this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: a ukraine passengerjet crashes shortly after take—off near tehran. all 170 people are reported to have been killed. iran launches a ballistic missile attack on a us air base in iraq. it's not clear if there have been any casualties. the devastation of the australian bushfires: hundreds of fires still burn with warnings the intense heat will return. heading for a safe haven, oil and gold spike after ballistic missiles strike two air bases housing us troops in iraq.

welcome to the programme. let's begin with breaking news this hour: a ukrainian airliner carrying 180 people has crashed shortly after taking off from tehran‘s international airport. the reports say the boeing 737 came down due to technical problems. iranian state television hasjust said all on board have been killed. with me is our news reporter gareth barlow. he has been looking at all the latest news. what more can you tell us? this was a boeing 737 800 aircraft operated by ukraine international airlines. it was taking off from the airport in tehran and was originally reported

180 people on board. that figure has been revised to 170 people on board and according to state media in iran, everyone on board has died in this incident. the red crescent has been quoted as saying there is no chance of finding passengers alive. a spokesperson for the civil aviation of —— organisations that the plan was on fire and they were sending crews to the site of the crash. satellite tracking of the aircraft suggests it crashed very shortly after takeoff in what looks to be slightly rugged terrain. and this plane was delayed, wasn't it, foran hour this plane was delayed, wasn't it, for an hour before takeoff. we don't know why that is. we are told there was technical reasons as to why this happened. that is the report that uranium state media said, that technical problems were behind this incident. this aircraft was delayed by an hour but there was no indication as to what caused this. for their part, the manufacturer, boeing, says it is aware of reports

in iran and is gathering more information. that is as much as i put out at the moment. there is no indication that there is any link between what has happened with air crash and the conflict with the united states. absolutely nothing to suggest that. people will be questioning that. we have seen an awful lot activity around that region. 0bviously following the strikes on the american bases. the us federation administration only a few hours earlier had prohibited us civil aviation carriers from operating in airspace above iraq and iran and in the waters around the persian gulf. thank you very much indeed. gareth barlow who is monitoring this for us in our newsroom in london. neil hansford is chairman of strategic aviation solutions, and he joins us from port stephens in new south wales. thank you forjoining us here on the briefing. 0bviously thank you forjoining us here on the briefing. obviously we don't know very much at all about the cause of

this crash, the details are very scarce right now. give us your reaction to this news. very surprising because the aircraft is only 3.5 years old. the 737 800 is an absolutely cornerstone of the shorthaul aviation in the western world, and the ukrainian has not been a carrier of concern, and the fa ct been a carrier of concern, and the fact it is coming out of that airport would make you wonder. the level of transparency is not going to be higher, but they are suggesting technical, but the aircraft was delayed for an hour. i don't know whether the weather conditions were, at the airport, but if there had been icing orfog or something, that could be contributing. of course when we first saw the newswire flash boeing 737, everyone thinks about the 737

max fleet, which is grounded worldwide. as you say, this particular aircraft is one that is extremely reliable. absolutely. it is the cornerstone state—of—the—art before boeing were not as fully with the mac eight. so i would really have some concerns that an aircraft so have some concerns that an aircraft $0 50011 have some concerns that an aircraft so soon after takeoff would have actually crashed —— max eight. it has gone in with a maximum number of passengers basically, there is probably only four empty seats on it, so you would have to start questioning the information you are getting. but who knows when we were ever get the correct information out of iran. and as my colleague gareth was mentioning, the faa in the us had prohibited civil flights was mentioning, the faa in the us had prohibited civilflights in between iraq, around the airspace of iraq and iran earlier, hours earlier to the news of this occurring.

that's right, and you have two have enough fanatics and people who may have all sorts of agendas other than the extreme agendas of the government, you just don't know what else would have happened. but you don't know where you will get to the truth, but it is so soon after takeoff, one of the things, i haven't had a chance to look at the weather conditions, is whether there had been icing on the aircraft, because if that hadn't been correctly de—iced, that could have been what brought down another aircraft in recent times in that region. we will need a few more hours to look at what the weather conditions are and other things. but as far as the aircraft type is concerned, the competency of the pilots in the competency of the airline, they are not matters for concern, so i think it is going to be an external factor or a human

factor. all right. we appreciate your time. that is your take on the story. we are keeping a very close eye on more details as they come through. we develop date you as well. now let's discuss iran. iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on air bases housing us forces in iraq. the pentagon says at least two sites were hit in irbil and al—asad, west of baghdad. it says the missiles were launched from iran itself. iranian state television says the attack was launched in revenge for the us assassination of the iranian general, qasem soleimani. the white house says president trump has been briefed and is monitoring events. 0livia crellin has the details. the roar of rockets as iran hits back at the united states. two bases

in iraq, both housing american forces, struck by iranian missiles. shouts of be careful, be careful, get inside in this footage, reportedly taken as the missiles struck. the pentagon's says two bases, one in irbil and the other to the west of the capital baghdad was struck by numerous rockets. iran says the attack was launched in revenge for the us assassination of irani in general, because soleimani. reacting to the strikes, donald trump took to twitter. "all is well. missiles launched from iran at two military bases, assessment of casualties and damages taking place 110w. casualties and damages taking place now. so far, so good. had the most powerful and well—equipped military anywhere in the world by far. i would be making a statement tomorrow morning.". for his part, the iranian

foreign minister wrote, "iran took and concluded proportionate measures in self defence under article 51 of un charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials were launched. we do not seek escalation 01’ launched. we do not seek escalation or war, but we will defend ourselves against any aggression." american politicians were quick to respond to the attacks. i think it is important that we consult with our allies in the region, that the president consult with congress and that he put forward a clear strategy to how to de—escalate this particular situation. i want to know whether the iranians were shooting at our people or our infrastructure. but it is clear that this isjust people or our infrastructure. but it is clear that this is just another example of iran trying to export terrorism. iran wants to take over iraqi. usa! usa! the bases are

symbolic target. donald trump visited al—asad in 2018. more than 5000 us troops are currently stationed in iraq. tehran‘s response comesjust stationed in iraq. tehran‘s response comes just hours after the burial of general soleimani. both sides are 110w general soleimani. both sides are now watching the other to see what they will do next and how they will respond. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowesjoins me now. it is all about the response from the us now. that is where the attention is turned. yes, and there are signs that this may not have been the escalation in hostilities that many people had feared just a few hours ago with that relatively upbeat tweet from president trump talking about so far, so good, suggestion and we are hearing this from us officials as well that there may not have been any casualties. we don't know that for certain, it is

still relatively early days. a sign and also taking into account the tweet from the iranian foreign minister that now could be a time to draw a line over the growing hostilities of the last few days, and that having retaliated, iran may cease at this and that the us may not respond further and develop into a situation that worsens, a conflict 01’ even a situation that worsens, a conflict or even turns into war. as you say, the tone from the president in the us extremely different to that of what we saw in his tweets over the last 48 hours where he talked about the us getting back hard and quickly, and 52 cultural sites in his sights. yes, the tone of the president has changed quite markedly over the last few days, and as you say, especially in his most recent weight, really pulling back from the bellicose language that we often hear from the bellicose language that we often hearfrom the president. but coming

more into line with what is closest collea g u es more into line with what is closest colleagues like mike pompeo, the secretary —— secretary of state. the weather is to develop into a more serious conflict that the us would abide by international law. and of course the us was prepared for this, weren't they, even though perhaps this retaliation was quicker than some of us expected so close to the burial of general soleimani. yes, clearly the us was prepared. the world was waiting for a retaliation by iran, but clearly, us forces, troops stationed in the region were aware that something like this could happen and had taken precautionary measures, which may account for the fa ct measures, which may account for the fact that if it turns out to be true, that there would be no are relatively few casualties. 0k. thank you very much. as you would expect, there was swift reaction on financial markets to the missile attacks when they happened. trading

was taking place in asia. we saw the price of oil spike significantly. we saw a safe havens such as gold gain in value and the japanese yen for example, and share markets fall. since then we have seen some stabilisation as a tweet came through from president trump in the response to iran. that seems to have eased the fear factor on financial markets. but investors remain on edge. dr stephanie hare is an independent analyst, formerly the principal director at accenture research. good to see you. the market reaction was swift but not surprising, i guess. the price of oil is bound to be so sensitive at the moment. yes. these are two countries, the us and iran, that have had really long—standing conflict. you could arguably take it back to 1953. we would expect to see in some ways a real playing out of things that we

have seen before, which is going to be what happened to the price of oil, the flight to safety for investors and people want to see what will happen with barack because there was a story over the weekend where the us mistakenly sent a letter in error saying they would withdraw troops from iraq and that is not true. the president has as they are staying. the risk is are we going to see some sort of escalation, or is there any way to the negotiation table. as you say, this is a conflict and a relationship that has been very fraught for many, many, many years, but the differences with president trump in power it is hard to predict where this might go or how serious it may become. yes, our end is the whole question and the fact we have an election in the us this year, 2020, so keeping an eye on that. there is also the fact of iran potentially resuming the arrangement of uranium again, so there is many, many factors here. it is interesting

to see the reaction of other politicians in the united states, joe biden said he would not react. he said on twitter that him and his wife were praying for us troops. john carey as well, the former us secretary of state who kinda brokered a nuclear deal with iran under the presidency of barack 0bama. he was quite strong in his response, saying, we need to see a diplomatic resolution to all of this. there should not be an escalation. it is quite shocking to think that only five years ago in 25th mean we were seeing all these powers coming together and agreeing the solution and trying to bring iran back within the international community and moving towards what looked like pace, and here we are five years later and it has really deteriorated. that is part of president from's strategy in that he has never liked that deal. he thinks it isa has never liked that deal. he thinks it is a bad deal. the question is what is he offering that is better and will the american public support it? will the allies are supported?

very different circumstances now. stephanie is back later. we have a new briefing and stephanie and i will talk through some of the bigger stories that global media is grappling with today. still to come: the sheer devastation of australia's bushfires, and after a brief respite, more hot weather is forecast. we'll be live in new south wales. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa

until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: a ukraine passenger plane has crashed shortly after take—off near tehran. all 170 people on board the boeing 737 are reported to have been killed. iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on a us air base in iraq, the pentagon says the missiles were launched from iran.

australian firefighters are continuing to battle around 200 wildfires in the states of new south wales and victoria in the south east of the country. cooler temperatures in the past few days have allowed crews time to contain some of the spread, but new pockets of fire are emerging all the time. 25 people are known to have died. around 1,900 homes have been completely destroyed and up to 500 million animals killed with fears some species may have been wiped out entirely. the bbc‘sjonathan head joins us now from new south wales. jonathan, we can see behind you the devastation. the world is watching this unfold with horror, and there is more extreme temperatures to come. yes, in about two days time the temperatures will rise, it is quite cool at the moment, it has

been overcast but it is still quite smoky. in this house here we have seen the owner clearing away and particularly behind his garden shed burned down in the tremendous fire that swept through here on saturday, he is trying to clear away a lot of rubble to minimise the fuel left behind because he knows the players are coming back. his wife and family left at the weekend, he was left on his own and has described quite an extraordinary battle with enormous fla mes extraordinary battle with enormous flames converging on his house. he put sprinklers on the roof and is preparing to face that possibly again. in fact, preparing to face that possibly again. infact, if preparing to face that possibly again. in fact, if you look at the trees here you can see that normally these trees would have a white or grey bark. if you go up them, you can see they are black, easily ten or 15 metres up. that's how high the fla mes or 15 metres up. that's how high the fla m es we re or 15 metres up. that's how high the flames were going, the leaves have been singed too. there was a wall of

flame going through here as in so many other places, they have used these last two or three days to try to get rid of fuel that might burn, recoup possessions. when it heats up again on friday, they are having to prepare once again for these conditions to resume, and he made this point himself, that they have had fires before, never this bad and never this early. they have had them november, december, january, and they are dreading the next two to three months which could be as hot as they have been for the last few weeks. how are authorities managing and coping? 0ne article on bbc online has talked about the response globally which is something quite tricky to manage, the right response for the right areas and what people really need. it is difficult stopping the firefighters have literally been in an emergency footing for the last few weeks

stopping this break has enabled them to contain fires because they are not being blown by the wind. containment means creating breaks but there is a big debate going on about how much controlled burning you do and when you can do it. the seasonis you do and when you can do it. the season is very limited when it is safe to have control fires but you certainly need these to stop fires from spreading. and how are they going to help communities like this recover, particularly the farmers who have also been hit by drought, and how sustainable are these communities in this dry australian bush. clearly there is going to be some very big thinking about entire urban rural planning and where people can live. australia, you can feel it, is reeling notjust from the shock of these fires, but also with a very uncertain future and

awareness that they probably can't carry on living in the way they have in the past decades and centuries. thank you very much, jonathan in new south wales for us. again, lots of information on our website to see the rescue effort, also how you can help if you wish to. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. hello i'm tulsen tollett and this is your wednesday sport briefing where we start with the footballing news that holders manchester city will take a 3—1 lead into the second leg of the league cup semi final later this month after they beat manchester united 3—1 at old trafford. goals from bernardo silva and riyad mahrez were added to by an own goal from andreas pereira leading up to half time and despite an improved performace from the home side in the second half where they scored the only goal through marcus rashford it wasn't enough. they know, after what happened in the second half, they are a dangerous team but hopefully now, in front of our people, they can support us like man united support his team,

and qualify again for the final. england pulled off a dramatic late win over south africa in the second test at cape town to level their four match series at one apiece. with just 8 and a half overs left ben stokes took the final wicket as the tourists won by 189 runs. it's england's first victory at newlands since 1957 and levels the four match series at 1—all but fast bowlerjames anderson could be an injury doubt for the third test in port elizabeth real madrid will take on valencia in saudi arabia later as a revamped version of the spanish super cup gets underway. zinedine zidane will be without karim benzema and gareth bale for the match injeddah while barcelona take on atletico madrid on thursday. previously the super cup featured the league winners against the cup winners. the new format features both copa del rey finalists and the remaining highest ranked teams in la liga that have not already qualified through the cup final.

leicester city host aston villa in their english league cup semi—final first leg later. it's 20 years since leicester won it, and you have to go back to 1996 when villa last lifted the trophy. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me tulsen tollett and the rest of the team that is your wednesday sport briefing. let's see the pictures of where a ukraine airliner crashed shortly after ta keoff ukraine airliner crashed shortly after takeoff stopping there were at least 170 or more assumed dead stopping you can't really see much from this footage but you do get a sense of the crash site which is quite hard to get to. with me is our news

reporter gareth barlow. what more are we hearing about this? it isa what more are we hearing about this? it is a developing story, but the headline is according to state media that everyone on board this 737 flight that everyone on board this 737 flight operated by ukraine international airlines has died in this incident. it was heading towards kyiv and crashed very shortly after landing stopping the head of a run's emergency services told state television that the fire is so heavy that we can't do any rescue. we have 22 ambulances and a helicopter at the site. that goes in line with what the state agency is saying but with nobody on board surviving this crash, it is very unusualfor surviving this crash, it is very unusual for this to crash. a relatively new plane, only three yea rs or relatively new plane, only three years or so old. we are going to have to leave it there, but thank

you very much indeed. we will keep you very much indeed. we will keep you across any more developments on that story. from myself and the team here, we are back with the latest business stories and a moment. after a very windy tuesday it is still quite a story across scotland but not as windy. as far as the weather's concern for wednesday, it isa mix weather's concern for wednesday, it is a mix stopping some of us will get some sunshine but rain in the forecast to. has the big picture, across western europe there is a big storm up there just south of iceland pushing the clouds in the direction of the uk, you can see the clouds moving quite swiftly towards the north so that is an indication of the strength of the wind. to the south of this form we still have some very south of this form we still have some very mild air and that is affecting southern parts of the uk, thatis affecting southern parts of the uk, that is where the milder air is, but

notice colder airfor that is where the milder air is, but notice colder air for scotland. a much colder day on wednesday, in fa ct, much colder day on wednesday, in fact, in the early hours you can see some snow flurries there, snow covering the hilltops there but to the south of that, a lot milder. by the south of that, a lot milder. by the time we get to the south coast of england temperatures are about 11 or 12 degrees. wednesday, still quite a story with occasional wintry showers across the hills stopping the best of the weather for places like belfast, liverpool, newcastle, then later on it looks as though the rain is going to spread into parts of the far south—west of the uk and then later in the day that rain is going to spread into the midlands and east anglia, so a wet end to the day across southern parts of the country. let's have a look at thursday. a bit of a question mark exactly how windy and how wet it is going to get on thursday but there isa going to get on thursday but there is a low pressure slab bang over after. areas of cloud and rain

circling around the uk, even a possibility of some snow across the pennines, potentially very windy but on the whole, the strongest of the wind is probably staying to the south of us stopping temperatures still mild, 13 and london but much colder there in scotland stopping temperatures might not go much above freezing. friday is going to be a decent day so a fine end to the week for most of us stopping sunshine throughout country before this next weather front sweeps and bringing rain and gale force winds for the weekend. that it from the. bye—bye.

stories that global media is grappling with today. this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. heading for a safe haven: oil and gold spike after ballistic missiles strike two air bases housing us troops in iraq. and travelex counts the cost after confirming it's the victim of an ongoing ransomware attack. and on the markets, the price of oil spiked and there was a rush to safe havens in the initial response to the news of iran's retaliation. as you can see here, there's also been a sell—off on the share markets as investors remain on edge.