the closest ever approach to the sun. the uk government is being urged to send more prisoners to low—securityjails to help reduce reoffending and overcrowding. 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. 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, not all the 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. for more on these latest developments, i'mjoined by chief foreign affairs correspondent of the wall streetjournal and author of our enemies will vanish: the russian invasion and ukraine's war of independence, yaroslav trofimov. very good to see you. we now have azerbaijan airline saying there was external technical and physical interference, but not pointing the finger of blame on any particular direction. what do you make of that development? if you speak to airline safety experts and analysts, these words are pretty clear. external physical interference means something hit the plane, and external technical interference means jamming, jamming of communications and

the gps signal. that is directly what azerbaijani officials cited by the media were saying the day before, so they were accusing russian air defences of mistakenly shooting down or hitting the plane, and then preventing its landing on airfields in russia, and jamming its signal, and as one of the azerbaijani officials said, at least, they hope was that the plane would crash in the caspian sea and nobody would find the wreckage, that we would find that the actual reason for this incident. are they avoiding pointing the finger of blame, do you think, at moscow, as others are, because they don't want to antagonise president putin? i think the way they phrased it is pretty close to pointing at moscow, and in the same announcement, the azerbaijani airlines also announced that they are stopping flights to nearly ten russian cities because of safety concerns, and let us remember, when news of

this incident hits, the azerbaijani president was on his way to saint petersburg to take part in a summit of leaders of post—soviet states, and turned around and flew back to baku to preside over the investigation of this. so there is a lot of outrage about this in azerbaijan, not only about the incident itself, but about how russia appears to be attempting to cover it up, the way, it has to be said, they have covered up previous incidents, such as the shooting down of the malaysian airliner in 2015. and an international inquiry into what has happened is being called for. that seems unlikely at the moment. so what do you think the long—term consequences in terms of diplomacy in the region could be? the inquiry is already sort of international, because the plane was a brazilian plane, so specialists and inspectors from brazil have already arrived in kazakhstan, which is taking over the investigation, and it's really interesting to see the language coming out of

kazakhstan, because in the first hours after the crash, kazakhstan officials said that oxygen had exploded inside the plane, and today, they clarified that this initial information was erroneous, it had come from russian dispatches and was not something they had ascertained. so it is one more illustration of how russia was coming up with a variety of stories to deny how it really happen. yaroslav trofimov, good to talk to you. thank you forjoining us. thank you. 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 is—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. drmimi syed is in deir al balah. she's an emergency physician from the united states, on her second medical mission to gaza. i asked her what conditions were like for people living in gaza right now. it has been terrible. i actually never thought that coming back my second time, things would get worse. it is in fact worse. what i understand is that patients are completely being evacuated. the hospital is completely under siege. there is only one of the hospital they could go to, which is al—shifa in gaza city, and it is definitely not capable of taking care of that number of patients. we do expect a large number of patients coming into central gaza, where i am here. again, this hospital is nowhere near equipped to take care of that number of patients. we are heavily burdened. there are no resources here at the hospital for the patients that are

already coming here. i can't imagine what is going to be happening in the next few days. when you say it is worse on this visit then it was last time, tell us why. i this visit then it was last time, tell us why.- this visit then it was last time, tell us why. i was here in august — time, tell us why. i was here in august and _ time, tell us why. i was here in august and i _ time, tell us why. i was here in august and i was - time, tell us why. i was here in august and i was in - time, tell us why. i was here in august and i was in khan i in august and i was in khan younis and another place, and we were seeing multiple casualties. again, most of the casualties. again, most of the casualties we are seeing are women and children, and again, i'm seeing the same. about 70% of the cases we are seeing are women and children, and all of them in fact have been civilians. we are seeing the same type of shrapnel injuries, blast injuries, facial injuries, things that are so difficult to take care of, but now on top of it, i have been working in the paediatric emergency department, and we are seeing the results of this aggression. we are seeing lots of cases of dehydration and kidney failure. the e. coli is terrible. there is no chlorine to filter the water. the water has high levels of sodium and salt in there because it is sea

water, and there is no way to filter it, so patients are going back to their tents and encampments and continuing to get diarrhoea and gastrointestinal illnesses, and leading to multiple organ failure, and unfortunately this is disproportionately affecting children. , ., , is disproportionately affecting children. , ., ., children. yes, i was also going to sa , children. yes, i was also going to say. all— children. yes, i was also going to say, all these _ children. yes, i was also going to say, all these people - to say, all these people sleeping in tents. i guess the other difference for you this time is just how cold it is. absolutely. time isjust how cold it is. absolutely.— time isjust how cold it is. absolutely. are you seeing eo - le absolutely. are you seeing peeple coming _ absolutely. are you seeing people coming in - absolutely. are you seeing people coming in with - people coming in with hypothermia? this week there have been four cases of newborn babies that have died from hypothermia solely. 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. they are by the sea, so the temperatures have dropped significantly. 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. 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 prime minister, sir keir starmer, has paid nato will step up patrols in the baltic after it accuses russia of cutting an undersea cable. it is said a ship operating on behalf of russia dropped anchor and drag it along the sea bed to sever the link. here is the president of finland speaking of 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. 0ur message is quite clear. we have got the situation under control and we have to continue work together, diligently, to make sure that our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders. it is too soon to draw conclusions yet why this happened. we know who did it. 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. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

welcome back. now for a look at the sport. hello. two games in the premier league on friday. brighton host brentford and arsenal can take advantage of chelsea slipping up against fulham yesterday if they beat ipswich. mikel arteta's side have dropped behind nottingham forest, but can overtake both them and chelsea with a win against kieran mckenna's side at the emirates. that would take them to within six points of leaders liverpool. however, arsenal will have to manage without the injured bukayo sa ka. 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 also worsened at tottenham. they could be without a fit centre back for their game against wolves on sunday. spurs finished their loss yesterday at nottingham forest with midfielders archie gray and yves bissouma at the heart of defence after radu dragushin was injured. ben davies has reportedly suffered a setback in training. postecoglou has said this is the worst injury situation he's faced in his managerial career. my motivation to do what i do is to try and create teams that win 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 we'll create the team we want 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 474, 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 for just six runs. it left 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 is affecting play now, with pakistan on 88—3 in their second innnings,

trailing by two runs with seven wickets remaining. iga swiatek has said she feared losing herfans 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.

despite very foggy conditions, val dancer emerged as the winner of the welsh grand national at chepstow. the mel rowley—trained 8 to 1 shot, ridden by charlie hammond, held on in the final stages to outlastjubilee express in second and i will do it in third. and that's all the sport for now. thanks. david gauke, the former conservative justice secretary leading the uk government's sentencing review, has suggested that "more use should be made of open prisons", in order to tackle over—crowding and reduce re—offending. highlighting how the prison system is running out of space, mr gauke suggested that allowing inmates more freedom to leave for study and work could be an opportunity for change. his comments follow visits to prisons in spain, where reforms have resulted in 25% of inmates being placed in open prisons. in the spanish open prison

that we saw, there was a real focus on ensuring that when prisoners reach the end of their custodial sentence, they are as prepared as possible for life outside, and i think that makes a huge amount of sense, because what we all want to ensure is that we bring down the reoffending rate, which is much higher than we would want it to be, much higher in the uk than it is in spain, and part of the answer to that, i believe, is making sure that the whole of that time in prison is used to prepare people for the outside world. and open prisons, i think, play a very important part in that, because there's much more flexibility as to what you can do. with me is political correspondent henry zeffman. there is a big problem with prison overcrowding here in the uk, henry, but one of the solution is being suggested here as open prisons. what are they? it here as open prisons. what are the ? , ,, ., , here as open prisons. what are the? ,,, ., they? it is essentially a

rison they? it is essentially a prison with _ they? it is essentially a prison with far - they? it is essentially a prison with far fewer i prison with far fewer restrictions on the prisoners and less security around them. so a prisoner in an open prison or a category d prisoner as they are known in england and wales, might be able to leave the prison during the day to work or study, and then return to prison overnight, the hope being that they might get into a routine which means when they are eventually released from prison, they are much less likely to reoffend. they really aren't used very much in england and, certainly compared to spain, where, as you were hearing, david gauke has visited for inspiration. in england and wales, it is just 6%, compared to around 25% there. 6%, compared to around 2596 there. ., 696, compared to around 2596 there. ., ., , there. the government has promised _ there. the government has promised to _ there. the government has promised to tackle - there. the government has promised to tackle what. there. the government has promised to tackle what is | promised to tackle what is happening in prisons ever since they were elected. will they listen to mr gauke?- listen to mr gauke? yes, practically _ listen to mr gauke? yes, practically the _ listen to mr gauke? yes, practically the first - listen to mr gauke? yes, practically the first thing | listen to mr gauke? yes, i practically the first thing the government did after being elected injuly, they allow themselves a couple of days of jubilation, and then when the hang of it, you heard from the justice secretary saying, hang on, the issues in prison are so

much worse than we thought, and she and keir starmer announced they would release some prisoners earlier than they would previously have been. but that was said to be a short—term measure. the reason these comments are significant is, they then said, ok, we must think about the medium and long term. part of that is building new prisons. they say they will build seven over the coming years. but part of that is reviewing how and why they put people imprisoned in 1544 00: