i'm mike embley. our top stories: floral tributes for victims of the volcano eruption in new zealand. police now believe as many as 13 have been killed. the russian and ukrainian presidents agree to try for a ceasefire in eastern ukraine by the end of the year. a justice department report concludes political bias did not drive the fbi's investigation into russian interference in the us presidential election. china claims all the people sent to what it calls "re—education camps" in the western xinjiang province have now been released. and one of the last surviving british pilots who fought in the battle of britain has died at the age of 101.

the volcanic eruption in new zealand may have killed as many as 13 people. five are confirmed dead, but eight more are missing and aerial studies of the active volcano on white island suggest no—one is left alive. the prime minister has said she shares the unfathomable grief of those who've been bereaved. this report from shaimaa khalil. the extraordinary few moments after the volcano on white island erupted. it hit briefly and fiercely, filling the air with huge plumes of smoke and smouldering ash. the people on this boat had left just moments before the eruption. the boat operators were not taking any chances. go inside! go inside, go inside! go inside! translation: we were on the volcano for about an hour.

ten minutes after we left and got on the boat, the volcano started erupting. the boat turned around and went back to the island to try to help the people who were still there. i'm not sure if everyone got out alive. white island is one of new zealand's most active volcanoes, but it's also a popular tourist destination. thousands come here for walks and scenic aeroplane rides. nothing escaped the devastation here, the scale of the damage clearly shown here with this sightseeing helicopter, barely recognisable under the thick, smouldering ash. down the beach, a large group could be seen waiting to be rescued. at this stage, we can confirm that amongst those currently listed as missing or injured are new zealanders who were part of the tour operation, and tourists from australia, the united states, the united kingdom, china and malaysia. that is to the best of our knowledge. emergency operations

are now in place in many hospitals around the country. 3! people have been taken in for treatment so far. the injured who were brought to shore from the island were all suffering from burns. we now know that three people were treated, then released from whakatane hospital here. those with more severe burns and critical conditions have been transferred to specialist hospitals across the country. we also know that five of those initially rescued died from their injuries. a monitoring camera filmed a group of people at the rim of the volcano moments before the eruption. then it went black, raising questions about why tourists were allowed near the area in such hazardous conditions. about three weeks ago we raised the alert level to indicate that there were signs of increased unrest, and, therefore, a slightly higher probability of an eruption. but, really, that goes down to the tourist operators who inform the tourists and decide whether or not they should go or not.

police say the situation on the island is still dangerous and unstable for rescuers to go in. they've confirmed that there is no sign of life there at the moment and that whoever is still on the island has not survived. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, whakatane. the leaders of ukraine and russia have declared they will try to fully and comprehensively implement a ceasefire in the conflict in eastern ukrainian by the end of this year. the joint announcement came at a summit in paris between the two, along with the french and german leaders. but there was no agreement on the withdrawal of russian—backed forces, and ukraine's president said very little was achieved overall. this report from our correspondent sarah rainsford. there are rivals underline their differences. ukraine's president working his modest man of the people image. russia's leader going for a full on power projection. but these

talks with the two leaders chance to seek common ground, to revive a deal ending retrain of the conflict that has stalled for three years now. beyond the palace gates, two women make clear who they blame for the fighting. the striking protests quickly smothered, though not their demand to stop putin's war. in eastern ukraine, troops are still battling russian backed fighters despite multiple ceasefires. 13,000 people have been killed in huge numbers displaced in the past five yea rs. numbers displaced in the past five years. but volodymyr zelensky was elected, promising to end the bloodshed. for the, he elected, promising to end the bloodshed. forthe, he said elected, promising to end the bloodshed. for the, he said he needed to sit down with vladimir putin. their encounter was chaperoned by france and germany. ukraine's leader was on —— under pressure not to make major concessions here. wash under no real pressure to make any. the conflict isa giant pressure to make any. the conflict is a giant splinter in its relations with europe. —— at least they made

it to the best conference. three yea rs it to the best conference. three years ago, hostility ran today. this time they spent 90 minutes in bilateral talks as well and tried to sound optimistic at the end of it all. translation: the meeting was long and difficult but the mood of the meeting was rather positive. long and difficult but the mood of the meeting was rather positivem is true and i want to make it clear. we will have the chance to continue the discussions in four months and see the results of what we will manage to achieve. translation: the process of achieving a ceasefire needs to be synchronised with implementation of political reforms in ukraine and the minsk agreements. in the first place, this means introducing changes to the country by the constitution, which gives donbass a permanent status. the results were pretty thin. another ceasefire and another prisoner swap by the end of the year stop on the big issues of border control and the status areas, there is still open dispute. but as

they litres left paris, there was a new sense of momentum. the four have all meet —— agreed to meet again in four months, and that in itself cou nts four months, and that in itself counts for progress. the chairman of the housejudiciary committee has said mr trump's conduct is a threat to the united states and clearly impeachable. concluding his panel's hearing on monday, jerrold nadler said his committee would proceed with impeachment. the watchdog that oversees the united statesjustice department has concluded that political bias played no part in the fbi inquiry into possible collusion between russia and mr trump's 2016 election campaign. laura trevelyan has this story. raise your right hand. the impeachment enquiry is hurtling forward, and today, the judiciary committee was centre stage. lawyers were democrats and republicans were sworn —— lawyers for democrats and republicans were sworn in and immediately the arguments began. i will not recognise the parliamentary enquiry at this time. is this when we just hear staff ask questions of other staff and the members get dealt out

of this whole hearing? the gentleman will not yell out and you will not attempt to disrupt the proceedings. this hearing is the chance for democrats to present the evidence they've gathered before they formally produce their articles of impeachment against president trump. the evidence shows that donald] trump, the president of the united states, has put himself before his country. he has violated his most basic responsibilities to the people. he has broken his oath. democrats are facing criticism from rushing to impeach the president without trying to subpoena key witnesses from the white house. their response is they cannot wait. president trump's persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security. republicans say democrats are just trying to rerun the 2016 election and the case against mr trump is non—existent. to impeach a president who 63

million people voted for over eight lines in a call transcript is baloney. as this argument was raging, a long—awaited report into the origins of the russia investigation against mr trump was released. the inspector general, michael horowitz, did not find evidence that political bias affected how the fbi conducted that investigation and said officials had sufficient evidence to open their enquiry. but there was sharp criticism of how the fbi handled an application for a wiretap targeting a former trump advisor, carter page, something the president seized on. this was an overthrow of government. this was an attempt at overthrow and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught, they got caught red—handed. democrats say there could be a vote on articles of impeachment against the president later this week. the stage is set for a partisan battle royale. let's get some of the day's other news. a landslide in peru after heavy rain

has demolished homes and bridges, sweeping away several vehicles. no deaths are reported but many injured are receiving medical attention in the northern province of huanca bamba. authorities report around 300 people have been left marooned by swollen rivers. a tropical cyclone has hit north—west madagascar. no deaths have been reported, but there are high winds and fears of widespread flooding. much of africa has been affected by torrential storms in recent weeks, unusually severe. people and livestock have been killed in kenya, rwanda, uganda and somalia. in all, more than three million people have been affected. this is finland's new prime minister, sanna marin, who at the age of 3a, this week becomes the world's youngest serving premier. she was picked by her social democratic party after its leader, antti rinne, quit as prime minister over his handling of a postal strike. sanna marin will lead a centre—left coalition with four other parties, all of them headed by women. a senior chinese official has

claimed that all the people held in detention centres in the western region of xinjiang have now been released. a mounting body of independent evidence, including reporting here on the bbc, suggests more than a million uighur muslims have been sent to the centres in the past few years. 0ur correspondentjohn sudworth is one of the few western journalists to get access inside the camps. with international outrage still growing over the mass internment of muslims, xinjiang's camps, china says, are no more. translation: all the students who took the classes have graduated. with the help of the government, they have achieved a stable employment and live a happy life. china has long insisted that these places are schools for tackling extremism. on our tour, we were shown supposedly grateful muslims being taught to be

loyal communist citizens. but away from the show camps, the guards, the queueing visitors, the barbed wire and the watchtowers make clear that enrolment is anything but voluntary. information and access are so limited in xinjiang, beijing's claim that the camps have closed is impossible to verify. but while aspects of the system may well be changing, it is highly unlikely that this massive system of coercion and control has been dismantled. state media has been showing new factories, some built next to the camps, in which graduates are being put to work for meagre wages and, reports suggest, little choice. and separate to the camps, xinjiang's prisons have also been filling up at an extraordinary pace. while for china as a whole, the arrest rate per head

of population has remained stable, in xinjiang, it has skyrocketed. 0ur reporting has highlighted the human cost of china's policies. if xinjiang's disappeared masses really are being released, then many will ask, "where is the proof?" john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. babur ilchi is a uighur activist in canada. his grandfather was the uighur writer, nurmuhammad tohti, who died in may after being released from one of the centres. i asked him if he had heard of anyone being released from the centres. no, i have heard nothing and neither have any other uighers that i know. they have heard nothing. no information has come out about these camps or about inmates being released. what does that say to you? do you believe the official announcement? i definitely don't. i think there is zero

trustworthiness in the statement and it's because they keep trying to change the narrative, keep trying to spin it so that it makes them look very positive and favourable. they denied these camps at the beginning, then they call them vocational camps. early injuly, they claim they release the inmates and that was proven to be false and now they are claiming the same things again. i am told there are objective observers on the ground to confirm these claims. i don't think you can trust anything the chinese government says. can you tell us more about your grandfather's experience? so, we know very little about what happened other than he was interned or detained for religious extremism, which we believe is a complete lie made up to justify his imprisonment. he was denied medical care, he had heart disease and diabetes, and shortly after being released, he passed away, and we didn't know about it until 11 days later when we found out through facebook.

and what else have you heard more generally about conditions in the centres? what we've found is that even though these inmates may have been released even though they are not being mass released, they are still put under house arrest or forced labour in factories orfarms orfinding that the conditions in the area are horrific. even if you are released, you are in another form of surveillance and facing oppression. do you expect this system to continue for now? we don't see any signs of it stopping through the chinese government's will alone. we think it will take external force or external pressure from various governments putting pressure on these human rights violations that china is committing. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we'll find out why these christmas trees in the netherlands are facing the chop.

john lennon was shot at the entrance to the dakota building in the centre of new york. there's been a crowd here standing in more or less silent vigil and the flowers have been piling up. the 14th ceasefire of this war ended at the walls of the old city of dubrovnik. this morning, witnesses said shells were landing every 20 seconds. people are celebrating the passing of a man they hold responsible for hundreds of deaths and oppression. elsewhere, people have been gathering to mourn his passing. imelda marcos, the widow of the former president of the philippines, has gone on trial in manila. she's facing seven charges of tax evasion, estimated at £120 million. she pleaded not guilty. the prince and princess of wales are to separate. a statement from buckingham palace said the decision had been reached amicably.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: as many as 13 people are now believed to have died in new zealand after a volcanic eruption on white island. the presidents of ukraine and russia agree to implement a full ceasefire in eastern ukraine by the end of the year, but fail to produce a political breakthrough. myanmar‘s leader aung san suu kyi is preparing to defend her nation against charges of genocide, over its treatment of the rohingya muslim rohingya. there'll be three days of hearings at the international criminal court in the hague. in 2017, in an army crackdown in myanmar, thousands of rohingya were killed and nearly three quarters of a million fled their homes. those who survived wantjustice, but are losing hope that they'll ever be able to return home safely. the bbc‘s yogita limaye has been hearing their stories, in the refugee camps of cox's bazar.

driven out of their homeland, wanted by no—one, hundreds of thousands stuck in the world's largest refugee camp. more than two years since the rohingya arrived in bangladesh, scared, hungry and desperate, fear has given way to hopelessness. but grief is often just a heartbeat away. rajuma begum tells me myanmar‘s military snatched her baby and threw him in a fire. she says her parents and most of her siblings were shot dead, and she was gang—raped by four soldiers. everyone rajuma is with in this photo was killed, and she wants justice for them.

aung san suu kyi is lying in front of the world that the military didn't do anything. if she takes me to my village, i can show her where and how my family was killed. i can prove everything, she says. one of her brothers managed to escape. his son and wife were killed in front of him. translation: it looks like i'm alive, but inside, ifeel like i'm dead. i'm so angry. they want to eradicate the rohingya and islam from myanmar. that is why they are killing us. the world is not doing enough to give us our rights. thousands of rohingya muslims were killed in buddhist—majority myanmar. the un called it textbook ethnic cleansing. myanmar denies charges of genocide. here in bangladesh, they found shelter, but it's not a life of freedom. their movement is restricted.

mobile phone services are banned. in a country where poverty is widespread, patience is now running out. two attempts by bangladesh's government to facilitate the return of the rohingyas to myanmar have failed, because people are simply too scared to go back. they don't believe they'll be safe there. but each day they continue to live here, tensions between them and locals, who feel outnumbered by the refugees, are rising. outside the camps, villagers are angry and resentful. translation: we helped the rohingyas when they came, but now our land is being taken, ourjobs are being taken. they're given food, shelter, everything. what about us? for the rohingya, life is an endless cycle of waiting, for food, water, dignity, forjustice, and above all, a safe return to their home.

yogita limaye, bbc news, cox's bazar. one of the last surviving raf pilots who fought in the battle of britain during the second world war has died at the age 101. maurice mounsdon was one of only four remaining members of what churchill called the few, the 3,000 airmen who defended the skies above southern england from the nazi luftwaffe in 1940. 0ur correspondent robert hall looks back at his life. their story has gripped us for over 75 years — the young men who defended their skies against waves of german bombers in 1940. archive: hurricanes and spitfires roar into action... now, one by one, those men are passing into raf history. maurice mounsdon was just 21 when hejoined up. less than a year after completing his training, he was in combat over kent.

through july and august, he flew relentless and exhausting missions, shooting down at least seven enemy aircraft. but his luck ran out, and at 111,000 feet, he was forced to bail out of his blazing hurricane. i'd had a shot at one of the bombers, and i was overtaking the squadron. so i turned to come back and have another go, when i was hit. maurice landed in these essex fields. his hands and legs were badly burned, and he endured months of treatment in hospital. the pain comes later. oh, yes. burns are rather uncomfortable. hmm. maurice mounsdon never flew again, but he did serve until the end of the war.

now, just three of his fellow pilots remain, all of them over 100. but the courage shown in that long and costly summer will outlive all of them. maurice mounsdon, one of the few, who's died aged a hunded and one. the head of russia's anti— doping agency has overhauled the way it views the sport of. russia has been banned from most major sporting events for four yea rs banned from most major sporting events for four years the band means the russian flag and anthem will not be allowed at events such as the tokyo 2020 olympics or the 2022 world cup. athletes who can prove they are untainted by the doping scandal will be allowed to compete under a neutralflag. christmas trees can be a controversial topic at this time of year — whether to get one or not, real or fake, whether to chop one down or get one in a pot

that can be re—planted in the name of sustainability. a national park in the netherlands is encouraging people to help themselves to a free tree to help the environment. rich preston has the story. the rangers in the eastern hoge veluwe park are desperate for you to come and take their trees away. so says the sign — christmas market, cut your own free. and they won't charge you a penny. turn up, grab a saw, and start cutting. that's because the scots pine is an invasive species here and is threatening to take over the natural heathland habitat. for example, in this area, we have several lizards, crickets, lichens, and most of them are quite rare, they are on the european red list, so when this area becomes a forest, then all these rare species disappear.

the rangers have been struggling to control the spread of the trees. they say transport fumes and over fertilisation of farmland has boosted nitrogen levels. the nitrogen has an effect of the growing of plants, and at the same time, we saw that the total area of the forest becomes bigger, so also the influence from all of the pine trees became much bigger. fortunately, at this time of year, there are plenty of people happy to help themselves to a free christmas tree. and it's made all the more easy knowing they are also helping the local habitat. it is not a complete free for all however — trees are limited to one per visitor.

much more for you anytime on the bbc website and on twitter. thank you for watching. following hot on the heels from the storm, our next batch of wet and windy weather racing in off the atlantic as this stripe of cloud is moving into the west of the british isles. now, earlier in the night we had temperatures down as low as “i! celsius across eastern england. although, over more recent hours the winds have been picking up and the rain has been moving in, we've seen those temperatures continue to actually rise, so by dawn, 9—10 degrees in the west, a mild start to the day for a number of places in the west. mild, but for many of us it is a wet start to the day. eastern england starting off with some early—morning brightness. the cloud and rain spreads and this rain will be heavy for all of us. the winds will be really quite gusty and squally, particularly so across parts of north wales, northern ireland, wales and parts of scotland.

in exposure, 60—70mph gusts, otherwise 50—60mph, so there is risk of some disruptions. that band will push through, quite mild for a number of places, colder and will be arriving from the west. so temperatures lowering through the afternoon in western scotland. stornoway, 6 degrees. transport disruption is a possibility on account of those very strong winds, heavy rain in the windy conditions also bringing surface water and spray to the roads. 0vernight, it will turn quite a bit colder, a number of towns and cities avoiding a frost on account of the brisk winds but it will be a chilly night nevertheless, temperatures 3—5 degrees celsius. and for wednesday, a colder day on the way. a day of sunshine and showers, a day when the showers will be most frequent and heaviest across the north—west, where there will be hail and thunder moving in, and snow over the high ground as well. temperatures, 6—9 degrees celsius.

a much colder kind of feeling day. that's wednesday's weather. on thursday, another area of low pressure moves in from the west, this one bringing some less cold air across england and wales in particular. a chilly start to the day, though, in a number of places. as the rain moves in, some snow over the hills of northern england, perhaps to scotland as well, where the slightly—less—cold air never really reaches, so it will be a chilly day in scotland. otherwise as the cloud and rain spreads in, we will see temperatures rising to around 10—11 degrees for the likes of london, cardiff and plymouth. beyond that, temperatures dropping again a little bit as we head into friday and the weekend, a mixture of bright spells and passing showers in the forecast. that's your weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines: police in new zealand say they now believe 13 people have been killed in a volcano eruption on white island. aerial reconnaissance flights over the area have detected no sign of life. australia's prime minister, scott morrison, says he fears as many as 11 australians are among the victims. the ukrainian and russian presidents have agreed to fully implement a ceasefire in eastern ukraine by the end of the year. the joint announcement came at a summit in paris, but there was no political breakthrough, nor any agreement on the withdrawal of russian—backed forces. the watchdog that oversees the us justice department has rejected president trump's claim that the fbi inquiry into possible collusion between russia and his election campaign was politically motivated. it did, however, pinpoint what it said were procedural errors in the investigation. the president has frequently claimed it was an attempt to overthrow him.