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chinese state sponsored actor hacked the u.s. treasury department earlier this month, gaining access to staff workstations and some unclassified documents. relatives of those killed in sunday's plane crash in south korea demand answers from the government, as the anxious waste continues for the recovery of their loved ones. u.s. congress and leadership say jimmy carter will lie in state u.s. capitol rotunda for two days before his state funeral, after the former president died at the age of 100. and edinburgh's world-renowned new year's eve celebrations are canceled due to extreme weather forecasted across scotland. ♪ >> hello and welcome to bbc.

the u.s. government has said a state sponsored actor in china has hacked the treasury department, gaining access to staff workstations. a spokesperson set unclassified documents were compromised in the attack this month. treasury said it had worked with the fbi and other agencies to determine the impact of the breach, adding that there was no evidence that chinese hackers still had access to treasury information. let's take to our correspondent who joins me now from washington. hello there to you, rohan. tell us more about this. rowan: this has been described as a major incident in the letter sent from the u.s. treasury to lawmakers, which has been seen by the bbc. what appears to have happened is these hackers got hold of a security key which gave them access to a cloud computing service used by the treasury. from there, they were able to

bypass security measures and access workstations of a number of employees in the u.s. department of treasury. they have been accessing classified -- unclassified documents. what is not clear is what the scale of access is. how many documents have been affected, what sort of documents they may be, and how long the access was available to these hackers for. the authorities say they are now working with law enforcement to try to establish the scale of this hack. they say the system it was affected has been taken off-line. there is no indication that hackers still have access to the u.s. treasury building. >> like you said, they are trying to work out the impact that this breach may have had. to put it into context, why is this significant? rowan: i think the thing is that this comes off the back of what is known as the typhoon hack, discovered by microsoft in the summer, which was an attempt by

hackers who have been linked to china to penetrate. and they did penetrate u.s. telecommunications companies, and they were able to access some of the conversations of donald j. trump, the incoming president, in jd vance, his incoming vice president. they were also able to access a justice department list of people that they have been authorized to tap their phones if people who were thought to potentially be involved in espionage. that is quite significant. it may give the chinese an indication of potential spies in the u.s. from china who may have been uncovered by the authorities. this comes on the back of previous hacking attempts by the chinese. and something that the u.s. authorities are clearly concerned about. >> why this statement now? or there any indications at the time of the hack? all we know is that it took place earlier this month, earlier in december. rowan: i think the reason we have come to hear about this now is this letter has been sent to

lawmakers by the u.s. treasury, who were obliged to make them aware of it when the u.s. treasury themselves became aware that this hack had taken place. that letter was then obtained by members of the media and the bbc ourselves obtained a copy of that letter. that is why the story has come out now. clearly, it is an embarrassment for the u.s. treasury and for the computing company involved. the reason it has come out is because of the formal process of having to notify lawmakers when they are made aware of such a hack taking place. >> think you very much. we will see what this has once business opens tomorrow across america. thank you very much. families of the victims of south korea's worst aviation disaster in decades are calling for more support from the government, all but two of the 181 people on board died as the airplane crashed after landing. our correspondent has more.

reporter: the bereaved are at a breaking point. these outbursts come every few minutes. a day on from the crash, they are still at the airport, waiting to be reunited with their loved ones bodies. why have only five bodies been released, this woman yells. you are useless. a police official spares heard no details. they are too badly damaged, he says. forensic teams are still piecing them together. it is disturbing to hear. for her, it -- for this person, it is worse, his two teenage grandsons have not been identified. >> i have been sitting here all day hoping for news. i am so frustrated. i feel like i'm waiting without an end. reporter: the plane was carrying koreans back from christmas

holiday in thailand. when it landed at a speed without its wheels down. as it crashed, every passenger was killed. investigators are now trying to work out why the landing gear seemed to fail, but the flight recorder is damaged. it will take time to decipher the data. today, the attention has turned to what happened on the runway. when the plane made its emergency landing, it was still intact. because he could not, it overshot the runway here. we now know it hit this concrete and orange structure that has been raised up on this grassy mound. this is supposed to help planes land but this is the point at which the plane exploded into a fireball and fractured into many pieces. aviation experts questioning why this was positioned in this way so raised up, and so close to the end of the runway. the acting president has ordered an investigation of the country's entire aviation

industry. without answers, the families don't know who to blame. for now, the only place they can direct their anger is that the forensic teams who are still searching, yet to complete their grueling, unenviable task. jean mackenzie, bbc news. >> the painstaking work continues at the airport. these are live pictures coming to us at the international airport, the southwest of the country. an image that has become very familiar, the tale, the only remaining part of that flight. as you can see, it is still upright. emergency workers, investigators also, still working at the scene. it is across quite a large area, painstaking work, collecting evidence and any remaining dna following that tragic crash in which 179 people died.

ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy has announced one of the largest prison exchanges since full-scale war began with russia nearly three years ago. 189 ukrainian troops have been returned home from captivity, and 150 russian soldiers are returned as part of the deal, which was brokered by the united arab emirates. here is our correspondent in ukraine, will vernon. reporter: we have just witnessed moving scenes here as the buses with those 189 released ukrainians pulled up outside this hospital here. they had only just been taken out of russian territory. and the emotion of these men who came out of the buses, draped in ukrainian flax, and the family members that were waiting here to greet them, really was overwhelming. there were lots of tears, shouts of joy, hugs and kisses. many of the men fade -- made

phone calls to their families to say they were ok. many of them have been in captivity for a very long time, more than two and a half years in many cases. the emotion here was really incredible. the other thing that was particularly touching was that there were a lot of family members here of ukrainian soldiers who are still either missing, or in captivity. they were showing photographs of their loved ones to those who had just been released, saying, have you seen my husband, my son? do you know anything about them? it really was an extraordinary scene to behold. >> i wonder if you can give us a sense more broadly of where the war is at at the moment? will: the war is going badly for ukraine, despite the jubilant scenes we saw here earlier, the mood is pretty gloomy at the moment here. interestingly, some ukrainian officials were telling us the

negotiations with russia over these prisoner exchanges, like the one that happened today, one of the biggest since the war started, those negotiations are becoming more difficult, because moscow is less willing to negotiate because it advancing on the battlefield. ukraine has a serious shortage of men for the frontline. it is losing territory. ukrainians feel the west is losing interest too. 2025 is looking to be a particularly uncertain and worrying year for ukrainians. >> that was will vernon there. meanwhile, in his final weeks in office, the u.s. president, joe biden, announced $6 billion in additional military and budget aid for ukraine. of that, $2.5 billion is designated for security assistance while $3.4 billion will help repair critical infrastructure, damaged by intensified russian attacks. it is the final disbursement under the 2024 ukraine security

supplemental appropriations act. in a statement, president zelenskyy said, additional u.s. security assistance for ukraine comes out a critical moment, and will help strengthen ukraine's defenses along the front lines. high winds and extreme weather has forced the cancellation of edinburgh's famous holiday celebrations on new year's eve. tens of thousands of tickets have already been sold, but organizers say high winds and extreme weather mean they have been an 8 -- they have been unable to continue with preparations for the events today and tomorrow. amongst the events called off, a concert by the rock band texas, and the traditional midnight fireworks display to see in 2025. rain, snow and strong winds will hit large parts of the u.k. this week, with a series of weather warnings coming into force between today and thursday. then a amber alert for rain has also been issued for parts of scotland on new year's eve. stormy conditions are expected to spread to the rest of the

u.k. our correspondent reports from edinburgh. reporter: this is what people from all over the world come to edinburgh to experience. this was holiday last year. preparations were taking place today for the famous street party concert due to be headlined by texas and spectacular fireworks. that was until this afternoon, when organizers announced they have had to cancel on safety grounds after the office issued yellow warnings for winds and rain. a spokesperson said we have unfortunately been unable to continue with preparations, and necessary setups for edinburgh's hogmanay outdoor events due to extreme weather and forecast conditions. for safety reasons, we, along with our event partners, have taken the difficult decision to cancel all outdoor events. of course, people are disappointed, but understand. >> we were not allowed to go to the castle because of the wind. >> this is what i came for.

this weather. i love it. >> it was blustery for the torches. >> we kind of came here for the party. reporter: organizers of other events like the stone haven fireballs plan to still go ahead. >> fireballs are going ahead as planned. the only issue is whether they would be for the stuck -- for the spectators to stand for a couple hours before hand. reporter: already today, the north of the country has been deluged with rain. this is what part of the highland main railway line was up against. there is an amber warning for rain in place for parts of the area tomorrow. the worst of the weather is due to have passed through scotland by new year's day, but there are yellow warnings for wind and rain for the south of england. >> the welsh ambulance service has declared a critical incident because of significantly increased demand across the

service, and extensive hospital handover delays. demand has been very high, with more than 340 calls waiting to be answered at the time the critical incident was declared. a state funeral will be held for the former u.s. president jimmy carter on the ninth of january, part of a national day of mourning for the longest lived u.s. president. before that, his body will be flown to washington, where it will lie in state in the rotunda at the u.s. capitol from january the seventh. he died yesterday at the age of 100, serving one term as president from 1997 to 1981 and was later awarded the nobel peace prize. a makeshift memorial has been set up at the carter presidential center in his home state of georgia. this is also the scene, the memorial seen, but washington dc has also seen flags flying at half mast throughout the day.

tributes have been pouring in from world leaders, including king charles saying he felt great sadness at president carter's passing, describing him as a committed public servant. one iconic image of jimmy carter is from 1984 when he donned a hard hat and picked up a hammer to work on an affordable housing project for habitat for humanity in new york city. at the time, the project director was 25-year-old robbed iraq or who joins us now. it is unfortunate we don't have the image to show. but essentially, i would like to ask you, the pictures we have, they were not photo opportunities he got his hands dirty, didn't he? >> oh my goodness, dirtier than the rest of his crew. we could not get him off the site. he was the first one on the job in the last one off the job. for five straight days. now, habitat is such a global

presence, that you get sitting presidents and maybe even prime ministers who will take a ceremonial hammer swing or two on habitat project. the idea then that a former leader of the free world, somebody who carried a -- carried around a nuclear football, would spend five days working on a project as a carpenter, getting down on his hands and knees, kneeling plywood into the floor of a slum building, was unheard of. he definitely got his hands dirty. >> what were his skills like? there are pictures of him painting, woodwork, and using mortar with his tool belt on. what were those building skills like? rob: he is an accomplished carpenter. we were not at the painting stage at that time, but we were at the carpenter stage. he has built furniture and he loved to work with his hands. and he recruited not only about

three dozen volunteers to help him do that on our project, but it included his wife, who he turned into a bit of a carpenter herself. >> so many of the pictures from habitat for humanity do show him with his beloved rosalyn next to him. and a lot of his work, it was not just the united states. he traveled the world and helps with charity. including south africa, where his aim was to build 1000 homes across africa. for him, he saw this as the path to reconciliation after apartheid, building affordable homes. rob: reconciliation is a good word for it. that came out of his christian faith. to reconcile people with each other and with god. he made a post presidency -- i

think he made a presidency out of that. there are a lot of debates apr'k there is any question that hebot was the most active and the best former president that we have ever had in this country. >> think his last build, was it nashville, 2019? he is a former navy man, he worked on nuclear submarines for a time as part of his career. did he follow orders or did he give them? rob: it's interesting you ask that. when i introduced him to the project, first of all, we went out, we had a woe -- a wooden staircase that had been struck -- have been constructed a day before because they took out the marble flats of the staircase. it was an abandoned building. we get to the top of the building, and he looks south

indices the world trade center and wall street and all of the power and money that represented. then he looked north and saw midtown manhattan and saw all that represented. then he looked in the backyard of our building, and there was an elderly woman cooking her breakfast over an open fire because she did not have any heat, hot water or gas in her apartment next door. that really impacted him. he would later write about it. here in the most prosperous city and the richest city in the richest country on earth, you have this. we get out to the car, much to the relief of the secret service, saying we are not crazy about him being in a precinct that had the highest homicide rate at the time. but we get out to the car, and he said, the founder of habitat for humanity, he said, that is my boss. if i can help you here, just let him know.

that is when i blurted out, well, thanks, mr. president, what do you say when you get an offer like that? i said, maybe you can get some volunteer carpenters from your church. he said, we will think about it. he thought about it for a day, called and said, not only would he send some carpenters, he was going to be one of the carpenters. and that changed everything. several months later, they come up on a bus from georgia, slept in a dormitory space at her church and hells kitchen, and commuted to the project. as i said, he was the one that worked the hardest. >> just very quickly, did you believe it when he said he wanted to work with the charity? what was the reaction like? rob: i had gotten to know him a little bit and those of us in habitat could believe it. the people who cannot believe it were people in your industry. the media kept asking, he is

just going to come and make a few hammer swings, and go back to georgia? we said, no, he will work for the entire week. that led to real incredulity throughout the press, until they came down and he actually recruited some of the premier media people in new york to help with them on that project. they sure believed it then. >> we end the way we begin, this was not a photo op, this was real work being carried out. thank you very much. thank you for sharing your memories of jimmy carter. rob: thank you, and a delight to be with you. happy new year. >> and you too. thank you. jimmy carter, president jimmy carter, dying yesterday at the age of 100. india has launched a rocket to carry out its first space docking mission. the indian made rocket blasted off from a site north of the

area carrying two small space craft which will test the docking maneuver. space docking is crucial for travel to the moon. delhi hopes to become only the fourth country with such technology after russia, the u.s. and china. prime minister modi has announced plans to send a person to the moon by 2040. that is a once-in-a-lifetime event, as the chance to glimpse the star know -- limbs a star happens just every 80 years. the boost to its brightness comes from it going nova, releasing a huge burst of energy built up over the previous eight decades. astronomers believe this rare celestial event may be imminent. rebecca morelle reports. reporter: astronomers are scanning the skies to see a celestial explosion revealing a star that is normally too faint for us to see.

it is dim at the minute. it is about magnitudes 10 normally, well below what you could see with the naked eye. that could all be about to change. every 80 years or so, the star is predicted to light up the sky, but not for long. >> it will be visible to the naked eye for a couple days. if you have a small pair of binoculars or telescope, you will be able to see it from longer because you have that magnifying tool. i think it is a short stint in the sky that makes it special. reporter: it is actually two stars orbiting around each other. a small white dwarf, a dead star, and a much larger red giant. the white dwarf has an immense gravitational pull, and it is consistently dragging material away from the red giant. over time, this material builds up, until it explodes, releasing a huge amount of energy. this makes the star briefly

appear much brighter in the night sky. the last time this happened was in 1946, when michael woodman was 15. the newport schoolboy had stayed up late, waiting for his dad to come home. >> i looked out of my bedroom window, and there in the rim, i saw this very bright. i had never seen it like that before. i thought, i will get in touch with -- reporter: the astronomer -- astronomer royal wrote back and said he was the first person in the u.k. to seen this. >> you are watching bbc news. stay with us. plenty more coming up shortly. ♪

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announcer: funding was also provided by, and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

nick: good evening. i'm nick schifrin. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on the newshour tonight, remembering the life and legacy of former president jimmy carter, one day after he died at 100 years old. crime li