vladimir putin apologises for a plane crash in kazakhstan that killed 38 people but stops short of saying russia was responsible. gaza's health ministry says medical staff are among hundreds of people held by israeli forces who raided the last major hospital in the north of the territory. hello, i'm carl nasman. we begin with breaking news out of south korea. fire authorites say that at least 62 passengers have been killed after a flight carrying 181 people crashed at south korea's muan airport. two people have been rescued from the crash, according to the country's national fire agency. the authority says 80 firefighters are on site to extinguish the fire and thejeju airflight, which was returning to south korea from bangkok, reportedly crashed into a wall off the runway and caught fire. witnesses reported

hearing a large explosion after the crash, which happened shortly after 9:00am, local time. fire crews have been working to put out the blaze on site and the muan airport authority the it is now mostly extinguished. the cause of the crash is unconfirmed but local media reports that a bird strike may have caused the plane's landing gear to malfunction. these are live images from muan airport, a few hours after the crash. we saw the plane bursting into flames. local media are reporting a bird strike because the plane to malfunction. in the last few minutes, jeju air issued have issued an apology in response to the muan airport plane crash.

the airline said: "in this incident at muan airport. "we will do all we can to respond to the incident. "we are sorry for the distress." for more on this, i spoke tojonathan head, our south east asia correspondent. what is the latest you are hearing about the status of the plane, what might have happened that led to the crash? we have seen one video, which we are trying to authenticate, filmed from the side of the runway. it appears to show the flight on the

boeing operated byjeju air trying to land, running along the runway without the nose wheel deployed and a lot of smoke coming from the rear wheels which would suggest perhaps it was breaking hard and then going off the end of the runway and slamming into either a fence or wall it's not clear. i think it is a fence, and bursting immediately into flame. the pilot had had a problem and done a go around already so the emergency services at muan airport were alerted and would have been there very quickly. they employed a lot of fire engines and others to put the fire out. as things stand, 47 confirmed dead 180 people, 181 people on board, only two survivors so far. we will have to wait for confirmation as the authorities on the ground we believe the fire was put out some time ago. but it's pretty messy and it will take time to work out exactly what the numbers of casualties are and we still don't have a breakdown yet of where the passengers came from. given it is a low—cost carrier flying from thailand back to korea to a provincial airport, it is likely most of those on board were korean holidaymakers who had been here on holiday in thailand. help us understand a bit more, this wasjeju air, you say they are one of these budget air carriers, going from thailand

to south korea. i believe there were a couple of thai nationals on board? do we have a sense like you said they might have been maybe travellers, holidaymakers, people who would be looking for a low—budget ticket between the two countries? look, there has been an enormous expansion of low—cost carriers in asia. they have a very large population in this region of 2 billion people, 2 billion people, more than 3 billion if you include india. a big market, a lot of new low—cost carriers. jeju air has been operating for 19 years, and we have had new welcome low—cost carriers with safety issues like lion air and air indonesia in the past. it is the way most people get around, people from south korea do like to go on holiday at this time of year to warmer parts of asia.

it would be unlikely many thai people would go to this provincial airport they do go to south korea on holiday some of the wealthy ones go to work as well but we believe only two of the people on board were thai. we suspect the others are koreans. jeju air flies to nearly 60 destinations all in this region so a very well—known carrier, it has had only one accident before a non—fatal one this is the first accident of this seriousness to effect the airline and its 19 years of operation. obviously you are in bangkok, but to focus on south korea, which is a country that has just gone through so much in recent weeks, a couple of different impeachments, of presidents, currently the finance minister is the acting president. walk us through, this must be an incredibly tumultuous time for a plane crash like this to happen in south korea ? i think, any large accident like this will hit the country very hard. remember, we have

had some pretty devastating accidents in the past. back in 2022, there was the great crash in itaewon, the halloween crush where it well over 100 people died and a ferry disaster in 2014, not too far from the airport where this plane crashed. an entire generation of children from one town died when that ferry capsized. always in korea there is a lot of public anxiety when there is a serious accident, lots of concern about whether safety failures were to blame and in those past accidents serious flaws were found. at this stage it is too soon to say what the problems were with this accident, whether there was any flaw in the way the plane was handled, all the way it was maintained or whether there was something they had no power over. it is far too soon to say. it does appear from the video

we have seen it does look genuine, the nose wheel failed to deploy, the pilot attempted to land with just his rear wheels, planes do that and often do it and land quite safely, it is not unknown for that to happen but in this case from the brief video we have seen it is quite clear the plane is still going at great speed without the nose wheel deployed when it goes off the end of the runway, it will take an investigation to assess exactly what caused that. and just the last few minutes, the death toll has risen. at least 85 confirmed killed in the crash over the past hour also in the number continues to rise. it was 47 and then up to 62 and now 85. that was a flight carrying 181 people, crushing about four hours ago, in the south of south korea. we

will continue to monitor developments in that story. we do know that two people have been rescued from the wreckage, a very fiery crash, and we're still waiting for details and confirmation about exactly what caused the incident but again, that plane there, travelling from bangkok to south korea, crushing and we now know 85 have been killed now. in moscow, russia's president vladimir putin apologized to the leader of azerbaijan over what he called the "tragic incident" involving a passenger plane which crashed, killing 38 people on wednesday. he acknowledged that russia's air defences were active at the time but stopped short of saying his country was responsible. there's speculation that the azerbaijan airlines plane came underfire from russian air defence systems as it tried to land in the southern russian city of grozny. it later diverted to aktau airport in kazakhstan, where it crashed. 0ur russia editor, steve rosenberg, has more on the apology from moscow.

it was an azerbaijan airlines flight. it had crashed in kazakhstan but was russia responsible? a brief glimpse today of vladimir putin meeting his powerful security council, and then a kremlin announcement. president putin had telephoned azerbaijan's president to apologise for the fact that what he called the "tragic incident" had happened in russian airspace. according to putin, flight 8243 had made several attempts to land at grozny airport, in russia's north caucasus region. he claimed that grozny and other places nearby had been under attack from ukrainian drones and admitted russian air defence systems had been in operation. azerbaijan said that president aliyev had told president putin that the plane had been subjected to external physical and technical interference in russian airspace. so, words you very rarely hear

from vladimir putin, "i apologise", but no public admission that it was a russian missile that caused this disaster and also no explanation why this plane was allowed anywhere near grozny airport during a ukrainian drone attack. aviation experts suggest the aircraft may have been hit by shrapnel from russian air defence missiles. officials in russia had initially claimed the plane had hit a flock of birds. remarkably, 29 people survived this. translation: the plane turned round, and at that moment, - there was a blast outside the aircraft. my arm was hurt in that blast — a deep wound, as if someone had hit me in the arm with an axe. meanwhile, anotherfuneral of another victim of this disaster. mahammadali yeganov was just 13.

in azerbaijan, they continue to mourn. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. a ukrainian official tells the bbc it's hoped any day, although arrangements could fall through. there have only been 10 exchanges this year, the lowest number since the start of russia's full—scale invasion in 2022. ukraine doesn't publish numbers of prisoners of war being held by russia, but the total is believed to be more than 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 2.5 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. boghdan is very kind. he really loves cats, just like i do. liliya still sends messages to boghdan�*s phone... messages for him in the future. ..knowing he can't see them. 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 letterfrom her. here, andriy meets his son, leon, for the very first time. i constantly wrote him letters, saying 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 last major functioning hospital in northern gaza is now out of service after it was forcibly evacuated by the israeli military. the kamal adwan hospital has been under siege by the israel defence forces for weeks and it now stands empty. the kamal adwan hospital has been under siege by the israel defence forces for weeks and it now stands empty. the world health organization said it's deeply concerned for the safety of patients who were forced to leave. the head of the hospital's nursing department told the bbc that the israeli military gave them only a 15—minute warning to clear patients and staff before troops entered the hospital and removed anyone that remained. palestinian health officials say about 100 medical staff were ta ken in for interrogation. the director of the hospital was also detained. israel said the raid on the hospital is now over and claims it was being used by hamas fighters as a command

centre, without providing evidence. our correspondent, emir nader, is injerusalem and sent this report. sirens blare. throughout gaza, patients forced out of the kamal adwan hospital by the israeli military are arriving to seek treatment, some brought in with assistance, others arriving by foot, bringing with them stories of how they were interrogated. translation: they took us one or two at a time - to the school's bathroom, ordering us to remove our pants and lift up our shirts. when we refused, they beat us. this happened three times, and each time we were beaten for refusing. eventually we were forced to comply, because they aimed their guns at us and threatened to shoot. for weeks, kamal adwan staff issued desperate pleas for the israeli military to stop targeting the facility, situated in an area of northern gaza the united nations says israel has placed under a near—total siege. then, on friday morning,

the military gave staff and patients 15 minutes to leave. some were marched, nearly naked, to be interrogated. this evening the israeli military said 240 "terrorists" have been arrested from what they've called a hamas stronghold. weapons, they say, were found at the hospital. dr hossam abu safiya, the well—known director of the hospital, israel is calling a suspected terrorist — though without offering evidence. reports we can't verify say he has been beaten. fatima and her daughter were also being treated at the hospital, and forced out and told to walk south. translation: this is my injury. they hit our house with three rockets. after we went out of the house, they destroyed it, and its four floors collapsed on top of each other. for those who remain in besieged northern gaza, the closure of kamal adwan heralds an even darker chapter, where an injury can now

become a death sentence. emir nader, bbc news, jerusalem. the head of the world health organization has told the bbc it was public knowledge he was in yemen on thursday when israel launched air raids against houthi targets. this footage from the international airport in the capital sanaa shows the moment where it came under israeli fire. dr tedros ghebreyesus who's now in jordan, said the airport is a civilian facility and should not have been targeted. at least six people were killed in the raids. israel says it was targeting military infrastructure but dr tedros says he only survived through good fortune. it was very chaotic. you know, people were in disarray and running everywhere, and no shelter. we were completely exposed. it's a matter of luck. otherwise, if the missile deviated just slightly, it could have been on our head.

and so my colleague actually said, after all that, "we escaped death narrowly." and it's a civilian airport. i think that there are rules to engagement, as you know. homelessness in the us reached a record high in 2024 with the government attributing the rise to a lack of affordable housing and the impact of natural disasters on people's homes and livelihoods. the us department of housing and urban development reports that more than 770,000 people across the country were counted as homeless during a single night in january 2024. it says homelessness jumped more than 18 percent in 2024. this is on top of a 12 percent incease in 2023. the agency says soaring rent prices and the end of covid—pandemic related assistance are pushing more people into homelessness. for more on this i spoke to donald whitehead the executive director at the national coalition for the homeless. nearly 750,000 people across the us living in shelters or simply

on the streets. what's your reaction to the findings of this report? well, thanks, first of all, for having me, and my reaction is one of great disappointment. these numbers do not have to be at this level. we need a robust federal investment, and we have not seen that in this period of homelessness — this current period of homelessness. we have seen it in previous periods of homelessness in our country, but not in this particular period. is there any way to know — with this number of people without shelter, are they evenly spread across the country? are there certain states where there is a higher population of homeless than others? certainly they're spread across the country, but there are particular communities that have higher numbers in the point—in—time count. now, let me just say, we shouldn't think of this as a census.

it is not a census. it's a count that we do once a year at the end ofjanuary, and it really gives us some trends, but it isn't the total number of people homeless in this country. it's a one—time count. but we do see places where the numbers are higher. los angeles in the state of california, new york and florida are places where you see higher numbers — much higher in urban communities than rural communities, but we see the growth actually happening in all three sectors of the community, whether it's rural, urban or suburban. yes, tough to get an exact number, but the trend seems to be going up — up 18% sincejust last year. we heard a number of factors mentioned there that could be contributing. what do you think of those factors? is there one thing you could pinpoint that's leading to this increase, or is this really a mix of many different things? it's a very complex issue,

and it's a mix of many different things. as you said, there's the lack of affordable housing. the national low income housing coalition says there's about a 73 million unit gap in the number of people that need housing versus the affordable housing units that are available. we have a federal subsidy programme that only meets the need of a quarter of the people that are eligible. only one quarter of the people eligible for subsidised housing through the housing choice voucher programme actually are able to access housing. those are big reasons. we also saw the resources that were put into communities during covid. those resources are no longer available, so we're seeing the level of evictions go back to pre—pandemic stages. and we're also seeing literally homeless individuals. about 19,000 people a week are homeless for the first time. we house almost a million people, but after we house those people... i should have said we house 370,000 people and a million people show up, so we need to upstream prevention

to end homelessness. it was interesting, too, looking inside this report — which was put together by hud, the us department of housing and urban development — officials are saying there is another factor in the increase in asylum seekers coming to the us. do we have a sense of how much immigration could be straining the system? i don't think that we can factually be able to place the blame on immigration. the statement in the report, if you read it, says that 13 communities recorded immigration as a factor in the growth of their homelessness, but hud itself does not track immigration in this count. so i think it's a little unfair to place the blame on other marginalised communities like the immigration community. most cities separate those numbers. houston is an example.

houston had an 11% decrease in homelessness, but they were one of the communities with the highest influx of immigrants. and you can't really make that statement. i think it was a little irresponsible to make that statement. certainly immigration is on the rise in our country. it's a big problem, but usually those are two separate systems. so i think people using that excuse are scapegoating to hide the ineffectiveness of their own systems and communities. they're not investing in permanent housing, they're criminalising people that are homeless. and these issues don't, in fact, reduce homelessness. they actually make people homeless longer. let's turn to some other important news around the world: thousands of protesters in georgia have formed a human chain in the capital, tbilisi, to mark a month

of daily pro—europe demonstrations. mass protests have gripped georgia since the increasingly authoritarian government said it would delay eu accession talks until 2028. opposition anger has grown since parliament chose a government loyalist as president. he is due to take office on sunday. three—quarters of all ports in peru have been closed because of huge waves lashing the coast. as you see here, waves up to 4 metres high are sweeping away boats and deluging coastal towns. beaches have also been closed, while authorities blocked fishing boats from heading out to sea. the peruvian navy says the waves are being generated by strong winds off the coast of the united states, thousands of miles away. a lottery ticket holder in the us is more than a billion dollars richer after winning the mega millions draw. the winning ticket was bought in california. the prize money isn't the largest ever win though. in november, 2022, one lucky winner scooped just over two billion dollars. before we go, a reminder of that breaking news out of south korea. fire authorites are now saying that at least 85 passengers have been killed

and two rescued after a flight carrying 181 people crashed at south korea's muan airport. the jeju—air flight, which was returning to south korea from bangkok, reportedly crashed into a wall off the runway and caught fire. witnesses reported hearing a large explosion after the crash, which happened shortly after 9am, the shortly after 9am, fire chief at a press conference the fire chief at a press conference recently said it could be birds getting caught in the fire engine that may have been the cause of the incident. more coming up. hello there. as we push into part two of the weekend, it looks like we should see that fog issue lifting. that's because the stagnant air associated with the area of high pressure is pulling away into the near continent, and we're picking up a fresher westerly breeze through sunday.

that should help disperse the clouds to give more sunny spells, but it will stay unsettled across scotland, with this weather front bringing persistent rain. you'll see more isobars on the charts for sunday, so that breeze will be strong, especially for the northern half of the country. here, it stays cloudy and wet, pretty much all day, but southern scotland, northern ireland and large parts of england and wales will see the sunshine breaking through, as we head into the afternoon. so a grey start and then a brighter afternoon, temperatures still in single digits across the south east. a bit milderfurther north, up to around 11 or 12 degrees in central southern scotland. now, as we head through sunday night, it stays wet across the northern half of scotland. some cold air engaging the system could turn some of that rain into snow over the hills across northern scotland, so a real wintry mix there, but elsewhere, further south, it'll be drier, with clear spells, but throughout monday, into new year's eve, with further rain and hill snow across scotland, we're likely to see some travel issues. it could be bringing some localised flooding to places, so stay tuned to the forecast to keep up to date with all the weather forecasts, and head online to check out all the latest weather warnings.

this is the picture, then, for monday. we've got low pressure to the north of the uk, active weather fronts across scotland, bringing heavy rain, further hill snow here, could see some showers pushing into northern and western england and wales, but i think much of england and wales will see the sunshine, and stay largely dry throughout the day on monday, but more of a breeze and a milder day to come for all, cold in northern scotland. as we head out of monday into tuesday, which is new year's eve, another area of low pressure moves through to bring a blustery, windy day for all, outbreaks of rain, particularly in the north and the west. once again, there will be some hill snow across the north of scotland, so some travel disruption is likely, so that rain moving across england and wales later on in the day on new year's eve, so you have to stay tuned to the forecast if you have travel plans, of course. another mild day to come, away from northern scotland. another low—pressure system hurtles across the country on new year's day, and as it pulls away, it allows the floodgates to open to a northerly arctic air flow. so after a disruptive day of weather on new year's day, the first week of january 2025 is looking colder, sunnier, with some wintry showers and frosty nights.

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after this programme. this week, nick goes down under to find out how those cogs and wheels keep an iconic building going. but is he getting a bit too hands—on? you just shut the whole building down! is that...?! i'd better not touch any more! ever wondered what it takes to put on this kind of show? let's go and see some magical secret stuff. alasdair�*s going behind the scenes at europe's biggest theme park. now, what vegetation do you think might make the best climbers? mushrooms, apparently. we meet two pioneers replacing the plastic in their sport with fungi. and it's time to get up close

and personal with lara here,