an emergency landing. diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war in gaza continue, with the eu's chief diplomat warned against a widening of the conflict. it is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the middle east. police in london confirm they're investigating potential fraud offences in relation to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub—postmasters by the post office. hello, i'm lucy grey. an alaska airlines passenger plane with 177 people on board has been forced to make an emergency landing in the us state of oregon, after a window and a section of the fuselage blew out in mid—air. the company has grounded its entire fleet of 737 max nine aircraft while safety inspections take place. america's national transportation

safety board is investigating, and the uk's civil aviation authority said it was monitoring the situation very closely. simonjones reports. relief for all 177 passengers and crew on board to be back on the tarmac after a mid—air emergency. the plane forced to land with a hole in its side and a window missing. the pilot, recorded earlier outlining to air traffic control the severity of the situation. it happened as the plane was 35 minutes into its flight to california. i look up and the oxygen masks were hanging from the ceiling. and then i look to my left and there's this huge chunk, part of the airplanejust, like, missing. alaska airlines has temporarily grounded all 65 of its 737 max 9 aircraft to conduct inspections. the company's ceo said...

boeing said a technical team was ready to support the investigation. there would have been an element of depressurization. although the aircraft was at a lower than cruising altitude. apparently it was at about 16,000 feet. that's roughly half of what an airliner would be cruising at during a flight. but nevertheless, they needed to get that plane down safely, which fortunately was done with all lives protected. the boeing 737 max was grounded in march 2019 for a year and a half after two of the type crashed, killing 346 people, due to a problem with the flight control systems. the uk civil aviation authority says it's monitoring this latest incident very closely. simon jones, bbc news. let's look at what we know about the panel which became detached from the fuselage.

aviation analyst alex macheras explains how it differs from other panels on the plane. so, what we had seen in this incident is that the aircraft had departed as normal and was climbing to its cruising altitude. and just as it reached around 16,000 feet, we know that a sidewall panel... so to explain this simply, if you are sitting in an aircraft cabin, you're on the seat, the sidewall panels are on the left and right. it's basically kind of this shape, a sidewall, through the tube shape of the aircraft. that panel on the left side that houses a deactivated emergency exit door. so to the passengers, it looks like a normal sidewall panel. but for us in aviation, we know that if alaska airlines were to put more seats into that cabin — for example, as many seats as ryanair manage to squeeze in — they would be forced by regulators to activate another emergency exit to comply with regulations. so it's a sidewall panel that houses an emergency exit that alaska airlines does not use because it doesn't have a high density cabin.

so from the outside, it looks like a door, but from the inside, its just a normal sidewall panel. it's that panel that at 16,000 feet ultimately triggered, or was part of, a decompression where it had blown out. and that separation of the panel leaving the aircraft, of course, triggers a decompression scenario that crew have to jump into place and into action to ensure that not only are passengers seated with their seatbelts fastened, but they are able to withstand the vacuum that then occurs. because we have had scenarios decades ago in aviation where this has happened and passengers have quite literally been sucked out of the aircraft cabin, removed from the cabin because of that pressure. so it's incredibly dangerous. it's not something that investigators will be downplaying. and it's a testament to the crew, of course, and the flight crew that they were able to return safely. and, of course, they were quite lucky that nobody was sat in that initial window seat right next to the panel, where it becomes separated from the aircraft.

and i would just add that typically in air travel, that seat is quite sought after, because it has extra legroom because typically it would house an emergency exit. so it's pretty unprecedented stuff. alex macheras there, our aviation analyst. the powerful iranian—backed lebanese group hezbollah says it's launched a barrage of rockets at northern israel, in response to an explosion in beirut that killed a top hamas official earlier this week. a statement said they hit an air traffic control base in meron with 62 rockets. the israeli military said it had identified about a0 launches from lebanon, and that it had responded, without giving details. meanwhile, the diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war in gaza continue — and the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is beginning a fresh round of talks on the conflict with regional leaders. he's been meeting turkey's president erdogan in istanbul. washington's priorities

are to prevent the war from becoming a wider regional conflict and to secure an increase in humanitarian aid to palestinian civilians. the eu's foreign policy chief, josep borrell, has been visiting lebanon to discuss the situation in the middle east. at a news conference, he raised his concerns over any escalation between israel and hezbollah. it is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the middle east. it is absolutely necessary to avoid lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict. that is the last thing that lebanon needs. live now to our correspondent wyre davies injerusalem. if you could just explain, there has been an exchange of fire, has and is there, between israel and hezbollah over the past three months, but this is substantially more, isn't it?

yes, love, ever since is substantially more, isn't it? yes, love, eversince the is substantially more, isn't it? yes, love, ever since the day after october the 7th, october the 8th, after the gaza israel war had started when hamas fighters streamed across the border and kills 1200 israelis, the day after that, hezbollah started firing across the northern border and there has been a conflict on that border between israel and hezbollah ever since and hundred and 50 hezbollah fighters have been killed, several civilians and several israeli soldiers. 80,000 israeli citizens and about 100,000 on the lebanese side have had to leave their homes because it is a very dangerous border. i was up there a few months ago and there is a lot of cross—border fire and that continues, but, and it is a crucial but, according to the united nations which tries to keep the peace along the border, the fighting and shelling is largely contained to a five or six kilometre stretch either side of the border, along the border. the big fear is that there is a miscalculation or a deliberate attempt to fire from either side

much deeper into opposition territory, and of course, what we saw earlier in the week was the assassination, presumably by israel, of the hamas number two in the lebanese capital beirut. that is more than five kilometres, about 80 miles away if not more from the israeli border and it is that escalation, or the potential escalation, or the potential escalation of the current conflict on that border between hezbollah and israel into a much broader complex, something along the lines of what we saw back in 2006, that many are worried about. —— a much broader complex. we saw european foreign policy chief and we have seen antony blinken in the region at the minutes during the tour of the capitals, emphasising that an escalation of the current conflict between israel and hamas in gaza is the last thing thatis and hamas in gaza is the last thing that is needed in the region. —— a much broader conflict. but we have of coursing flare—ups in the israeli palestinian west bank and numerous people have been killed since october the 7th and of course houthi

rebels in yemen firing on ships in the red sea. so there is the worry of that potential for escalation which global leaders are keen to avoid. . , , which global leaders are keen to avoid. . ,, . ., , which global leaders are keen to avoid. . ., , , , avoid. perhaps particularly because hezbollah described _ avoid. perhaps particularly because hezbollah described this _ avoid. perhaps particularly because hezbollah described this attack - avoid. perhaps particularly because hezbollah described this attack as i hezbollah described this attack as its preliminary response and as you were talking about, having these long—range missiles. i suppose the concern is that hezbollah is so much better armed than hamas is, if you could perhaps explain the difference there? , ., , , ., there? yes, absolutely, even though hamas and hezbollah _ there? yes, absolutely, even though hamas and hezbollah are _ there? yes, absolutely, even though hamas and hezbollah are allies - there? yes, absolutely, even though hamas and hezbollah are allies and i hamas and hezbollah are allies and are both funded and armed by iran, hezbollah has a much bigger and more powerful fighting hezbollah has a much bigger and more powerfulfighting force hezbollah has a much bigger and more powerful fighting force and controls large swathes of southern lebanon, south of the lead tiny up river. it is part of the sort of dysfunctional, broken lebanese government but it is a political entity in lebanon, so it is more politically and militarily powerful and it is easierfor the irradiance to directly on hezbollah, even though those shipments which tend to

come through serbia are targeted by israel. —— it is easierfor the irani and is. so it is clear that hezbollah is a much biggerfighting force then hamas. —— for the iranians. so hezbollah is now... if this were to escalate, it could be even more serious with potential for more casualties. i think the one thing that is halting hezbollah back is that the lebanese government itself does not want to go to war, lebanon is a country that is broken economically and hasn't really recovered from that use explosion in the port of beirut a few years ago which usually damage the country economically and physically and on itself does not want to want to go to war again. there are considerable internal constraints holding hezbollah back, despite the rhetoric of hassan nasrallah, hezbollah�*s leader in the last couple of days.

0k, leader in the last couple of days. ok, thank you very much speaking to us there from jerusalem. here in the uk, the chancellor, jeremy hunt, has said the government will do all it can to speed up compensation for post office branch managers who were wrongly convicted in the horizon it scandal. more than 700 post office branch managers were accused of wrongdoing after faulty accounting software made it appear money was missing. the metropolitan police says it's investigating "potential "fraud offences" arising from the wrongful prosecutions. here's our business correspondent, marc ashdown. we will look into each individual case and fight our corner. it started as a lone voice, became a chorus and eventually exposed a national scandal. more than 700 post office branch managers have spent two decades fighting to clear their names. as this week's itv drama showed, some were even wrongly sent to prison. noel thomas was one of them. having a light shone on his suffering has proved cathartic after years of torment. it's been 18 years for me.

and, you know, it's been hell for a lot of people. this all centres on the horizon it system, which the post office started using in 1999. it led to accusations of theft and false accounting. eventually, it emerged the system was faulty, but not before hundreds of people were prosecuted. the metropolitan police has been investigating possible offences of perjury and perverting the course ofjustice relating to some of the cases. a solicitor acting for some of those involved said the ongoing public inquiry into the scandal has suggested wider questions. and consequently, it's no surprise that the metropolitan police have confirmed that their investigation is very much more broader than perjury and takes into account evidence of potential allegations of fraud against individuals and post office as a corporate entity. the government said £150 million has already been paid out in compensation to more than 3000 people. the law operates independently

of politicians, but what we have decided as a government is we're not going to wait until that inquiry concludes before paying out compensation. we want it...so we can do everything we can to get the compensation out quickly to the families who have been terribly wronged. i haven't got that money and i don't know where it's gone! _ and that list keeps growing. more than 50 new potential victims have come forward in the past week. the post office has again apologised and said it encourages anyone who believes they have been wrongfully convicted to consider an appeal. we are fighting a war. alan bates was the first to appeal, as portrayed by tobyjones in the tv drama. today, he said he hopes the public outcry would light a fire under those in power to finally bring justice for those who've suffered for so long. marc ashdown, bbc news. earlier, i spoke to former bbc journalist and author of the 2021 book the great post office scandal, nick wallis. we know the ongoing police investigation has basically slowed

to something of a halt in recent months as it took in the evidence that was coming out of the public inquiry, so i think this new development is very significant. we know that the high courtjudge who presided over the group litigation which ended in victory for the sub—postmasters was so concerned about the evidence that some fujitsu engineers gave during the prosecution of sub—postmasters that he passed a file to the director of public prosecutions. that was based on perjury, as you heard neil hudgell say. we also know there has been some decisions taken in bad faith by the post office to the extent that lord arbuthnot, a former barrister who has been a supporter of the sub—postmasters for more than a decade, has said on the record that he has no doubt there was a conspiracy to pervert the course ofjustice at the post office, which is another criminal offence. the fact that the metropolitan police are now looking at the post office having defrauded its own sub—postmasters of their money, i think suggests

that the met police have now realised what political pressure there is on them to start acting quickly about this and perhaps not even waiting until the public inquiry reports, which may not be until early next year. a clean—up operation for communities is underway across parts of england this morning, after days of heavy rainfall led to more than 1,000 homes and businesses being flooded. more than 200 flood warnings remain in place, mostly in the midlands, east anglia and the south. a teenage boy has been charged with the murder of the 16—year—old harry pitman, who was stabbed to death in primrose hill in north london on new year's eve. the teenager — who's 16 — has also been charged with the possession of an offensive weapon. downing street documents seen by the bbc suggest that the british prime minister, rishi sunak, had serious doubts about the uk government's rwanda migration policy when he was chancellor of the exchequer. the papers, written in march 2022, indicate that his view then was that it would not stop

the channel crossings. a source close to rishi sunak told the bbc, the prime minister "was always fully behind the principle of the "scheme as a deterrent." the scheme to send some asylum seekers to rwanda for processing and potentially resettlement, in order to deter people from crossing the english channel in small boats, was first announced by then—prime minister borisjohnson in april 2022. former cabinet minister robertjenrick resigned as immigration minister last year, saying the government's emergency rwanda legislation "does not go far enough". today he spoke to sky news, and says the prime minister needs to strengthen the bill. i know the prime minister very well and i believe that he does see the urgent need to control our borders, to get the rwanda plan up and running, because that's such a critical element to stopping the small boat crossings. but it is important that we get that right. and as i said last year, i don't think that the bill that's going through parliament is sufficient.

if we say we're going to do whatever it takes, we have to d0 whatever it takes. and that means strengthening that bill. is the prime minister committed to it? well, i hope that he will strengthen the bill that's coming through parliament. and i've been very clear that if he doesn't do that, then i will lay amendments to the bill next week to make sure that it is the piece of legislation necessary that is sufficiently robust to do the job that the british public expect. do you think he'll cave in to the left or the right of the party? it's not about that. it's about doing the job and making sure that we have the right piece of legislation. i don't care whether this is the strongest piece of legislation that we've ever done. it has to be one that actually works. we've done three pieces of legislation in as many years. i've said it before, its three strikes or you're out. we've got to make sure this one works. that's what the public expect. i asked our political correspondent charlotte rose to explain just what these documents might mean. as you can see, these documents are from number 10 downing street. they were from march 22 when borisjohnson was the prime minister and rishi sunak was chancellor

of the exchequer. i think we've learned three things from them. firstly, that mr sunak was not convinced the rwanda scheme would act as an effective deterrent to stop people making small boat crossings over the english channel. secondly, he wanted to scale back the scheme in size so fewer people would be sent to rwanda in the first few years because he was concerned about the cost. finally, that he didn't want to invest in large scale reception centres in the uk and instead preferred the idea of holding migrants in hotels dispersed across the country because he thought that would be a better use of taxpayers' money. in terms of what the government is saying about this, they have pointed out that rishi sunak did fund the scheme as chancellor and as prime minister, he has made it one of his central priorities. they also point out that as prime minister, he is

the only person in 10 downing street who has seen a reduction in terms of number of small boat crossings in the year. the labour party, the official opposition, the shadow home secretary yvette cooper has said they think this plan is a con and they described it as gimmicks rather than getting a grip. i think the real issue for mr sunak will be within his own party members, because there are clearly many people like robert jenrick who we heard from there, who have concerns about whether the scheme will be effective. they have already tried twice and the legislation has not been strong enough. in his own words, rishi sunak has only one more chance at this. now, it's time for a look at today's sport with hugh ferris. the first meeting of two of english football's great rivals in nearly eight years ended in a comfortable 3—0 win for newcastle over sunderland, and a place in the fa cup's fourth round. much of the build up to the game was about the controversy of a bar

in the stadium of light that had been dressed in newcastle—friendly regalia. on the pitch, sunderland were just as welcoming. an own goalfrom dan ballard opened the scoring. and then just half a minute into the second half, a mistake by pierre ekwah allowed alexandar isak to score. the swedish striker then made it three late on from the penalty spot, and it's a first derby win for newcastle since 2011. incredible support. i mean, you can see it as soon as you come out onto the pitch and the feeling that gave us was huge. it was a huge motivation today to win for the supporters after the recent one. we know about the recent results in the derby so everything was there for us but it's still difficult to win and i am very pleased with the players. meanwhile, one of the competition's famous shocks has been provided by non—league maidstone united from the sixth tier of english football. they beat stevenage from three divisions above 1—0 to reach the fourth round for the first time in their history. these are the games that

are into the second half now. among them, eastleigh and chesterfield are the non—league teams trying to emulate maidstone's achievement. brighton bournemouth and sheffield united are the premier league sides trying to avoid a shock. brighton lead after being behind. bournemouth had just scored twice after being two goals down and our level in their match against gillingham. it's a weekend of cup football in spain too, with both madrid clubs up against lower league opposition. atletico took an early lead through angel correa. but lugo equalised just before the break with a goal from leandro antonetti. while later real play arandina from one division lower still. barcelona also take on a fourth tier side barbastro on sunday. brazilian football legend mario zagallo, who won four world cups as both a player and a coach, has died at the age of 92.

fifa president gianni infantino has paid tribute by saying the story of the world cup couldn't be told without zagallo — a true great, whose influence on football, particularly in brazil, is supreme. zagallo had been the last surviving member of the side that lifted the trophy in 1958, which was his country's first title. he won it again four years later, before then going on to manage what is widely regarded still as the greatest international team of all time — the pele—inspired side that won the world cup in 1970. zagallo's final triumph came as an assistant coach in 1994. david warner signed off his test career with a win, helping australia to a series clean sweep against pakistan with a typically combative innings. man of the series pat cummins helped his team bowl pakistan out forjust 115 in their second innings in sydney, leaving the home side needing 130 to win. 57 of those runs were provided by opening batter warner, although he was outjust before

australia reached their target to win by eight wickets. he retires as his country's fifth most profilic test run scorer after 112 matches, and says he wants to be remembered as an entertainer. we have the line—ups for the finals of the opening warm—up events ahead of the australian open. the top two seeds will meet for the brisbane international men's title, with holger rune up against grigor dimitrov. meanwhile in the women's event in brisbane, world number one aryna sabalenka will face elena rybakkina will face elena rybakina in a repeat of last year's australian open final, which sabalenka won. and us open champion coco gauff is still on course to retain her auckland classic title. she'll face elina svitolina in the final. they all, of course, have their eyes on a bigger prize in melbourne. and for the first time, the opening grand slam of the season will start on a sunday. the first round is played over three days, not two days, so you take away the intense pressure that you have of either matches finishing late or inclement weather challenging it.

so also to get free weekends in. so now people that work have an opportunity to come and start an event on a sunday rather than a monday, to have a massive opening on a sunday night will be something special. you can follow all of the sport on our website and our app, but it is back to you, lucy. in bangladesh, prime minister sheikh hasina seems almost certain to win a fourth succesive term in office in sunday's election. her goverment rejected calls for an interim caretaker admistration to oversee the ballot, and one of the main opposition parties, led by former prime minister khaleda zia, has pulled out of the election in protest, and called on its supporters to boycott the vote. our correspondent samira hussain has the latest from the bangladeshi capital, dhaka. the main opposition party, the bangladesh nationalist party, is not contesting the elections. not only have they said that they are boycotting the elections but they also called for a two—day strike, which is already under way. i realise that it looks quite busy behind me but if you can

imagine just 2a hours ago, this was just wall—to—wall traffic. it's actually usually a lot more busy today. even as we were walking around on the streets, you saw that there are quite a few shops that were closed. some of course abiding by this call for a strike, with others just taking the opportunity to go back to their home districts since they are going to be voting. and then of course, there is that sense of worry in case something does happen ahead of these elections. samira hussain reporting there from the bangladeshi capital. we will have plenty more from her tomorrow on those elections. that is all from me for now. goodbye. hello there. for many, it's been a much drier day today with some sunshine.

but again, there are still around 200 flood warnings in force because all the rain that we've had is still making its way through the major river system. so for more detail, you can check out the website. but actually the drier weather is here for a while now. it will feel colder as it has done today and we will have some frost and some lingering fog like we had today in cumbria. and thatjust thickens up again this evening and overnight under the high pressure. but the high pressure is going to be responsible for the drier weather. it's blocking these weather systems from bringing their rain in off the atlantic. but it's not altogether dry. there have been quite a number of showers, which will continue to diminish for most this evening and overnight, although we may pick up more across east anglia and the south—east and they could fall as sleet or snow over the higher ground here, it's certainly going to be cold enough. widespread frost, and of course, because it's been so damp, so wet, there'll be quite a few issues with ice, i should imagine.

and certainly first thing sunday morning along with the fog. so potentially some freezing fog around. still quite a keen breeze up in the north of scotland and more of a breeze compared with today in the south and the east. one or two wintry showers around, but they should be easing, one or two showers to the east as well, but fewer further west. that's when we'll see the lengthier spells of sunshine. but it's not going to help our temperatures much, actually. it'll feel chilly wherever you are, and obviously it will be accentuated by that keen breeze. it's going to be picking up more so today across east anglia in the southeast. but then it's a return to frost and fog then through tomorrow night into the start of monday. and that cold air, that high pressure just hangs on this week. but that increasing wind across the southern half of the uk in particular preventing as many fog issues across the far south and the east, butjust making it feel colder still. and temperatures are dropping lower by night, so they're not going to rise as much by day. and you can see starting to get a bit polluted with some fog around here and there. so we will see some lingering fog as we go through the coming few days. tuesday is a similar set up, although by then that brisk wind may

just lift a bit more of the cloud in the south. so we might see a bit more sunshine on tuesday across southern and central areas, perhaps a bit more cloud coming and going further north. but it's drier right across the board. and that drier weather looks set to last through much of the coming week. temperatures may recoverjust a little bit towards the end of the week, but it's dry. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines... alaska airlines grounds boeing 737 max 9 planes after a section of fuselage including a window broke

off mid—air, forcing an emergency landing. diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war in gaza continue, with the eu's top diplomat josep borell in beirut, warning against a widening of the conflict. he spoke shortly after the lebanese militia hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern israel. police in london confirm they're investigating potential fraud offences in relation to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub—post masters by the post office. downing street files seen by the bbc suggest that uk prime minister rishi sunak had serious doubts about the uk government's rwanda migration policy when he was chancellor of the exchequer. the papers indicate that his view in early 2022 was that it would not stop the channel crossings. now on bbc news, the arts interviews: sir anthony hopkins.

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