welcome to bbc news. our top stories: chanting anti—government protests in tehran after the iranian authorities finally admit accidentally shooting down the ukrainian passenger jet. 57 canadians died in wednesday's crash. prime minister trudeau demands a "full and complete" investigation. there have been angry protests on the streets of iran after the country's military finally admitted it did shoot down a ukrainian passenger plane,

killing all 176 people on board. iran says it made a disastrous mistake when it wrongly identified the plane as a cruise missile. demonstrators in tehran have been calling for iran's supreme leader to resign as our diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. almost from the moment the ukrainian airliner crashed early on wednesday morning, officials in tehran furiously rejected the growing video and intelligence evidence suggesting it had been hit by an iranian missile. then today, an abrupt about—turn. in a flurry of social media postings, iran's president spoke of a "disastrous mistake". the foreign minister talked of "human error". the ambassador in london apologised for misleading the media with "wrong findings". a senior military commander explained that iran's air defences had been on high alert after the attack on us bases in iraq and the aircraft was misidentified as an american missile. he said he wished he could die.

translation: we are sorry. we share the sorrow with victims‘ families. we regret the incident. but this was the price we paid for the tensions and us activities in the region. in tehran, people gathered on the streets notjust to mourn some of the 176 dead, but also to voice their anger at the government, shouting "death to liars". at one protest, the british ambassador was arrested and detained for three hours in what the foreign secretary said was a flagrant breach of international law. ukraine's national security secretary told my colleague jonah fisher how iran simply could no longer deny the evidence. translation: this photo shows us the first part of the plane where a rocket hit. it hit the cockpit from underneath. as canada continued to mourn its 57 dead, the prime minister demanded

that iran cooperate with a full and transparent international investigation. iran must take full responsibility. canada will not rest until we get the accountability, justice and closure that the families deserve. the question now is how much access iran will give to the crash site and data from the wreckage. only then will we know if today's admission of responsibility will be enough to de—escalate the latest confrontation in the middle east. james landale, bbc news. senior members of the royal family, including the queen, will meet on monday to discuss the future for prince harry and meghan. it follows their decision, announced last week, to step back from their prominent roles in the royal family. the summit will take place at the queen's sandringham residence in norfolk and is expected to look at a range of possibilities. the issue of funding is expected to play a central role.

meghan at the moment is in canada. it's likely, though not certain, that she willjoin the conversation by phone. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell gave us a few more details about monday's summit. i think officials have a better, not complete, idea of what the sussexes want and a range of possibilities will be suggested and a reality check perhaps for the sussexes and they will hope to agree the next steps. they need to pin down how much work do the sussexes officially want to do, official royal work, and what will be the rules of the game for their non—royal work? what will be the protocols which will be there to prevent them, to be brutal about it, cashing into blatantly on their royal status. it will be businesslike, i'm sure, but an underlying sadness, i would imagine. meghan clearly wants to do this, but has harry really thought through fully the implications of all this? the distress he's causing his at this point in her life?

the potential loss of respect for the likes of the royal marines, he is captain general, and the general sense in the country, not universal, of disappointment. this of disappointment. is bbc news. the northern ireland assembly has sat for the first time in three years after a deal to restore power sharing at stormont. the dup leader, arlene foster, has been appointed first minister, while sinn fein‘s michelle o'neill is deputy first minister. chris page reports. it has been a long, tense, exhausting journey to bring back northern ireland's government. for three years, stormont has mainly been a nice venue for runners. now, it's a place of power again. speaker: order, order, members. in the assembly, politicians appointed the leader of the democratic unionist party and the vice president of sinn fein to head up the power—sharing coalition. they both put the focus on the future. i'm not sure we will ever agree on much about the past, but we can agree that

there was too much suffering, and that we cannot allow society to drift back and allow division to grow. let's not re—fight the battles of the past. it's time to bring people together. we can open doors, we can let the future in, we can give people hope, and we can give our young people opportunity. so, after more than 1,000 days, elected politicians are now back in control of this part of the uk. the deal to restore the devolved government can be read as an attempt to normalise politics here, move it away from divisive issues of identity and nationality, and make it more about health, education, the economy. whether your flag is the flag of ireland or the flag of britain, that doesn't really matter when you're not being cared for and looked after. and the future of our children and the future for the economy, for small business owners, they're all things that are becoming more and more important. and people are just not really putting up with excuses anymore,

that will argue about tribal politics. rebuilding political relationships won't be easy after such a toxic stalemate. northern ireland has a road map to stability, but there will be tough work ahead. chris page, bbc news, belfast. let's get some of the day's other news. at least 12 people drowned when their boat sank off an island in western greece on saturday, marking the deadliest day in months of the country's migrant crisis. 21 people were rescued after the boat sent out a distress signal. a deadly winter storm sweeping through southern and midwestern states of the us has now claimed at least ten lives. the latest fatalities were in the state of alabama when a powerful tornado killed three people in the city of carolton and left a trail of destruction behind it. tens of thousands of people in the spanish city of bilbao have taken to the streets calling forjailed members of the former separatist group eta to be transfered to prisons closer to home. spanish government policy has been to keep most eta prisoners injails hundreds of kilometres away from the basque country, which had made it difficult and

expensive for relatives to visit. let's get more on the confirmation from iran that they shot down the ukrainian passenger place last week in tehran. 57 canadians died in the accident and air accident investigators from canada have headed to iran to assist in the probe into the crash. let's speak to ashley burke, national reporter for canadian public broadcaster cbc, who is in ottawa. let's start with that investigation. how many investigators is canada planning to send, and what kind of access would they want? right now canada is only allowed to send to transportation safety board investigators to iran. there are in turkey waiting for their visas to be processed and that is because eve ryo ne processed and that is because everyone has not granted canada full access to the site to be actively involved in this investigation. instead, eleanor, because they lost

canadian people in this crash, they have rights under international aviation requirements that allows them to send at least one investigator to the site to be able to see the site, but they might not have access to it, and to get access to it and view the final report. as of right now, that is not the access at cannon apartment prime minister, justin trudeau wants. it is canada deserves more. so many canadians lost lives this crash. 57 died, as you said. it doesn't seem like to investigators is quite what canada would want. are there a bunch of investigators in canada ready to go if more visas are granted? exactly, and these two investigators would only really be observers in around u nless only really be observers in around unless they allow more access. but in canada, we have a whole team of people on standby, especially with the transport canada here. there are experts in a range of things from analysing black boxes to people that can help put together, reconstruct that plane, who could work in

forensics, dna. we have rcmp on standby who are ready to help with identification of bodies as well. a whole range of people on standby waiting, but the prime minister wa nts to waiting, but the prime minister wants to send help to make sure this isa wants to send help to make sure this is a thorough investigation. but it has not gotten that access yet. is a thorough investigation. but it has not gotten that access yetm isa has not gotten that access yetm is a government telling families about any plans there might be for the repatriation of the remains of the repatriation of the remains of the dems? well, that is a big focus right now for the prime minister. since this started, his focus has been on the families, he has been quite stoic about this, and today for the first time he was the most emotional we have seen them. he said he is furious, outraged that there are so many he is furious, outraged that there are so many families in canada that i grieving the loss of their loved ones, that are suffering this much. he said that it is horrific that a plane was shot out of the sky and iran used to be held completely responsible for what happened. the focus is getting families visas into

the country. there is an entire team of consular officials in turkey trying to get access right now. so far, three consular officials have been granted visas and they landed in iran earlier, around four o'clock here in canada, ottawa time. that work is getting started right now to help families on the ground there and also to identify victims as well. thank you very much. you are welcome. taiwan's president, tsai ing—wen, has won a second term in an election dominated by the question of how to deal with an ever more powerful mainland china, which has long threatened to take the self—governing island by force if necessary. ms tsai said beijing should recognise the will of taiwan's people and she promised jubilant supporters that she would preserve taiwan's sovereignty. 0ur china correspondent john sudworth has sent this report from her victory rally in taipei. not long ago, she was struggling in the polls. now, she is being swept

to a second presidential term. her strategy — rallying voters to a single cause. to show that we can be against the communists. yeah, so this is really important to us. has china been a factor for you? i think yes. it's my reason to vote — to defend our country. beijing's attempts to pressure president tsai with renewed threats to take taiwan by force have badly backfired. do you think you have the chinese president, xijinping, to thank for this victory? translation: the taiwanese people insist on protecting our democracy. i hope china gets the correct message as a result of this election. there is in fact a great irony

to these celebrations — beijing's authoritarian vision of a greater china wholeheartedly rejected in the one place that actually gets to vote on it. she has promised to stand up to china. the risk is it will only antagonise it further. john sudworth, bbc news, taiwan. for more on this, i'm joined by from washington byjessica drun. —— i'm joined from washington byjessica drun. she's a taiwan researcher with project 2049, a think tank working on asian security issues. given that its preferred candidate lost, do you think that the chinese government's approach to these elections backfired? i guess it largely depends on how would describe it. if you said it was whether the outcome is what they

wanted, yes, they failed. they are —— their traditionally preferred partner lost, one that would pursue relations under the one china framework. but if you were to describe failure in the sense of where they successful in the long—term goal of convincing the taiwan public the unification is the best available option and the taiwan's democratic system is a failure? i would say in the short term, no. in the higher turnout and the dpp landslide victory. i am not so the dpp landslide victory. i am not so certain in the long—term, we will likely see prolonged and effects of disinformation and an increasingly polarised society. over the next four years, what are relations likely to be like between beijing and taipei? i think relations will continue to be increasingly tense. china will continue to double down on its current strategy of pressuring the taiwan government, squeezing the international space

and using them against taiwan society. they will likely refine the tactics behind the strategies so they are worth it. how big a part of they are worth it. how big a part of the pond test in hong kong, a semiautonomous chinese territory, la ke semiautonomous chinese territory, lake innes election in taiwan, which rules itself? i think it played a rather large part in at least the outcome of the election in that the voters delivered a clear mandate, rejecting the one country to systems approach that china has set for hong kong and has proposed for taiwan. what have we learned about the re—elected president, about what she wa nts to re—elected president, about what she wants to achieve for taiwan, about her personally in this election campaign and with her resounding victory? i think it is a mandate in support of taiwan's policy of maintaining the status quo in which she had in 2016. jessica, thank you so she had in 2016. jessica, thank you so much forjoining us.

this is bbc news. the headlines: after days of denial, iran finally admits to shooting down a ukrainian passengerjet — prompting angry protests on the streets of tehran. and in the wake of harry and meghan‘s decision to step back from their roles, the queen and other senior royals will hold crisis talks on monday. france's prime minister has offered a concession to unions in a bid to end nationwide strikes against proposed pension reforms. edouard philippe said he was willing to withdraw a proposal which would raise the retirement age to 64. there have been five weeks of protests against the government's plans — one of the longest strikes in french history. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. in paris as in other cities across france, this has become and all—too—familiar site. great police, teargas, all—too—familiar site. great police, tea rgas, protest all—too—familiar site. great police, teargas, protest in the street. another day of demonstrations descending into violent clashes. ——

wyatt police. earlier that much is peaceful and colourful. thousands angry over proposed reforms to the country's pension system. minute is saying they have to introduce changes to make things fairer and more affordable. union leaders insist workers will lose out. up until now, a stalemate. then the government came forward with what was described as a constructive compromise. in a letter to the unions, the country's the minister said... namely the increase in the retirement age from 62—65. "64. some unions welcomed the move, calling it a victory but others remainfar calling it a victory but others

remain farfrom calling it a victory but others remain far from convinced. translation: it is a smokescreen. it's completely phony, it's nonsense. we don't care about that retirement age, we want a full withdrawal, and simple. mortals are expected next week, so too are more demonstrations and more strikes. an agreement still looks a long way off. let's stay with that story regarding prince harry and meghan markle, the duke and duchess of sussex,and their decision to step back from frontline royal duties. let's get the thoughts of jamie samhan, royal commentator and 0nline editor for entertainment tonight canada — she joins us from vancouver. is canada excited by the potential possibility of having its own resident wales cosmic everybody was very excited when the news first broke but it has been a few days so

it's really cool down compared to how it is for the united kingdom. there is the potential, megan is over here right now on vancouver island so people are excited about the idea but until i actually buy a house, that is still to be said is also the concern of he was going to pay for security? if it does turn out are moving here you're going to have to pay for security, i think the canadians just like the attitude of canadians may change. they would wa nt to of canadians may change. they would want to stump up for the bodyguards? not really because to us, although the queen is still head of state, people see the world is more as a celebrity couple instead of an institution. they wouldn't want to put that bill —— foot that bill for someone put that bill —— foot that bill for someone who we don't see as anything other than a celebrity. does canada have a celebrity culture cosmic really other than leave them alone. 0n vancouver island, pamela anderson and sarah mclaughlin both live over here as well as a number of other celebrities are people leave them

alone for. even in big cities, you may see them on the street, you smile but you don't bother them. you wouldn't take a picture of them? you might runa wouldn't take a picture of them? you might run a distance but in general, no. harry and megan were here for six weeks and is not a single picture of them. people respected to the's privacy. how would harry and megan fit into canadian society? she has lived in toronto before. i think they would just go about their daily life. they have a lot of plans of things they want to get done, they have a huge charity endeavour that they plan on announcing soon so i think ijust they plan on announcing soon so i think i just want to continue they plan on announcing soon so i think ijust want to continue doing that. archie i'm guessing will go to a private school, but that is just a guess. and i think they would fit m, guess. and i think they would fit in, go about their day and who knows? maybe see her at the local grocery store. 0ther knows? maybe see her at the local grocery store. other popular in canada? very popular. they are young hip, royalfamily canada? very popular. they are young hip, royal family couple and people see that megan is a huge style influence for women across canada. 0ne influence for women across canada. one of the most popular blogs, it is a canadian company. and north americans in general love her style.

what are canadians make of the fact that harry and megan at the moment taking a real hit in britain from the tabloids and from many commentators? i think a lot of people feel for her and both of them in particular. there are a newlywed couple, they just had in particular. there are a newlywed couple, theyjust had a baby and tabloids to operate different here. they are not in the major newspapers at stands. they are in glossy magazines. so seeing the comments that go towards megan, people can't understand why a national newspaper that looks to a national newspaper like us, has headlines like that. that come across as racist. just quickly, thinking about the justice, and imagining toronto might be a good gate — a good base for a jetsetting couple if they want to be halfway between los angeles and london. does anyone else do that? have toronto as a base for such travel? not that i can think of. there's not a lot of couples i can think of thejet there's not a lot of couples i can think of the jet between toronto...

new york and london, yes because it's not very far i just don't see it's not very far i just don't see it being vancouver island. they want to be eco conscious but you get off the island you've got to take at least one transfer to vancouver and then elsewhere. as much as they are enjoying the holiday here, i don't see it lasting. thank you so much for joining see it lasting. thank you so much forjoining us. labour leadership contender sir keir starmer has launched his official campaign to become the next party leader in manchester. he said that "factionalism has to go" and that the party must unite — and promised to defend the party's radical values. we cannot be a divided party anymore. we need to end the factionalism. being a very, very strong opposition up against borisjohnson and forging that path to victory. what i meant by retaining our radical values is we shouldn't throw away everything in the last four years. we are now the party of anti—austerity, we are the party that believes in investing in our public services and common ownership. we should retain that. the manifesto i'm focused on is the next manifesto,

not the last manifesto. but we shouldn't throw away what we have achieved in the last four years. earlier, our political correspondent, nick eardley explained what keir starmer‘s campaign launch means for the race. keir starmer has, for want of a better word, momentum at the moment in this race. he's the man to beat, far ahead of anybody else when it comes to mps and the polls of labour members suggest he's out in front as well. he's not the obvious corbyn candidate, because that is rebecca long—bailey, at the moment, and her campaign at the moment is struggling to get off the ground. momentum, who are the pro—corbyn grassroots campaign who helped jeremy corbyn win the two 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're recommending that that's who 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 three months before we get the next labour leader,

there is a lot of room for movement in that race. when it gets going, when some of the more radical pro—corbyn groups start throwing their weight about, i suspect that will work well for rebecca long—bailey. there's other candidates as well. lisa nandi, clive lewis, emily thornberry, jess phillips as well. they'll all be looking to make up ground over the next few weeks. tens of thousands have been much in glasgow, the rally afterwards was cancelled because of bad weather. a 100—year—old giant tortoise credited with virtually saving his species from extinction is being released back into the wild. diego is believed to have fathered around 800 baby tortoises 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. i've been speaking to drjames gibbs from the galapagos conservancy centre which worked with diego. i asked him what was the secret of diego's success. it's a good question. he's had a tremendous amount of success — we estimate about 800 offspring, and now legions of grandchildren. but he's got a personality unto himself. he's a very strong willed, aggressive, sort of a flamboyant tortoise, if one can say such a thing. but he's definitely the one that's always doing the mating, and pushing out the other two males. there's just three males that... his whole species has gone through this tremendous bottleneck, but he's the one that is most active. very strong personality, quite aggressive.

you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. coming up: dateline london with shaun ley. first the weather, and that's with phillip avery. hello. saturday was another mild and a wet and windy day, rather like january has been thus far. and the reason for it — the jetstream has looked like this. and you'll notice as i take you through the next few days it will continue in similar vein — pretty strong, firing in from the west and south—west, and in each kink, we will see a succession of low pressure systems delivering yet more wet and windy and mild weather towards the british isles. and that's rather how we start the day across a good part of england and wales, although i suspect that once the cloud and rain has quit the scene, by around about lunchtime on the east coast, it will be a glorious afternoon. plenty of sunshine around, dry for the most part too, save for a peppering of showers across the north and west of scotland, urged along in this neck of the woods by a noticeable south—westerly wind. but nowhere near as windy for many of us as was the case on saturday, and those temperatures still hanging onto double figures

down across the southern half of britain. and then, as the sun sets, the temperatures will tumble away underneath relatively clear skies. yes, one or two showers still coming through on the breeze, but things will cloud up in the west to finish off the night. but, further east, it could be a chilly start to monday, a dry one for many of us too. that, however, will not last very long. notice the number of isobars here, squeezing up all the while, as a very vigorous area of low pressure throws this active weather front in towards the western side of the british isles. not very far into monday, so don't be fooled by the dry start, because it will turn increasingly very wet indeed from the west to many parts of northern ireland, certainly scotland, the west of england, then into wales. and the gusts of wind willjust keep on building, such that at some point we could well see gusts of wind to around 60, 70, if not 80 mph in extremis across the north—west of scotland. not a cold day by any means at all, but one to watch out for, particularly if you're on the move.

and, as that area of low pressure quits the scene, itjust makes room for another spell of wet and windy weather to pile in on tuesday from this south—western quarter. so again, many of you start the day dry and chilly and bright. but it doesn't stay that way, and as this mild air rushes up towards the scottish borders, there'll be a conversion, we suspect, of rain to snow across the southern uplands, then north of the central belt across the higher ground. very mild indeed in the south. so disruptively windy, really quite wet at times in the first part of the week. mild, perhaps a tad drier, later in the week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: iran's admission that it accidentally shot down a ukrainian airliner, killing all on board, has prompted angry protests

on the streets of the capital, tehran. some demonstrators are calling for the country's supreme leader to step down. president trump has expressed his support for the protesters. the queen is to host crisis talks with princes charles, william and harry at sandringham on monday. it's in the wake of a decision by harry and meghan to step back from their prominent roles in the royal family. the summit is expected to look at a range of possibilities. the northern ireland assembly has sat for the first time in three years after a deal to restore power sharing at stormont. the dup leader arlene foster has been appointed first minister, while sinn fein's michelle o'neill is deputy first minister. a political stalemate had prevented the administration from sitting. now, it's time for dateline london.