hello. welcome to bbc world news. i'm martin stanford. at least 43 people have died and around 600 injured in a tsunami in indonesia. the giant wave 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 it struck on saturday night, hitting beaches in the area. authorities are investigating whether it was caused by the nearby volcano krakatoa. terrifying pictures of this tsunami are being posted to social media. the following video has emerged of a concert which was under way when the surge of water hit land. you can see the performance under way and then suddenly the whole stage area is destroyed by the incoming wave. local reports say some of the band and their crew are feared dead. the group was reportedly a popular south korean boy band called 17. our indonesia editor rebecca henschke‘s on the line from the capital jakarta. can you help identify the areas

worst affected just yet? it is from the west java beaches of the sunda strait, in the area where that performance was taking place and pandeglang, and on the other side, this is a muncher and islands, it is believed to have been hit —— the sumatran island. the communication lines are not great. the authorities do not have a clear picture. on the west java coast we are getting a clearer picture. those images you just played of the moment the tsunami hits, and this morning, in daylight, you can see the rows of houses that are longer sure, often houses that are longer sure, often houses made of bamboo, would, quickly build houses have completely collapsed in that area —— wood. it

isa collapsed in that area —— wood. it is a popular holiday destination for local people. this is the time for holidays. people were in the area. water was rushing in to hotels and restau ra nts water was rushing in to hotels and restaurants as well last night. water was rushing in to hotels and restaurants as well last nightm is believed that the volcanoes, the active volcanoes in the krakatoa sequence, or so active volcanoes in the krakatoa sequence, or s0 to active volcanoes in the krakatoa sequence, or so to volcanoes, could have been responsible for this. what we know about that so far? —— set for bulkiness? they believed that mount anak krakatau the child of the famous kra katoa volcano mount anak krakatau the child of the famous krakatoa volcano that killed thousands of people, one of the most destructive volcano events in recorded history, this is the child of that that has risen from bc in the sunda strait is. it is erupting at the moment. it is sending out

ash, hundreds of metres into the air. officials are saying that they believe that that volcanic eruption may have caused an underwater landslide back then triggered the tsunami, then combined with the full moon and a high tide. as we have reported before, it was only a matter of months ago, you were reporting from a sulawesi with a terrible loss of life there, there is supposed to be an alarm system throughout this ring of fire region of the world, did that work in any sense during this incident last evening? there was confusion, once again, as there was with the palu sulawesi tsunami, with the disaster agency issuing a tsunami warning then withdrawing at last night before, in the clear light of day, realising that that tsunami had actually hit. you can see from those videos that you played earlier, that

people had no warning whatsoever that those waves were about to hit. it was dark and information had not reach them. there were warnings and reports about the eruption at the volcano, it is also a popular tourist destination, a spectacular sight that people travel to. people we re sight that people travel to. people were told to stay away from the volcano, but there was no warning of this tsunami and it seems to have taken people this tsunami and it seems to have ta ken people by this tsunami and it seems to have taken people by surprise. rebecca, thank you very much. rebecca henschke bringing as up—to—date on that story from the capital, jakarta. well, more now on the tsunami in indonesia. earlier i spoke with oystein lund andersen who was at the beach when the waves struck. well, i was photographing the erupting krakatoa volcano and suddenly ijust saw a huge white wave come towards me, bigger than normal. so i saw, within the few seconds that i had to get out there, so i ran — i ran quite far.

that was the first wave. right. just tell us which beach you were on at this point, where were you located at this moment? 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 — there were two waves — the first wave maybe went 15, 25 metres in. then one or two minutes later, the second wave came and then that went maybe 50, 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.

have more updates as we get it. here in the uk, 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. our 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. paddy ashdown, who died yesterday. british prime minister theresa may has issued a statement saying: 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. sitings 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 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. one 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. this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 43 people have been killed

by a tsunami in indonesia. it came ashore in the sunda strait, near the kra katoa volcano. the former leader of the liberal democrats lord paddy ashdown has died at the age of 77. 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 secretary, jim 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 the 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 buckler, bbc news, washington. as we were hearing earlier,

the top white house official in the fight against the islamic state group has quit over president trump's decision to pull us troops from syria. in brett mcgurk‘s resignation letter, leaked to the media, he said the militants were on the run but not yet defeated. it comes just a day after the us defence secretary, jim mattis, handed in his resignation, with the syria withdrawal thought to be a bone of contention there too. earlier i spoke with kamran bokhari, director of strategy and programmes at the centre for global policy based in washington, dc. i began by asking why brett mcgurk made the gesture of resignation when he was quitting anyway. i think that he wanted to express his displeasure over the president's decision to pull out 2,000 troops. mind you, mr mcgurk has been working very closely on the ground

with the united states allies, the kurdish militia that has been the front—line troops in the fight against the isis. so it put mr mcguirk in a very awkward position, so it's understandable that he quit the way he did. what do you think will be the ramifications if, as seems to be the plan, these us forces leave? so there are actually two sides to this argument. the first is, obviously, there's a symbolic sort of impact, and there is the fear, the risk, that this will embolden isis, this will embolden other malign actors such as russia and iran, and of course the assad regime. but at the same time, if you look at it in pure military terms, we have to ask the question, what were these 2,000 troops doing that will now no longer be served? what kind of functions

were they serving, were they involved in combat, and is the us completely pulling out? i doubt that is the case. i think there is — the us will continue to have a commitment against isis and syria. but the president, he needs to declare mission accomplished, and as for his promise, bring the troops back home. what number would you put on it? what number of troops coming back home is sufficient to please president trump while leaving a sufficient number of troops in syria to do any decent work? i mean, it could be as — you know, as many as half of them. we were also getting word that there are plans that are being considered for the removal of about half of the us contingent in afghanistan, which is about 5,000 troops or 6,000 troops that we're hearing. these are preliminary reports.

so if the president can show, look, he's brought troops home, that would satisfy his base, and of course he gets to say, look, i promised to defeat isis, and therefore i have, and here's the evidence. the head of a un observer team has arrived in yemen to monitor a ceasefire in the port city of hodeidah. the retired dutch general patrick cammaert arrived in the countryjust hours after the mission was unanimously approved by the united nations security council. caroline rigby has more. for the first time in years, a glimmer of hope for peace in yemen. the un team deployed to oversee it arrived on saturday. headed by retired dutch general patrick cammaert, the group of observers are tasked with helping to implement and monitor hodeidah's ceasefire, a fragile truce which came into force on tuesday,

following talks in sweden between delegations from the yemeni government and houthi rebels, a precursor to more significant negotiations scheduled for the new year. translation: today we met general patrick, the head of the committee. we welcomed him and informed him of the president's instructions to cooperate for the success of this mission. he will meet with the other parties shortly, and then he will start work on the ground. as a key entry point for aid supplies, the port of hudaydah acts as a lifeline to millions of people on the brink of famine, but in recent months, it has been a flashpoint for fighting. progress towards peace was never going to be simple, and there have already been reports of sporadic gunfire this week on the outskirts of the city. but the success of a truce here could mean the beginning of the end of this brutal conflict, and help save millions of lives. caroline rigby, bbc news. emperor akihito of japan has broadcast his last birthday message before he steps down next april.

the emperor, who turned 85 on sunday, appeared to be overcome with emotion when he thanked the people of japan and empress michiko for having supported him throughout his life on the throne. he said he was relieved that his reign was coming to an end withoutjapan having been drawn into fighting in a war again. church attendance in the uk has been in steady decline in recent years — but not in cathedrals. they are bucking that trend with a 13% rise in attendance in the last decade. our religious affairs editor martin bashir has the story. if wise men followed a star, then what would they make of this, a laser light show at lichfield cathedral in the run—up to christmas? £6 for adults, £4 for children, and it's a sell—out. inside this mediaeval cathedral, 22,000 doves float above the nave,

modern technology telling the ancient story of peace on earth. you can see it from miles away as we walk in, and it draws you in. absolutely brilliant. i think it's really good to come and see something like this locally. the spectacular light show is also having an impact here. that's £8.80 altogether... a recent study found that cathedrals give a £200 million boost to their local high streets. with all the light shows and, you know, all their events, basically it's bringing in a lot more people to lichfield, which is great for the bars, the restaurants, the shops. attendance at lichfield is up 25%, and while they are reluctant to attribute this to any single cause, the dean says that cathedrals have worked hard at improving their product — combining the tranquillity of a sacred space with the stimulus of modern media. what has any of this to do

with the message of a saviour who is christ the lord, born at christmas? well, the message of the angels was joy. "i bring you news of greatjoy." when you look in the face of a newborn child, you experience joy. and it's that experience of non—anxiety, of joyful freedom, that we want to put people in touch with. the light of the world has certainly come to the midlands. martin bashir, bbc news, at lichfield cathedral. it is one of the biggest lotteries in the world — ‘el gordo', or ‘the fat one.‘ millions of people in spain take part, hoping to win prizes that will change lives. this year's draw has taken place, and as always, the winnings have been spread far and wide. the bbc‘s tim allman has more. in spain, christmas wouldn't really be christmas without el gordo.

it goes back more than 200 years. a real festive tradition. local schoolchildren picking out and then singing the winning numbers. although the pressure was perhaps a little too much for this girl. the beauty of el gordo is that the prize money may be big, more than 2 billion euros, but the number of winners is pretty substantial, too. all across the country, groups of families, friends and co—workers club together to take part. plenty of people were celebrating, as were those who sold the winning tickets. translation: it brings me great happiness, because we know we've

givenjoy to someone. we spend all year trying to deliver happiness, and with this prize, we've done it. the winners came from cities including madrid, bilbao, cordoba and barcelona. the ‘fat one' paying off once more. a christmas to remember for so many. tim allman, bbc news. and if you want to share your winnings you are very welcome to send them to me on the bbc. you can reach me on twitter. 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 as we go through the remainder night, except of course 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 parts by mid—morning. into northern ireland, perhaps brushing into southern scotland, and 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, it's misty, low cloud. it'll be grey, it'll be 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 grey, miserable day. whilst in the north, as we saw yesterday, temperature around six or seven. but that clearer air, 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 as we go 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 recent 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. but again, i'm hopeful that 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 43 people are reported to have been killed by a tsunami in indonesia. it hit in the sunda strait, the stretch of water that separates the islands of java and sumatra. the country's disaster agency said nearly 600 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. 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. now it's time for the latest in technology and gadgets — with a festive flavour. it's our clickmas special.