welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: a partial shutdown of us government starts in a couple of hours time — after democrats fail to agree funding for president trump's border wall with mexico. the shutdown spooks us markets, with heavy losses in wall street's worst week since the financial crisis. police investigating the drone flights that disrupted london's gatwick airport make two arrests, after three days of travel chaos. and anger at hungary's so—called "slave" labour laws. thousands of protestors are back on the streets of the capital, budapest. a partial shutdown of the us government is expected to go ahead in just two hours‘ time after congress adjourned without reaching an agreement on a revised spending bill. president trump had demanded

the legislation include $5 billion for the mexican border wall but it failed to gain support in the senate. it now means several key agencies are set to lose their funding, leaving hundreds of thousands of employees without a christmas pay cheque. let's go live to the bbc‘s david willis, who's been following the developments. what areas of government will shut down? several key departments of government here in the us. a include the departments of agriculture, the department of transport, the department of transport, the department of transport, the department ofjustice department of transport, the department of justice and department of transport, the department ofjustice and perhaps, ironically, the department of homeland security which oversees, amongst other things, security along the us mexico border. that is crucial to all of this because president trump has made signing off on this new round of spending

conditional on congress approving $5 billion to fund the wall that he has been making his signature campaign issue for such a long time. democrats in the senate flatly refused to do that. they don't want anything to do with the wall construction. the minority leader in the senate said not today, not that sweet, not next year. that president trump, perhaps realising with democrats about to take control of the house of representatives, this is the time to go into battle on this signature issue. of course he is being urged to do so by commentators on the right. we saw nancy pelosi and chuck schumer a few weeks ago when the oval office, calling this a trump shutdown. are the democrats potentially to blame? did they set up a challenge for donald trump on this? it is

interesting because president trump at that meeting, that televised meeting in the oval office accepted that he would own, if you like, a shutdown should it come to that and he has since shifted his stands somewhat, tweeting this morning that this will be a democrat shutdown. it does look as if it is going to come into effect in less than two hours time because the house has been adjourned until noon tomorrow, that is saturday. be senate whip has said there will be no vote there tonight and president trump himself has cancelled his planned trip to his florida winter resort, the start of his christmas holidays. it looks as though they will be hunkering down in washington, dc in the run—up to christmas itself. we will keep an

eye on that. thank you very much for the date. the impending government shut down has contributed to the dramatic fall on the us stock markets. the dow jones industrial average suffered its deepest weekly plunge since 2008 and the nasdaq officially entered bear market territory, having fallen 20 per cent from its peak. earlier our reporter kim gittleson told me more about the significance of the fall and its connection to the partial shutdown in the us federal government. it has to do with the fact that investors really like certainty. obviously this is an uncertain situation and we are not quite sure when the us government will get back and running. we are heading into the christmas holiday and that will certainly delay things. it comes as part of a broader picture of political dysfunction in washington and that worries investors. additionally, other things this week such as the us federal reserve the central bank, has decided to raise interest rates this week, that did not please investors, even though the central bank said that they would only

raise interest rates twice next year instead of three. that suggests that they do not think this us economic that suggests that they do not think this us economic boom we are in the middle of will last much longer. we hear that this is the worst week since the financial crisis in 2008 but it was not that long ago we were talking about a bull market and things were looking good. over the summer, the s&p 500 had entered the longest bull market in history. a bear market is a 20% decline from a peak, that is what the nasdaq ended today. a bull market is the inverse, a 20% rise from a trough. what happened is that many investors thought that they had been in a great period with tax cuts from donald trump helping corporate profits and we saw a big recovery from the depths of the financial crisis. how long can it continue to last? there are storm clouds on the horizon in terms of global growth. donald trump's trade war with china is one thing they are worried about as well is the slowing chinese growth and the looming brexit

negotiations and what will happen here in europe. police in britain say they have arrested two people suspected of involvement with the illegal use of drones, which has severely disrupted flights in and out of the country's second—busiest airport — gatwick. police have been searching for the operator since wednesday evening when the first drone incursion took place. planes were grounded for thirty—six hours and had only been operational for a few hours on friday when another sighting was reported. duncan kennedy reports on a day of disruption for passengers. cheering. this was the reaction when passengers heard that tonight's suspension of flights was over. the airport was closed forjust over an hour this time when reports came through of another drone sighting. they told us that the flight was cancelled and that we had to collect our luggage. but by mid—evening takeoffs

and landings began again. after the nervousness of the past three days, flights had resumed this morning, when police gave the airport the all clear. but it was a groggy start to the day for many. flights swapped for floors. virginia from cornwall is seriously ill and had to spend her night in an airport chair. it's horrible. it goes against your human rights, isn't it? i have cancer, spread to the bones. for god's sake! around 600 planes came in today and thousands of people did get away. but this woman won't fly until sunday. how would you summarise this experience? it's horrendous. it's a nightmare. it's just... or how about these men from london whose flights to ghana was cancelled

today, meaning they will now miss a family wedding. they've thrown us to the wolves, basically. we are left here. i can't go and see my grandma. i can't go to the wedding. it's just not acceptable. it's deplorable. it's not good enough at all. this bag of chocolates with their airline's gesture of apology. but what about compensation? the insurance industry says people should first contact their airline. they say airlines are not obliged to pay compensation but say any costs incurred and general disruption will be covered by most people's travel insurance. the vast majority of people should be able to make a claim where they have not been able to get any refunds or compensation out of the airlines or travel companies. it is only the cheapest insurance policies that are available on the market that are unlikely to include travel disruption cover. the squeeze at gatwick again fed the crush at st pancras.

these were the queues for eurostar trains today. but others did head to gatwick, hoping that their flight would emerge from the chaos. so they said thatjust go there and see what happens. and then...i wish. but i don't know. flights from foreign airports into gatwick have also been trying to catch up. this family were caught in rome. the fact is that two children, wanting to get back to see my family, that is obviously be sad part about it. but we will get there. a voice of optimism after days of uncertainty after an airport stopped not by snow, fog, or strikes, but by a drone. duncan kennedy, bbc news, at gatwick airport. let's get some of the day's other news. the un security council has voted unanimously to send observers to monitor and help implement a ceasefire between the yemeni government and houthi rebels in the port city of hodeida. the truce began on tuesday after being agreed at un—sponsored talks last week.

more than 50 people are reported to have been injured, many of them police, in northern spain during clashes with supporters of calatan independence. demonstrators said they were responding to what they called a provocation, which was the decision by the national government to hold a cabinet meeting in the catalan capital, barcelona. thousands of protestors across hungary have joined in fresh demonstrations against a controversial labour law which allows businesses to impose overtime on workers. hungary's president, janos ader signed the so—called "slave law" on thursday, saying he was satisfied that the new law did not violate workers' rights. in budapest, while many of the protestors have been marching to the presidential palace to appeal against the signing, there are also some pro—government supporters. the bbc‘s nick thorpe was at the protest.

this was supposed to be, this was initially billed as a protest to appeal to the president not to sign this controversial law. but as he went ahead and signed it before the deadline was up, it is now a protest pretty much against the president himself. it has been titled "you should be ashamed of yourself, janos." that is the name of the president, janos ader. there is almost a festive mood among these protesters. they know they will not be able to bring down the government, but they are hoping that by staying out on the streets, especially now trade unions are getting involved and it has spread to 12 or 15 provincial cities across hungary, they feel that they had the wind in their sails now. thirty years ago on friday, pan am flight 103 was blown up in mid—air over the market town of lockerbie in southern scotland. wreaths have been laid and a silence held at a memorial service in honour of the 270 people who lost their lives. our scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports.

bagpipes play. on the shortest day, lockerbie remembered its longest night, remembered the 270 people who lost their lives in the deadliest terror attack the uk has ever suffered. this, a day of dignified remembrance of those who died. among the passengers on the pan am flight, helga mosey. she was 19. every year since the bombing, her parents have travelled to lockerbie to remember a life cut short. we miss our daughter, and we wonder how she would have done, what her musical career would have been like. would we have been grandparents to her children? we don't know. we still remember her as she was, lively. and be thankful we had her for so long. 19 years isn't long, but they were happy years. the transatlantic plane had been en route from london to new york

when it exploded in the skies above the scottish town, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. the only person to be convicted of the bombing, the libyan man, abdelbaset al—megrahi, died after being released from a scottish prison on compassionate grounds. his family's lodged a new attempt to appeal against his conviction. and there's a separate ongoing criminal investigation, with two other libyans are identified a suspect. for some, like jim swire who lost his daughter flora in the attack, there are still unanswered questions. overwhelmingly, the awful thing about lockerbie was the death, needless deaths, i may say, of 270 innocent people, who could have been protected had the government of the day taken appropriate steps. having said that, the refusal of our government, and the american government, of course, to come out with what they know about the truth, has been a terrible added burden to many.

30 years ago, lockerbie became tied to tragedy. in the decades since with humanity, kindness and compassion. the people here have offered comfort to the victims' families, remembrance and respect. lorna gordon, bbc news, lockerbie. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: there's nothing like a dame. britain's pantomime tradition wows the crowds on broadway. the world of music has been paying tribute to george michael who's died from suspected heart failure at the age of 53. he sold well over 100 million albums over a career spanning more than three decades. the united states troops have been trying to overthrow the dictatorship of general manuel noriega. the pentagon said that it's failed in its principal objective to capture noriega and take him

to the united states to face drugs charges. the hammer and sickle was hastily taken away. in its place, the russian flag was hoisted over what is now no longer the soviet union, but the commonwealth of independent states. day broke slowly over lockerbie, over the cockpit of pan am's maid of the seas nose down in the soft earth. you could see what happens when a plane 8 storeys high, a football pitch wide, falls from 30,000 feet. business has returned to albania after a communist ban lasting more than 20 years. thousands went to midnight mass in the town of shkoder, where there were anti—communist riots ten days ago. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: a partial shutdown of us government will start in just a few hours' time, after lawmakers failed to agree funding for president trump's border wall with mexico. let's stay with that story now.

a little earlier i spoke steven olikara who is the founder and president of millenial action project, which describes itself as a post—partisan leadership organization. i asked him who he thought was responsible for this partial government shutdown. i think both parties are to blame for the fundamental problem which is that congress has been governing from crisis to crisis, passing these continuing resolutions. we sort of see this as the new normal now — this is not normal. congress should be passing bipartisan budgets. so this very far back, a number of years, where congress has not been doing its judiciary job. now, because we are in this crisis mode, we have to pass these continuing resolutions and the parties in power can use this moment, must pass the legislation, to extract their legislative goals and that is exactly what president trump is trying to do in trying to extract a $5 billion funding for this border wall. in trying to extract a $5 billion

funding for his border wall. ultimately, how do the politics play out? i believe president trump will end up owning this shutdown. he said it himselfjust last week. and i think ultimately there will have to be some level of compromise in the next week or so. has donald trump ended up playing into the democrats' hands, the democrats who we heard recently characterise this as a trump shutdown? both sides will characterise this as the other side's shutdown and that always happens. this happened a couple of years ago, it happened in 2013. they're trying to place the blame on the other side. i think, if you look at the way this one is playing out, probably a majority of american people will see this as a trump shutdown but ultimately the american people are not interested in playing the blame game, what they're interested in are solutions — a legitimate budget that offers stability to the markets and, unfortunately today, with this level of instability, the markets continued to decline and a lot of american families

don't have a basic sense of security heading into the holiday season. this crop of lawmakers in the white house are clearly not doing theirjob and i believe the american people deserve a lot better. in the us, the supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg has had two cancerous nodules removed from her left lung. there is no evidence of any further disease, but it's the latest health scare for the liberaljudge who has become a cultural icon. this christmas a new movie will open about her early career, starring felicityjones. it comes on the heels of the wildly popular documentary about the justice's life. tom brook has been looking at this somewhat unlikely star. you're making the wrong case. these are laws written by men who think we are privileged to be excused from men's obligations but it is not a privilege, it is at cage and these laws are the bars!

british actress, felicityjones, as ruth bader ginsburg, in the film, on the basis of sex, a fictionalised account of the justice's early career. felicity james is a big ginsburg fan. she is someone in a position of power who has huge integrity and has got to where she's got to because of that integrity and we do not have many people like her to look up to. ginsburg's appeal is exceptional. millennials have really responded to her. there's a whole generation of young feminists who admire her stinging dissent in the supreme court that leans to the right. known by her initials, rbg, her popularity has given rise to a moniker. the diminutivejustice is referred to as notorious rbg, a play on the name of the late rapper, notorios big. there is even a notorious rbg official music video. # case by case i paved the way for the next generation and females into the equation...#

it is not usual for someone who is famous for their work in the law to become a celebrity, it is not usual for a woman in her 80s to suddenly kind of skyrocket into stardom, but that is what has happened with justice ginsberg. ruth bader ginsburg is a polarising figure. a large part of her appeal is that she is seen as a foil to the fired—up voices on the right. i think that there's a poisonous atmosphere out there in the world and that we have to continuously, as justice ginsburg does, persuade with an argument that doesn't destroy people but that connects people and i think she is rocky, what can i say. some conservatives think much of the adoration of ruth bader ginsburg is misplaced. ruth bader ginsburg is a very small, slight woman, she's kind of mumbling, she's kind of a law elf, and it's seen as kind of funny to portray her as this kind of mighty force for change, and to put a crown on her and to compare her to a famous rapper.

maybe ruth bader ginsburg was mystified by the pop culture adoration at first, but she has really embraced it. her nephew, daniel stiepleman, who wrote the screenplay for on the basis of sex, argues that she sees advantages to all the celebrity appeal. she is growing used to being in the public eye, in a way that most judges usually aren't. when you issue a dissent in a supreme court case, what you are doing is you are speaking to future generations and i think she is smart enough to recognise that being such a powerfulforce in the media makes that voice louder. there is every sign that her celebrity appeal will continue. a few months ago, this champion of gender and racial equality said she plans to spend at least another five years on the supreme court, by which time, the notorious rbg will be 90—years—old. tom brook, bbc news, new york. for many in the uk the christmas holidays aren't complete without going to a pantomime.

but now this peculiarly british tradition with its raucous singalongs, audience banter and often risque jokes is being exported to america. jack and the beanstalk is currently playing in new york and it turns out, the crowds — young and old — can't get enough. america has never seen anything like it. new yorkers have taken to it like, gosh, like a fish to water. amazing. i love it. the show was really funny. oh, no, you can't. audience: oh, yes, i can. a pantomime is a family form of entertainment that's around the holidays, that is interactive with the audience, that has a lot of slapstick and humour and brings community together, laughing and singing. # i can make a dress out of a feed bag and i can make a man out

of you 'cause i'm a woman! w—o—m—a—n, i'll say it again...# i knew nothing about pantomime, nothing. when she sent me tapes of what the pantomime actually was, i was like ohh. every time we get to five we want you to help us count... 1, 2, 3, 4... it was funny for me that we got a new york times glowing review, thinking to myself, the guardian would never reverentially review a panto, so—called low art. the hardest point for me it is the vocal aspect of it all. (high pitched voice) as the pantomime we are talking like this all the time. and then i go very low and then sing. # always look on the bright side of life!# the interactive tradition of panto, all these things that i suppose

in britain we think of as hackneys and cliched and old fashioned, they are thrilling to this audience cause they love interacting. these american guys and women are coming out of this show with their minds blown, and i'm thinking but it's just panto. ijust like that some girls play boys, some boys play girls, and there are people of all sizes, big and small, small and tall. we need to have that kind of perspective and make fun of things happening in the real world. i'm english and i would love to see this become a tradition over here every year. another uk tradition. in the uk one of the traditions of the festive season is to see which song wins

the race to sit at the top of the charts as the christmas number one. this year ariana grande was in the running but she's just been pipped to the post by a dad who blogs about his experience of parenthood, and recorded this. we built this city, we built this city on sausage roll. come on, babe. we built this city on sausage roll. we built this city on sausage rolls is the song, a cover of course of a 1980s hit. lad—baby — real name mark hoyle — made the single together with his wife and two sons. and they're donating all of the profits made to a food bank charity. good luck to them. you're watching bbc world news. hello there.

the weekend is upon us now it's looking like being a tale of two halves. saturday is expected to be the drier day of the two, with many places staying dry, with sunshine. a few showers in the north. for sunday, another weather system moving in. it will bring rain and more of a breeze for many areas. early on saturday, lots of showers around. these tending to become more confined to western scotland, northern ireland and north—west england by around dawn, with some clear skies further south and east. now, it will be a mild start to the day across the south. one or two chilly spots for the north—east of scotland — subzero values and one or two spots of frost. for saturday, this is the ridge of high pressure which should bring most of us some fine weather. this is the area of low pressure i was talking about which will bring sunday the wetter and breezier weather. so this morning starts up dry for many. lots of sunshine across the south and the east. after that chilly start, temperatures will rise. there will be though a few showers pushing through western scotland, northern ireland and north—west england and that light to moderate west or north—west breeze. it'll be fairly cool here. temperatures pretty typical for the time of year. further south it's going to be

fairly mild again for the time of year, with 11—12 degrees. this next weather system moves in for sunday, brings outbreaks of rain initially to northern ireland, then in towards parts of england and wales. some of the rain is going to be heavy, quite slow moving as well, through the northern ireland, into parts of wales, the midlands and northern england. it will eventually become confined to the eastern side of england, into the afternoon. meanwhile, much of scotland will have a dry but quite a chilly day. temperatures in mid—single digits. further south, though, it's going to be mild again — 12—13 celsius across southern england and south wales. this weather front lingers on across southern parts of the country as we head into monday, of course, that's christmas eve, but with a big area of high pressure expected to establish itself over the country, it will tend to squeeze that weather front out so conditions will become dry here later on christmas eve. so we could see some cloud and rain across the far south of england, eventually becoming confined to the far south—west. devon and cornwall will hold on to the milder air — 12 or 13 celsius. further north, drier, brighter, with some sunny spells but cooler and certainly much cooler across scotland. for christmas day,

or for the christmas period, that's into boxing day as well, with high pressure nearby, it looks like it will be dry for most. the morning starts off quite chilly, particularly across northern areas. and we should see a little bit of sunshine, but there will be quite a bit of cloud too. so this is christmas day's weather. quite a chilly start, north—east scotland, maybe north—east england, a touch of frost. otherwise most places will be dry through the day, with quite a bit of cloud around. and those temperatures close to the seasonal normal, even fairly mild in the far south. this is bbc news, the headlines: a partial shutdown of the us government will start in less than two hours time after lawmakers failed to agree funding for president trump's border wall with mexico. democrats are opposed to the plan which could cost more than $5 billion. fears about the shutdown led to sharp falls on the stockmarket with the benchmark dowjones index finishing its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. facebook and twitter were hardest hit — their value tumbled more than 6% while amazon shares dropped more than 5%.

police investigating the drone flights that disrupted london gatwick airport have made two arrests. the airport reopened on friday following a 36—hour closure which saw nearly a thousand flights cancelled and 120,000 passengers stranded. now it's time for the latest in technology and gadgets —