geoffrey kitchen, who was 73 from gloucestershire, died. several others are injured. there was no warning. i hit my head on the ceiling, my wife did. some poor people ended up doing somersaults. an ex—royal marine, charged with spying for hong kong, is found dead in unexplained circumstances. we hear from the conservative mp craig mackinlay, who's lost his hands and feet to sepsis. and a lacklustre season means marcus rashford is left out of the england squad for the euros. and on newsnight at 10.30pm — we'll go deeper behind the headlines and speak live to key players on today's big stories. plus, we take a first look at what's on tomorrow's front pages.

hello. we begin with a special report from the front line in myanmar, a country in the grip of a war largely forgotten by the outside world. rebel forces there are fighting an intense battle against the military regime. press freedom in the country is restricted, hundreds ofjournalists have been jailed, and getting into myanmar to report first—hand is tough. but a bbc team has done it. the background is complicated, but the country's transition to democracy was cut short three years ago by a military coup, with the elected government led by the nobel peace prize laureate aung san suu kyi being ousted. people took to the streets in protest, but were met with a brutal crackdown. many took up arms, and in october several disparate rebel groups united, forming a single nationwide insurgency, which has made gains, conquering large swathes of territory.

the fighters, among them a group known as kndf, are now presenting the myanmar military with the biggest threat to its rule in years. the united nations says the civil war has left thousands dead and forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes. quentin sommerville and camera—journalist darren conway have spent a month with the rebels in karenni state at theirjungle bases and on the front line. a revolution is rising across myanmar, hidden from the world by its remoteness. few countries are more isolated. few conflicts more unseen. we spent a month with the insurgents on back roads and jungle tracks in karenni state where they are winning against the army. they've driven the military out

of most of their territory. but main roads are mined and we're still in range of army warplanes, so we have to take the long way round. a steep opposition hilltop above one of the last four military bases remaining in the state. gunfire. that sniper, can they see us from here? sniper can see. sniper men can see here. the insurgents come with a message, a chance to surrender for the soldiers in the base below.

this man defected to the resistance after 12 years with the army. he says he speaks the soldiers�* language. for now, they don't appear to be listening. there are 80 men still holding out in the base below. cease fire! cease fire, please. translation: i do not wish to fight against you, because i think - of you as my brothers. i'm fighting against the system. we have surrounded you. this is your last chance. all of your lives will be spared. i will not let you die. few of these young fighters expect he'll be successful. so the men there... boom. as you can hear, they still have plenty of weaponry, despite the fact that they've been stuck in that base for a month. so these men have sent their message. they've had the response.

it doesn't look like they're surrendering today, so they're withdrawing. it's a war from another age with close—quarter combat, and casualties run high. the karenni nationalites, defence force has taken its fair share. their leader, marwi, seen here, has led from the front and paid the price. more than 350 of our brother and sister already sacrificed their life. more than 200 sacrificed for their body parts. at the same time, as you see this morning, hundreds of people are willing to join with us and willing to fight

against the burma army. so those are our friends. it's a slow and ferocious conflict. in shan state at this base, a counter—offensive against the kndf. mortars start landing around us. none of these fighters have body armour or helmets. and neither do we, so we head for the only available cover. there's another one. so that's, i think, three shells have come in in the last five minutes. and you really get the sense of what this conflict is about, because that is a professional, professional military over there, firing artillery, firing mortars. these men are irregulars. they're a strong alliance, a ragtag of rebel groups. and they've had a lot of success, but they've taken on a professional army.

and that army is edging closer. beyond these banana trees, the military are crawling through the undergrowth. so you see now, it's not safe. so better we go back and later we can decide again and we can come back any time. all right, let's go. let's go fast. the kndf are used to sneak attacks, but this is unexpected. let's go, let's go. let's get out of range. go, go, go. so it looks like as we arrived here, a military squad was coming in and they've been training their guns on this area. the commander said it's not safe, we have to get out of here and head back to the second line, which hopefully is out of range of their weapons. go, go, go, go. directly ahead of us, a fresh mortar strike.

they're narrowing in on the vehicles. bleep. that's another one just slightly behind us. just keep driving, philip, fast as you can. it seems like they're trained on the road. just checking to see if their other vehicles made it. behind us, more near—misses. 0h, bleep. bleep. you know, very quickly, they have a drone. so it's dangerous. they have drones following us. you don't have enough ammo to mount the assaults that you need to take these final bases. the military rulers in this country have everything. how are you going to defeat that advantage? they have the artillery,

they have the aeroplanes, they have the mortars. we do have enough heart. we do have enough morale. we do have enough humanity. that's the way how we're going to defeat them. even though we don't have physical material and not enough, but this is enough. and now they have record volunteers. # i am a soldier and i'm pushing on. their ranks have never been stronger, their victories never greater. # i am a warrior and this is my song. the ballot box failed them. their peaceful protests were met with force. so they're taking the fight to the military. myanmar�*s new revolutionaries are on the march. # if that don't bring you fear, i swear you'll hear these marching feet.

quentin somerville, bbc news, karenni state, myanmar. and there's another special report from the team inside myanmar on thursday's news at ten. this was the frightening scene inside the cabin of flight 50321 from london to singapore, after it hit extreme turbulence. it led to the death of a british passenger in his 70s named in the last few minutes as geoff kitchen, 73 from gloucestershire. 50 other passengers on the singapore airlines boeing 777 were injured, seven of them critically. the flight left heathrow airport last night and flew without incident until it approached the coast of myanmar. there, it hit the turbulence, with the plane then making a rapid descent, dropping some 6,000 feet, with the pilot making an emergency diversion,

landing in bangkok in thailand. in a moment, we'll get the latest from singapore, where some of those on the flight will be arriving, but first, jonathan head, live in bangkok. in the last couple of hours, a chartered flight has taken the uninjured passengers from this airport to their original destination in singapore but there has been the death of geoff kitchen, a 73—year—old british man and many other people have needed treatment in hospital, with some serious injuries. all of them probably wondering whether this dramatic incident could have been predicted or prevented. shaken by their ordeal, the passages were met by an army of ambulances after they landed in bangkok. they had just been served breakfast when the boeing airliner plunged without warning. a shot taken inside the cabin after the aircraft had landed gives us a sense of the absolute chaos on board. another passenger,

jerry, was travelling with his family to a wedding in australia. a bit of turbulence and suddenly, the plane plunged, i don't know how far, but they said it was 6000 feet. it didn't seem like 6000 feet. but it was a long way and so sudden. there was no warning at all. and i ended up hitting my head on the ceiling. my wife did. some poor people were walking around and ended up doing somersaults. it was instantaneous, it really was. and horrible. the aircraft had been on the last stage of the flight from london to singapore when it dropped a staggering 6000 feet, experts believe, throwing any passengers not wearing seat belts up into the ceiling. many were injured, and one, 73—year—old british man, geoffrey kitchen, died. the pilot then declared an emergency and asked to land at bangkok,

the closest airport. translation: we currently have seven cases of critical _ injuries, 23 cases of medium injuries including a flight attendant. the rest are minor injuries. occasional air turbulence is a risk that people know comes with modern day flying. but the singapore airlines crew told passengers that this was the worst turbulence they had ever experienced. it will take an investigation now to find out whether this was something that came out of the blue, or whether there were other factors involved. these images show just how powerful the forces were that those on board flight 50321 were subjected to. a rare occurrence, certainly, but a very frightening one too. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. let's go straight to changi airport in singapore, where survivors will arrive later, and monica miller is there for us now.

of course, singapore, the place where a lot of travellers should have arrived yesterday and in safety. have arrived yesterday and in safe . ~ , ., have arrived yesterday and in safe . ~ , . ., ., safety. we 'ust learned that that fli . ht with safety. we just learned that that flight with uninjured _ safety. we just learned that that flight with uninjured passengers| safety. we just learned that that . flight with uninjured passengers has finally landed here, changi, and we are starting to see some of the family members that will greet them at the gate once they come out. this flight was supposed to land at 6p yesterday. they have been here for almost 12 hours, waiting for updates. there are also some mental health officials here we saw one woman visibly shaken, waiting for the news to come in. singapore officials say they are working with tyre authorities and their main priority is the passengers and crew. —— thai authorities. a former royal marines commando, charged with assisting the hong kong intelligence service,

has been found dead in unexplained circumstances in a park in maidenhead. matthew trickett, who was 37 and a home office immigration officer, appeared in court last week, accused under the national security act. daniel sandford is here. what is the background to this? matthew trickett was charged last monday along with two other men, alleged that they were assisting the hong kong intelligence service by agreeing to carry out surveillance, information gathering, deception and even breaking into a residential house on the 1st of may to he is a royal marines and also recently been working for the home office as an immigration enforcement official. on monday, when he appeared at westminster magistrates' court, last week, his lawyers argued for bail and the prosecution a post that on the grounds he needed to be kept in custody for his own welfare because he had attempted to seek his own life after being arrested. despite that, he was granted bail and was

due to appear at the old bailey this friday but on sunday a member of the public found him at around 5:15pm in maidenhead and he was pronounced dead at the scene. thames valley police are describing it as an unexplained death and they are waiting for a postmortem. matthew trickett family said they were mourning the loss of a much loved son, brotherand mourning the loss of a much loved son, brother and family member, and the police have reported them self to the independent office for please contact because they had regular contract with matthew trickett as part of the bail conditions. the government has outlined what it's describing as a comprehensive plan to compensate victims of the nhs blood scandal. at least 30,000 people were given blood products infected with hiv and hepatitis c, from the 1970s to the early �*90s. 3,000 people died. as hugh pym reports, interim payments of £210,000 will now be paid within 90 days for the most urgent cases.

that's what we've always wanted, that's what said we wanted, financial security for life. hopeful anticipation, watching the government's statement, four boys and their loved ones who were at the special school treloar�*s in hampshire. i would like to make a statement following the final report... they're haemophiliacs who were subjected to trials without consent and were infected with hiv and hepatitis c. the devil's in the detail. it's all words at the moment. there's nothing concrete, is there? speed is of the essence to us. we were hoping for the commitment | that this would be done and dusted | before the next election. of the 122 haemophiliacs who attended the school, 75 have already died from their infections. with our firm commitment to compensate those touched by the scandal, the infected blood community knows that their cries forjustice have been heard. in a moment of unity, the opposition benches agreed.

i repeat our commitment to work on a cross—party basis to help deliver the compensation scheme and get the money, the final money, to victims as soon as possible. so who will get compensation? there'll be payments to those infected or their estate if they've died, also to those affected partners, family and friends looking after a loved one. payments will be exempt from tax and not means—tested. the final payment will be made by the end of the year. there'll be interim payouts of 210,000 within 90 days to those infected. this follows a first interim payment in 2022. the announcement of who will run the scheme went down well in the commons, including the public gallery. i'm delighted to announce the appointment of sir robert francis as the interim chair of the organisation. sir robert has already drawn up

a compensation plan for the inquiry, so they liked it here. that is good. very pleased to hear that sir robert francis will be chairing it and will be looking across this for us, because as you say, his report was everything we could have wanted and more. i think the best thing is that they've said . that they're going to includel everyone, so that's families, children, siblings. dina and her husband dave were at the commons to hear the statement. she contracted hepatitis c through a blood transfusion. she's reserving finaljudgment. it's a step forward, but i'm probably going to put it away to save until we know exactly what the full compensation package is going to be. still concerned. hopeful. at least there's some progress now. i mean, they've been stonewalling. now, for over 12 months, they've had the final report on compensation. it's emerged that some victims might get a total, including interim compensation, of more than £2 million. but right now, they feel cautious and needing more reassurance about what will happen.

hugh pym, bbc news. the conservative mp, craig mackinlay, will return to parliament tomorrow, after losing his hands and feet to sepsis. he was given just a 5% chance of survival when he was rushed to hospital last september, and put into an induced coma as his organs began to fail. now back home and using prosthetic limbs, he's been speaking to helen catt, and a warning — her report features images of mr mackinlay while gravely ill in hospital. what do you think, darling? have they been clever? craig mackinlay and his family have had to adjust to a lot of change in the last eight months. over the course of 1a hours in september, he went from feeling slightly unwell to finding himself in hospital. within about half an hour, i went this very strange blue from top to bottom,

ears, everything, blue. it's when you're having a very severe sort of septic event. they knew what it was and they pretty much put me into an induced coma. and the next 16 days, i was in dreamland, really. my wife was told within a few hours, he is one of the illest people we have seen in this hospital, and prepare for the worst. but surviving was just the start. i can remember coming to, and all this discussion was happening about these arms and legs, because by then, they had turned black. they were like a plastic. you could almost knock them, and just looked dead. i probably shouldn't have survived this far. i've never seen anything like it in my life, but they say frostbite is a bit like that. but you get frostbite in a few fingers. i had frostbite that was effectively up to elbow and just below my knee. how do you cope with that psychologically? i was surprisingly stoic about it, actually. i don't know why i was.

again, probably the cocktail of various drugs i was on. i wasn't upset about it. i was sort of... acceptance that these things are dead and they're going to come off at some time. craig's hands and feet were amputated on the 3rd of december. craig's hands and feet were amputated on the 1st of december. this year brought more surgery and learning to use his prosthetic legs. i was never worried about the legs, always the hands. because you don't realise how much you do with your hands. that dexterity is just amazing. to use your phone, hold the hand of your child, touch your wife, do the gardening. it's all these things. cooking, i love cooking. i'm hoping with these amazing things, i'll get somewhere towards it. but it's never going to be the same, obviously. craig only got these hands this week and he had to go outside the nhs

to get them this quickly. he plans to campaign for faster access to similar prosthetics for others and to raise awareness of sepsis. if i can get at least one person to recognise that and not end up like this, i would say that is a job that's well done. but also, having been now a multiple limb loss person, of which there are not many, no more than half a dozen a year around the country, the nhs hasn't really been properly geared up to look after people with multiple limb loss, particularly on the prosthetic front. can you open them? i can, and close them. i want to be the bionic mp. so i've got a unique position and i want my voice to be heard. and you can watch the full interview on the bbc iplayer — just search for craig mackinlay mp: losing my hands and feet. there's been no public comment for many years from the former chief executive

of the post office, paula vennells. but tomorrow she'll begin giving evidence at the public inquiry into the horizon it computer scandal. by the time she was promoted to the top job in 2012, hundreds of sub—postmasters had already been wrongly prosecuted, and during her seven—year leadership, the post office denied the faulty it system was to blame. emma simpson, who's been following the inquiry, is here with more details. thanks, clive. this will be the first time paula vennells has spoken publicly about horizon in almost a decade. victims have long believed there's been a cover—up, prolonging this scandal. she has many questions to answer. one key one — what did she know about remote access and when? this is all about the ability to secretly alter sub—postmasters' branch accounts. for years, the post office denied this was possible. but it wasn't true. fujitsu, the company which operated the horizon system, could do this remotely. had this back door access been known

about, it would have undermined all the prosecutions the post office brought. the inquiry�*s seen a transcript of a call with a senior lawyer in 2013 which suggests that paula vennells had been briefed about a "covert operations team". then did she mislead mps in 2015? she'll likely be quizzed about these comments to a select committee: if there had been any miscarriages ofjustice, it would have been really important to me and the post office that we actually surfaced those, and as the investigations have gone through, so farwe've had no evidence of that. but how does that square with the post office getting a warning two years earlier that there were serious problems with past prosecutions because they'd used an "unreliable witness" ? what did she know about this bombshell piece of legal advice? and should she have done more as ceo to get to the bottom of it all, as the evidence was piling up?

for instance, she'd been given details in 2013 by independent investigators of eight individual complaints of sub—postmasters who claimed they'd been wrongly pursued for losses that didn't exist. the inquiry�*s seen an email where she calls this "disturbing reading". but the investigators were later sacked. ms vennells has previously said she was truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub—postmasters and their families and was focused on fully supporting the inquiry. victims just finally want the truth. clive. emma simpson, our business correspondent. chelsea manager mauricio pochettino has left the club by mutual consent after less than a year in charge. the argentine guided chelsea to sixth place in the premier league after a difficult start to the season. the club spent more than £400m on players this year, meaning their total transfer budget has exceeded £1 billion since a takeover in 2022.

it's less than a month till the start of euro 2024, and the england manager, gareth southgate, has named his provisional 33—man squad, with some big names missing. they include manchester united's marcus rashford and jordan henderson of ajax. southgate will have to whittle down the squad before the tournament begins. gareth southgate's become known for his loyalty to some of his established england stars, but today that changed. and it is rashford! manchester united striker marcus rashford, a mainstay for his country, axed from a provisional 33—man squad for this summer's euros, as he paid the price for recent form. and he wasn't the only eye—catching omission. vastly experienced jordan henderson also left out after an injury—hit spell at ajax, following a short stint in saudi arabia. the manager telling me how they'd taken the news. i think they know, over a long period of time, that we've been very supportive when we've needed to be. they're not pleasant calls for the boys to receive, so i fully understand that, but they were both very mature. of course you need stability, you need experience, but we also have to evolve the team and go with players that are in form as well.

those include an array of new faces — crystal palace midfielder adam wharton, who only made his premier league debut three months ago, liverpool star curtis jones and everton defender jarrad branthwaite among five uncapped players in the squad, which has to be trimmed to 26 players before the tournament. these players might be for now or they might be for the future with england, but i think it's a great opportunity for us to have a look at them, to work with them, for them to get a feel of the camp, and if they do well, they can force their way into the squad. but england have a major headache at the back — luke shaw, the only specialist left—back in the squad, among several defenders still recovering from injury. we've got a lot of complications at the back. we've got players that have either finished the season injured or have had injuries and have just got back playing, but that's the situation we are in and we've picked the players that we think physically, over the next couple of weeks, can get to where they need to be. there's foden! england have reached the latter stages of all three major tournaments since southgate took charge, and with a host of world—class talents

at his disposal, many believe the euros are the team's best chance to end the long wait for silverware. how would you rate your squad's chances at this tournament? i think that's hard to say. but we're one of the teams that can win. we know that. we're excited about the prospects. if you were to do this and bring home that trophy, would that make it more, do you think, or less likely that you would stay on as england manager? i think it would be more likely that i'd disappear somewhere for about six months and sit on a beach! laughter this programme continues on bbc one.

turbulence sent a singapore airlines flight plummeting 6,000 feet without warning. one man died and 30 others were injured. so, what went wrong?