this is bbc world news — i'm nuala mcgovern. our top stories: mike pence criticises donald trump for saying the ex us vice—president could have altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. president trump is wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs to the american people and the american people alone. a meeting of minds ahead of the winter olympics: china's president xi backs his russian counterpart in opposing the expansion of nato. fireworks explode. the games open officially in beijing, amid chinese pride and international controversy. emergency workers in morocco are hopeful of reaching a five—year—old boy who's been trapped for four days in a deep well.

as tensions in ukraine continue, we have a special report from the eastern region that for years has suffered loss of life on the front line with russia. and iceland promises to end commercial whale hunting within two years, following a drop in demand for blubber. hello, and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. the former vice president of the united states mike pence has said he would have had no right to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, and that donald trump is wrong to claim otherwise. it's mr pence�*s strongest public rebuke of his former boss since they left office. president trump is wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs

to the american people and the american people alone. and frankly, there is no idea more un—american than the notion that any one person could choose the american president. our north america correspondent, david willis, has been giving me the reaction to mr pence�*s comments. mike pence, of course, was one of the most loyal vice presidents you could ever find. he was renowned for his almost filial loyalty to donald trump, defending mr trump even in some of his most controversial moments, so these remarks are being seen — being granted with some astonishment here. they are the most outspoken criticism of his former boss to have come from mike pence. but in the last few days, donald trump has basically ground down on the narrative that mike pence could have done more to basically prevent the election from going tojoe biden. he said he could have "overturned" the results

of the electoral college. now, that is, of course, false. and today, mike pence decided to call donald trump out on that, saying that mr trump was wrong in that assertion and also saying that such a move by a vice—president would be, as he put it, "un—american". this comes, though, at the same time — as i alluded to there, david — the republican party censuring two of its top lawmakers for investigating the capitol riot. what did they call it — "legitimate political discourse", which liz cheney and adam kinzinger would disagree with. so, i mean, what does it tell us about the republican party and perhaps going forward, 2024, the next presidential race? well, this all points to the fact that the events of january 6 are deeply controversial still, as far as the republican party is concerned and, as you mentioned, the party decided today to censure liz cheney and adam kinzinger for basically joining the committee looking into the events of that fateful day.

they believe that no republicans should have joined the committee and that it will basically lead to a witch—hunt that will ultimately end up with donald trump being accused of more things. now, they also said, the members of the committee today, that this constituted, as they put it, "persecution of ordinary citizens "engaged in legitimate political discourse." now, adam kinzinger has already said that he will be leaving congress before his term is up, and liz cheney could face some sort of challenge for her seat in wyoming. now, she issued a statement today, saying that republican leaders had, as she put it, "made themselves willing "hostages to a man who admits attempting to overthrow "a presidential election" — a none—too—concealed barb there against donald trump, of course. and i don't know whether it's possible to know this, david, but that phrase, you know,

"legitimate political discourse" — i mean, will many, you know, republicans maybe that supported mr trump, maybe that didn't, would they take on with that description that the rnc is putting forward? well, it's interesting, because mike pence today, in that speech, also called january 6 "a dark day in the history of the us capitol" and he was one of the lawmakers, of course, that was rushed to safety after the capitol building came under siege from a mob of donald trump supporters — some of whom are, of course, were calling for the vice—president to be hanged. now, there is a large feeling in the party — amongst some, anyway — that these were terrible events and that this was something that the party really should seek to bury and move on from. there are others, of course, like liz cheney, who believe that there should be some sort of reckoning as a result of this. thank you very much

to david willis. china and russia have announced a new partnership, hailed by president putin as an "unprecedented pact of cooperation". china says it'll back russia's foreign policy aims, and says it supports russian demand that nato halt its expansion. xijinping and vladimir putin held talks hours before the official opening of the winter olympics in beijing, with the low—key ceremony held amid concerns about covid and a diplomatic boycott over human rights abuses. from beijing, robin brant reports. china's capital city, an olympic host for the second time. the bird's nest stadium, built for 2008, is still glorious. but there's a different man in charge now and it feels very different in 2022. xijinping promised a safe, efficient games. for most people in beijing tonight, this is the closest they're gonna get to the opening ceremony of the olympic games — watching it on a roadside

near the stadium or on a walkway over the motorway. we're actually being moved away from this area at the moment. now, it's because there aren't enough tickets on sale, there are no tickets on sale to members of the general public — that's part of those extreme covid restrictions. "i came to feel the vibe," this woman told us. standing at her side, her son asked, "can we see it or not, mum?" "it doesn't matter," she said. "at least we are trying." for the athletes, just getting here is a lifetime achievement, but their leaders have stayed away. britain, like australia and around a dozen others, has joined a us—led diplomatic boycott — a protest over what they claim is egregious abuse, or even genocide carried out by china against muslim minorities here. but this leader was here — in fact, he was the star guest. russia's president putin is one of 20 or so presidents, prime ministers or kings who are keen to show their support for china in person.

but mr putin came for more — face—to—face talks — and he's agreed trade and energy deals and a new friendship of closer cooperation with china. they used to share communist rule. now what binds russia and china is concern about resurgent us influence as tension over ukraine increases by the day. the moment the olympic flame was installed was a subtle one — no big cauldron set alight — but not so the other message sent out by the host from this stadium, that china and russia are forging a new, much closerfriendship. robin brant, bbc news, beijing. well earlier i spoke to angela stent — a former us national intelligence officer for russia and eurasia. i asked her how significant she felt this meeting was. today was really an inflection point. you have this detailed 18—page statement setting out russia and china's

strategic partnership, saying that they are better than allies, they don't need a formal alliance, pushing back at the west, saying the west has no right to tell them what to do, and you have the chinese explicitly endorsing the russian demands that nato never enlarge, and of course russia confirming its view that, of the one china policy. and so there was a lot of detail, they also lashed out against the aukus alliance, the united states, great britain and australia, and indeed the west's whole indo—pacific strategy. it is interesting, a lot of the countries they are lashing out at are ones that boycotted the olympics diplomatically due to human rights abuses in china. but if it is a new era, which i think you are outlining there, when it comes to these strategic alliances, what does that really mean, do you think, when it comes to, for example, ukraine? so i think it means that

although i believe the chinese would prefer the russians not to have a military incursion into ukraine, if russia does conduct some military actions against ukraine, the chinese will back them up, just as they did in 2014 when the russians took crimea, even though the chinese weren't that happy about it. so putin knows that xi will come to his assistance, will support him in whatever he does, and if there were to be a military incursion and massive sanctions were imposed on russia, the chinese will help bail the russians out financially and in other ways. so do you think if there is the strategic alliance between china and russia, it would influence in any way nato accepting ukraine as a member of the nato alliance? i don't think that's going to affect what nato does.

nato�*s policy is that there is an open door and they are not going to change it. but nato is beginning to realise that as well as, in addition to having to take on russia, they are now taking on a much closer russian—chinese relationship, and a china that is going to back russia up, so it means that it is more, if you like, stress on the nato alliance as they look at the challenges they face. let's flip to another part of the world, because if china is scratching russia's back so to speak, vice—versa would also happen. with somewhere like taiwan for example, if we start talking about one china policy, what would you expect there? i think the nightmare scenario for the us and its allies would be if you had a russian military incursion into ukraine, and then china moved on taiwan. the china experts say that isn't that likely, but it does mean that whatever moves china makes on taiwan, russia would presumably back it up. interestingly, the russians haven't been explicit about their views

about china and the south china sea, which is another issue, but i think that on taiwan, they would back the chinese up. so what do you think somebody like us presidentjoe biden needs to do now, strategically? i mean, note that this chinese—russian partnership has really been solidified, but continue the process of trying to have a diplomatic solution to the ukraine crisis. talks are still going on, even as the military buildup continues too, and then find a way to deal with china too. of course the biden administration wanted to focus on dealing with china but it has not been able to do that in the past but it has not been able to do that in the past few months. let's get some of the day's other news. the death toll from

the covid—i9 pandemic in the united states surpassed 900,000 on friday, according to thejohns hopkins university coronavirus tracker. new cases linked to the omicron variant are falling, but daily deaths continue to rise, with an average of 2,400. currently, only 64% of the population are fully immunised — that's despite highly effective vaccines being widely available. five people have been killed by an avalanche in the austrian state of tyrol. rescuers say the victims were buried under snow near spiss, close to the border with switzerland. a sixth person, an injured woman, has been evacuated to hospital. the nationality of those involved isn't yet clear. the media giant news corp says it was attacked by hackers last month. the company, owned by rupert murdoch, said the breach was done by someone seeking to gather information to benefit china. some email accounts and documents from its business divisions were affected, but no customer and financial data appears to have been impacted. france's fisheries minister has called for an inquiry after a spillage of more than 100,000 dead fish off the country's atlantic coast. video footage filmed by environmental activists shows a mass of corpses floating on the sea surface. the incident occured when a net belonging to margiris, the world's second—largest

supertrawler, broke. emergency workers in morocco are hopeful they'll soon reach a five—year—old boy who's been trapped for four days in a deep well. the child, who's name is rayan, fell more than 30 metres into the shaft while his father was repairing it. the shaft is narrow, so rescuers are digging a large hole parallel to it to reach the boy, as simon jones reports. it's a race against time. rayan has now spent a fourth night trapped deep underground, pictured by a camera lowered into the well. above him, the effort to save the 5—year—old has continued round the clock. rescue workers say they won't stop until they get him out, while worried locals can only look on and hope. translation: we're praying for rayan to be alive. - may his family have patience and, honestly, our hearts are breaking. translation: | hope - he'll come out of this 0k.

it's like one of our own children has fallen. we're praying for his safety. he's one of our children. this is the opening of the well that rayan fell down. it's too narrow for the rescuers to get to him, so they've had to come up with a different plan. a large hole is being dug parallel to the well to try to reach the boy. there are only a few metres to go, but that brings with it its own dangers — the possibility of a landslide. the gathered crowd are desperate for progress and a happy outcome. rayan�*s father says he hasn't slept a wink. his mother says she's trying to remain positive. but this is a complex and delicate operation. oxygen and water has been sent down the well. a helicopter is on standby to get the boy to hospital. but rayan remains trapped while the most challenging part of the rescue is still ahead. simon jones, bbc news. this is bbc news.

the headlines: mike pence criticises donald trump for saying the ex us vice president could have altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. the presidents of china and russia meet ahead of the winter olympics opening ceremony. president xi backs russia in opposing the expansion of nato. a possible russian invasion of ukraine is a top international concern, but communities in the east of the country have had to endure a conflict for years. some 14,000 people have been killed, soldiers and civilians, and despite an official ceasefire, the deaths continue. the conflict broke out eight years ago when russia annexed ukraine's crimean peninsula. then russian—backed separatists seized parts of eastern ukraine, which is home to many ethnic russians. our international correspondent orla guerin reports from the city of kramatorsk on one family and their loss. bugle plays the last post. it was a funeral for a hero.

a fallen soldier in the war ukraine is already fighting. valery hierovkin was just 22. he was killed on the front line in december by russian—backed separatists. mourned by loved ones and by his home town, kramatorsk. his mother, anna, is consoled by one of his brothers—in—arms, who was standing right beside valery when the sniper�*s bullet pierced his helmet. buttressed by her husband, yevgeny, anna remembers their eldest son — a boy who was funny, kind, a bit naughty, who grew up to love football and defend his homeland.

translation: of course - we didn't expect it was going to turn out this way, but i'm proud of my son because he gave his life for his country. he gave his life for ukraine, for the people and for his family. that's why i'm so proud of my boy. valery made this video just weeks before his death. the song says, "my heart aches. i don't believe you're gone." his father, a pastor, wonders if somehow he sensed what was coming. translation: sometimes i feel that perhaps he was expecting . to die, because he spent the last two days of his holiday with us and

he made that video. when he was boarding the bus, he said, "i have a heavy heart. i don't want to leave." but i said, "son, you have to. you made the decision, so you have to go." now, they mourn and worry. their city was shelled in 2015. they fear a new phase of war would dwarf the suffering so far. but for them, the worst has already happened — a beloved son is gone. orla guerin, bbc news, kramatorsk, ukraine. iceland says it will end commercial whale hunting within two years. it is blaming a drop in demand for the meat and increasing costs in recent years. lucy grey reports. hunting and eating whales

has been going on for hundreds of years. it brought whales to the brink of extinction in the 19th and early 20th century. but an international moratorium was agreed in 1986 to allow whale numbers to recover. iceland objected to it and decided to restart commercial whaling in 2003. its biggest customer was japan, untiljapan itself pulled out of the international whaling commission in 2019, resuming hunting for whales itself. it left icelandic whalers with much less to do. it also seems that people in iceland are less keen to eat whale meat. so, with demand falling and the cost of hunting rising, the government has said there is little proof of any economic advantage to this activity, and it will end in two years when the current quota finishes. so could the only other whaling nations, norway and japan, follow iceland's lead ? the reasoning for keeping a fishery for whales active

is very cultural, in that withinjapanese culture whale meat has a place. norway has similar reasons. it seems that is dissipating as time goes on and that as generations come into the workforce and into existence that didn't grow up, necessarily, with whales being part of their diet, per se, there may be less of a need for it or less of an interest. there has been a huge drop in tourism in iceland because of coronavirus pandemic. but it is hoped that ecotourism and whale watching, rather than hunting, will prove more economically beneficial. lucy grey, bbc news. meta has announced a new feature to tackle harrasment in the metaverse. the feature will create more personal space in virtual reality world by preventing avatars from coming within a certain distance of each other and by making it easier to avoid unwanted interactions. meta has long been under scrutiny from global lawmakers and regulators over its

handling of problematic content and abuses on its existing social media platforms, such as facebook and instagram. the british comedianjimmy carr has been criticised for a joke he made about gypsies being murdered in the holocaust. the comments were made in a stand—up comedy special which was released on netflix last year. travellers and holocaust remembrance groups have expressed disgust at carr's comment. the holocaust educational trust said the mass murder of gypsies was no laughing matter. historians estimate that up to 500,000 romani and sinti people were killed by the nazis. i've been speaking tojewish comedian michael shafar, who is in melbourne, australia, and i asked if there were any topics that should be simply off—limits. my personal view is no, i don't think any topic should be off limits. i'm a jewish person myself and my grandparents are holocaust survivors. my grandfather survived five years in auschwitz, and even i don't believe

the holocaust can't be discussed in the context of stand—up comedy. when i'm discussing the topic myself when i'm on stage, i always try to differentiate between the topic, which is the holocaust, and the target of the joke. so i try to make sure that i'm not making anyjoke at the expense of the victims of the holocaust. that's my personal approach. i don't think every comedian will agree with that, but that is how i approach my comedy, anyway. that is where your line is drawn. it is interesting to hear that. so withjimmy carr and, you know, ijust parsed his comments there. i'm not going to go into it specifically, but our viewers will get the idea. what is your reaction to that? and, you know, so far as i know, jimmy carr nor netflix have responded to the complaints so far. my reaction is i'm certainly very sensitive and understanding of people being upset and the community expressing a lot of pain for that.

being jewish myself, i understand that situation. as a comedian, i also understand that part of the job that a lot of comedians take on is to push boundaries and try to be as confronting as possible. my perspective is i think it's important when you're discussing a topic like the holocaust, you need to be extremely sensitive and that you're doing it in a nuanced way, and you ensure that the victims are not the target of the joke. is that it, then? is that it the way that jimmy carr approached it, it seems that, according to many, a very crass statement that he made and put across. do you think that whatever point he was trying to get across, that he could get it across in another way if he were more subtle or his language was in some way more sophisticated? i'm not going to try and critiquejimmy carr. he's a very successful comedian and i have so much respect for his work and his career

and what he's achieved over his lifetime. i would just say that, you know, i can understand what he was trying to say. in his own words, he says in thejoke, straight after saying it, it has an educative value. i understand that perspective of things. i've spoken about the holocaust on stage, and i've had people come up to me afterwards and said "that was really interesting, i didn't know that 6 million jewish people perished in the holocaust." i think it can have an educative value, and i think that is what he was going for. so i can understand that perspective. but from my own personal perspective as a jew, whose grandparents were holocaust survivors, i completely understand people feeling pain as a result of the joke, too. and before we go tonight, over the next few weeks we'll see a lot of athletes competing against each other

at the olympic games, but take a look at this. this is omar menchaca. he is a retired kayaking champion in mexico and has decided to kayak for the benefit of his community, so every morning he paddles along the canals of mexico city and picks up any trash he finds floating on the water and banks. he says that he hopes his efforts will make a difference in preserving this place for future generations. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @bbcnuala. hello there. snow was a feature of the weather for some parts of the uk on friday, and it continues to feature as part of what is actually quite a varied weekend weather menu. snow and ice continuing to be an issue, particularly in scotland. elsewhere, some rain at times, some brisk winds, but there will also be some spells of sunshine. the big weather maker for the weekend is this weather front extending all the way from north america across the atlantic towards our shores. this front will bring some outbreaks of rain. there will be some quite strong winds, but also this front dividing cold air which will be returning from the north from this mild air, staging a temporary comeback down towards the south. so this is how saturday shapes up. a touch of frost for some to start off. dry to start for much of england and wales, but you can see this wet

weather on the move southwards as the day wears on. some particularly heavy bursts of rain developing over hills in the west. the south of england likely to stay dry for a good part of the day. northern scotland brightening up, but with some increasingly frequent snow showers and a windy day for all. those are the gusts — gusts of 40, 50 or maybe 60 mph in exposed places in northern scotland. afternoon temperatures — well, quite a range. three there for stornoway, ten for london, for plymouth and st helier. through saturday night, our weather front continues to journey southwards across northern ireland. it will cling on for a good part of the night, i think. certainly some wet weather crossing england and wales. for scotland, frequent snow showers. we could see up to 15 cm of snow accumulating over high ground. a mild night in the south, a colder one further north. and then we look ahead to sunday. well, this rain could well drag its heels. it could actually turn heavy for a time on sunday morning, and it may struggle to clear the south of england. but elsewhere, we should see some spells of sunshine through the day.

showers continuing, snow showers across high grounds in scotland, but those showers even wintry to quite low levels. strongest winds at this stage could well be down towards the south, with gales likely through the channel. and temperature — again quite a range. four in the north, nine or ten further south, maybe 11 for the channel islands. now, as we head into the start of the new week, an area of high pressure not too far away, trying to build its way northwards. a weak frontal system but it is a warm front, so that will bring some milder air returning from the west. so quite a mild start to the new week. we will see some rain at times, but particularly the further south you are, the week should start on a mostly dry note.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the former us vice—president mike pence has said he could not have overturned the result of the 2020 presidential election — his strongest rebuttal so far of claims by donald trump. mr pence said it was "un—american" to think that any one person could choose the president. ahead of the opening ceremony of the winter olympics, china's president, xijinping, met his russian counterpart vladimir putin and gave his support to moscow's security and foreign policy aims. the official opening in beijing was toned down due to covid restrictions. emergency workers in morocco say they're hopeful that they'll reach a five—year—old boy trapped for four days in a deep well. the child, who's called rayan, slid more than 30 metres into the narrow shaft on tuesday while his father was repairing it. coming up at 6 o'clock,

breakfast with naga and charlie.