the kremlin says it's wrong to speculate on what happened. we'll have the latest from damascus as the new syrian authorities launch an offensive against fighters loyal to ousted leader, bashar al—assad, following clashes on wednesday. ceremonies are taking place to mark the twentieth anniversary of the indian ocean earthquake and tsunami. this the scene live in sri lanka. and, what's occurin�*? gavin and stacey win the christmas day tv ratings battle — with over 12 million people tuning in to see whether smithy accepted nessa's proposal. hello. russia has been accused of shooting down the azerbaijan

airlines plane which crashed killing 38 people in kaza khsta n yesterday. no proof has been offered, but military bloggers and a variety of aviation experts have suggested the plane was mistaken for a ukrainian drone and attacked by russian air defences. the plane left baku for grozny but was diverted to aktau because of fog. the russian government has cautioned against promoting "hypotheses" about the cause of the crash and urged people to wait for the outcome of an official investigation. our reporterjonathanjosephs has been following the story. these are some of the survivors of a terrifying plane crash. pictures released by the russian government show nine of their citizens being evacuated to moscow for further medical treatment. they were among 62 passengers and five crew on board this azerbaijan airlines flight from baku to grozny in southern russia. amateur footage shows the pilot struggling to control

the plane as it tries to land after being diverted to aktau in kazakhstan. the force of impact split the plane into with the front half destroyed by fire. the key question now is why. russia's aviation regulator says there was a bird strike but military experts suggest the wreckage shows signs of something else. at the moment evidence is still coming out but the most likely hypothesis we see it as it was struck by an defence missile most certainly russian in the area over grozny where the plane was holding. ukrainian drones were active at the time and this match is everything we have seen in the pilot communication with air traffic control and currently it is the only thing that fully fits the facts as we know. investigators are carefully preserving the debris and want to understand what caused these holes in the part of the fuselage that survived the impact. russia's government says no one should draw any conclusions about the cause

until that is completed. the rear of the aircraft is the part from which some survivors remarkably walked away. this man says his wife this man says his wife had been sitting next had been sitting next to him but he hasn't to him but he hasn't seen her since the crash. seen her since the crash. this is the family of one this is the family of one of the flight attendants. of the flight attendants. in a video call he reassures in a video call he reassures them, saying don't worry, them, saying don't worry, tell them not to worry, tell them not to worry, thank god we are safe. thank god we are safe. tell mum not to worry, tell mum not to worry, thank god we are safe. thank god we are safe. the testimony of those the testimony of those survivors will be a key part survivors will be a key part are militias loyal to of the investigation, as will the flight data of the investigation, recorders which have been as will the flight data recovered from the aircraft which does have a good which does have a good safety record. safety record. at baku airport hundreds at baku airport hundreds of people who up to pay of people who up to pay their respects and lay flowers their respects and lay flowers in memory of the dead. in memory of the dead. as families across the region as families across the region struggle to understand struggle to understand what caused their loved what caused their loved ones to perish. ones to perish. jonathan josephs, bbc news. the new authorities in syria have launched a big security

operation against what they say operation against what they say are militias loyal to the ousted president bashar al—assad in the western province of tartous. it follows the killing of 14 members of the new leadership�*s security forces in the region yesterday.

over the past decade. but many of the alawites communities who took to the streets yesterday, including religious leaders, are calling for general amnesty for all the alawite community something that will never happen because many have blood on their hands. other syrians are calling forjustice, are calling for legal procedures and prosecution for those who are responsible for the disappearance and the torture of tens of thousands of syrians. it is critical time, and the new government has only been there a bit over two weeks, and they will need time to establish stability and provide the legal procedure for the right prosecution. commemorations are under way in countries around the indian ocean to mark the 20th anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people. the vast wave, caused by an earthquake,

devastated indonesia, thailand and sri lanka, and displaced nearly two million people. today, in thailand, where half of the more than 5,000 dead were foreign tourists, commemorations began early in ban nam khem, its worst—hit village. tearful relatives laid flowers and wreaths at a curved wall in the shape of a tsunami wave with plaques bearing victims�* names. in sri lanka, mourners offered flowers and lit incense at a beach—side memorial for 1,270 people buried in mass graves, with buddhist, hindu, christian and muslim ceremonies held. in the indonesian province of aceh, which bore the brunt of the disaster, people gathered at prayer sites in memory of the victims. our correspondent andrew harding reported from aceh at the time, and met a schoolgirl who had lost both her parents.

now, he's caught up with her again. this was aceh 20 years ago, just after the great wave had come ashore. i remember walking through the ruins, a haunting landscape, but above all, i remember mawada. she was 11 then, bruised and alone, orphaned by the tsunami. but a few days later she discovered one relative had survived, her big sister, mutya. we followed the girls as mawada returned to school and the sisters moved to a new home, hauntingly close to a mass grave. i'm scared of ghosts, she told me. even if they are all my relatives and neighbours, i don't want to sleep here. the years passed and then came the 10th anniversary of the tsunami.

she screams i missed you so much. it's so good to see you. look at you. i'm so big. mawada was now a 21 —year—old student, full of life, bouncing back like indonesia itself, but still wrestling with the loss of her parents. no, um, my life with my parents of course very sad. um, because there is nobody cared about me. and now 20 years have gone by. a stranded boat kept as a memorial here. but aceh�*s physical wounds have healed in a country now preoccupied with new challenges. hi, guys. as for mawada, she's traded in a career in teaching to become a travel vlogger, offering advice for tourists on low budgets.

a life no longer defined by the tsunami. and i have patience so i can be a useful for people. so i feel happy and i feel proud of me. and look now at the beach where the tsunami hit, wiping out herfamily and her village all those years ago. today that's mawada on a jet ski 20 years on. andrew harding, bbc news. two women have died and a man and a teenage boy suffered serious injuries following reports of a stabbing in bletchley in milton keynes, on christmas day. thames valley police say a 49—year—old man from milton keynes was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder and remains in police custody. opposition politicians in south korea have filed a motion to impeach the acting president — han duck soo,

as the country's political crisis continues. this comes less than two weeks since he took over from the former president yoon suk yeol who was impeached for trying to impose martial law. if mr han is impeached in the upcoming parliamentary vote, the next in line to become head of state is the finance minister. our reporter rachel lee from bbc korean is in seoul. she gave us more insight into how surprising this situation is. well, honestly, it is surprising but it is also not entirely unexpected. this whole situation has been building up for weeks and han duck—soo�*s refusal to apoint three judges picked to appoint the three and han duck—soo�*s refusal to appoint the three judges picked up by the opposition was a big red flag especially since the constitutional court is handling the president's impeachment case. and added to this his decision to veto opposition led bills

like the investigation into yoon�*s short lived martial law declaration. you can see why the democratic party and other opposition groups felt like they had no choice but to act. they have accused han of siding with yoon and blocking the democratic process instead of acting as a neutral leader while the president is suspended. while the timing is dramatic, given the political climate, this mood feels like another chapter in an already heated battle. what sense do you have of the reaction there has been to this move? it has been explosive to say the least. the opposition parties are doubling down and calling han a puppet of president yoon saying that he has failed as a caretaker leader. on the other side, han's camp are firing back accusing the opposition of overreach and saying they are interfering with his constitutional duties. there has also been backlash from those who feel this is just political theatre which is adding to the country's instability. and then you have the public too who are already frustrated and divided and many

are still protesting against yoon and calling for accountability. others feel this constant infighting is hurting the country's ability to function and is fuelling the sense of chaos and uncertainty in south korea right now. given what you say, rachel, what does this say about the state of south korean politics at the moment? it says a lot. not all of it is good. south korean politics has always been pretty intense but what we are seeing now feels like it is reaching its boiling point and the impeachment of the sitting president and now the acting president highlights how deeply divided political system is and both sides are locked in this ongoing struggle and neither seems willing to back down. so the opposition sees itself as defending democracy while the ruling side argues that they are being unfairly targeted. it is playing out as a high—stakes game but the downside is that the country

is stuck in limbo. big issues are being delayed and people are growing tired of the constant drama. bbc�*s rachel lee in seoul. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

now it's time for the action in the sport. hello to you. boxing day's traditional round of the fixtures in the premier league in under way — manchester city are

hoping to turn their dreadful current form around, against everton at the etihad. it's just approaching half—time at the etihad and it's currently 1—0 to city. chelsea can close the gap temporarily on liverpool with a win at home to fulham. newcastle and aston villa are fighting for a european place... while southampton�*s new manager ivan juric takes charge for the first time... and vitor pereira has his second match at the helm of wolves — they face manchester united. leaders liverpool play fourth from bottom leicester, in the late game, as they look to protect their four point advantage. teams that are positioned in the lower side of the league table, they mostly lose games, but since ruud is there, they also won a few. so that shows you that he's done really well, especially when he came in. now he has, i think, two tough results in a row so, um... these teams — all of them — it's special for them to go to anfield and they know if they go to anfield they have to be at their best. so they will never underestimate us. the scottish premiership has a full round of fixtures — with celtic leading rangers by nine points. and third placed aberdeen

by ten ahead of their matches. the edinburgh derby is under way — between hearts and hibernian, 0—i. there's also a boxing day tradition in cricket... with australia hosting a test match at the mcg. their series with india is level at 1—1 with the fourth test of five under way in melbourne. australia's 19 —year—old debutant sam konstas made the biggest impression on day one... the youngest test batting debutant for the men's team since 1953 hitting 60 offjust 65 balls. half centuries from usman khawaja and marnus labuschagne followed but india hit back in the final session. jasprit bumrah taking two quick wickets as the home side finished the day on 311 for 6. that's one of two boxing day tests... the other is in centurion with south africa winning the toss and putting pakistan into bat in the first of two matches. dane paterson and corbin bosch have done all of the damage, taking nine wickets between them. with the tourists

209—9 at tea... the nfl�*s christmas day games provided two lopsided wins... but a moment of history for two of american football's most famous players. in a win over the pittsburgh steelers that secured the kansas city chiefs the number one seed for the afc playoffs, travis kelce became only the third tight end to pass the 1,000 receptions mark, while he also notched up a franchise record 77th touchdown. the chiefs are now 15 and 1 and will have home field advantage throughout the postseason. while the baltimore ravens also had a comfortable win over the houston texans... with lamarjackson scoring three touchdowns. one with his legs. as he broke the record for most career rushing yards for a quarterback. remember their mainjob is to throw the ball, not run. the previous mark took michael vick 13 seasons to reach. jackson has beaten it in less than seven. the nba also had games on december 25th with lebron james saying that he "loves the nfl, but christmas is our day" in the wake of the lakers�* dramatic win over the golden state warriors. james was playing in an nba—record 19th christmas day game and the league's all—time points scorer led the lakers with 31 points and 10 rebounds after losing anthony davis to injury. long—time adversary steph curry did everything he could

to spoiljames�* day with two clutch three pointers as the game drew to a close. tying things up with 6 seconds remaining as part of his 38 points. but la's austin reaves put the lakers back in front, and even curry was unable to conjure a winning three from there. lakers winning 115 to 113. and that's all the sport for now. we will be back with more later on. see you then. thanks, gavin. five journalists have been killed by an israeli strike in central gaza, according to the the local health authorities. the strike hit a clearly marked broadcast van outside al—awda hospital in the nuseirat refugee camp. it's understood one of the men had been expecting the birth of his child. the israeli military called those killed, members of what it said was a "terrorist cell". israel does not allow foreign journalists free access to gaza.

our correspondent, emir nader is injersualem. he told us more about the strike. al-quds today, tv channel that is the local tv channel in the gaza strip announced this morning that five journalists have been killed in an israeli air strike on their tv broadcast van whilst it parked outside a hospital in the nuseirat area of central gaza. we understand that among the five journalists was a young man who was understood to be waiting for his wife to give birth to their child inside the hospital, when he and his colleagues were struck by the air strike. we saw a video taken in the hours before of him in his press jacket telling the camera that in a few hours he would be a father. we had a statement in the early hours of the morning from the israeli military who said they were targeting what they said was an islamic jihad terrorist cell. islamichhad are one of the other militant groups in gaza and took part in the october 7th attacks

which led to the start of the current war. quds today, a local tv channel is known to be affiliated with islamichhad, the journalists were known to the journalist community in gaza as regularly out and reporting on events there. living and working from that van they were in when it was hit. we have had a statement from the committee to protectjournalists this morning who said they were devastated by the report and said thatjournalists are civilians and must be protected. this comes as we have seen numerous reports over the past years of the war where journalists have been regularly killed.

the committee last week said that over 140 journalists had been killed in gaza over the course of the war and we have seen repeated incidents where the israeli military has identified journalists as having what they say terrorist affiliations and have been struck and subsequently hit. let's get some of the day's other news now. japan airlines says a cyberattack has briefly disrupted some of its flights. the attack affected the airline's baggage check—in system. more than a dozen flights were delayed at several airports before engineers identified and isolated the target of the attack. officials in mozambique say 1,500 inmates escaped from prisons after a riot

in maputo which left more than 30 people dead. they said 150 had been recaptured. there's been civil unrest since the disputed election in october. russia has blamed terrorism for one of its cargo ships sinking off the coast of spain. the ursa major began taking on water on monday, while on a journey from st petersburg to vladivostock. it's owned by russia's defence ministry, and is the subject of us imposed sanctions. now, what did people here in the uk watch on christmas day? for many, the answer seems to be gavin and stacey. the show had a whopping audience of 12.32 million — making it the biggest non—sports ratings of 202a. millions tuned in for the final ever episode of the beloved british sitcom. the number doesn't include those are yet to watch the episode on catch up. wallace & gromit had the second highest

overnight viewing figures — 9.38 million tuned in to watch the duo's tv return. tv critic, scott bryan told us why he thinks gavin and stacey had such high viewing figures. no spoilers i will say. this was a very much anticipated episode of gavin and stacey. of course there has been so much talk about how it was going to pass the cliffhanger from their previous special back in 2019 but i think it managed to do it brilliantly and really stick the landing and have something for absolutely everybody. and managed to have a final episode which was wrapping up all of the loose ends and providing something that was really rather special. i think the reason why these ratings were so big last night, i mean, 12.32 million for gavin and stacey, the most watched event so far this year outside of sport but also, the most watched christmas day episode since 2008.

i think it was simply because there has been so much love for a sitcom that has been viewed by so many different generations but has had repeated viewing over the course of the last ten years. i think it is worthwhile pointing out that this is not the full figure. 12.32 million is the figure from those people who are watching just on the conventional tv live last night. it will be... there will be more figures in about a week's time, showing the amount of people who have been watching and then there will be a final figure in one month's time. if you compare this to the 2019 gavin and stacey special, that got 11.6 million watching on the same day. so it has already beaten that figure. so if the rate is continuing a lot where people are expecting it to be, you can safely say there will be upwards of 16 or 17 million by the time the full figure comes in. that is incredible figures for this day and age. we have less than a minute left

but i just wonder what this says, 12.32 million watching it live on bbc one, what does this say about this time of watching things on demand, we still love a piece of national television. i think this is where public service broadcasters do have the cutting edge over streamers because they are able to have that where everyone has to watch it live and everyone gets to talk about it. what is worth pointing out that from today, it is some of the biggest streaming on catch up days, people are tuning in for a game but christmas day and christmas eve itself, we still love that routine and those moments. but overall a big day for the bbc, the top ten watched shows on that day, all of them are from the bbc. well, i am saving it to watch

later. that is a tv critic talking about gavin and stacey. that is it from us for an hour from london. hello there. we have a dry and high pressure, i stay dry that is away from scotland and indeed, the next few days looks fairly settled thanks to high pressure. this high pressure sitting over the near continent. this weather and a stationary across the north of uk and that is what is bringing the rain to parts of scotland and northern ireland. to the north, the air is quite cold and that will affect the northern isles where it will be blustery with a few showers. generally speaking, for much of the country it is going to be cloudy, grey, misty and murky in places. if you lucky a spot seeing some breaks in the cloud to have some sunshine. generally, the temperatures remaining in double figures for most, between nine and 12 celsius. as we had tonight, is then cloudy with further outbreaks of rain

across scotland. the rain moves in a bit further northwards. northern ireland and southern scotland should stay dry, again, a little bit of drizzle and mist and fog with that cloud and temperatures between four and eight celsius. a little change before we head into friday, it looks like we will see that weather front still bringing outbreaks of rain across more northern and western parts of scotland. further south, western parts of scotland. furthersouth, it western parts of scotland. further south, it tends to stay dry. again, like the last few days, it will stay rather grey and gloomy for many. a few spots stealing cloud breaks and spots stealing cloud breaks and spots of sunshine. fairly mild for the time of year. as we push into the weekend, our weather fronts sinking southwards again. again, there will be some rain and take a cloud across parts of scotland. maybe rain pour into wales is a through saturday. breaks in the clouds further south. allowing sunny spells. blustery showers

towards the north west of scotland. the next day as we head into saturday. you can see the milder air hangs on as we head into the run up to new year. there is a chance of some colder air spreading southwards. mixed in with areas of low pressure, we could see some disruption into the run up to new year. it will turn gradually more unsettled and colder and chance of heavy rain and strong winds and even some snow. stay tuned. take care.

a year like no other. first the king, then the princess of wales,

diagnosed with cancer. this of course came as a huge shock. and william and i have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family. prince william called it the hardest year of his life, supporting his wife and family while flying the flag for britain abroad. honouring the fallen on the beaches of normandy, 80 years on from d—day. and harry, party prince, back in the uk. last christmas there was nothing to suggest 2024 would be a royal year dominated by illness, but three weeks later the first palace statement that the princess of wales had had planned

abdominal surgery the previous day, and the following hour, it was announced that the king