live from london. this is bbc news. a powerful earthquake strikes japan, destroying buildings and killing at least four person. thousands have fled their homes, spending the night in shelters. israel's supreme court strikes down a controversialjudicial reform that triggered nationwide protests last year. migrant boat crossings in the english channel drop by more than a third, but the figures are still some of the highest on record. and what it means for disney as the copyright expires on the earliest versions of mickey and minnie mouse. hello, i'm nicky shiller. we start injapan, where a powerful earthquake has hit the centre of the country, bringing down buildings and power lines. four people are now confirmed

to have died, but the extent of the damage isn't yet clear. the epicentre of the 7.6 magnitude quake, was noto province, with the tremors felt as far away as the capital tokyo. tens of thousands of people were told to head to higher ground and many are spending the night in emergency shelters. but a major tsunami warning has been downgraded to an advisory. and in the past hour we've heard from presidentjoe biden — who says the us is ready to provide any necessary assistance to japan — as a close ally of the country. suranjana tewari has the latest now, from japan. rumbling, screaming this footage from inside someone�*s home captures the moment the powerful earthquake struck. more than 140 kilometres from the epicentre, this video was taken by english teacher barnie davis.

itjust kept going. it was really long. the fridge door was opening and shutting, pictures were going all over the place, everything fell off the shelves. it was pretty dramatic. barnie and his family went to the local evacuation centre until he was told it was safe to return home. but then... literally just as we're talking my phone giving us an alert, there's been another little earthquake up north again. the whole evening there have been aftershocks. further north, some staff at this news network took cover while others wanted to cover the story. the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struckjust after ii:00pm in the afternoon local time. it was caught on camera in this supermarket. there was chaos and confusion. tsunami warnings were issued then downgraded on the ishikawa coastline. and people were told

to head to higher ground. translation: i would like to ask | all residents to continue to pay. close attention to the occurrence of this strong earthquake. if you are in a region where a tsunami is expected please evacuate as soon as possible. despite the damage to roads and buildings, this earthquake is not as severe as 2011 when a magnitude nine quake triggered a tsunami leading to a nuclear meltdown at the fukushima power plant. this time all nuclear facilities are currently unaffected. but following the earthquake a huge fire broke out in one of the affected areas, and thousands are now spending the night outside in below zero temperatures, fearful of going back into their homes as aftershocks continue to hit. earlier i spoke to dan faulkner — a professor of geology and earth sciences at the university of

liverpool. he told mejapan is very used to earthquakes on this scale. in this part of the world we kind of expect the events of this kind of size. and in fact, 60 years ago, just about 200 kilometers to the north—east of where this event happened, there was a similar sized earthquake back then, too. so it's certainly not unknown to have earthquakes of this size in that particular area. yeah, japan used to dealing with earthquakes. they have a very sophisticated warning system, don't they, particularly for the tsunamis. absolutely. i mean, i thinkjapan is probably one of the best prepared countries on the planet for events like this. and certainly the tsunami warning went out straightaway after the earthquake and people will have been prepared for that. and thankfully, it didn't turn out to be as hazardous as maybe we first feared after the earthquake happened. so just explain to us the tectonic plates and why japan is so liable to earthquakes.

so it's an amazing part of the world that japan is on — its it's part of the pacific ring of fire where there's lots of huge fault zones. so subduction zones where tectonic plates are being thrust back down into the earth's mantle all the way around the pacific. and whilst this earthquake didn't happen on one of those subduction zone faults, it's all part of that that same system where the tectonic plates are pushing against each other. and this earthquake was a thrust fault earthquake where basically the earth's crust will have been pushed up by about three and a half metres in this event. and it's all related to those stresses and those tectonic forces that are affecting the region. now, we've had dozens of other earthquakes today. could we get more and will they be small or could we have another large one? sure, so from studying many earthquakes over many years now, we do know that earthquakes of this size are typically followed by an aftershock sequence, with aftershocks becoming less and less severe in their strength.

but this was a really huge earthquake, magnitude 7.6. so some of the aftershocks that japan might experience is still going to be pretty, pretty large. and they could affect infrastructure and buildings which are already weakened by the main event. but what we would expect scientifically, i think, in this region is to see a gradual diminishing of earthquakes. and we wouldn't expect anything of a similar size. there should be less, but still, perhaps some some pretty significant aftershocks still to come. and i assume because it has such a sophisticated system injapan that you, as geologists, can learn a lot to be able to predict them in the future. absolutely. when we do have events like this, they do provide a huge learning opportunity for us, i think, and particularly in an area where like japan, where things are so well instrumented, then we will be able to to learn a lot from this event, i think

from all the instrumentation and the measurements that will be made around this too. so if one good thing can come from it is that hopefully we can learn more about these kind of events for the future. israel's supreme court has struck down judicial reforms that were a centrepiece of benjamin netanyahu's agenda in government. the reforms sparked months of protests, as the legislation limited the court's powers to cancel government decisions. its opponents said it prevented proper oversight of the government. he court was split in its decision, eightjudges voted in favour of striking down the law, while seven voted to uphold it. live now to jerusalem. jordana miller is a reporter for us network, abc news. thank for us network, abc news. you forjoining us. just remind us of why these reforms were so controversial?

the reason they were so controversial is because first of all, they were almost pushed it through the legislature without any real talk with either the court to reach some kind of consensus on re—tinkering the balance between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. and that is one of the reasons that we saw, for weeks and weeks and weeks, tens of thousands of israelis taking to the streets because they saw this as not only about a move to weaken the courts from the supreme court down, but they also saw it as a power grab by is really prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, although it was only the first piece of a larger plan to

overhaul thejudiciary, first piece of a larger plan to overhaul the judiciary, they believed it was a conflict of interest here, that in the end, netanyahu may benefit and find a way out of his legal troubles. remember, part of this plan was also to pass an override bill with a slim majority, that is the legislature which is very aligned with the executive in this parliamentary system which would be able to strike down the supreme court's decisions. so in a ruling of 8—7, the supreme court said removing the reasonableness because of the base of this decision which really struck and cause damage to the character of israel as a democracy, that it harmed the separation of powers and rule of law and it could open the door to corruption in a lot of other problems with individual rights and

etc. so the court, in an unprecedented step, struck down a basic law. it should be said that netanyahu and his government knew what they were doing when they framed this law as a basic law, knowing it would be harderfor the supreme court to make a such a huge step and strike it down. so supreme court to make a such a huge step and strike it down.— step and strike it down. so what can ha en step and strike it down. so what can happen now? _ step and strike it down. so what can happen now? can — step and strike it down. so what can happen now? can netanyahu's- happen now? can netanyahu's government appeal against with the supreme court has set? the? government appeal against with the supreme court has set? they cannot a- eal supreme court has set? they cannot appeal against _ supreme court has set? they cannot appeal against what _ supreme court has set? they cannot appeal against what the _ supreme court has set? they cannot appeal against what the supreme . appeal against what the supreme court has said, but, if they chose to, they could ignore the ruling which would bring a constitutional crisis to israel. because let's say there was another decision that the government made to appoint someone who had no experience in a position or even had previous criminal behaviour in this position, for

example, the finance ministry post. i'm giving you that example because it is actually a real example of when the supreme court said, no, this person, it is an unreasonable nomination, to put this person in this position when he has been convicted for, example, tax evasion. so in other words, they can ignore it, but it is unlikely during this war time that the judicial review is now shelved for a long time. thank ou ve now shelved for a long time. thank you very much _ now shelved for a long time. thank you very much for _ now shelved for a long time. thank you very much forjoining _ now shelved for a long time. thank you very much forjoining us. - israel says the war in gaza, which has reduced much of the territory to rubble, could go on throughout 202a. but it has signalled a shift in tactics, withdrawing some forces to focus on more targeted operations against hamas. but there has been no let—up in the intense bombardment, which has now killed almost 22,000 people in gaza. from jerusalem, here's shaimaa khalil.

artillery round fires. the sound of gunfire and air strikes. the sound of gunfire and air strikes ushering in the new year for the people of gaza as they continue to flee further south, seeking the ever—shrinking spots of safety. for many families it is an arduous and an all too familiarjourney. translation: there is no safe place left in gaza. - we used to live in gaza city, then we had to move to central gaza and from there, khan younis. right now we are outside khan younis but there is still no safe place. in central gaza the intense bombardment shows no sign of easing. in this building in deir al balah people use their bare hands and whatever equipment they can find to pull out casualties from the rubble. this was meant to be one of the safer areas for people who needed to evacuate other parts of the centre. the un has yet again warned of the worsening humanitarian situation in gaza.

it says teams on the ground are facing restrictions in different areas. israel says it is not limiting aid. but with continuing fighting across the gaza strip, delivering aid to those who need it most has become a dangerous and complex process. "israel's war in gaza has come at a very heavy price." these were the words of the prime minister a few days ago. as the number of soldiers killed in battle now nears 200, israel's military says it is now withdrawing some combat troops and switching to more targeted operations, but the aim remains the same — to dismantle hamas and bring back the hostages. and this war looks set to last well into the new year. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, jerusalem. the uk government says it won't hesitate to take further direct action against houthi rebels, who are attacking foreign

ships in the red sea to show their support for hamas. i asked our security correspondent, frank gardner, what kind of action the uk might take. well euphemistically, grant shapps, the defence secretary, is calling it direct action the risk of direct action if the houthis don't stop their attacks. i think there's a number of options. at the minimum, it means continuing to shoot down the drones that the houthis are firing, but this is not a very cost, cost effective exercise for the west. so you've got us, britain, france, other nations, all that have got navies in that region as part of a coalition, a us—led coalition called 0peration prosperity guardian. but it costs roughly 100 times more to fire off, say, a sea viper missile from a royal navy destroyer to shoot down a drone than it cost the houthis to launch a little $20,000 drone. so that isn't going to work in the long—term. they are hoping to dissuade the houthis from doing any more of these. and with the implicit threat that if they carry on, there is the risk that the us

and britain and others will actually use air strikes and tomahawk missile, cruise missile strikes to take out the houthi launch sites. they don't want to do that because it's quite risky. i mean, you risk metastasizing the hamas israel war into something much bigger, potentially pitting iran and the us forces into a direct confrontation because iran supports the houthis. just give us an idea how much support is iran giving the houthi rebels and what sort of support is it? right. well, let's be clear of this. the houthis could never have taken, could never have got to where they are today, being quite a powerful militia army, essentially, that controls most of the populated parts of yemen. they couldn't have got to that status without iranian support. so there have been numerous intercepts of iranian weapons shipments coming from iran around the coast into yemen. iran always denies that it's giving them the support, but there's no question about it. in fact, there's even a sort

of iranian mothership that sits in the southern bit of the red sea that helps the houthis. where it's really made a big difference is in drone and missile technology. the houthis, when they took over power, they seized power illegally in yemen in september 2014. at the time, they were backed by the ousted president, which allowed them to take over much of the country. but since then, they have fought an eight year war with the saudis. the saudis thought they could bomb the houthis into submission, didn't work, and the houthis retaliated by firing a lot of drones and missiles at saudi cities and airports, even riyadh, sometimes even hitting the emirates. now, that's why the countries in the region, like saudi arabia and the emirates are very nervous about starting all of that up again because there is a tentative ceasefire in yemen. they don't want to upset that. everyone's hoping in the region for the whole problem to just go away. i'm not sure the houthis are going to settle for that. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

let's look at some other stories making news here in the uk. olice have launched a murder inquiry after a 38—year—old man was shot in edinburgh — just before midnight last night. officers were called to reports of two men being seriously injured in the granton area — both were taken to hospital where one man remains in a serious but stable condition. it's believed the incident was targetted. police in london have named the sixteen—year—old boy who was stabbed to death on new year's eve as harry pitman. he died just before midnight at the top of primrose hill. a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. police are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward. almost three—million people were seen for an urgent cancer check over the last 12 months — according to new analysis from nhs england. the number being tested has increased by more than a quarter compared with the same period before the pandemic. the government says catching the disease early is crucial to improving survival rates.

more on that story on the bbc news website or app. you're live with bbc news. here in the uk — the number of migrants crossing the english channel fell by over a third in 2023, compared with the record number of crossings the year before. more than 29,000 people made thejourney, and migration is likely to be one of the key issues in the general election due this year. our home editor — mark easton — has been analysing the numbers. with that general election looming, the government wants to start the new year with evidence that the prime minister's two big promises on immigration are being delivered. promise number one ? stop the boats. well, no, they haven't stopped but the home office claims its plan is working. the number known to have crossed the channel in 2023 was down around a third from 2022. still almost 30,000 individuals arrived on the kent coast, the second highest figure ever, but officials point to three key deals which they claim are helping turn the tide.

a deal with france improving security on the coast around calais. a deal with turkey to disrupt smuggler supply chains. and a deal with albania to return failed asylum seekers. of course, the deal the government regards as the gamechanger is with rwanda, but that plan was ruled unlawful. almost everyone who arrived in small boats last year has claimed asylum, which brings us to the prime minister's second big promise on immigration ? to clear the asylum backlog. we will have to wait until tomorrow for the official numbers but we expect the prime minister to claim it'sjob done. number ten says the promise only relates to what it calls "the legacy backlog" — people stuck in the system for more than 18 months. this is what we think the picture looked like three months ago. the legacy backlog shrinking, the blue bars, but the backlog of new claims — so—called flow cases — still numbering 100,000 people. there will be claims of "creative accounting" with thousands of legacy cases simply withdrawn and thousands

more excluded as "complex". yes, an election is looming and the arguments over promises kept or broken will only intensify. (tx sot) a nobel peace prize winner — has been sentenced to six months in prison for violating labour laws in bangladesh. muhammad yunus was found guilty, along with three colleagues, of failing to create a workers' welfare fund. all four deny wrongdoing and have been granted bail, pending appeals. their supporters say the case is politically motivated. professor yunus has been a vocal critic of the bangladeshi prime minister. here's our south asia correspondent anbarasan eth—i—rajan. muhammad yunus is a well—known, acclaimed economist. he won the nobel peace prize for creating this micro—financing scheme, lifting millions out of poverty in 2006. and this model has been followed in many parts of the world.

now, the government has filed a number of cases and according to his lawyer, more than 180 cases in the last 10 or 12 years or so, charging him with several complaints, including how they violated labour laws and not creating a welfare fund for the workers. and today's judgment was in connection with that. but mr yunus and his supporters strongly denied these charges. in fact, he has issued a statementjust a few minutes ago where he said, "as my lawyers have convincingly argued in court, this verdict against me is contrary to all legal precedent and logic." now, if you look at the background, there has been a tension between mr yunus and the current prime minister, sheikh hasina, bangladeshi prime minister, and once described mr yunus as a "bloodsucker of the poor" and accused the grameen bank, founded by mr yunus of charging exorbitant interest rate. mr yunus and his supporters,

the grameen bank, denied these charges, so there is a bad blood between these two and she always viewed him as some kind of a rival. and she also challenged the international community, whoever wrote letters in support of mr yunus, saying, "you can come to bangladesh and view the legal proceedings in court and then you make yourjudgment." but many of his supporters, as well as staff members, say they were still in a state of shock following this judgment. a host of famous films, books, music and characters, including early versions of mickey and minnie mouse enter the public domain in the united states from today. this means disney will no longer enjoy exclusive copyright over the earliest versions of the characters in the us — seen here in the animation that launched the house of mouse — steamboat willie — back in 1928. i've been speaking tojenniferjenkins — a professor of law and the director of duke university's centre for the study of the public domain.

she told me why this is significant. this is a deeply symbolic moment, not only because disney, among others, had fought for this not to happen for years, but because disney itself has made so many wonderful reuses of public domain material. if you think about their movies, we have the lion king from hamlet, frozen and sleeping beauty from hans christian andersen, snow white, pinocchio — all of these came from public domain works. and so this is their opportunity to give back to the public domain that they've drawn so heavily from in the past. so basically the law now says that after 95 years, anyone is allowed to use this property. in the united states. it's a few decades yet in the uk and some otherjurisdictions. but yes, in the united states you may use anything from the first two films, both steamboat willie and another film, lesser known called plane crazy, the silent version, and all of the features of the characters of mickey and minnie mouse as they appear in those films.

so what are we likely to see being made from these characters? are there any limits on what people can do with it? there are few limitations. and so mickey and minnie mouse appear in later still copyrighted works. and so you cannot use copyrightable features of the characters from later films. so that's the first limitation. the second limitation comes from a different body of law called trademark law. you cannot use the characters as a logo in a way that misleads consumers into thinking that your product comes from disney. so you can't make merchandise prominently featuring the early mickey mouse. if disney makes and sells the same kind of merchandise, nor can you use steamboat willie as a logo at the beginning of your film. what can you do? you can make new creative works so long as it's very clear to the public that it's your film and not coming from disney. so it's like pandora's box. i can't wait to see what people do. i have some ideas of my own, but i cannot predict. so just thinking really out of the box, could we see mickey and minnie as serial killers or something?

killers or something as silly as that? oh, dear. but why do we always go there? yes, that's what happened. when, darling, the best bear in all the world, winnie the pooh, went into the public domain two years ago. what happened ? the most buzzworthy, grotesque use was the blood and honey film. but, you know, those might happen in the short term, but really think about the uses of public domain material that stand the test of time. those are the ones that retain cultural relevance. so if i'm talking to you in 20 years, i don't think we're going to be talking about the slasher film. if you think about shakespeare, that's always been in the public domain. what do you remember? west side story, rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead. these are the kinds of reuses of public domain material that stand the test of time and these are the kinds of works that i personally am the most excited about seeing with mickey and minnie mouse. more on that story on the bbc news website or app.

stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. after wet and windy weather for weeks on end, now it looks like the weather pattern could be changing through this month. now, we started the new year with some sunshine across many parts of the country. already turning chilly in scotland where we've got those clearer skies, but towards the south—west of england, the clouds been rolling in, seen some rain coming in as well. you can see what's happening here on the earlier satellite picture. all this cloud is streaming up from the south—west, bringing yet more rain. and the winds are picking up, too, around that weather system. once that moves through, we've got another one following in behind. and those two combined could bring about two inches of rain, 50 millimetres of rain to england and wales and some flooding, too. we've got wet weather this evening across england and wales. moving clear of northern ireland heading into scotland — there may be some snow over the mountain tops here.

clearer skies will follow for a while, but the rain returns into the south coast and the south—west by the end of the night, keeping temperatures up here. and by the end of the night in scotland, after an early frost in the east, temperatures will be lifting here. the wetter weather continues northwards up towards the northern isles where it will be windy. it's also going to be windy in southern parts of england, some gales, particularly along the south coast. and we've got the spell of wet weather returning from the south—west from overnight across england and wales, maybe affecting northern ireland for a while. could turn a bit drier in the south of england in the afternoon, 13 or 1a degrees in those strong winds. bit of sunshine in between those areas of rain in scotland, but here temperatures will be lower. most of the wet weather, though, will be for england and wales. that will move away as we head into wednesday. we've still got some brisk winds in the north—east of scotland with a bit of rain. maybe the risk of some sleet and snow up towards shetland, won't be as windy across the south and generally on wednesday it's a day where we'll see some sunshine and some showers, particularly across wales and the south—west. temperatures though, looking quite healthy at eight to 12 degrees.

now, things will turn colder by the end of the week. instead of low pressure that will bring wet and windy conditions, we're going to start to see high pressure building down from the north. that will leave us with a north—easterly breeze, introduce colder air and lead to some frost as well. but the weather pattern looks like changing after a few more days of this wet and windy weather with an increased chance of high pressure really through the rest of the month, even. that will mean things are going to be drier, which is good news, but it will also turn a bit colder.

i will be back with the full news at eight. i will be back with the full news at eight. now on bbc news — haaland: made in norway. describe erling haaland in one word? �*monster�*. i'll give you two words — 'hard working'. he's tall, he's . strong, he's fast. 'the big viking', as i call him. - it's surreal that one of the most famous footballers in the world has come out of this little place! a childlike erling is spotted from the first kick on the ball, in fact. every time erling changes club, this town changes colour. - fantastic guy, everyone liked him. he knew and we knew that he had a lot more in store for the future.

when i was young, i wanted to become the best in the world.