i'm live at the iowa caucuses where democrats have undergone their first test to see who is going to be the nominee to unseat donald trump. the chinese health authorities say 64 and remembering the bushfire victim, as parliament falls silent, criticism of scott morrison's handling of the crisis get

louder copy into iowa, we are here with christian fraser at the iowa caucuses they have all been under way now, but the indications are that it is a tight race between the four frontrunners who were trying to eat, be the person from the party who is going to unseat donald trump in november. and nick bryantjoins me now from joe biden hq. any sense of what the mood is? no, we haven't spoken to that many people, because we have come straight from a caucus ourselves, just across the road, it's a big basketball arena, always remarkable to see this communal act of democracy out in the open, as you know

people indicate who they are going to vote for by sitting in designated areas. it was in a basketball arena and after the first round of voting, they saw something which they reckon is pretty rare, which is five candidates meet the threshold of 15%. those candidates, in ascending order: eliza bath warren came top, pete buttigieg came second. amy klobuchar, came second. amy klobuchar, came third. joe biden came forth, and bernie sanders came fifth, he was the fifth qualifier, just by two vote, he snuck in. then it was andrew yang and tom starr, there votes we re yang and tom starr, there votes were redistributed. it's an affluent were redistributed. it's an afflu e nt area were redistributed. it's an affluent area of des moines that i am digging to you from, so that i am digging to you from, so these results not particularly representative of the state at a whole. but what it does show is how many

candidates remain viable after the first round. the guy who was hitting the precinct says you have never seen that before, so many candidates fairly close, which means the results tonight may not be as clear cut as previous iowa caucuses. it is difficult to ta ke caucuses. it is difficult to take anything from one particular caucus, but some of the entrance polls we have had tonight are quite interesting, and when you look at the two frontrunners, as we were told they were the frontrunners, bernie sanders progressive liberal on the left and bernie sanders more moderate towards the centre, you get a real split in the generation gap stopping a 17—25 —year—olds going towards bernie sanders and the other 25—year—old is going towardsjoe and the other 25—year—old is going towards joe biden. and the other 25—year—old is going towards joe biden. it's not just going towards joe biden. it's notjust an going towards joe biden. it's not just an ideological divide in the democratic party right

now, it is a generational divide as well. in 2a hours i went from a biden event where hardly anybody was under the age of 50. it was a small event, pretty low energy event, to borrow a phrase from president trump. it was a greying crowd. they like the easy listening moderation that joe biden was offering up a 2k hours later i was at a bernie sanders event, huge arena, 3000 people, most of the people there looked barely old enough to vote, frankly. it was a very young crowd, and the biggest chatlines were for the legalisation of marijuana, free healthcare, free college tuition. that kind of radicalism which has been so motivating for younger voters especially. it is notjust an ideological divide in this caucus, between the moderates and the left—wing candidates like bernie sanders and elizabath warren. there is a generational aspect to it as well, and it is the oldest guy

in the race, bernie sanders, 78 yea rs old in the race, bernie sanders, 78 years old who is attracting the youngest support. 0k, nick brya nt youngest support. 0k, nick bryant that joe youngest support. 0k, nick bryant thatjoe biden. .. youngest support. 0k, nick bryant that joe biden... can youngest support. 0k, nick bryant that joe biden. .. can we just say to people, what is really fascinating is the world's media, for what are they democratic primary. way is it so important? why is the world watching? because it is the first race and what is going to be a marathon race to the white house in november and also because this is a very small state that gives you an indication of what might happen in the later stages. is only got 3 million people and it is a 90% white electorate here, so it is not representative but because it is the first state, it is the one that people look at. and we should also remind you that there a republican caucus going on at the same time. donald trump has already been declared the winner of that. was up against two candidates, they got about i% each so he overwhelmingly won the support of republicans in

iowa, but that is an official thing, it is going on and he has been declared the winner of that. lets go to elizabath warren's headquarters and chris buckler is there. not bad so far, certainly seems to be getting the support of women and college—educated voters?|j think and college—educated voters?” think it has to be said that it still feels a little muted here. they are just waiting for the first boat results to come out and people really thought they would have something by now, and with not having that, there is a little bit of nervousness. you can see actually that groups have come, people who are at the caucus already have now arrived here, but elizabath warren is giving a speech about later on and it's all about bernie sanders and young vote. elizabath warren has not just and young vote. elizabath warren has notjust been trying to ta ke warren has notjust been trying to take some of the progressive voters away from bernie. she has also been trying to take

those young votes, particularly young women. that is particularly important for her and she has been doing her very best to do that. i think the argument that comes from the elizabath warren argument that comes from the eliza bath warren camp argument that comes from the elizabath warren camp is that she does have some wealthier voters stopping perhaps she is ina voters stopping perhaps she is in a better position to take some of those people who will not support bernie sanders but might come for some of the other candidates at this stage, and eliza bath warren other candidates at this stage, and elizabath warren hasjust been so active on the ground here. doing her very best to do that kind of old—fashioned campaigning. we keep saying it, it is strange that we have the smallest state, it feels like a local election but there are nationalfigures local election but there are national figures with real implications for america. to some extent, that is why you have all the people here. they are here because they recognise that it are here because they recognise thatitis are here because they recognise that it is notjust important for iowa but for the united dates going forward. at the moment, still a little muted and a little bit uncertain. 0k,

we will touch base with you again later. we have people at bernie sanders' headquarters, joe biden, elizabath warren, we will keep touch throughout the evening as these candidates start getting themselves, they will get access to this information before we do so they will get a sense of the lay of the land. i'm joined now from the caucus in the city of urbandale, in the north—western suburbs of des moines, by our reporter anthony zurcher. i'm here is a working farm and urbandale but they made it into a caucus site tonight stopping the two big winners and looks like here are amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg. this is a conservative precinct so that is not a huge surprise, but it looks as though there may be a tie between the two of them, and in the case of a tie, that last delegate is settled by a coin flip. we are obviously

going to look at who finishes top of the pale tonight, that is going to be important, and particularly important for that candidate going forward, but there are other things we will be looking at. you talk about amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg, if they were to finish in second or third spot, that would be a huge springboard for their campaigns? definitely, especially if they finish in second or third ahead ofjoe biden, and there are a lot of questions around joe biden‘s campaign and whether he could be the standard therefore the establishment stopping he has been the front runner pretty much since he entered the race, but if he is showing signs of wea kness but if he is showing signs of weakness here in iowa, even though it isn't the best state for him, but if someone like pete buttigieg or amy klobuchar end up finishing ahead of him, going into new hampshire that may start forming a case for the inevitability of him being a moderate candidate, and then some democrats may start to

wonder that someone like pete buttigieg could be a more vibrant leader. someone like amy klobuchar could get another look, she has been slowly creeping up in the pulse, she likes to boast about being able to win in minnesota which is a borderline conservative liberal state, a swing state, that could be her pitch. i think if you arejoe could be her pitch. i think if you are joe biden could be her pitch. i think if you arejoe biden you would have to be a bit worried to see one of them do well. anthony, we can't extrapolate from one present obviously, there are more than 1600 of these caucus sites just like the one you are at their urbandale. do you get at their urbandale. do you get a sense from the people going to caucus, how does it feel? we know that democrats are nervous, we know this is an incredibly important, how is the horse trading or taking place? there was definitely a lot of horse trading after that first round because both elizabath warren first round because both eliza bath warren and first round because both elizabath warren and bernie

sanders did not reach that 15% viability mark, so use of the other campaigns come in and try to peel them off stopping there has been a lot of talk about that, the animosity between the elizabath warren that, the animosity between the eliza bath warren and that, the animosity between the elizabath warren and bernie sanders camps when they had that dustup at the end of the last debate here in iowa and some of the bernie people ended up some of the bernie people ended up sticking with him through thick and thin. the 25 people who were there, only seven did that. sometimes they wanted to be convinced and cajoled but they moved over to elizabath warren's side and she did end up warren's side and she did end up getting viability in the end. she will get delegates out of here, so if you start talking about the divisions within the progressive ranks, at least here, those divisions did not stop cooperation between the elizabath warren and bernie sanders, to get someone and bernie sanders, to get someone with delegates on the progressive side out of here. thank you very much for that. iowa doesn't always pick the

person who goes on to win in november, but talking to democrats and caucuses around des moines over the last few days, they are desperate not to pick the loser. if you look at those entry poles and you ask people what they want, six out of ten say what matters most is that they pick a candidate that can defeat donald trump. more important than any other single issue, and that really is key for democrat at the moment. and jon sopeljoins me now from bernie sanders's campaign rally. was listening to somebody from the bernie sanders camp earlier today and they said they had purposely gone after those people who haven't caucus before, people who don't traditionally come out to vote. that is quite a risky strategy? yes it is, but i think the bernie sanders campaign, this isn't their first rodeo stopping were here four years ago, much greater name recognition than when he ran four years ago and he came very close four years ago so i think

they are hoping a little bit more of a push, a little bit more of a push, a little bit more organisation on the ground copy they spent a fortune on tv ads, but this will get them over the line and bernie sanders does with the iowa caucus, and that is a big effort because we still know so little. we have got all sorts of bit of a pixelated picture but we don't see how it all yet charles together. i have spent a lot of my time doing uk elections and you can watch thousands of votes piling up, s0 thousands of votes piling up, so even thousands of votes piling up, so even before the results are declared you have got a pretty good idea's copy with the second preferences in the allocations and who was available and who is not, it is sort of like we don't know anything until we know everything and that is very frustrating. i just want them to get on with the counting now. yeah! me to. when you say that he has spent a lot of money, give our viewers around the world some sense of how

much iowa cost. what we always dwell on is the folksinger‘s of iowa, which is absolutely true. its retail politics up close, you are face to face with political leaders who might be the next president of the united states of america and you are able to rest on them and they sit down and diners and they sit down and diners and bars and they will talk to you. that doesn't get replicated around the rest of the united states because there are too many people to get to. in iowa it does. but for all of that there is a highly sophisticated and highly expensive game that goes on. let mejust give expensive game that goes on. let me just give you a statistic from four years ago. jeb bush's campaign, which had loads of money, spent $15 million on advertising alone in iowa, for which he got 5000 votes. so he roughly spent $3000 per vote. he could have

just sat writing checks saying he has $3000, would you vote for me? i will vote for you for $3000! and that is how badly he did all the money that he spent. now, bernie sanders, there have been loads of ads on there have been loads of ads on the tv that i have seen, but his advertising spend is... the one person we haven't talked about in all of this is michael bloomberg, who is not on the ballot, he is not fighting in iowa, but he is pending fortu nes iowa, but he is pending fortunes elsewhere because his idea is thatjoe biden is going to do terribly, and there is going to need to be a standardbearer from the, i don't know what you want to call it. the centrist, the establishment middle, against the radical progressive socialist, if you want to put it like that, of elizabath warren or bernie sanders, and he hopes that he can come through the middle later on in the day. and he is spending limitless amount of money on

advertising, so, yes it is folksy. it is close and intimate. it is also very expensive. it isa it is a bit like interior decoration, isn't it? folksy is expensive, if you want to do it well. we will definitely be coming back to you later in the evening. do you remember we did the maths on all of this earlier today and we reckoned that the average cost per person who actually turns out to caucus here is about $350, and what did we say it was for the uk election? just over $1. it is cheap. and jon was saying aboutjeb bush, there was nothing inevitable about the 2016 race. so tonight, whatever we ta ke 2016 race. so tonight, whatever we take out of these results, we take out of these results, we have to take it, of course, with a pinch of salt. shall we talk about pete buttigieg? because people are going to talk and off a lot more about

the mayor of south bend. i read today he is younger than macauley calkin, and that makes me feel very old. he is in the top tier of candidates, and here are some of the people going out to caucus for pete buttigieg. he is running a campaign of values that everyone can relate to, no matter if you are in the united states, abroad or whatever. it is core values that he calls rules of the road, and he links that to all his policies, so everyone can relate. i think he has an immense amount of compassion and ability to present messages in a way that can take down donald trump, hopefully in the general election. the way that he articulates himself, his fresh ideas, his ability to communicate on so ideas, his ability to communicate on so many levels with so many different types of people, i think it's something that resonates with people at

all levels. i was speaking to pete buttigieg and he said iowa is important to his campaigns, but he refused to say where he needed to come tonight. he is doing really well in the second round, as is amy klobuchar, so one to watch. for more on the iowa caucuses, go to the bbc news website. there is a live page devoted to the results, and what it will mean in the race for the white house. go to bbc.com/news and follow the links. mike embley in london. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the life and times of ‘mad mike', the famous mercenary who has died at the age of 100. this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. the ban on the african national congress is lifted immediately,

and the anc leader, nelson mandela, is to be set free unconditionally. ..four, three, two, one... a countdown to a critical moment. the world's most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once. and apart from its power, it's this recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of a launch, that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. two americans have become the first humans to walk in space without any lifeline to their spaceship. one of them called it a piece of cake. thousands of people have given the yachtswoman ellen macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non—stop. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the race for the white house begins in earnest, as democratic candidates compete in iowa for the right to be their party's nominee.

0n the republican side, donald trump faces no serious competition and is expected to walk to his party's nomination. australia's prime minister, scott morrison, has issued a motion of condolence for bushfire victims as parliament sits for the first time in three months. he may be in for a tough session. voters are angry over his handling of the crisis, and there is a sports funding scandal. the government was tested earlier today. the leader of the national party, junior partner in mr morrison's conservative coalition, managed to survive a leadership challenge. nicholas reece is principal fellow with the melbourne school of government at the university of melbourne, and he worked on policy in the government of former prime ministerjulia gillard. he is in the city now. thank you very much for your time, sorry to keep you waiting. first session, of course, in three months for the prime minister. essentially

this is a day of ceremony and condolence, isn't it? there is not likely to be any rough—and—tumble here. not likely to be any rough-and-tumble here. indeed, that's right, mike. by agreement of all parties, today is going to be a day of condolence for the federal parliament, commemorating the more than 30 deaths from the tragic sum of bushfires. the prime minister has made some policy announcements by providing some more detail around the royal commission which is going to be held into those fires, but largely a day of ceremony and condolences for the terrible fires. and yet i was just looking at the figures, it is less than nine months after what he described as that miracle that saw him re—elected. his approval rating isi re—elected. his approval rating is i think the lowest since he took office. he has a repair job to do. he certainly does, and when parliament gets back to its usual business tomorrow, it will expect to be a fairly torrid session, the australian prime minister came under

extraordinary pressure over the summer, first for refusing to meet with more than 30 fire chiefs who sought a meeting to brief him on what they saw as a catastrophic fire season coming. he then went on holiday with his family to hawaii during the worst periods of the fires, again came under extreme criticism for abandoning his post at a time of need. and then, upon his return, on visiting fire communities, seem to be tone deaf to their concerns, and having some very awkward run—ins with terribly affected communities. so he very much starts the year on the back foot. polls out in recent days have shown that his approval ratings have fallen significantly, and another poll showed that the environment, certainly not an issue which is seen as certainly not an issue which is seen as this prime minister's strength, has emerged as the number one issue amongst australians for the first time

ever. and nicholas, i think! am right, he can't be ousted as prime minister because of these rule changes. the next election must be before 2022. there is this issue of the independent audit of public funding, especially sports funding. there is a lot for the opposition labor party to get their teeth into. absolutely, we have had this awful revolving door of prime ministers over the past decade, and that has led to our labor party and the liberal party changing their party rules. so there is no risk to scott morrison's leadership here, but he is under extreme pressure. an event which has dominated political debate in the last couple of days and is leading to the demise of a senior political figure, to the demise of a senior politicalfigure, bridget mckenzie, has been over what is known as the sports rorts affair, where taxpayers' funds we re affair, where taxpayers' funds were given to marginal target electorates to help the government secure election victory. in the last two hours

we have seen bridget mckenzie resign, but now there are questions about how much did the prime minister's office know about the process for allocating those grants, as well as why is the prime minister's department's report, which has been critical to the decision to have the minister step down, why has that report not been made public as well? thank you very much. sounds like we will be talking to you again. look forward to it. michael ‘mad mike' hoare, widely considered the world's best known mercenary, has died at the age of 100. he fought a series of campaigns in the congo and was later jailed for an unsuccessful coup in the seychelles. the bbc‘s tim allman looks back at his life and colourful career. the early 1960s, and a country that was tearing itself apart. following independence, the republic of the congo descended into a period of upheaval, unrest and violence. playing no small part, this man, michael hoare. a former major in the

british army, he was hired as a mercenary to take on a communist—backed rebellion in the country. his methods were often extreme, earning him the nickname ‘mad mike', and he ended up being the inspiration for the film the wild geese, richard burton playing a character based on michael hoare. then, in the early 1980s, he set his sights on the seychelles. he and a group of fellow mercenaries entered the country with ak—47s in their luggage. dubbed the package—holiday coup, it ended in failure, and although hoare was later jailed, he remained philosophical. we were imprisoned. we'd been put together in a single cell, and no problems. the guards were very nice. 0ur door‘s not even locked. born in india to irish parents in 1919, michael hoare fought in the second world war. his son said his father lived by the philosophy that you get

more out of life by living dangerously, so it is all the more remarkable that he lived more than 100 years. the mercenary michael ‘mad mike' hoare, who has died at the age of 100. hello. we've got some fairly chilly and windy conditions out there at the moment. with low pressure very much in charge of the weather at the moment, it is an unsettled story. quite lively weather, in fact. early tuesday, we're likely to see a bit of travel disruption, particularly for scotland and northern england, with a combination of some severe gales and also some icy stretches, and wintry showers around too. now, we've got an area of low pressure that's moving south through the north sea. quite a lot of isobars on the map, so it is going to be a windy picture first thing tuesday morning, and quite a chilly morning too. temperatures just about above freezing for most of us, but a little below freezing, i think, in the countryside first thing. and if we take a look at the wind gusts we're likely to see tuesday morning, up to around about 40—50 mph quite widely across much

of scotland, perhaps even 55 mph across the pennines. windy too for northern ireland, down towards the midlands, and even along the south coast we could see gusts of wind reaching around 45 mph. so tuesday, blustery showers really wherever you are, also a bit of sunshine on offer. but do watch out for those icy stretches first thing, particularly across the pennines, southern uplands, and highland scotland as well. most of the showers should gradually ease away, though, through the day on tuesday, so it will be a gradually improving picture. some sunshine developing, a bit of patchy cloud here and there, and those strong, gusty winds slowly starting to ease on into the afternoon. but temperatures only around about 8—10 degrees, and with the wind chill, with that brisk northerly wind, it will feel a little bit colder than that. and then, as we move through tuesday night and then on into wednesday, eventually we'll start to see this area of high pressure building in from the west, so that will quieten things down. we're going to be seeing largely dry, clear conditions through tuesday evening and overnight into wednesday as well. perhaps a little bit more cloud across the north and the west of scotland, with a few showers here. elsewhere, clear spells, a few mist and fog patches,

and a touch of frost. so first thing wednesday, temperatures quite widely down to around about freezing, perhaps a degree or two above in the more urban spots, but a chilly morning first thing wednesday. a little bit of mist and fog around, especially further south across england and wales. that should lift into low cloud, but more sunshine developing during the afternoon. a little bit cloudier across the north—west of scotland. fairly cool temperatures, somewhere between about 7—9 degrees for most of us. looking ahead towards the end of the working week, that area of high pressure stays with us, so not only dry on wednesday, but also for thursday and into friday too, with a bit of sunshine. but also watch out for frost, mist and fog. and then, as we look towards the weekend, well, later on friday into saturday, the first weather front moves across the uk, bringing outbreaks of rain at times. so it's a fairly unsettled story as we look towards the weekend. particularly by sunday, things turn wet and windy once again. bye for now.

this is bbc news, the headlines: in the american state of iowa, voters have gathered for caucus meetings to choose a democratic party contender to take on donald trump in november's presidential election. a good performance in iowa can provide important campaign momentum and it often helps a candidate secure the party's nomination. hong kong has reported its first death from the coronavirus. the chinese health authorities say 64 people have died from the new strain of coronavirus in the past 2a hours, bringing the total number of dead to 425. british ministers have announced emergency legislation to end the automatic early release of terror offenders from prison. an islamist extremist stabbed two people in london, before being shot dead by police, ten days after being released from prison. two people were killed in a similar attack in december.