>> tributes continued to pour in from across the music world and from the legion of fans. this after george michael sudden-death on christmas day. russia. mourning for the military plane that crashed on sunday. aficials say it is likely technical error. hundreds of thousands displaced in the philippines, disrupting christmas celebrations. we will bring you the latest.

we start with the death of george michael on the age of 53. his career spans the decades classics such as last christmas. now reports. among the first to react, on twitter she wrote farewell my friend, another great artist leaves us, accompanied by a video presenting michael with the award. reached -- his song don't let the sun go down on me reached number one in the u.s.. he wrote, i am in deep shock. a beloved friend,

the kindest most generous soul and a brilliant artist. his family,s out to friends, and fans. the costar said he was also heartbroken by michael's death. meanwhile fans in australia said they were devastated. >> i admired him as an artist. another artist gone this year. >> the most heartfelt tribute came from lgbt activists around the world, including in taiwan where george michael is andbrated as a gay icon strong supporter of gay rights. >> i think he was a brave person who stayed true to himself. hearing that he passed away makes me sad.

counts as a very special icon in the community. i think he left this world happy. >> george michael was particularly famous in asia. beijing was slowly beginning to open up to the outside world. >> i'm joined by a music journalist and host. thank you for joining us. we heard from members of the gay community. he had an impact on the music industry and pop culture. tell us about the mark he left after his passing. mark. he left a massive

every single quality, what it means to be at pop star and cultural icon condensed into one person. people may have an incredible voice but they don't have the charisma or they don't have much sexual power around them. some people may be incredible songwriters but they can't carry a tune. george michael had everything. he had that incredible voice you heard in the report. he had such a distinctive voice and incredible range. and he was income -- was an incredible songwriter. know and evens we , he wrotesongs he did and produced those songs by

himself. they are written by committee, there are 20 people working on these songs. of course he was an unbelievably attractive person. he was a huge sex symbol in his time. as a solo artist he has the ark that makes someone a cultural icon. band,rted off in a boy had girls screaming at the shows. then he is going to be a solo successa huge amount of . someone without his skills and confidence would have stayed with wham! everyone remembers what he looked like. he looked like elvis posing for

playgirl magazine. then he became even bigger. then he said i don't want any of that either. this freedome did video. the irony was it turned out to be one of the biggest videos of all time. he got all of the biggest supermodels to be in the video and it is considered one of the best videos ever. when you think about the lyrics to freedom, someone else i have to be, that only became clear. camehe meant after that out years later, when he was ifced to come out as gay, you take those things separately, if you do one of those things in your career, it would be incredible. but he did them all. >> this is not the first time we have been talking in 2016 about

somebody who has had a huge impact on the music industry on 20th-century pop culture. david bowie back in january. go through some of the huge market that some of the huge icons. >> do we have to do the whole list? the big icons. we lose one equivalent of michael jackson. bowie at the beginning of the year, also prints which was a massive shock. leonard cohen, which was a huge loss. now george michael's, to me those are the four big ones. there are other artists who aren't quite as legendary as those four. of someone like sharon jones, who was a big star.

it does feel like it is the end of a certain era. maybe it is the end of that for -- of that wave of popular music. hopefully decades from now. >> three or four days, let's hope that that is for now for 2016. us throughor taking the highlights of george michael's pretty remarkable career, talking to us. now we move to a search and rescue operation, which continued this monday after a russian military plane crashed on sunday. 16 members of the red army choir. heading to was russia's military base in syria .efore it crashed in sochi we are joined by our moscow

correspondent. can you bring us up to speed on the investigation into why this crash happened and the latest on the search and rescue operation. >> the short and long of it is there is not that much that is new. they are waiting for is to find the black boxes. the defense ministry has been crucial to get these black boxes. they have said they have a special group of divers that have been looking for them. they are aware of how important they were. the commission is being set up to investigate it. technical causes of the accident -- of the accident.

at the moment there was no evidence this was a terror act. >> it does have a polar record. there have been high profile when it went down on russian soil. is there speculation that it is just flawed from its design? >> that is true. it is an old-style plane. this one will specifically was built in 1983, before i was born.

as you say it has had a number of bad accidents. things like bad weather, pilot error. but it has left hundreds of people dead. it is not a main consideration. even though the plane is old it is in this age range. >> thanks for that from moscow. category for typhoon struck the philippines sunday evening, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate coastal regions and move inland. the largest catholic nation was largely disruptive for his numbers forced to spend christmas in emergency shelters. many are now beginning the journey home.

>> with the worst of the storm over, the philippines is no it caused.he damage really 400,000 people were forced to evacuate coastal areas. >> i told my family to evacuate and leave our belongings behind. >> leaving thousands of christmas travelers stranded in addition to those in shelters. aser making landfall in wins strong as 185 kilometers per hour. tens of thousands of evacuees have started to return home to discover and to deal with whatever damage may have been caused to their homes and communities. be 60% of the

property and resources. it is expected to arrive by the end of the week. the philippines season average of 20 typhoons per year. this is the largesest to hit the nation since the largest storm ever. >> tensions remain high between the u.s. and israel with the aftermath of the un security council resolution. the u.s. abstained in a where move -- and a rare move that has angered the government. joining us in studio, can you break down what these tensions between them? this row is continued with these ambassadors: u.s. behavior outrageous and shameful. we hadn't heard that in the lowest point of the relationship

between obama and netanyahu. with irannuclear deal was reached, netanyahu was clearly furious. but the israeli officials didn't say this kind of thing. obviously these two men have taken the gloves off. in a sense, ater least not for obama. remains in office. this could actually have further becausences, this vote, there is supposed to be a conference held in paris in mid-january about middle east peace. it is clear the officials worry that conference is another attempt to isolate israel. >> i guess we are just a few weeks away from a donald trump administration.

we know he did try to exercise pressure on egypt to block the un security council resolution. verye looking at a different policies between the outgoing and incoming administrations, aren't we? >> trump tweeted that when it comes to the u.n., in israel things would be different once he became president. staunch comments, he by no means rallies american jews or israel he's. partly because he has this pick from ambassador to israel, who is a controversial figure. he is called the liberal american jews of the j street organization.

in israel it is interesting, liberal israeli jews have been worried by his frederick. interestingme divisions shaping up. it may not be a very good thing. netanyahu wants trump to do what he can to finish that deal. for a lot of people, that deal is actually the best hope of rolling back the nuclear program and reducing the threat to israel. >> thank you very much for that. that is all we have time for this 15 minutes of news. another 15 minutes of an update.

we look at how business shapes our world. coming up, life in the fast lane. brexit blues hit ireland. its nearest neighbor leaving the eu. and it is the word we will be hearing a lot in 2017. everything you need to know about reflation. it is one of the world's most iconic car brands. feworghini sells only a thousand cars every year but the designs are known around the world. theyw a sharp increase as have recovered. the company unveiled its latest model. on super cars in china

may stint some of its growth. the chief executive from lamborghini joins us. thank you for speaking to us on france 24. the was a record year for company. how is 2016 looking for lamborghini? >> as you said it was a positive year. we are really proud here to say all the figures are heading to a new record. a new record of profitability. >> and where is that growth coming from? >> we are focused on two main aspects.

we need to be current with the value of our brand. you can see close to me, the new that really continues the success with the launch in 2011. we did a little bit of celebration with all of the people there. we are still providing the lamborghini with the possibility to drive this fantastic thing. we are finding more and more young people of the young generation is really key to being part of our family, to being part of our world. this is the biggest thing that we need to make sure that also an the future we are going to respect. >> are you seeing more growth?

>> the main markers the united states. growing in a different market and china is representing the biggest piece of the cake. a lot of taxation is hitting the market. we do believe we have the right product and need to make sure we have the right product with the right pricing. >> are you worried about this 10% supercar tax the chinese have implemented? >> the word worry is not the right word. we need to see what we can do in terms of tactical activity in order to help them be the right best to be deliverable. we cannot change it.

we need to adjust and see what we can do. we know that we belong to a niche, a market that is so small, but needs to be with the cannot changee it. we need to keep that value. otherwise the value of the cars will drop down. >> u.s. standing there beside your newest model. changing likes autonomous driving technology. how are you implementing those sort of changes into your car's? >> technology is part of lamborghini. on the other hand we need to know when you are part of it, you want to enter into something that is very special.

for sure our customers have other cars with which they can implement the driving. be sure to know the break and the deal that was present. >> are we likely to see an electric lamborghini? >> not in the short time that everyone is saying, because we need to respect the main parameters. the answer to that is that we need to be flexible enough in order to be ready to change the technology. the new technology would be right for the parameters.

is the right answer, this is a very honest situation. in -- you have an suv model in the pipeline. do you hope that will be attracting a new type of for sure the new super suv will be a new product. the new customer will come from an area. it differently, we know in the segment there is a lot of competition. we know the major manufacturer there. the leeway to be successful is present the product. this is what we are really willing to show for our customer that are queuing up to make sure they are the first to buy.

the new factory will be ready in the middle of next year. hopefully it will be a great success. this is the reason we are working day and night. it is something we know that this new car will represent the changeup for our dimension. we know it will be a great challenge. chief executive of lamborghini, thank you for joining us. crisisuffering a banking and economic collapse, ireland's economy is now the fastest growing in the european union. is facing a new threat to its economy from brexit. one billion euros of goods are exchanged every week between ireland and the u.k.. they are warning that a hard brexit would mean plummeting trade for irish businesses.

the agricultural sector could be the worst affected. >> ireland is the only eu country with a land border of the u.k.. that is close to 40 countries. in the south is its research center for the food industry. but things could change ports 400 employees. >> less business. we are a farming and food company. and help in the rural economy. think it is important for everyone to realize that the food industry on both islands is very important. it is a large industry. exports go toh the u.k.. many irish companies are suffering from the drop in the value of sterling, making goods

less competitive. an economist believes the introduction of custom tariffs would put the whole sector at risk. >> under a hard brexit scenario, that type of trade would be wiped out. you are talking about half of exports being wiped out. of all the european union countries, ireland would be the worst affected. ministerish foreign has a mandate to protect irish jobs. >> we have reduced the unemployment rate at 7.5%. anything including brexit would be a negative. it is important in the context of negotiations that we impress them they unique circumstances. >> a special trade agreement may be difficult to agree.

>> interest rates in the united states have only risen twice in the past decade. that looks like it is all about to change. indicatedl reserve there are three rate rises in 2017. president-elect donald trump has

♪ from pacifica this is democracy now. bernie sanders: the message to mr. trump is that we're not going back. we won't accept a preident that tries to divide us by race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality. we are not going back. we have struggled to