caroline hawley in beirut. at sandringham this morning ahead of talks there tomorrow with senior members of the royal family on the future role of prince harry. it's understood it will be the first time that prince charles, prince william and prince harry will have met since he and his wife meghan announced they would be stepping back from their royal duties. 0ur correspondent jon donnison reports. the queen arriving at church in sandringham on sunday is very much routine. what lies ahead on monday is very much not. the queen's estate in norfolk is the venue for what has been described as the sandringham summit. she will come face—to—face with prince harry for the first time since he and his wife announced they intend to step back in their role as senior royals. also there will be the prince of wales and prince william. and harry's wife meghan, the duchess of sussex, is expected to phone in, to join the discussion from canada. officials have worked hard in recent days to understand what the sussexes want. there

caroline hawley. there, caroline hawley. head there, caroline hawley. head of there, caroline hawley.aroline hawley. head of iran's civil there, caroline hawley. head of iran's civil aviatior authority the head of iran's civil aviation authority is seeing a short while ago but this plane was definitely not hit by a missile. why has he been saying that? if it was hit by a missile, obviously this would be highly embarrassing to iran. many of those on board were iranians. the head of a run‘s civil aviation authority has just finished a press conference in which he was cleared, his narrative, one thing is for certain, this plane was not hit by a missile. iran sticking to the story that there was a technical malfunction in the face of mounting intelligence. western officials say otherwise. he also said that an investigation would probably take one or two years to finish. iranian state television has been showing pictures of the black boxes which are believed to be intact and the iranian official said it would probably take one or two months to get the data from those black boxes. iran want

caroline hawley, bbc news, beirut.ey is in beiruit and she explained the response from iran is surprising considering the circumstances. i would imagine that iran with so much pressure on it, both domestically and internationally, would have wanted to draw a line under it, but the iranian media has accused him of fomenting, inciting protest. we have just had a statement on the foreign ministry website which says rob macaire has been summoned to the foreign ministry because of his unconventional or inappropriate behaviour by attending what they call an illegal rally. we haven't yet had official confirmation from the foreign office, but we wait to get a reader of how but we wait to get a read out of how the meeting went and see how iran and the uk will proceed from here. one of the background elements to this, and rob macaire referred to it in his explanation, was that the vigil turned into an anti—government protest and there have been a number of anti—government protests obviously over the shooting down and then the de

caroline hawley reports. a day off school for gabriella ratcliffe.r to meet the prime minister on the promise of a burger lunch when they were done. the five—year—old last saw her mother on a prison visit, before she returned here to be with her uk family late last year. richard hasn't seen his wife since 2016. he believes she's being used by iran as a pawn in a dispute about a british debt going back decades for an arms deal that was never fulfilled. the last time richard ratcliffe met borisjohnson was in 2017, when, as foreign secretary, he was under fire for wrongly suggesting nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe was training journalists at the time of her arrest. i acknowledge that the words i used were open to being misinterpreted and i apologise. this meeting, mr ratcliffe said, had been warm, but there had been no breakthrough. i stand here with my wife still in prison and things are not moving. i think there does need to be a really clear targeted consequence for the revolutionary guard, who are holding nazanin and many others, that they don't think of

caroline hawley in beirut, thank you very much indeed for that update. following a deal to restore the devolved government after power—sharing broke down three years ago. the assembly will elect a speaker, a first ministerfrom the dup, and a deputy first minister from sinn fein. keith doyle is there for us. what will happen today? good morning from stormont on yet another historic day for northern ireland politics. later today, the northern ireland assembly will be back up and running. it was on thursday that the northern ireland secretary, julian smith, and the deputy prime minister of ireland, simon coveney, put that make or break due to the party right in front of the stormont parliament buildings on thursday night. so, yesterday we saw those dramatic developments as the dup said, yes, they would sign up to it. arlene foster, the leader of the dup called itafairand foster, the leader of the dup called it a fair and balanced deal. then we saw sinn fein come out yesterday evening saying, yes, while they did not think it was perfect, there was enoughin n

our world affairs correspondent caroline hawley reports.s morning in tehran the iranian authorities stepped up security. last night, protests. iranians voiced theirfury at last night, protests. iranians voiced their fury at the regime. after the military finally admitted it wasn't responsible. they chanted, deaf to the liars, and demanded iran's supreme leader resign. britten‘s ambassador to iran was is by the iranian media of fomenting the protests. reports that he left the protests. reports that he left the scene as soon as the chanting started. dominic raab called his arrest illegal and warned iran against continuing its march toward pariah status. this morning the ambassador tweeted. .. com pletely completely unacceptable. breaching, you're right, certainly the vienna convention, and a whole number of conventions. iran is at a crossroads and have a decision to make. and the point we are making, which the secretary said this morning, we want to see things de—escalate, we want to see things de—escalate, we want to see things de—escalate,

caroline hawley, bbc news.arly ceramic work by the artist grayson perry to make contact. the response led to hundreds of long—lost pieces being identified, eighty of which have been assembled at the holburne museum in bath for a special exhibition. the turner prize—winning artist, who describes himself as a ‘transvestite potter‘ gave our arts editor, will gompertz, a guided tour of his formative work. it must be quite moving to come and look at your past works. that's true, when i came in here i sort of drew breath because suddenly i was confronted by all these works i hadn't seen, many of them, for decades and decades. since i sold them. and yet i'm looking at the young me, and as i'm now post—therapy, i'm looking at him with compassion. you know, i was very angry and at the mercy of the internal winds of my emotional weather, and people thought in this early work that it was deliberately ironically bad, but no, i was genuinely inept! in this exhibition, it is literally the first plate that i made in evening c

our diplomatic correspondent caroline hawley has more. made a catastrophic error, firing a missile into a passenger plane, killing everyone on board. for three days in the face of mounting evidence, iran adamantly denied it was responsible. but this morning brought an extraordinary about—face. on state—run television, a senior commander of the powerful revolutionary guard came out on the orders of the supreme leader to come clean. he explained that iran‘s air defences had been on alert. they thought american cruise missiles had been fired. a quick decision was taken and it was wrong. translation: in these difficult circumstances, i am here before you to explain what happened. but before that, i have to say that we accept all the responsibility for the accident and we lay our fate into our higher officials‘ hands. there‘s anger that the plane was allowed to take offjust after iran had fired missiles at american bases in iraq, and when the country was braced for a response. the disaster has piled pressure on the regime both from within iran

caroline hawley reports. a day off school for gabriella ratcliffe.se of a burger lunch when they were done. the five—year—old last saw her mother on a prison visit, before she returned here to be with her uk family late last year. richard hasn't seen his wife since 2016. he believes she's being used by iran as a pawn in a dispute about a british debt going back decades for an arms deal that was never fulfilled. the last time richard ratcliffe met borisjohnson was in 2017, when, as foreign secretary, he was under fire for wrongly suggesting nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe was training journalists at the time of her arrest. i acknowledge that the words i used were open to being misinterpreted and i apologise. this meeting, mr ratcliffe said, had been warm, but there had been no breakthrough. i stand here with my wife still in prison and things are not moving. i think there does need to be a really clear targeted consequence for the revolutionary guard, who are holding nazanin and many others, that they don't think of this as a clever tactic, and we are in th

our diplomatic correspondent caroline hawley is in beirut. ine, all eyes now whether the iranians will allow a really thorough independent investigation into this disaster? that is right. the vitally important question and certainly they are under intense pressure to do so. i think iran is keen to be seen to be cooperating with the outside world on this, particularly as it is such a fraught moment in the middle east. it says has invited all countries which had citizens on board that plane to take part in the investigation, as well as american safety investigators and boeing. there are teams of ukrainian investigators on the ground already andi investigators on the ground already and i understand that a team of about ten canadians are on their way and that is despite the fact that canada and iran don't have any diplomatic relations. but iran is, as you head, sticking to its side of the story, it is also saying it wa nts to the story, it is also saying it wants to download the contents of the flight recorder itself. and this morning, a journalis

caroline hawley, bbc news, beirut.minister borisjohnson has released a statement. our correspondent in kyiv, jonah fisher, has been talking me through the ukrainian reaction there were similar words this morning from the ukrainian president, president zelensky, talking in similar ways to borisjohnson, talking about a legal requirement thatjustice be done for the 176 people who were on board, and that compensation should be paid, and that those responsible should be brought tojustice. more interesting, this morning i spent time with a top security official in the ukraine and he basically laid out the evidence with which the team of ukrainian investigators had been gathering in tehran, pretty comprehensive stuff, pictures of the cockpit with the bottom half having been blown away. parts of the side of the aircraft with pockmarks which suggest an anti—aircraft hit and basically he said we had effectively gathered enough evidence that prove it was a missile that brought down this plane and quite possibly that was the reaso

caroline hawley, in beirut, thank you.s support for the protesters in iran, saying, "to the brave, long—suffering people of iran, i've stood with you since the beginning of my presidency, and my administration will continue to stand with you. we are following your protests closely and are inspired by your courage." and to help get his message of solidarity across, he also tweeted the same message in farsi. there are just over 20 hours left for the six candidates in the labour leadership to gain the backing they need to get to the next stage of the contest. sir keir starmer, rebecca long—bailey and lisa nandy have the required number of nominations, leaving emily thornberry and clive lewis lobbying to get the backing of at least 22 of their fellow labourmps and meps. registered supporters — who are not full party members — will have 48 hours from 14th to 16th january to secure a vote by paying £25. the ballot will be open from 21st february to 2nd april, with the results announced two days later on 11th april. 0ur political

caroline hawley, bbc news, beirut.e prime minister borisjohnson has released a statement. our ukraine correspondent, jonah fisher, joins us from kyiv. that is the response from the uk government, but what has been the reaction where you are? similar words this morning from the ukrainian president, president zelensky, talking in similar ways to borisjohnson, talking zelensky, talking in similar ways to boris johnson, talking about zelensky, talking in similar ways to borisjohnson, talking about a legal requirement that justice borisjohnson, talking about a legal requirement thatjustice be done for the 176 people who were on board, and the compensation should be paid, and the compensation should be paid, and that those responsible should be brought tojustice. and that those responsible should be brought to justice. more interesting, this morning i spent time with a top security official in the ukraine and he basically laid out the evidence with which the team of ukrainian investigators had been gathering in tehran, prett

caroline hawley, bbc news.g that companies directly involved in the building's refurbishment, knew the cladding they had specified would fail in the event of a fire. the evidence was highlighted by the firm which manufactured the insulation panels used in the work, as it defended suggestions it had not made clear the product would burn. 0ur correspondent danjohnson is at the public inquiry in west london. explain more about what has emerged here this morning. we were told yesterday to expect and merry—go—round of passing the buck and you could be forgiven for having got dizzy already as we get into the detail of the second phase of exactly who knew what regarding the refurbishment of grenfell tower and how it could have ended up being so flammable and so deadly. we've got cladding panels that were essentially plastic coated in aluminium and they were fitted along with insulation. the companies that manufactured both of those products say that they could be combustible if they were not fitted in a certain way wi

caroline hawley, bbc news.ggesting that companies directly involved in the building's refurbishment knew the cladding they'd specified would fail in the event of a fire. the evidence was highlighted by the firm which manufactured the insulation panels used in the work, as it defended suggestions it had not made clear the product would burn. our correspondent dan johnson gave us the latest from the inquiry in west london. well, we were warned yesterday to expect a merry go round of passing the buck between different companies and you could be forgiven for having got dizzy already. even as we just start getting into this second phase of the inquiry, trying to understand who knew exactly what about the refurbishment of grenfell tower and how it could have ended up being so flammable and so deadly. now you need to understand the work to refurbish the tower included putting cladding panels on the outside. that is essentially plastic coated with aluminium on top of insulation. and the two companies that manufactured

from beirut we can now speak to the bbc‘s diplomatic correspondent caroline hawley...rovides them with the chance to cooperate. it is an extraordinary turnaround. for days and days, three days the iranians we re and days, three days the iranians were insisting soup suggestions that a missile brought the plane down we re a missile brought the plane down were lies, it was psychological warfare. now we have iran completely coming clean, iranian officials in fa ct coming clean, iranian officials in fact are falling over themselves to acknowledge that a terrible mistake was made and to apologise. the latest reaction we have is from iran's supreme leader who said that he has asked the armed forces to rectify a ny he has asked the armed forces to rectify any shortcomings that led to this mistake, to make sure such a thing can never happen again. he is suggesting that it was he who is ordered that the troops should come out about this. i think once iran had decided in some way to cooperate with the outside world, ed had invited ink ukrainian and canadian -- it had invited ink

caroline hawley, thank you for the moment.k recently about the divisions between meghan and harry on one side and the rest of the royal family on the other but we get the sense that they are coming together to find a way forward. the last time that we saw the couple in public was on tuesday just down the road from here at the canadian high commission, that was in front of the world‘s media but later on they carried out a private visit where they took their own pictures and posted them on instagram. that was to a community kitchen set up in the wake of the g re nfell tower kitchen set up in the wake of the grenfell tower tragedy. in future, we may see more visits like that, only much smaller scale, where harry and meghan can control more who attends and how it plays out. one interesting thing i think we have seenin interesting thing i think we have seen in recent days is the lack of politicians commenting on what has been going on. one politician has decided to speak out, surprise, surprise it is donald trump, and he has told a

let's talk to our correspondent caroline hawley who is in beirut for us. iam not i am not aware of any protest this morning but there were protests through the weekend including late into last night in several cities. some videos have emerged on social media which appear to show gunshots and blood on the pavement in one of the videos. we have had a comment from the police chief in tehran who denied that his forces at any rate fired on any protesters, and said they had orders to use maximum restraint. so, for the moment, we are not seeing any protest. what we have been seen over the last couple of days is prominent iranians coming out to criticise the regime. you may know we have had a female olympic medallist, taekwondo champion, who defected on saturday, and now the captain of the men's volleyball team speaking of oppression in the country, saying he hopes iran has seen the last show of what he calls deceit and stupidity. one of the country's most famous actresses who has posted on her instagram page, she has nearly 6 million followers, she has nearly 6 m

let's go to the lebanese capital beirut and talk to our correspondent there, caroline hawley.the uk are saying about the cause of the plane crash, are you surprised that the iranian civil aviation authority said this morning adamantly that msl was not because, they do not seem to be leaving any room for doubt as far as they are concerned? it is sticking to its narrative that this was a technical problem. if iran had accidentally shot down a plane carrying many, many iranian nationals, as well as more than 60 canadians and fourare nationals, as well as more than 60 canadians and four are british people, that would be highly embarrassing. so, even before the investigation has got off the ground, the head of iran plus mike civil aviation authority said he was certain that no missile had been fired by iran. they are going to, the iranian say, going to start looking at black boxes today, but that aviation official said it would ta ke that aviation official said it would take between one and two years to carry out this investigation, one to two months to fully get the data off of th

here's caroline hawley on the diplomatic ramifications of the case.ts huge numbers of british holiday—makers every year and there have been calls for a boycott. but it's also a country that has been forging closer ties with israel of late, it recently signed a deal for a with israel of late, it recently signed a dealfor a pipeline and that has led some to question whether this could have had any bearing on the handling of the whole case and campaigners point out that a rape claim would potentially be a pr disasterfor a rape claim would potentially be a pr disaster for the holiday island. astronomers in the united states and europe say they have detected gravitational waves from the collision of two dead stars. now, i can try and explain why that matters. it's only the second time this kind of event has been detected. the scale of it — the combined mass of the stars was three times larger than the sun. bigger than anything of this type that's previously been detected. these stars are called neutron stars — this an artist's rendition of them merging. th

— thousands shouted slogans, demanding government transparency. 0ur diplomatic correspondent caroline hawleywhat can you tell is about the arrests 7 what can you tell is about the arrests? very little because the iranians have given no further details. they have talked about some arrests but no indication of who has been arrested but there have been huge calls for resignations and for sackings over this horrific mistake that led to 176 people being killed. until the iranians announced who has been sacked, this crisis of trust that the iranian regime now has with his people will continue. how widespread are the demonstrations and what is the sense of how much they could potentially threaten or point to a change of direction potentially? it is very difficult to gauge exactly how widespread they are independently from the country. but we know they were fairly widespread protests over the weekend on saturday and sunday into monday. notjust tehran on saturday and sunday into monday. not just tehran but on saturday and sunday into monday. notjust tehran but other cities as well. we know the police

caroline hawley is in beirut. caroline, is more unrest expected today?irly hard to say from a distance. what we know of the protests is really what we are seeing on social media. but we know that the protest have taken place in several cities. we have seen images of iranians tearing down posters of the uranian general qasem soleimani who was killed by the americans, replacing them instead with the names of the victims of the plane crash and just a few days ago, the uranian regime felt it had its people behind it. —— united in grief against the killing of qasem soleimani. what a difference a day makes. now you have people on the streets ridiculing the leadership of iran, calling for it to resign because of as you say, what a difference. -- calling for them to resign. firefighters in australia have finally had some respite as wet weather has helped bring a "megablaze" under control. meanwhile, the australian government has pledged $50 million australian dollars for wildlife relief after fires ravaged the nation's countryside. two months after it faced the

let's speak now to our diplomatic correspondent, caroline hawley, whojoins us from beirut. 176 people who died, many of whom were iranian. we wait to see what kind of co—operation in iran will offer to the outside world and to the countries who have lost people in that terrible air crash. the iranians say they will be cooperating, they want a proper investigation. they have interestingly said that they will allow an american official from the national transportation safety board to ta ke national transportation safety board to take part. the question is whether because of sanctions that have been imposed on iran that were tightened after albanian retaliation, the question is whether america will be able to participate in any investigation —— iranian retaliation. i am interested in your ta ke retaliation. i am interested in your take on how leaders of various countries are reacting. we understand boris johnson had countries are reacting. we understand borisjohnson had a conversation yesterday. justin trudeau has come out because there we re trudeau has come out because there

let's go to the lebanese capital beirut and talk to our correspondent there caroline hawley.d which, at the best of times, is highly volatile, and particularly so of late. this is a region that was really holding its breath after the killing of qasem soleimani, after iran's retaliation with those missiles fired at the american bases in iraq, and there was a sigh of relief when it seemed that both sides were in the words of donald trump, stepping back, standing back, standing down. then came this intelligence suggesting that the plane was shot down by on a rainy and missile, and i think there was concern about what that might mean, but, interestingly, today we have all the signs that iran is keen to be seen to be cooperating with the outside world over this, and, as you heard from james, no suggestion that any countries in the west would like to hold this against iran at this very, very delicate and dangerous moment in the middle east. so, of course that is being followed, and of course it is being followed, and of course it is being followed most of all in iran itself, but th

our diplomatic correspondent, caroline hawley, is in beirut.e horrific mistake appears to have been made to shoot down the plane leaving tehran with the deaths of 176 people. yesterday public gatherings to mourn the victims turned into protests and there were very angry shouts of, deaf to the liars, calls for the supreme leader to resign. —— death. great pressure at home and abroad and all eyes on how they respond at this very dangerous moment in the middle east. i'm sure more to come on that later on today on the bbc, thank you. let us bring you up—to—date with the rest of today's stories. the government is urging more people to visit local pharmacies to ease pressure on gps and hospitals. figures this week show a&e departments in england have experienced their worst month since waiting targets were introduced. patients who call the nhs111 hotline are being directed to pharmacists for urgent medication for things like asthma and diabetes, as well as those with mild conditions, such as sore throats and earache. a fifth firefighter has been kill