azerbaijan airlines says that the preliminary results of the investigation into the plane crash in kazakhstan has found there was "external physical and technical interference". the prime minister of nepal says there are too many tigers in his country and wants to give some away. hello, i'm lucy hockings. a nasa space probe has made history by flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft. the parker solar probe was out of communication with nasa for three days after coming within six million kilometres of the sun's surface and facing temperatures of up to 1,000 celsius. the spacecraft will provide data about the properties of the sun and will help forecast space—weather events that can affect life on earth, as pallab ghosh reports.

it seems like science fiction — sending an un—crewed spacecraft to the sun. nasa's parker solar probe was designed to withstand its scorching heat. but could it? nasa has now confirmed that it has. the spacecraft sent back a beacon signal indicating that it survived the closest ever approach to the sun. we have never had a human—made object so close to the sun. also, we had to not melt, that's why the parker has this heat shield that holds the instruments at room temperature and keeps the heat of the sun away. and these are just amazing feats, and so it's so amazing that we were so close and really getting to measure in detail this material up close. lift off of the mighty delta iv heavy rocket. there have been many missions to study the sun, but there's 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 new data 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's going on in our beautiful, beautiful sun that heats up and gives us light. close up, the sun's magnetic field twists and lifts its explosive surface. it's hoped that the solar probe will shed light on the processes that make this happen and how this solar turbulence affects us on earth. but they'll have to wait until the 1st of january before they see the initial data. pallab ghosh, bbc news. 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. the israeli army subsequently entered the hospital and has been removing the patients that remained. israel has not commented on the evacuation. let's speak to our middle east correspondent shaimaa khalil. shejoins us from she joins us from jerusalem. good to hear you. what is the latest you're hearing about the situation at kamal adwan? we have heard from medical staff who say that, as you mention, they were given very, very short time to evacuate the hospital, both the patients and the medical staff, and that is really soldiers went into the hospital and evacuated the rest. —— is really soldiers. we also heard reports from medical staff inside the hospital that some of the

people were taken in the courtyard and told to strip and take off their clothes in very, very cold conditions. we haven't heard a comment from the israeli military about that. one concerning point is, we are not sure where the patients and medical staff are being taken after the evacuation of the hospital. there has been a statement by israeli military officials earlier, a couple of days earlier, a couple of days earlier, that there is an intention to take some of the patients and evacuate them to another hospital, the indonesian hospital. the problem with that is that the indonesian hospital itself has been evacuated and itself has been evacuated and itself has been the site of shelling and bombardment, and so it is essentially hollowed out as a medicalfacility. medical essentially hollowed out as a medical facility. medical staff tell us that you have got people in icu, patients in a coma, who need acute medical attention or stop they need oxygen, for example. they need

medication. and the indonesian hospital is not equipped. this comes after hours, from what we have heard from the head of the hospital, that overnight there had been shelling in the vicinity of the hospital and in the building opposite it, and that resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, around 50 or so, but also major destruction around the hospital. the israeli military said they are unaware of that and are looking into it, but if i could just paint a picture for you and our viewers, these are areas, these are hospitals in northern gaza, injambalaya, in beit hanoun. these areas have essentially been besieged by the israeli army. —— jabalaiya. been besieged by the israeli army. ——jabalaiya. the idf today said it was conducting a military operation around the hospital area targeting hamas

fighters, so the medical staff are trying to get this hospital functioning under these conditions. imagine what then happens when they are themselves subjected to bombardment, evacuation, while they try to take care of these patients with minimal medical facilities and equipment. always good to talk to you. thanks forjoining us from jerusalem. drmimi syed is in deir al balah. that is one of the places we were just talking about. she's an emergency physician from the united states on her second medical mission to gaza. we are seeing some live pictures coming to us from outside this hospital at the moment. i asked her what conditions were like. this week there have been four cases of newborn babies that have died from hypothermia, and the temperatures in the tents are so low. if you think about it, there is no building

material allowed in, so these are tents made of scrap material, and there is no insulation whatsoever. the temperatures have dropped significantly. they are by the sea. i am wearing four layers right now, i am freezing, and i am inside a shelter. i can't imagine as a newborn or a child, and then when you add severe malnutrition on top of that, there is no way that those babies or children are going to survive. and are you getting regular shipments of any kind of supplies? can you speak to that — how often things are getting in and what is needed, medicalsupplies, i mean? yes, absolutely not. i myself, as an ngo, a humanitarian aid worker, am not allowed to bring medical equipment for my own personal use for my patients. i'm not even allowed to bring a small ultrasound machine. so there are absolutely no supplies coming in. the stock rooms are empty. i have footage of the stock rooms. there is enough medication for a week forjust a few patients. i will give you an example.

there is enough paracetamol here — the only thing a baby can take for fever or pain — for two days, so if a baby has a fever, there is no way to treat it. that is just a small example. as we look at those live pictures from outside the hospital, mimi was also saying how desperately they need some of the basic supplies. she told me they are heavily burdened, and there are no resources at her hospital for patients coming in, and they are expecting an influx in the next few days. we have also heard from the capitol world food programme, who have put out a statement on social media saying they are only able to bring in one third of the food they need for hungry people in gaza at the moment. humanitarian aid dropping to one of the lowest levels in a year last month, and the world food programme once again reiterating their call for a ceasefire.

azerbaijan airlines says that the preliminary results of the investigation into the plane crash in kazakhstan has found there was "external physical and technical interference". but the report has stopped short of accusing any group or country of being responsible, nor what the cause of that interference was. azerbaijan airlines had already suspended flights to several russian cities. it says it has to take flight safety risks into account. neither russia nor kazakhstan has confirmed the cause of the crash, but the head of russia's aviation authority says the plane had been unable to land at its planned destination in grozny because of a ukrainian drone attack which was taking place at the time. he added that thick fog had prevented two earlier attempts to land in grozny. ukraine has said russia must be held responsible. and pro—government media in azerbaijan has quoted unnamed officials saying they believed a russian air defence missile caused the plane to crash. one of the survivors, subkhonkul rakhimov, has been speaking to russian—language state media. here's his description of what happened to the airliner. translation: they say

there were two bangs, l but i only heard one. it was quite substantial. i honestly didn't hear the second one. at first, only some of the oxygen masks fell out, and then they all did. maybe that happened after the second bang. i didn't hear the second bang. after the bang, after the masks fell out, i saw the fuselage was slightly damaged. then i got scared. i thought the plane would fall apart, it would decompress and just fall apart straight away. i was already getting ready for the plane just to fall apart. i was conscious when i felt the impact. i was thrown up and down, thrown up again. i was strapped in. iwas down, thrown up again. i was strapped in. i was being thrown back and forth. it all lasted for a few seconds, then everything went quiet. just

silence. it was quiet and calm, and i realised, that was it. we had come down. the prime minister, sir keir starmer, has paid tribute to his brother nick, who has died aged 60. sir keir described his younger brother as a "wonderful man". a spokesman said he died peacefully on boxing day after a fight against cancer. the prime minister had been due to go on holiday with his family on friday, but it is understood he will now stay at home. germany's president has as expected dissolved parliament after the collapse of the governing coalition in november. frank—walter steinmeier�*s announcement clears the way for elections in february to decide who will lead europe's largest economy. 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. the political crisis in south korea has deepened

breaking news from manchester here in the uk. the airport they say fargo is causing disruption to all flights. currently, arrivals are delayed by up currently, arrivals are delayed by up to 80 minutes and departures by up to 70 minutes. so some bad fog in manchester disrupting flights there. more on this story when we have it. the political crisis in south korea has deepened after mps voted to impeach the acting president. there was chaos in parliament as lawmakers voted to impeach han duck—soo less than two weeks after he was appointed to the leadership. he'd succeeded the former president, yoon suk yeol, who was impeached after trying to impose martial law. han is accused of supporting the plan for martial law, and then blocking the appointment ofjudges 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.

0ur 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. 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 parties just shouting at each other and blaming each other for the chaos. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

now it's time for a look at today's sport. sarah is at the sports centre.

thanks very much, lucy. two games in the premier league this friday, and arsenal can take advantage of an opportunity offered up by chelsea's slip up against fulham yesterday. mikel arteta's side have dropped behind nottingham forest, but can overtake both them and chelsea with a win against ipswich at the emirates. that would take them to within six points of leaders liverpool. however, arsenal will have to manage without the injured bukayo saka. take it in a positive way, because that's going to mean that we are going to be different. we went through the period with martin, we went through the period with five, six defenders missing, and we went through the period without many other players, and we will continue to do that, finding ways, and taking it with positive energy, that's it. the injury crisis has worsened at tottenham. they could be without a fit centre—back for their game against wolves on sunday, as ben davies has suffered a setback in training. spurs finished their loss yesterday at nottingham forest with midfielders archie gray and yves bissouma at the heart

of defence after radu dragasin was injured. postecoglou has acknowledged this period is the worst he has faced in his lengthy managerial career. my my motivation to do what i do is to try and create teams that win with things and have success and make an impact, and that doesn't really change. i'll keep doing what i'm doing, and it doesn't add any pressure, or i don't feel any extra anxiety about anything. i firmly believe that, you know, we'll get through this and we'll come out stronger and will come out the team we to be. 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 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 for 5. 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. meanwhile, at the close of play on day two in centurion in the opening test between south africa and pakistan, debutant fast bowler corbin bosch, batting at number nine, hit an attacking 81 not out to take south africa to a 90—run first innings lead. bad light affected play, with pakistan on 88—3 in their second innnings, trailing by two runs with seven wickets remaining. 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 in poland has been pretty supportive. i really appreciate that, because even when i missed a competition and people did not know why, it was not so easy, and so when the information about my case was released, i was scared that most of the people are going to turn their backs on me, but i felt the support, and it's great. as always, plenty more on our website. and that's all the sport for now. thank you, sarah.

in the uk, the national trust has warned that many of its properties are at risk from increasingly extreme weather caused by climate change. 0ur climate editor justin 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 dara are so close together, and darragh so close together, three years apart, so it 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 injanuary 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. an unusual problem in nepal to bring you now, where the prime minister says there are too many wild tigers living in the country. according to kp sharma 0li, nepal already has more than 350 tigers, and that's too many. he said a population of around 150 of the big cats would be manageable. his proposed solution is to give tigers as gifts to different countries. and his conclusion — nepal can't have so many tigers while they eat people. 0fficials figures show that more than 30 people were killed by tigers in nepal since 2019. our global environmental correspondent for the world service, navin singh khadka, outlined to me how much of a problem the wild tigers are posing in nepal.

the more we see an increase in the number of tigers, the more incidents, the more complex. those people who are impacted have been saying this, but the celebration, because nepal tripled the population during that duration. there was a huge party. so that kind of voice was kind of suppressed, and now politicians are bringing it up, also because the national community is not coughing up money for conservation, and even climate change. that's why we're hearing all these grudges from that level. and in terms of conservation and what is happening with the tigers, as you said, a bit of a success story, there was a party. i guess conservationists are against this move that is being suggested that a whole lot of them get sent overseas? you see, those who were or are involved in this thing would still say that, this is good, actually, we need to manage the conflicts. there are ways of doing it, there are measures. but those who are not, including some conservationists, they say, we need to define the carrying capacity of this country and how many

national parks and areas and so on and so forth. but of course, the official document also says there are problematic tigers. where do you keep them? how do you sustain them? that question goes on. so the prime minister's proposition that we need to send tigers, tiger diplomacy — when i talk to officials, they say tiger diplomacy is yet to kick off. more on our top stories on our website. many of you are clicking on and reading our top story, about nasa making history with its closest ever approach to the sun. this is the spacecraft parker solar probe, which survive the closest ever approach to the sun. they called it touching the sun. it had been out of communication for several days, but seen as a huge achievement by nasa. all the details therefore you are on the website. 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 stirthe airaround.

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, so just 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 10 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 4 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 10 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, and an increasing chance of seeing some sunshine, which will be a bit of a relief. temperatures may respond a bit, up to 10 or ii 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 in the run up to new year, and 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 — the firing line.

as conflicts rage across the globe... explosion ..and press freedom comes under sustained attack... don't worry. just drive, drive, drive. drive, drive! we have to leave straight away. ..we celebrate the crucial work and unwavering commitment of freelance journalists and film—makers worldwide. often the only eyes on the ground... complete chaos. women and children are taking this place as a refuge. ..in challenging and dangerous places. they've got guns pointed to us. step outside, please. 0k~ _ who are the people who bring us these stories? how do they do it? and what drives them to the firing line? asjournalists, we know the importance of being where news breaks, of capturing the situation on the ground,