this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: china experiences a surge of covid cases a week after relaxing its strict rules on quarantines and lockdowns. us presidentjoe biden signs into law a bill giving federal protection to same—sex and inter—racial marriages. today's a good day! cheering. a day america takes a vital step towards equality. three days of national mourning are underway in the democratic republic of congo after at least 100 people are killed by heavy rains, floods and landslides, around the capital kinshasa. promising results from a new personalised cancer

vaccine. the experimental therapy uses the same technology developed in the moderna and pfizer coronavirus vaccines. and, scientists move a step closer to breeding gene edited chickens, that only hatch female chicks. lionel messi inspires argentina to a convincing win over croatia to reach sunday's world cup final. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. to china first, where the hospital system's coming under an increasing strain as covid—19 spreads quickly again. it comes after the government's decision to abandon its zero—covid approach. the situation has become so bad

that doctors and nurses who have contracted the virus are being told to turn—up for work because of staff shortages. stephen mcdonell reports from beijing. long lines have been forming outside beijing's clinics after an explosion of infections, triggered by an end to china's zero—covid approach. hospitals have increased their fever ward capacity, expecting a huge influx of patients. people in this country have been used to going to hospital to treat any illness at all, but now they're putting massive pressure on the system. so doctors have taken to social media to try to explain that with mild cases of the virus, recovery at home is recommended — a new concept for most here. going to hospital can also be potentially dangerous at the moment, according to one specialist, who says patients could be catching covid from doctors and nurses. from my conversations

with friends in china who serve as the hospital directors or medical workers, people being infected had been required to work in hospital, which creates a transmission environment there. it's notjust hospitals that are under pressure. panic buying at pharmacies has meant certain medicines are now hard to come by. this sign says "no cold and flu tablets, no thermometers "and no home testing kits." just weeks ago, chinese officials were saying lockdowns and isolation centres were necessary. now, after a major u—turn, the message is that the latest covid types aren't dangerous, and many younger people are welcoming the chance to isolate at home. translation: the information circulating before about covid l was completely at odds with my experience of the virus. i caught it, was a bit uncomfortable, but it hasn't been nearly as scary as i thought it would be.

she does worry about her sister, who has two children, her parents, and grandmother. in other countries, reopening led to bustling streets, as communities again came together. beijing feels like a ghost town. most are either recovering at home or afraid to go out, lest they too become infected. companies in these tower blocks are imploring staff to return to work, but they are having a difficult time convincing employees to re—enter crowded offices. it looks like china is in for a tough few months before life returns to anything like normal. amongst those being overloaded are home delivery drivers, and many of them are also catching covid. so orders are piling up, with not enough drivers to handle them. zero—covid may be effectively over, but this virus continues to wreak havoc in china.

stephen mcdonnell, bbc news, beijing. president biden has signed into law a bill which gives federal protection to same—sex and interracial marriages in the united states. democrats secured the passage of the legislation weeks before surrendering control of the house of representatives to their republican opponents. speaking at the signing ceremony at the white house, mr biden said it was an historic day: today's a good day! a day america takes a vital step toward equality, toward liberty and justice, notjust for some, but for everyone, everyone! toward creating a nation where decency, dignity and love are recognised, honoured and protected. our correspondent, peter bowes, has the latest.

it means in practice that there is now federal or country wide recognition of same—sex and interracial marriages. it was prompted and it may seem like there was a rush to get to get through congress — it was prompted by the decision of the supreme court early this year to deny the constitutional rights of women in this country to have an abortion. there have been some concerns that the supreme court, a conservative leaning supreme court, could at some point in the future make a similar decision that would essentially overturn a previous decision, giving the rights of same—sex couples, interracial couples, to get married. it was interesting that there was bipartisan support for this bill. now a law, that is all of the democrats and enough republicans to get it passed as a law. peter, this is not quite a catchall. what does the bill not include?

this does not include essentially foreseeing ——this does not include essentially forcing individual states to carry out same—sex marriages. so, let'sjust lay in the future, at some point the supreme court does move or make a similar decision to what it decided on abortion, that would give the rights of some states to deny people the right to a same—sex marriage. it will not force them to do that but it will compel those individual states to recognise same—sex marriages, interracial marriages, if they were carried out legally elsewhere, they carried out legally in another state. the reason that is important is because for those roughly 700,000 same—sex couples in the country, it means whatever the supreme court decides in the future, their rights, their rights to benefits and other rights given to them through being married, will be

let's get some of the day's other news: the judiciary in iran says 400 anti—government protesters in the capital, tehran, have been given prison sentences of up to ten years. the city's prosecutor general said nearly half of what he called "the rioters" were jailed for between five to ten years, most of the others for up to two years. a french court has found guilty all eight suspects accused of helping a tunisian man carry out a deadly truck attack in nice six years ago. 86 people were killed and hundreds injured when the vehicle tore through crowds celebrating bastille day in the southern city. lawyers for a greek member of european parliament embroiled in a corruption scandal say she knew nothing about large amounts of cash found at her home. eva kaili has been stripped of her role as vice—president of the european parliament. she's one of four people charged by police in relation to alleged bribes from the gulf state of qatar.

ajudge in the bahamas has denied bail to the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange ftx, who's been accused of one of the biggest financialfrauds in us history. thejudge said sam bankman—fried should be remanded in custody until the case for extradition could be heard. mr bankman—fried has indicated that he will fight extradition to the united states, where the authorities have filed eight separate criminal charges against him. in central africa, around a hundred people are reported to have been killed in the democratic republic of congo, following the worst flooding in years in the capital kinshasa. major roads in the city centre were left under water as heavy rains continued for hours. several homes collapsed. the government's announced a three—day period of national mourning. tom brada reports. wading through filthy water to see what, if anything, is still standing. heavy rains have left a trail of destruction across kinshasa,

with homes destroyed and lives swept away. in some areas, landslides have torn chunks out of the earth, with vast holes where homes once stood. translation: it was at 5am when the earth collapsed - on the house. nine people from the same family have died. it is a similar picture across the capital. addressing the ongoing rescue efforts, the prime minister said that: but for many people, the government itself is partly to blame. translation: we have elected a government that is unable to give its people what they need. this road has threatened to collapse for a long time. we've alerted the authorities to this situation but here is the pure reality, they cannot even build a gutter! once a fishing village on the banks of the congo river, kinshasa has grown into one of africa's megacities, but the growth has not been matched by the right kind of investment, leaving the city and its residents

increasingly vulnerable. translation: | find it hard to bear. - i have no more strength to bury the dead bodies. climate change means that periods of intense rain are becoming more common. without better help from the government, residents of kinshasa will remain at the mercy of the destructive weather. tom brada, bbc news. scientists in israel say they've developed special gene—edited hens who lay eggs from which only female chicks hatch. the breakthrough could prevent the slaughter of billions of male chickens each year, which are culled because they don't lay eggs. scientists from the volcani institute in tel aviv have also made sure the female chicks and the eggs they lay when they mature, show no trace of the original genetic alteration.

as you say, billions of male chicks are slaughtered every year. this prevents them from being slaughtered because they don't come into existence. it will save commercial farming significant money. the real question is whether it produces worries in people who are concerned about gene editing. there's certainly lots to talk about. we'll park that for the moment, this is one application for this gene and gender editing, if you like, what are some potential other uses for this technology? so, we've had sex selection and other kinds of reproductive activities, with bulls, for example, we use sperm sorting. there are ways of doing sex selection among human reproduction in terms of selecting gametes and it's possible this technology will be used elsewhere in the animal world or maybe someday in the future potentially for human applications. you did touch on ethical issues

earlier on, critics will say this is humans playing god. what are some of the issues here and how do you respond to them? there are two sets of issues, and i should emphasise this is not science that has been peer—reviewed yet, so we're speculating a little bit. there are two kinds of objections people might raise, one is the goal, that is sex selection, the other is the means by which it is achieved, that's gene editing. in terms of the goal, there is a concern about messing with nature, about changing the way we have a relationship with the natural world, showing kind of a mastery. in terms of the means, gene editing, there is a concern about whether this alteration will be carried forward to future generations. they seem to have tested that they claim it will not. but also concerns about a slippery slope, the more we normalise the editing of animal life and life we consume, the more likely it we will become comfortable doing it for human life. this study was carried out in israel. when it comes to the supervision of these projects,

are there some countries where it is a free for all, are there some internationally agreed standards, how are is monitored around the world? currently, in terms of human gene editing, inheritable genome editing we have significant restrictions all of the world. but as we saw with the case in china, it is not always enforced as rigorously everywhere in the world. when it comes to the animal, here we do see quite a patchwork of difference in terms of what the rules are and what kinds of authorities have to take a look before something can go forward. even in the uk, right, it is not clear yet whether this kind of edit done to a chick would make its way into the food supply without many further steps. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: goals from messi and alvarez see argentina crush croatia to secure a place in sunday's world cup final.

cheering and singing saddam hussein is finished, because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict — conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteeing bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached.

this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: china experiences a surge of covid cases, a week after relaxing its strict rules on quarantines and lockdowns. a court in peru has rejected an appeal by the ousted president, pedro castillo, to be released following his detention on charges of rebellion and conspiracy. appearing in court for the first time since his impeachment last week, mr castillo said he'd been unjustly and arbitarily detained. protests against his arrest have turned violent, resulting in the deaths of seven people. denisse rodriguez—0livari is a lecturer in politics at the pontifical catholic university of peru. she says the violence is alarming, even in a country that is no stranger to political turmoil. we have seen the repression, with the successive use of force by police officers, throughout the decades and this is just the result of poor management of conflict resolution.

it's quite gruesome because we have seen a lot of people losing their lives and also we have seen some looting, we have seen some people harming journalists, and even trying to loot some mainstream media buildings. this is a controlled platform. it goes from the release of castillo, to ousting all the parliamentarians, also the removal of dina boluarte, the removal of the current prime minister. i mean, their demands are quite various, including also economic grievances. i think it is highly unlikely he will be released from detention. currently he's under a seven—day preliminary detention. this is why they are collecting all the proof for a verdict case. i think the prosecution should be extremely careful of what crime they are

trying to indict him for, because otherwise there will be some calls for (unclear), which is something we have seen in the region. a new type of personalised vaccine to treat cancer has produced promising results during clinical trials. the experimental therapy uses the same technology which was first developed in the moderna and pfizer coronavirus vaccines. 0ur medical editor, fergus walsh, has the details. we usually think of vaccines as a means of preventing disease, but this is a personalised treatment for patients with cancer, using messenger mrna technology that was first used in some covid jabs. it works like this. a sample of the patient�*s tumour is analysed, and dozens of mutations unique to their cancer are identified. the vaccine contains strands of mrna which give coded instructions to cells to produce the rogue proteins from the tumour. this stimulates the patient�*s immune system

to attack their cancer. in effect, the vaccine unmasks the cancer cells, which until then had remained hidden. the trial involved 157 patients with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. the companies involved say the results are promising. it's the first randomised trial testing an mrna theraputic in cancer patients. it has shown a 44% reduction in the risk of dying of cancer or having your cancer progress. that's an important finding. and i think it has the potential to be a new paradigm in the treatment of cancer patients. the same approach has been tried with lung, bowel and other tumour types. trials will take a few years, so, new treatments are a way off. but cancer research uk says it's grounds for optimism, that the science which helped get us out of the pandemic could be used against cancer.

torrential rain has battered portugal for the second time in a week, causing severe flooding in lisbon and 13 other districts. wendy urquhart reports. from the air the extent of the flooding is clear to see. the flatlands around lisbon are submerged and the water is seeping into every crevice of the city. in some places it is thigh deep, roads, tunnel and bridges are cut—off roads, tunnels and bridges are cut—off and homes and businesses are completely waterlogged. hundreds of residents have been forced to evacuate their homes and many others are stranded. but they will have to be patient, the emergency services are dealing with more than moo calls for help in lisbon alone. translation: we have | two warehouses and they are completely flooded. one of them with 70cm of water. we have a lot of damage and it is recurrent. we just do not know what to do anymore. translation: it wouldn't matter how many water pumps _ we had here.

with the high tide and this amount of water, we still would not be of able to avoid this. for the second time in less than week, locals are clearing debris, water and mud from their homes and businesses. the authorities insist work on a five—kilometre drainage tunnel to prevent flooding in the future will begin soon but that won't be soon enough for residents of the capital because more rain is forecast later this week. wendy urquhart, bbc news. argentina are through to the final of the world cup in qatar after beating croatia 3—0. our sports presenter 0lly foster is in doha with all the details. the smile on lionel messi's face at full—time at the lusail stadium was as wide as the doha corniche behind me. yet again, the argentina captain instrumental in everything they did here, carrying his country through to a sixth world cup final. it was julian alvarez,

his strike partner, who was fouled after the half—hour mark against croatia, it was messi who stepped up to score the penalty, that was his 11th world cup goal for argentina, overtaking the old mark of gabriel batistuta. he is up to five in qatar and level in the race for the golden boot alongside kylian mbappe. it was alvarez ran at the heart of the croatian defence before halftime, got the luck of the bounce, but he hit their second from close range, 2—0 at halftime and then it was lionel messi weaved his magic on the right with 20 minutes left of play, turning one croatian defender and another inside and out before finding alvarez for their third. the croatian fans knew it wasn't to be their day. they weren't going to reach back—to—back finals, they were runners—up four years ago in russia, but there was a standing ovation their talisman,

the 37—year—old croatian captain, luka modric, he was substituted towards the end, and that is almost certainly going to be his final world cup. maybe it'll be lionel messi's but what a way to go out on sunday in the final. it was his 25th world cup appearance against the croatians and that equals the record of lothar matthaus. he will break that if he is fit, and surely he will be on sunday. earlier, i spoke to daniel edwards, the co host of the argentinian football podcast the hand of pod and asked him how he was feeling about the semi—final result. on top of the world. it's incredible how the world cup panned out, especially after the very muted start argentina had against saudi arabia, and at that point the argentina team came out and said it, we've got six finals left, and argentina up to now have won five of them. every single game has been celebrated as such in argentina, this one more

than all the others. it's been an incredible night in buenos aires. we'll see what happens on sunday but it's been a hell of a ride up to now. what were some highlights of the game for you? watching this strike duo, which sprung up in qatar, messi and alvarez, two guys who couldn't be more different in age. messi, 35 years old, his fifth world cup. alvarez with three months of experience in european football and just over a year in the argentina team. they have clicked together and have been so decisive especially in the knockout rounds. the first goal from alvarez when he grabbed the ball on the halfway line and kept going, going and going. we don't know how. he puts it in the net. that was just amazing and probably when you could think, maybe this one will go argentina's way.

messi seems to be getting most of the attention. he has been called magnificent messi, the best individual performance of the world cup so far. are those fair assessments? yes, i think so. we all expected messi to come up big in this world cup. as you mentioned in the report before, it is most likely his last one, but i don't think anyone would like to bet too much that he would not come back in four years if he felt up to it. i'm sure the talent will still be there and it feels like it is his time to shine, he has given so much to the national team over the years, especially in this final cycle of the last four years when argentina have been rebuilding under lionel scaloni and trying to put together a new team. he has been at the helm of it all, giving it the experience, giving it the prestige, that big match shine.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @ rich preston thank you for watching. bye—bye for now. hello there. after the coldest night of the year on tuesday night, some parts struggled to get above freezing, for example, in glasgow, it was —5 celsius all day because of the fog, and it was barely much more than —2 celsius in edinburgh, well below the average. and that cold weather stays with us throughout the day on wednesday and thursday. there's just the hint, though, that by the time we get to the weekend, something milder may well come back in off the atlantic. but plenty of winter hazards between now and then. widespread harsh frost and ice risk, widespread snow showers, freezing fog once again to watch out for. and we've got this band of rain with inland sleet and snow in the south,

and you can see that stretches across much of southern england. a blast of northerly winds continues to bring snow showers in across the north and the east of scotland. one or two filtering down the north sea coast as well and into northern ireland, but bitterly cold, minus ten over the snowfields and, of course, clearly icy where we've had the showers, where the showers continue, see through the day in eastern areas. but blizzards in the north, gusts of 60—70 miles an hour for the far north of scotland, northern isles, those showers just keep coming. in the south, hopefully this area of rain, sleet and snow will pull away, but leaving things very treacherous and icy, and temperatures will do well to get, again, a couple of degrees above freezing. one or two snow showers for northern ireland, but plenty of sunshine here, add on that brisk wind, particularly in the north and east, and it will feel colder still, colder than those temperatures will suggest. then as we go through the night and into thursday, we pick up quite a lot of cloud in southern areas. we've still got those showers and low pressure moving down the north sea, enhancing those showers for northern and eastern areas.

but, again, really cold overnight, possibly less fog on thursday morning, although there could be some in the south in particular because we've got a stronger wind. but those ease off again, thursday sees the showers mostly in the north and in the east. we're watching out towards the atlantic for friday. so do stay tuned to the forecast. but some good spells of sunshine take temperatures marginally a little higher. but we could have a quite persistent spell of snow in the north on friday and something milder potentially into the weekend, as we've talked about, but with it, there'll be a transient spell of snow as well. so to keep up to date on the temperatures where you are, you can head to the app. the warnings are on the website, too.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a week after china relaxed its strict rules on quarantines and lockdowns, the nation has had its biggest wave of covid infections since the pandemic began, three years ago. in beijing, nearly 20,000 people complaining of flu—like symptoms have visited hospitals in the past 48 hours. president biden has signed into law a bill which gives federal protection to same sex and inter—racial marriages. the measure requires every state to recognise all such marriages. joe biden described the legislation as "a vital step towards equality, liberty and justice." at least 100 people have been killed by heavy rains, floods and landslides,

in the democratic republic of congo.