2023 was the world's hottest year on record — we report on china's attempts to cut its global emissions. armed men storm a live tv studio in ecuador after the president declared a state of emergency. the joy of new life — amid huge pressure on staff we report on the maternity units trying to cope with serious shortages. and the town celebrating its first sunrise in 30 days. on newsnight at 10.30 — as the woman at the heart of the post office scandal says that she will give up her cve, is there a plan for all the victims? we'll be joined by the only mp who was a sub—postmaster and who was caught up in the mess. good evening.

the man who was head of the royal mail, which owned the post office at a time when sub postmasters were being wrongly prosecuted, has tonight expressed his heartfelt sympathies to those who he says were so wronged by the tragic miscarriages ofjustice. but adam crozier says he had no involvement in the horizon it issue during his time at the royal mail. his comments come after the former head of the post office, paula vennells, decided to hand back her cbe as a result of the fallout from the faulty it scandal which saw hundreds of sub—postmasters wrongly prosecuted. more thani million people have signed a petition calling for her honour to be revoked. here's our deputy political editor, vicki young. it was an insult which added to their injury. new year's honours list. a moment depicted in the recent drama about the post office scandal. paula vennells has got the cbe. you're joking...! "services to the post office." today, it was all very different for paula vennells as she caved to mounting public pressure to hand

back the honour. in a statement she said... it must be a bug. it must be...it must be a computer bug... lee castleton�*s story was one of those featured in the drama series. he went bankrupt after being falsely accused of stealing £25,000. so what does he make of paula vennells�* decision? it kind of was a kick in the teeth back then. now it's full circle, i suppose, and we've got to a point where now it's acceptable that the moral decision to hand it back is the right decision. i personally have spent many, many years not being listened to and i'm thankful that people are listening now, and i think people really are listening. there's been a real step change.

in leicestershire, there is a lot of sympathy for what lee and others have experienced. they should get as much back, possible, and not always money, it doesn't heal wounds what they've gone through. it is shocking, you know, to be made to feel like that. made to feel like they've done something wrong and they had stolen the money and whatever, i think it's terrible how they've been treated. as chief executive of the post office from 2012 to 2019, paula vennells earned more than £4 million during a period and serious issues emerged about the horizon software. mps quizzed her about it in 2015. we are a business that does genuinely care about the people that work for us and if there had been any miscarriages ofjustice it would have been really important to the post office that we actually surfaced those and as the investigation so far,

we've had no evidence of that. there soon was evidence and it reached the high court, but it didn't prevent her from receiving an honour in 2018. the renewed publicity has made dealing with hundreds of wrongful convictions a priority for mps. we can do something good, mr speaker, together if the justice secretary would bring a simple bill to quash all 800 immediately. the suggestion he made is receiving active consideration, i expect to be able to make further announcements shortly. in normal circumstances it would be almost unthinkable for parliament to get involved in the quashing of criminal convictions. it would be seen as an attack on the independence of the courts. but ministers accept this is an unprecedented situation and that's why they are considering such a radical move. in 2021 there were joyful scenes when the court of appeal cleared 39 former postmasters and mistresses who had been wrongly convicted. hundreds more hope they will be able to celebrate soon. vicki young, bbc news, westminster.

the post office scandal began way back in 1999 — but all these years later the fallout is suddenly gathering pace — and many questions still remain for those involved. here's our business correspondent emma simpson. her gong's gone but serious questions remain for paula vennells. from the decision to force postmasters into their costly high court battle to why the post office continued prosecutions long after concerns over the reliability of horizon were raised. but there were three other post office bosses along the way. take, adam crozier. now the chair of bt. he was the ceo when the post office was still a part of royal mail. when the prosecutions were well underway. in a statement tonight, he said...

there'sjohn roberts. he was in charge when horizon was implemented and has given a witness statement to the public inquiry, which is trying to get to the truth. dame moya greene. she was ceo when the first stories of the scandal emerged. all are facing media scrutiny now. then there's the japanese company fujitsu. their software is at the heart of this scandal. they installed it, managed it — and still do. they've been invited to answer questions from the business select committee next week. fujitsu's done very well out of public sector work. it's been awarded 191 contracts worth more than £6.5 billion since 2013. we may not hear from paula vennells again until she appears before the public inquiry sometime after easter. it starts again on thursday — and there's likely to be a lot more interest in its work now. and just to say tomorrow

morning on bbc breakfast — nine subpostmasters will be live in the studio, some telling their story for the first time. they ll be talking tojon kay and sarah campbell from 8am. in south america, armed men have stormed a tv studio in ecuador while it was live on air, forcing the presenter and other staff to lie down on the floor. it comes a day after the president declared a state of emergency and an overnight curfew to deal with riots injails across the country. our south america correspondent ione wells reports. a moment of utter horror, broadcast live on television. armed men with balaclavas overtheirface, broke into the set of this public television channel in ecuador while it was live on air. brandishing guns and what appears to be explosives. it comes a day after the country's new president daniel noboa declared a state of emergency yesterday.

ecuador has been rocked by a series of attacks after the apparent escape of a powerful gang leaderfrom prison. the president ordered the military and police to intervene in controlling prisons in an attempt to contain the violence. but the violence has exploded further since then. explosions in streets, police officers carrying out stop and search, some reportedly being abducted. for ordinary people in ecuador, terror on the streets. translation: i hope the state of emergency yields results, i positive results for the population, not for the criminals. we live in constant fear because on a day—to—day basis when we go out to work, we don't know if we will return or if we will come back home in one piece. the suspects tonight have now been detained,

but with ecuador still on high alert, fearfor citizens there remains. last year was the hottest year ever recorded for the world. the average global temperature was almost 15 degrees celsius — that's dramatically higher than the last record set in 2016. our climate editorjustin rowlatt reports on the numbers and the solutions. wildfires raged across southern europe this summer. vegetation, parched by a heatwave and drought, was tinder dry. many tourists and locals had to flee for shelter. the temperature in 2023 was 1.118 degrees celsius above pre—industrial levels, and it beat the previous hottest year, 2016, by 0.17 celsius. a huge margin, say climate scientists, when you consider it is a global average across an entire year. our climate is changing and it's changing drastically. and not only is this recorded in record temperatures

around the world, but it's also recorded in the frequency and intensity of extreme events. all and what we've seen in 2023, was seven of the months of that year were the warmest months on record. now, the grey lines on this chart show temperatures for each year since 1940. the red line, you can see it coming on there, shows last year's temperatures and you can see it started off pretty unexceptional in terms of global temperatures. but from around july onwards, the world began a remarkable, and look at that, almost unbroken streak of daily air temperature records. more than 200 days set new daily global temperature records, according to bbc analysis of the data from the eu climate organisation copernicus. now, here's another way of looking at it. this table shows that every day was at least one degree above pre—industrial temperatures. almost half of all days, these ones in the darkest red, were more than one and a half degrees above them. and we had a couple

of days in november... we haven't marked them on here. ..that were more than two degrees hotter — that is another global first. so, why is it so hot? carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels we burn is the main reason. but last year there was an extra blast of heat from the pacific ocean as the el nino weather pattern kicked in. that's also why this year will almost certainly be even hotter than last year. and there has been some progress in tackling the problem — 2023 saw an increase in installation of wind and solar power. china continued to lead the world, adding almost half the new capacity. but europe, the us and india are also ramping up investment. at the climate conference in dubai, there was a global call to accelerate the deployment of nuclear power, and there is a huge global effort to find other clean energy sources, including tidal energy. this turbine, being tested in uk waters, flies

like a kite to maximise the energy it harvests. but, and this is a big but, 80% of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels — a measure of how much further we still have to go. justin rowlatt, bbc news. these rising temperatures are a global problem — with the impacts felt everywhere and the solutions needing worldwide co—operation. in a moment, we'll here from anne soy on what is being done to counter climate change in kenya but first let's hear from laura bicker in china — the worlds largest emmiter of green house gases on the solutions being found there. china burns more coal than anywhere else in the world, and they have the equivalent of around two new coal—fired power stations per week,

and it is that reliance on coal that means that china accounts for around a third of the greenhouse gases in the world every year, more than north america, south america, africa and maldon combine, but here comes the but, china is one of the biggest polluters —— africa and asia combined. it is building more wind turbines and more solar panels than anywhere else in the world and it accounts for around 80% of the solar panel manufacturing and that is helping to drive down the costs of a solar panel. and that push for renewables means that this year co two emissions in china are set to fall. �* .., two emissions in china are set to fall. �* .. .., , two emissions in china are set to fall. ~ ,., , ., fall. african countries are set to be the most _ fall. african countries are set to be the most vulnerable - fall. african countries are set to be the most vulnerable to - fall. african countries are set to be the most vulnerable to the l be the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, despite contributing leads to it, and across the whole of africa we have seen climate extremes, like drought and floods, within a short span of time,

and five consecutive seasons of failed rains caused a prolonged drought which left at least 50 million people across the region without food. in kenya i witnessed how it impacted the communities. they lost their main source of livelihood, livestock, and with the drought, they were affected yet again last year by floods. in terms of solutions, kenya has begun an ambitious tree planting programme aiming to grow 15 billion trees in a decade but it will no doubt take a long time to have an impact. and that alone will not resolve the climate crisis. the french president, emmanuel macron, has appointed his country's youngest ever prime minister. gabriel attal, who's 3a and openly gay, has been serving as education minister. he takes over from elizabeth borne who resigned yesterday. here's our paris correspondent, andrew harding. he is remarkably young.

3a year old gabriel attal is the youngest prime minister in modern french history. he's also remarkably popular. and another first for french politics — openly gay. attal�*s swift climb through president macron's cabinet has seen him take tough steps, for instance, banning muslim clothing in french schools. translation: in france, by taking strong decisions on the abaya, - by taking strong decisions on secularism, i have committed myself to freedom. attal�*s task is to inject more energy and purpose into a government that's struggling to push president macron's reforms through a deadlocked parliament. so, has macron's bold choice gone down well? translation: it's never too young when it's effective. _ what's scary is he's a mini macron, so watch out. because it's a different - concept, it's more dynamic. it's today's thing.

whereas an old guy like me is no | longer today's thing, that's all. i by law, president macron must stand down in 2027. he'll still be in his 40s then, and maybe lining up an even younger successoi’. but macron himself is already unpopular, and french voters are drifting to the right and far right and towards the anti—immigrant nationalism of marine le pen. many believe she could be france's next president. her party is expected to do well in european parliament elections this summer. in other words, france's new whiz kid, gabriel attal, has much to prove and not much time. andrew harding, bbc news. there's a worrying shortage of midwives across the uk — and according to new analysis by the bbc — 70% of maternity units in england are not safe enough. the royal college of midwives has said staffing is their "most important issue". our research has found that

there's a shortage of 2,500 midwives in england alone — on average that's around 25 per hospital trust. in northern ireland, the shortfall is almost 100 — which works out as around 19 per trust. there are similar numbers missing in wales. we can't give the figures for scotland as workforce gaps aren't recorded in the same way. our health correspondent, catherine burns, reports from a labour ward that s dealing with staff shortages. her report begins with the birth of a baby by caesarean section. this is a story about something miraculous. life at the very start. hello! about the nhs staff who do this every day. it's been amazing to look after the women in croydon. they've been so lovely to look after. yeah? but it's a story too, about when things don't go so smoothly.

the pain was unbearable. unbearable. and about the midwives who end up leaving the job they used to love. i miss it, but i also mourn it. so i mourn it because i don't see it improving. we first met nicole de cruz and her husband michael, outside an operating theatre at croydon university hospital. i'm nervous and excited at the same time. 20 minutes later, their daughter xenia arrives. her mum and dad, relief and joy. i've never seen a baby being born before. the best feeling ever. it's just amazing. sorry. we're at the labour ward. so this is where the magic happens? exactly. phoebe is right at the start of her career as a midwife. she loves it. i'm very privileged to be able to be in this role. it's such an amazing job, and i wouldn't change it for the world. so that's going well.

that's great. but maternity unit need more phoebes. there's a shortage of 2500 midwives in england. despite that, the number employed has gone up byjust 7% in a decade. and it's a tricky balance recruiting enough new midwives and stopping more experienced staff walking away. i may have just about preserved safety, butjust preserving safety shouldn't be enough in the nhs. hannah williams left herjob as a midwife in another part of the country, worried that staffing pressures meant she couldn't look after mums and babies properly. i think i've probably always managed to by the skin of my teeth, but it isn't the care that i've wanted to give someone. and that's ultimately what made me walk away. when you called for help, what did the midwife say to you? she said that, listen, you keep ringing the bell. you're not in labour. the doctor checked you. please do not ring the bell because we are busy. nobody came.

no one came until i gave the birth. farzana kardeem's baby was born in another nhs maternity unit with no medical help. even though farzana had been told she was high risk and needed a caesa rean section. her daughter, kadair, is now a happy and healthy toddler. but farzana needed emergency surgery and is still traumatized by what happened. you went there for help. you went there for treatment and when the time came, nobody was there. nhs england says more midwives are being trained and recruited and that staff tell them things are improving. so hopefully more families can enjoy those precious first moments together safely. catherine burns, bbc news. labour has unveiled its plans to tackle persistent school absence — including free breakfast clubs

for primary—aged pupils. a fifth of children in england missed at least 10% of school last year , twice as many as before the covid pandemic. shadow education secretary bridget phillipson set out the proposed measures today, which also include increased funding for early speech and language intervention — and better mental health support for students. a coroner has confirmed that the singer sinead o connor died of natural causes. the irish musician was found unresponsive at her home in london injuly. she was best known for her hit single nothing compares to you, which brought her worldwide fame. she was 56 years old. the us secretary of state has said palestinians in northern gaza must be allowed to return home as soon as conditions allow, now that fighting there has eased. speaking in tel aviv, antony blinken insisted that although israel had washington's resolute backing, civilian deaths in gaza were "far too high". our international editor

jeremy bowen is here. joining me now is our international editorjeremy bowen. this is his fourth trip to israel, what can he achieve? you this is his fourth trip to israel, what can he achieve? you must be caettin what can he achieve? you must be getting pretty _ what can he achieve? you must be getting pretty exasperated, - what can he achieve? you must be getting pretty exasperated, that i what can he achieve? you must be l getting pretty exasperated, that one about israel to take care, is still being repeated and repeated and are still not happening to america's satisfaction. something antony blinken said which echoed words in this morning on the bbc today programme, they have said essentially it is a regional path out of this crisis potentially, in other words the saudis could offer recognition to israel which is what israelis really wanted, in return for concrete progress. the problem with that is that the current israeli government is resolutely opposed to palestinian state and a lot of arabs are resolutely opposed to offering israel anything after

all the events in gaza. there is something as well, going back to that sense of exasperation, there is a lack of us leverage over israel. it is clear, despite enormous military aid, diplomatic help at the un, blocking ceasefire resolutions, this message the americans keep giving to them, which is, you are killing too many civilians, you are destroying too many houses in gaza, the israelis continue to do it. and the israelis continue to do it. and they must — the israelis continue to do it. and they must also — the israelis continue to do it. and they must also be _ the israelis continue to do it. and they must also be a _ the israelis continue to do it. and they must also be a real concern this conflict will spread? that they must also be a real concern this conflict will spread?- this conflict will spread? that is also very high — this conflict will spread? that is also very high as _ this conflict will spread? that is also very high as well _ this conflict will spread? that is also very high as well on - this conflict will spread? that is i also very high as well on blinken's agender. it has spread, it is in the red sea with attacks in yemen, incidents in syria and iraq but the focus is on the border between lebanon and israel where there has been this heating up, tit—for—tat fight between israeli army and between hezbollah, which is the

strong, militia political movement they are backed by iran. that seems to be sliding towards a much more serious, wider confrontation and the israelis have pointed out what they want, which is for hezbollah to move back under the terms of an earlier un resolution to what is known as the river line which is about an hour's drive from the border. if hezbollah will not do that, diplomatically through a deal, the israelis have said they will take military action. it is a dangerous moment. , , �* ., ., ~ military action. it is a dangerous moment. , ., ~ donald trump and his lawyers have been in court today for a landmark hearing in which they argued that his term of office in the white house should shield him from criminal trial and former presidents shouldn't face criminal prosecution. but the justice department argues the presidency is not "above the law". from washington let's join our north america editor, sarah smith.

hello. donald trump is arguing the us constitution gives presidents complete immunity from prosecution, notjust complete immunity from prosecution, not just when they are in complete immunity from prosecution, notjust when they are in office, but for ever afterwards. he says he cannot be tried for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. his lawyer suggested that hypothetically, a president could order the murder of a political rival and still escape a criminal trial. and then on the other side, prosecutors are arguing that the acts they want to try donald trump for, political interference were not official actions and therefore not covered by immunity. donald trump has insisted this is a purely political prosecution that is designed to stop him being re—elected to the white house later this year. and i think this is the way they're going to try and win, and that's not the way it goes.

there will be bedlam in the country. it's a very bad thing, it's a very bad precedent. as you said, it's the opening of the pandora's box and it's a very sad thing that happened with this whole situation. that was donald trump speaking in washington. he didn't have to come here to attend this hearing, he chose to do that. he did that because he has made efforts to fight all these various criminal indictments are central part of his political campaign. it is a strategy that has been very successful so far. we are now waiting for the court to rule on this case, but whatever decision they come up with it will certainly be an appeal to the supreme court who will have to make a definitive ruling on whether or not donald trump does have immunity from prosecution. sarah smith, thank— immunity from prosecution. sarah smith, thank you. _ the leader of plaid cymru — rhun ap iorwerth has called for wales to be given more powers to create different tax bands similar to scotland. setting out his economic strategy, he said the priority for wales was to receive a fairer funding settlement from the uk government.

we can't take for granted somehow that changing the uk government from blue to red will resolve some of those deep problems that we have in wales. and plaid cymru is the party that will stand up for issues such as fairfunding. we're talking about the budgets in the senedd today. we've lost hundreds of millions of pounds from that budget because of the unfairness of the funding settlement. animal rights activists have welcomed a decision by the south korean parliament to ban the breeding and sale of dogs for their meat. the measure was passed without opposition, and will come into force in three years. eating dog meat has been part of south korean culture, but has become less popular in recent times. spare a thought for the people of inuvik right up in the northwest territories of canada. they live so far north that for weeks on end they see no sunlight at all. until now, this spectaular sunrise was the first they've seen in 30 days. the sun brings so much hope that the people of inuvik hold a sunrise festival to celebrate.

after the dark months and the sun returning, it's really exciting to have the light to come back. having all the different types of events happening, that's really awesome as well. it's a good time to reflect on, you know, how we can be kinder and better to each other, better to the environment. so that's sort of what i take out of a day like today. i think it's a sign of hope that there's always going - to be a brighter day. and its worth remembering — that because of its northern location, inuvik also sees 56 days of 2a hour daylight in the summer. time for a look at the weather. i'm very pleased to say this time last week it was all about flooding rain, but we have swapped the rain for the sunshine. yes, it is cold

and a real shock to the system. at the western isles got the lion's share of the sunshine, nearly eight hours of sunshine through the day today. courtesy of high—pressure centre just to the north of scotland. circulating around the high pressure like clothes in a tumble dryer is quite a lot of cloud spilling in off the north sea and thatis spilling in off the north sea and that is having an impact across eastern scotland and north—east england. tonight, thick enough for a spot or two of drizzle. maybe a few isolated showers, there could be some icy stretches on untreated roads but south of that, clear skies and that is where we will see the lowest values. not as cold as the nightjust passed but temperatures in rural spot with the clear skies is below freezing. the touch of patchy mist and fog forming but once again more of a breeze on the exposed coasts making it feel chilly. lots of sunshine here and plenty of cloud across northern england, maybe into northern ireland and parts of eastern scotland. but

western scotland should see some sunshine and temperatures around five to 8 degrees. it might be a degree also up on the values today in northern england but because you have the cloud, it could feel pretty chilly. as we go into thursday, once again more cloud coming in and because of a subtle change in wind direction in myjust drive the cloud a little bit further south as we go through the day on thursday. potentially, not as much sunshine around i want to gain those temperatures just below where they should be for the time of year. friday into the start of the weekend, we keep the cold weather. on the whole, a lot of dry weather but the winds turn to a northerly and could see some snow showers at lower levels into scotland over the weekend and the weather story could get interesting by the middle of next week with more snow potentially across the country. and that's bbc news at ten.