this is bbc news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: 500 homes destroyed, thousands evacuated as wildfires rip through parts of colorado. we know that there are structures, both homes and businesses, but have been burned and lost. we are speaking about hundreds of structures.— speaking about hundreds of structures. this is the scene live in boulder _ structures. this is the scene live in boulder county. - structures. this is the scene live in boulder county. we l structures. this is the scene i live in boulder county. we will speak to a meteorologist in colorado for the very latest. a key witness speaks publicly after ghislaine maxwell is found guilty of grooming underage girls to be abused byjeffrey epstein. diplomacy or deterrence: president biden�*s phone call to president putin laying out the us position over ukraine. and after the launch, it's the make—or—break moment for the space telescope as it unfolds its super—sized sunshield.

hello and welcome to bbc news. wildfires in the american state of colorado have destroyed hundreds of homes and prompted the evacuation of 30,000 people in two towns north of denver. the national weather service described it as a life—threatening situation and ordered the residents of louisville and superior to leave. six people have been treated in hospital for injuries. this shows the ferocity of the flames and as i said 500 homes destroyed, and it looks like this could be a building in alder county and we will keep you up to date with the live pictures as they come in. —— boulder. here's the sheriff of boulder countyjoe pelle

at an earlier news conference. it has been a harrowing day in boulder county with two significant fires, fuelled by dry conditions and very high winds. we currently have thousands of individuals in the south part of our county and in the areas of superior and louisville but have been evacuated. we know that there are structures, both homes and businesses, that have been burned and lost. we are speaking about hundreds of structures. we know that people are anxiously waiting for word about the conditions of their homes and their neighbourhoods and we want to assure you that our fire personnel and we want to assure you that ourfire personnel are and we want to assure you that our fire personnel are working as hard as they can save structures as we speak and when it is safe to do so, we will start the emotional and painful process of assessing damages. the sheriff of boulder county joe pelle there. i'm joined now by professor russ schumacher, who is the colorado state climatologist and the director of the colorado climate center. is itfairto is it fair to say that this is a bit of a perfect storm with strong winds and very dry

conditions?— strong winds and very dry conditions? . �* ., conditions? yeah, we've had very warm — conditions? yeah, we've had very warm conditions - conditions? yeah, we've had very warm conditions going i conditions? yeah, we've had - very warm conditions going back really all the way back to the beginning of the summer but especially through the fall here, very warm and very dry. in the denver and boulder areas, they only received about 50 millimetres of rain going back to the first ofjune when it should be about 225 over that time period, so conditions are very dry and adding on top of today, extremely strong winds, up to 160 kilometres an hour or more, this is an area that tends to get pretty windy but usually, we would have snow on the ground or the ground would be moistened by snow by this time of year.— this time of year. we're live ictures this time of year. we're live pictures now _ this time of year. we're live pictures now of _ this time of year. we're live pictures now of a _ this time of year. we're live pictures now of a building . this time of year. we're live i pictures now of a building that inflames and itjust seems really, really hard to comprehend how you could put fires like this out. is it really, when the winds are the strong, is there really nothing people can do? strong, is there really nothing pe0ple can do?— strong, is there really nothing peeple can do?— strong, is there really nothing people can do? yeah, it is 'ust been a shocking i

people can do? yeah, it is 'ust been a shocking situation h people can do? yeah, it isjust been a shocking situation and | been a shocking situation and heartbreaking to watch the fire go through these neighbourhoods so quickly, right? i don't think there is much that the firefighters can do right now. good thing is that we have snow in the forecast for tomorrow and we're alljust anxiously awaiting that snow get here to help with the firefighting situation and help calm those fires down. situation and help calm those fires down-— fires down. and our people in the area where _ fires down. and our people in the area where of— fires down. and our people in the area where of the - fires down. and our people in the area where of the risks i fires down. and our people in the area where of the risks of fires, you know, because it seems like if you are going to live there, this is a pretty big deal to understand what could be around the corner? yes and no. could be around the corner? yes and n0- last _ could be around the corner? yes and no. last year— could be around the corner? yes and no. last year in _ could be around the corner? yes and no. last year in 2020 we had our state's worst wildfire year on record with our three largest wildfires but they were all up in the mountainous areas in the forest. so we were all very aware of the smoke coming overfrom the very aware of the smoke coming over from the wildfires in the mountains last year but this is a different situation. this is east of the mountains in sort of suburban areas. it started as a grassfire and just took

off in the really extreme winds today and burned right into those neighbourhoods so i would imagine, ithink those neighbourhoods so i would imagine, i think when we think about this here, folks who live in the forest are very aware of the wildfire risk and are paying attention to that but living in a suburban area, you know, heavily populated area, you may not be thinking about the risk of grass fires as much, being able to do something like we've seen today, so it's really, yeah, we all looking at what happened today in a lot of shock and disbelief. figs today in a lot of shock and disbelief.— today in a lot of shock and disbelief. �* , . . ., ., ., , disbelief. as a climatologist, how important _ disbelief. as a climatologist, how important is _ disbelief. as a climatologist, how important is whether . how important is whether reporting in incidents like this, when wind is so critical and the weather is so important?— and the weather is so im ortant? , . ., important? this did occur in an area where _ important? this did occur in an area where a — important? this did occur in an area where a lot _ important? this did occur in an area where a lot of _ area where a lot of meteorologists and climatologist live and so i think there was a lot of attention to the strong winds that were happening and seeing pictures come out and the weather data and everything else but of course, the downside of that is that some

of these neighbourhoods, there may well be folks from our field, from meteorology, that live in those neighbourhoods. we don't know that yet but in the boulder area, it is one of the boulder area, it is one of the world's centres for atmospheric science. professor russ schumacher, _ atmospheric science. professor russ schumacher, that - atmospheric science. professor russ schumacher, that is - atmospheric science. professor russ schumacher, that is all i atmospheric science. professor | russ schumacher, that is all we have time for but thank you indeed for bringing us up to date. it is obviously tragic and i hope the snow comes sooner, ratherthan and i hope the snow comes sooner, rather than later. thank you. a woman who gave key evidence in the trial of ghislaine maxwell has spoken publicly today, saying she hopes the guilty verdict will bring some solace to other survivors. annie farmer — the only witness to use her real name during testimony — said the case demonstrated that no one was above the law. maxwell was found guilty yesterday by a jury in new york of grooming underage girls to be abused by her friend jeffrey epstein. her lawyers say they will appeal against the verdict. this report by our correspondent aleem maqbool contains some flashing images. good morning, america. guilty. good morning. guilty, a long—awaited verdict... the downfall of the british formersocialite, now

a convicted sex trafficker, has been headline news here and one of the four women brave enough to testify to put her behind bars, who was abused as a teenager, has been giving her reaction. i wasn't sure this day would ever come and ijust feel so grateful that the jury believed us and sent a strong message that perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation will be held accountable, no matter how much power and privilege they have. mr maxwell, could we have a statement on behalf of the family, please? there's been no sense of contrition as yet from the siblings of ghislaine maxwell, or regrets for the victims she played a part in sexually abusing. they released a statement, saying "we believe firmly in our sister's innocence. "we are very disappointed with the verdict." one of maxwell's lawyers, who questioned the motives of the women who came forward to testify, said this wasn't the end. obviously, we are very disappointed with the verdict. we have already started working on the appeal and we are confident

she will be vindicated. but legal experts appear to agree ghislaine maxwell's chances of clearing the high legal bar to win an appealare slim. her crimes were carried out during her long association with the disgraced financier jeffrey epstein, who died in prison, but they mingled with the rich and influential, including — famously — prince andrew. their powerful connections left many of their accusers wondering if they'd ever be held accountable. it's been such a long, hard journey to get here, so yesterday's decision, i think, will take a little while to sink in. i'm pleased that she will never be able again, ever, to hurt anybody else and, for that, i feel very pleased. all the while she'd been living her lavish lifestyle, she'd been hiding dark secrets. but finally, that's all caught up with ghislaine maxwell. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in new york.

us presidentjoe biden has again told russia's president vladimir putin that the us and its allies will "respond decisively" if russia further invades ukraine — this during the second call between the two leaders in less than a month amid concerns over russian troops massing at the ukrainian border. a kremlin spokesperson said that putin had made it clear that any new large—scale sanctions would be a "colossal mistake". 0ur washington correspondent gary 0'donoghue has the details. president biden and vladimir putin spoke for 50 minutes and if you need any kind of indication of how serious the situation is, this is the second time in three weeks they've had a call between one another to discuss the situation on the ground. we understand that the discussion was robust and serious — and substantive, according to the americans. joe biden laid out two paths, according to his officials — one of diplomacy and discussion, where russia could de—escalate and get back to the negotiation table,

but also a separate path, he said, that would be about deterrence and serious consequence. and, of course, america has already threatened to impose new sanctions on russia if it doesn't de—escalate and also to provide more military aid to ukraine and also reinforce other nato countries in the region. for its part, russia has said that the discussion was constructive but it said any kind of sanctions that the americans talking about would lead to a complete breakdown in the relationship. they're looking for a legal guarantee that ukraine will never be allowed to join nato, and america's not prepared to give that, so all the focus now is on these new talks in the new year, after the orthodox christian christmas, which will take place in geneva, in brussels, in vienna, involving russia, the united states, nato, other european countries to try to hammer out some kind of an agreement. but both sides are a long way apart at the moment and this east—west stand off looks set to continue

for several weeks yet. gary 0'donoghue speaking there. earlier, i spoke to evelyn farkas, former us deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine and eurasia under president 0bama, who was in the situation room when russia annexed crimea in 2014. 0bviously, when the russian president said to president biden, "i'd like to talk," you know, it was a smart decision to say, "sure, i'll pick up the phone and talk to you". the problem is that, i'm afraid, what president putin is doing here is essentially gathering intelligence to try to figure out how firm the resolve is in the united states and across our nato alliance and our relationship with european union. and so — and he may also be trying to figure out whether these discussions in january will actually yield something that he wants — �*he' being putin — and if he finds that either we appear too weak or we appear unwilling to meet him in the middle, he may move militarily anyway before those

january talks. yeah, both sides have described the talks as "constructive," which, i mean, means at least we're not going backwards in this sense. how important is the g7 in all of this, because they recently warned of massive consequences? right, the g7 is critical, and especially when you talk about sanctions. you know, the russians have bragged about their ability to withstand sanctions but this next round, this is why, as your correspondent said, they are a little bit more worried. the next round involves banning the russians from using the swift interbank transfer system. that would hurt them. there are other things that the alliance of countries could do, the g7, could do to curtail russia's economic power. certainly if we decided to do something in the oil and gas sector, that would be difficult, but we could certainly do it as we have done with iran. evelyn, you were in the pentagon when russia seized crimea. are there any similarities here or are they two different things?

i think the only similarity is that we have learned the only way to try to deal with vladimir putin is through strength, through being firm, through spelling out potential consequences should he move any further into ukraine. that's the biggest lesson from the past. in 2014, we really didn't have the forewarning that we have right now. i mean, right now we're able to see what's going on. and i think one credible threat we can make to the russians is that we'll share all the intelligence we have and real—time intelligence with the ukrainian military. that would be something, i believe, the russians would find disconcerting, to say the least. evelyn farkas there. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the james webb space telescope begins to unfold its sunshield in a complex process involving hundreds of moving parts. the most ambitious

financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we're going to use money we picked up in belgium today. and then we'll be in france and, again, it will be the same money. it's just got to be the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his 0xfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it was good. just good? no, fantastic! that's better! big ben bongs

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: more than 500 homes have been destroyed and thousands of people evacuated as wildfires spread through colorado. after ghislaine maxwell is found guilty of grooming underage girls to be abused byjeffrey epstein, a key witness says she hopes it will bring some solace to other survivors. here in the uk, there are still problems with accessing covid—19 tests. the government has promised that millions more will be made available on new year's eve, as infections break new record highs by the day. eight special hubs are being set up at hospitals across england in preparation for a surge in 0micron admissions. 0ur health correspondent sophie hutchinson reports. the start of building work on the next wave of nightingale hubs. this one is at st george's hospital in south—west london. the government says it's

a contingency measure in case of a surge in covid patients, but there is concern about who will staff them. we would prefer that the government take steps to avoid needing to use that extra surge capacity, purely because there just aren't the number of staff needed to safely provide the care for any patients that are required care, and that's with the priority needs to be, to ensure we've got staff to safely care for people that need care. eight nightingale units will be set up in hospital grounds to care for around 100 covid patients each. to care for around 100 covid patients each. and hospital admissions are now rising sharply in the uk, almost doubling in england in the past week. and that follows several weeks of soaring infections reaching record highs, but many people are still finding it hard to get tested. well, we thought, we'd come

to the local pharmacy to see if they have any lateral flow test, but you don't need to go into see that they are out of stock. so let's try this one. staff suggested we go down the road to another pharmacy. well, i got lucky. the pharmacist here does have a box of tests. he says, in fact, he gets a delivery every day, but as soon as people find out he's got them they can run out in half—an—hour, just because of the sheer size of the demand for them. eve burke, a teacher in burcher, has covid along with a husband and two children. she's hoping to get back to work next tuesday, but can't find any lateral flow tests. i've been trying since yesterday, going onto the government website and refreshing hourly to get lfts sent to our home, because we can't go to a place to pick them up, and i have been messaging friends and asking if anybody has any spare that they can drop off, but the issue is everybody is in the same position and if they do have some lfts at home, they are holding onto them themselves.

so we're now down our final box of lateral flow tests. the government says 8 million lateral flow tests will be available by tomorrow, but mark burdon, who runs the six pharmacies in north—east england, hasn't seen any extra supply. i tried ordering an additional supply this afternoon and that order was rejected. so, unfortunately, we're going to have to start to turn people away once the current supplies are exhausted. it's very frustrating when you've got people in front of you and you're unable to have them the tests that they are asking for. and a lateral flow tests become even more important from tomorrow in northern ireland and wales. as in england, people with covid will be able to end self—isolation earlier after seven days, rather than ten, if they can get the tests and get two negative results. sophie hutchinson, bbc news.

israeli officials have approved a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine. the health ministry says a second booster shot will benefit people with weakened immune systems, who are more vulnerable to the 0micron variant. on thursday, the country reported the highest number of cases since september. in south africa, where the 0micron variant was first identified last month, authorities say all indicators suggest it has passed the peak of the fourth wave of infections. the government is lifting with immediate effect the curfew it imposed to combat the new variant. it's also easing other restrictions. dr mati hlatshwayo davis is director of health for the city of st louis. would you say it isn't too soon to say the fourth way is on the decline? ——it is too soon. it decline? --it is too soon. it is to decline? ——it is too soon. it is to send but it is a credit to south africa who have been

exemplary from the start. is that having some of the best scientific experts, obviously being the ones who weaken credit with even making us aware of this virus with superior genomic sequencing, they have been doing this right. i travel that within the last three months and i tell you something, mitigation strategy is way ahead of what we're seeing here. it is combination of a demographic thatis combination of a demographic that is much younger and a commitment to excellent public health strategy.— health strategy. south africa really setting _ health strategy. south africa really setting an _ health strategy. south africa really setting an example . really setting an example around the world because obviously each country is different and each province within each country is different but they take lockdown seriously? absolutely and they have _ lockdown seriously? absolutely and they have from _ lockdown seriously? absolutely and they have from the - lockdown seriously? absolutely and they have from the start. l and they have from the start. this is a country that when the numbers are not favourable will lockdown and we'll even limit alcohol consumption to decrease social gatherings in businesses. when i was there, there was no shop a good book into that i was not asked to use a hand sanitiser or be

fully masked. it has been exemplary and i think that is the lesson to the world who are a few weeks behind south africa in this course with 0micron. you can get there but you have to do what it takes and unfortunately we're not that everywhere. d0 unfortunately we're not that everywhere-— everywhere. do you think it miaht everywhere. do you think it might be — everywhere. do you think it might be slightly _ everywhere. do you think it might be slightly too - everywhere. do you think it might be slightly too soon | everywhere. do you think it | might be slightly too soon to start easy restrictions as south africa is doing with curfews?— south africa is doing with curfews? ~ , ., ., curfews? absolutely not, not here in the — curfews? absolutely not, not here in the us. _ curfews? absolutely not, not here in the us. this - curfews? absolutely not, not here in the us. this see - curfews? absolutely not, not here in the us. this see skyl here in the us. this see sky height numbers. we have broken records for case positive cases. 0ur hospitals are at capacity. we do not have healthcare workers to fully staffed because of the numbers. but more shocking to me is we do not have the resources we have to really do what we need to do to get this under control. testing is limited. antigen tests are not available as they are in the uk and other places. a new cdc headline came

out this week to see data to review the recommendation for many of the isolation and foreign need to be slashed to five days. this is not reassuring for me and so we need to see the same commitment that south africa has shown from the federal government across states but the unique political system here where states have autonomy and level there is not standardisation is problematic. i have a city that can uniquely mandate mask mandates but that is not the case for the counties surrounding me. it is absolutely unacceptable to be in this place after two years. thank you for bringing us up—to—date, dr mati hlatshwayo davis. the james webb space telescope, launched on christmas day, is starting to unfold its sunshield, in a complex process involving hundreds of moving parts. all of them have to trigger at the right time and in the right order for the telescope to work. 0ur science editor, rebecca morelle, has the story. mission control: and lift off!

the moment of launch for an astronomy mission like no other, as the james webb space telescope blasted off. then the rocket casing opened up, and the telescope was released into the darkness of space, with a million—mile journey ahead. but, as it travels, it has a fiendishly difficult task to do — unfolding. it's so big, we didn't have any rocket that's big enough to launch it, you know, fully deployed. so, we had to build this telescope to be folded up, to fit inside the rocket. this is really, really difficult engineering. but, you know, nasa has never shied away from doing hard things and so i have full confidence that it's going to work. unfurling the sun shield is the most difficult part of this process. it's enormous — the size of a tennis court. first, its two halves are lowered into position. then, the booms are deployed. the operation involves 400 pulleys, 400 metres of cabling and more than 100 release mechanisms that have to fire at exactly the right time.

finally, the material is pulled taut, and the five layers of the sun shield, each as thin as a human hair, separate. the whole process has been rehearsed again and again on earth, but doing this in space will be nail—biting. it's made of floppy material and it has to be held onto by a series of pins, which release one by one, pull it out, make it tight, release another bit, pull it out again, until slowly, over days, you pull out this tennis court sized object. so, for many people working on the project, that's where the real nerves are. the sun shield protects the telescope from the heat and light of the sun. the difference between the hot and cold sides is huge — 300 degrees celsius. the telescope needs to operate in the coldest and darkest conditions to see the most distant stars. for the first time, we'll be able to see all the way back to the time when these very first galaxies formed. and that will allow us

to actually get images of them, verify that they are the very first galaxies, and then we can study how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe. the images that eventually come back from james webb will be even more spectacular than these, taken by hubble. but there's still work to do. the sun shield will take several days to open, and that's just the start of this complex unfolding process. with so much at stake, it's a tense time for the team. rebecca morelle, bbc news. the arduous reconstruction process is underway on the spanish island of la palma where a volcano erupted in september. excavators are digging their way through the solidified lava flows while engineers are working to ensure conditions are safe. the eruption of the volcano was declared over on christmas day, after three long months of spewing ash and molten rock over the island. more than 3,000 buildings were destroyed along with hundreds of acres of farmland, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes.

that is just about it from us. stay tuned on bbc news. in 04 watching and see you soon. —— thank you for watching. hello. the unusually mild weather is set to stick with us as we see out the end of 2021. we had temperatures up to 16 degrees on thursday, about eight degrees above average, and for the next few days, it stays exceptionally mild the winds coming in from the south or the south—west and drawing in the air right from the subtropics, from the canary isles right up towards the uk and actually across much of central europe as well. so, to start off your friday morning first thing on new year's eve, we've got temperatures already well in double figures, some places not falling below about 13 degrees. now, through the day, then, new year's eve this is, we're looking for a bit of rain around. it's going to clear out of northern ireland, into parts of central and southern scotland. also rain clearing away from the east coast. and actually much of england, wales and northern ireland should see a bit more sunshine

than we've seen over recent days, so a drier, brighterfeel. temperatures up to about 15, 16, possibly 17 celsius. just a little bit cooler across the northern half of scotland, but there should be some sunshine here. now, we could well break some records. the warmest ever new year's eve was back ten years ago in 2011. colwyn bay got to 14.8 celsius, so we are set to see temperatures probably a degree or so higher than that. heading through new year's eve night now, if you've got plans, it's looking mostly dry, still very, very mild. could be some patchy rain across some northern and western areas as we see in the new year 2022. but new year's day once again looking very, very mild. we've got this very narrow band of showery rain which is going to cross its way slowly eastwards, followed by sunshine and showers for many areas. showers mainly towards the north—west, so quite a bit of dry weather for new year's day on saturday. and again, you've guessed it, exceptionally mild. 13—16 celsius for most of us on new year's day. then that very mild air

that's been with us starts to gradually ease away towards the near continent. we've still got mild air with us certainly from a south—westerly direction, but temperatures probably starting to come down just a notch as we head through sunday and into the first week of 2022. so, sunday really is going to be a day of some sunshine, but also plenty of showers. you can see a rash of showers across the uk, and temperatures somewhere between about 10—13 degrees, still above average, but not the exceptionally mild weather of the next couple of days. looking ahead into next week, then, fairly unsettled, not quite as mild as it has been lately. bye for now.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: wildfires in the american state of colorado have destroyed hundreds of homes and prompted the evacuation of 30,000 people in two towns north of denver. the national weather service has described it as a life—threatening situation and ordered the residents of louisville and superior to leave. the family of ghislaine maxwell is backing a legal appeal against her conviction in new york on charges of grooming underage girls. she faces a lengthy prison sentence after a jury found her guilty on five charges that she procured young teenagers to be abused byjeffrey epstein. president biden has spoken on the phone with vladimir putin, urging the russian president to de—escalate tensions over the ukrainian crisis but making it clear the us would respond decisively if russian troops cross ukraine's border. president putin says any new sanctions against russia would be a colossal mistake.

now on bbc news, david sillito explores the six buildings