this is bbc news. i'm ben bland. our top stories: a tsunami in indonesia — first reports say 20 people have been killed in the sunda strait. closed for christmas — no end to the us government shutdown as senate democrats and the white house face off over the border wall. the us envoy to the fight against islamic state resigns in protest at donald trump's decision to withdraw american troops from syria. paddy ashdown, the british politician who found a new role securing peace in bosnia, has died aged 77. hello and welcome to bbc news. we start with some breaking news — the reuters news agency are reporting that at least 20 people have died in a tsunami in indonesia.

reuters are reporting that the tsunami hit the sunda strait, which is the channel between the islands of java and sumatra. the government's disaster mitigation agency said in a statement that 165 other people had been injured. that is on top of the 20 that are being reported to have died. the tsunami is said to have hit on saturday night, hitting beaches in the area. authorities are investigating whether the tsunami was caused by the nearby volcano krakatoa. we are getting reports that at least 20 people died and where the sin only sit beaches around sunda strait, the stretch of water between java and sumatra. the government is

saying 165 other people have also been injured. we will keep across any developed and on that rating news and bring those to you as we get in here on bbc news. the us government will remain partially shut down over christmas after politicians in the senate failed to resolve their differences over the budget during a special session. democrats oppose donald trump's plans to use federal funds to build a wall along the us—mexico border. there was further bad news for mr trump as his top official in the fight against so—called islamic state group quit over the decision to pull us troops from syria. chris buckler reports. in the us, some government buildings are being closed and many federal employees have even told not to go to work. not as of christmas, but because of the government shut down. senators were working. they were called to a special session of congress to find a funding deal except of all to all. but without

any sign of compromise, democrats and republicans were left simply blaming each other. they brought this about because they are under a lot of pressure, we all know this. they feel compelled to disagree with the president on almost anything, and certainly this. the rise of donald trumpposmac long promised a physical barrier a long the border between mexico and america. he has been unable to get mexico to pay for the controversial border wall, and in the us, democrats have refused to give the president of $5,000,000,000 he says he needs to build it. mister president, president trump, if you wa nt to president, president trump, if you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall. plain and simple. relationships between the white house and even some republicans in congress were damaged during the last week. after president trump, many surprise and

sudden decision to pull us troops out of syria. de matos resigned and another member of his administration is leaving as a result of the president of a planned. brett mcgurk is the us special envoy to the global coalition fighting the so—called islamic state group. in his resignation letter, he made clear his concern is that the presidentposmac claims that ifa being defeated were premature. 0nly a week ago, he raised fears of an early end to the campaign in a bbc interview. the point is that military commitment doesn't end. that is absolutely right. there is no timeline on that. no timeline. washington is preparing for a short christmas break. goodwill is in short supply. with the government shut down, this seems a less than happy holiday for donald trump. chris butler, bbc news, washington.

it was the biggest factor in his decision to go. earlier, i spoke to andrew tabler, from the washington institute for near east policy. i asked him about what effect that departure would have. mister mcgurk was quite controversial in the us system because he aligns the united states with the democratic forces, an offshoot of the pkk, which is the archenemy of turkey and is designated as a terrorist organisation. it was a bit like playing with fire, but it was a strategy to fight isis, but the problem is as the war against isis drew down, turkeyposmac anger at the us supporting syrian democratic forces became unmanageable and

threatened turkish invasion caused president trump to say, if you want to fight isis, go ahead, we are leaving. that is what led to this decision this week. picking up on that specific decision by president trump to pull us troops out of syria, what do you think the ripple effects of that would be? it depends on how the withdrawal ta kes it depends on how the withdrawal takes place. if the assad regime jump takes place. if the assad regime jump the river and make a mad scramble for the oil fields or there is an evacuation of the kurds from the south and the fight against isis, this could get very messy. the problem is that replacing turkey and turkish—backed forces in syria, replace the forces is difficult because they hate each other. the regime and the iranians and the russians could be the big winners if

it is not managed, and that is the real challenge in terms of policy 110w. in terms of possible replacements, we have seen 2 people now leaving the trump administration over this issue. is there any idea who may replace them, and where their position may lie in relation to this issue of us involvement in syria? i don't have any idea who would replace the secretary of defence. in terms of brett mcgurk, i think it's portfolio, i imagine, will be distributed across the state department and the department of defence and it will be interesting to see if there is someone you appointed. his departure was scheduled, heavily rumoured to have occurred very early next year, so this resignation comes ahead of that departure, and is in response i think to president

trump's announcement. let's get some of the day's other news. the main opposition party in sudan says 22 people have been killed in four days of protests over a rise in the cost of bread. the leader of the opposition condemned what they had been —— what they say had been the armed repression of the demonstrations. the protests had been muted on saturday after the authorities closed universities and shut down mobile internet services. a car bomb has killed at least 12 people in the somali capital, mogadishu. the explosion happened less that 400 metres from the presidential palace. the militant islamist group al shabab says it was behind the killings. hundreds of people in morocco have attended vigils to mark the murder of two young scandinavian women in a tourist spot in the atlas mountains earlier this week. louisa vesteragerjespersen from denmark and maren ueland from norway were found dead near the village of ismil with wounds to their necks. in the uk, a man and a woman

are tonight still being questioned by detectives in connection with the criminal use of drones near london's gatwick airport. police are also searching a house in the nearby town of crawley. sightings of drones over the last three days led to the cancellation or delay of a thousand flights, affecting more than 140,000 passengers. jenny kumar reports. police activity at a house near gatwick airport. officers have searched inside the property and examined vehicles parked on the drive. this comes after sussex police confirmed last night that a man and a woman had been arrested in connection with illegal drone activity. well, tonight, there's a small police presence outside the property that was searched earlier today. meanwhile, gatwick airport say measures are being taken to keep the airfield safe and to keep flights running. at gatwick, flights have been getting back to normal

after three days of disruption. but there's a backlog to clear, and frustration amongst passengers. we fly off to france today, skiing in the alps. the kids — taking them away properly for a first white christmas. and, yeah, it's been really anxious times for us. i only had a couple of weeks at home so it's cut my trip short by a day, which is really upsetting when you don't get to see your family and friends that often. so, i was really sad. i've been really sad about it, but i'm just excited to be on the ground and back home. it's not ideal, we're not happy with that. we don't have a very long holiday, so it's frustrating to miss out on some of it. it seems rather stupid that this incident had to happen at all. the disruption caused widespread chaos, affecting 1,000 flights and 150,000 passengers. today, six flights have been cancelled, but the airport hopes to run the majority of services. 0ne estimate is that the disruption is costing airlines around £15 million as they refund customers and make arrangements for others

to get to their destination in time for christmas. jenny kumah, bbc news. 0ur correspondent caroline davies gave us the latest from gatwick airport. it does seem to be getting back to normal here at gatwick airport. there have been a steady stream of people coming through from arrivals and the noise of aircraft engines taking off overhead. gatwick told a six flights were cancelled this morning, but i havejust heard six flights were cancelled this morning, but i have just heard from them that 757 that were expected to run did run today and there were no significant delays. they have also said they are continuing to monitor the airfield closely. with a number of people and flights involved in this disruption and this chaos, of course there are a backlog of passengers waiting to try and get to their destination. tomorrow, gatwick say they are expecting to operate a normal service. they have 785

flights in total expected to be taking off from here. because of a knock—on effect potentially they have said to be on the safe side anyone expecting to travel to check before they go to the airport. that is the very latest from london's gatwick airport. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: manchester united start up with a win. 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 over 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 principle 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 eight 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: indonesia's disaster mitigation agency is reporting that at least 20 people were killed when a tsunami came ashore in the sunda strait. donald trump has said he'll stay in the white house over christmas after senators failed to end the deadlock which has shut down parts of the federal government. lord paddy ashdown, former liberal democrat leader and former high representative

to bosnia herzegovina, has died at the age of 77. in november this year, lord ashdown revealed he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. 0ur chief political correspondent, vicki young, reflects upon his life. this is how most people will remember paddy ashdown — the action man, the party leader with the least affection for westminster. long before he fired his first political salvos, he was a military man. a marine, he saw active service in borneo and malaya, as documented at the time. newsreel: at this post, 20 yards from the border, 23—year—old marine lieutenant ashdown, from somerset, has local forces as well as marines under his command. he excelled as a member of the elite special boat squadron, spoke fluent mandarin chinese. he spent time too in his native northern ireland during the worst of the troubles. after a period as a diplomat, and some time on the dole, paddy ashdown got involved

with the liberals, elected mp for yeovil in 1983. later, in 1988, after the painful merger with the sdp that formed the liberal democrats, he became leader. i say to the millions out there who are concerned about poverty and about unemployment, come and join us. the party was at rock bottom in the polls, and financially crippled. paddy ashdown built it up again, but at some cost to his home life. he admitted an affair with his former secretary tricia howard. what paddy said stands. he's made a statement already, and i was perfectly well aware of what he was going to say. fears that his party's poll rating would suffer were unfounded, and in 1997 he guided it to its greatest election achievement since the ‘20s, doubling the number of lib dem mps. by this stage, he had already been contemplating the prospect of coalition government with labour.

a joint cabinet committee was established, with liberal democrats invited to talks at number ten. according to ashdown, the plan to bring the lib dems into government foundered on opposition from senior labour ministers and the thorny problem of electoral reform. charles kennedy is duly elected the leader... paddy ashdown resigned the leadership in 1999, handing the baton onto charles kennedy, and retiring from the house of commons two years later. he spent time in bosnia, at some personal risk, at the height of the war there, and in 2002 became the high representative in bosnia and herzegovina. myjob is to create, to help to create, the structures of a modern european democratic state, and then to repatriate the powers that the international community has held here back to the bosnians. but he wasn't done with westminster politics. in 2015, after the lib dems had spent five years in coalition

with the conservatives, lord ashdown returned to chair the party's general election campaign... and we are saying the conservatives are the largest party. ..famously disputing the exit poll's prediction of a dire result. if this exit poll is right, andrew, i will publicly eat my hat on your programme. this is a hat. andrew, you are so predictable, aren't you ? ijust knew you'd... i wanted to get a bigger one. he had great enthusiasm and energy, optimism, drive. he was very much mr action man. the style that he acquired in the military, he carried into politics very effectively, and he did great things for our party. he inspired respect for his constant ideas and enthusiasm, and his efforts to build the liberal democrats into a force in national politics. lord ashdown, who's died at the age of 77.

there have been violent clashes in paris during a sixth successive weekend of yellow jacket demonstrations. 0fficials estimate that around 2,000 people joined the protests across the city, a smaller number than in previous weeks, after president macron had reversed some of his planned tax increases. yellowjacket protests have also been taking place elsewhere in france, notably near in the south—western city of perpignan. one man was killed when his vehicle was in collision with a stationary lorry at a roablock which had been put in place by the demonstrators. there have now been a total of ten deaths linked to the protests since they began in november. thousands of cuban medics have returned from brazil after the cuban government fell out with the brazilian president—elect jair bolsonaro over a joint health—care programme. cuba's communist government pulled the doctors out after brazil's far—right leader questioned their qualifications and called them slaves.

he accused the cuban government of keeping 75% of their pay and of not allowing their families to join them. will grant reports. welcomed home to flowers and flags. thousands of doctors who'd been working in remote and poor parts of brazil back in cuba after an acrimonious end to their posting. after brazil's president—elect, jair bolsonaro, had described them as slaves, most were just glad to be home. translation: we expected new moves or change with the new president in brazil, we didn't expect it to be so fast, so abrupt. i'm pleased to be going back to my home, to my family, to my children and to be back in cuba, which is my country. i consider myself to be slave to my medical specialism, to my profession and to the people who need my services. they were greeted off the

plane by president miguel the canaroo, a sign ofjust how political their exit from brazil has come. you return with your heads held high, he told them. brazil's president—elect had criticised the cu ban brazil's president—elect had criticised the cuban state for keeping the lions share of their wages and desired, commanded the doctors receive it all. in response, cuba's health doctors receive it all. in response, cu ba's health ministry doctors receive it all. in response, cuba's health ministry robustly defended itself. translation: part of the money went to the cuban doctors and part went to the cuban state, but it was all previously agreed and approved by the medics. they were told these are the terms and conditions and they agreed to them. they went in agreement, not slavery. the international medical brigades are an important source of income for the cuban state and the loss of a wealthy partner in brazil isa loss of a wealthy partner in brazil is a blow worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. the question now is whether the returning doctors will be put to work in cuba's own ailing and underfunded healthcare

system or be sent abroad once again. with a left—wing president, recently sworn in in mexico, speculation is rife that the cuban medics back from brazil could do a similarjob they're instead. for now, nothing has been signed. translation: some medics will go out to the communities here to carry on the same work. others will do international postings wherever they're needed, whether in mexico, chile or wherever in the world cuban are called for. mr bolsonaro offered the cuban doctors are silent and some chose to stay in brazil. the majority, though, put such politics aside and came back to cuba, returning to theirfamilies but came back to cuba, returning to their families but also to greater economic uncertainty. will grant, bbc news, havana. to our top story, the breaking news

that's coming from indonesia that at least 20 people have been killed after a tsunami hit the sunda strait. on the line joining after a tsunami hit the sunda strait. on the linejoining us is someone there when it happened. i gather you were on the beach with yourfamily when gather you were on the beach with your family when the waves struck? that's almost correct. i was actually at the beach but i was alone. my family was sleeping in the room. i were standing on the beach trying to photograph the volcano. what did you see? early in the evening it was quite heavy correcting activity. —— erupting. after the wave hitting the beach, there was no activity at all. it was dark. suddenly i saw this wave coming andi dark. suddenly i saw this wave coming and i have to run. when the waves started coming ashore, give us a sense of how strong, how big they were. well, it was to waves. the

first wave wasn't that strong, i could run from it. pashto macro waves. “— could run from it. pashto macro waves. —— two waves. i ran to the hotel where my wife and my children we re hotel where my wife and my children were sleeping and i woke them up. after i woke them up i heard a bigger wave coming and i looked out the window and a second wave hit, and it was much bigger. from what i gather, one of the waves was so strong it almost reached at the hotel, did it? yeah, it past the hotel, it passed the road. cars couldn't drive through. we were pushed off the road. what happened to you and your family? pushed off the road. what happened to you and yourfamily? did you pushed off the road. what happened to you and your family? did you have to you and your family? did you have to evacuate the area, what's happened? after that second wave, we

and other people in the hotel went straight into the forest next to the hotel. we all ran through the forest. we a re hotel. we all ran through the forest. we are still up on the hill now, we don't dare to go down. do you have shelter? what is the situation? we have shelter. people in indonesia are great people, they really ta ke in indonesia are great people, they really take care of each other. were staying with locals. we have food here and shelter. -- we're staying. have you been in this situation before? have you experienced a tsunami in person before? this is my first time and hopefully the last timei first time and hopefully the last time i experience it. i'm a volcano photographer, i've been involved with erupting volcanoes several times before. i understand you're a specialist in taking volcanic photographs, there's an investigation into whether a volcanic eruption caused this. were

you aware any tremors or unusual volcanic activity that might have been caused the tsunami? no, i can't say that. it was quite heavy sounds... heavy eruption sounds from the volcano earlier in the evening. the place where i was standing, around 47 kilometres from it, so you could really feel the intensity of the eruption where i was standing. i'm not sure if this came from the volcano. that's what the indonesian authorities have to say. oystein lund andersen, thanks for speaking to us from indonesia, where, the breaking news is, the tsunami has struck the sunda strait. more news on that on bbc world news. in the meantime, you can get in touch with

meantime, you can get in touch with me on social media. hello. what a difference a day makes. certainly the better day of the weekend for the dry and bright even sunny weather on saturday, while today brings with it more cloud for most of the country and some rain. the exception being northern and central scotland were actually saturday brought most of the rain, showers, drier through the day ahead but this is what galloping in from the atlantic, this wave of weather fronts which will alleviate the fall in temperature through the night, except in scotland and the where we will see fault issues but the rain already upon us will move its way across most part by mid—morning. into northern ireland, perhaps brushing into northern scotla nd perhaps brushing into northern scotland and heavy bursts for a time and perhaps later. it looks like the lions share of the sunshine will be in northern and central scotland, but a cold start and patchy fog, which at this time of year, struggles to clear. it may dry up again for northern ireland and southern scotland later but for much of england and wales, misty low

cloud, grey and a0 over the hills. relatively mild with the atlantic airand relatively mild with the atlantic air and moisture coming in relatively mild with the atlantic airand moisture coming in but relatively mild with the atlantic air and moisture coming in but very different day, quite a great miserable day. in the north, as we saw yesterday, temperatures around six or seven. that clear air and drier weather will eventually push across more parts of england and wales through the coming night, limiting the rain to the faster but obviously we had the moisture so there could be some fog and we'll see a more widespread frost into the morning of christmas eve with temperatures below freezing in some parts, a really chilly start to the day. and it means a much brighter day. and it means a much brighter day ahead, a much dry and bright today. use all those temperatures hovering around freezing, even in the towns and cities, so they'll ta ke the towns and cities, so they'll take a while to recover, not as mild as we'll see through the day ahead but brighter, more sunshine around, exceptin but brighter, more sunshine around, except in southern and western areas and yes, fairweather cloud elsewhere but looking fine and dry. the reason high pressure is squeezing all the rain out of that weather front, but

u nfortu nately rain out of that weather front, but unfortunately on tuesday, christmas day, it pushes that weather front and the cloud back in from the west. not as sparkling we don't think on christmas eve in terms of sunshine amounts, could be misty and foggy but it should be mostly dry despite being rather cloudy. we're hopeful there will be a little bit of wintry sunshine to enjoy for some of us during the day on tuesday, and it won't be particularly mild but it will be a little less cold if you like and christmas eve because of all that cloud, particularly in the west. as ever, plenty more information on the outlook on the website but taking a quick glance at wednesday and thursday, it's more of the same, cloudy this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 20 people are reported to have been killed by a tsunami in indonesia. it came ashore in the sunda strait, the stretch of water that separates the islands of java and sumatra. the country's disaster agency said more than 150 people have been injured. a partial us government shutdown is now set to last

until at least thursday. earlier, the us senate ended talks to resolve an impasse over the budget without agreement. democrats are refusing to give in to president trump's demands for $5 billion to build a border wall with mexico. a top american official in the fight against the islamic state group has quit over president trump's decision to pull troops from syria. before mr trump's announcement, brett mcgurk, the envoy to the global coalition fighting is had insisted that american troops would continue to operate in the country. tensions between russia and the uk have been high in 2018. but what do younger russians think of their british counterparts?