india is holding a state funeral for its former prime minister manmohan singh — the first sikh to lead the nation. and a nasa spacecraft makes history by surviving the closest—ever approach to the sun. hello. i'm carl naz man, welcome to the programme. 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 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. 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 5, which the eu believes is part of a shadow fleet of ageing oil tankers used by russia to evade sanctions. 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 5, 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. it said initial reports showed key departments were severely burned and destroyed in the raid on kamal adwan hospital. israel said hamas had used the site as a command centre, but provided no evidence. 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. us presidentjoe biden is the latest world leader to pay tribute, releasing a statement, saying he mourns the loss of mr singh, and that the unprecedented level of cooperation between the united states and india today would not have been possible without the prime minister's strategic vision and political courage. flags are flying at half—mast, and all government events have been cancelled.

singh was hailed for his key economic reforms, although he at times faced challenges working in coalition with several different parties. the current prime minister, narendra modi, said his wisdom and humility were always visible to all. joining me now is waheguru pal sidhu, professor at the center for global affairs at new york university. how do you think you will be remembered in india? he was certainly india's _ remembered in india? he was certainly india's most - remembered in india? he was | certainly india's most educated technocrats can perhaps most transformative finance minister tra nsformative finance minister and transformative finance minister and prime minister. many people remember his tenure from 2004 to 2014 as prime minister but i think his more impactful time was his time as finance minister to the then prime

minister in the very early 19905. , ., ~ , ., , 19905. yes, walk us through his economic impact _ 19905. yes, walk us through his economic impact on _ 19905. yes, walk us through his economic impact on the - 19905. yes, walk us through his| economic impact on the country. he really had a hand, didn't he, in modernising the country and bringing the economy to what we see today. absolutely. there were _ what we see today. absolutely. there were many _ what we see today. absolutely. there were many efforts - what we see today. absolutely. there were many efforts on - what we see today. absolutely. there were many efforts on the part of india to open up its economy in the late 1980s, but when manmohan singh in a moment of crisis in 1991 when india was facing a very crucial balance of payment crisis, he actually did something that most indians can relate to. he actually sent out india's gold reserves just to get global financing, to get india out of the big challenge. but even more importantly, he was so confident about the reforms that he launched that because of them he was able to bring those gold reserves back, and the average indian remembers notjust the fact the average indian remembers not just the fact that he sent

the gold out, but he was able to bring india gold back in, and that of course was just emblematic if you like of a kind of dramatic reforms that led to the opening of the indian economy, but also linking it with the globalisation trend, and making india really the economic powerhouse that it is today. figs powerhouse that it is today. as we continue to see there, live pictures on the right of people coming to pay their respects at the congress party headquarters there in delhi. we are expecting a procession through the city a little while later, full state honours, seven days of national mourning, flags at half mast across india. we should also point out he was the nation's first sikh prime minister. how significant was for india? it minister. how significant was for india?— for india? it was certainly significant _ for india? it was certainly significant for _ for india? it was certainly significant for a _ for india? it was certainly significant for a number l for india? it was certainly| significant for a number of reasons, but also the fact that he was the first sikh prime

minister of the congress party, was even more poignant, given that the congress party had been very much linked to the programme against the sikhs in 1984 following the assassination of gandhi. so in assassination of gandhi. so in a way this was almost coming full circle to recognising not just india's role as, or india as a multicultural, multiethnic, pluralistic, inclusive society, but also recognising that a minority, member of the minority, a refugee during the partition of india could actually rise to the highest office in india was really, really very significant, both for the secular image of india, but also for aspirin to minorities. we should also say of course he did faces challenges and criticism, not least of course several attacks, including assaults in mumbai by a

pakistan —based jihadist movement that killed 171 people. movement that killed 171 --eole. , , people. absolutely. there were very many _ people. absolutely. there were very many significant _ very many significant challenges, and the fact that he was able to try and still steer the country through those crises, in addition of course to the bilateral crisis with pakistan. he did not let it distract him from building a very more significant partnership with the united states through the indo us nuclear deal, but also steer india through the global financial crisis of 2008, which saw many, many emerging countries, you know, nosedive, as it were. and so his role in the global affairs, but also in foreign policy, will be equally remembered than what he did at the domestic level as well. that is manmohan singh, the politician. what about as a

human being, as a person? what can a person was he? we know often, publicly at least, he was sometimes a man of few words. ., , ., words. indeed, he was, and he was certainly, he _ words. indeed, he was, and he was certainly, he personified . was certainly, he personified humility in many ways, and i think that came through very much in his kind of interaction with peers. but he was very much as the former foreign secretary and national security adviser wrote about his experience of working with him, also a teacher at heart. he was also a teacher at heart. he was a strict taskmaster. you could not try to pull the wall over his eyes, and if you did not do your homework and he did hold your homework and he did hold you to task very much so, but in a very polite way, which was much, much more encouraging, and you always felt, coming out of a meeting with him, that you'd always learn something more than you had sort of going

in, as it were.— in, as it were. great to get our in, as it were. great to get your perspective. - in, as it were. great to get your perspective. thank i in, as it were. great to get. your perspective. thank you very much forjoining us and again we continue to look at the live pictures there, prime minister manmohan singh passing away at the age of 92. those festivities and honours taking place there in india. 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 h1—b 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". 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". a nasa spacecraft has made history by surviving the closest—ever

approach to the sun. scientists received a signal from the parker solar probe on friday evening, after being out of communication for several days. but now it's safe and operating normally, after passing just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface. the data the spacecraft gathers could help better forecast our own weather events, 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 the sun's atmosphere, which we can see from earth shimmering 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. by getting so close, the probe will enable scientists to see how the sun's powerful magnetic field twists and lifts material to create solar flares. this may help them understand why the sun's atmosphere is so much hotter than its surface.

and how it emits a stream of charged particles called the solar wind, which has its effect on earth when it hits our atmosphere, creating the northern lights. the results will help scientists predict when there are powerful solar storms, which can disable communication satellites and affect weather patterns. the initial data will be sent back by the spacecraft on the first of january. pallab ghosh, bbc news. dr nour rawafi is an astrophysicist, and the project scientist for nasa's parker solar probe mission, which launched back in 2018. we've been getting his perspective on the historic day in space exploration. there were probably some tense moments when you were waiting for that communication to resume again from this probe. what was your reaction when you got the ping and realised it was a success? thank you for having me. yesterday when we received the beacon tone, it was really a moment that first of all it marked history because it tells us that now we have a spacecraft that is flying

within the atmosphere of the sun safely and made it with flying colours. it was a relief for the whole team. i have to say in the previous days, we were kind of very confident in the system that it was going to work, but yesterday you can feel some tension but when we received the beacon tone, everybody was celebrating and cheering. an amazing feat. we are calling is a close brush with the sun but we are talking about 3.8 million miles. help us understand. that sounds like a long way away but this really is a pretty close path. absolutely right. 3.8 million miles sounds a big number but if you put it in context — that the sun—earth distance is 93 million miles, so parker solar probe is within

4% of the sun distance. it is really flying within the solar corona that we've seen during a total solar eclipse in april of this year so it is flying within the immediate atmosphere of the sun which is extremely challenging and it's not really an easy thing to do. why go to all the trouble? what was nasa trying to learn from this probe? the sun is a magnetised object, and it is always changing and evolving. its magnetic field produces phenomena that are so perplexing, for decades now we are trying to understand them. for instance, we have what we call corona heating — and the corona that we see during the total solar eclipse is over 300 times hotter than the solar surface and that boiling gas gives rise to a flow of charged particles that we call the solar wind that starts flying at hundreds of kilometres per second but the mystery is we don't know how these particles accelerated. you add to it whenever we have these big explosions — they produce these particles that are flying which render them as a hazard to space equipment like telecommunication satellites, gps, also to humans in space, and when they are severe enough

they can affect even here on the ground. why we need to go there close to the sun, because, by nature when these phenomena occurs there, as that material propagates away from the sun, it gets processed through the journey so we lose the fingerprints of what made it happen so we need the spacecraft to go there, sample that medium and tell us what is going on. talk to us more about this journey itself. a couple of amazing facts. travelling at 430mph, the fastest human—created craft ever. how did it go so fast and how did it protect itself from the extreme heat, obviously, when it gets close to the sun? it is the fastest human made object, ever. just to put it in context,

now we are thinking to send women and men to the moon, it will take them 3—4 days to get there, but if you pick a ride on parker solar probe at that speed, you will get from the earth to the moon in about half—an—hour. it's just mind—boggling. so the probe obviously is travelling through a medium that is extremely harsh, and if you don't protect your spacecraft, you will lose it in no time at all. that is actually what took nasa about 60 years to come to this point, because the technology was not there, and what we needed was really a heat shield to protect the probe in the extreme heat of the sun, and this heat shield is kind of engineering magic. it's really a piece of carbon foam that is so heat—efficient. yesterday, when the probe was flying closest to the sun, our estimate that the side of the heat shield that was facing the sun would be glowing at about 1,860 degrees fahrenheit, which is

about 950 celsius. about one year behind it is almost in temperature, which is where the body of the spacecraft resides. briefly, if you don't mind, about 30 seconds left, but i believe this probe was meant to operate for seven years. it's in its seventh year now or so. what will happen after that? what happens after the submission runs out? will it continue to operate? parker solar probe is really, really healthy. it's like we launched it yesterday. so we will propose to nasa to extend the mission and we've been building missions for a certain period of time but they lasted for tens of years. voyager is up there for 47 years, it was designed for only four years. parker solar probe is another example — it's really doing well, and the expectation is that it will be extended for many years to come. nepal's prime minister has said the country has too many tigers, and suggested it should be giving them to other countries as gifts. the tiger population in nepal has tripled to more than 350 since 2009, as part

of conservation efforts, but the government says the country is too small to sustain more than 150. the actor, 0livia hussey, has died, at the age of 73, according to a statement from herfamily, posted on her instagram page. she shot to fame as a teenager in 1968, playing the female lead in franco zeffirelli's big—screen adaptation of romeo and juliet. the argentine—born british performer had a career on—screen that stretched six decades. herfamily said she died on friday "peacefully "at her home surrounded by her loved ones". 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 northwest 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. welcome to one of the most breathtaking and extraordinary places on earth. i'm in antarctica. on a journey across the coldest... woohoo! ..the windiest... whoa. ..and surely one of our most awe—inspiring continents. there it is, there. it's there. 0h! 0h, hello. look at that. just over 105,000 tourists visited antarctica in 2023.