live from london. this is bbc news. protests break—out in syria calling for protection of minorities, after the burning of a christmas tree near hama. the syrian armed group that toppled assad's regime absorbs different factions into the country's defence forces. president—elect trump vows to pursue the death penalty for violent criminals after president biden commutes 37 federal death sentences. american airlines has resumed us flights, after grounding all its aircraft briefly due to a vendor technology issue. and pope francis holds a special christmas eve ceremony — opening the holy door at the vatican to mark the beginning of thejubilee for catholics around the world. protests have erupted in syria over the burning of a christmas tree in a christian—majority town near hama. demonstrators took to

the streets of the capital damascus, calling for the new ruling faction, hts, to punish those who are responsible. the islamist hts movement has promised to protect minorities since toppling president bashar al assad earlier this month. lina sinjab reports from damascus. chanting. "we will sacrifice our souls for our cross," these men chant as they demonstrate through the streets of damascus. they are christians. many fear life in the new syria. despite promises made by the country's latest leaders, these protesters and other minorities are not so sure. and this was the catalyst of the christmas eve protests — masked gunmen setting fire to a christmas tree in the main square of suqaylabiyah, a christian majority town in central syria, the incident captured and shared on social media. a spokesperson from the country's new leaders

said foreign fighters were responsible and had been arrested. this transitional phase comes with uncertainties for many people, including minorities, and such incidents will increase the worries and fears among them. there are people who have vested interests in spreading those fears, and it will take time for the new government to maintain stability and for people here in syria to adjust to the new reality. hayat tahrir al—sham is the group that brought down bashar al—assad. they began as a jihadist organisation, wanting to establish a state governed by islamic law. since taking over, its leaders have vowed to protect the rights of the country's diverse religious and ethnic groups. translation: to be honest, we're not protected. - we're scared. they need to publicly catch those who are creating problems and, if they're foreigners,

they should leave. across the country, people have been celebrating the collapse of the 50—year assad regime, but it could be some time before everyone in syria is convinced. lina sinjab, bbc news, damascus. the group hts, which is effectively in control of much of syria, says it has now �*absorbed all armed factions into the country's armed forces.�* syria's de facto leader ahmed al—sharaa has reached an agreement with former rebel faction chiefs, after meetings over the last few days. but it's not clear which groups were included, nor whether forces in areas which were not previously controlled by the government or groups linked to hts are covered by the agreement. earlier i spoke to said shehata from bbc arabic. i started by asking him about the significance of the incident near hama.

the christians think what al—sharaa, the leader of hts was in control of the political scene in syria now has not done enough action to implement what he said. so his assurances are not translated into actions. so it's not only what happened to the christmas tree, but what happen also in the christian majority area where some land was confiscated by some muslims, syrians from christian families so the sectarian fears among the christian minorities. in the incident of the burning tree the people who have done it were of uzbeck origin so they were foreign fighters who were part of hts and other militant groups who toppled assad of the future of them even al—sharaa says they have agreed with different factions to be dissolved in under the syrian

military, but how can he do that because the foreign fighters there is talks about giving them nationality to be syrian, but they are radical. they are radical coming from middle central asia and other places and they are part of the uprising of assad since 2011 so they have been fight with al—sharaa to fight against the regime so how can you sacrifice them now, so it is a challenge for him. and in his group hts he has hardliners because they have links to al-qaeda and links with the islamic state so the islamic majority is hard to disconnect with them so even he has a modern discourse and assurances, but he has the hardliners and when he was in idlib leading the government there in 2004 until 2017

they established relations with minorities especially christians in some families told me that they were forced to leave the city because of hts because of the interpretation of the radical islamists, there is no place for them, christmas is not celebrated, it is considered heresy for them so there has been a problem so how can he contain all of that according to the 2254 security council resolution because that security council resolution has a road map for the security of syria and a transitional government of six months and instituting a committee and who will be a part of it, and who will be a part of it? minorities, christians, alawite, druze, kurds should be a part of that and how can we dissolve the militant groups and after fair and transparent elections within 18 months but

al—sharaa himself in one of his speeches said this resolution when he talked with the un envoy to syria should be reviewed in the light of new realities. so there is problems for this group to be dissolved at the start and that how can he be a part of it and the foreign fighters to stay or to leave and the future of the minorities are at the component of syrian community to contribute to the constitution of the elections. famine is spreading in sudan, according to a global hunger monitor. the famine review committee of the integrated food phase classification, ipc, says warring parties continue to disrupt humanitarian aid needed to alleviate one of the worst starvation crises in modern times. it says famine conditions have been confirmed in two camps for internally—displaced people in el—fashir, also in parts of the darfur region and south kordofan state. another five areas are expected to slip into famine by may next year.

the ipc says about 24.6 million people, about half of all sudanese, urgently need food aid. for more on the humanitarian situation in sudan, let's speak to sheldon yett, unicef representative to sudan. what unicef representative to sudan. is your reaction to review. what is your reaction to this review. it what is your reaction to this review. , ., what is your reaction to this review. , . review. it is a catastrophe, it is not news _ review. it is a catastrophe, it is not news any _ review. it is a catastrophe, it is not news any of _ review. it is a catastrophe, it is not news any of us - review. it is a catastrophe, it is not news any of us want to hear on the eve of christmas. it is a disaster for sudan and the world. it tells us the situation is getting worse and worse. we are now almost two years into the conflict now and it is critical that we are able to get assistance to all children and people in sudan who need it.— children and people in sudan who need it. just tell us what our who need it. just tell us what your teams — who need it. just tell us what your teams are _ who need it. just tell us what your teams are seeing - who need it. just tell us what your teams are seeing and i your teams are seeing and telling you. your teams are seeing and telling vom— telling you. we are having difficulties _ telling you. we are having difficulties getting - telling you. we are having i difficulties getting assistance to those most in need. this is a country at war and it is a country that is in desperate need of wood and those affected

populations, clean water, health care, education, they need a package of services. most importantly, we need to be able to target those most in need. we need access. it to ensure we can get consistent delivery of food and nutrition supplies and health supplies to those populations in need and thatis those populations in need and that is been proven difficult. we heard a lot of the crisis in sudan it is facing, does this review tell you and others something new? it review tell you and others something new?- review tell you and others something new? it tells us that we all have _ something new? it tells us that we all have to _ something new? it tells us that we all have to increase - something new? it tells us that we all have to increase our- we all have to increase our efforts and we need an end to this war. we need to make sure that we have consistent, sustained and predictable deliveries to these populations in need. again we have seen pledges to make this happen, but we have not seen consistent mechanics to make this happen and that is what we need in place. and that is what we need in lace. ~ , , , ., place. we see huge numbers of --eole of place. we see huge numbers of peeple of over _ place. we see huge numbers of people of over 24 _ place. we see huge numbers of people of over 24 million - people of over 2a million people of over 2a million people now experiencing high

levels of acute food insecurity, but on an individual basis, explain to us what that actually means, will in practice, what does it mean for a child? it in practice, what does it mean for a child?— for a child? it means we have some 600,000 _ for a child? it means we have some 600,000 people, - for a child? it means we have - some 600,000 people, thousands of children at the risk of starvation. we have half of the country facing acute food insecurity. it means that children are not getting enough to eat. it means that these children are at risk of other diseases, their immune systems are also at risk and it is a catastrophe no matter how you slice it. it means that all of us need to work together to make sure we get access there and to make sure that the government and warring parties stop and allow us to get the food where it needs to go. which international party should or could be doing more? i think everybody needs to do more. sudan very rarely makes the front pages of the nations newspapers, there are a lot of

competing crises here, but we need to support of regional countries and the support of most importantly the government of sudan, the parties warring in this country to make sure that we see an end to this. and unless we concentrate on this crisis it will reptile on for years and years. joe biden may have promised a smooth transition to donald trump's second term in the white house — but that hasn't stopped the president—elect from voicing some harsh criticisms of the current commander in chief — about his decision to commute the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners to life in prison. donald trump took to his own social media platform, truth social, to criticise the sparing of what he described as 37 of the worst killers in the us. he added — when you hear the acts of each, you won't he added — "when you hear the acts of each, you won't "believe that he did this. "makes no sense. "relatives and friends are further devastated." it's no secret that the two men have completely opposed views of the death penalty. there have been no federal executions during mr biden�*s

time as president — and there will now be just three people remaining on federal death row. during his first term in office, mr trump brought back federal executions — which hadn't been carried out for almost two decades. 13 murderers were executed by lethal injection. 0ur correspondent in washingotn, rowan bridge, has the latest. there are three people who will remain on death row. they are all cases of mass killings, basically in the united states. and they still could face the death penalty. but donald trump doesn't have the power to undo the commutations that joe biden has given. so those people will be removed from death row and will face life in prison without parole. other people who come on to death row subsequently, clearly then, could face the death penalty under a trump administration. it is christmas eve today, but has there been any reaction to what donald trump has said on this? i mean, there have been reaction to the

decision byjoe biden in the first place to do this. it clearly split. i mean, it splits american opinion and it split the opinion of some of the families involved in these cases. and i think the biden white house was well aware that this was going to be a controversial decision and in some ways, to kind of pre—empt that. they issued a bunch of statements alongside joe biden�*s decision from campaign groups welcoming the move, but also from some of the friends and family of some of those who were murdered by some of these people on death row, saying that they also supported the decision to commute some of these sentences. however, that was not universally welcomed. the daughter of one of the people who was whose mother was murdered said that as a result of this decision, joe biden and his supporters had blood on their hands to use their words. so this is a very divisive issue. the latest gallup poll, for example, suggests that around 53% of americans support the death penalty in murder cases. so it is very divisive. and clearly, donald trump has kind of firmly stated his case

that he plans to bring back the use of the use of the death penalty, and if he can, he is keen to expand it as well. he made that clear on the campaign trail. american airlines says flights are resuming after it was forced to briefly ground all services at the start of christmas eve — one of the busiest travel days of the year. you can see shots they are a philadelphia international airport. it led to scenes like this in charlotte in north carolina — as passengers on american had to wait for the situation to be resolved. the airline blames a "vendor technology issue" which affected the systems needed to release flights. it says that has now been "resolved". neither the federal aviation authority nor american airlines have said what triggered the problem. but american has posted this statement on x. it says it sincerely apologises to customers for the inconvenience, and has issued a travel alert to allow for additional flexibility. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

in ukraine, russian forces are continuing to advance as the country faces its third christmas at war. in the east of the country, in the donetsk region, they are now within a few miles of the city of pokrovsk, which is a key hub for ukraine's war effort. but it is also the birthplace of a well—known christmas carol. jonathan beale reports. music: carol of the bells sung in ukrainian. 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 has 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. 0ksana 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. explosion in background. 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 are 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. piano plays carol of the bells. 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 are 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. pope francis has launched a specialjubilee year for roman catholics in a christmas eve

ceremony at the vatican. jubilees take place only once every 25 years — and pope francis has marked the start by opening the normally bricked—up holy door of st peter's basilica. more than 30 million people are expected to make a pilgrimage to rome. more than 30 million people are expected to make a pilgrimage to rome. i spoke to candida moss who is a professor of theology at the university of birmingham about what the jubilee means. jubilee year is really a year of grace and reconciliation. it is a period where people renew their faith inside and out and while it is for catholics and has been going on for 700 years, at the last great jubilee in 2000 popejohn paul ii invited all christians to join in this period of celebration and the theme of this jubilee is hope. pope francis has talked about how there is a feeling the pessimism in the world and he wants to strengthen people's faith and hope in the future as

they look forward to the coming year. why does it happen, where did this idea come from in the first place? the very firstjubilee in 1300 or 725 years ago it actually followed on the heels of a period of war and disease not the similar from our experience of the pandemic disease not dissimilarfrom our experience of the pandemic and it was seen as this clean slate, this new beginning for christians who were feeling very pessimistic about their place in the world. and this was an opportunity for roman catholics to wipe the slate clean, to become almost newly baptized once again. we are looking at some pictures coming into us from the vatican, i'm not sure if you can see them, but can you explain what the ceremonial site is. the ceremonial part is the opening of the doors so you break a bread and that turned out to be quite dangerous and now

the opening of the doors is symbolising thatjesus is the path to salvation and pilgrims over the coming year will pass through those doors as a means of gaining what is called a plenary indulgence, that is the slate wiping clean. part of the preparation for thejubilee have involved restoring many of the key objects that are at st peter's basilica including the canopy that sits atop the altar and on top of the relics of st peter, the first pope, they have also put the piata behind bulletproof glass now. a nasa space mission is hoping to make history as it attempts the closest—ever approach to the sun. the parker solar probe has to survive radiation — and temperatures of 1a hundred degrees celsius as it descends into the star's outer atmosphere. it's hoped the data it sends back to earth — if it's not damaged in the process —

might help explain some of the sun's mysteries. rebecca morelle, has the story. 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. nasa's parker solar probe blasted off in 2018. 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 only way to be able to understand those processes is to fly through them, 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 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, but 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 probes even recorded the sounds of the sun — dispersive chirping waves, langmuir waves and doctor who—like whistler mode waves.

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. we bring you some pictures from bethlehem because of course there are more muted celebrations over christmas there and to the decorations again, much more modest around the church of the nativity which is revered of the birthplace ofjesus by birthplace of jesus by christians, birthplace ofjesus by christians, but there are those who are still trying to celebrate at the missed all of the difficulties in the region.

good evening. christmas eve ushered in some calmer weather after the wet and windy weather that we had at the weekend. you can see the remnants still sitting by the side of the road in northern ireland. blue sky and sunshine here, though. however, it was a slightly different story in newquay and cornwall. a lot of low cloud, damp, misty, murky. it didn't deter some from taking an afternoon walk on the beach. and that cloudy, murky story will continue into christmas day for many of us. but it will also continue to stay mild for this time of year. and that's because we're under this influence of high pressure. the wind direction is south—westerly, feeding in that cloud from the ocean, and thick enough for some drizzle. this weather front here still continuing to produce some outbreaks of rain and still windy. so through this evening, we'll have some showery rain into the far north west of scotland with gusts of winds 40—50 miles an hour. we keep that blanket of cloud, though, preventing temperatures from falling too far, so it will be a very mild start to christmas morning for early risers.

temperatures sitting at around 7—10 celsius. again, the cloud thick enough for some drizzle, misty, murky first thing in the morning. hopefully that will lift, and we'll see, once again, some breaks in the cloud from time to time. more persistent rain into the western isles and northern isles and the far north west of scotland. here it stays windy. but on the whole it's a quiet story for christmas day, temperatures around 11—13 degrees. not as mild as today, but nevertheless, that is pretty good for this stage in december. now that mild air is going to stay with us all the time, the cold air starting to sneak in from the back door. but it will take its time in arriving. so as we go into boxing day, there'll be little in the way of change — spot the difference. we're trying to see breaks of the cloud and some blue sky from time to time, and our weak weather front sinks its way down across the borders into the north of england. temperatures, again, staying in double digits. moving out of thursday

into friday and the start of the weekend, we will start to see a change because weather fronts will start to push that a little bit further across the country. the wind direction swings around to a north westerly, and that is going to gradually start to introduce some cooler air as we head towards the new year. so you'll start to see that some showers could turn a little wintry in the far north and east of scotland.

this is bbc news. the headlines. protests break—out in syria calling for protection of minorities, after the burning of a christmas tree near hama. president—elect trump vows to pursue death penalty for violent criminals after president biden commutes 37 federal death sentences. american airlines has resumed us flights, after grounding all its aircrafts briefly due to a vendor technology issue. and pope francis holds a special christmas eve ceremony — opening the holy door at the vatican to mark the beginning of thejubilee for catholics around the world. now on bbc news— iceland: a women's paradise? iceland, a country of wild beauty and dramatic contrasts. less known is its increasingly equal society. i think it's in her blood.

yeah. she laughs