russia. mexico tries to protect migrants in the us potentially facing deportation — announcing an app that connects those facing arrest with consulates and lawyers. and a nasa spacecraft makes history by surviving the closest—ever approach to the sun. plus, india is holding a state funeral for its former prime minister, first to seek to lead the nation. —— the first sikh. hello i'm carl nasman. the united states says a plane that crashed in kazakhstan on christmas day killing 38 people may have been brought down by russian air defence systems. azerbaijan airlines said there had been external interference as it tried

to land in russian territory. russia has refused to comment on speculation that it fired on the plane by mistake. the pilots were killed in the crash, but they are credited with saving 29 people on board by managing to land part of the plane. azerbaijan is demanding an international investigation. ukraine says russia has to be held to account. 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 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. russia has been accused of sabotaging estonia's main power link, in

the gulf of finland. nato says it will enhance its military presence in the baltic sea. caroline hawley explains. nato and other western officials have repeatedly expressed concern about increased russian sabotage in europe, so it wasn't long before a link was made between a ship carrying russian oil and the undersea power cable damaged on christmas day. this is the eagle s, which the eu believes is part of a shadow fleet of ageing oil tankers used by russia to evade sanctions. it was seized by finnish police and coastguard early yesterday, shortly after the underwater power cable went down, dramatically reducing the supply of electricity to estonia. it's the latest in a series of acts of suspected sabotage against critical infrastructure that have taken place since russia invaded ukraine in 2022. there have been three in just the last few weeks. if you look here, you can see a data cable between helsinki, the finnish capital, and the german port of rostock, severed last month.

and then here's that power cable between finland and estonia, which could take several months to repair. investigators believe the eagle s, located here by satellite navigation software after leaving a port in russia, deliberately caused the damage by dragging its anchor through the cable. several data cables were also broken, and the finnish president says criminal proceedings are beginning. we've got the situation under control and we have to continue 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. there are now nearly a million miles of underwater cables carrying electricity and our electronic data, and then also pipelines carrying gas and oil, all vulnerable to attack, which is why nato is so concerned. this joint exercise last month, called operation freezing wind,

involved the navies of 15 countries, including the uk, and nearly 4,000 personnel. they were practising, among other things, how to detect and respond to threats against critical underwater infrastructure. today, the estonian navy was out patrolling their coastline, guarding the one other power cable still working. nato has promised today to help estonia and finland by enhancing its military presence in the baltic sea, although the alliance has given no further details. the world health organization says the israeli army has put the last major health facility in northern gaza out of service. on friday, the israeli military forcibly evacuated kamal adwan. the israel defence forces said it conducted �*targeted operations�* against palestinian fighters — but gaza's deputy health minister said the idf indiscriminately burned down hospital facilities. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil is injerusalem

we've managed to get through to the gaza deputy health minister, dr youssef abu el—rish, who gave us an update on the situation. he said the kamal adwan hospital had been completely evacuated with parts of its departments badly burned. he said that the ministry lost contact with some of the health staff, the medical staff, and that some others were taken into questioning in a nearby building. he also added that some of the patients who are in serious conditions and were taken to the nearby indonesian hospital. the problem is is that this hospital itself was evacuated and bombarded a few days ago so he's saying you can't really call it a hospital, it's a shelter but there is no electrically, no generators, no water, no oxygen, so it's unclear how these patients in serious conditions are going to be cared for. earlier, the head of the nursing department inside the hospital told the bbc that they were given 15 minutes to move medical staff and patients — some of whom were on ventilators — into the courtyard, and we heard testimony from medical staff that they were told to take their clothes off to be searched. there is a video

of a group of men, reportedly in the vicinity of the hospital, walking, not wearing any clothes, in their undergarments, holding their clothes and raising their hands up in a completely destroyed neighbourhood with tanks nearby. 50 people were killed. just before the evacuation, hours before the evacuation, 50 people were killed, five of them medical staff. we were told that by the director of the kamal adwan hospital who said that there was bombardment in a building near the hospital. and you could see in the video there was a drone, a quad copter that was dropping explosives on that building. now, the idf has told us that they're unaware of any medical staff who were killed and that they're looking into the reports, but they also said they were conducting an operation in the area near the hospital that they called a hamas stronghold.

i mean, if you look at the area around the hospital, the vicinity around the hospital, the destruction is nearly complete. the buildings are nearly razed to the ground, there is rubble everywhere — these are neighbourhoods that have been now experiencing relentless bombardment and shelling for weeks and weeks, since that military campaign in october by the israeli military who say they are going after hamas, trying for them not to regroup in the area. and the medical officials have told us that the kamal adwan wasn't just a hospital that offered medicalfacilities, it offered people hope that they were going to get better and now that hope is gone. india is holding a state funeral for its former prime minister manmohan singh — the first sikh to lead the nation. he was in office from 2004 to 2014, serving a rare two terms. he died on thursday at the age of 92. joining me live is my colleague arunoday mukharji. what's the scene like there as the city and nation honours theirformer

prime minister? the congress headquarters, the principal opposition party, this is where the final by minister member —— ordinary congress workers to come and pay their respects and bid farewell to the form of a minister. from here, he is elected to be taken to another location cremation will happen with full state honours. the indian government has also said as a former prime minister and also someone who they said had contributed massively to india's story, he will be accorded a state funeral as well as a memorial that will be built for him after cremation and this is something that was demanded by the congress party as well which is to put in perspective why this is being reported in the way in which it is is because notjust a former prime minister, he has also been india's former governor of the reserve bank. in the 80s he

was india's finance minister, prior to becoming finance minister in 1991, he is credited for bringing in landmark revolutionary reforms in india's economy in the early 90s and before his policies, india industry was still stuck in a lot of bureaucratic, he opened up india's economy to foreign investment and that is where many politicians credited him for actually shouting india's growth story especially when it comes to the economic growth story." —— 2004 when the congress party won the elections he was not expected do become prime minister, that was supposed to go to gandhi who was heading the congress party at that time but because of his italian origins, there is a was a bit of controversy and that is where minister modi became and that is he was remembered as the accidental prime minister. he was also credited for bringing india out of his nuclear i create ——

isolation after nuclear weapons were tested in 1999 so this is significant because at that time india stitched a deal with the us, giving india access to american and nuclear technology as well so very significant contributions made by the former pro minister and that is all that is being talked about so a short while for now he will be taken to another location as i said, whether cremation with full state honours is going to happen. we have been seeing so far since this morning a lot of supporters trickle in, various political leaders coming in, talking to the media and going inside the building where the body will be kept people to come and pay their respects. we can hear the buzz there around you. quite a legacy leaves behind obviously. briefly, before we let you go, talk to us a bit about the relationship that he had with the country and with indians themselves. what have people been saying today as they begin to discuss not just today as they begin to discuss notjust his legacy but the person himself? he

notjust his legacy but the person himself?— notjust his legacy but the person himself? he was called the peeple's — person himself? he was called the peeple's by _ person himself? he was called the people's by minister. - the people's by minister. someone who, despite the fact he never actually won an election in the sense as a public representative was never really a member of parliament from the lower house where members of parliament win by people's votes, he was a representative is the upper house but he is known as the people's by minister, someone who worked to uplift india, especially because of his economic credentials, a scholar and an economic first. —— academic. he was also someone who was not common —— noncontroversial and someone who could take all parties along and that is why he is remembered as his tenure as pro minister when the congress party had stitched up an alliance with several political parties form the government he is known as someone was also able to build that consensus but towards his latter half of his tenure, there were also a lot of corruption allegations levelled against various ministers in his government so in his second term as pro

ministerfrom 2009 to in his second term as pro minister from 2009 to 2014, unfortunately a lot of people say there was controversies that led to the downfall of congress but pro minister manuel in single always be remembered for his contributions to the economy, for opening up india's economy to foreign investment and touting economic growth. thank ou. us president elect donald trump has asked the supreme court to pause a law that would effectively ban tiktok, one day before his inauguration on the 20th of january — if it is not sold by its chinese owner bytedance. trump's legal team said �*in light of the novelty and difficulty�* of the case, the court should consider extending the deadline to grant more �*breathing space�* and give mr trump the "opportunity to pursue a political solution." earlier i spoke to anupam chander, professor of law and technology at georgetown university.

what�*s your reaction to this move? this is pretty unusual to see an incoming president file a motion with the supreme court about a social media app. i think it was really a quite spectacular move. it was an unusual move for someone who is not yet president but the president—elect, to file an amicus brief and in a pending case before the supreme court. and so this is, you know, he had promised that he would save tiktok. "vote for me and i will save tiktok." this is an effort to make good on that promise. we know of course donald trump has kind of flip flopped when it comes to support the tiktok. in the beginning it seemed like he was on board with this ban, then during the campaign leading up to the election, he seemed much more sympathetic towards the company. we know he�*s met with the tiktok ceo in recent days. why do you think he�*s kind of changed his tune here? well, he joined the app

and he now credits the app with potentially, kind of, his victory. so he says that young people in the united states voted far more republican than in prior elections partly because of his ability to persuade people using tiktok. we should say others have filed some briefs here, too. tiktok itself, also the aclu, they say that this law violates the constitutional right to free speech. what�*s the argument for that? they argue that the government hasn�*t shown that there isn�*t an easier or less speech restrictive way to control the national security issues that the government has and so essentially there are other alternatives, better alternatives, that protects speech but can also protect national security at the same time. i guess the question would be,

i mean, ouldn�*t users of tiktok simply go to a different app if they wanted to express their views, or make reels of videos, you can do that on several different social media apps, so why is this really restricting americans�* freedom of speech? yeah, one of the arguments is you can just move to, you know, you can leave twitter and go to bluesky, you can leave facebook and go to twitter etc, or x. but the reality is that every community is different. you may not be successful on a new platform. many of the tiktok creators who have filed a lawsuit in this case say, hey, we tried youtube, we tried facebook but we�*re just not as successful and we will lose our 10,000, 100,000 subscribers or followers if we move to a new platform, and we�*ll lose all that community that we have already built and we may or may not be able to recreate that community on a new platform. of course this law that passed that would ban tiktok if it

isn�*t sold by its chinese owner, this was something that was passed by republicans and democrats, a lot of consensus on capital hill, despite the app�*s popularity. walk us through, what are some of the arguments that tiktok could pose a threat to national security? the basic arguments the government is making is that the chinese government, because it has control over the parent company, which is bytedance, a chinese headquartered company, could use that pressure on the chinese company to pressure the american company to modify the app, to send chinese preferred speech to americans secretly or to modify the app to surveil americans, so there

is covert propaganda or national surveillance that the government asserts are the two main reasons the app should be either forced to change its ownership or be shut down in the united states. mexico has announced an emergency strategy to protect migrants in the us from deportation. donald trump has promised to deport millions of undocumented people when he takes office next month. mexico�*s foreign minister juan ramon de la fuente announced the launch of a mobile phone panic button, which can be activated by anyone facing imminent arrest by us immigration authorities. mr de la fuente said the mobile app will connect to a 24—hour a day call centre for mexicans in the us — backed by a team of more than 300 us—based lawyers. translation: in case you find yourself in a situation - where detention is imminent, you push the alert button. that sends a signal to the nearest consulate and to the relatives whose contact details you saved on the app.

donald trump is promising dramatic changes to immigration policy when he enters the white house — but now some of his high—profile supporters are bickering online over a visa programme for skilled workers. vivek ramaswamy, trump�*s pick to help slash government spending, sparked the controversy with a post on x —— defending what�*s called the h—1b visa. he said "the reason top tech companies often hire foreign—born and first—generation engineers over �*native�* americans isn�*t because of an innate american iq deficit". he went on to say that "american culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long."(pres)while those comments were backed by billionaire businessman elon musk — it angered trump supporters opposed to immigration. among them — nikki haley, a former republican presidential candidate. she said in response "we should be investing and prioritizing in americans, not foreign workers." i�*ve been speaking with the bbcs mike wendling — who has been looking into the story. they�*re calling this a make america great again civil war.

walk us through this disagreement amongst trump�*s base, elon musk, vivek ramaswamy, speaking out at least in some favour of us immigration laws at some point. i wouldn�*t go so far as calling this a civil war but certainly a spat. not the first one we have seen but there is still these policy decisions that are being played out in real—time and on social media — we are seeing i suppose the tech billionaires who are inviting jump against the people against nikki haley and the some more of the anti—immigration crowd including some pretty far right characters who are opposed to these h—1b visas. do we know what donald trump himself thinks about these h—1b visas who i guess we should say these are really reserved for people with pretty high skilled backgrounds. that is right. there is a relatively

limited number of them and they are for skilled workers. that means a lot of those workers go to work in the tech industry and they work in silicon valley. we definitely know what donald trump thinks about them. he has usually sided with the anti—immigration crowd and he has been critical of these visas. under his previous administration he tightened up the criteria on the h—1b visas. his vice presidentjd vance has been a fierce crack critic of the whole programme and has been pretty clear on the campaign trail. when it comes to immigration, he just wants less of it, across the board, so this does not really appear = this does not like that might look like an argument that vivek ramaswamy and elon musk are going to win. they�*re part of that government department of government efficiency, not an official department, but they do and have the ear of the next president. it is interesting to see there is really also this argument playing out about more fundamental issues when it

comes to american life. we heard from mr ramaswamy talking about what he called mediocrity, saying our american culture has venerated mediocrity over excellency. what is that argument all about? you know, it�*s very curious. in the post that kicked all this off, he talked about american culture and went on to mention prom queens and jocks and said americans lift those people up and instead they should celebrate maths champions, academic stars. 0bviously americans take great pride in education but i think a lot of them also take great pride in sports teams and fashion and entertainment so it seems kind of reductionist to reduce this country solely to its output of engineers and mathematicians and call the rest of the culture a celebration of mediocrity. i�*m not quite sure that fits the tone not only of the country but of the maga movement in general. what does this tell

us about the battles within or outside the trump�*s administration that we might see playing out injanuary? you have to remember that donald trump put together a pretty diverse coalition. he improved his standing among minority voters, he courted the big businessman. he courted silicon valley and got a lot of poor white voters to turn out. it was a very successful campaign to get all of these people to support donald trump and difficulty comes in keeping all of these constituencies happy. it is notjust on immigration or this h—1b visa issue, there is a range of issues across the board. economy, health, education. the difference and there is going to be some pretty fierce ideological battles in the next white house. let�*s turn to some other important news around the world. ukraine�*s president volodymyr zelensky says russia and north korea are not interested in the survival of north korean soldiers,

who he said were suffering huge losses fighting for russia against ukraine. mr zelensky claimed in some cases the north korean troops were being killed by their own forces to prevent them being captured. earlier, the united states said 1,000 north koreans have been killed or wounded in the past week in russia�*s kursk region. south korea�*s third president in two weeks has said he will try to overcome the country�*s political turmoil, after his predecessor was suspended from office. the country�*s finance minister choi sang—mok was declared acting leader after han duck—soo�*s impeachment in parliament on saturday. mr han had only become acting president two weeks ago after his former boss yoon suk—yeol was suspended over his failed attempt to declare martial law. the united states has imposed sanctions on the founder of georgia�*s ruling party. the state department accuses bidzina ivanishvili of undermining democracy in his country for the benefit of russia. there have been repeated demonstrations in the capital, tbilisi, since georgian dream won a disputed parliamentary election in october. a nasa spacecraft has made history, by surviving the closest—ever

approach to the sun. the probe plunged into our star�*s outer atmosphere on christmas eve, enduring brutal temperatures and extreme radiation in a quest to better our understanding of how the sun works. it moved faster than any human—made object, hurtling at 430,000mph — the equivalent of flying from london to new york in less than 30 seconds. and the cbs sports commentator greg gumbel has died at the age of 78. he was a play—by—play announcer for the network, and spent several years with nbc sports. cbs sports said there had never been a finer gentleman in all of television. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. for some places, mist and fog lingered throughout friday, causing some disruption. some of that mist and murk lingered on into the night as well. but over the weekend, well, that fog should slowly start

to lift as the breeze picks up. we will, though, see some rain setting in across the north of the uk. bit of rain across the north of the uk actually on saturday, in association with this weak weather front. it is this area of high pressure further south that�*s been trapping all the low cloud, mist and fog that high, slowly starting to drift away southeastwards, but still a pretty murky start across large parts of england and wales. i think some of that fog will lift through the day, particularly across parts of wales, northern england. a few sunny spells, it may stay quite murky down towards the south. for northern ireland and scotland we�*ll see a band of cloud and increasingly light and patchy rain pushing southwards, sunny spells and showers and some brisk winds up towards the north of scotland, the breeze slowly picking up further south. temperatures generally between 7 and 11 degrees. now, as the breeze continues to pick up a little bit, i think we�*ll see a bit more of that cloud, mist and fog

turning over and lifting to some extent across england and wales. for scotland we�*ll see a band of clouds, some rain pushing in across western scotland, northern ireland seeing some clear spells through the night — temperatures 3—7 degrees. and then we go on into sunday as this weather front, a very weak affair, clears the south, that should clear away some more of that mist and murk. so i think a better chance of seeing some sunny spells across england and wales on sunday. northern ireland seeing some sunny spells as well. but for scotland, this weather front becomes slow moving. it is set to bring some heavy and persistent rain, particularly in the north west of scotland, and in fact that rain is set to continue not only on sunday but into monday and tuesday as well. will be mild for most of us, a little bit colder in the far north, and as we go through sunday night into monday, that weather front sinks southwards, but then bends northwards again, bringing rain back into scotland and some snow, particularly over high ground in the north of scotland. further south, drier conditions, a mix of cloud and some sunny spells, mild in the south but much colder further north and through the end of 2024 into the start of 2025, it will turn colder for all of us, turning windy as well.

there will be some rain. there may be some snow.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we�*ll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. 0n the edge of the canadian arctic, a community lives alongside the largest land predator on earth. they call it the polar bear capital of the world. but it�*s so much more interesting than that. a place that�*s been defined by remoteness, beauty and danger. there�*s a bear there! it�*s crossing the road. we heard crackers going off, and now the polar bear alert team are moving around, so we�*re going to get back in the car. the bear was up on this deck here. it was testing the door. we don�*t want him going back to town.