusalem, here's our correspondent, shaimaa khalil with more. this is a big blow to benjamin netanyahu and the hardline

governing coalition in this showdown between the judiciary and the right—wing government. this is the supreme court taking their power back when it comes to checks balances. before the october seventh deadly attack by hamas on israel, before the war in gaza, israel had experienced unprecedented division and turmoil internally because of these proposed judiciary reforms by the government, many calling it a threat to democracy, and there were many, many disagreements about the separation of powers. and at the heart of this was this bill that the government pushed through, this reasonableness bill, essentially stopping the supreme court from its ability to stop the government from making any decisions that were deemed unreasonable. now the supreme court has overturned that, saying, "we will keep you in check."

this could not have come at a worse time for the benjamin netanyahu government — already under extreme pressure and anger from the hostage families who are saying that the government is failing to bring the hostages back — and now, this government is staring down a constitutional breakdown and crisis in the middle of this conflict. so what comes next for mr netanyahu and his proposed judicial reform? abc news reporterjordana miller is injerusalem with more. they can't appeal against what the supreme court said but if they chose to, they could ignore the ruling, which would bring a kind of constitutional crisis to israel. he cars let us say there was another decision that the government made to appoint someone who had no experience in a position or

even had previous criminal behaviour in this position, for example the finance ministry post, i'm giving you that example because it is actually a real example of when the supreme court said no, this person it is an unreasonable nomination, it is unreasonable to put this person in this position when he has been convicted for example of tax evasion. so in other words, they can ignore it but that is unlikely during this war time, it is likely the judicial review is now shelved for a very long time. and israel is preparing for what it now says as "prolonged fighting." the israel defence forces say its troop deployments in gaza are being adjusted to prepare. the idf said some reservists would leave gaza as soon as this week. the military says the shift is to help focus on more targeted operations against hamas. the withdrawal will allow some reservists to return to civilian life, and free up military units, in case

of a wider conflict in the north. the decision comes as gazans faced the latest bombardment of airstrikes. aid groups are warning that the humanitarian situation is dire. gaza's hamas—run health ministry says nearly 22,000 people have been killed since the war began. the uk government says it won't hesitate to take further direct action against houthi rebels, who are attacking foreign ships in the red sea to show their support for hamas. 0ur security correspondent, frank gardner, has more on what kind of direct action might be. well, euphemistically, grant shapps, the defence secretary, is calling it direct action, the risk of direct action if the houthis don't stop their attacks. i think there's a number of options. at the minimum, it means continuing to shoot down the drones that the houthis are firing, but this is not a very cost—effective exercise for the west. so you've got us, britain, france, other nations, all that have got navies in that region as part of a coalition, a us—led coalition

called 0peration prosperity guardian. but it costs roughly 100—times more to fire off, say, a sea viper missile from a royal navy destroyer to shoot down a drone than it cost the houthis to launch a little $20,000 drone. so that isn't going to work in the long—term. they are hoping to dissuade the houthis from doing any more of these. and with the implicit threat that if they carry on, there is the risk that the us and britain and others will actually use air strikes and tomahawk missile, cruise missile strikes to take out the houthi launch sites. they don't want to do that because it's quite risky. i mean, you risk metastasizing the hamas israel war into something much bigger, potentially pitting iran and the us forces into a direct confrontation because iran supports the houthis. frank gardner there. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

let's look at a major story out of the uk now. the number of migrants crossing the channel fell for the first time last year since record—keeping began. new uk government figures show that total arrivals were down by more than a third in 2023, compared with the year before. mark easton has more. the number known to have crossed the channel in 2023 was down around a third from 2022. still almost 30,000 individuals arrived on the kent coast — second highest figure ever — but officials point to three key deals which they claim are helping turn the tide: a deal with france, improving security on the coast around calais, a deal with turkey to disrupt smuggler supply chains, and a deal with albania to return failed asylum seekers. of course, the deal the government regards as the game—changer is with rwanda, but that plan was ruled unlawful. migration is likely to be a vital issue for prime minister rishi sunak in the uk general election, which is expected

later this year. he has promised to clear a backlog of asylum seekers. you're live with bbc news. russian president putin has pledged to "intensify" attacks on ukraine, following days of aerial bombardment from both sides in the war. speaking during a visit to a military hospital in moscow, mr putin said russia wanted to end the conflict, but only on its own terms. he also claimed ukraine's western supporters were the biggest obstacle, to ending the conflict. meanwhile, there have been more strikes in the port area of 0desa. russia launched 90 drones early on monday, 87 of which were destroyed by the country's air defences. elsewhere there have been more strikes in kharkiv, and in the capital, kyiv, air defence systems have been activated again over night. 0ur reporter 0lga malchevska has been speaking to locals in 0desa, kharkiv and occupied crimea about the past few days of heavy strikes. what is usually a moment

to celebrate turns into another deadly night for people in 0desa, coming under attack from russian drones. hannah tells us she had to run to the shelter right at midnight. because of the russian fireworks, they are coming. the first time we came at midnight, and now it is again. ukraine woke up to at least five killed in southern 0desa and eastern donetsk, occupied by russia. moscow blames kyiv, repeating it does not target civilians. kyiv says russia sent a record 90 drones all over the country. ukraine is still mourning the deaths of more than a0 civilians killed just two days ago. this is what is left from a five—star hotel in the centre of kharkiv. katerina lives nearby. translation: when i was cooking our festive meal, l i had to shelter in the bathroom because of the attack. the drones were right

above our home. it was very scary. and this video we received from the occupied crimea... decorated with ukrainian symbols, this christmas tree would be labelled extremism by russia if found. locals hope this year will finally bring freedom and peace. 0lga malchevska, bbc news. pope francis has condemned the recent arrests of roman catholic priests and bishops in nicaragua. at least 1a members of the clergy have been detained in the country in the past two weeks, with no clear motive. in his new year's message, the pope called for them to be released. translation: ifollow with concern _ what is happening in nicaragua, where bishops and priests have been deprived of their freedom. i express my closeness in prayer to them and theirfamilies, and to the entire church in the country.

i also invite all of you here to pray insistently and all of god's people, and hope that we always seek the path of dialogue to overcome difficulties. let us pray for nicaragua today. nicaragaua has been increasingly isolated by the international community. that's after the administration of president daniel 0rtega began cracking down on dissent following mass protests in 2018. it's been two years since nasa launched the james webb space telescope. in those two years, it's beamed back stunning images of the stars. the telescope has also made some astonishing discoveries, which are already transforming our understanding of the universe. 0ur science editor rebecca morelle has more. the beauty of the cosmos, captured by the james webb space telescope. from the tarantula nebula, where stars are born amidst the dust, to a dying star, the ring nebula, throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel.

and the phantom galaxy, with 100 billion stars amongst its spiral arms. these images are stunning — but they're also transforming what we thought we knew about the cosmos. the telescope can look back to the very dawn of the universe, and it's revealing game—changing galaxies that are breaking all the rules. it can see the cosmos 13.5 billion years ago, just after the big bang. scientists thought the first galaxies would be primitive structures — but in fact they're forming far faster and earlier than astronomers ever thought possible. we certainly thought that we'd be seeing things that were, you know, i might call them fuzzy blobs of stars, collections of stars. and what we're actually seeing is fully—formed galaxies. and when you look at them, they have sort of perfect spiral arms. you can see that these galaxies in the early universe already have those mature structures. so, in that sense, it's really changing scientific thinking.

this isn't the only discovery that's shaking up the early cosmos. the telescope is also spotting a surprising abundance of giant black holes. black holes are scattered throughout the universe. this is the one at the centre of our own milky way. they form when a massive star dies and collapses in on itself. what we're now finding with jwst is surprisingly large black holes already existing quite early on in the universe's history, when there hasn't been time to go through this process of stars forming and living their lives. so what that suggests is that actually, these black holes are completely skipping the star—formation part of the process. we're also seeing the unexpected, closer—to—home, bizarre, planet—like objects nicknamed jumbos. this is the orion nebula, a star—forming region in the milky way. but look a little closer, and there's something incredibly strange — huge planet—like objects floating free, not

tethered to any star, these tiny pairs of light here. they're called jupiter mass binary objects — orjumbos — and they've left astronomers scratching their heads. nobody predicted or expected you would see objects the size ofjupiter orbiting around each other, freely floating. we thought we would see singles, isolated ones, but to find binaries like this is crazy. we don't expect to find the answer on day one, year one. this is a long journey for all of us now. so, what's next for the james webb space telescope? no doubt there will be more ethereal images. and it will start to look even further back in time as it continues its quest to detect the light from the very first stars to shine. rebecca morelle, bbc news. mickey mouse and minnie have long been fixtures in the public�*s imagination — and now they're in the public domain. that because us copyright law covers characters for 95 years.

and the pair first appeared in the animated short steamboat willie in 1928. so as of monday, new year's day, disney no longer has full control over how those characters are used. noor nanji has more on what that means. mickey whistles it was the animation that launched the house of mouse. 1928's short film steamboat willie featured non—speaking versions of mickey and minnie. these early images are now available to the public in the us to use as they like. this is a deeply symbolic and long—awaited moment, because of disney's perceived role and the extension of the copyright term, which prevented these properties from going into the public domain for an additional 20 years. but there are still limits on how you can use these images. what i cannot do is start making merchandise and the same kind of products that disney sells. and so if i'm selling t—shirts with mickey and minnie on it and someone seeing those t—shirts

thinks erroneously that they're getting a disney product when they're not, that's what trademark stops. other famous properties now available to the public include the silent film the circus by charlie chaplin, let's do it by cole porter, and the novels lady chatterley�*s lover by dh lawrence, and orlando by virginia woolf. pooh, piglet, eeyore, we were friends for many years. but there are a few successful examples of beloved old property being used for new original content. winnie the pooh, which is also owned by disney, was turned into an r—rated horrorflick, blood and honey, after entering the public domain in 2022. the movie was a far cry from the childhood book, and with that in mind, it will be in disney's interest to keep tight control over how their most iconic characters are used. noor nanji, bbc news. thank you for watching.

i'm helena humphrey. i'll be back in 30 minutes with more. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. we've got some very strong winds and some heavy rain on the way for tuesday, that brings with it the risk of some disruptive weather. little sign of that yesterday across northern england and scotland, with clear, blue, sunny skies for many. however, towards the southwest of england, the waves were picking up as the winds increased, all tied in with the next weather system. now it's this lump of cloud that's out to our west that we're watching, to develop into quite a nasty—looking area of low pressure. now, through the remainder of the night, one band of rain clears eastwards, another one heading into scotland, a bit of snow up over the scottish hills for a time, as well. and then we've got the next pulse of rain working into the southwest. now, bear in mind, we've already got lots of flood warnings in force, and that's before, really, the next dollop of heavy rain works in. so the rain, heavy enough to cause some localised flooding,

but as well as that, into tuesday, some very strong winds heading into southwest england, southern wales, and round the bristol channel. top gusts could reach 60, maybe even 70mph — strong enough to bring down one or two trees, hence the risk of disruptive weather. very windy for the northern isles, and the winds will be increasing inland across england and wales as this area of rain becomes much more extensive through the course of the day. and then we get a second swathe of really strong winds across parts of lincolnshire, east anglia, southeast england, especially through the dover straits. could get gusts again getting up into the 60s of miles an hour, maybe even towards 70. so, there is the threat of some disruption — weather from the heavy rain and the risk of flooding, or the strong winds that could be strong enough to bring down a few trees. either way, that lot will be clearing out of the way as we head into wednesday, but just to be followed by another unsettled day — a day of sunshine and showers. the showers heavy with hail and thunder across england and wales, blustery conditions here. lighter winds for northern ireland means the showers could last a bit longer. some heavier, more persistent rain for northeast scotland, perhaps causing one or two

issues, and cold enough to see some of the rain start to turn to sleet or snow over the hills in shetland. quite a lot going on, then, but the weather will eventually calm down. low pressure later this week is going to start to slide away from our shores — and instead, we get an area of high pressure building in as we head towards the end of the week and the weekend beyond. indeed, quite a long spell of dry, settled weather conditions is on the cards, notjust on the weekend but well into next week. with the sunshine comes much lower temperatures and a return of some sharp overnight frosts.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. 0n ukraine's southern border, security is being tightened. conversation over radio. not to keep its enemies out, but to keep its own men in. explosion since the start of russia's invasion, it's been illegalfor men who can fight to leave, but thousands are trying... ..some helped by corrupt officials.