as ukraine prepares to mark the third christmas since russia's invasion, we bring you a special report from the city of pokrovsk, the birthplace of a well—known carol. and it is notjust the physical destruction of the city that you can see all around me, ukraine also accuses russia of trying to erase its cultural identity. muted christmas celebrations in bethlehem this year, as the war in the region rages on. a nasa spacecraft hurtling towards the sun is poised to make history, with the closest approach ever to the star. these are the pictures live over hawaii's big island as kilauea volcano erupts. but there are no immediate threats to infrastructure.

hello. i'm kasia madera. ukrainians are marking their third christmas since the russian invasion, with putin's forces pushing deeper into the east of the country. the city of pokrovsk is russia's next target. its troops are now less than three kilometres from the city centre. it's a key military hub. but it's also part of ukraine's cultural identity too. it's the birthplace of a well—known christmas carol. our defence correspondent, jonathan beale, has this report. music: shchedryk. the discord of christmas in a shattered city. but this is where the composer of this well—known carol once lived. pokrovsk — the next russian target. explosion

most of its population's already fled. explosion no sound or sign of christmas here. just shelling. those left behind only break cover to find essentials. many are cut off from gas, water and electricity. ihor says you never know where or when the next hit will be. he likens it to living on a powder keg. oksana hopes ukraine can hold on, but she thinks it's unlikely. pokrovsk, she says, will probably fall. russian forces are still advancing towards the city of pokrovsk. they are nowjust a few miles from where i'm standing. and it's notjust the physical destruction of the city that you can see all around me. ukraine also accuses russia of trying to erase its cultural identity, too.

music: carol of the bells. this familiar tune, known as the carol of the bells — or shchedryk in ukraine — was composed by mykola leontovych. this is where he worked as a music teacher in pokrovsk — a plaque now the only reminder. the hasych family fled pokrovsk this summer. they're now shocked at the scale of devastation. mum yulia says it makes her want to cry. but she isn't letting her daughters forget home or the signature song of their city. translation: when i played it at home, it seemed happy. - it reminded me of winter and christmas. now it's more of a sad song to me, because it reminds me of home, and i really

want to go back. but for one ukrainian military band, it's also become a song to inspire resistance. they're even taking it to the trenches — with weapons as improvised instruments. translation: we'll visit any brigade on the front line - and perform ukrainian songs on any weapon. it lifts the spirits, those beats and rhythms cheer up the guys and inspire them to fight. shchedryk shows that ukraine is a civilised nation now at war, fighting for its identity. for ukraine, there is a special significance to this tune this christmas. russia may be able to destroy its towns and cities, but it can't erase ukraine's separate identity or its past.

jonathan beale, bbc news, pokrovsk. our correspondent in ukraine, will vernon, has the latest on the conflict. things aren't going very well at all for ukraine. russia is advancing in the east of the country. in the last few days, they've seized a number of villages. they're getting closer to that strategic city of pokrovsk, as you heard in jonathan's report there. and russia is advancing pretty fast. last month, they seized an area roughly the size of london. at a huge cost, it must be said, but nonetheless, they are advancing. as well as that, night after night, ukrainian cities are being barraged by missiles, drones, guided bombs. russia has been targeting ukraine's energy infrastructure. it is bitterly cold here, and most of the power grid is damaged or destroyed. yesterday, there were emergency blackouts in kyiv, in dnipro, other ukrainian regions too,

so that the ukrainians could try and repair some of that damaged infrastructure. look, the mood here is gloomy, right? ukrainians feel abandoned by the west, frankly. a few days ago, we were in this event in kyiv, a special christmas demonstration where people gathered to commemorate the plight of ukrainians who are held in captivity in russia. there are thousands still held there. 8,000, perhaps even more than that. and people were saying, "look, at this time of year when people are sitting down to their christmas dinner or gathering with their loved ones at new year, spare a thought for ukraine and for those thousands of ukrainians who are being kept, many in very brutal conditions." a lot of what happens to this country in 2025 depends on donald trump. you know, it's interesting speaking to ukrainians, there's actually a kind of note of very cautious optimism about the new president. many ukrainians are pretty disappointed byjoe biden. they feel that he hasn't given enough support to ukraine.

they think that he gave only enough weapons and money, really, to keep ukrainians fighting and dying and not enough for victory. but many of them see donald trump as someone who likes to win, someone who likes to do a deal. and the hope here in ukraine is that, as soon as donald trump realises that vladimir putin is in no mood whatsoever to compromise or negotiate in any meaningful way, that perhaps mr trump will swing his support behind kyiv. will vernon reporting there from ukraine. christians across syria have protested after masked gunmen set fire to a christmas tree in a town in hama province. they're demanding the new islamist rulers protect religious minorities. the ruling faction, hts, said the men responsible for burning the tree in the christian—majority town of suqaylabiyah had been detained. it described them

as foreign fighters. local firefighters put out the blaze after the attackers left. the islamist hts movement, which has its roots in al-qaeda, has promised to protect minorities since toppling president bashar al—assad earlier this month. christmas celebrations are muted for a second year in bethlehem. this is the scene live in the city, the biblical birthplace ofjesus, where traditional festivities have been scaled back, leaving church leaders to focus on providing spiritual guidance and solidarity during a time of profound grief. 0ur correspondent emir nader is in bethlehem, where he says few have come to mark the birth ofjesus. it is quite incredible to be here as the world begins to celebrate christmas and to see bethlehem looking so quiet for the second year in a row. usually by this time, the main square here, manger square, would be full of marching bands, processions. we can see the i,700—year—old church of the nativity,

wherejesus is believed to have been born. usually we would see pilgrims from around the world that would have travelled here to take part, tourists from around the world, but the hotels are empty and many of the shops are shut. that is because many of the people have the war on their mind which is going on in the palestinian territory of gaza not so far away. the cardinal leading the mass tonight, the head of the catholic church here, has just returned from gaza where he addressed a massive palestinian christian group there, and he told the congregation that, "the world is with you, the war will end the war will end and we will rebuild." he has said that everything is destroyed in gaza, but the people are not. it is a very solemn mood here obviously, as of today, over 16,000 palestinians have been killed in the war, and people are really hoping for a ceasefire deal to be reached. when it comes to that

ongoing war in gaza, for the first time, israel has publicly acknowledged killing the hamas leader ismail haniyeh in iran. what has the defence minister israel katz been saying? he made a speech yesterday saying that israel took responsibility, for the first time, for the assassination of the political leader of hamas in the iranian capital tehran in july. they hadn't previously acknowledged that. it came as part of quite of a belligerent speech by the minister of defence, after days of exchanges of missile fire with houthi rebels in yemen, who have been sending missiles out of solidarity, they say, with the palestinians in gaza towards tel aviv. the minister of defence,

israel katz, directed a speech towards the houthi rebels saying, "we will decapitate you and your leaders in the way we have done with hamas and hezbollah as well." emir naderjoining us there from bethlehem. a russian cargo ship has sunk in the mediterranean sea off the coast of spain. the russian foreign ministry said the vessel, called the ursa major, went down after an explosion in its engine room. two of the 16 crew members are missing. the ship is reported to have been transporting specialised cranes to the russian port of vladivostok. tracking data from marine traffic shows that it left st petersburg on 11 december and had recently passed through the staits of gibraltar. it's the third russian ship to go down in ten days. russia has been accused of using a so—called "ghost" fleet of ships, which are often poorly maintained and lack proper insurance, to circumvent sanctions. it's not known whether the ursa major was part of that fleet. we will bring more details to you when we have them. we will bring more details to you when we have them.

around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

welcome back. a nasa spacecraft is set to make history today — getting closer to the sun than any other human—made object. the parker solar probe must survive the radiation and extreme temperatures it will encounter to solve some of the mysteries about our star. 0ur science editor, rebecca morelle, has more. 0ur sun in all its fiery splendour. we've been studying it for centuries, but there's still so much we don't know about it. now the closest—ever encounter is set to finally shed light on our star. three, two, one, zero. nasa's parker solar probe blasted off in 2018, heading to the centre of our solar system. it's been orbiting our star, getting ever nearer, but this latest flyby is taking us to a new frontier — to touch the sun. even though we've had

missions that have gone very close to the sun, that wasn't close enough to get into this sort of magic region where all of this physics and all of this — all of these processes are happening, and the the only way to be able to understand those processes is to fly through them and take the data right where all the action is happening. this mission is breaking records. parker solar probe hurtles past the sun at 430,000 miles an hour. no human—made object has ever gone so fast. it's the equivalent of flying from london to new york in less than 30 seconds. at its closest, it's 3.8 million miles — 6.2 million kilometres — from our star's surface. that's closer than any other spacecraft. it will have to endure scorching temperatures of 1,400 degrees celsius as it passes through the sun's outer atmosphere — known as its corona — and this could solve a long—standing mystery.

the corona is really, really hot, and we have no idea why. so, the surface of the sun is about 6,000 degrees or so. for the corona — this tenuous outer atmosphere that you can see during solar eclipses — that reaches millions of degrees, and that is further away from the sun. so, how is that atmosphere getting hotter? the mission is also studying the solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles bursting out from the sun's corona. the probe's even recorded the sounds of the sun. three different types of solar wind. various tones dispersive chirping waves. langmuir waves. and doctor who—like whistler mode waves. when these particles interact with the earth's magnetic field, the sky lights up with dazzling auroras. but this space weather can cause problems, too, knocking out power grids, electronics and communication systems. the hope is the mission can help us to better understand this. but first, the spacecraft

has to survive its burning—hot flyby. i will worry, but we really have designed that spacecraft to withstand all of these brutal, brutal conditions. it's a tough. tough little spacecraft. during this close approach, the spacecraft is out of communication for several days, so the nasa team face a nervous wait over christmas before they can finally discover the secrets of our star. rebecca morelle, bbc news. an extraordinary story, what an extraordinary christmas present if that works. let's speak to drjenifer millard, an astronomer and managing editor at software company fifth star labs. just explain to us the conditions that this little probe has to get through. it is extraordinary _ probe has to get through. it 3 extraordinary what this probe has to get through. it 1 extraordinary what this probe has to survive after we are talking temperatures of well over 1000 degrees, it is being blasted by radiation from the sun, also particles from the

sun, also particles from the sun, it is being bombarded by dust as well, cosmic dust. it is really the most extreme environment we have ever sent a spacecraft to, but it is well—prepared, it has its shield, its cooling system, so it should survive.— it should survive. should it survive. — it should survive. should it survive, fingers _ it should survive. should it survive, fingers crossed i it should survive. should it survive, fingers crossed it| survive, fingers crossed it should, what kind of information do we hope it will bring back?— bring back? this probe will tell us about _ bring back? this probe will tell us about the _ bring back? this probe will tell us about the sun's - tell us about the sun's magnetic field in very close proximity to the sun, something we have never been able to explore before it. the sun's magnetic field is so important for us to understand, all of the planets of the solar system sit within the sun's magnetic field, it influences all of the planets, life on earth as well, it will sample the solar winds, this constant stream of charged particles emanating from the surface of the sun. we don't understand how the magnetic field of the sun is created, we don't know where it comes from, and we don't know how these charged particles start almost stationary on the surface of

the sun and then are accelerated to 1 million the sun and then are accelerated to1 million mph, and we need to understand this, because they make up space weather. and the space weather impacts our life on earth, not just with the beautiful northern lights or the southern lights, the aurora which we have enjoyed so much this year, it also impacts our satellites. a really strong solar storm when we have a big explosion of material on the surface of the sun that barrels towards earth, that can even knock out some of our satellites, that can even knock out some of oursatellites, it that can even knock out some of our satellites, it can pose a danger to astronauts in space as well, and we rely on satellites notjust as well, and we rely on satellites not just for studying space but looking at our planet, monitoring weather, natural disasters, communication, navigation with the gps network, so understanding the sun and how it works is absolutely vital for modern life.— it works is absolutely vital for modern life. and once we aet for modern life. and once we net that for modern life. and once we get that kind _ for modern life. and once we get that kind of _ for modern life. and once we l get that kind of understanding, obviously there is no controlling these solar flares, these wins, but what with that information mean logically for

us in terms of satellites, gps and everything else you describe? it and everything else you describe?— and everything else you describe? ., , and everything else you describe? . , , describe? it means we will be able to make _ describe? it means we will be able to make forecasts, - describe? it means we will be able to make forecasts, like l describe? it means we will be i able to make forecasts, like we can predict the weather on earth, it would be amazing if we could forecast space weather and say, "ok, we know there will be a storm in three days, which satellites might impact? let's put them into safe mode, mean we can move their orbits will move them out of the way, get astronauts into more sheltered parts of space stations." 0r sheltered parts of space stations." or if they are on deep space missions, we can get them a warning. we are moving into the error of notjust sending astronauts to the moon, which is what we are hoping to do in project artemis, but in the next couple of decades, we are hoping to send them to mars, and on that kind of journey, you are eight months in a space, there will be a solarflare, something in a space, there will be a solar flare, something will hit you, and we need to give those astronauts as much warning as we can to make sure that they are protected. so having that ability to predict these storms would be essential. abs, ability to predict these storms would be essential.— would be essential. a lot ridina would be essential. a lot riding on _ would be essential. a lot riding on this _ would be essential. a lot riding on this little - would be essential. a lot| riding on this little probe, would be essential. a lot - riding on this little probe, no pressure there! thank you very

much for talking us through it. we will keep an eye on how that probe gets on. now it's time for a look at today's sport with gavin. good to see you. hello there, a couple of days break before the festive football resumes, which will also see round three of the world darts championship, that's on friday. several of the big names won't be there this year, though. there were two more shocks at alexandra palace — former champion rob cross became the 14th seed to depart, he was beaten by scott williams. sixth seed david chisnall also went out, losing to ricky evans. it comes afterformer winners michael smith and gary anderson went out earlier in the tournament. england test captain ben stokes will be out of action for at least three months. stokes was injured during the final test against new zealand last week and he needs surgery on a torn hamstring — the same one he tore in august. he'd already been left out

of the squads for the limited overs tour to india next month and the champions trophy in february due to the injury. his target will be the one—off test against zimbabwe in may, and then there are just five more test matches until england attempt to regain the ashes in australia next winter. australia play india in the boxing day test. the series is currently tied at 1—1 with two matches left to play. after the third test was drawn, with poor weather limiting play. the home side won the second test but won't let the dampener last time affect them. 0pener sam konstas is set to become australia men's youngest test batting debutant in 71 years. we said from the get—go going into the summer we wouldn't shy away and age was no barrier, and what he has shown is an array of shots and to put pressure back onto opponents, and he gets his opportunity, so we are really excited for him. boxing day on the biggest stage. world no.1aryna sabalenka is one of four top 10 players on the initial entry list

for next year's brisbane international wta 500 event, which begins at the weekend. the reigning australian open and us open champion sabalenka was the runner—up in brisbane last time and feels it would serve as ideal preparation for the australian open, the first major of the year. i'm super happy to go back to australia, it feels like home and i'm super excited to start playing here in brisbane. we are all here for one beautiful trophy, so i will do my best to make sure i can hold that a beautiful trophy by the end of the week. and that's all the sport for now. we will see you a bit later on. gavin, we are looking forward to it. let me take you live to paris, where the handover is continuing between outgoing ministers and the new government under new prime minister francois bayrou. the new cabinet sees the return of several prominent

figures, including former prime minister elisabeth borne, here taking over as minister of education. this is described as a balancing act. president emmanuel macron wanting to ensure there will be no upsets like we saw earlier on, and michel barnier was toppled at the start of the month after losing that vote of no confidence in parliament, to france hoping that they will have some stability in the country. just keeping an eye on french politics for you then. now, something to get you into the christmas spirit, 200,000 festive lights, donkeys and a choir. it's the work of richard isles, who's decorated his house to raise funds for a very special charity. 0ur reporterjohn maguire went to meet him in winterbourne down, south gloucestershire.

we are at richard isles' house in winterbourne down, just near bristol. have a look at it. as we've been saying all morning, if christmas lights trigger you, if you struggle, if you go through them one by one before you find the one that's fused the whole lot, just imagine taking on 200,000 lights. richard's doing it all for the taxi charity for military veterans, an amazing charity that takes veterans overseas and around the uk. we've got a couple of donkeys. we've got fred and trev as well. they're going to be starring in the stinchcombe nativity service this afternoon. so, what could be more christmassy than this? we are listening to the frampton cotterell male voice choir singing jingle bells, which you'll be very familiar with at richard isles' house. it's actually called the stone house, but i think we should rename it the light house. absolutely phenomenal. 200,000 lights, as i say, all raising money for the taxi charity for military veterans, which mervyn was also

raising money for. we've got... which one's which? is this trev or fred? this is fred. trevor's just wandered over. he's eating some of the christmas lights. uh—oh. disaster! my career just flashed before my eyes. richard. oh, no. don't eat that. tell us all about it. why did he do it? um, he's got a massive passion for raising money for charity, putting a smile on people's faces. yeah, and that's the reason why i do it. and you chose this charity this year. why? it's the 80th anniversary of d—day this year. so we thought it's the perfect opportunity to raise money for the taxi charity. and you've been doing fairly well on the fundraising. apart from the fact that somebody stole... they did. ..some of the donations. somebody stole the box about a week ago. but since then, we've had massive support from neighbours, friends, family, social media. yeah. and we've raised so much money. it's fantastic. people watching it this morning who won't be able to get

here to winterbourne down, but they can still support you? they can. so we're onjustgiving. um, if you, uh, search for the taxi charity for military veterans and look for the house with the lights on. and that's our page. the house with a lot of lights on. how long did it take? uh, it takes about a week. he asked me to come up for a couple of hours. i ended up a week's work. the lights stayed intact? they did stay intact till the donkeys turned up. we'll leave you now with some live pictures of kilauea volcano erupting on hawaii's big island. the us geological survey says the eruption has stabilized and there are no immediate threats to infrastructure. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello again. last night, temperatures actually rose rather than fell. it's been an exceptionally mild start to the day today, and it's going to continue that way, as you can see from the yellows and ambers on this chart. the wind direction coming from the south—west, so it's dragging in a lot of cloud from the atlantic. and there's some drizzly bits and pieces, some murky conditions with that, particularly so in western areas, some hill fog. we've also got some showery conditions across western parts of scotland, the north—west seeing windy conditions. but it should brighten up across north—east scotland, north—east england, parts of north—east wales and the west midlands, with temperatures widely 11 to 1a degrees, possibly 15 somewhere in north—east scotland or north—east england. now, through this evening and overnight, we hang on to a lot of cloud. there will be some clear skies. drizzle in the west, again a lot of murk, especially in the coastal

hills, and a weather front especially in the coasts and hills, and a weatherfront will start to bring in some rain across the north and west, but it will still be windy. and it's going to be another mild night. that leads us in through the rest of christmas day. still pulling in this south—westerly, we still have the yellows and ambers across the chart, and a weather front bringing in that rain across the northern and western isles and north—west scotland, where it will still be windy. for the rest of us, though, a largely dry day will see breaks in the cloud, and there will be a lot of cloud. but the breaks will be across north—east scotland, in through north—east england, parts of wales and southern england. and although temperatures won't be quite as high as on christmas eve, christmas day will still feel pleasant for the time of year, with temperatures above average. now, heading on from thursday, boxing day in towards the end of the week, we've got a weather front sinking south, and then it pushes northwards once again. there'll be still a lot of cloud around on boxing day itself. this is our weather front, bringing some rain across parts of scotland and northern ireland.

through the day, it will slowly start to retreat northwards and these are our temperatures, ten to about 13 degrees, so still mild for the time of year. roughly speaking, the average temperatures at this time of year are between about seven and nine degrees. and even as we head into the weekend, things by the end of the weekend start to turn a bit more unsettled and, for the new year, cooler.