this is bbc news. the headlines... iran admits shooting down the ukranian passenger plane, saying they mistook it for a cruise missile. british prime minister borisjohnson calls the admission ‘an important first step‘. in ukraine, questions over why the plane was allowed to take off from tehran, anger over iran's initial denials. translation: the iran representative instructed our crew in clear words to take off and the crew followed the orders. in the current climate it would be stupid to try to hide something. back to business for the northern ireland assembly. these are the scenes live in stormont, as talks resume for the first time since the power—sharing agreement collapsed three years ago.

keir starmer — the shadow brexit secretary — officially launches his bid to become the next labour leader, saying the country needs radical policies to fight inequality. the moralfight the moral fight against injustice and poverty and homelessness isjust as big a moralfight as it was in the general election. coming up, the best exclusive stories from vicotoria derbyshire — a review of the week, that's at a50. —— victoria derbyshire. borisjohnson has said that iran's admission that it shot down by mistake a ukrainian passenger plane over tehran is an ‘important first step‘. four britons were among the 176 people killed in wednesday‘s crash. a senior iranian military official said the airliner was misidentified

as a cruise missile. iran‘s president rouhani has called the downing of the jet an "unforgiveable mista ke". our diplomatic correspondent caroline hawley has more. this is the moment iran made a catastrophic error, firing a missile into a passenger plane, killing everyone on board. for three days in the face of mounting evidence, iran adamantly denied it was responsible. but this morning brought an extraordinary about—face. on state—run television, a senior commander of the powerful revolutionary guard came out on the orders of the supreme leader to come clean. he explained that iran‘s air defences had been on alert. they thought american cruise missiles had been fired. a quick decision was taken and it was wrong.

translation: in these difficult circumstances, i am here before you to explain what happened. but before that, i have to say that we accept all the responsibility for the accident and we lay our fate into our higher officials‘ hands. there‘s anger that the plane was allowed to take offjust after iran had fired missiles at american bases in iraq, and when the country was braced for a response. the disaster has piled pressure on the regime both from within iran and from the outside world. it clearly calculated it could no longer hide the truth. ukrainian investigators on the ground in tehran had discovered damage from shrapnel. translation: if you're playing war, you can play whatever you want, but there are normal people around who you should preserve and save and if they‘re hitting any kinds of targets, they have to close the airport. they should have closed the airport. canada, mourning its 57 dead, says it now expects full co—operation from tehran and has warned that the world is watching. caroline hawley, bbc news, beirut.

the prime minister boris johnson has released a statement. our correspondent in kyiv, jonah fisher, has been talking me through the ukrainian reaction. there were similar words this morning from the ukrainian president, president zelensky, talking in similar ways to boris johnson, talking about a legal requirement that justice be done for the 176 people who were on board, and that compensation should be paid, and that those responsible should be brought tojustice.

more interesting, this morning i spent time with a top security official here in the ukraine and he basically laid out the evidence with which the team of ukrainian investigators had been gathering in tehran, pretty comprehensive stuff, pictures of the cockpit with the bottom half having been blown away. parts of the side of the aircraft with pockmarks on which suggest an anti—aircraft hit and basically he said "we had effectively gathered "enough evidence that proves it was a missile that brought down "this plane" and quite possibly that was the reason that iran made the u—turn, saying initially it was a tactical mistake, but then saying and admitting that their guys had shut it down. interesting line in the statement

about accepting full responsibility. do you feel that ukraine is developing a stiffer resolve now around this? yes, for the last few days, ukraine has been very careful not to say anything that might upset the iranians. with the benefit of hindsight, that is because they had their team on the ground and they wanted them to have a chance to gather a decent amount of evidence and they were worried that if they seemed to take any sort of position it mightjeopardise the work they were doing on the ground. when they talk about full responsibility and iran taking full responsibility which is what president zelensky said this morning, that is a reference to what iran said overnight in part blaming the united states for creating a tense atmosphere in which this happened. ukraine is signalling that iran have accepted responsibility but that they need to take full responsibility and they will not

shift the blame elsewhere. what about the question of why this plane was flying in this part of the world at a time of such tension? this is something ukraine will have to address, it is dealing with now, there were emotional scenes at press conferences held by ukrainian international airlines, it is a valid question as to why on a night when iran was launching ballistic missiles at military bases across the border into iraq, when tensions were extremely high in relation to the united states, and iran was possibly anticipating retaliation from the united states, why passengerjets were flying. this was not the only plane leaving in the early hours of wednesday morning and there were others but with the benefit of hindsight it was a pretty catastrophic decision for that plane to fly. the majority of the

passengers on the flight were headed for canada. our north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, is in toronto. 57 canadians killed in this tragedy, what has been the reaction to the iranian admission? over the last few days we have been going to vigils and there has been a large iranian diaspora coming together here, but also non—iranians coming here to these rituals, a lot of despair at what happened, and the confusion as to how it all happened —— coming here to these vigils. a sense that this is a step in the right direction now, to help some of those families and the friends of those who died, get some sense of closure,

and we have heard from the canadian prime ministerjustin trudeau who said the focus remains that there needs to be a full investigation and there needs to be justice for these families and that hasn‘t changed with this admission. the iranians have a —— admitted that this was a mistake, but there is a wider context that this began with the killing of the general, qassem soleimani, is america being blamed at all for what happened? it is interesting, and amongst those we have spoken to here, relatives and friends of the victims, they did not cast aspersions as to who was to blame for what happened. they were relu cta nt to blame for what happened. they were reluctant to some extent to criticise the iranian regime even though they are here in canada and have suffered loss, they are worried about the repercussions that could

have four relatives back in iran, thatis have four relatives back in iran, that is what they were telling people us —— that could have for. the iranian foreign minister said this happened because of its american adventurism, but many people here will be struck at how wholly the iranians have taken responsibility for the crash and the apology they have extended to the families after taking this full responsibility. at least some of the confusion for those families has been cleared up, and they will still been cleared up, and they will still be wanting more answers and as the canadian prime minister said, justice, as well. boris johnson has called for all leaders to pursue a diplomatic way forward. what kind of role mightjustin trudeau play given canada‘s huge involvement in this?

he has never been drawn so far at least in the last couple of days, pointing the finger of blame, and he was asked very directly as to whether he blamed donald trump and whether he blamed donald trump and whether he blamed the united states and he has also been asked as to whether he blames the iranian regime but he has never been drawn into the blame game. he hasjust called but he has never been drawn into the blame game. he has just called for international involvement in the investigation and he is still calling for that. he is calling for more countries to be involved in the investigation. as his protocol around the world, iran will lead the investigation, and he just around the world, iran will lead the investigation, and hejust wants assurances that there will be outside involvement as well. thanks for joining outside involvement as well. thanks forjoining us. stormont‘s first and deputy first ministers have been appointed after powersharing returned to northern ireland. dup leader arlene foster resumes the first minister role she lost

when the last coalition executive collapsed in 2017. sinn fein‘s stormont leader michelle o‘neill has become deputy first minister. so, what‘s in the deal? the new agreement contains wide ranging promises. firstly to tackle the cirsis in the health service and to try and resolve a pay dispute that has seen nurses and health workers on strike. there‘ll be more money for schools after months of head teachers saying they face an unprecedented shortfall. and northern ireland will get about another 800 police to increase numbers to 7,500. our correspondent, richard morgan, is at stormont. what has changed? the public mood. there is a real sense over the last weeks and months that the public

just wanted politicians in northern ireland to get back to work and one of the key drivers behind this are the nurses strikes, nurses taking to the nurses strikes, nurses taking to the picket lines for the first time in over 100 years, because the health service is in crisis. it is underfunded and nurses want their pay to match the pay of their collea g u es pay to match the pay of their colleagues in the rest of the uk. this deal on the table it has a package of funding, lots of money being thrown at northern ireland to find the health service, education and infrastructure, and today should not be underestimated, a historic day, the assembly sitting for the first time in three years, and the former us president bill clinton has tweeted, he has said he deeply cares about the people of northern ireland and he is thanked for their leaders are coming together to restore the government function that the people and all communities require.

ministers have been appointed at the chamber is now empty. one of the key posts is the justice post and that requires cross community support from the dup and also sinn fein and the newjustice from the dup and also sinn fein and the new justice minister from the dup and also sinn fein and the newjustice minister is the alliance party leader miami long. —— naomi. our ambition for this place is to have sustainable government and that we would be able to have a fit for purpose executive and that it would deliver for all of the people of northern ireland. the deal was put to us, and whilst imperfect as any deal would be, we believe it can be the basis for delivery for the people of northern ireland, if it is implemented with good will. those ministers in a post will face a lot of big decisions because public services in northern ireland have essentially been allowed to float for the last few years,

drifting, and senior civil servants have made some decisions but huge decisions need a minister in post to sign off. health is one of the biggest issues, funding the health service, tackling those waiting lists which are the longest in the uk, and plugging the gap when it comes to nurses pay and unions say this should be a priority. it has been a very bad, the real front line of public services, health, education, community, volu nta ry health, education, community, voluntary sector, these people have borne the brunt, notjust of the la st borne the brunt, notjust of the last three years of no government but of a decade of bad decisions that has damaged the life of everybody in northern ireland and we intend to turn that around. are you optimistic? optimistic but not giving them too much leeway, it is 110w giving them too much leeway, it is now time for them to do the work.

the education system is also facing its own problems. it has been difficult for head teachers and teachers would like their pay brought in line with collea g u es their pay brought in line with colleagues in england. a pay agreement was reached but it has not been implemented and teaching unions have been on strike. they have staged a strike action and walk outs and they are currently on industrial action. unions want to go to the newly appointed education minister to get the pay issue resolved. we need about 80 millionjust to fund the last two years of pay, teachers' pay. teachers are owed a pay rise right back to september 2017. that needs to be brought forward quickly and we also need to sit down and talk about teachers' pay for 2019-20, and 2020-21. we hope that, reading between the lines of the draft text, that the parties have been setting that money aside and that together with the pressing

needs at school level, that they're going to come up with that money. schools, the nhs, it is all about public services, and the question therefore is about how quickly can ministers start to sort out some of these problems? yes, that is the big question, and in the last hour senior civil servants who have been running these departments in the absence of stormont have arrived in parliament buildings to meet the newly appointed ministers and they will be given advice as to the priorities. we need to wait for the money to arrive from the uk government and we don‘t know how much it is but when it comes decisions can be made and big projects signed off. the assembly has wrapped up for today and it is not setting on monday but will meet again on tuesday. richard morgan, thanks forjoining us.

the headlines on bbc news... iran admits shooting down the ukranian passenger plane, saying they mistook it for a cruise missile. british prime minister borisjohnson calls the admission ‘an important first step‘. power—sharing is restored in northern irealnd, as key ministers are appointed at the first assembly meeting for three years. keir starmer — the shadow brexit secretary — officially launches his leadership bid, saying the country needs a radical labour party to fight inequality. crystal palace come from a goal down in the lunchtime premier league match against arsenal who had their goal—scorer sent off in the second half. saracens remain on course to defend their european champions cup title after victory over ospreys, but ulster drop from the top spot following their defeat. the us open champion will miss the first major of the year. she fails to recover from injury with the big tournament

in australia less than two weeks away. back with more a bit later on. the shadow brexit secretary keir starmer, is officially launching his campaign to become the next labour leader. our political correspondent nick eardleyjoins me now. you have been listening to what he had to say, it was a red dot —— it was a radical message? he is trying to unite the party by saying that factionalism needs to go and that has to be left behind if labour is to win power, but at the same time if keir starmer is going to win this leadership election he needs to win over the members and we know that sincejeremy corbyn over the members and we know that since jeremy corbyn became over the members and we know that sincejeremy corbyn became leader, the membership has moved to the left, and so from keir starmer you are hearing a radical message, saying do not trash whatjeremy corbyn has done. he was right for example to make the party

unashamedly anti—austerity, he says, and the manifesto in 2017 was a good foundation for the party to build on. he mentioned 2017 rather than 2019 when the manifesto some would argue offered too much too soon. this is what he had to say. i've never known a time when a radical labour government was so needed. the moral fight against injustice and poverty and homelessness isjust as big a moral fight as it was in the election. we need to be up for that fight, the fight for economicjustice, social justice, and climate justice. we need to be up for the fight, and in that fight, and the first thing we need to do is be united. united as a party and movement. applause

many people will say it is all well and good to argue about having a labour government but they will not have one for the next five years because of the last election result. keir starmer appeared to say to members, we are not going to be able to change that because borisjohnson has a comfortable majority, but labour needs to win the argument. they will still be the approach we have seen from him in the last few yea rs have seen from him in the last few years which is the forensic examination of government policy, if he becomes leader of the labour party, rather than the fireworks we have seen as of late. the grassroots movement of labour momentum is not backing him? keir starmer has momentum at the moment in this race, he is far ahead of anybody else when it comes to mps and the poles of labour members. he is not the

obviousjeremy labour members. he is not the obvious jeremy corbyn labour members. he is not the obviousjeremy corbyn candidate, because that is rebecca long bailey, but her campaign is struggling to get off the ground. momentum is the pro—jeremy corbyn grassroots campaign who helped jeremy corbyn win the leadership elections he won, they have said they will ballot their members on who to back but quite clearly they want it to be rebecca long bailey. they are recommending to their members get behind and that will give her a big boost and although keir starmer appears to be out in front at the moment i would suggest over the next few months before we get the next labour leader there is room for movement in that race. when it gets going and when some of the more radical pro—jeremy corbyn groups start their weight about suspect that will work well for rebecca long bailey but there are other candidates, as well. lisa nandi, clive lewis, emily thornberry, jess phillips. they will be looking to make up ground over the next few weeks. the first thing is who will

get through to the next round and the 22 mps backing them which they need. clive lewis and emily thornberry are struggling to get that mamba but the other four —— to get that at the moment but the other four are doing much better. nick, thanks forjoining us. one of the biggest sellers of train tickets in britain is the latest to offer its customers what‘s called split ticketing. the trainline says using this method, rail travellers could between them save more than £300 million this year. split ticketing is when travellers buy multiple tickets for a journey instead of a single end—to—end ticket. it can be used to lower the overall cost, sometimes by more than half the originaljourney cost. with split ticketing, your tickets must cover the whole journey and the train must stop at ever station where your tickets are split — but you don‘t have to get off. the rail industry is calling for tickets to be simplified and a government review is underway.

earlier i spoke to robert nisbet — regional director for the rail delivery group about whether rail companies have been effectively ripping off customers by not charging a split fare, if that‘s the lowest fare on offer. no, i wouldn‘t accept that. in effect what happens at the moment is that fare levels are set by the government primarily, half of the tickets are regulated fares so that is 45%, and they set the level and at the moment that is set according to the rpi level of inflation and the rest are set by the railway companies but dependent on how much they pay into government. we have said that we understand that the system is creaking at the seams. there are 55 million different fare

combinations in the fare computer which means it is confusing and it allows for these kind of anomalies that split ticketing is taking advantage of, so we welcome this in that it is an innovation and it makes it easier for people to travel on the trains, so that is great, but we think in effect this is applying polyfilla when the entire wall needs plastering and we need to change the fare system in this country. making it easier for passengers to travel is not the same as making it cheaper, and ijust wonder, if you get what you say you want which is a simpler ticketing and fares structure, will that necessarily mean that prices will fall? again, that is a question for government because that is about fare levels and what has happened with successive governments is that they have swung the responsibility of paying for the railways onto the passenger and away from the taxpayer, so we are the least subsidised railway in western europe, but we want more people to travel. already 5 million people are travelling every day since the 90s, the number of people

using trains has doubled, but we think there‘s still more, there is more capacity in the network and to make peoples journeys more comfortable and more enjoyable, so what we would like to see is working with the government to make the system easier. so instead of regulating these fare bundles, you are creating or regulating fare levels and we think that is much better, and it will allow for, say, pay as you go, that london commuters benefit from, with a weekly cap, but also season tickets, not everyone lives a monday— friday nine to five life, but the ticketing system does not accept that. we think it needs to be broken down and built back up again and we are very encouraged that the government has started fares trials on lner and has set up a fund to pay for these trials and also on gtr in the south—east, looking at part—time working, so we need to rebuild the system rather than apply a sticking plaster when it needs major surgery. a100 year—old giant tortoise

credited with virtually saving his species from extinction — is being released back into the wild. the male tortoise, diego, is believed to have fathered around 800 baby tortoise after he was recruited onto a captive breeding programme in the galapagos islands. the park service believes he was taken from the galapagos 80 years ago by a scientific expedition. diego is currently in quarantine before his return to espanola in march. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with mel coles. today is a taste of what we can expect through the coming week, wet and windy conditions dominating the story. through this afternoon the strongest of the winds will be along this band of rain, some heavy pulses for cumbria and snowdonia, and ahead it will be dry but there is cloud

around and behind it the winds will ease down for parts of scotland. it will brighten up generally, but starting to feel a bit fresher. temperatures widely in double figures elsewhere, very mild for the time of year. as we head into the evening the band of rain continues towards the south and east taking the strongest of the winds. a few showers which might pose an ice risk on sunday morning first thing. this clears down towards the south and east on sunday, another band of rain in clearing the midlands and eventually lincolnshire, brightening up through the afternoon for many areas. a blustery day and starting to feel fresher.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: iran admits shooting down the ukranian passenger plane, saying they mistook it for a cruise missile. british prime minister borisjohnson calls the admission "an important first step". in ukraine, questions over why the plane was allowed to take off from tehran, anger over iran‘s initial denials. translation: the iran representative instructed our crew in clear words and a calm voice to take off and the crew followed the orders. in the current climate, it would be stupid to try and hide something. power—sharing is restored in northern irealnd, as key ministers are appointed at the first assembly meeting for three years. it is time to renew and rekindle a political environment of reconciliation and respect and

deliver a promise on a new approach to politics this decade. keir starmer — the shadow brexit secretary — officially launches his bid to become the next labour leader, saying the country needs radical policies to fight inequality. the moralfight the moral fight against injustice and poverty and homelessness isjust and poverty and homelessness isjust a big and poverty and homelessness isjust abiga and poverty and homelessness isjust a big a moralfight now as it was in that general election. and now on bbc news, victoria derbyshire takes a look back at some of the highlights from her programme this week. hello, and welcome to our programme. for the next half an hour, we will bring you some of the originaljournalism we have broadcast over the last week. in an exclusive story, we reveal that a ministerial enquiry, which cleared the former welsh secretary, alun cairns, of misconduct over what he knew about the role of his former aide in the collapse of a rape

trial, has been dismissed