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. and 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. survivors of a plane crash in kazakhstan in which 38 people died have given dramatic accounts of at least one blast outside the aircraft before it came down. two passengers who are now in hospital spoke of a loud bang when the plane tried to land at its original destination in chechnya on wednesday. azerbaijan airlines said its plane had suffered external physical and technical interference. it gave no details. the kremlin has again refused to comment on speculation that the plane was mistakenly brought down by a russian air defence system.

russia's civil aviation agency said ukrainian drones were active in the area at the time. one of the survivors, subkhonkul rakhimov, has been speaking to russian—language state media. 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, hit 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, everything was quiet and calm, and i realised that was it. we come down. the wall streetjournal�*s chief foreign affairs correspondent, yaroslav trofimov, said there was outrage over the incident in azerbaijan. i think the way they phrased it is pretty close to pointing blame 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's remember, when news of this incident hit, the azerbaijani president, aliyev, was on his way to saint petersburg to take part in this summit of leaders of post—soviet states. he 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 also about how russia attempts to be covering it up — the way, one must say, they have covered up previous incidents, such as the shooting down of the malaysian airliner over eastern ukraine in 2014. i'm joined now by konul khalilova from the bbc azerbaijani service. good to see you. lots of different strands of this story to discuss, but azerbaijan airlines have released this report. much detail is in? we understand — report. much detail is in? - understand from what the minister of degenerative limit and transport said that they are sure it was hit by a military device, but for now, they have not announced what it was. he said that there was a visible damage, including holes in the wing, and the investigation shy to find out what kind of weapon has been used. he said that the preliminary results show that it was an external interference

and i quote him. he says, the preliminary outcome that azerbaijan came is it was an external interference, he said. he also has been referring to people's accounts, to those who survived, and he said that they heard three times blasts happening outside the aircraft. in flight attendant also told the local media in azerbaijan that as soon as the plane took off, it was hit by some kind of external strike. aviation experts have been saying that since yesterday, that the plane was damaged by shrapnel from russian air defence missile explosion. russian air defence missile expl°5i°"-_ russian air defence missile exlosion. . , ., ., , explosion. yeah, rush ahead is den in: explosion. yeah, rush ahead is denying those _ explosion. yeah, rush ahead is denying those claims _ explosion. yeah, rush ahead is denying those claims at - explosion. yeah, rush ahead is denying those claims at the - denying those claims at the moment. what are we hearing from the kremlin —— rush is denying. how strong does it feel like the evidence is against russia at this point? there are reports in azerbaijan that both russia and kazakhstan proposed having a committee

from the question that former soviet republic union, which is cis, to investigate the crash, but azerbaijan had instead demanded international inquiry, including experts from the manufacturer of the plane and resilient aviation authorities. from the reports improve governmental media in azerbaijan who published leaks confirmation for my ranking azerbaijan officials, it is clear that they think it was russian army who accidentally hit the plane and they want moscow to apologise, but it seems moscow is not planning such an apology yet stub a common spokesperson, dmitri prescott, said that moscow is aware of such demands in azerbaijan, but he said the kremlin will refrain from making such assessments until the investigation is complete. konul, thank you. good to have you with us.

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 ist 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 air strikes 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 is 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. 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 just 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, which, the temperatures drop 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? yeah, 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. a man has been charged with the murder of a woman who was set on fire on a new york subway train on sunday. sebastian zapeta allegedly set the person's clothes alight and then fanned the flames by waving a shirt around her. let's speak to our north america correspondent rowan bridge. this is so shocking, this particular incident, rowan. what more can you tell us about what happened on that train? . what happened on that train? , this was about 7:30pm when police say this woman was apparently asleep on a subway train, a person went over to her with a lighter and sent her

a light. they say she was engulfed with flames within a matter of seconds in part because those flames were fanned by the person holding the shirt. police became aware of what was happening and rushed to the scene. they used a fire is signature trying put out the flames but sadly the woman died at the scene —— fire extinguisher. at the moment she has not been identified. it is thought she may have been a homeless person. but they are now trying to use dna and figure print techniques to identify who she might be —— advanced fingerprint techniques. sebastian zapeta was arrested soon afterwards because he was caught on surveillance cameras and police body were camera footage and was recognised some schoolchildren who alerted the authorities. he was arrested soon afterwards. and there was a court hearing today where he was charged with a number of offences, including murder one, which is the most murder offence you can face. that carries in the state of new york a sentence of life without parole if convicted. he is also

facing an arson charge and a number of other murder charges. he is due to appear in court again at the start of the new year. again at the start of the new ear. ~ ., ., , year. do we know any more details about _ year. do we know any more details about sebastian - year. do we know any more - details about sebastian zapeta? 5, details about sebastian zapeta? s, so he was illegally in the country and had been deported. he was from been central america. he had been deported at one point but it is not clear how he came back in the country and at the moment the country and at the moment the police do not alleviate any relationship with the person that he sent a light, but at the moment his circumstances as to exactly what happened and what the motive was behind this attack still remain uncertain. and has this cause further conversations to be had about things like safety on the subway system at the moment? yeah, i think it is something new yorkers are aware of because millions of them travel on the subway system every single day. there has been an increase this year of murders on the new york subway trains committee last year, from five

to nine, but obviously millions of people ready subway system every day and murders, thankfully, and depths of this kind on the subway system are thankfully very rare.— thankfully very rare. rowan, thanks for— thankfully very rare. rowan, thanks forjoining _ thankfully very rare. rowan, thanks forjoining us - thankfully very rare. rowan, thanks forjoining us with - thanks forjoining us with update from washington. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

welcome back. it is time to look at all the day's sport. we canjoinjane at look at all the day's sport. we can joinjane at the sport centre. hi, jane. hi, lucy. a busy time in the football. 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 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 dragusin was injured. ben davies has reportedly suffered a set—back 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. let's update you on the cricket now. 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 for just six runs. it left them in trouble at 164—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 corbyn bosch — batting at number nine — hit an attacking 81 not out to take south africa to a 90—run first—innings lead. pakistan finished the day 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�*s 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 eight—to—one shot, ridden by charlie hammond, held on in the final stages to outlastjubilee express in second and i will do it in third. more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's all for now, though, lucy. jane, thank you.

a former conservative justice secretary, who is leading the british government's review of sentencing, has suggested that "more use should be made of open prisons", in order to tackle over—crowding and reduce re—offending. david gauke suggested allowing inmates more freedom to leave for study and work. his comments follow visits to prisons in spain, where reforms have resulted in a quarter 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.

0ur chief political correspondent, henry zeffman, explained more about why open prisons are seen as a possible solution to the issue of overcrowding. far fewer restrictions on the prisoners and less security around the prisoners. 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 wales, certainly compared to spain, where, as you were hearing, david gauke has visited to get inspiration. in spain, around 25% are in an open prison. in england and wales, it isjust 6%. so, the government obviously have promised to tackle what's happening in prisons ever since they've been elected. are they going to listen to mr gauke when it comes to this recommendation? yeah, it was practically the first thing this government did after taking office back injuly.

they allowed themselves a couple of days ofjubilation, and then come the next week, when the hangover hit, you heard from shabana mahmood, the justice secretary, saying, "0h, hang on, the issue in prison is so much worse than we thought," and she and keir starmer announced they would release some prisoners earlier than they'd previously been released. but they said that was only ever a short—term measure. the reason david gauke's comments are really significant is because, they then said, "ok, but we've got to think about the medium and long term." part of that is building new prisons. they say they will build four new prisons over the next seven years. but part of that is reviewing how and why they put people in prison in the first place, and the man they asked to look at how to do that is david gauke. this is the first flavour of what direction he is going in, and it sounds a political pretty radical departure with how the uk has approached prison policy in recent years. and very briefly, in terms of timing, when are we looking at all of this being addressed? the recommendations are likely to come from david gauke formally to the government in the spring, so after that, you would expect the government to respond formally.

but i think, given the gravity of the issue, they will want to get a move on. 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. 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 sea bed 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.

0ur 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. 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 other countries. he said nepal can't have so many tigers because they are

a threat to 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 conflicts. those people who are impacted had been saying this, but the celebration, because nepal tripled the number 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 international 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 all our top stories on the bbc news website. go take a look. good to have you with us here on bbc news. bye—bye. hello there. the weather for christmas week has been pretty benign. high pressure has brought light winds, a lot of cloud, some mist and fog and also some drizzle. subtle changes as we

head into the weekend. we start to lose the influence of this area of high pressure and begin to pick up more of an atlantic influence, which should mean there should be more breeze and see a bit more sunshine. but we've still got this weather front straddling the north and west of scotland. that'll bring further rain through this evening and overnight. elsewhere, again, there's a lot of cloud around, some mist and fog, some drizzle too. but where skies are clear, then it will turn quite chilly — temperatures getting down to 1 or 2 degrees. for most, though, holding up to between 5—9 celsius. so into the first part of the weekend, for saturday, we're losing the influence of that area of high pressure, picking up more of a westerly breeze for scotland and northern ireland. so initially, it'll be grey with outbreaks of rain. that weather front sinks southwards and tends to fizzle out as it pushes into the higher pressure. but we should see more sunshine for scotland and northern ireland into the afternoon. a few blustery showers in the north—west. for most, though, again, it's another rather grey day, i think, with limited sunshine, maybe some spots of drizzle and again feeling cool, particularly where you have

the mist and the cloud. through saturday night, we should start to see the breeze picking up further. that should break up the clouds a bit more. so, greater chance of seeing clearer spells to start sunday morning, but it will be quite chilly under clearer skies, turning wetter and windier across scotland. that's because we've got a very active weather front on sunday lying across the north of the uk. you'll see more isobars on the chart, so it will be breezy, and that will help break up the clouds even further. so i think sunday, a better chance of seeing more sunshine, even across england and wales. but it will be blustery and very wet across scotland, particularly northern and western areas. temperature—wise, 9—11 degrees, so we're still above par for the time of year. and then as we move into monday, the run—up to new year's eve, it looks very unsettled — wet and windy weather in the north with some hill snow. and then around new year's day, we could be seeing this deeper area of low pressure. it could bring some stormy and wet weather to the uk. and then, as it continues to pull away into the first few days of january 2025, it opens the floodgates to some colder air from the north.

so there could be some disruption around the new year period, so stay tuned to the forecast. things are set to turn colder but brighter, with some wintry showers into early january.

this is bbc news. the headlines. survivors of a deadly plane crash in kazakhstan have described hearing a loud blast outside the aircraft,

as speculation continues that russia may have been involved. a nasa spacecraft has made history by surviving the closest—ever approach to the sun. one of the last functioning hospitals in northern gaza has been forcibly evacuated by the israeli military. the german president officially dissolves parliament, announcing a snap election on february 23rd. and the prime minister of nepal says there are too many tigers in his country and wants to give some away. 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