Footage shows a massive crowd filling streets to honour Sharif Osman Hadi, a leader of the 2024 student-led uprising, who was shot dead by a masked gunman while leaving a Dhaka mosque. Bangladesh’s interim leader Mohammad Yunus joined mourners days after Hadi died in a Singapore hospital.
Published On 20 Dec 202520 Dec 2025
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SIR Humphrey Burton, an award winning classical music broadcaster and BBC Radio 3 presenter, has died at age 94.
The prolific broadcaster, author and director died peacefully at home today with his family by his side.
Sir Humphrey had a celebrated career in the arts including as head of the BBC’S music and arts in the 1970s and 80s where he hosted the BBC‘s Omnibus and In Performance arts programmes.
He went onto found the BBC‘s Young Musician of the Year award in 1978 which helped to spotlight young talent, including famed violinist Nicola Benedetti.
In a statement, his family said: “He was deeply loved by his children and grandchildren, and his commitment to spreading the joy of classical music was so inspiring.”
It continued: “He will be missed beyond words. We take comfort in knowing he is now at peace.”
Sir Humphrey was knighted in 2020 for services to classical music and the arts.
His daughter, Clare Dibble, announced the news on X: “It is with great sadness that I report the passing of my father, Sir Humphrey Burton 25.3.31-17.12.25, at 05.15 this morning at home with family by his side. A huge influence on several generations of arts programme makers, he will be missed beyond word.”
BBC Radio 3 then said in a tribute on social media: “He was a much-loved classical music broadcaster and had a huge influence on generations or arts programme-makers.
“Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Classic FM, where he worked as a presenter on multiple programmes, said he “helped shape a golden age of classical music on television and radio“.
Sir Humphrey helped with programmes on Leonard Bernstein and Yehudi Menuheim, both influential figures he had personal and professional relationships with.
These programmes “introduced multiple generations to classical music with the trademark enthusiasm that made his name synonymous with arts broadcasting,” said Classic FM in a tribute.
His programme, Burnstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna won an Emmy Award in 1972 and he went onto win again in 1988 for the Great Performances episode Celebrating Gershwain.
This was part of a 20 year friendship with the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein which saw the broadcaster direct 170 documentaries and filmed concerts.
Sir Humphrey was born in Towbridge Wiltshire in 1931 and became one the broadcasting industry’s most influential presenters.
He studied music and history at Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge before joining BBC Radio as a trainee studio manager in 1955.
Sam Jackson, the controller of BBC Radio 3 and BBC Proms said he was fortunate to work with Sir Humphrey and described him as a “a man so full of grace, warmth, and brilliant anecdotes.”
Suzy Klein, Head of Arts and Classical Music TV at the BBC, told The Sun: “In the history of arts and classical music broadcasting, there are few figures as influential as Sir Humphrey Burton.
“His vision, ambition and ability to forge partnerships across borders brought world-class opera, classical music and arts programming into the homes of many millions. Humphrey leaves an enormous legacy at the BBC and beyond, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
The Royal Philharmonic Society said Sir Humphrey’s renowned work set a “gold-standard” which engaged millions with music.
“Few have done so much to proclaim classical music’s wonders” it added.
Alongside radio, Burton helped the launch of BBC Two in April 1964 before he became the BBC’s first Head of Music and Arts a year later. He later founded London Weekend Television.
He won a BAFTA (then SFTA) for creativity in music programming in 1965.
Until 1988 Sir Humphrey was editor of performance programmes and director of Proms. He also directed opera relays from the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne and Scottish Opera.
Sir Humphrey married Gretel Davis in 1957 but the couple later divorced and he married Swedish radio and television presenter Christina Hansegård in 1970.
He is survived by his six children: Chris Hockey, Clare Dibble, Matthew Burton, Helena Burton, Lukas Burton and Clemency Burton-Hill.
Storm Byron is threatening to heap new miseries on Palestinians in Gaza, with families making distress calls from flooded tents and hundreds of others fleeing their shelters in search of dry ground as the fierce winter storm lashes heavy rains on the besieged territory.
Officials warned Wednesday that the storm was forecast to bring flash floods, strong winds and hail until Friday, conditions expected to wreak havoc in a territory in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in tents, temporary structures, or damaged buildings after two years of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
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Humanitarian workers said Israeli restrictions on the entry of tents, tools to repair water and sewage systems have left Gaza poorly equipped to respond to the storm, and called on the international community to pressure the Netanyahu government to urgently allow in supplies.
In the southern city of Rafah, the Palestinian Civil Defence said its teams had already received distress calls from displacement camps, with families reporting “flooded tents and families trapped inside by heavy rains”.
“Despite limited resources and a lack of necessary equipment, our teams are working tirelessly to reach those in need and provide assistance,” the rescue agency said on Telegram.
Footage posted on social media and verified by Al Jazeera showed Palestinians shovelling a ditch around tents in a desperate attempt to create barriers that would prevent them from flooding.
Nearly 850,000 people sheltering in 761 displacement sites face the highest risk of flooding, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Flooding has previously been recorded at more than 200 of the highest-risk sites, affecting more than 140,000 people, the office said.
Previous storms had contaminated displacement sites with sewage and solid waste, swept away families’ tents and driven them out of makeshift shelters.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said that UN agencies and local authorities were warning that any significant rainfall could have devastating consequences for Gaza’s population, with the displacement camps built on barren, open terrain that would be highly susceptible to flooding.
The tents available to people were typically flimsy, unreinforced and often torn, he said, offering negligible protection from heavy rains, which were likely to seriously damage whatever possessions families had left.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs network, said Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid and equipment had left Gaza ill-equipped to deal with the storm.
He said only 40,000 tents, out of a needed 300,000, had been allowed in, while tools that would likely be needed to repair sewage systems and water networks were also restricted.
Flooding would bring a serious risk of sewage and solid waste contaminating drinking water or food supplies, raising the risk of diseases in the densely populated Strip, where 2.2 million people are crammed into just 43 percent of the territory, while the remaining 57 percent remains under Israeli military control.
“If Israel were to allow the entrance of supplies, things would be different. But for now, it has done all it can to make life more complicated for Palestinians,” Shawa said.
Oxfam humanitarian response adviser Chris McIntosh agreed, telling Al Jazeera that the people of Gaza were bracing for a “very tragic situation”.
“Persistent bureaucracy prevented us from bringing in adequate dwellings for people in Gaza,” McIntosh said. “The Israelis have not permitted tents to enter Gaza for many months. The only thing they’re allowing at this point is some tarpaulin, which isn’t going to do much for people who need proper shelter.”
He said Palestinians were being forced to live in “deplorable conditions”, with well more than 50 percent of the population living in tents.
He anticipated many would attempt to find dry ground inside bombed-out buildings that were at heightened risk of collapse amid the forecast heavy rains and winds.
Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, warned that vulnerable groups, including newborn children, are at particular risk from the incoming winter storm.
About 200 families were expected to arrive at a new displacement site in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the Strip, fleeing a heightened risk of flooding in their present location, he said.
“These households made the decision to move given the impact of the frequent rains and the risk of flooding,” he said.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that about 288,000 Palestinian families were without shelter as Storm Byron bore down on the enclave, and issued a call to the international community to pressure Israel to allow in supplies to help respond to the storm.
“We are issuing an urgent appeal to the world, [United States] President Trump and the [United Nations] Security Council to pressure the Israeli occupation,” he said.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, condemned global inaction as families in Gaza braced for the storm.
“Palestinians in Gaza are literally left alone, freezing and starving in the winter storm,” she posted on X.
“I keep asking how we became such monsters, [i]ncapable of stopping this nightmare.”
Paul LynchBBC Shared Data Unit
Getty ImagesThousands of flood defences meant to protect multiple homes or businesses in England were below the required condition when winter began, a new analysis has found.
The 6,498 “high consequence” defences were among about 8,500 that were not fully working as intended due to erosion, damage or being overgrown.
Exclusive figures obtained by the BBC show that, as of 20 October, almost 9% of the 98,000 defences inspected by the Environment Agency were below condition.
While the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs says record levels of investment have improved the defence network since 2024, stark disparities remain regionally.
More than 40% of flood defences were below the standard in North Tyneside, Brentwood in Essex and Hart in Hampshire – the highest proportions in the country.
A fifth of all the defences along the Thames corridor, passing Oxfordshire, parts of Surrey and Greater London, were also failing to meet the required condition due to a mix of record rainfall and tidal storm surges.
Storm Bram brought strong winds and heavy rain to the UK on Tuesday, with dozens of flood warnings in place.
Flooding was reported on riverside streets in York, part of the M66 in Greater Manchester and in Devon and Cornwall, where train services were disrupted.
Flood defences in England range from man-made walls, embankments and storm drains to natural areas of high ground.
The Environment Agency inspects almost all the defences intended to keep rivers from spilling into vulnerable towns and cities.
“Any flood defence that is not operating as close to 100% efficiency as possible is of a concern,” said Dave Throup, a former Environment Agency area manager for the Midlands.
“It’s difficult to say why that is happening. Is it a lack of money? Or is it the bashing that these flood defences have taken over the last three or four years as a result of many very large flood incidents? It’s very difficult to pull that apart.”
Data shows the scale of the challenge facing the government’s repair efforts, despite ministers pledging £2.65bn over two years to build and restore more than 1,000 flood defences across England.
During its routine inspections, the Environment Agency gives flood defences a condition score out of five. This is then measured against a target score that reflects the required condition.
Defences can be marked down for having cracks and leaks. Sometimes they can be overgrown with vegetation or, in the case of drains and sluices, blocked.
The Environment Agency said a defence could still work correctly despite being in a poorer condition.
Floods minister Emma Hardy said the Labour government had inhereted flood defences in the “poorest condition on record” after “years of under-investment”.
She said: “Our immediate response was to redirect £108m into maintenance and repair works. But this is just the start.
“We’re investing at least £10.5bn – the largest programme ever – in flood defences until 2036. This will build new defences and repair assets across the country, protecting our communities for decades to come.”
The Environment Agency’s longer-term target is for just 2% of its high consequence defences to be below target condition. The current figure is near 9%.
In recent years, there have been several high-profile failures of flood protections.
More than 600 homes were evacuated in 2019 when the River Steeping burst its banks near Wainfleet, Lincolnshire. An official report found an embankment constructed in 1968 had collapsed, despite the Environment Agency being aware of its vulnerabilities.
However, the BBC found high consequence flood defences were about 45% more likely to be failing if they were maintained by a third-party other than the Environment Agency.
The agency only looks after a third of the defences it inspects regularly. A further third are maintained by private individuals, companies or charities and the remainder are mainly the responsibility of local councils.
In January, the complex responsibillities around flood protections nearly led to disaster at one Leicestershire neighbourhood.
Residents in the Grange Park estate in Loughborough say they were forced to dig their own flood defences when a privately owned pond that was meant to protect their homes overflowed.
The large hollow is designed to store floodwater, but residents there have raised concerns about its capacity during heavy storms. It completely filled in January, when the county was hit by unprecedented levels of rain and water began pouring towards front doors.
William H Davis Homes, which owned the pond at the time, said a blockage on a neighbouring parcel of land had been the cause – but concerned residents say they did not have the time to navigate a web of responsibility as the water crept onwards.
In near-freezing conditions, about 30 people dug trenches into the green area outside their homes to divert the flow of water.
Engineer Katie Anderson helped lead the effort.
“If everyone hadn’t pulled together, I don’t want to think what could’ve happened,” she said.
Confusion reigned over who they could turn to for help. Katie says calls to their water company Severn Trent, the borough council and the developer went nowhere and time was running out.
“They all said it wasn’t their problem,” she added.
The pond was only formally adopted by Charnwood Borough Council in October – but no upgrades have yet been made to increase its capacity.
A council spokesperson said initial investigations showed the drainage scheme was working “as intended”. An independent survey was under way and any recommendations from that would be considered, it added.
Katie, meanwhile, said she would be willing to take matters into her own hands again if floodwater threatened to reach her home.
The Environment Agency said wetter winters were making the task of repairing flood defences more difficult than ever.
Six of the 10 wettest winter half-years (October to March) on record for England and Wales so far have been in the 21st Century.
Last winter, the UK was hit by six named storms. Among them, storms Bert and Connall caused severe flooding in England during November.
The Thames corridor saw some of the biggest impact from the past two winters. The Environment Agency says it has repaired many of the highest risk defences, but many remain below their required condition, the vast majority of which are maintained by third parties.
Prof Hannah Cloke OBE, a leading flood expert at the University of Reading, said the BBC’s findings had to be viewed in context as the data was “not perfect”.
“We’ve got some percentages here – but that doesn’t tell us exactly what would happen if each of those flood defences did fail,” she said, pointing to the fact a defence such as the Thames barrier was of greater importance than a parcel of natural high ground by a small brook.
Likewise, some defences may be in a good condition but may not have been designed effectively in the first place. Defences built five years ago were already being overtopped by floods, she said.
Prof Cloke said the government needed to invest in “catchment management” schemes that limit the speed of rainwater entering river systems.
These include tree planting or the digging of dips and hollows into the landscape, but are often hampered because a large proportion of river catchments are on private land.
“We can maintain our flood defences, we can try and protect property, but actually, if we can catch the rain where it falls that can really help in terms of making sure that we don’t have the floodwaters running downstream,” she added.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Protecting communities in England from the devastating impact of flooding is a top priority – which is more important than ever as climate change brings more extreme weather.
“Each year, we complete up to 165,000 inspections of flood assets across the country and have recently redirected £108m into repairs and maintenance. This will help to ensure the strongest protection for nearby communities.”
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington reports from Indonesia’s Aceh Tamiang, one of the areas worst hit by the deadly floods. Survivors there are now threatened by disease and starvation after entire villages were wiped out, leaving people with nothing.
Published On 9 Dec 20259 Dec 2025
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Indonesia’s Sumatra island faces a massive reconstruction challenge after deadly floods and landslides caused by cyclones killed 950 people and left 274 missing. Neighboring Thailand and Malaysia also reported about 200 deaths. The government estimates that rebuilding efforts across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra will require 51.82 trillion rupiah ($3.11 billion), with Aceh needing the largest share.
Why It Matters:
The floods have devastated homes, rice fields, and critical infrastructure, leaving thousands displaced and straining local resources. Prompt reconstruction is essential to restore livelihoods and prevent further humanitarian crises, particularly in rural and heavily affected areas.
Government Response:
President Prabowo Subianto chaired a cabinet meeting in Aceh to assess the situation. Disaster mitigation chief Suharyanto said reconstruction will start in areas that have stabilized, relocating people from evacuation centres into temporary 40-square-metre plywood houses, followed later by permanent homes built by the housing ministry.
Challenges Ahead:
Some areas remain severely affected, with widespread damage to dams, houses, and farmlands. Relief efforts including distribution of medicine and essential supplies continue, and the total recovery cost may increase as officials complete damage assessments.
What’s Next:
The government plans a phased approach: immediate relocation to temporary housing, restoration of essential services, and eventually permanent reconstruction. Authorities stress careful management of funds and resources to ensure efficient recovery in the months ahead.
With information from Reuters.
