in northern gaza after they forcibly evacuated patients. thick fog continues to cause delays and cancellations at some of the uk's busiest international airports. and, thesejeans were not made for chess, in fact it led to the resignation of the world's top grandmaster. hello i'm anjana gadgil. president putin has apologised to azerbaijan's president for what he called a tragic incident in russian airspace involving the azerbaijan airlines plane that crashed in kazakhstan on christmas day, killing 38 people. there's no direct admission the plane was struck by a russian missile. a statement on the kremlin website says russian air defence was repelling a drone attack while the plane was attempting to land.

in the latest development, president putin has called for an objective and transparent probe into the crash. our russia editor, steve rosenberg, is in moscow to unpack the kremlin�*s statement. the wording is very important here in these situations. of course the suspicion since wednesday has been that it was a russian missile that did this. when mr putin telephoned, he did admit that russian defence systems had been on

operation at the time that the aeroplane had been trying to land. he said that the air defences were trying to repel a ukrainian drone attack. no explanation in the kremlin readout of that why the plane was allowed anywhere near the airport if there was a ukrainian drone attack. to sum up, what putin didn't say was yes, we did this, it was a russian missile that down the plane. but this is the closest that russia has come to admitting responsibility for the disaster. whether it's the physical evidence of the aircraft wreckage, the recollections of those on board and any relevant eyewitnesses on the ground, and,

of course, the enormous amount of electronic evidence, both from the flight recorders on the aircraft and from ground based radar and other systems. um, yes, it's interesting to hear what various players around the situation are saying, but the investigators task is very much fact based, and i'm sure that they're focusing on on gathering that evidence. evidence has a half life. it needs to be gathered before it deteriorates, and i'm sure that they will be working very hard to achieve that. some people in azerbaijan believe that the plane's gps systems were affected by electronicjamming. how common is that and what effect would it have had? well, yes, gps jamming or spoofing is relatively common in areas where conflict is ongoing, and the effect in the flight deck can be for the navigation systems to become confused as to where the aircraft is. it's sometimes or very frequently possible

for the pilots to override that and dismiss the gps inputs from their navigation systems to to revert to less high tech solutions. but what can occur is that the position data that the aircraft is transmitting can itself become erroneous, and that in the air defence environment becomes a problem because someone on the ground who is looking at a radar return, a primary radar return, which could be a threat, and asking themselves, is this a civil aircraft? if that civil aircraft is spoofing its location and appears to be somewhere else, then the reassurance which should be there that it is not a military threat is missing from the picture. and that is the kind of thing which i'm sure investigators are focusing on as a possible factor in this very tragic event.

so president putin said that this tragic incident occurred when russian air defence systems were repelling ukrainian drones. so how likely is air defence to confuse a passenger plane with a drone? well, we've seen it happen before many times in terms of it reaching the point at which an aircraft is shot down undesirably or unintentionally. um, certainly flying civil aircraft in an environment where there's an active air defence operation is obviously a very, um, high risk thing to do. the problem is, conversely, that, you know, a state like ukraine is not is quite reasonably not going to advertise what its intentions tensions are in terms of its aggressive, aggressive actions, and therefore people operating aircraft into places like grozny will need to make a decision as to whether they believe the airspace is okay to fly into or not. and on the one hand, you know, transport links, i guess,

have to be maintained. um, on the other hand, where the risk is elevated, um, decisions need to be made as effectively as they can be. and, and then those operating these air defence systems, um, you know, i'm pretty certain that the operators of these systems would view this kind of event if it wasn't intentional as the worst possible outcome of their professional lives. um, but that's not to say that it's easy for them to, to dismiss what appears to be an aggressive target, um, and assume that it's a civil airliner, because if it turns out not to be, you know, the whole purpose of their air defence operation is defeated. meanwhile funerals have begun taking place for the 38 people who died in the azerbaijan airlines crash. relatives say 13—year—old muhammedali yeganov was flying to grozny to visit his mother when the plane went down on wednesday.

the promising young footballer was laid to rest in his home district in baku. the last major functioning hospital in northern gaza has been put out of service after it was evacuated by the israeli military. the kamal adwan hospital has been under siege by the idf for weeks and is now empty. the world health organisation said it was deeply concerned for the safety of patients who were forced to leave. the head of the hospital's nursing department told the bbc the army gave them only a fifteen—minute warning to evacuate patients and staff before the israeli army entered the hospital and removed anyone that remained. palestinian health officials say around 100 medical staff were ta ken into an interrogating site and questioned last night. the director of the hospital was also detained. some of the medical staff who have been released have now reached the indonesian hospital. israel has confirmed it has ended its raid on kamal adwan hospital, which it said was being used by hamas as a command centre. israel has not provided any

evidence to support this. patients and medical staff have described what they witnessed during the evacuation. translation: at around 4am the army came to the hospitalj and asked all the medical staff and patients and people accompanying them to go into the court. then they grouped everyone, the medical teams alone, the patients alone, then they got ambulances to get us and sent us through the gate. translation: they were shooting through the windows. _ there were artillery shells by the gates. we came out at 7:30am. didn't know what to do, or where to go. the army asked us to leave... the way there there is no road, just deep sand. my father kept having to pull me out of it. it is difficult to

walk with an injury. translation: the patients that were evacuated now has been i held for interrogation for 24| hours, despite their injuries. the army didn't care - that they were injured and left them out in the cold for 24 hours, and they were - left on the roundabout, . and we as paramedics got to the closest point| despite the dangers and evacuated a large number of patients. l air passengers are facing delays and cancellations after fog enveloped the uk, severely disrupting international flights. with visibility as low as 100 metres, many flights out of gatwick, one of europe's busiest airports, were either cancelled or delayed for several hours. and weather forecasters say the fog which blanketed much of england and wales will persist. 0ur news correspondent barry caffrey has the latest from gatwick airport. a difficult day for passengers here at gatwick today, as you mentioned there have been delays of at least two hours, in some

cases three orfour hours or more. there have been cancellations by various airlines, including easyjet, british airways, and welling. but it is notjust here at gatwick, heathrow airport has experienced significant delays and cancellations today and manchesterairport, birmingham, stansted, london luton, and london city, all experiencing delays today. the bad news is it is set to continue over the coming hours. we have heard from nats which is the uk's main air traffic control provider which says that temporary air traffic restrictions are in place while there is this low visibility. they are doing this when it comes to safety, and it is in constant communication with both the airports and the airlines in order to try and minimise the disruption. the advice for any passengers intending either travelling tonight or indeed tomorrow

is to check with your airline before making the journey to the airport. the met office is advising passengers to allow longer for theirjourney given the weather, but it does say that the fog is expected to start a clear by later tonight. tech entrepreneur elon musk, has once again voiced his support for germany's alternative for germany party, publishing a guest opinion piece in the online edition of welt am sonntag. his contribution has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest. in the article, the tech entrepreneur expanded on a recent post on his social media platform, x, where he wrote, only the afd can save germany. the piece, made available to welt am sonntag, argued that the afd represents the hope germany needs as it teeters on the brink of economic and cultural collapse. the afd is currently polling second and could disrupt a centre—right or center—left majority, but germany's mainstream parties have pledged to reject any national alliance with the group.

demonstrators have taken to the streets of seoul, a day after mps ousted south korea's acting president, han duck—soo less than two weeks after he was appointed. the vote to impeach mr han was boycotted by the governing party and there were unruly scenes in the chamber as mps surrounded the speaker's chair, shouting and raising their fists. and it's being reported that south korea's suspended president yoon suk yeol authorised the military to fire their weapons if needed to enter parliament during his failed bid to impose martial law. robert kelly is a professor of international relations at pusan national university in south korea. i asked him to provide a recap of recent events in south korea following president yoon suk yeol�*s failed attempt to impose martial law. question overhanging. this is why the martial law declaration

was seen as necessary in response to the sort of standard day to day gridlock of south korean politics, which is to say, you had a conservative president and a liberal parliament that didn't really agree on very much. and then sort of out of the blue came this martial law declaration. i think it was widely seen as disproportionate to the fairly typical democratic wrangling that you see in the situation of divided government. and so, pretty quickly, the public and south korea's institutions mobilized against the martial law declaration. and that's really been the fallout since. i think the big debate, the big sort of point of contention, is how the president's own party will respond. at first, they didn't support the impeachment of him. then i think a lot of them came to realisejust how far he had gone and came to that, did support it until he was impeached. then you had this act that the prime minister in that case, in south korean constitutional law, the prime minister becomes the acting president. and then you've gotten to the impeachment of him, because for the impeachment of president yoon to continue, that must go to the country's highest court, the constitutional court, which is currently three justices.

too few! it's supposed to be nine, and it's currently six. and there was an effort to have the acting president put through more on. he rejected it. and so the opposition impeached him, too. it's kind of tangled, but it...i would argue that it's not a crisis. it is actually going through the appropriate constitutional steps. the south koreans are following the procedure on this so things aren't spinning off the rails or something like that. it's just more tangled. but i would argue that it's not actually a crisis. so the finance minister will now take over and he's pledged to resolve the turmoil. but is that within his power? well, i think the real issue is can you get these justices on the court? and i would argue institutionally, that's probably the smart thing to do, right? you're talking about the impeachment of the president here. you should have a full constitutional bench when you do that. the constitution requires that there be ninejustices on the court. there's currently only six for something as important as the impeachment and removal of an elected president. there should be the full complement. i think the opposition has sort of the weight of appropriate

institutionalisation, if you will, of constitutionality on its side, and that it looks like this new acting president will do that. and we don't know. but that's the core issue right now, is can you fill out the constitutional court so that the impeachment process can go through? and it's worth pointing out, by the way, that that the, the former president, the suspended president, i guess we should call him won't necessarily be convicted, right? i mean, the court is going to investigate it, right? i mean, they could the court could return that he shouldn't be shouldn't be impeached. so, i mean, allowing the process to go forward isn't doesn't strike me as particularly too much of a concession. the head of the world health organisation has told the bbc that it was public knowledge he was in yemen on thursday when israel launched air strikes at houthi targets. this footage reportedly captured the incident from inside the airport. dr tedros adhanom ghebreyesus, who's now injordan, said the main target, the international airport in sanaa, was a civilian facility and should not have been hit. at least six people were killed. israel says it was targeting military infrastructure. alon pinkas, israeli diplomat and writer says he's not sure

israel should be striking at yemen alone. it remains to be seen if israel is making a smart move here, because the houthi issue is does notjust concern israel, it's much more international. they control the entrance through the bab el—mandeb strait into the red sea, leading to the suez canal. yesterday, british and us air airstrikes in yemen against the houthis. so while mr netanyahu likes to boast and brag, and he's right in the sense that israel will respond, i think that it needs to be a part of a broader international effort rather than an israeli houthi tit for tat. yes. and i know you have been very critical of the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, in the past. alon, what do you consider the potential consequences of israel acting on its own against the houthis, as opposed to seeking a broader coalition

with the global community. i'm not sure they're going to be, you know, measurable or concrete consequences, but militarily, it's not very sustainable. yemen, well, let's take the capital of sana'a is 2000km, 1300 roughly miles away from israel, in order to fly there and strike military targets or infrastructure. israeli planes need to be refuelled in the air. this is a very lengthy trip back and forth. um, and it exposes, um, the israeli operation. the israeli planes... and so you could do it once, you could do it twice. you could do it three times. you can even use the navy as a supplement. the israeli navy, that is. but that that won't cut it because yemen is a big country. um, it is almost two and a half times the size of britain. um, it has 38 million people.

um, and, you know, just bombing sporadically here and there may not have consequences, but at the same time, it may not yield anything useful or productive. this needs to be an international effort. and when i say international, i don'tjust mean the us. take china, for example. uh, 60% of china's exports to western europe go through the suez canal. so it's a vested chinese interest, as it is a vested saudi interest because of the oil that the houthis be dealt with in a broader international way. it could be diplomatic. it could be military. i'm not making that decision right now. but going at it alone from israel's point of view, israel's point of view, that is may not have dire consequences, but equally so will not produce any good results. the state funeral of the former

indian prime minister, manmohan singh has taken place in delhi. india's first sikh premier died on thursday at the age of 92. mourners turned out across the capital to pay their respects as mamohan singh�*s coffin was placed on a flower—decked carriage pulled by a ceremonial army truck. and the ceremony included a 21—gun salute and was attended by india prime minister narendra modi, members of mr singh�*s congress party as well as other politicians and foreign dignitaries. 0ur correspondent, arunoday mukharji, was at the funeral and says people of all political affiliations attended. people are now starting to disperse. it was a massive affair you can see. they were

leaders from various political parties. and opposition parties as well. that is testament to who the former prime minister was. priorto who the former prime minister was. prior to being prime minister he was known for being the finance minister who led the finance minister who led the liberalisation of economic policies. he is known for being an academic a scholar and then an academic a scholar and then a politician. that's why you see the kind of condolences that have been pouring in right from various political parties including the prime minister who said that today india is mourning one of its most distinguished leaders. condolence messages continue to pour rain we've seen dignitaries and politicians and ordinary citizens and various congress party supporters

coming to pay their respects for the former prime minister. a ukrainian official has told the bbc they hope a new year prisoner exchange with russia will happen any day, although arrangements could fall through at the last minute. there have been just 10 exchanges this year, the lowest number since the full—scale invasion in 2022. ukraine doesn't publish numbers of prisoners of war being held by russia, but the total is thought to be over 8,000. from kyiv, will vernon reports. a christmas concert for ukrainians exhausted by war. dancer liliya keeps her pain hidden. her boyfriend bohdan was captured by russian forces two and a half years ago. she hasn't heard from him since. translation: the christmas holidays are a painful time. . if you want to celebrate, then you should. but without forgetting that we

need to support our soldiers. bohdan is very kind. he really loves cats, just like i do. liliya still sends messages to bohdan�*s phone... messages for him in the future. ..knowing he can't see them. translation: i miss him a lot. he needs to be saved and have his freedom back. freedom for ukrainians held by russia, that's what liliya and thousands of others are demanding. they hold regular street demonstrations. this one calling on the world not to forget the prisoners at christmas. many of the relatives here have no idea where their loved ones are or what condition they're in. russia provides prisoners with almost no access to communication with relatives, which only intensifies the suffering of families here in ukraine. for this family, the

wait is finally over. andriy and lena served in the ukrainian military and were both captured by the russians in 2022. lena, who was pregnant, was set free after two weeks, but andriy was freed only recently after two and a half years in captivity. translation: they beat us mercilessly with sticks - and their fists and feet. the food was horrifying — rotten fish heads and sour cabbage. i thought about my wife constantly. i remembered her smell and was desperately hoping to receive a letter from her. here, andriy meets his son, leon, for the very first time. translation: i constantly wrote him letters, saying l he would finally have the child he had wanted for so long. later, i learned that he hadn't received a single one. we want to spend these holidays together and feel the warmth of being a family.

the russian authorities told us allegations of mistreatment of prisoners were false and captured ukrainian militants were treated humanely, according to the geneva convention. will vernon, bbc news, lviv. the chess grandmaster, magnus carlsen, has quit a world tournament in new york after the governing body of chess said he could not carry on playing wearing jeans. he was playing in new york when he was told he would be excluded from the next round if he didn't change his trousers. carlsen, the highest ranked player in the world, immediately pulled out of both the rapid world championship and the world blitz tournament. he did offer to dress more formally for the next day's play, but was told he had to change out of jeans immediately. a lottery ticket holder in the us has woken up more than $1 billion richer after matching all 6 winning numbers in the mega millions draw. the winning ticket was bought at this convenience store in cottonwood in california. the prize is estimated

to be around $1.3 billion but maybe surprisingly that's only the 5th biggest prize in the game's history. the largest ever win was a little over $2 billion also bought by someone in california back in november 2022. you're watching bbc news. you can head to the website for a look at all our top stories. right now you can see the latest on the azerbaijan plane crash. i do stay with us, you're watching bbc news. hello there, some higher parts of england and wales have again been sticking out above this misty low cloud today. it's quite gloomy and murky and a little damp in other parts of england and wales. the fog, though, probably not quite as extensive

as it has been. and through the rest of the weekend, the breeze picks up a little, that mist and patchy fog will be lifting, promising some brighter skies more widely tomorrow, although there will be some rain still in scotland. the mist and fog is closer to this area of low pressure which is affecting other parts of europe as well, that weather front weakening as it moves south, and another band of rain heading into northern scotland by the end of the day. but temperatures in scotland and northern ireland in double figures. where it's grey and gloomy through the midlands, south—east england, it's going to be a chilly five or six degrees here, again. and still some extensive low cloud, some patches of mist and fog into the night, tending to lift from the north, as the breeze picks up, and we see some rain arriving across more of northern scotland, particularly towards the highlands. where we do see a few breaks in the cloud further south, temperatures could get close to freezing once again. we may still have some mist and patchy fog to start with in southern parts of england and wales on sunday. that should tend to lift, skies brightening, there may even be a bit of sunshine across more areas. further north, though,

with those stronger winds in scotland we are going to find some further rain across the northern half of the country. but temperatures should be higher in england and wales with the promise of a little sunshine, temperatures reaching nine or ten degrees. we are going to find that rain, though, continuing in scotland and every now and again an area of low pressure develops on that, intensifying the rain. and it's bumping into colder air in the far north of the country, so we could well find some snow in parts of scotland. it's rain for the most part, but some of that rain will be affecting northern england and northern ireland on monday. further south, the breeze continues to pick up a little, and bring in a few holes in the cloud but lifting temperatures into ten or 11 degrees. but it is colder in scotland, and this is where we could have some disruptive weather at the end of the year. monday into tuesday, from the central belt northwards, mainly some heavy rain, but there could be some snow for a while. as that melts it brings the risk of flooding and some travel disruption as well. but things could get even worse for new year's day because the next area of low pressure is going to be deeper,

it'll bring stronger winds, more widely, some heavy rain and some heavier snow in scotland.

this is bbc news. the headlines... russia's president vladimir putin has apologised to the president of azerbaijan for the downing of a passenger plane in kazakhstan. he called it a tragic incident in russian airspace but did not admit that russian air defences

shot it down. the health ministry in gaza says israeli forces detained and interrogated around one hundred medical staff from a hospital in the north of the territory after they forcibly evacuated the patients. the world health organization says it's the last major hospital in northern gaza now out of service. indians gather to pay their respects to former prime minister, manmohan singh. india's first sikh prime minister died on thursday at the age of 92. his last rites were held with full state honours. and — thick fog continues to cause delays and cancellations at some of the uk's busiest international airports. forecasters say the fog is likely to linger. now on bbc news, it's sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'mjane dougall.