palestinian authorities say seven people have been killed in an israeli strike on a hospital in gaza city. and a warning we are living in a "dangerous new era", as climate change drives another year of record—breaking heat and extreme weather. a period of national mourning a period of national mourning has begun in south korea has begun in south korea after one of the deadliest after one of the deadliest aviation disasters in the country's history. aviation disasters in the country's history. 179 people are now confirmed to have died. 179 people are now confirmed to have died. two people — thought to be two people — thought to be flight crew — were pulled flight crew — were pulled alive from the wreckage. alive from the wreckage. they are now being they are now being treated in hospital. treated in hospital. the boeing 737 crashed the boeing 737 crashed during an emergency landing during an emergency landing at muan international airport at muan international airport in the west of the country. in the west of the country. authorities say a bird—strike authorities say a bird—strike may have caused the disaster. may have caused the disaster. both the plane's black boxes both the plane's black boxes

which record flight and which record flight and voice data have now been found. voice data have now been found. our correspondentjean mackenzie sent this report. this, the terrifying moment the plane lands at speed without its landing gear down, and careers down the runway unable to stop before crashing into the perimeter wall.

fractured and splintered that the fire service have said that it's unidentifiable. inside the airport terminal, the families gathered to hear the terrible news. anguished scream this is now a room full of incomprehensible heartbreak as they wait for the bodies to be identified. for mr mang, it was the first time his great—nephews had ever been abroad. they'd gone to celebrate the youngest taking his college entrance exams, he tells me. their father took them. the boys were so smart, and he wanted to treat them. "i can't believe the entire family has just disappeared. my heart aches so much." the head of the airline has expressed his deep regret — this is the first fatal crash in his budget carrier's 20—year history. translation: i want to give my sincere apology| and condolences to those who've

lost their lives in the accident and their families. at the moment, it's hard to presume the cause of the accident, and we have to wait for the official investigation result from the authorities. it's thought the pilot couldn't activate the plane's landing gear. initial reports suggest a bird might have caused a fire in one of the engines. as the sun set, forensic teams were still searching the surrounding fields, while fire crews and engineers surveyed the little that's left of the wreckage — hoping to answer the many, many questions for a crash that's yet to make sense. jean mackenzie reporting. for the latest from the scene there, where the crash occurred, yuna ku from bbc�*s korea service sent us this update. i'm standing inside muan international airport. the day of devastating plane crash is almost setting.

however, you can see so many people, especially hundreds of families of the bereaved and government officials to aid them, is still inside the airport. as you can see from my back, there are emergency shelters set up inside the airport to support those families who are staying up all night inside the airport. they are staying inside the airport because they are still waiting for the government authorities to identify the casualties. only a few hours ago, the government announced that there are total 179 deaths among 181 passengers who were inside the plane. however, dozens of them still needs to be identified, and these families are waiting for the identification result. and one of the family of the bereaved just told us that the government authority

has just started dna testing. so to go back a little earlier today, the plane operated byjeju air, which is the most popular low—cost airline in south korea, attempted an emergency landing at this airport's runway. however, failed to slow down and eventually crashed into the structure at the end of the runway, and this caused a big explosion which almost shattered the plane into pieces. and this is causing... this has been causing so much trouble for the authorities to investigate behind the reason of this accident. just a few hours ago, the government announced that they restored two black boxes. however, they admitted that there are... they need to go through even more deeper investigation to sort out the exact cause of this accident.

the authorities in south korea have declared seven days of national mourning. acting president choi sang—mok said... chinese president xijinping said... uk prime minister sir keir starmer sent his "deepest condolences" to the victims and families and paid tribute to the work of the emergency responders. let's speak to tim atkinson. he is a former air accident investigator and aviation consultant. thank you very much for being with us. one of the theories seems to be some sort of bird strike. is that a credible theory, do you think? good evening- — theory, do you think? good evening. what _ theory, do you think? good evening. what we - theory, do you think? good evening. what we are - theory, do you think? good l evening. what we are looking theory, do you think? good - evening. what we are looking at here is very complex and, i dare say, perplexing situation,

and certainly there is some evidence, some video evidence which suggest a bird strike occurred not long before the aircraft landed, as we saw in the video, and it would be very reasonable to associate the fact that the landing gear is “p fact that the landing gear is up when the aircraft comes down, the flaps don't appear to be extended, i'm not seeing any lights illuminated on the aircraft, and those would indicate that there are serious problems with the systems on board and it would certainly be very possible that a bird strike has either directly caused some of those problems or what we often see is that the technical problem presents itself and then come in resolving that technical problem, the flight crew can have difficulty as well, or there can be procedural steps and so forth which lead to configuration difficulties. i think the one thing i am taking most strongly at the moment is that when aviation accidents occur, they do so at incredibly remote level of probability,

and therefore they do tend to be complex, with complex causal structures around them as we see here. structures around them as we see here-— structures around them as we see here. ,., , see here. right, so it might be more than _ see here. right, so it might be more than one _ see here. right, so it might be more than one direct _ see here. right, so it might be more than one direct factor, i more than one direct factor, but they have found, we gather, both the black's box flight recorders, so how quickly might they yield answers? do you think they will yield answers as to exactly what happened? flight records are designed to protect, protect the data inside them from this kind of event, and i would fully expect that the data inside will be recoverable. however, my concern is that a number of things suggest that electrical power was at least disrupted on board this aircraft prior to the landing, and that may mean the landing, and that may mean the recorders we re were not running, and that would be a very difficult situation for the investigators to deal with. invariably it is the flight data recorder which tells us what happened. very frequently the cockpit voice

recorder is very limiting as dosing happened, and in the absence of those two recorders here, it will be very difficult, if not indeed impossible, to determine precisely this he was of the events that led to this appalling tragedy. and it is obviously _ appalling tragedy. and it is obviously very _ appalling tragedy. and it is obviously very early - appalling tragedy. and it is obviously very early days, | appalling tragedy. and it is i obviously very early days, but you don't think it was nothing structural about the plane that may have caused this? the 737 is probably _ may have caused this? the 737 is probably the _ may have caused this? the 737 is probably the most _ is probably the most technologically proven aircraft flying, and this is not a max. the maxxine's bit in the spotlight for various reasons, but the eg and ng aircraft have a record over many decades and hours of flying hours. no, nothing to suggest ever is wrong with the aircraft prior to that bird strike. of course, it is always vital for the investigation to take its course, but i think in this particular case, we need to be prepared, perhaps, for the fact it may be impossible to work

out what did happen.- it may be impossible to work out what did happen. tim, thank out what did happen. tim, thank ou ve out what did happen. tim, thank you very much — out what did happen. tim, thank you very much for _ out what did happen. tim, thank you very much for that _ you very much for that analysis. that's ten atkinson, former air accident investigator and an aviation consultant. thank you very much for your time. and if you want to find out more about this story, you can head to the bbc news website, where you can follow our livepage for all the latest updates and developments. in georgia, protestors have again taken to the streets of the capital tbilisi with the swearing—in of the country's controversial new president, mikheil kavelashvili. there have been weeks of demonstrations against his governing georgian dream party and its victory in the recent disputed elections. the new president is a former manchester city footballer and also a hardline critic of the west — the four main opposition groups have rejected him over fears he will move georgia closer to russia, and they've boycotted parliament. they insist that the elections

held in october were rigged. on saturday, thousands of protesters in georgia formed a human chain in the capital, tbilisi, to mark a month of daily pro—europe demonstrations. similar rallies have been held in other towns and cities across the country. mass protests have gripped georgia since the government said it would delay talks onjoining the eu until 2028. the outgoing president, salome zourabichvili, has left the presidential palace but insisted she is still the legitimate holder of the office of president. translation: six years ago, i swore allegiance i to you on the constitution. and this allegiance will not change. wherever i am, in the palace or outside the palace, i will come out of here to you, and i will be with you. legitimacy comes from one source. and that source is you. and where there is

no trust of the people, there will be no legitimacy. so, what is the bigger picture in georgia? i spoke to laura thornton in washington, the former head of the national democratic institute in georgia. looking at the wider picture... that split of those who want to head to the orbit of russia and those who want to add to the orbit of the european union. i asked her whether it is a battle for georgia's future political direction. that is the key question, and i'm not sure if we're at a pivot point right here with this new presidency. obviously, as president zourabishvili said, quite clearly, she has a popular mandate.

she has the legitimacy of the public. georgians voted for her, while in contrast, kavelashvili, he has been appointed only by one political party and sworn in in a parliament with an isolated party, without any public support, without any public participation and diplomats not present. so the contrast between these two presidents is quite clear. so what happens next? i mean, we've seen these largely peaceful protests, but are there fears that georgia could once again slide into violence, do you think? i mean, of course, we hope it will not slide into violence, but it already has been a very violent period. these police forces and people associated with georgian dream have been torturing their own people. there are 500 people in jail. there are 350 people that have described widespread and systematic violence and abuse at the hands of georgian dream regime, so it's already been quite violent. i am amazed at the resilience of the georgian people. they continue to go out into the streets, they continue to demand for new elections and i don't see them quitting any time soon. so right now, it's one of those

periods where we don't know which direction the country is going to go in. is georgian dream going to capitulate or slowly crack and then come to the negotiating table and we have new elections, or are they going to crack down even more violently? and we head into a horrible place like belarus, where you have a very closed, autocratic society? we just don't know at this point. that's laura's certain in washington, former head of the national democratic institute in georgia —— laura thornton. azerbaijani president ilham aliyev has told state television that the passenger plane that crashed in kazakhstan, killing 38 people, was shot at from the ground in russian territory. but he said it was not intentional. the russian leader vladimir putin has spoken to mr aliyev and apologised for what he called a "tragic incident" in russian airspace, but he didn't admit responsibility. president aliyev mentioned the apology he received but said russia has covered up what happened.

for analysis of president aliyev�*s comment, i spoke to the editor of bbc azerbaijani service, konul khalilova. very strong words from president aliyev and very interesting language he chose to use, yeah. he said it was clear that the russian side wanted to cover up the issue. he said azerbaijan heard only absurd versions from russia for the first three days of the crash. he was referring to the versions by the russians about the plane crashed because of bird flock or some explosion inside the plane. president aliyev called this dishonesty and stupidity. that's what he said. and he said admitting the guilt, apologising in a timely manner to azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about this, all these were measures and steps that should

have been taken. but for the first three days, we heard nothing from russia except for some absurd theories. that's what president aliyev said. he also revealed that his government clearly expressed their demands to the russian side. these demands were officially communicated to them on december 27th, he said, which is two days after the crash, which happened on 25th. and he said that he had three demands from kremlin. first is the apology, which has been already fulfilled. yesterday, president putin called azerbaijan leader and extended his apologies, but he didn't say who shot down the plane. that's what azerbaijan wants from him. they want putin to admit it, because azerbaijan believes it is russia. aliyev said that russia must acknowledge its guilt. and he also demanded that those responsible must be punished, brought tojustice and compensation must be paid to the azerbaijani state. as we hearfrom president aliyev, these are

azerbaijan's conditions. now, we see in the news that putin initiated another phone call today and had a conversation with president aliyev again about the plane crash. this is the second call since yesterday. we don't know the details yet, as they have not been made public. the latest from gaza now. palestinian authorities say seven people have been killed in an israeli strike on the upperfloor of al—wafaa hospital in the centre of gaza city. several others are injured with officials saying some of those are in a critical condition. israel says the hospital was being used by hamas as a command centre, but has not provided any evidence to support this. earlier this morning, another hospital in gaza city — al ahli arab hospital, also known as the baptist — was also hit. it has the only ct scanner and ultrasound machine in north gaza. there were no injuries and no equipment damage. our correspondent shaimaa khalil has more from jerusalem.

smoke could be seen on the upperfloor of al—wafaa hospital in gaza city. the whole facade of that floor was destroyed. you could actually see people moving inside. other footage showed a crowd on the outside gate of the hospital and a man being pulled on a stretcher and moved into an ambulance. you could also hear sirens in the vicinity of the hospital. the gaza civil defence services said that some of those who were injured are in a critical condition. we got confirmation from the israeli army, who said that they conducted a strike on the hospital building and that they were targeting hamas fighters who were using the building as a command and control centre and that the building itself was not serving as a hospital at the time. now, israel has made similar allegations that hospitals were being used as command and control centre for hamas. they said the same thing when they raided and forcibly evacuated the kamal adwan hospital further north in gaza, northern gaza's last functioning hospital. they then detained and questioned some of the medical staff and its director.

israel has not been able to provide evidence for these claims and hamas refutes these allegations. they have called on the un, a, to protect medical facilities, but also to send observers to see if hospitals are being used for military purposes. the who said that they were appalled by the kamal adwan raid. they said the systematic dismantling of the health system and the siege of over 80 days of north gaza puts the lives of tens of thousands of palestinians at risk. shaimaa khalil reporting. there've been protests in the last few days over the suspected reprisal killings of people from the alawite community which syria's deposed president bashar al—assad belongs to. the rebel group hayat tahrir al—sham, who have formed the de facto government of the country, have denied carrying out reprisal attacks, and have promised a general amnesty for members of the former regime.

tens of thousands of the former regime's forces have been crowding at hts centres to surrender. the bbc�*s yogita limaye has been speaking to them. just weeks ago, these men were part of bashar al—assad's forces. now they are thronging to so—called reconciliation centres run by the insurgents they were fighting against. it's a picture of the transition that's under way in syria. mohammed ramadan was posted on the outskirts of damascus when it fell to the rebels. he's come to hand in his kalashnikov. in return, he'll get a civilian id and an assurance of amnesty. mohammed explains why assad's military collapsed so quickly. translation: there was no one to give us any orders. _ many of our commanders fled before us.

so i thought, why should i fight and die for someone who didn't even give enough of a salary so i could feed my family? some soldiers told us their daily rations were one egg and a potato, and they were paid less than $30 a month. those we spoke to denied they'd been involved in the regime's crimes. translation: i wasn't involved in any of their bad deeds. - i wanted to leave the military because i knew i was on the wrong side. but it was not possible because the government had all my civilian documents. we can't independently verify their claims. what we've largely heard here is the intent to move on with peace. but it does raise questions for syria's new government and its people. given the extent of bloodletting and brutality during 13 years of civil war. is it really possible to forget and move on and away from the capital, reports of revenge killings are beginning to surface.

—— and away from the capital, reports of revenge killings are beginning to surface. we're driving into an area dominated by the alawite community, which bashar al—assad belonged to. al amiriya is the hometown of alawite judge munzer al—hassan, who arbitrated property disputes, killed along with two of his colleagues. it's not clear who attacked them, but his brother nizar believes it's part of a backlash against alawites and those who worked for the regime. translation: this is a crime against an innocent person. . it's unacceptable. those being killed had no connections to the politics of the regime. hayat tahrir al—sham have denied they've carried out any reprisal and have promised to find the perpetrators. but after the euphoria of the regime's fall, the killings have triggered tensions. yogita limaye, bbc news, damascus. the world experienced an extra 41 days of dangerous

weather due to climate change this year. that's according to the world weather attribution service at imperial college london in the uk. it found that, as well as 2024 being the hottest year on record, the risk of extreme weather events such as heatwave, typhoons and hurricanes is increased. meteorological consultant jim dale said the world needs to learn how to be better prepared for when these events happen. i kind of use a couple of words in the book that you've just mentioned — big weather. that means extreme weather of all kinds. and chaos. because as you put more heat into the atmosphere or into the oceans, the molecules move faster and things become more unpredictable. so something that looks like, let's just say, an ordinary hurricane. i'm not going in a direction of saying hurricanes are easily possible.

i'm just saying hurricane helene, for example, went from a category three to a category five very quickly. and you saw what it did in north carolina by the amount of rainfall that fell and the devastation that was caused, and that was climate—induced. so all of these things and we can look right across the globe... don't look at your own country, don't look at the uk and just say, "oh, we haven't seen much of this," although storm bert did quite some damage in the welsh valleys. you've got to look globally at these things and join the dots. and once you join those dots, you get a real, real picture of what's going on with accelerated temperatures, with fossil fuel emissions at their peak — despite what's going on in terms of renewables, etc, we're still behind. so, you know, the starting gun for mitigation was fired some time ago, and sadly we didn't get off the blocks. and we're notjust doing it now. so as well as the words chaos and big weather, i'd also like to use the words safety and survival,

because those two words are becoming a little bit more apparent, if not at home, then certainly globally. and i think we need to be educated in terms of how to be safe in these extreme weathers. well, let's talk more about that, since you raised that. how can we be more safe, if you like? how can we try harder to survive some of these events? well, there's everything. it kind of starts in school. when i was at school, i did meteorology. well, not meteorology, but geography. and that led me into meteorology. but it's at a very basic level. you sort of skim the surface, and a lot of the stuff you do at school wouldn't necessarily be useful. i think people would agree with this. when you leave school, there's an awful lot that is taught that, you know, you can basically throw in the bin. that is meteorological consultantjim dale. we will see you very soon. hello there. the weather is starting to change now. it's going to take a turn for the worse, though,

as we head into the new year. the weather, then, very different from what we had over christmas, where we were dominated more by high pressure, mist and some fog — that's getting squeezed away, mind you. that weather front, though, continuing to bring some rain into scotland, and as we head further into the night, that rain is going to turn more widespread across the northern half of the country and bring with it some heavier rain and some snow for caithness and sutherland as we hit the colder air. elsewhere, looking dry, variable cloud, minimum temperatures 5—6 degrees. but the focus of the bad weather through monday and tuesday is going to be in scotland from the central belt northwards. combination of some heavy rain but also some snow leading to some flooding and some travel disruption. now, we start wet in many parts of scotland on monday morning. the worst of that wet weather moves away, we'll see some patchy rain heading into southern scotland, northern ireland, the far north of england, where it could be very windy in the northern pennines. some stronger winds further south, helping to break up the cloud, give us some sunshine and lift temperatures

close to double figures. although it will become drier in northern scotland, the air is quite a bit colder here, and as we head overnight and into new year's eve, the next area of low pressure is going to hit the same sort ofareas, bringing more heavy rain to scotland. another wet start to the day on tuesday. the worst of the rain does move through, and we see a band of rain sweeping across northern ireland, into england and wales, this time with some stronger winds, particularly windy across this part of the country. and we may well find some more snow falling in northern scotland, particularly for the northern isles. that's going to bring some disruption here. it is cold in northern scotland, but elsewhere, it's going to be mild for new year's eve, temperatures 11—12 degrees. and then we get another area of low pressure, this one a bit deeper, and it's tracking over more of the uk. so it's going to bring more disruption more widely, i think, for new year's day. we're going to have some very windy weather for england and wales, and for wales in particular, some heavy rain leading to flooding. further north, some heavy snow for northern ireland, scotland and developing in northern england, likely to bring some problems as the day progresses.

and that wild weather will continue overnight before the low pressure clears away by thursday, allowing arctic air to come sweeping down across the country and dropping the temperatures.

this is bbc news. the headlines... a plane carrying 181 people has crashed on landing in south korea, killing all but two of those on board. thejeju airflight from bangkok skidded off the runway at muan airport, crashed into a wall and burst into flames. protests in georgia protests in georgia after the new president — after the new president — mikheil kavel—ashvili — mikheil kavel—ashvili — was sworn in. the former manchester city was sworn in. the former manchester city footballer is a hardline footballer is a hardline critic of the west — critic of the west — and the 4 main was aimed at hamas fighters and the 4 main opposition groups have boycotted parliament. opposition groups have boycotted parliament. palestinian officials palestinian officials in the gaza strip say seven in the gaza strip say seven people have been killed people have been killed in the latest israeli strike in the latest israeli strike on a hospital there. on a hospital there.

israel has said that the strike israel has said that the strike was aimed at hamas fighters but hasn't provided any evidence for its claims. three people have died while trying to cross the english channel. four people were taken to hospital after several dozen people ended up in the water off the coast of sangatte near calais. and a warning we are living in a "dangerous new era" as climate change drives another year of record breaking heat and extreme weather.