welcome to bbc news. our top stories: chanting anti—government protests after the iranian authorities finally admit accidentally shooting down the ukrainian passengerjet. as canada's air accident experts head to iran, prime minister trudeau demands a "full and complete" inquiry into the crash in which 57 canadians died. the queen meets other senior royals on monday to discuss harry and meghan‘s decision to step back from their roles. 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 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. president trump has tweeted his support for the protesters in iran, saying: and to help his message

of solidarity across, he also tweeted it out in farsi. well, i spoke with middle east expert rodger shanahan from the lowy institute and asked him how significant the protests in iran are. it's very difficult to understand exactly what national sentiment is in a country with 85 million people, so if they are looking at protests in and around universities in tehran, for example, it's probably not significant, and the numbers that we have seen so far don't appear to be over significant, so i think it's a kind of protest that the regime is going to ride out yet again. is there an actual cohesive opposition movement at the moment in iran? no, not per se, not a movement that could coalesce around an individual or a group of individuals, and what we have seen in the past has tended to be a broad protest

movement against economic conditions in iran, against bureaucratic corruption in iran, but not in favour of a kind of unitarian alternative to the current system of government, and that is part of the problem i think. you mentioned that the protests were reasonably small. what is the thing that would most worry the authorities? those protest or something else? you could tell, i think, from that rather extraordinary press conference from the revolutionary guard corps commander where they accept responsibility for the mistake that the first flush of members of the iranian government would have been to try and obfuscate further, but the prime minister of canada feministjohnson had obviously gone

public to let the iranians know that the west knew what had happened, and i think they were able to win the debate in tehran so we saw this acceptance of responsibility. that obviously has repercussions for the government because it shows the people that the government and the military are not as competent as they were necessarily make out when a tragedy of the scale happens. that is a problem, but it's a problem in the short term, and i think the reason why the government came out with this press statement was they thought further obfuscation would have meant a much greater political risk further down the track. so they will take the short—term pain and try and get the situation back to normal as quickly as possible. very briefly in terms of the downed airliner, is iran likely to be able to incorporate foreign experts from ukraine and canada into its own investigation? toa to a degree, i think they have two.

—— to. i think they are they accepted responsible, the question is how much leeway others investigators going to be allowed to, in terms of talking to iranian military personnel, to look at the military documentation and the chain of command, and the airspace control that has been exercised, because that would show what the state of iranian military competence is, and that's going to be a difficult win to have on the part of the international investigators. the number of deaths attributed to australia's current bushfire season has now risen to 28 after another firefighter lost their life. he has been named as bill slade and he had a0 years' experience helping to fight fires in the state of victoria. he was killed by a falling tree, one of the greatest hazards in bushfire—affected areas of australia. the authorities say a predicted week of cooler weather will help them to continue containment measures to prevent the fires from spreading. a new ceasefire has come into effect in the syrian province of idlib,

the last bastion ofjihadists and opposition fighters in the country. but in the run—up to the truce, the region was the target of deadly government airstrikes. the syrian observatory for human rights says six children were among at least 18 people who lost their lives in the three air attacks. 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 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 meeting. i think officials now have a much better, not complete,

idea of what the sussexes want. i think 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 things like how much work do the sussexes really 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 in too 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 that he's causing his at this point in her life? the potential loss of respect for the likes of the royal marines, he's captain general, and the general sense in the country, not universal, of disappointment. 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 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 promised jubilant supporters that she would preserve taiwan's sovereignty. our 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 taipei by sara newland. she's a professor at smith college in the united states, but she's currently in taiwan

observing the elections. what swung it for the president?” think the hong kong protests were certainly on everyone's mind this week, but they are not the only factor that explain her victory. i think they really held to bring people out to the polls and to get such a lopsided victory for president tsai, but her popularity was rising in the polls and the popularity of her opponent was declining even before the hong kong protests began. i think another really important factor is just the decision to run a risky and polarising candidate as their presidential nominee, which was a gamble that ultimately didn't pay off. do those voters in taiwan, who voted for the president, and protesters in hong kong see themselves as part of the same overall anti— beijing movement, themselves as part of the same overallanti— beijing movement, or are they to completely separate movements? i think it is hard to

categorise all of them as belonging to the same movement. i certainly think that what has happened in hong kong has loomed large in taiwan this week, it has definitely been on voters mind. i think people here have a range of opinions about what they see as the appropriate relationship between taiwan and mainland china, and so while they overwhelmingly were rejecting the idea of closer ties to mainland china, i don't think they necessarily agreed on what exactly the future of that relationship should look like. can you tell me a little bit about how high—level communication between taipei and beijing now works? in the re—elected president in taiwan simplyjump on a flight president in taiwan simplyjump on a flight to beijing and goa knock on the and speak to xijinping, or is

it more complicated than that? there are no communications between taipei and beijing. that was something that was possible under the previous president and beijing has not allowed to happen since taiwan has beenin allowed to happen since taiwan has been in office. it is unlikely that will change with the real action. been in office. it is unlikely that will change with the real actionm there any desire on either side for more direct talks? will be the envoys, back channels?” more direct talks? will be the envoys, back channels? ithink more direct talks? will be the envoys, back channels? i think that there are some back channel communications in ways that both sides gather information and have sort of informal communication with the other side, but those contacts really have been severely limited. i think president tsai has been clear about what her conditions are for contact with mainland china. she discussed those conditions in her victory speech in her press conference last night as well, and i think that those are conditions that beijing is unlikely to agree to. on the other side, beijing has not ——

has insisted that president tsai accept the notion of the 92 consensus, that is something she has rejected, at this point the two sides really are at a stalemate. thank you so much. thank you. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: is the end in sight for one of france's longest strikes and the violent clashes? the prime minister offers compromise over proposed pension reforms. day one of operation desert storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attack since the second world war. tobacco is america's oldest industry and one of its biggest, but the industry is nervous of this report. this may tend to make people want to stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street that is unaffected. huge parts of kobe were simply demolished as buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she had been given

no help and no advice by the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black children in south africa have taken advantage of laws passed by the country's new multiracial government and enrolled at formerly white schools. tonight sees the 9610th performance of the long—running play the mousetrap. when they heard about her death today, the management considered whether to cancel tonight's performance, but agatha christie would have been the last person to want such a thing. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: after days of denial, iran finally admits to shooting down a ukrainian passenger jet, 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. let's get more now on prince harry

and meghan markle, the duke and duchess of sussex, and their decision to step back from frontline royal duties. earlier, i spoke to jamie samhan, a vancouver—based royal commentator and online editor of entertainment tonight about how the royal couple will be received in their likely new home. everybody was very excited when the news first broke but it has been a few days now so it is actually cool down compared to how it was very front—line in the kingdom. there is the potential, meghan is over here right now with archie on vancouver island, so people are excited about the idea until they buy a house that is still to be said and there is also the concern about who will pay for the security and if it does turn out they are moving here and we will have to pay for the security of think the attitude of canadians may change a little bit. ordinary canadians would not want to stump up for the bodyguards? not really. to us for the bodyguards? not really. to us although the queen he still head of state people see the royals more asa

of state people see the royals more as a celebrity couple instead of an institution so they would not want to foot the bill for somebody who we don't really see as anything other than a celebrity. does canada have a celebrity culture? not really. other than leave them alone. on vancouver island, pamela anderson and sarah maclachlan both live over here as well as well as a number of other celebrities and people leave them alone. even in the big cities you may see them on the streets and you smile but you don't bother them. you don't take a picture of them? you might from a distance but in general, no. harry and meghan were here for six weeks and there is not a single picture of them and people respect each other‘s privacy. a single picture of them and people respect each other's privacy. how we re respect each other's privacy. how were they fit into canadian society? she has, of course, lived in toronto before. i think they would go about their daily life and they have plans and things they want to get done and they have a huge charity endeavour they have a huge charity endeavour they plan on getting done soon and i think i will focus on that. archie

i'm guessing would go to a private school that is just a guess. i think they would fit in, go about their day and who knows, maybe we would see meghan at the local grocery store. are they popular in canada? very popular. people are very young, hip, royal family couple and people like seeing that. meghan is a huge style influence for women across canada, one of the most popular logs, actually, meghan‘s mirror is a canadian company and north americans in general of her style. what do canadians make of the fact that harry and are taking a real hit in britain from the tabloids and from many commentators?” britain from the tabloids and from many commentators? i think a lot of people really feel for her and both of them in particular. they are a newlywed couple and just had a baby and tabloids to operate different here, they are not in the major newspapers, they are in glossy magazines. so seeing some of the comments that go towards meghan, people cannot understand why a national newspaper that looks to a national newspaper that looks to a national newspaper that looks to a national newspaper as ours has

headlines like that, to really come across as racist. just quickly thinking about logistics, i'm imagining toronto may be a good case for a jetsetting couple, if they wa nt to 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 trouble? not that i can think of. you know, there is not a lot of couples i think of thatjet between toronto and london, new york and london, gas, which is not very far, but vancouver island, they say they wa nt to but vancouver island, they say they want to be eco— conscious but to get off the island you have to take at least one transport to vancouver and then elsewhere so as much as they are enjoying the holiday here, i do not see it lasting. at least eight people have died as a result of severe storms sweeping across parts of the southern us. deaths were reported in the states of alabama, louisiana and texas. hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by power cuts as a result of the storms.

some other news in brief now, starting with libya, where rebel forces loyal to general khalifa haftar have announced a ceasefire in their campaign against the un—backed government in tripoli. they say it's conditional on other parties respecting it. the tripoli—based government has already said it would welcome a truce. 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. gunfire. in paris, as in other cities across france, this has become an all—too—familiar sight — riot police, tear gas, protests in the street. gunfire. another day of demonstrations descending into violent clashes. earlier, the marches were peaceful and colourful. thousands angry over proposed

reforms to the country's pension system. ministers say 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: —— in a letter to the unions, the country's prime minister edouard phillippe said: some unions welcomed the move, calling it a victory, but others remain far from convinced. translation: it is a smokescreen. translation: we don't care about that retirement age. we want a full withdrawal, pure and simple. chanting.

more talks are expected next week. so, too, are more demonstrations and more strikes. an agreement still looks a long way off. tim allman, bbc news. the portuguese city of lisbon has won the european green capital award for 2020 — a title bestowed by the european commission. lisbon, they said, shows how to turn environmental challenges into opportunities. gail maclellan reports. a new day, a new era, perhaps, dawns over the portuguese capital lisbon. as the city began its reign as european green capital, the president made clear what it actually means. translation: portugal is betting on green. portugal is betting on green. portugal is betting on green. portugal is betting on environment. portugal is betting on environment. portugal is betting on environment. portugal is betting on facing down climate change and global warming.

starting its journey to sustainability during the 2008 global economic crisis, lisbon showed, according to the awards judges, that sustainability and economic growth go hand—in—hand. the city promotes public transport, achieving a 50% reduction in co2 emissions within 12 years, has connected networks of green space and launched a bike sharing scheme with electric bikes encouraging people to tackle the city's huge hills. the european green capital award aims to promote sustainable living but critics have pointed out that the actual performance of the cities is not measured and the $400,000 cities is not measured and the $100,000 reward may be in danger of being a gesture. but the un secretary general underlined the importance of making the journey.

translation: this year, in 2020, we must prove that we want to end the war that humanity has launched against nature. and this war that humanity has launched against nature isa humanity has launched against nature is a suicidal wall. major response, as we have seen many times, with thorough canes, fires, dramatic droughts in many parts of the world. nature responds in a devastating way. —— with hurricanes. nature responds in a devastating way. -- with hurricanes. already so early in 2020 we know exactly what he means. gail maclellan, bbc news. authorities in southern india have demolished two luxury lakeside apartment complexes that were built in violation of environmental rules. the supreme court ordered the demolitions in kerala, after a committee found that they broke rules protecting coastal areas. two more skyscrapers were set to be razed on sunday. this is the second explosion. there

it is. more on our website. don't forget, you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter. hello. saturday was another mild and a wet and windy day — rather like january has been thus far. and the reason for it — the jet stream 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 protestors. air accident experts have flown from canada to iran to help in the investigation into the crash, in which 57 canadians died. prime minister trudeau has demanded a full and complete inquiry and says many more steps need to be taken. in total, 176 people were killed. the queen is to host crisis talks with princes charles, william and harry at sandringham on monday. it is 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.