welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is martin stanford. 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. we start with some breaking news — the reuters news agency is reporting that at least 20 people have died in a tsunami in indonesia. and more than 160 people have been injured. the giant wave hippie sunda strait, the channel between the islands of java and sumatra. the

governance disaster mitigation agency said it hit saturday night. let us get an update. this is david crombie is treading broadcaster abc. any more details at this stage, david? —— he is 80 broadcaster. any more details at this stage, david? -- he is 80 broadcaster. we are getting more details. 20 people dead, 160 by people injured. authorities are saying that both those numbers are expected to rise. they do believe that the tsunami was caused by an undersea landslide, which was triggered by an eruption at the volcano of krakatoa which sits between the islands of java and tomato. initially, indonesia ‘s disaster agencies dismissed reports a tsunami. —— sumatra. there were

reports coming through overnight and for a number of hours the official channels were telling people not to panic or spread fake news, essentially, about a tsunami, saying that the rising seas were caused by a tidal wave due to a full moon. 0nly a tidal wave due to a full moon. only this morning did they confirm that it was a tsunami and they believe one of triggered by that undersea landslide. so those disaster agencies have now apologised, they have deleted a number of tweets where they were putting out, accidentally, misinformation about it. clearly it isa misinformation about it. clearly it is a situation that is evolving. misinformation about it. clearly it is a situation that is evolvingm it was caused by the volcano, one would imagine this wave of water heading north—east might affect quite a wide area, david? it did not just heading north—east. it headed towards the west. that volcano is in the middle of two islands. we're

getting of deaths on both the island of sumatra and the island of java. it was not accompanied by an earthquake or preceded by an earthquake, and that is part of the reason why we believe that there was that initial confusion, because so often tsunamis, as you know, it is first the earthquake out in the ocean which then causes a tsunami. this one, it seems, struck the coast with no warning whatsoever. and kra katoa with no warning whatsoever. and krakatoa has with no warning whatsoever. and kra katoa has been with no warning whatsoever. and krakatoa has been quite active recently. it has indeed. notjust krakatoa, but a volcano known as the child of kra katoa, krakatoa, but a volcano known as the child of krakatoa, which has displayed even more volcanic activity they krakatoa itself. so that whole area, it has been for a long time, a hotbed of seismic and volcanic activity. as is all of indonesia, which sits on the ring of fire, where there are, there is a

loss of tectonic plate movement which causes earthquakes and tsunamis and volcanic activity fairly regularly. indeed. it only seems like a matter of a full weeks ago that the sulawesi disaster was reported on by yourselves and the bbc. absolutely. one can only pray that the damage and death toll from this tsunami is not as bad as the one that struck central sulawesi and palu. it was nearly three months ago and they are still struggling to get on top of what was a major emergency there. this one, by initial assessments, does not appear to be in the same league as that huge tsunami and earthquake and the liquefaction, the triple disasters that struck the city of palu and surrounds. david, thank you very

much indeed. we speak with 0ystein lund andersen who was at the beach when the waves struck. telus what you saw. -- tell us. i was photographing krakatoa, suddenly i saw something come towards me. bigger than normal. so within a few seconds that i had to get out there, so seconds that i had to get out there, soi seconds that i had to get out there, so i ran, i ran quite far. that was the first wave. tell us which beat you were on at this time, where were you were on at this time, where were you located? i was located on west java, around 47 kilometres from the erupting volcano. were you able to witness how far inland to the water went? the first wave, the first wave

went? the first wave, the first wave went maybe 15 — 25 metres in. then one of two minutes later the second wave came and went maybe 50 or 60 metres inland. is it possible to estimate the height of the wave, the depth of the wave, the amount of water coming in? i don't know. maybe two metres. i don't know. it was difficult to tell. i was standing over it when the wave hit.|j difficult to tell. i was standing over it when the wave hit. i suppose you are unprepared for this. there had been no warning given to this particular community. no warning. sorry, just to say that again. we just lost the phone for you. tell us about the warning. was there any warning? no. ok. oystein lund andersen, thank you very much for bringing us up—to—date on that. we

will bring you any further updates as coverage continues through the day. 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 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 been told not to go to work. not because of christmas, but because of a government shutdown. senators, however, were working. they were called to a special session of congress to try to find a funding deal acceptable to all. but without any sign of compromise, democrats and republicans were left simply blaming each other. they brought this about because they're under a lot of pressure, we all know this. from theirfar left, they feel compelled to disagree with the president on almost anything, and certainly this. the rise about donald trump's long promise for a physical barrier along

the border between mexico and america. he's been unable to get mexico to pay for the controversial border wall, and in the us, democrats have refused to give the president the $5 billion he says he needs to build it. so, mr 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 made a surprise and sudden decision to pull us troops out of syria. it led to the resigned of his defence secretaryjim mattis, and now another member of his administration is leaving as a result of the president's plans. 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 concerns that the president's claims that is had been defeated were premature. only a week ago, mr mcgurk raised fears of an early end to the campaign in a bbc interview. but the point is that military commitment doesn't end there. that's absolutely right. and there's no timeline on it. no timelines. washington is preparing for a short christmas break, but goodwill is in short supply. and with a government shutdown and questions about presidential policy, this seems like a less—than—happy holiday for donald trump. chris butler, bbc news, washington. there have been violent clashes in paris during a sixth successive weekend of yellow jacket demonstrations. 0fficials estimate that around 2000 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. yellow jacket 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 roadblock 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. let us learn more now about the indonesian air quake or volcanic activity and the tsunami that has been the result of that —— earthquake. we have a vulcanologist currently based in los angeles. the connection between the krakatoa group of volcanoes and this tsunami, we have not had confirmation of that, but does it seem likely to you? i think she is not with us at the

moment. we have a picture of her, ca ptu red moment. we have a picture of her, captured in time, but not actually a light connection at the moment. we will try to tap into her expertise inafew will try to tap into her expertise in a few moments as we get more information about that incident in indonesia, which is ongoing —— live. here in the uk, 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 — and there's some flash photography in her report. 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. hi, guys. 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. british prime minister theresa may has issued a statement saying: this is bbc news. the headlines: indonesia's disaster relief agency has said that at least 20 people were killed when a tsunami came ashore in the sunda strait. the latest bulletin has updated the

death toll figure to 43 people now believed to have perished and several hundred may have been injured in this. more details coming through moment by moment. a man and a woman are still being questioned by detectives in connection with the criminal use of drones near gatwick airport. police are also searching a house in crawley in west sussex. sightings of drones over the last three days led to the cancellation or delay of 1,000 flights, affecting more than 140,000 passengers. the airport has remained open, but there are still some delays. 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 is 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 is 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, we've been — 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'm — 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 at all 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 in gatwick airport. there's been a steady stream of people coming through from arrivals, and the noise of aircraft engines taking off overhead. gatwick did tell us that six flights were cancelled this morning, but i have just heard from them that 757 that were expected to run did run today, and that there were no significant delays. they have also said that they're continuing to monitor the airfield closely. now, with the number of people and the number of flights involved in this disruption and this chaos, of course, there are a backlog of passengers waiting to try and get to their destination. now, tomorrow, gatwick say that they are expecting to operate a normal service.

they have 785 flights in total expected to be taking off from here. because of the knock—on effect, potentially, they've said, to be on the safe side, anyone expecting to travel should check before they go to the airport. in the latest from jakarta, the indonesian disaster agency is now reporting that 43 people have died and another 584 people have been injured after the tsunami struck the coastal areas around the sunda strait between the islands of sumatra and java, in the middle of the evening saturday night local time. that is not date to the figure we we re time. that is not date to the figure we were first reporting. the agencies have said they feared there may be a greater death toll than originally reported. 43 people are now believed to have died. the volcano in krakatoa, it is thought,

could be linked to this. jess phoenix is a volcanologist currently based in los angeles. do we look to krakatoa as a reason why this tsunami may have struck at this time? yes, at this point we are not 100% certain that the volcano was responsible for this tsunami, but it is very likely. right now, as we have this government shut down in the us, so we don't have access to the us, so we don't have access to the very best united states geological survey data that we would typically, but all initial reports are showing that it is very likely the eruption triggered an undersea landslide which caused the tsunami. now, would that be on one side of the volcano itself, or could it have, like a pebble going into a pond, could it have an omnidirectional effect? you know, it really all depends on where the material that detached from the volcano was, and typically you will see these things have a more focused

approach, these tsunamis. they tend to go outwards from the point where they happen. so it's less of the stone falling into water and more of a focused, directional type of approach. and that, i suppose, could lead to waves of great magnitude and great strength hitting these very low—lying island nations. great strength hitting these very low-lying island nations. yes, and we all know that as an island just recently we all know that as an island just rece ntly ha d we all know that as an island just recently had an army that was related to an earthquake just a few months back, so indonesia in particular, because of where it is situated along the ring of fire and on the edge of some active plate foundries, is particularly susceptible to both volcanic and earthquake action, and of course, tsunamis are tied up in both of those. thank you very much indeed for that. japan's emperor akihito has spoken to well—wishers on the occasion of

his 85th birthday ahead of his abdication in april next year. in remarks released ahead of his birthday on sunday, the emperor said he was relieved his reign is coming to an end without japan having been drawn into fighting in the war once again. we are seeing live pictures coming in right now. he will be the first japanese monarch to coming in right now. he will be the firstjapanese monarch to relinquish the throne at about 200 years. let's go live to tokyo now where we can speak to michael penn, president of the shingetsu news agency. an important moment forjapan, this. it is an important moment forjapan, this. itisi an important moment forjapan, this. it is i suppose the start of the process of passing the baton to a younger generation. shower, and in a way it is. it is also a sentimental journey because this is an emperor who has been enormously well

respected, widely across the japanese political spectrum and abroad. you know, he served with distinction without any kind of scandal and in distinction without any kind of scandaland ina distinction without any kind of scandal and in a very supportive way to the nation throughout the time he has been here, which has been about 30 years, in terms of his imperial reign. so he has been a very good emperor, and a lot of people have affection for him. and we can see the enthusiasm of a crowd now live pictures we are showing now. it is very important to the emperor, as he prepares to stand down, that this has been a time of peace. he seems to feel very strongly that that is the most remarkable facet of his time. yes, i think that this is probably without a doubt the main thing that he is proud of, and the thing that he is proud of, and the thing which probably from the first day in which he entered his reign he very much hoped for. this is an emperor of peace. he is somebody who was educated deeply in the idea that what happened in the pacific war

should never happen again. he is someone who believes very deeply in japan's post—war ethic, that the end of wars have come forjapan, and that this should be preserved for ever. and that is basically where he comes from in terms of his own philosophy and political ethics. now, he is not going to abdicate just yet. there are a few more months ago. but when he does, it is quite a pivotal moment, do you think, for the monarchy? in some ways. you know, one thing which makes it a little bit less of a pivot for the monarchy itself is that his son, from everything we know about him, is very much on the same wavelength as his father. so in terms of the basic philosophy which guides the imperial family, terms of the basic philosophy which guides the imperialfamily, i think we should expect a lot of continuity under his son. but at the same time, the nation itself and its political sphere is moving in a different

direction. so the era of the next emperor may be quite different from the era of the current emperor. but the era of the current emperor. but the emperor himself, the new emperor, i think will be a man of a similar philosophy to his father.m the great divide, i suppose, between what the emperor feels and what the emperor of the day does? yes, i think that although the emperor is constitutionally bound not to interfere in politics, he has very much hinted in indirect ways, very clearly, that he believes in the post—war peace philosophy of japan. under current government, under shinzo abe, is very clear that they wa nt to shinzo abe, is very clear that they want to overthrow that philosophy, and to become a nation which they see as being more proud and more militarily muscular, and essentially to put away that post—war era which the emperor himself very much believes in. thank you very much indeed. a reminder of our top story.

indonesia's disaster relief agency has advised that 43 people have died after a tsunami hit the sunda strait on saturday night. the weather now, with helen willetts. hello. what a difference a day makes. certainly the better day of the weekend for the dry and bright, even sunny weather on saturday, whilst today brings with it more cloud for most of the country and some rain. the exception being northern and central scotland, where actually saturday brought most of the rain. from showers, it looks drier through the day ahead. but this is what's galloping in from the atlantic, this array of weather fronts which will alleviate the fall in temperature through the remainder night, except in scotland and the north—east, where we'll also see some fog issues, but the rain already upon us will move its way across most part by mid—morning. into northern ireland, perhaps brushing into southern scotland, some heavier bursts

for a time, and then perhaps again later. it looks like the lion's share of the sunshine will be across northern and central scotland. mind you, it's going to be a cold start, and there'll be 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, it'll be grey and foggy over the hills and around some of the coasts as well. relatively mild with the atlantic air and moisture coming in but a very different day, quite a great miserable day. whilst in the north, as we saw yesterday, temperatures around six or seven. that clearer air and drier weather will eventually push across more parts of england and wales through the coming night, limiting the rain to the far south. but obviously we've 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 ahead, a much drier and brighter day. you saw those those temperatures hovering around freezing, even the towns and cities,

so they'll take a while to recover. it's not going to be as mild as we'll see through this day ahead. but it'll be brighter, there'll be more sunshine around, except in southern and western areas. and yes, there will be some fairweather cloud elsewhere, but it does look fine and dry. the reason high pressure is squeezing all the rain out of that weather front, but unfortunately, as we get back into tuesday, christmas day, it pushes that weather front and the cloud back in from the west. so 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. again, 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, than christmas eve, because of all that cloud, particularly in the west. as ever, there's plenty more information on the outlook on the website, butjust taking a quick glance at wednesday and thursday, it's more of the same — cloudy.

this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 40 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. paddy ashdown, the former leader of britain's liberal democrats, has died. after leaving british politics, he served as the international high representative for bosnia and herzegovina. a former royal marine, lord ashdown led the lib dems to their best election result in 70 years in 1997. 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.