a nasa spacecraft has made history by surviving the closest—ever approach to the sun. and the prime minister of nepal says there are too many tigers in his country and wants to give some away. hello and welcome — i'm luxmy gopal. azerbaijan airlines says that the preliminary results of the investigation into the plane crash in kazakhstan found there was "external physical and technical interference". but the report stopped short of accusing any group or country of being responsible. the plane had originally tried to land at grozny airport in southern russia. the head of russia's aviation authority says the plane was unable to do so because of a ukrainian drone attack. pro—government media in azerbaijan has quoted

un—named officials, saying they believed a russian air defence missile caused the plane to crash. jon donnison reports. this is the moment the plane went down. it's remarkable anyone survived. but emerging from the wreckage, some did. the flight had been diverted to kazakhstan after passengers heard bangs when it tried to land at its original destination, grozny, in chechnya. 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 of them. investigators are now examining the damage to the outside of the plane. the owner, azerbaijan airlines,

said only that it had suffered external physical and technical interference. the kremlin has again refused to comment on speculation that it was mistakenly brought down by a russian air defence system. translation: i'd like to point out that the situation on that l day during those hours in the area around grozny airport was very difficult. ukrainian military drones were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the city of grozny and others nearby. in azerbaijan today, the first funerals for some of the 38 people who were killed. why they died will take time to find out and will likely be disputed. jon donnison, bbc news. let's speak to former air accident investigator tim atkinson.

tim, thank you forjoining us. there's obviously a lot we still don't know, but based on for limitary and witness accounts that we have heard, what is your assessment of what happened?— what is your assessment of what happened? good evening. these da s, happened? good evening. these days. there _ happened? good evening. these days. there is — happened? good evening. these days, there is so _ happened? good evening. these days, there is so much _ happened? good evening. these days, there is so much imagery l days, there is so much imagery and social media and the news that occasionally it is possible to draw some quite clear conclusions very early on, any photographs that we have seen in the video footage which are many at the public domain now, clearly show damage to the aircraft which is consistent with an explosion of some kind, almost certainly external, but very close to, the aircraft. those images, along with the other evidence, indicate very strongly some kind of air defence missile has exploded close to the aircraft. that has not only caused the disruption to the aircraft's

skin, which is very easily apparent in the photographs and video, but more and partly, other evidence suggests that that disrupted the aircraft's flying control systems of which are hydraulic, and if they lose their hydraulic fluid, then the pilots in the flight deck effectively lose their normal means of controlling the aircraft, and that is the extraordinarily difficult situation where this is the outcome, and this is the case, very similar to the sioux city crash many years ago, in which the pilots nonetheless managed to maintain some degree of control of the aircraft and the video footage shows the aircraft in a series of what we would call seagoing manoeuvres, so the video shows it pitching up so the video shows it pitching up and down over a period of many seconds in each case, and fortunately the final manoeuvre which results in the aircraft contact with the ground, i

don't that we can cause a landing —— holiday landing. but have no doubt whatsoever the manner in which that was achieved by the flight crew is the reason that there were 29 survivors and not the loss of all on board.— survivors and not the loss of all on board. and given what ou all on board. and given what you have _ all on board. and given what you have said, _ all on board. and given what you have said, tim, - all on board. and given what you have said, tim, is - all on board. and given what you have said, tim, is there| you have said, tim, is there enough evidence out there already to get a sense of whether what the azerbaijani authorities are saying is more accurate, whether what the russian authorities are saying is accurate? because i suppose the next step now is finding out exactly how we got to this, and the black box has been recovered, but how easy is that nextstep? iii recovered, but how easy is that nextstep?— nextstep? if this had occurred in a western — nextstep? if this had occurred in a western state, _ nextstep? if this had occurred in a western state, in - nextstep? if this had occurred in a western state, in which i in a western state, in which conflict was not present and where there were not many sometimes conflicting and very powerful political agendas, i am sure that we would see a report published in due course

which revealed all of the facts and evaluated them carefully and evaluated them carefully and fairly and arrived at valid conclusions. however, and i should point out i am an aviation risk person, not a military person, what is very clear is this occurred in a region where there are many political pressures, where there is a war zone, and the probability therefore of their being an internationally accepted report which lays out all the facts and analyses them in a fair and meaningful manner, i think, in a fair and meaningful manner, ithink, is pretty remote. however, in the absence of expecting such a report, and it would take a very long time for that to be published anyway, i think there are very clear lessons, not only from this event blood from a number of forerunners, including very recent activity which seems to have its roots in russian activity, that we need in the

civil aviation were to have a very careful look at how civil aviation is taking place over and around areas where conflict is active and how we can ensure that we don't see more of these events, a significant escalation, perhaps, even, in the short term, because i see you're supporting an airliner should be reasonably hopeful of arriving at their destination and not being shot down, i dare say. and not being shot down, i dare sa . ., ~' and not being shot down, i dare sa . . ~' ., and not being shot down, i dare say. tim, thank you for your analysis _ say. tim, thank you for your analysis -- _ say. tim, thank you for your analysis -- because - say. tim, thank you for your analysis -- because those . say. tim, thank you for your | analysis -- because those on say. tim, thank you for your - analysis -- because those on an analysis —— because those on an airliner. let's go to the middle east. 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 which targeted the area killed 50 people. the head of the hospital's nursing department told the bbc the army gave them only a is—minute warning to evacuate patients and staff before the israeli army entered the hospital and removed any patients that remained. israel has not commented on the evacuation. our colleagues at bbc arabic have been talking to those who witnessed the operation. translation: guys, we are talking to you from inside i the hospital as we are coming down to the courtyard. the army is inside the hospital. we hope everyone will be safe. if we are lucky, we will get back to you and talk to you again, god willing for the best. please forgive us if we have wronged anyone and pray for us. i'm the paramedic at kamal adwan hospital, walid al—badri. translation: the occupation army is now besieging - kamal adwan hospital and is asking dr hussam abu safiya to bring patients down to the hospital's courtyard. in 15 minutes from now, the army will enter the hospital. this is the message verbatim which dr hussam hasjust received from

the occupation army. some witnesses speaking to our colleagues at bbc arabic. our correspondent, shaimaa khalil, sent this report from jerusalem. we've heard from medical staff, who say that, as you mentioned, they were given very, very short time to evacuate the hospital — both the patients and the medical staff — and that israeli soldiers went into the hospital and evacuated the rest. we're unsure where the patients and the medical staff had gone. we also heard reports from the medical staff inside the hospital that some of the some people were taken in the courtyard and told to strip, to 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 that we're unaware, or we're not sure, where the patients and the medical staff are being taken after the evacuation of the hospital. there has been a statement

by an israeli military official 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 the site of shelling and bombardment, and so it is essentially hollowed out as a medicalfacility. medical staff tell us that you've got people in icu, patients in a coma, who need acute medical attention — they need oxygen, for example, they need medication. and the hospital, the indonesian hospital, is not equipped. this comes after hours, from what we've heard from dr hussam, who's the head of the kamal adwan hospital, he said that overnight, there had been shelling in the vicinity of the hospital and in the building opposite it, and that resulted in the death of dozens of people — around 50 or so — but also major destruction around the hospital. the israeli military said they're unaware

of that and that they're 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 — injabalia, in beit lahia, in beit hanoun — these areas, according to the un, have been essentially besieged by the israeli army because there's been renewed fighting, renewed shelling and bombardment, where israel says that it is rooting out hamas fighters who have regrouped in the area. indeed, the idf today said that it was conducting a military operation around the hospital area targeting hamas fighters. so the medical staff are trying to get this hospitalfunctioning under these conditions. so imagine what happens, then, when they are themselves subjected to bombardment, to evacuation, while they try to take care of these patients with minimal — minimal — medicalfacilities and medical equipment. our correspondent shaimaa

khalil reporting from jerusalem. 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 aim of the probe is to gather data on the properties of the sun to help forecast space—weather events which can affect life on earth. pallab ghosh has this report. 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. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

thanks for being with us here on bbc news. to the us now — a rift appears to have emerged in the trump base over one of the president—elect�*s key election issues, immigration. so, how did we get here? us media reports that recent tensions over the issue were sparked by the appointment of sriram krishnan as donald trump's ai adviser — he'd recently made comments supporting the removal of some caps for high—skilled workers. that prompted criticism

from some in the trump support base who back a stricter approach to immigration. let's speak to scott macfarlane, who covers congress for cbs news. thanks forjoining us, scott. so these tensions over how to approach immigration among the trump base, just bring us up—to—date on how we got here more specifically in terms of whether mr musk was involved. just give us a little bit more of the background to. this all felt inevitable, _ of the background to. this all felt inevitable, and _ of the background to. this all felt inevitable, and there - of the background to. this allj felt inevitable, and there was going to be some fracture at some point among the sphere of influencers who are aligned with donald trump. you had these outside of a nongovernmental, unelected, forceful voices in donald trump's year, elon musk, the billionaire, the vic ramaswamy, the long—time trump ally and one—time republican primary candidate —— vivek ramaswamy. who are saying things that may run counter to the beliefs of donald trump is make elected allies, those in congress of those in—state offices, and what really caused this first

profound fracture was a set of social media posts by ramaswamy arguing that companies may be better positioned and better acclimated to attract foreign workers... instead of using us workers... instead of using us workers. arguments why people from other nations will be better situated for us companies than those who live in the us. because of the cultural dynamics at play, among other things. that runs against what donald trump and his political allies have been talking about... a budding of heads on that issue, with likely more to come, because there is this resentment among some of the elected officials that these non—elected of outside influencers have the ear of the president elect. what this also illustrates,

doesn't it, potentially contradictory views among some from supporters? do we know how mr trump plans to manage that broader supporter base he has in this second term? the same wa he in this second term? the same way he has _ in this second term? the same way he has for _ in this second term? the same way he has for eight _ in this second term? the same way he has for eight years. - in this second term? the same way he has for eight years. he | way he has for eight years. he has a whole set of seemingly contradictory positions that his political base accepts the yes talked about trying to lower prices in the us for things like food and housing, consumer goods, yet he is also championing tariffs on foreign goods, which, there seems to be a consensus, would lead to higher prices. so he has a contradiction there, but his supporters seem to be not swayed by that. he talks about law and order, prioritising a tougher criminaljustice system, yet is poised to pardon a whole set of us capital right insurrection us, seemingly in contradiction, but he seems to navigate that just fine. contradiction, but he seems to navigate thatjust fine. he has a version of political teflon

that allows his base to be seemingly impenetrable no matter what contradictions he brings to the table.— brings to the table. scott, we not less brings to the table. scott, we got less than _ brings to the table. scott, we got less than a _ brings to the table. scott, we got less than a month - brings to the table. scott, we got less than a month to - got less than a month to the inauguration. just briefly, what would you be keeping an eye on in washington?- what would you be keeping an eye on in washington? there is this particularly _ eye on in washington? there is this particularly narrow - eye on in washington? there is this particularly narrow us - this particularly narrow us house majority of the lower chapter of us congress, that president—elect trump's party has where they can lose just one vote on anything of consequence which means the minority party, the democrats, are going to have some outsized influence in this first two—year set of the trump term. trump is going to have to do deals with democrats to do things like keep the government open, raise the debt ceiling, passed major legislation that requires spending. that's going to come to a head almost immediately on him taking the oath. how he navigates it, how democrats navigate it, is going to do how this first year is going to go. he will not get everything he wants because of that era majority in the lower chamber. that era ma'ority in the lower chamber._

that era ma'ority in the lower chamber. ~ , ., ., ., , chamber. we shall have to see, won't chamber. we shall have to see, want we? _ chamber. we shall have to see, won't we? scotty _ chamber. we shall have to see, won't we? scotty furlan, - chamber. we shall have to see, won't we? scotty furlan, from i won't we? scotty furlan, from cbs news, thank you for your time. —— scott mcfarlane. let's return to the middle east. as israel continues a war on three fronts, there's growing fatigue amongst the military�*s hundreds of thousands of reservist soldiers. israel's reservists have been repeatedly called to serve, with some completing more than 200 days of duty. this has strained israeli families and businesses, and it's brought to the fore the de facto exemption of the ultra—orthodox jewish community from reservist duties, which has become the subject of intense national debate. 0ur defence correspondent jonathan beale reports. heavy munitions fire israel's war on multiple fronts has notjust worn down its enemy, notjust taken the lives of thousands of civilians in gaza and lebanon — it's also extracted a price from its own people. so up until october 7th, we would do only a week or two a year. since october 7th, i've been 250 days. noam, an idf reservist, is counting the cost in days. his studies to be a doctor have been put on hold. he's repeatedly been called up to serve

on the front line as a medic, and he's had enough. you cannot keep doing this warfor much longer. we're out. you don't have the manpower to just keep it going for however long you want. you have to understand what is the objective, have an end date, have an end goal. because otherwise you're not going to have a reservist army. if you're called up again, will you go back? no, i will not go back. unless something dramatic happens. conscripts and reservists are the backbone of israel's military, boosting the idf�*s ranks in times of war. but there's growing resentment that one group has been exempt. call—up papers have now been issued to some of israel's ultra—0rthodoxjews, prompting their protests and dividing the government.

they say their lives should be dedicated to religious study. but a former chief reserve officer insists they must serve. but now, after a year of fighting, we need more soldiers in the army. there is no other choice but for them serving in the army. and if they don't want to do it, we have to deal with it. and my opinion is just take the rights from them. there's also the economic cost of relying on so many part—time soldiers to fight. like many small companies, shelley lotan's food tech start—up is struggling to survive. key members of a team of seven have been drafted for duty. it's critical. we had to let go for reserve duty two of them. and then we hired another student to fill in for one of the ladies that went

to reserve duty, and even him was drafted. is that sustainable? i don't think so. i don't think for much longer. hundreds of thousands of israelis answered the call to duty when their country was attacked last year. but even with the ceasefire in lebanon, many are still asking when this will end. jonathan beale, bbc news, jerusalem. nepal's prime minister, kp sharma 0li, says his country has too many tigers and that they're a threat to humans. more than 30 people were killed by tigers between 2019 and 2023. he says nepal should be giving them to other countries as gifts. 0ur correspondent navin singh khadka told me more about the plans for so—called "tiger diplomacy". it was always an issue, but the thing is, when i talk to people on the ground — say, the community forestry people — they say that it is increasingly becoming more and more serious, because more

and more tigers are there now, so the confrontation and all those kind of things. so, yes, the casualties also going up, and then also the cattle being attacked or losses of agriculture, people having to migrate elsewhere — the host of issues. political leaders are bringing it up now because they are also under pressure. i can imagine there's political pressure on that. now, this would seem on the surface a conservation success story, because these are endangered animals. but it shows that there are downsides, doesn't it? yes, so if you spoke to conservationists, for example, they would definitely say, and also by and large, it is a success story. but the thing is, again, it has all these things come along, and the question is, how do you manage them? and when i talk to experts,

they say there are measures, but it is not easy to implement, for example, even the idea of gifting tigers. so, who is going to take them? we've been hearing this. other senior officials also have talked about giving tigers to zoos, for example — it's not happened yet. how exactly would they do it? the tiger diplomacy actually is still to kick off, so it remains to be seen how they will do it, and then in the meantime, we are seeing problematic tigers, for example. around 20 tigers are now taken away from the habitat and kept in captivity. so the worry is, will there be more such tigers? and how can they sustain those enclosures in captivity? it is costly, you see. so all these things come together when you talk about conservation. 0ur correspondent navin singh khadka there. plenty more still to come. stay with us here on bbc news.

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 i 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—ii 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. azerbaijian airlines says "external interference" brought down one of its planes that crashed in kazakhstan. one of the last functioning hospitals in northern gaza has been forcibly evacuated by the israeli military. germany's parliament is dissolved ahead of elections set for february. a nasa spacecraft has made history by surviving the closest—ever approach to the sun. now on bbc news, time to look back at the year in sport. 2024 was an extraordinary 12 months of sport — a year dominated by some of the very biggest showpiece events.

we had a men's euros in germany, where england came so close, and a paralympics and olympics in paris, where great britain once again excelled. achievements honoured here at the year—ending bbc sports personality of the year. more on that later. but 2024 was also a year where some of british sport's biggest stars took theirfinal bows. theirfinal bows — the likes ofjimmy anderson, andy murray, tom daley and laura kenny to name just a few. but the year was also for new, exciting sporting talent. luke "the nuke" littler... and that's where 2024 started. injanuary, the year was young and so too was the headline maker. 16—year—old luke littler�*s journey to the final of the pdc darts world championship had everyone gripped. he was eventually beaten by luke humphries. the future of darts

in steady hands. it's been a rollercoaster.