international airport. the head of the world health organization narrowly escapes unhurt. russia pushes back against growing speculation it may have been involved in the deadly crash of a passenger plane. political turmoil continues in south korea, where parliament is set to vote on whether to impeach acting president han duck—soo. and tributes roll in for the former indian prime minister manmohan singh, who has died at the age of 92. welcome to newsday. i'm suranjana tewari.

israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has warned that his country's "just getting started" against the houthis in yemen after israel launched air strikes which reportedly killed at least six people. the united nations has called for restraint, warning that air strikes on ports in the red sea and on airports pose grave risks to humanitarian operations. the arial bombardment targeted the international airport in the capital, sanaa. the israel defense forces said it was conducting "intelligence—based strikes on military targets belonging "to the iran—backed houthi terrorist regime on the western "coast and inland yemen". the strikes hit port towns and power stations as well as the airport. a video from inside sanaa airport shows people running out of the terminal in a panic. the head of the world health organization, dr tedros, said the bombardment happened "meters away" as he was about to board

a flight in sanaa. our correspondent shaimaa khalil has more. this is the second israeli airstrike on yemen in less than a week and it comes as this month has seen significant attacks, a significant rise in attacks by houthis in yemen here on israeli territory. this week alone has seen five attacks on israeli territory. only on saturday, there was a projectile launched from yemen. it was not intercepted and it landed in a public park in tel aviv. hours after that the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, vowed that there was going to be retaliation and he instructed the israeli forces to retaliate against those attacks. what we have seen today are attacks, or israeli air attacks on the sana'a international airport but also in the red sea port city of hodeidah.

images and videos of panic among people inside sana'a airport as they rushed and tried to get out of the place. also we saw plumes of smoke at the site. also you saw a great deal of destruction in hodeidah as a result of airstrikes. the israeli military struck targets saying that they struck targets used by iran—backed houthis to smuggle weapons into the region. they had two power stations in three ports and targets in and around the airport. the houthis have said this is a crime against yemeni people. called barbaric. we heard from one of the injured, we spoke describing how the runway was hit three times and how the tower was hit and how he could escape through the window. the houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until the end of the war in gaza but now we see a real

focus from the israeli leadership to go after the houthis, to go after the infrastructure and to go after the leadership and they say that they will meet a similar fate to hamas in gaza and to hezbollah in lebanon. both also backed by iran, both suffering devastating losses to their infrastructure and the killing of the leadership. meanwhile, in central gaza, health officials say five journalists have been killed by an israeli strike. it hit a marked broadcast van outside al—awda hospital in the nusei—rat refugee camp. one of the journalists was expecting the birth of his child. the israeli military said those killed were members of a "terrorist cell". winter is making life harder for the nearly 2 million internally displaced palestinians still in gaza. doctors working in the camps said three babies have died from the cold this week. hopes had been growing that

israel and hamas could come to an agreement on returning the remaining hostages and a ceasefire soon. but those hopes have been dampened again, with both sides accusing the other of delaying a deal. israeli negotiators claim hamas has reneged on previously resolved issues, whilst hamas negotiators hit out at israel for introducing new conditions that were never part of the discussions. russia says it won't speculate on suggestions from aviation experts that russian air defences may have struck the passenger plane that crashed in kazakhstan on wednesday, killing 38 people. 29 people on board survived. president putin's spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment until an official investigation is complete. the azerbaijan airlines jet was travelling from baku to chechnya when it diverted to kazakhstan before crashing near aktau. jonathan josephs reports.

on board the stricken aeroplane, the passenger filming this notices some damage under the wing. back inside, despite oxygen masks and life jackets being visible, those on board seem calm. it's not clear how long before the crash this was filmed. there were 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. the force of impact split the plane in two, with the front half destroyed by fire. the key question is why. i spoke to one military expert who said suggestions of a bird strike being responsible were unlikely. at the moment, evidence is still coming out, but the most likely hypothesis we see is that it was struck by an air defence missile, almost certainly russian, in the area over grozny

where the plane was holding. ukrainian drones were active at the time, and this is commensurate with everything we've seen in the pilot's communication with air traffic control. and currently it's the only thing that fully fits the facts that we know. these holes in the surviving part of the fuselage will be examined by investigators. meanwhile, azerbaijan airlines have suspended all flights in the region. they have not grounded their other six embraer ei90s, suggesting the cause was not technical or mechanical. the aircraft has a good safety record. russia's government says no conclusion should be drawn until the kazakh—led investigation is complete. amongst those wanting answers will be those survivors who remarkably walked away. this man says his wife had been sitting next to him, but he hasn't seen her since the crash. this is the family of one of the flight attendants. in a video call, he reassures them, saying, "don't worry,

tell mum not to worry. "thank god we're safe." at baku's airport, large crowds queued up to pay their respects and lay flowers in memory of the dead, as families across the region struggle to understand what caused their loved ones to perish. jonathan josephs, bbc news. the south korean opposition has filed a motion to impeach the acting president, in order to eradicate those helping people responsible for "insurrection". the opposition claim that han, who is also the prime minister, is trying to delay the trial into president yoon suk—yeol, who was impeached in parliament following his botched attempt to impose martial law. parliament is scheduled to meet on friday afternoon where the opposition says they will bring a vote to the floor. meanwhile, south korea's constitutional court is set to hold the first hearing over the impeachment of president yoon in the coming hours, with his legal

representatives attending. he maintains he did nothing wrong, and until thursday had defied requests by the court to submit documents, and has avoided summons by investigators in a separate criminal case. i'm joined now by our correspondent in seoul, jean mackenzie. thank you for coming on the programme. they have been if you development this morning, can you explain to us what this means as far as the political crisis in south korea goes? the olitical crisis in south korea goes? the political crisis _ crisis in south korea goes? tue: political crisis and crisis in south korea goes? tte: political crisis and the instability that we have had for the past two or three weeks since president yoon impose martial law, are very much continuing, the prime minister had been acting president west lindsey president yoon was in his a couple of weeks ago and really until the plan was that he would act as president until the constitutional court made the constitutional court made the decision on whether to

reinstate him or permanently dismiss him in that case was due to get under way today and has about six months to decide. inaudible has erupted he over whatjudges should preside over. the constitutional court is supposed to have ninejudges but the moment there are three vacant positions, the parliament had voted to approve threejudges to fill this parliament had voted to approve three judges to fill this was with the prime minister needed to sign off on them. the opposition inaudible has a large majority in parliament had been hoping the prime minister would not inaudible but yesterday he said he was not going to approve these judges because the ruling party does not agree to them and he thinks he needs to be a bipartisan consensus over something inaudible important, something inaudible important, so at this point is when the opposition party decided to step in and the motion to impeach him and expecting to have the vote later this afternoon. the opposition party now essentially saying that because the prime minister has blocked the judges he because the prime minister has blocked thejudges he is essentially complicit in the

presidential attempt to impose martial law. presidential attempt to impose martial lava— martial law. your audio is coming — martial law. your audio is coming in _ martial law. your audio is coming in and _ martial law. your audio is coming in and out - martial law. your audio is coming in and out and - martial law. your audio is coming in and out and we apologise to our viewers. let me try to ask you another question. what does the public say? the ruling party and the opposition seem to have their own internal issues, how is the public viewing what is going on? ., , public viewing what is going on? . , , , on? that is the issue, there was no consensus _ on? that is the issue, there was no consensus here - on? that is the issue, there - was no consensus here inaudible at the moment over anything in the country is suffering as a result. there was no political leadership, very difficult for anyone to make a decision, the economy is suffering, diplomacy has stalled, and yet both sides inaudible in each otherfor the chaos. we see protests continue, much more than in the run—up to the presidential impeachment but both sides, but again inaudible polarised at the moment so we still have these protesters on either side just blaming each other. if the

prime minister is impeached later today than it is the finance minister who will take over as acting president but the opposition could just move to impeach him as well if he does not sign off on the judges. we also mostly the ruling party decide to inaudible in court if it comes to what this is just going to prolong this process even more. we do apologise for the audio issues there. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. a 49—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of a double murder after two women were fatally stabbed in milton keynes in southern england yesterday. thames valley police said officers were called to a block of apartments in bletchley and found the women, aged 38 and 2a, dead at the scene. more than a50 people crossed the english channel in small boats on christmas day according to new home office figures.

the data takes the total number of crossings this year to more than 35,000, more than 21% higher than last year. prime minister sir keir starmer has made dismantling the smuggling gangs one of his top priorities. the number of shoppers heading out for the boxing day sales appears to be returning to pre—pandemic levels, with footfall dropping by almost 8% across the uk compared with last year. but according to analysts, it's not all bad news for high stret retailers — footfall was up on christmas eve by 18% on last year. you're live with bbc news. 2024 was the year of elections — but also a year of artificial intelligence. across the globe, from india to indonesia, from the uk to the us, ai technology made its presence felt. whether voters realised it or not.

as the year comes to an end, we're taking a look back at what we learned and the challenges that may lie ahead, with new elections approaching in 2025. with me is karryl trajano, research fellow for future issues and technology at the nanyang technological university here in singapore. thank you so much for coming in and joining us on the programme today. we saw ai getting more and more integrated into our lives last year, talk us through what impact it had on elections in particular? basically people were afraid of three things, that al basically people were afraid of three things, that ai will become more pervasive as the cost of producing is now significantly lower and ai will become more persuasive in dissipating higher quality deepfakes and ai will become more personal with individualised messaging but at a scale of population level. in the elections happens, and what

did we get? we got donald trump riding a lion, shaking hands with a muscular vladimir putin, and cartoon kamala harris seemingly leading a communist rally, so these are just some of the examples. some experts are quick to point out that we actually overhyped the actual impact of ai in the elections and that the deepfakes that we saw were too cartoonish or hyper realistic to be able to sway the average voter. on the flip side there was another count of experts who say that actually we understate the effect of ai in 2024 in that we experience a flooding of these deepfakes that the public gained this sort of hypervigilance, so what happens is that the public now — a lot of people from the public now have the ms lee will of authentic, truthful content as the deepfakes. that seems

harmless but that actually has lasting effects in society. it causes of trust in truth, erosion of trust in legitimate is a visions like academia for me in the media for you guys, and that brings an environment thatis and that brings an environment that is very ripe for these information. so there are these things but actually i have my own take on what is really happening in the 2024 elections, and that is they are distracted from the real menace which is the capacity for personalisation.- which is the capacity for personalisation. while we were--- — personalisation. while we were. .. if— personalisation. while we were... if i _ personalisation. while we were... ifi can _ personalisation. while we were... if i canjust- personalisation. while we were... ifi canjustjumpl personalisation. while we i were... ifi canjustjump in. were... if i canjustjump in. we did some research on the indonesian elections, can you give us an example of what the problem was there when it comes to the use of ai and the impact on voters? tt to the use of ai and the impact on voters?— on voters? it was not regulated. _ on voters? it was not

regulated, the - on voters? it was not regulated, the micro| on voters? it was not - regulated, the micro targeting was normalised this year, so notjust happening in the us although both republicans and democrats are leveraged on this targeting this year, so in indonesia, the winner of the election, his camp used this strategy, so they use a cubberley grandpa image of himself to be away from his strongman persona and they did this specifically to target not racial segments as they did in the us but the young, typically first—time voters who relatively lacked political maturity than other voters. very quickly because we're running out of time, we have somewhat elections coming up in region, singapore is a unique democracy especially when it comes to freedom of beach, what can we learn from the indonesian experience? at, can we learn from the indonesian experience? a lot of this will be _ indonesian experience? a lot of this will be contact _ this will be contact specifically definitely we will be remiss if we do not learn anything for what happened this

year so indonesia has lost on electronic content including deepfakes but nothing deepfa kes but nothing specifically deepfakes but nothing specifically on ai—powered during the election season, much less the micro targeting, and earlier in the year the cape eu, the local commission on elections, actually rendered ai as unfortunately outside of theirjurisdiction, and i also want to bring up the philippines is also having its mid—term elections next year, the same with indonesia, no legislation, instead we have the cheaper commission on elections who says we will disqualify anyone who will use ai in 2025, and this blanket ban is not really the solution and they mightjust cost people to covertly and people now have other platforms, so singapore in 2025 has been enacting stricter measures so they already have an axe protecting people from online falsehoods,

they try to bolster this with elections, but getting something from the indonesian experience, it is not enough that we have legislation, legislation is to be evolving as technology evolves as well. i am afraid we will have to leave it there, thank you so much forjoining us. tributes have been pouring in for the former indian prime minister manmohan singh, who has died at the age of 92. mr singh was in office for a decade from 2004 until 2014 and was the first prime minister in india from the sikh faith. in a tribute post on social media, current prime minister narendra modi called his predecessor "one of india's most distinguished leaders". and us secretary of state antony blinken also offered condolences on behalf of the us, referring to mr singh as "one of the greatest champions "of the us—india strategic partnership". for more on his life, sophie long reports. i'm joined now by kishore

mahbubani, a singaporean diplomat who served as singapore's permanent representative to the united nations. very good to see you. tell us, what do you know of working with singh and his legacy? t with singh and his legacy? i fortunately certain his global advisory council with several people, so i would see him at once a yearfor several people, so i would see him at once a year for several years in a row, and there is no doubt that singh will go down as one of the greatest prime ministers india had because he carried out the fundamental u—turn that had to be taken to move india away from the old protectionist policies that locked up the indian economy and prevented the growth, and he was the first one to say let's liberalise, let's open up, and

when people are criticising him for saying hey, foreign investment will exploit us in