south two days without communication, korea is plunged political south korea is plunged into fresh political crisis as mps vote to impeach the acting president after just a few days in the job. people living in the south of sudan's capital khartoum have welcomed the first convoy of food aid. one of the last functioning hospitals in northern gaza has been forcibly evacuated by the israeli military. staff say that air strikes over night targeting the area around the hospital left 50 people dead. the national trust warns many of its properties are at increasing risk of extreme weather caused by climate change.

scientists received the signal from the parker solar probe after it had been out of communication for several days during its burning hot flyby. the spacecraft came within 6.1 million kilometres of the sun's surface facing temperatures of around 1000 celsius. sign to say the mission will provide data that will help forecast a face weather events that can affect life on earth. it seems like science fiction, sending an un—crewed spacecraft to the sun. nasser�*s parker solar probe was designed to withstand its scorching heat. but could it? nasa has now confirmed that it has and the spacecraft sent back a beacon signal

indicating it survive the closest ever approach to the sun. we have never had a _ ever approach to the sun. we have never had a human _ ever approach to the sun. we have never had a human made - ever approach to the sun. we have never had a human made object i ever approach to the sun. we have j never had a human made object so close to the sun. also we had to not melt, that is why parker has this heat shield that holds the instruments at room temperature and keeps the heat of the sun away. these are just amazing feats and it is so amazing that we are so close in really getting to measure in detail this material up close. lift off of the mighty delta for rocket. there _ off of the mighty delta for rocket. there have been many missions to study the sun but there is so much more we can learn, especially about the sun's shimmering atmosphere. which we can see from earth during a total solar eclipse. this which we can see from earth during a total solar eclipse.— total solar eclipse. this new data from this very — total solar eclipse. this new data from this very incredibly - total solar eclipse. this new data from this very incredibly close i from this very incredibly close approach to the sun, just touching the surface of that corona is going to hopefully give us a lot more information about exactly what is going on in our beautiful, beautiful sun that heats up and gives us

light. sun that heats up and gives us liuht. , , �*, ., . light. close up the sun's magnetic field twists _ light. close up the sun's magnetic field twists and _ light. close up the sun's magnetic field twists and lifts _ light. close up the sun's magnetic field twists and lifts its _ light. close up the sun's magnetic field twists and lifts its explosive l field twists and lifts its explosive surface. it's hoped the solar probe will shed light on the processes that make this happen and how this solar turbulence affects us on earth but we will have to wait until the 1st of january before they see the initial data. the astronomer royal of scotland prof catherine heymans, who we heard in that report, told me more about the confirmation of the fly—by. it made its approach on christmas eve but it was on the far side of the sun so it took until this morning before it could come back around and communicate with it. at 5am this morning radio station in canberra got the message that it was safe and sound, which is an absolute i°y safe and sound, which is an absolute joy for us as astronomers because this is the finale of this mission.

it has been up the last seven years looping and doing an orbit between venus and the sun. each time it's gone past the sun it's got closer and closer. this is the first time it is reaching temperatures of 1000 celsius. and amazingly it has survived! it was built to survive this, but it has worked. the electronics on board have not been fried by this journey, electronics on board have not been fried by thisjourney, they electronics on board have not been fried by this journey, they have been protected by an outer shield and it has been recording data about the magnetic field on the sun, the high energy particles that are there. it has been taking images and it has also been looking at what is happening there. and the biggest question that there is that we still want to find out the answers to is why the atmosphere around the sun is so extremely hot. and that is what we are hoping this last finale of this mission is going to be able to tell us. 50 this mission is going to be able to tell us. , ,

this mission is going to be able to tell us, , , ., this mission is going to be able to tell us. , , ., ., , tell us. so this is a really important _ tell us. so this is a really important scientific - tell us. so this is a really - important scientific mission, isn't it? it is looking for some really interesting and important answers to key scientific questions? absolutely. on planet earth, if you go absolutely. on planet earth, if you 9° up absolutely. on planet earth, if you go up in an aeroplane and fly higher and higher in our atmosphere, it gets colder and colder. the opposite is true with the sun. there is a region around the sun, the atmosphere that is called the corona. it is 1000 times hotter than the surface of the sun. as the sun is already incredibly hot, the surface of the sun is 5500 celsius but in the middle of this corona that we believe it gets up to i that we believe it gets up to 1 million or 2 million celsius and we don't understand why, what is causing that to get so much hotter than the surface of the sun. the early results from the probe is to suggest it is to do with the magnetic field, it gets all turned and twisted on the surface which we see as sunspots which create these big solar flares that we get appreciate here on earth as those

gorgeous northern lights, the aurora we have had a lot of this year. but there is a lot we don't understand about how it all works, how it could be fuelling this hot atmosphere around the sun and this new data from this very incredibly close approach of the sun, just touching the surface of the corona is going to hopefully give us a lot more information about exactly what is going on in our beautiful, beautiful sun that heats up and gives us light. the political crisis in south korea has deepened in the last few hours after mps voted to impeach the acting president. there was chaos in parliament — a majority of lawmakers voted in favour of impeaching han duck—so — less than two weeks after he was appointed

to the leadership, following the impeachment of former president yoon suk yeol over his failed attempt to impose martial law. han is accused of aiding and abetting that attempt and also of blocking the appointment of three judges that parliament had chosen to oversee the case against the former president. this man — choi sang—mok — the finance minister— will now become south korea's third president in two weeks. he said the government has ordered the military to step up vigilance this man — choi sang—mok — the finance minister— will now become south korea's third president in two weeks. he said the government has ordered the military to step up vigilance our correspondentjean mackenzie has more from seoul. there were these dramatic and angry scenes in parliament earlier, as mps voted to remove the prime ministerfrom office, who has been standing in as the president ever since president yoon sung yeol was impeached himself less than two weeks ago. now it is the opposition party here in south korea that has done this. they have a huge majority in parliament and as they voted to impeach mr han, it was members of mr

yoon�*s party, the ruling party, that leapt to their feet and surrounded the speaker of the house. they were shouting at him. they are angry that he's even allowed this vote to go ahead. this is the level of animosity here now between the two parties. so how did we get here? well, over the past couple of days, this row has erupted between the prime minister and the opposition party. mr han has refused to appoint the judges that parliament had chosen to oversee mr yoon�*s impeachment trial. this is the court case that is going to decide whether mr yoon is ultimately barred from office. and the opposition party have decided that mr han, by refusing to appoint thesejudges, has been protecting the president, and so he's no longer fit to run the country. what this means is that the country's finance minister is now in charge. he's the third in command. but people here are asking, well, where is this going to end? because if the finance minister comes in and he also refuses to appoint thesejudges, then the opposition party could impeach him too. and they could continue doing this effectively, leaving south korea without a government.

and this is now the level of political deadlock in this country, with both partiesjust shouting at each other and blaming each other for the chaos. german president frank—walter steinmeier has announced a snap election for february 23 next year after chancellor olaf scholz recently lost a confidence vote in parliament. here he is speaking a short time ago in berlin. translation: l have - in the past weeks spoken to leaders of the opposition and the ruling coalition after the no confidence vote. i've explored options for another coalition but have not been able to establish a majority. therefore, i am convinced that for the good of our country, new elections are now the right way forward. azerbaijan airlines says it is cancelling seven of its routes into russia following the crash of one of its jets in kazakhstan on christmas day.

38 people died and 29 survived. a number of aviation experts have said the crash was likely caused by a russian air defence system mistaking the passengerjet for a ukrainian drone. russia's aviation watchdog insists the crew chose to reroute from their original destination in chechnya — amid dense fog and a drone alert. our bbc russian service reporter sergei goryashko says azerbaijan airlines is not the only company to cancel flights. they are already a third company, which has decided to cancel some flights to russia in regards with this air crash. so first was the israeli airline which has cancelled all the flights to russia forfor the moment. and another kazakhstan air company decided to scrap its flights to ekaterinburg city in the russian urals until until further notice.

azerbaijan airlines has cancelled all flights to russia city, will keep flying in moscow, saint petersburg, yekaterinburg and some other cities. but they won't be flying to the cities in the russian south and especially in grozny, where this plane which crashed has been directed to. and meanwhile, the investigation into what happened continues? uh, indeed. kremlin still does not comment on the investigation and on any versions which appear now on the both on the social media and in the news. according to some sources, the kremlin spokesperson dmitry peskov told that they have seen the statements coming from baku, azerbaijan capital, saying that russia should admit they accidentally shot down the plane. but he insisted that the

investigation is still ongoing. it's still under way and until, it's concluded the kremlin would not comment on the situation. and on the russian tv, the version that the plane could have been shot down is not discussed at all. it's just basically ignored. uh, the only two versions of what has happened with the azerbaijani plane is that either it encountered some technical problems or it hit some birds. that's what's discussed on russian tv now. nato says it will step up navy patrols in the baltic, after russia was accused of deliberately cutting an undersea power cable. the estlink2 carries electricity between finland and estonia, but stopped working on christmas day. finnish police say a ship operating on behalf of russia dropped anchor and dragged it along the seabed to sever the link. here's the president of finland speaking about the incident.

we were able to get the situation under control and locate the ship in question, bring it to finnish waters and begin a criminal proceeding. our message is quite clear. we've got the situation under control, and we have to continue to work together vigilantly to make sure that our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders. it's too soon to draw conclusions yet why this happened? we know who did it. and now to london, a man has been charged with four counts of attempted murder after four pedestrians were hit by a car in the capital's west end. it happened on christmas day when police were called to reports of a car being driven on the wrong side of the road in soho in the early hours of the morning.

the man charged, anthony gilheaney, has also been charged with causing serious injury by driving while disqualified, driving a motor vehicle dangerously, and possession of a bladed article in a public place. one victim remains in a critical condition in hospital. people living in sudan's capital, khartoum, have welcomed the first convoy of food aid to arrive since the break—out of civil war in april last year. these are pictures of food trucks being unloaded in khartoum on thursday. the delivery of supplies was arranged by united nations agencies and local sudanese support groups, who negotiated with the warring sides. although aid has reached other parts of the country since the start of the war, more than 2a million people are in urgent need of food aid , that's about half of the entire population. experts warn that the country is sliding into a "widening famine crisis" that has been marked by worsening starvation and a surge in acute malnutrition. duaa tariq volunteers for a local community initiative, emergency response rooms, which has been helping

with the distribution of food aid. she updated me on the situation in khartoum. we're actually here in khartoum in desperate need of this aid. we've been waiting for it, and we've been trying so many ways and methods to go around this. but the only way to help reduce the famine effect in khartoum right now is to receive this aid. how much aid has been delivered? what are your figures on that? um, so right now, this aid we received, this was the first time in south khartoum, which is one of the most affected areas in khartoum since, um, the three cities of the capital, two parts of them have received aid before. but this is the first time the aid comes through our area, which is, um, south khartoum. and this aid, which is, will hopefully help around 15,000 families in south khartoum and along with aid and kits for the children from the unicef that is supposed

to help around 200,000 children. how bad, then, is the situation in khartoum? how badly needed is this aid? we have very severe malnutrition cases. we have so many. i mean, dozens of children died from malnutrition. um, we're trying we've been trying to intervene, but we cannot do anything because we need these ready meals to support the children. and since the absence of the health... ..and the collapse of the health system, we cannot operate and we cannot help the few hospitals. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

you are watching bbc news. let's get the sports news. hello from the bbc sport centre. asrenal can take advantage of an opportunity offered up by chelsea's slip up against fulham on thursday. their match against ipswich is one of the two later. mikel arteta's side have dropped behind nottingham forest but can overtake both them and chelsea with a win at the emirates, taking them to within six points of leaders liverpool. but arsenal will have to manage without the injured bukayo saka. we will take it in a positive way. that doesn't mean that we are going to be defensive because we went through a period with martin, we went through a period with five or six defenders missing, we went through a period without many other players and we will continue to do that, find new ways and taking it with positive energy. that's it. a late flurry of wickets has given australia control

of the boxing day test in melbourne, with india more than 300 runs behind after day two. replying to the home side's first innings score of a74 built on the back of steve smith's 34th test century. india started well but a chaotic run out and then the wicket of virat kohli started a mini collapse in which the tourists lost three batters forjust six runs — leaving them in trouble at 164 forfive. it was celebrated particularly by australian teenager sam konstas, who was barged into by kohli when he was batting on debut yesterday leading to a fine for the indian player. iga swiatek said she feared losing her fans after her positive doping case earlier this year. the five—time grand slam champion failed an out—of—competition drug test in august. but tennis�* integrity unit accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by the contamination

of a different substance she was taking to help jet lag and sleeping issues. swiatek accepted a one—month suspension in november overall the reaction is important because mostly of what i read has been supportive and i really appreciate that. because even when i missed training and nobody knew why, it wasn't so easy. after my case, the information about my case... i was scared most of the people will turn their back on me but i felt the support and it's great. it was a day of last—gasp finishes on dramatic night in the nba as four games were decided in the final 10 seconds while the atlanta hawks scored 50 points in the final quarter of their game to come from 17 points down to stun the chicago bulls. meanwhile, in indiana

the oklahoma city thunder came from 15 points down to beat the pacers for their ninth straight win. shay gilgeous—alexander was the star of the show as he led the way for the thunder with a career—high equalling 45 points. he also added eight rebounds and seven assists as the thunder took the win 120 to 114. and that's all the sport for now. in the uk, the national trust has warned that many of its properties are at risk from increasingly extreme weather caused by climate change, with recent storms and flooding damaging estates across england and wales. our climate editorjustin rowlatt has been to bodnant national park, in north wales, to see the results of high winds earlier this month. storm darragh tore down more than 30 mature trees as it ripped through bodnant gardens in north wales earlier this month. this place has one of the national trust's, one of the uk's finest collections of trees.

ned lomax is head gardener here at bodnant. a big span of douglas fir up here and they've alljust come down one by one like dominoes. he says many of the lost trees are 150 years old or more. they've weathered quite a few storms, and it comes just two years after storm arwen, which caused even more damage. we're seeing storms like this far more frequently. it seems they're more severe and they come more close together as well. we used to call them once in a generation storms. so the garden team, who have worked here for many years, remember similar storms back in the �*80s. and then these two, arwen and darragh are so close together, three years apart has really sort of knocked us sideways. and it isn'tjust the loss of important trees to the garden, clearing up the mess will cost thousands of pounds and will take months.

avebury manor in wiltshire, is still closed after heavy rains in january caused it to flood for the first time in 300 years. it isn't just storms that are reshaping national trust estates. this year, 2024 is set to be the hottest on record globally, but here in the uk we haven't seen the kind of record heat we got back in 2022. warm and wet! that is the hallmark of 2024's weather here in the uk, and it's another year that has seen a blurring between the seasons. so the transitions in temperature and weather between say, winter and spring and spring and summer have become less pronounced, says the national trust. ben mccarthy is in charge of nature conservation at the trust. generally, what we're seeing is a trend away from these big seasonal kind of triggers for nature and the ecosystems that it

forms working well. but we're also seeing really strange weather patterns. for example, we had snow a few weeks ago, followed by days of kind of balmy weather in kind of the low kind of teens. and if you're an animal going into hibernation, this causes chaos to your kind of natural rhythms. the damage here at bodnant should have been cleared by the summer. the question now is what to plant in place of the lost trees. the gardeners here say the priority is trees that will be able to withstand the climate in 150 years' time. different species better able to cope with the weather extremes we can expect then. justin rowlatt, bbc news, north wales. one of the last functioning hospitals in northern gaza has been forcibly evacuated by the israeli military. the kamal adwan hospital has been under siege by the idf for weeks. staff say airstrikes overnight that

targeted the area killed 50 people. the head of the nursing department at the hospital told the bbc the army had given them a 15—minute warning to evacuate patients and staff into the courtyard. israel has not commented on the evacuation. the prime minister, sir keir starmer has been paying tribute to his brother, nicky has died at the age of 60. he described his younger brother as a wonderful man. a spokesman said he died peacefully on boxing day after a struggle with cancer. the prime minister had been going on holiday with his family on friday but it is now understood he will stay at home. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. we're holding on to this very benign, gloomy weather

across most of the country. winds are light, so there's nothing really to stir the air around. so it does stay cloudy and misty for most. some fog patches in places which could be stubborn to clear, and we'll continue to see patches of light rain and drizzle. this fog could be problematic across england and wales through the course of today, sojust bear that in mind if you are heading out on the roads. so it's all down to this area of high pressure bringing these light winds, very stagnant air. we still have this weather front straddling parts of scotland, northern ireland, that will bring thicker cloud with outbreaks of rain here. but most of england and wales will be rather grey with that fog in places, although some sunshine certainly over the higher ground of wales across the pennines, perhaps over the moors of south west england. but for most it stays cloudy and feels quite chilly. temperatures in single figures for most up to ten or 11 across scotland, where we get some sunshine. as we head through tonight it stays quite misty and murky for england and wales. further outbreaks of rain for scotland and northern ireland

as we continue to see that weather front draped across the north. any clear spells temperatures will dip close to freezing, but where we hold on to the cloud, then generally between four and 9 degrees. into the weekend, then we have this weather front pushing a little bit further southwards so it could bring outbreaks of rain to central southern scotland, northern ireland. but through the day, with the breeze picking up in the northwest, we may start to see more sunshine for scotland and northern ireland, with a few showers in the northwest, but again for large parts of england and wales, it's going to be another rather grey and gloomy day to start the weekend, and again quite chilly — seven to ten or 11 degrees. some changes though, as we move into sunday. more isobars on the chart it turns breezier. a more active weather front pushes into scotland, so some heavier, more persistent rain here. more of a breeze. so we should see the clouds breaking up, even across england and wales, as an increasing chance of seeing some sunshine, which will be a bit of a relief. temperatures may respond a bit— up to ten or 11 for most, where any mist and fog lingers or low cloud, then it will stay quite chilly,

but it stays unsettled. wet, windy across northern areas of the run up to new year, there's a potential of a deeper area of low pressure, which could bring some wet and stormy weather around new year's eve, so this could give rise to some transport disruption. have to stay tuned to the forecast for this and then in the first few days of january, looks like it will turn colder for all with sunshine and wintry showers. take care.

now on bbc news —

thief at the british museum. so, what are you holding there? i'm holding two gems that came from the british museum and which i'm now bringing back to them. is that stolen property that you're holding? yes. this is dr ittai gradel — and to clarify, he is not the thief. but the gems ittai's holding are at the heart of the story i'm about to tell you. it's emerged that the british museum was warned more than two years ago that objects from its collection were being put up for sale. more than 1,500 items were stolen, damaged or are missing from this place. this is a story about one of britain's most revered institutions and the theft of ancient treasures that were sold around the world.

it was very shocking.