welcome to bbc news, i'm david willis. our top stories: a deadly wave of russian missile strikes hits multiple targets right across ukraine. at least three people are dead. residential areas and power stations are badly hit. translation: whatever the missile worshippers l from moscow are hoping for, it won't change the balance of power in this war. a rough ride for ramaphosa — the south african president is heckled at the anc�*s party conference, but he's still hoping to be re—elected despite last week's impeachment proceedings. elon musk suspends several journalists's accounts — we'll be talking to one of the reporters affected.

and, there's something fishy going on in berlin — a giant freestanding aquarium full of exotic fish has exploded. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. russian forces have launched a huge wave of missile attacks on ukraine, damaging electricity and water supplies across the country. at least three people are reported to have been killed. the capital, kiev, was hit, as was president zelensky�*s home town of kryvyi. in his nightly address, he warned that russia was capable of further massive strikes. the mayor of kharkiv described the destruction there as colossal and said that thousands of people

were without heating, in freezing temperatures. our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford sent this report. distant rumble. the rumble of a russian attack, as kyiv was woken by more missile strikes. the danger drove people underground. the metro is the safest place to huddle here when the city's under fire. but as russian missiles hit the power grid, the trains all stopped. i've sat here about three hours. i want to go home. but in southern ukraine, it was homes that were hit. hours later, rescuers were still searching for people trapped in the ruins.

a child is missing here. this strike was on president zelensky�*s home town. translation: whatever the missile worshippers l from moscow are hoping for, it won't change the balance of power in this war. they have enough missiles left for mass strikes, but we have enough determination and self—belief to return what belongs to us. in northern kharkiv, the day turns dark, as the power went down right across the town. this country now copes with what was once unimaginable. handing out hot food... ..keeping people warm. and even in kyiv, queuing for water in the street, defying russia's efforts to wear them down. but these attacks affect even the most vulnerable. we found this old people's home without heat, light or water. it's running on sheer resilience. nella's children just brought her here from the south, thinking she'd be safer.

translation: we're all waiting for peace, really waiting. - putin says, let's be friends, but who is the unfriendly one here? he attacked us! our situation here is really miserable. the staff are doing their best to keep things normal, but it's anything but that. they even have to store water now to flush the loo. "it is pretty hard," olga tells me, "but we will get through." tonight, there's no traffic lights in much of kyiv, no lights at all in large parts of ukraine's capital, as russia tries to force his country into surrender, but somehow, life goes on. sarah rainsford, bbc news, kyiv. earlier mitchel wallerstein, a senior

foreign policy fellow at the chicago council on global affairs gave us his analysis of the situation. well, i think this is part of a concerted strategy to terrorise and intimidate ukrainian people. since the russian forces have not succeeded in their main aim, which of course originally was to take kyiv, and now are falling back in some parts of the donbas, the strategy now appears to be just keep firing missiles into the cities and hope that the people eventually put pressure on the government to capitulate. there are countries that do will have capabilities, air defence capabilities that could be very useful to ukraine, including israel that has the iron dome and the arrow anti—missile system. of course, a lot of this

is coming in the form of drones, drones are very hard to shoot down because they fly very low but there are various systems that can take out drones. the ukrainian military is reporting a high percentage success in shooting down these incoming missiles and drones. whether the reports are accurate remains to be seen. the south african president has been heckled during an address to his own anc party conference. cyril ramaphosa — who's hoping to be re—elected as party leader — struggled to make himself heard, over chants of "step aside". i want to appeal to everyone who wants to raise their dissatisfaction, to do so in an orderly manner in the way that we do things here in the african nation of congress. yelling we have been in existence for 110 years...

cheering ..and this is not the time to come and display this type of disorderly behaviour. the chanting began when the president's predecessor, jacob zuma, entered the venue — to loud cheers. mr ramaphosa avoided impeachment proceedings earlier this week, over a scandal involving millions of dollars that were found hidden in a sofa at his farm. our reporter injohannesburg — nomsa maseko has more details. well, there was a lot of heckling and chanting of anti—ramaphosa songs as president ramaphosa started delivering his political report to the anc delegates who've gathered here for the national conference. even his speech was drowned when he tried to speak but the speech was even further disrupted when former presidentjacob zuma arrived at the venue, fashionably late, to the appeasement of the delegates from his home

province of kwazulu—natal. we have seen this kind of heckling and booing and things like that take place in previous anc conferences. as you know, the anc is deeply divided so the more than 5,000 delegates who've gathered here are chanting and singing for their own preferred presidential candidate and also to drown out the others who are singing because they want their preferred candidate to take over as anc president. presidentjacob zuma and president ramaphosa have a long rivalry that spans over many years. however there is a delegate, dr zweli mkhize, who is the country's former health minister who is president ramaphosa's competitor in this election, which is why this is what happened because even the delegates from kwazulu—natal, which is jacob zuma's home province, that same province, it's also zweli mkhize's province.

that is why there was so much heckling and things like that. however, the anc delegates from kwazulu—natal are still angry that former presidentjacob zuma was jailed last year after he did not testify at a commission of inquiry investigating corruption while he was president, and that is why we saw lots of violence and looting lastjuly in the riots that saw more than 300 people dying in that province. a row is brewing in west africa over the increasing involvement of a russian mercenary group in the region. ghana has accused its neighbour, burkina faso, of hiring troops from the wagner group — a private russian military organisation, which is also believed to be involved in fighting alongside russian forces in ukraine. ghana says the mercenaries are operating close

to its northern border. burkina faso has responded by summoning ghana's ambassador. 0ur correspondent in the region — lay—la sy — sent us this update. the russian security group already had presence in the sahel region of west africa, in countries like mali where it is said to be aiding in the fight againstjihadist militants, and also in the central african republic. so far, there is no official information about an agreement between the wagner group and burkina faso. even though the prime minister recently visited russia. burkina faso has had two coups in one year, the current transitional government is trying to regain control of security of in areas caught in escalating violence from militants who are allied to both al-qaeda and isis, means security which began in 2015 has killed thousands of people and left millions displaced. let's get some of

the day's other news. the number of state—sanctioned executions in the us has fallen to its lowest level for more than three decades. that's according to statistics compiled by the death penalty information centre — which also says that more than a third of executions were conducted in an incompetent or flawed manner. let's take a closer look at the report. seven out of 20 execution attempts reportedly failed. the reasons are claimed to be incompetence, failures to follow protocol, or defects in the protocols themselves. this was mainly because executions had to be put on hold after officials were not able to carry out execution protocols in four states — namely, idaho, 0hio, tennessee and south carolina. in all, less than 30 people were executed. and — across the us — fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death. the five—year average

of executions, 18.6 per year, is said to be the lowest in more than 30 years, a 74% decline over the course of one decade. let's now speak to robert dunham who is the executive director of the death penalty information center — a non—profit organization providing analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment to the public and media. hejoins us live from washington dc. many thanks for your time. it is important to establish upfront where your organisation stands on the issue of the death penalty. i take it you oppose it and these figures basically aerate your view, is that right?— that right? first of all, thank ou for that right? first of all, thank you for having _ that right? first of all, thank you for having me _ that right? first of all, thank you for having me on. - that right? first of all, thank you for having me on. the i that right? first of all, thank - you for having me on. the death penalty information centre doesn't take a position for or against the death penalty itself but it does, we are

critical of the is administered. �* . , administered. and the concept of a botched _ administered. and the concept of a botched execution, - administered. and the concept of a botched execution, as - administered. and the concept of a botched execution, as youj of a botched execution, as you refer to it, what does that actually consist of? it sounds absolutely horrific the concept itself. ., ., absolutely horrific the concept itself. . ., absolutely horrific the concept itself. . . , ., ., itself. yeah, and you wonder what is wrong _ itself. yeah, and you wonder what is wrong with _ itself. yeah, and you wonder what is wrong with the - itself. yeah, and you wonder. what is wrong with the system to even have the concept. executions can be watched in a couple of different ways. most people are familiar with when a person is injected drugs and the body starts quivering and convulsing and that is one way that an execution can be watched, the physical reaction to the chemicals isn't what the state expects will happen. what happened this year is a bit different and that is problems in the manner in which the executions were carried out. when someone is being put to death it is entirely within the control of the state of the department of corrections and you want to have trained

personnel who know how to carry it out. these executions were by lethal injection and lethal injection involves taking what injection involves taking what in a hospital setting would be an intravenous line and essentially inserting it into a vein and once you inserted into a vein you then inject the chemicals. the problem that we saw in seven different cases this year was that the executioners had trouble finding a line. it ranged in the botched executions from 25 minutes to as long as three hours. that is not the way it is supposed to be. regardless of where you _ is supposed to be. regardless of where you stand _ is supposed to be. regardless of where you stand on - of where you stand on the issue of the death penalty difficult to contemplate, isn't it, if you are the relative of someone sentenced to death, having to go through this sort of incompetence and this sort of incompetence and this sort of suffering?— of suffering? yeah, and the blotches — of suffering? yeah, and the blotches have _ of suffering? yeah, and the blotches have collateral - blotches have collateral victims was obviously the prisoner is being put through unnecessary pain during the course of the execution and two

of the executions actually didn't happen. alabama called one off after 2.5 hours of attempting and the other was more than an hour. but think of the family members of the homicide victims, the family members of the defendant himself and a new study this year showed that these kinds of executions have an extraordinarily traumatic effect on the corrections personnel as well.- personnel as well. very briefly. _ personnel as well. very briefly, the _ personnel as well. very briefly, the future - personnel as well. very briefly, the future for l personnel as well. very i briefly, the future for the death penalty in the united states. ., death penalty in the united states. . , ., , , states. the death penalty is in a 20 year _ states. the death penalty is in a 20 year decline _ states. the death penalty is in a 20 year decline and - states. the death penalty is in a 20 year decline and this - states. the death penalty is inj a 20 year decline and this year we had fewer executions, we had fewer new sentences and public support for capital punishment remained near the lowest in 50 years. we had one state that issued a commutation to clear its death row and it looks like that pattern of one state by one state one state each year eliminating or sharply reducing the death penalty is going to continue into the future. thank ou ve continue into the future. thank you very much _ continue into the future. thank

you very much of _ continue into the future. thank you very much of your- continue into the future. thank you very much of your time - continue into the future. thank. you very much of your time here on bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: nasa launches a mission to survey all of the earth's surface water from space. 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 news, the latest headlines: a deadly wave of russian missile strikes, has hit multiple targets in ukraine killing at least three people. residential areas and power stations were badly hit. the south african president was heckled at the anc�*s party conference, but he's still hoping to be re—elected, despite last weeks' impeachment proceedings. a giant aquarium, installed in the lobby of a luxury german hotel, has exploded, sending 1,500 exotic fish cascading

across the floor. the 14—metre—high tank had become a well—known tourist attraction in berlin. from there, jenny hill has the story. this aquarium was built to impress — a million litres of water, more than 1,000 tropicalfish — there was even a lift in the middle. all towering over the lobby of a berlin hotel. my god! but early this morning, it seems the tank simply shattered. glass and metal ripped through the building. water and fish gushed out onto the street. sirens wail extraordinarily, just two people were hurt, neither of them seriously. the hotel actually shook inside. i could describe it as a... imitates explosion. and ijolted out of bed

and turned around... i didn't see any movement so i didn't know what the heck was going on. i looked outside the window, i saw a lady running. investigators are trying to establish what went wrong. look at this footage, taken when the aquarium was first built. "you could fire a gun at the tank," says this architect, "and it would only cause "a small hole, not burst the whole cylinder. "such a hollywood scenario is impossible." the authorities suspect material fatigue may be to blame, but they're not yet sure. there is a sense, i think, of relief amongst many here that this happened when it did. an hour or so later and that lobby, the street outside the hotel, would've been packed with visitors, many of them children. there's shock at the destruction, regret at the loss of so many fish, but an acknowledgement, too, that this could have been so much worse. jenny hill, bbc news, berlin.

years from now wonder if they will be ruing the strange tale of the exploding fish in berlin. let's get some of the day's other news. nurses, who went out on strike in england, wales and northern ireland on thursday, are warning that there could be more walk outs next month. the british prime minister rishi sunak has suggested that the government won't budge on its view that nurses should be paid what the independent review body recommended. meanwhile, the leader of the uk rail union, the rmt, has said a deal to avert further train strikes is "achievable". mick lynch made the comment as his members took part in another 48 hour walkout. services in england, scotland and wales have been severely hit and more industrial action is planned between december 24th and 27th, and again in earlyjanuary. the united nations has added its voice to the many critics of twitter�*s suspension

ofjournalists' accounts. a spokesperson said the action set �*a dangerous precedent�* at a time when press freedom was widely under threat. earlier, the european union warned twitter�*s owner elon musk that the social media platform could be hit with sanctions, after he personally ordered the suspension of several journalists. on twitter, vera jourova, said that eu laws respect "media freedom and fundamental rights", and elon musk "should be aware of that". and she added: "there are red lines. and sanctions, soon." reporters from outlets including the new york times, cnn and the washington post have been locked out of their accounts. many of those suspended had criticised musk�*s twitter takeover, or had commented on an account that tracked the movement of the his private jet.

micah lee is one of the journalists that's been banned. he told me about how he found out. i had just posted a tweet and i was following the news of a bunch of accounts getting suspended and about 20 minutes after my tweet ijust got a notice inside of twitter that my account is suspended and i can't use it to post any more tweets. was it a shock or did you see this coming? i kind of saw it coming. i'm not in any way surprised that this has happened, especially because of the reporting that i've been doing on elon musk�*s takeover of twitter over the last month. i think that this is the highest profile time where he's kind of arbitrarily banned a lot of people because he banned several prominentjournalists but he's been doing this since he took over. there's been several arbitrary censorship of all sorts of different accounts.

does elon musk have a point, though, when he says that knowing the location of his private jet is a threat to the security, not only of his own security but the threat to the security of his family as well, potentially? i mean, i don't actually buy that. i think there's some room for discussion. i think that knowing, like, which airport his plane lands at and flies out of at which times, i think it's already public information and i think that, you know, it's perfectly reasonable for people to learn this about the private jets of billionaires. but i think that even the bigger issue is, everyone who posted anything related to that who got suspended, they got their account suspended — which is kind of extreme — but also a lot of us are journalists who weren't

actually, like, posting the links to this website, we were reporting on other things getting suspended. this is just part of our reporting process. the american space agency, nasa, has launched a mission to undertake the first survey of all of the earth's surface waters from space. mission swot will use radar technology to monitor the elevation of water, as tom brada reports. engine ignition and lift off. for a landmark mission which aims to transform what we know about water on earth. the swot spacecraft will chart rivers and lakes and will also track features in the ocean's surface in unparalleled detail. the results could be vitally important, helping to improve floods and droughts forecasts and give researchers a better understanding of climate change. every three weeks, it will complete a map of 90% of our planet so on a monthly

basis we can see how ocean levels are changing, how the seasons affect things as well, so it is a wonderful satellite, a wonderful mission. once in position, swot�*s antennae will send pulses out towards the earth's surface and count the time reflections take to come back. it is these echoes which let's it make very precise determinations of height. it will measure all rivers 100 metres wide and all lakes larger than six hectares of 15 acres. the data can provide crucial insights into waterways we are otherwise struggling to understand. monitoring networks even on some of the world's greatest rivers like the amazon and the congo are nowhere as near as thorough and comprehensive as they need to be and in many cases are in decline so we are getting less information now than we did some time ago. it will be a few months before swot is fully operational but once it is up and running, scientists hope we can open a new chapter in our understanding of climate change and the water cycle on earth.

tom brada, bbc news. and you can get more on that and the other stories we featured on our website. thanks forjoining us. hello. some very big changes in our weather over the next 48 hours. saturday, still a very cold day with a very frosty start. but then the thaw begins on sunday in the morning — when i say "begins", because for some of us it will be a slow process, particularly in the north of the country. so, here's the weekend. this is the air mass showing where the warm air is, just to the south—west of us. and then ahead of it, this weather front will sweep in across the uk. ahead of it still cold air, but the cold air will be deflected towards the east of the continent, so hence that milder air

will eventually arrive. we'll talk about the rest of that in just a second. here's a look at the here and now. so, still some snow showers around across the highlands, the pennines into northern wales. the inner—city temperatures well below freezing first thing on saturday morning. outside of town it's going to be even colder than that. so, the weather for saturday itself and some western parts will be cloudy at times. wintry showers are certainly on the cards. most of the rain around the coasts, snow or sleet inland. and already starting to feel a little less cold. 5 in london, 4 in glasgow and 8 degrees in plymouth. so, quite a change. now, that big change arriving saturday night into sunday. so, the weather fronts sweep in, a lot of isobars, gale force winds around the coasts. but for a time in the morning, with a lot of cold air about, early on sunday there could be freezing rain, icy conditions and hill snow. for example, in wales, hill snow is possible around the pennines and certainly in scotland. so, for a time in the morning on sunday it could be icy for some of us.

but those winds are strong, the air is mild, it will sweep in and by the early afternoon these are the sort of temperatures we will be getting. so, 10 in plymouth, still cold in the north. but those temperatures will continue to rise through the course of sunday night into monday. look at that — by monday morning we are talking about the mid—teens in cardiff and plymouth. and this is the outlook as far as the week ahead is concerned. it's going to be changeable, turbulent, windy at times. back to the sort of normal weather we would expect around our shores. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines: ukrainian officials say that one of the biggest barrages of russian missile strikes has badly damaged electricity and water supplies across the country. at least three people are reported to have been killed. russia's tass news agency claims ukrainian shelling has killed at least twelve civilians in eastern ukraine. south africa's president, cyril ramaphosa was heckled when he addressed his own anc party conference. mr ramaphosa avoided impeachment proceedings earlier this week but is still hoping to re—stand as party leader.