india's prime minister has accused his political opponents of spreading lies about a new citizenship law that has led to widespread protest. more than 20 people have died in the clashes. special trains for children travelling alone in france during the christmas holidays have resumed service. prolonged nationwide strikes had led to the national rail service calling them. tottenham's premier league win over chelsea seems to have been marred by racist behaviour from the crowd. the referee stopped play in the second half of the game after an object was thrown onto the pitch. the american space agency nasa says the unmanned starlight in a space capsule has successfully landed in the desert in the state of new mexico after its

aborted mission to the international space station. the craft is the first american spacecraft capable of dissent to land. now on bbc news, one of the most striking stories of 2019 from. two twin girls who were bornjoined at the 2019 from. two twin girls who were born joined at the head and then brought from pakistan to london for highly complex operations. fergus walsh followed them through the dangerous nine months process. a warning that his programme contains images of surgery. safa and marwa are identical twins joined at the head. their family, from pakistan, want doctors to separate them. great 0rmond street in london is one of the few hospitals in the world with the expertise to do it. this is safa's brain, that's marwa's brain. what we need to achieve is to effectively untwist the brains, and that is difficult, pretty difficult to do just

in your head. but it is perilous. the pads are on and they are ready to shock if we need to. 0k. the bbc was given unique access to chart the complex medical and ethical choices made... this is the day, the moment of truth, and everything hasjust got to be perfect. ..in the hope of giving the girls independent lives. safa and marwa are 21 months old, and were born in pakistan. they have come to london's great 0rmond street hospital with their mother, zainab, grandfather and uncle, and are under the care of neurosurgeon 0wasejeelani. it is clearly very difficult to go through life when you are joined together like that, so it does make a very persuasive case in favour of doing...

attempting the separation. the family are very clear on that. clearly, i think life being separate is better than being joined together. if we felt there was not a very, very high chance that we could do it safely, we would be thinking quite carefully about whether we should do it or not. i think the whole team feel that there is an excellent chance of a successful separation here. the twins' father died just before they were born, and then it took more than a year of fundraising before a donor stepped in to cover the medical costs. safa and marwa are what's known as craniopagus twins, which means "joined at the head". their skull is one long tube.

the twins share many key blood vessels. separating these will be a major challenge. both twins' brains have a distorted appearance. one half is pointing up into the other girl's skull cavity. every last detail of the twins' extraordinary anatomy has been recreated digitally. plastic surgeon david dunaway will be in charge of rebuilding the girls' skulls after neurosurgeon 0wasejeelani has separated the twins' brains. they showed me how 3d modelling has helped them to prepare. this hemisphere, which is the right hemisphere of the brain, is standing up, so this is actually projecting into the other child's skull. what we need to achieve is to effectively untwist the brains, and that's difficult, pretty difficult to do just in your head. for surgeons, it is massively helpful. actually being able to touch and hold things makes so much difference to understanding

how things are. we've spent a lot of time just sitting, looking at these models, and going through the what—ifs. numerous models of the twins' brains and shared skull had been created using this 3d printer. the whole process takes two days. this one will help surgeons plan how best to divide the layer of skin on the girls' skull once they're separated. and they're not only using physical models. this is surgery without scalpels. absolutely incredible. this is exactly what we wanted. virtual reality has helped the team plan how to divide the twins' shared arteries and veins. it works, it really works. and so now we can see a whole

lot more information, a level of detail that we've not been able to access previously. this is clearly the way of the future. we're doing this, we're using this technology for a highly complex case, but many other routine operations that we do, brain tumours, blood malformations, so on and so forth, vessel malformations, this would be hugely, hugely beneficial for those cases as well. 0k, have we got everybody here? yeah? so we have one case for the list today, safa and marwa, two kids, one case. the surgery is so complex it will happen in three stages over several months, and the twins won't be physically separate until the final operation.

the aim of the first operation is to separate the twins' shared arteries. at present, each child is supplying the other‘s brain with blood. one, two, and three. what we're doing now is, the two arteries that are going from one twin to the other, so we can see the artery but to do anything to it we'll use the microscope. so the artery from safa, going to supply marwa's brain, has been clamped. but every time this is done, there's a risk of brain damage.

ok, so the brain's looking good. the twins have been in theatre now for more than seven hours. and there are still several hours of this operation to go. so far, everything is going to plan, and both girls are doing well. while one team works on the twins, another, led by david dunaway, constructs a frame made from pieces of the girls' skull which can be detached in subsequent operations. this central segment will be our rigid keel to hold the head together. what we need to do is make sure that the twins are rigidly together. being older, they're pretty active, and so whatever we do really has to be strong enough to resist the twisting and bending forces that they'll be putting on their heads. the first operation lasts 15 hours.

zainab has seven more children back in pakistan, aged 5—16. all of them were born at home, but with this pregnancy she was advised to deliver in hospital. it wasn't until five days after delivery by caesarean section that zainab was introduced to her daughters, initially by photo. zainab says the twins have distinct personalities.

after a month, the twins are back in theatre. this is safa's brain. it looks happy... this time surgeons will separate the shared network of veins that drain blood from each twin‘s brain. but disturbing this equilibrium could also do permanent damage. a portion of each twin‘s brain is being supplied by the other twin. so there is a real risk of causing a stroke at the time of the surgery, so that is something that is playing heavily on us. low blood pressure. there is something oozing deep down there that i can't see at the moment.

the more the surgeons try to divide the vessels that link and nourish them, the more unstable the twins become. we're going to have to take ventilation down. right, the pads are on and they are ready to shock if we need to. 0k. 0k? drapes down? electronic beep i think we need to shock. do you have a pulse or not? marwa's heart begins to fail. we are not stable, but we are less unstable. good enough for me. the anaesthetists manage to stabilise the girls so the operation can continue. because marwa is clearly the weaker twin, the surgeons decide to give her a key shared vein. the operation lasts 20 hours. so i'm relieved, i'm relieved. i mean, there was a chance we were going to potentially lose marwa during the surgery.

it's been a big operation, but hopefully if they wake up, as we hope they will, it's gone well. yeah. but shortly after surgery, safa suffers a stroke. there was a period on tuesday evening where...we felt that we were very close to losing safa, and that she stayed in that critical state for... 48—72 hours after the surgery. it was a very difficult time for the girls, their families and the entire team looking after them.

in a break from their work at great 0rmond street, the two lead surgeons are in ireland to meet another set of twins. ah, as—salaam alaikum. it's eight years since they last saw ritaj and rital. it's hard to believe that these sisters, born in sudan, were once joined at the head. thank you! you are very welcome. back then, the surgeons feared the girls might die unless separated. and this was rital and ritaj just one month after surgery. each parent able to hold a child in their arms. i hope that they will get a normal life and be treated as normal human beings. their father is now a doctor in ireland. we are sitting here

with two healthy twins, just like what i hoped at that time. so it's a great moment in my life as well. so the dream came true? exactly, yeah. i'm a very proud dad now. that was a very hard time. and at the same time, it was a happy time because of the conclusion. rital has some learning difficulties. but the long—term outcome of the twins' separation has been hailed as a major success. the surgeons believe it's because it was done in the first year of life. what we put the two kids through and the brains through is a lot. and the younger brains and the younger circulations are better adapted. everything is easier. a one—year—old's regenerative capacities are so much better. the skin heals better, it stretches better, the bone grows in better.

they're setting up a charity so that funds are available to pay for early intervention in future cases and for research into the best way to separate conjoined twins. it's january 2019. i think the last two months after their last operation on the brain has been a little bit of a stormy time for safa and marwa. they've had ups and downs with infections and temperatures and marwa's heart is having to work quite hard for both of them and that's causing her a few challenges. but they're hanging in there and they're both reasonably well. the next challenge for the surgeons is to ensure each twin will have enough skin to cover their skull when they're eventually separated. they do this by encouraging

the skin to expand. the tissue expanders are balloons that sit underneath the skin and they have a tiny little port attached to them through which we can inject saline. so the idea now is that we will gradually inject the tissue expanders and they will blow up like a balloon and the skin over the top of them will stretch. and it's a very, very effective technique of making more skin out of the skin that we have available so that when we come to separate safa and marwa there's enough skin to cover both of their heads. these rare cases leave a lasting impact on the surgeons. if i may, i haven't asked david's permission to say this, but the last separation that we did, when the kids were finally separated, and everybody was overjoyed and so on and so forth, and people were happy, and i looked at david and he had tears in his eyes,

and he denies it to this day, but he did, at that time. yeah. i think, actually... everybody has been so invested in this for so long. it is a surprisingly emotional thing, i think, when they finally come apart. and when that experience of them actually leaving the operating theatre as two separate people is quite indescribable. at last, four months since the first surgery, the day of separation. forceps. two whole veins laid out. so this is safa, right? so this is safa's brain that's marwa's brain. it should be running like this. the pressure's good. if you do, give me a seven. little by little, the bone and tissue which joins

them is cut. so they are separate, apart from that piece of dura. there is a bridge, just there. let's have a cranial piece. and then, after seven hours, the final connection is severed. fantastic. well done. 0k. done. it's a very emotional moment. we've been working a long time to get them here. they've been through so many operations and now it's worked. you've still got, what? four, five hours to do? yeah, we have to put them together now. so we've taken them apart and now we have to reconstruct their heads. marwa is still in the operating theatre through here,

while safa has been moved just next door. for the first time, the survival of each of the twins is not dependent on the other. and that'll make it easier for the two surgical teams to regulate their heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs. safa and marwa's brains used to have a distorted shape. but four months ago, a plastic sheet was inserted between them and by gradually tightening the pressure it has largely corrected their appearance, essential before their skulls can be rebuilt. this means both teams can begin reconstruction. the patchwork of skull pieces are shared between theatres. so a piece for me, a piece for you. to have enough to cover their heads, each fragment must be divided in two. the skull is very usefully

designed in three layers. so there is an inner layer of very thick, tough bone, an outer layer of thick, tough bone, and in between it the bone is like a honeycomb, so you can split the bone, it's half the thickness, but it means we should be able to cover nearly all of the head with bone afterwards. this shows the jigsaw of bone fragments that were pieced together to form the skull of marwa on the left and safa on the right. the gaps have been seeded with bone cells. and in the months to come these should slowly close up. the final task of the 17—hour operation is to stretch the skin over their reconstructed skulls. it's a pretty amazing day, isn't it? oh, my god!

hi. everything is good. congratulations. thank you. oh, what a day. they have been quite amazing throughout, actually. they're a great family and i think they draw strength from one another. and they seem to be getting through it very well. we asked mum who she would pick up first, whether it was safa or marwa? and the answer was both... with support! so, yeah... the road to recovery for the twins is slow, but four months after separation, safa and marwa are beginning to make progress. # hello, safa # hello, marwa # how are you today? the twins have daily physiotherapy.

it's hoped this will help them reach some basic milestones — learning to roll, sit, and hold their heads up. # twinkle, twinkle, little star # how i wonder what you are... safa has not fully recovered from her stroke. we made the decision that the bulk of the common vessels go to marwa, the weaker twin. and because of that decision safa suffered a stroke. so what i really want to see is the weakness that safa has at the moment, and she has a weakness in her left arm and left leg, improves. so for me, the big moment's going to be when she walks and when she uses her left arm properly. because, you know, i have given her that weakness, and for me that's a hard thing.

nearly a year since they were admitted to hospital, the girls are leaving great 0rmond street. the family will stay in london until the twins are strong enough to return to pakistan. the donor who paid for the surgery is continuing to support them. they are clearly going to face some challenges. but i think, overall, it's a positive outcome for them. they are going to need support, but they have a chance of leading a happy life. whatever hurdles safa and marwa may face in years to come, they will at least do that

as separate, independent girls. twins still, but conjoined no more. hello there. all the rain that has been around over the past few days has meant, for some people, it has been much more difficult for travelling, the christmas getaway. over the next few days it looks a bit drier, actually, and quite mild as well. it changes christmas day and boxing day, a bit colder for christmas day, wetter weather returning for boxing day, but for southern areas of the uk, we are pretty much mild over the week ahead, there will be some incursions of colder air coming in on christmas day and on friday, but it is not desperately cold so we are not expecting a white christmas. we will see some showers again on monday, mainly southern scotland, northern ireland, northern england,

some heavy ones. to the south, the odd shower and on the whole it will be dry and there will be a fair bit of sunshine. some much—needed dry and sunny weather around as well. we should see the river levels dropping a bit, and it is quite mild, temperatures of 10 or 11 degrees. we'll find the showers continuing in the north, perhaps, but also thickening cloud coming into the southwest of england during monday evening and into wales, with some more outbreaks of rain here. that is on that weather system there. another one coming in behind that from the atlantic, so for tuesday, there will be a lot more cloud for england and wales and there will be some showers or perhaps longer spells of rain. most of it should be fairly light and across northern england it may well become drier during the afternoon, but for one or two showers in the north—west it should be dry with some sunshine on christmas eve for scotland and northern ireland. here it is a little bit chillier, temperatures of six or 7 degrees. still some rain to end the day across more southern parts of england and wales. that then should move away. as we move into the big day, christmas day, we are going to find

showers in the north beginning to ease as this ridge of high pressure moves in from the atlantic albeit briefly. hence the idea that christmas day is going to be colder, perhaps some mist and fog patches but for the most part it will be dry with some sunshine. it will cloud over more towards south—west england and into wales during the afternoon, probably stay dry, and temperatures around 6—9 degrees. things change overnight and into boxing day because the next weather system has got a bit more about it. it is a deeper area of low pressure for a while and it will push ahead these weather fronts, so some outbreaks of rain which early on could be on the heavy side, particularly across the eastern side of england again, unfortunately. maybe some snow for a while over the tops of the pennines into the southern uplands, and then showers coming into wales and the south—west. the winds easing and gradually the rain becomes a bit lighter and it is rain for most parts of the country. still, temperatures 6—10 degrees. that weather system continues to weaken during the evening,

slips away into continental europe and then high pressure builds in behind, so by friday, the weather is back to dry, maybe frosty weather, cold, with some sunshine and a dry day, a decent sort of day on friday to be out and about. it will probably cloud over in northern ireland, the far south—west later on, and those temperatures, 6—9 degrees, still pretty good for this time of year. the question is, how long will the high remain? and this is where it gets a bit uncertain. it looks like the centre of the high pressure should drift into continental europe, allowing milder, more southerly winds to arrive and potentially some rain, especially in the north and west, although that area of high pressure building in behind creates more uncertainty that may well tend to push away a lot of that rain. it looks like northern and western parts of the uk will see some rain at times in the outlook. not a great deal of rain towards the south—east and decent temperatures, maybe into double figures for most of us.