christmas celebrations are muted in bethlehem for the second year in a row, amid ongoing ceasefire talks between israel and hamas. protests break—out in syria calling for the protection of minorities by islamist leaders, after the burning of a christmas tree near hama. and a nasa spacecraft makes history, flying closer to the sun than ever before. hello i'm naomi choy smith. thank you forjoining us. welcome to the programme. an israeli negotiation team returns to israel on tuesday night for internal consultations after a significant week of negotiations in qatar. that's according to prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office. officials say that both sides have shown a greater willingness to reach a deal but that key details must

still be worked out. it comes as israel intensifies its attacks in gaza. the territory's health ministry reports three hospitals in the north were targeted earlier on tuesday, forcing patients to evacuate. meanwhile, christmas celebrations in bethlehem are muted for the second year since the israel—hamas war began. these are pictures of midnight mass at the nativity church in the holy city. local authorities have scaled down festivities and ceremonies with church leaders providing spiritual guidance to those in grief. our correspondent, shaimaa khalil is in bethlehem. midnight mass at the nativity church ushers in yet another sombre christmas here in bethlehem, the big celebrations have been cancelled and the ceremonies have been sombre and muted. the huge christmas tree that normally lights up and glistens in the night here in manger square is nowhere to be seen. instead, children in the procession were carrying banners calling for the end

of the war in gaza. the latin patriarch ofjerusalem, the cardinal, spoke today to the crowd, he spoke about the christmas mass that he held in gaza the day before. he describes the destruction, the poverty, the despair that he has seen, but he also spoke about the resilience of the gazan people, the fact they have not given up, that this is the message he carries from gaza. "do not give up." in the gaza strip itself, the fighting continues. details are still emerging as we hearfrom health officials in the health ministry in gaza about three hospitals being bombed overnight. the director of one of the hospital was giving a video message and you could hear the explosions as he was saying the bombing lasted through the night. it caused at least 20 injuries there. we heard from the israeli forces, who said that they were targeting hamas fighters in the indonesian hospital,

that's why they ordered an evacuation, and that there were aware that there were strikes near two other hospitals or the vicinity of the other two hospitals. this has christians in gaza mark another christmas in the midst of devastation. for a second year, the war in gaza casts a huge shadow on this biblical city. i've been speaking to people here and one shop owner who has been struggling for two years now says, "no one is able to help us but god. "we pray for peace and we hope for a ceasefire." for more we regained the former deputy co—ordinatorfor for more we regained the former deputy co—ordinator for counter terrorism. it is great to have you here. let's start with these israeli negotiators returning for a week after significant ceasefire talks. what do you think the israeli position is at this point in the negotiations? it position is at this point in the negotiations?- position is at this point in the negotiations? it is going to be detailed _

the negotiations? it is going to be detailed in _ the negotiations? it is going to be detailed in an - to be detailed in an extraordinary way because what the prime minister in the end has to make clear is that whatever they end up with, it is going to be worth the delay of almost three years and, of course, the lives of the hostages that have been lost as negotiations were not even held. as you recall, most of the hostages were returned through diplomatic negotiations so what does israel and up with thatis so what does israel and up with that is going to be different than what they started off with? certainly more control over the gaza strip, a definition of the end of hamas, and as we have seen in the last few days, there are still attacks against israeli forces in gaza, it is clear that hamas, while not the vibrant fighting force it was a year ago, continues to resist the israeli inc urgency into the gaza strip and so there has to

be something on the table. left at insurgency. the president has a close relationship with the israeli prime minister that that the president elect, with the prime minister by mac. how might this impact by macca's decisions? the president—elect has been very clear thank —— that the demand of the hostages be released but no—one should think it also does not apply to the prime minister and when he said get the deal done it as pressure to both sides, to find a way to close this out. it is something president biden would also appreciate, to have it done while it is still on his

watch. , . �* , done while it is still on his watch. , . �*, ., , ., watch. israel's military also makin: watch. israel's military also making a — watch. israel's military also making a rare _ watch. israel's military also making a rare admission i watch. israel's military also i making a rare admission today that its tactics may have endangered its own hostages. saying its actions may have impacted hamas decision to kill six hostages in august. could further delay and endanger the lives of the hostages remain in gaza? ~ , ,., , , lives of the hostages remain in gaza? ~ , , , ., lives of the hostages remain in gaza? ~ , , ., ., gaza? absolutely. it is a real concern- _ gaza? absolutely. it is a real concern. there _ gaza? absolutely. it is a real concern. there is _ gaza? absolutely. it is a real concern. there is no - gaza? absolutely. it is a real concern. there is no doubt . gaza? absolutely. it is a real. concern. there is no doubt that if diplomatic negotiations had been more successful that many more hostages would have been coming home alive rather than in body bags. we expect many of them to do. it is also a note of caution even for president—elect trump if he is threatening hamas if the deal is not done in a certain amount of time, what does that leave them? the thing you do not want to do when you are negotiating is to put your opponent or your

interlocutor, into a position where they have no choice in their mind but to kill the hostages. you do not want them in that position. everyone should be proceeding very carefully at this point to ensure that the most hostages as possible make it home alive because we know that many opportunities have been missed during this last year plus. if a deal is not struck before the president—elect takes office in january 20, what kind of demands might hamas make of donald trump when he takes office? it donald trump when he takes office? , , . ., , office? it is difficult to see what demands _ office? it is difficult to see what demands are - office? it is difficult to see what demands are left - office? it is difficult to see what demands are left for| what demands are left for hamas. they have clearly lost so much more than they might have thought they could gain by the terrible attack that carried out on october seven in 2023. they are absolutely going to have to leave with a

reoccupation of the gaza strip for the foreseeable future, the destruction of the education, culture, hospitals, the reconstruction of the gaza strip will be very difficult if impossible to build. what can they demand is up in the air. they may ask for financial assistance, for the us to help bring others from the golf and others to rebuild the gaza strip but as a demand it is difficult to see what they could ask from the position they are in right now. —— gulf. and further delay would result in more deaths, plunging into the humanitarian crisis already. what kind of pressure can be put to ensure aid is reaching those who needed? the auen for reaching those who needed? tie: agency for international development released a report recently flagging that famine

is absolutely a horrific danger, particularly in the northern gaza strip and so the united states is continuing to work. samantha power, the id director, mentioned recently she has been able to get things recently that might not otherwise have been gotten in. her leadership saw the pressure on getting assistance in while quiet. it is not a front—page issue right now in the us but it is something that is ongoing in our contacts with the israeli government. it is a us priority and that pressure will continue. . ~ priority and that pressure will continue. ., ~ , ., priority and that pressure will continue. ., ~ i. priority and that pressure will continue. ., ~ . ., continue. thank you so much for “oininu continue. thank you so much for joining us _ continue. thank you so much for joining us here _ continue. thank you so much for joining us here on _ continue. thank you so much for joining us here on bbc— continue. thank you so much for joining us here on bbc news. . joining us here on bbc news. thank you. syria's new leaders claim all armed rebel factions have agreed to integrate under the control of the defence ministry. the afp reports syrian kurdish factions, which control large parts of northeastern syria weren't among them. the country's new de facto

leader, ahmed al—sharaa, said the government would take control of all weapons in the country. he said that also applied to the main kurdish—led faction, the sdf. those forces have continued to fight other rebel groups backed by turkiye. on tuesday, us secretary of defense, lloyd austin, held talks with his turkish counterpart, yashar guler, about the situation in syria. in a statement, the us department of defense said, "secretary austin emphasized that close and continuous "coordination is crucial to maintaining the ongoing "success of the d—isis mission." the secretary and minister guler also discussed the importance of setting the conditions to enable a more secure and stable syria. on tuesday, officials deployed heavy security around christian churches in damascus, as the capital marks its first christmas under new leadership. bells toll armed fighters and civil defense teams surrounded the lady of damascus church, where worshippers are

gathering for services. it comes after islamist fighters allegedly set fire to a christmas tree in a christian—majority town. lina sinjab reports from damascus. they chant. christian prayer and the mass is ongoing in the heart of damascus. people have gathered from different parts of the city to pay their dues on christmas eve, despite the worries and the uncertainties after the incident that happened in hama and the setting fire in one of the christmas trees. they have been many assurances from the new leadership. they have extended their hand. we have seen lots of security trying to protect the area so people can celebrate in peace and enjoy christmas eve in peace but this

is a period of many open questions that do not have answers. the new comers have a lot of fear among orators, especially christians and it will take time for people to adjust to the new reality, civil society to be active imposing what they need from this new leadership and for the new leadership to prove they are up to their words and provide a government that is representative of the whole syrian society and not exclusive of only the islamic one. i spoke about the latest in syria with barbara starr, a longtime us national security reporter. let's start with syria, us—backed kurdish forces have been pushing back and this is all in an area where as many as 2000 us troops are believed to be stationed. what kind of involvement can the us have they in syria? well, good evening.

i think we are on the cusp of trying to figure that out. all of us, because, of course we are just days away from donald trump becoming president of the united states. in the past, he has wanted to withdraw forces from syria and his first administration. he was talked out of that because the case was made that the forces needed to be there to stay to fight remnants of isis and in fact in the last several weeks, we have been seeing us forces engage isis in syria, what they say are isis elements in syria several times now. so presumably, that's going to be what the ongoing mission is if the newly installed president wants them to stay there, and that is the big if right now because it is very uncertain in syria the way ahead. there is a good deal of concern that isis is going to try and reconstitute itself and make some progress in assembling its troops and perhaps carrying out

additional attacks from their operations inside syria. as you mentioned there, president—elect trump is weeks away from taking office. do we know anything more about how he may approach syria, for example, removing which is essentially running things in syria now. a a lot of people think that president biden may step in and do that before he leaves office. the question would be whether president trump would allow that a lifting of that designation to continue. but right now, that is really the only element, the only game, to use a trite word, in town, about trying to organise some type of governmental entity inside syria. right now, it appears to be working, but it is very fragile and we saw some unrest break out earlier today in syria and there is no indication that it's approaching a question of stability.

there is still a good deal of concern that this is on a hair trigger and it could go badly at any point. and i do want to just ask you, barbara, about ukraine because obviously donald trump has been saying he wants to meet with putin as soon as possible after taking office. what do you suspect his strategy to look like for potential negotiations going forward? well, i think president trump, once he takes office, he's going to try very hard to get both parties to the so—called negotiating table. you know, in the real world, we all know that wars end at a negotiating table. but the question will be what position will ukraine be in? they are in a somewhat weakened position right now. the russians continue to make progress, the russians continued to bomb. the biden administration is trying to ship as much in terms of weaponry over to ukraine before they leave the white house and get them

in the best shape they possibly can but one of the key things is ukrainian forces are running short of manpower. they have had for many years now and age of 25 years old before you canjoin the ukraine military and the us wants that lowered and has wanted that lowered for some years now. maybe around 18 years old. they are simply running short of man manpower. and in the meantime, of course, the russians have brought in those north korean troops, they are not great fighters, but that is more manpower against the ukrainians. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news: the government's launched a consultation on its plans to phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. in its election manifesto, labour committed to reversing a decision by the previous government to extend the deadline to 2035. the transport secretary heidi alexander is now seeking views from the industry about how

to deliver the ban. the scottish government says the ambulance service has declared the highest level of emergency due to pressures including lengthy hospital handover times and an increase in respiratory viruses. the status means healthcare leave could be cancelled and all available staff might be called into work. the government says the service is still able to treat patients in a critical condition. some morrisons customers encountered further delays with their christmas orders more than 2a hours after after the supermarket experienced what it called "systems issues" on monday, which saw deliveries cancelled and discounts not applied. morrisons has apologised and says deliveries are back to normal. you're live with bbc news. armed men in haiti have opened fire at medical staff, police officers and journalists during a media conference to announce the reopening of the country's biggest public hospital.

at least two journalists and a police officer were killed and many others injured. journalists were waiting for the arrival of the health minister at the general hospital in the capital, port—au—prince, when the shooting began. the site had been recaptured by haiti's government injuly, after being occupied and destroyed by violent gangs that control much of the city. us president—elect donald trump is promising to pursue more federal death penalty cases when he returns to office, directly challenging presidentjoe biden's decision to spare the lives of 37 death row inmates. in a statement posted to social media, the president—elect said, "as soon as i am inaugurated, i will direct the justice department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect american families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters. we will be a nation of law and order again." mr biden's commutations mean just three federal prisoners now face execution, including the perpetrators of the boston marathon bombing, the pittsburgh synagogue

attack, and the charleston church shooting. biden's commutations cannot be reversed. throughout the campaign, mr trump called for expanding use of capital punishment to include drug traffickers and migrants who kill us citizens. mr biden's commutations do not affect more than 2,000 inmates facing execution in state prisons across the us. for more on this and reaction from the us congress, i spoke to daniella diaz, congressional reporter for politico. donald trump today condemning biden's decision to commute those death row sentences and vowing to pursue the death penalty in his coming term. this is a divisive issue politically, what has the reaction been like on capitol hill? well, namely when president biden decided to do this, it's important to note that right now, lawmakers are actually gone from

washington and back in their home district, so we are not seeing the reaction that we would see had this been a busy week, but we are seeing a lot of democrats support presidentjoe biden's decision to do this. the death penalty is not a very popular measure within the democratic party, but we are seeing republicans be very staunchly oppose to this decision from president biden because they argued that they were, a lot of these being violent offenders and that is why they are dismissive of the fact that the president did this and we expect a lot more criticism once lawmakers are back in washington after the holidays. you're looking at live pictures in hawaii where one of the world's most active volcanoes is throwing columns of lava into the air. this is coming to us from kilauea, on hawaii's big island. officials say there is no

immediate danger to residents but warned that volcanic smog could reach inhabited areas downwind. this is the second time the volcano has erupted this year. nasa's groundbreaking parker solar probe is set to make history as it attempts its closest ever journey to the sun. racing towards the star at speed of over 430,000 miles per hour, the spacecraft is braving extreme radiation, and blistering temperatures of 1,400 c, as it enters the sun's outer atmosphere. if it survives, the data it sends back to earth could unlock some of the sun's biggest mysteries. our science editor, rebecca morelle, has more. i spoke to an astronomer earlier. truly an incredible feat that we are seeing from

this probe. explain a little bit more what you are hoping to learn from this park solar spacecraft particular the impact of the sun's solar arrays and other cosmic phenomena right here on earth? —— parker solar. we phenomena right here on earth? -- parker solar.— -- parker solar. we are under the umbrella _ -- parker solar. we are under the umbrella of— -- parker solar. we are under the umbrella of space - -- parker solar. we are underl the umbrella of space weather. it can effect space and our power grid. a lot of the research is to find out how the sun produces these kinds of storms in one of the conveyor belt is of the solar wind which was originally kind of discovered, if you will, back in the 1950s by eugene parker who did some of the mathematics that explain how it behaves. but it has been something of a mystery how this wind which travels at 400 kilometres per second manages to get

accelerated and ejected into space. it comes from the upper part of the solar corona which look fairly well behaved. it is about figuring out where the energy comes, and what is part of the solar wind. we are still the big questions. you worked with the team _ the big questions. you worked with the team that _ the big questions. you worked with the team that helped - the big questions. you worked with the team that helped on | with the team that helped on the spacecraft. how nervous will they be that there spacecraft made it through these intense, intense scorching temperatures? i these intense, intense scorching temperatures? i am an astronomer— scorching temperatures? i am an astronomer and _ scorching temperatures? i am an astronomer and educator, - scorching temperatures? i am an astronomer and educator, i - scorching temperatures? i am an astronomer and educator, i do i astronomer and educator, i do not work directly with the parker solar solid team but this is an incredible piece of technology. the realisation that the scientists were able to get a cloud site satellite to get a cloud site satellite to come that close to the sun —— car side. that it did not

melt, means they had a really good shield. it is a major accomplishment technologically. the orbit is with the help of venus and several encounters. an incredible feat of the cooling system, the heat shield. we will wait a few more days if the spacecraft survives. what could be the next step in learning the mysteries? i5 next step in learning the mysteries?— next step in learning the mysteries? is this guy that limit? the _ mysteries? is this guy that limit? the more _ mysteries? is this guy that limit? the more the - mysteries? is this guy that i limit? the more the merrier. the more encounters we have with the outer corona of the sun, the more we will be able to understand how it works and where the energy comes from. i cannot overstress how important it is to understand where energy and mass comes from anything corona. without understanding that, we're still grade school in terms of understanding the sounds that anything we can gather that

eliminates that subject is absolutely essential. pope francis has lodged a jubilee in a special ceremony. they take place every 25 years. he opened the normally bricked up he opened the normally bricked up hollie doyle of saint peter's basilica. more than 30 million people are expected to make a pilgrimage to rome to pass through the door throughout the year. it's officially christmas day in london, where the nativity of the lord midnight mass is underway at westminster cathedral in central london. tonight's service will be followed by masses on christmas day itself at the cathedral, which is the seat of the archbishop of westminster. as the world celebrates christmas, santa is busy delivering gifts. the us north american aerospace command has repositioned its radars and satellites to track santa claus travelling around the world. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello. well, it's so mild, i don't think we're going to even see a flake of snow falling on the highest peaks of the highlands. it's just such a warm atmosphere over us right now, streaming in from the southern climes. christmas day will be rather cloudy for most of us. a few glimmers of sunshine here and there, and it looks as though it's going to stay mild for the remainder of the year. now, on the satellite picture, you can see this conveyor belt of cloud streaming in from the central north atlantic. ahead of it, a push of mild air coming all the way from the azores. and it's spreading notjust over the uk and many parts of western europe, but also well into scandinavia, where temperatures are above freezing. so it's a very mild end to what will be a record—breaking year globally as far as the temperature goes. now, let's have a look at the forecast for the morning, then. so we start off very mild. breezy conditions in scotland, if not very windy around some coastal areas. a little bit of rain there flirting with north—western scotland.

elsewhere, some sunny spells developing — for example, eastern scotland to the east of the pennines to the lee of any high ground — with this south—westerly breeze. and double figures right across the board. i2, 13 celsius is certainly on the cards, for example, in northern ireland. so a very mild christmas day and a mild boxing day on the way. the winds are going to ease, though, across scotland. you can see the pressure lines there, the isobars to the north. here, it's going to be a little bit lighter, that wind. but the weather front will make some progress and will bring some dribs and drabs of rain to scotland and perhaps northern ireland. again, sunny spells are possible to the lee of high ground. double figures mostly across the board, but northern scotland finds itselfjust the other side of that weather front in this slightly colder air. when i say "colder", it's actually closer to what we'd expect, at least on average, across this part of the world. so friday, once again, mild air spread across the uk and, indeed, many other parts of europe. so anotherfairly cloudy

and mild picture. those temperatures perhaps not quite so high, but still on the mild side. a reminder — the average for this time of the year is typically between around 6—8 celsius. and as we head towards the new year, it's going to stay mild, but the indication is it will turn very windy, perhaps even stormy and really quite wet. that's it from me. merry christmas.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. delving into the lives of antarctica's giants. there's two animals. whale blows. yep. that is pretty amazing to be able to see them under the water. hello, beautiful! humpback whales come 8,500km here to feed. the antarctic peninsula — a brutal and fragile place — is a hot spot for marine wildlife... perfect fluke! it kind of looks like play. like, just wild.

..but this place is changing.