this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm rich preston. our top stories: china sees a sharp increase in coronavirus cases days after beijing eased restrictions following a wave of protests. international film actress taraneh alidoosti is arrested in iran as anti—government protests continue into a fourth month. german police recover some of the precious items stolen during the country's biggest art heist three years ago. and, argentina or france? we look ahead to the world cup football final.

china is seeing a sharp rise in positive covid cases, just 10 days after suddenly easing its strict lockdown measures following a wave of protests, with the capital beijing being one of the worst affected areas. in china's largest city, shanghai, officials have ordered most of its schools to take classes online as covid cases soar. our reporter, ijoema ndukwe, reports. cars bearing the dead line the driveway of this crematorium assigned for covid—19 deaths. it is among dozens of such facilities across the capital, beijing, struggling to meet a spike in demand days after china began to relax its pandemic protocols. workers and drivers at funeral homes have been calling in sick, as the disease spreads across the city, adding to a shortage of labour.

the number of covid cases has not been confirmed, but according to an informal survey by chinese search engine baidu, 70% of beijing, a city of 22 million people, is infected. they stopped counting asymptomatic cases, there has also been a transition to use of antigen tests which are not associated with the laboratory, they are being done at home so just like the issues we've been having in the united states and globally, when you switch to antigen tests you don't have that situational awareness so our best bet is going to be understanding what is happening in the hospitals. even the chinese authorities admit they don't know what the numbers are. the national health commission, which is china's top health body, has had to admit that there has been a breakdown in the testing and reporting systems across china, so they are not even quite sure what the true numbers are, but anecdotally many people are reporting that everybody they know has covid.

meanwhile, in china's largest city, shanghai, officials have ordered most schools to take classes online as covid cases soar. nurseries and childcare centres will close from monday, according to the education bureau. the authorities have stepped up vaccinations, including the option of inhalable boosters to speed up distribution. the authorities have stepped up vaccinations, including the option of inhalable boosters to speed up distribution. however, a past emphasis on lockdowns, rather than vaccinations, means that older people are at risk. sufficiently vaccinated is the question, and unfortunately that is a relatively low percentage, particularly with elderly people. and, you know, to understand why, i think in the time of severe lockdowns, we have had nearly three years of china being severely locked down and that was the containment measure, so people had a sort of false sense of security. there are concerns that china's health infrastructure is not equipped to deal with the rapid rise in patients. analysts say chaos and confusion have followed the country's abrupt decision to drop its controversial zero—covid policy. and it is still unclear how authorities will get to grips with this current surge in infections. ijoema ndukwe, bbc news. well, earlier we spoke to eric feigl ding,

an epidemiologist and co—founder of the world health network. originally from shanghai, butjoined us live from washington dc. he told us about how his family there are coping and the latest developments there. there is definitely concern because shanghai, for example, not only are hospitals being strained, but there are a lot of worries, a lot of my elderly relatives are very worried and a lot of my cousins, some of them are teachers, also worried. they had to close all schools, they just announced, basically for the next month until mid—january. so there is a lot of concern in shanghai and i think it is also justifiable concern because if you look at where china is going, and now we have very little mitigation, china is under vaccinated, i think china is headed towards a couple of hundred million infections and likely millions of deaths and potentially economic fallout from this in 2023 next year.

so with your professional hat on, why is china unravelling its zero covid policy so quickly? could it have not done this at a more measured pace? i think they were trying to do it in a more measured pace. obviously the protests, i understand people are very tired of them, the protests accelerated the timeline. i think was eventually going to be a matter of when not if china released, because china was already planning to relax its international flight rules in october, way ahead of any of the protests had started. i think china was hoping to roll out its inhaled mucosal vaccine, the vaccine in which you inhale it from a cup. that is, i think, their linchpin but the rollout of these inhaled mucosal vaccines which are potentially one of the game changing vaccines that is way more effective than the muscular vaccines we have been having, it has been very slow and china was originally hoping to wait a few more months before that was happening but now that they released a lot of these measures, these relaxation measures, in the middle of winter, china does have a winter as well, it is still pretty severe, it is basically a perfect storm right now. in other parts of the world

where covid has been allowed to spread, we've seen the virus evolve and we have seen these different mutations and different variants. in china where it has not been allowed to spread, are they seeing these variants or are they seeing a more original strain? the original strain is almost extinct. they are seeing different omicron sub variants, bf.7 which is a subtype of ba.5. china has not rolled out any updated boosters, unlike the us and many european countries, although in the uk for example they have

been using ba.i bivalent which is also very outdated, so i think the issue is that the virus has mutated substantially and the vaccines currently are just not, the muscular vaccines are just not very good against infection anymore against omicron. they are still good and decent against hospitalisation but china has a very low booster rate especially in the elderly and i think the mucosal vaccines are not rolled out enough. the thing is, masks, n95s masks are underused in china. masks are a variant diagnostic and china isjust not using the ventilation aspect. these are also very key pillars of controlling covid, notjust testing and not just reliant on vaccines because we know those strategies are not enough

by itself, especially against these highly evasive omicron subvariants. in iran, the well known film actress taraneh alidoosti has been arrested, as anti—government protests continue into a fourth month. an iranian news agency said ms alidoosti, who's best known for her starring role in the oscar—winning iranian film the salesman, was detained for publishing what it called false and distorted content and inciting chaos. ms alidoosti publicly condemned the first execution of a protester earlier this month. meanwhile, the suspicious death of another young woman has provoked new outrage. 36—year—old aida rostami had been helping people wounded in the unrest in a neighbourhood in the west of the capital, tehran. our reporter, azadeh moshiri, started by telling me more about ms alidoosti's arrest. when the protest had just began she posted a picture of herself without a hijab with a banner that said

"women, life, freedom." so she already had a lot of attention from the government and the time she has been arrested because she, according to state media, has been spreading falsehoods. this comes after she condemned the execution of one of the two men who has been executed in connection to the protests and in his case it was because he was accused of having blocked a main road in tehran as well as having attacked a member of the paramilitary force with a machete but what rights groups have pointed out is that he, along with other protesters, are involved in what are essentially sham trials, they don't even have access to their own lawyers and so that is what led ms alidoosti to post "every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action is a disgrace to humanity," but she did say before all of this, "i am still staying in iran," despite the risks to her own safety because she believed in defending her fellow iranians. so obviously an assertive woman like this who is gaining a lot

of prominence and makes a lot of headlines for these sorts of actions is going to attract the ire of the islamic republic. what are we hearing about the death of this young woman? so, aida rostami really exemplifies some of the other risks here. you have protesters who are caught up being arrested, who are facing charges, who are even being executed but you still have protesters who are being killed out on the streets. we know that hundreds of been killed so far, we have reported on that before. when it comes to aida rostami, she is a young physician who was treating protesters who were injured and that is because a lot of protesters are afraid of going to the hospitals because they could face consequences for having participated in the first place. according to reports and the work of our own colleagues at bbc persian, police went to her family earlier this week with aida's body and it was heavily mutilated and injured, according to the family, and the story kept changing. the police at first said that she was involved in a car

accident, then they said she fell off a bridge and then afterwards state media reported that actually she was in an altercation with a man and then fell off the bridge and so these are obviously really concerning circumstances, they don't make sense, and it highlights the fact that we are in a really crucial point in the islamic republic's crackdown where they are trying to inspire fear in protesters as they try to get a hold of a movement that they simply cannot contain so far. let's get some of the day's other news. in north africa, tunisia's main opposition parties have called on the president to resign. that's after under 9% of people voted in an election for a new national assembly. the new assembly was part of a series of political changes made by president kais saied which his critics denounced as a coup. the opposition coalition says he's lost any legitimacy to govern. a man has been charged with the murders of a woman and her two young children in kettering, in northamptonshire, in the english east midlands. officers were called

to an address on thursday and found anju asok, jeeva saju, and janvi saju with serious injuries. they died a short time later. 52—year—old saju chelavalel will appear in court on monday. in south america, peru's embattled new president, dina boluarte, has ruled out resigning, saying doing so would not solve the political crisis in the country, sparked by the impeachment of her predecessor, pedro castillo. she's also asked for congress to pass legislation to bring forward an election as a way to stop the ongoing protests that have so far claimed more than 20 lives. and in europe, german chancellor olaf scholz has opened the country's first liquid natural gas terminal, as part of plans to move away from russian gas supplies. it was built in record time following russia's invasion of ukraine. five more lng terminals will open in the next few months as the country weans itself off cheap gas delivered through pipelines from russia.

here in the uk, a woman has died after a crush outside a music concert in south london. 33—year—old rebecca ikumelo was one of three people critically injured on thursday night. her family say she was a nursing graduate, a mother of two young children and known for her care and kindness. police say an investigation is ongoing. matt cole reports. this is rebecca ikumelo, a 33—year—old nursing graduate and mother of two who came to brixton to enjoy a concert. now she is dead. these were the scenes on thursday night when what's believed to have been over 1,000 people tried to force their way into the brixton academy. the concert, afrobeats star asake�*s third of three here, was a sell—out. but despite his request that people without tickets stay away, posted online before the show, hundreds and more still came. the pushing, shoving and trampling led to three people being critically hurt. you could see two people out here getting treatment from the police. police giving cpr

to a young lady. it's pretty awful to see someone who went out for a night of fun and then they end up, you know, not spending christmas with their friends or family. this morning, rebecca ikemulo died from her injuries. her family have released a statement in which they hailed her care, kindness and love. they said she was an adorable mother of two children who loved working with kids. the debris from the chaos here on thursday night still lines the street down the side of the venue, and police cordons remain in place. all day, officers from the met�*s specialist crime command have been working here at the site trying to figure out what happened, what went so badly wrong to cause this tragedy. with so many people at and around the venue here on thursday night, detectives think they could have around 4,000 potential witnesses and are keen to hearfrom them. they especially want images people took on the night

in the hope they'll offer clues as to how matters unfolded. they've set up a website on which people can upload photographs and footage. a postmortem examination of rebecca ikumelo�*s body will take place tomorrow. meanwhile, two others remain critically ill in hospital. matt cole, bbc news, brixton. south africa's power utility eskom has confirmed that the military has been deployed at various power stations in response to theft and sabotage. the country is facing the worst electricity blackouts on record. power has been cut in nearly 200 days since the beginning of the year. eskom's chief executive, andre de ruyter, resigned last week, complaining that a lack of political support had made his position untenable. a reminder of our headlines on bbc news: china is seeing a sharp increase of positive covid cases just ten days after suddenly easing its strict lockdown measures following a wave of protests. the award—winning iranian film actress taraneh alidoosti has been arrested after publicly

condemning the first execution of a protester in iran earlier this month. police in germany say they've recovered some of the precious items stolen during the country's biggest ever art heist three years ago. it happened at the green vault museum in the eastern city of dresden. gareth barlow reports. it was the robbery that shocked germany back in 2019, as masked men forced their way into the green vault museum inside dresden castle and left with priceless pieces from the collection of the saxon ruler augustus the strong. to get to the jewels, they had started a fire nearby to cause a power outage then cut through iron bars to get inside the museum. the lost treasure included a diamond—encrusted sword and a series of 18th—century pins and necklaces. local police vowed get the jewels back but, despite their best efforts, the trail went cold.

translation: what's the chance of finding this treasure again? - we showed ourselves always decidedly optimistic, but now i can be honest — it was a bit of a fib. the longer the investigation lasted, the more our confidence melted. therefore, we are very happy to be here right now. and right now the whole case has flipped, with police saying most of the items have been recovered in berlin, but not all of them, after information came to light during an ongoing trial. around a0 people were thought to be part of the heist, with six members of a known crime syndicate facing charges for it currently. the exact details of the deal made with prosecutors were kept secret, but a total of 31 items are now on their way back to dresden, where they will be examined by experts to confirm their authenticity and where security are sure to be confirming some new security measures. football fans are preparing themselves for the final of the world cup on sunday. it's argentina against france. each country has won the tournament twice

in the past, but france are hoping to become the first country since brazil in 1962 to win in consecutive competitions. our paris correspondent lucy williamson has this report. for french footballers, team loyalty is a way to win matches. for french fans, it's a way of life. for guillaume, practising his game near paris this week, not even argentina can shake his faith in the national side. nothing, no fear, because i know that they are the best team in the world and that will never change. i'm only 19 years old, and i would see see my country win a second world cup. at this age it's pretty incredible, so yeah, it definitely means something. argentina's star player lionel messi already knows how the french play football.

his dayjob is scoring goals for this french club. this match will pitch two of france's footballing heroes against each other. kylian mbappe and lionel messi usually both play for the paris club paris saint—germain. but today they'll be facing each other on opposing sides, mbappe as france's star striker, messi as argentina's. in the bar next to the paris ground, there is anxiety ahead of today's game. the french know how messi plays football too. i'm super tense because we saw what argentina did. and they have a mission — it's to win. but france has a mission, too — it's win twice! so does france have what it takes? translation: of course, kylian mbappe, for sure. l he's younger, he's faster. everything is possible. translation: it's going to be a battle because it's the only l title messi doesn't have. we can tell they're nervous. they want to win the world cup,

we want to win the world cup too. oh, the baguette is winning, the baguette is winning! - all sing. french pride and confidence have grown with every win in this tournament, the chant ringing across paris after their semifinal win, "we're in the final". one game now stands between france and glory. 11 men who carried the hopes of this nation to qatar are within sight of carrying the trophy back home. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. and argentinians are getting ready for the final and pinning their hopes on the success of captain lionel messi. our south america correspondent katy watson has more there is a lot of emotion in buenos aires ahead of the big game. there is also a lot riding on the final. the happiness of our nation. i have spoken to people on time and time again they say this is an

economically battered country. people struggle to get through every single month with rising inflation and this world cup has united argentinians. they are hoping for a win to keep them happy. that's basically what they told me. i spoke to one woman who just burst into tears, saying we need this for our country. and of course, the person, the player that they are all backing is lionel messi. they see him as the greatest argentinian, certainly at the moment. they want him to win this world cup. it's his last world cup, so everyone here is backing him, backing the team, and they want this win. they need this win. in the third—place playoff match, croatia beat morocco by 2—1. croatia opened the scoring after seven minutes with this header from a well—worked move. morocco equalised two minutes later, another header, this time after a rebound off a defender, achraf dari scoring. but this shot in off the post

from mislav orsicjust before half—time turned out to be the winner for croatia. and all of that means croatia, beaten finalists last time, take the bronze medal home from qatar. ukraine has chosen pop duo tvorchi as as its act for next year's eurovision song contest in a live broadcast from a kyiv bomb shelter. tvorchi's entry, heart of steel, is the first song to be confirmed for the 2023 competition in liverpool. band member andrii hutsuliak said he would represent ukraine with dignity. daniel rosney has this report. ukraine takes eurovision seriously. ukraine takes eurovision seriously-— ukraine takes eurovision seriously.- the l ukraine takes eurovision i seriously.- the war seriously. tvorchi! the war didn't get _ seriously. tvorchi! the war didn't get in _ seriously. tvorchi! the war didn't get in the _ seriously. tvorchi! the war didn't get in the way - seriously. tvorchi! the war didn't get in the way of- seriously. tvorchi! the war| didn't get in the way of this live show stop down these stairs is a kyiv metro station,

transformed into a bomb shelter when russia invaded. the president has used one nearby before to address the public. from a bunker to a tv studio. the decision to go underground was the first one that was taken, and it dictated our further steps of organisation, because no matter if we have aerated alerts or any other security challenges, still the work can continue. congratulations, ukraine! ukraine _ congratulations, ukraine! ukraine knows how to win. it first entered eurovision in 2003 and has won it three times since. it has sent emotional ballads, and ones that know how to entertain. the

ballads, and ones that know how to entertain-— to entertain. the winner of the eurovision _ to entertain. the winner of the eurovision song _ to entertain. the winner of the eurovision song contest - to entertain. the winner of the eurovision song contest 2022. eurovision song contest 2022 is... ukraine! but eurovision song contest 2022 is... ukraine!— is... ukraine! but it was this ear's is... ukraine! but it was this year's victory. _ is... ukraine! but it was this year's victory, three - is... ukraine! but it was this year's victory, three monthsj year's victory, three months after russia invaded, that emphasised her europe supported. emphasised her europe summed-— emphasised her europe su--orted. �* . , , ., supported. are really proud that i'm ukrainian. - supported. are really proud that i'm ukrainian. there i supported. are really proud l that i'm ukrainian. there are still dreams _ that i'm ukrainian. there are still dreams for— that i'm ukrainian. there are still dreams for ukraine - that i'm ukrainian. there are still dreams for ukraine to i that i'm ukrainian. there are. still dreams for ukraine to win and to— still dreams for ukraine to win and to visit, and we came from dorset — and to visit, and we came from dorset especially today for this concert.— dorset especially today for this concert. the band have been flying _ this concert. the band have been flying the _ this concert. the band have been flying the blue - this concert. the band have been flying the blue and . this concert. the band have - been flying the blue and yellow flag across europe ever since, performing to thousands. translation: it's very important to represent our country and show our ukrainian culture through the colours and music, and to some extent to provide it. kalush orchestra

have support that clearly continues, but it is now time to hand that eurovision bet on on in preparation for next year's on in preparation for next yea r�*s contest. on in preparation for next year's contest. on in preparation for next ear's contest. �* ,, �* ~ year's contest. translation: we want to say _ year's contest. translation: we want to say thank _ year's contest. translation: we want to say thank you _ year's contest. translation: we want to say thank you to - want to say thank you to everyone who supported us, he listened — everyone who supported us, he listened to the music and who is fighting on the front line, because _ is fighting on the front line, because it is important. we will— because it is important. we will try— because it is important. we will try to _ because it is important. we will try to do everything to present— will try to do everything to present ukraine with dignity in liverpool. # don't care what you say. # don't care how you feel... liverpool is hosting the song contest on behalf of ukraine and tvorchi's song ensures that ukraine's voice will be heard loud and clear. there is much more on all of those stories on the bbc news website, including, of course, the latest on the world cup, argentina playing france in the final on sunday. you can follow all the action online or download the bbc news app. you can reach me on twitter.

i'm @richpreston. please do get in touch. from all of us in the team in london. thank you for watching. we will see you next time, goodbye. hello. as this cold snap comes to an end, we've some really unpleasant weather to get through during the course of sunday, at least for a time. some disruption due to freezing rain in places, really quite icy almost anywhere in the uk. some sleet and snow, but rain and wind too, all arriving with this quite threatening—looking area of cloud which is sweeping towards us as i speak. and within this area of storminess, you can see much milder air sweeping towards ireland and the south—west of england during the early hours of sunday. and it's on the leading edge of that transition between the cold and the mild that we have the weather front. now, ahead of it, it's still freezing cold in the morning.

city centre temperatures — minus four, minus five in places, a lot lower in the countryside, and then that rain willjust override that frozen ground. in places it'll be sleet and snow across the hills, but freezing rain possible, and an amber warning in force for northern parts of england. so rain falling on frozen ground — that could lead to very icy conditions, ice accumulating on pavements, on cars, on power lines as well. really quite dangerous. now, this is going to be around the peak district, the pennines, into yorkshire and possibly the cumbrian fells as well. but ice is possible, as i say, almost anywhere — not necessarily in the south—west and the west of the country. i think by the afternoon it will be a lot milder here. really quite blustery there in cornwall and devon, 12 degrees celsius. and then basically through the course of the evening into the night, the rain will come and go, the winds will be strong and it'll be turning milder and milder as we go into the early hours of monday morning. and then on monday, we've got

this large area of low pressure over us still. lots of isobars, so strong winds. the rain really could be quite heavy, particularly around western parts of the uk, welsh hills, cumbrian fells, western parts of scotland. i think the least amount of rainfall the further east you are. but look at those temperatures — positively balmy compared to what we've been having over the last couple of weeks or so — up to about 1k degrees, an extraordinary rise in temperature injust a short space of time. and as far as the week ahead is concerned, you can see it stays unsettled and generally on the mild side, with temperatures typically into double figures. take care.

this is bbc news. the headlines: china is seeing a sharp increase of positive covid cases, just 10 days after suddenly easing its strict lockdown measures following a wave of protests with capital beijing being one of the worst affected areas. in shanghai, officials have ordered most schools to take classes online. the award—winning iranian film actress taraneh alidoosti has been arrested after publicly condemning the first execution of a protester in iran earlier this month. an iranian news agency says ms alidoosti was detained for publishing what it called false and distorted content and inciting chaos. leo varadkar has become prime minister of ireland,