this is bbc news — i'm lewis vaughanjones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. hundreds of people are fleeing the ukranian city of kherson because of intense russian shelling attacks. we will have a special report from the ground. at least 62 people have been killed in winter storms across the united states and canada. president biden has approved emergency federal help for new york state, as the arctic freeze continues. in china people will be able to travel abroad from the eighth ofjanuary — ending one of china's last covid restrictions serbia has put troops on high alert over rising tensions with kosovo. president vuchich said he would "take all measures" to protect his nation. in taiwan — all men will be required to serve one

year's military service. in response to the threat from china. here in the uk, a murder investigation has been launched in birmingham, after a 23 year—old man was stabbed to death in a nightclub. police have named the victim as cody fisher. we start this hour with a special report from ukraine, from the southern port of kherson, which is under increased bombardment from russian forces, and where today the maternity ward of a hospital was among the places being shelled. kherson is often called the gateway to crimea — and because of its strategic importance, was one of the first places taken by russian forces at the start of the war. it was liberated last month,

in a significant gain for ukrainian troops. but civilians are now living with a daily onslaught of russian shelling. our correspondent yogita limaye has spent the last four days in kherson, with colleagues imogen anderson, sanjay ganguly and mariana matveichuk, and they sent this special report. a warning, it contains distressing images. kherson is being pounded. this where one of more than a0 mortars fell in a single day. a city haunted by relentless attacks. another shell hit near by between a block of homes. as the firemen worked, we heard the sound of more explosions. after a brief pause, they returned to the job. dousing fire before anyone was hurt.

down the road, we found people in a panic. "punish the russians fortheir crimes, punish them their whole lives", a woman cried. they had just seen a neighbour's home being bombed. she had to be rescued from the debris. over and over the cycle repeats. the day before, a 56—year—old man was killed here while he was sleeping. we met his mother tamara. he was her only child. translation: | must have felti something would go wrong that morning, because i urged him to wake up and leave the house, but he didn't and that was it. our lives are ruined.

she had come to look for his passport amidst the rubble. a document to release his body from the morgue. we had barely finished the conversation and there is more bombings. where do you live? more started. this is a picture of what's happening literally every single day in multiple locations, this is the constant sound that we hear in kherson of artillery fire being exchanged. this city is essentially now pretty much on the front line, close to the river which has become the de facto front line in the south. behind me actually is where an explosion took place just over an hour ago. five people were killed here, 20 were injured. every single day there are people being killed in this city. six more died later. ordinary people out

at the central market. at a spot where just last month they had celebrated being freed from russian control. surviving in kherson is a matter of chance. victoria, a red cross volunteer, was killed just outside this base, a few feet from safety. in the underground shelter, her mother ludmilla showed us the medal of honour she was given. translation: i'm very happy she helped a lot of people. i she was so kind. but it's also painful for me. i must recover and raise her two children. i tell them they should be proud of their mother, because she's a hero. victoria's son sasha and his sister live here. clearly comfortable with other volunteers. war and loss bind them together. dimitri was victoria's friend.

translation: when someone so close dies it is difficult, but if we _ give up and stop, then her death will have been in vain. we work to make sure people live. everything else is secondary. the bombs don't stop. while he waits for emergency calls... ..he checks if his wife and children are ok. then he heads out to evacuate those in need. in the few days that we have been here we have seen the sentiment of relief that there was in this city after it was liberated from russian control in november change very quickly to one of fear and terror. when the russians withdrew, they pulled back to the other side of the dnipro river and that's where they're continuously bombarding this city from. hundreds have begun to leave kherson.

these roads leading out had been clear until christmas. "have you been affected by the shelling?" we asked irena while she was going. translation: we stayed this whole time and thought it would pass, but| when the home next to ours and my father's home was hit, it was- too scary. at the train station, a mother and three daughters. carrying all they can in small bags and boxes. "it's very difficult to leave, i love ukraine and my dear city, but we have to get out of here somehow now," elena told us. she doesn't know when she might see these friends again. everyone in this city has a painful choice to make. and yogita joins us now from mykolaiv, a city about a0 miles away kherson.

good to see you herring details in your report there i went to pick up first of all you can with the russian side. what is your sense after those days in kherson of what the russian strategy is and how well it is working. the russian strategy is and how well it is working-— it is working. when the russians were pushed _ it is working. when the russians were pushed out _ it is working. when the russians were pushed out of— it is working. when the russians were pushed out of kherson - it is working. when the russians were pushed out of kherson on i it is working. when the russians i were pushed out of kherson on the 11th of november they withdrew to the left bank of dnipro river and have been stationed there. most analysts believe that their capacities were severely depleted so there isn't an expectation that they would try to push back into kherson at least right now. it is a little hard to understand what the intention is behind this bombardment of the city. except perhaps to strike terror and fear among people and if that is the aim it certainly is something that we have seen

happening in the time that we were there. we saw a shift pretty much happen in front of our eyes. it is absolutely crucial, _ happen in front of our eyes. it is absolutely crucial, strategically this area, if ukraine's ambitions to reclaim all of its territorial integrity are to be met. absolutely it is often called _ integrity are to be met. absolutely it is often called the _ integrity are to be met. absolutely it is often called the gateway - integrity are to be met. absolutely it is often called the gateway to i it is often called the gateway to crimea. when it was liberated on the 11th of november there were the seeds ofjubilation in the city centre. we had the ukrainian president zelensky come here and speak to people in the city centre and on christmas eve it was that very same place that was hit by shells, ii very same place that was hit by shells, 11 people killed and dozens injured. on that day we saw that shift happening, before that people had to say, civilian infrastructure is being hit, we don't have much power, water we have a little gas and able to keep ourselves warm but the ukrainian flag is flying over our city we will endure this. that

on that day according to the ukrainian government 41 mortars hit the city. we saw the shift happen in front of our eyes. people wanting to back up and leave. saying we thought we could live through this but we just don't believe it is safe any more. as far as morale at least for the civilians, it has been dented. ukrainian government officials at least twice in the past few days have advised people to leave for their own safety. it is unclear what their own safety. it is unclear what the ukrainian strategy is at this point. will they try to push further, pushed the russians further out of the wider region of kherson? we do not know the answer to that right now. just we do not know the answer to that riaht now. , , , ., we do not know the answer to that riahtnow. , , ., ., right now. just before i let you go on a more — right now. just before i let you go on a more personal— right now. just before i let you go on a more personal level- right now. just before i let you go on a more personal level he - right now. just before i let you go | on a more personal level he heard those distressing personal stories of what people are having to put up with their and on the bbc website there is an article which tries to campus opinion from 45 military

experts with their assessments of when this conflict will and some say his early as the beginning of next year others are a lot longer than that. when it does come to an end depends on the people like you met strength to stay and put up with that level of bombardment. there are some peeple — that level of bombardment. there are some peeple who _ that level of bombardment. there are some people who are _ that level of bombardment. there are some people who are still _ that level of bombardment. there are some people who are still saying - some people who are still saying saying, this is my home this is my land and i will die too if i need to. we are seeing that resilience as well but a lot of people say we will return with things become safer. we do not believe it is safe at the moment. it is a bit of a mixed view but certainly we are seeing a lot of resilience and even at this point, tens of thousands of people are living in the city of kherson. thank ou so living in the city of kherson. thank you so much _ living in the city of kherson. thank you so much for— living in the city of kherson. thank you so much for your _ living in the city of kherson. thank you so much for your reporting. i at least 62 people have been killed

in winter storms sweeping across north america. us officials are calling it the �*blizzard of the century', with an extra nine inches of snow expected during the day in new york state, where the city of buffalo has borne the brunt of the arctic conditions. the storm has affected a vast area, from canada in the north, down through the us, and reaching mexico. president biden has approved emergency measures, allowing financial support for new york state. this is the scene live from buffalo. we have been tracking it over the last few hours, you can see there is six o'clock in the evening there and thankfully lights are on. we know that thousands of people have been without power at various points over the last couple of days as the storm has hit. you can imagine being in those temperatures with no heating and no power. it has been a dreadful experience for so many people as our correspondent reports. with all the latest, our correspondent nada tawfik reports from new york.

buried by record snowfall, buffalo has only begun to dig itself out. up until now, near white—out conditions and hurricane force winds created a life—threatening situation, paralysing emergency response efforts and trapping vehicles along the roadways. this once—in—a—lifetime blizzard has claimed the lives of at least 28 people here during the holiday weekend. the fear now is that more fatalities will be uncovered by the melting snow. the situation is still dire. thousands are without power, and a driving ban remains in place. at grocery stores, reopening for the first time since the storm hit, people queued up to stock up on much—needed essentials and food. authorities pleaded with people to be careful as they slowly open up the city over the next several days. there's a lot of roads that are completely blocked right now, that have no access whatsoever. and people are trying to drive on these roads, or get into these neighbourhoods, and they can't.

please, please, you heard the mayor beg, i'm begging, stay home. in other parts of the country, thawing out after the deep freeze has led to a new set of issues. in montana, which recorded temperatures as frigid as —45 celsius, the sudden warming created flash flooding. in the small—town of fishtail, massive chunks of ice blocked roads and covered people's yards. that shift in temperature caused ice to melt to very quickly. and itjust released all of the ice off of the west rosebud, causing kind of like a tidal wave. this storm is truly unprecedented in scope, stretching from canada to mexico, affecting 60% of the us population. presidentjoe biden has promised the full force of the federal government to help those most affected, and while the bad weather has already started to ease, problems will likely persist for days.

this is a holiday season no—one will soon forget. it should have been a time for cheer. instead, the bomb cyclone has brought misery. nada tawfik, bbc news, new york. china is to scrap quarantine for travellers from the 8th of january, marking the last major shift from the country's zero—covid policy. after almost three years of closed borders, the country will reopen to those with work and study visas, or wanting to visit family. covid has spread ferociously in the wake of restrictions being lifted. reports say hospitals are overwhelmed and elderly people are dying. earlier the china analyst, jake werner, told me that the decision to open up will have an impact on the country. it could potentially make a really big difference. china has essentially been cut—off from the outside world for the last three years. this is in line with the very rapid complete reopening, from zero covid policy internally. this is going to open

the country to open up the external world to chinese people visiting and china to the foreigners visiting. and that, there are major consequences that could follow from this, economic and political. just tojump in, the medium—term consequences are a return to normality and trade, contact, but the short—term, china is a country with massively rising covid rates. yes, yes and one leaked report said perhaps one quarter of the country is now sick with covid in the course of the last three weeks. so, this is a massive and potentially devastating wave of infection because the chinese medical system is not really up to the task. until this point covid control has been in the hands of local government officials who have said all right,

we're done, it's up to the hospital is now, but they aren't prepared. for the vulnerable groups especially older people and those who haven't been vaccinated this could be really devastating. that will affect the outcome of the border opening. it may increase the desire to leave for many people but if the impact is devastating it may make it impossible for them to leave and visit other countries. given everything you've said, what impact does that have on the credibility of the government and how people in china will view its government now? it's going to be very mixed, i think. approximately one quarter of the economy was under lockdown before the sudden reopening. tens and tens of millions of people in lockdown were suffering, businesses were closed, they were essentially locked in their apartments or

quarantine facilities. there was a huge amount of anger and unrest at the lockdown policies. many of those people will be relieved and say i got covid and it wasn't that bad, my business can run again and i can see my family and are be happy. but there are other people who will have loved ones who are going to suffer or die, people who were convinced that they needed to keep the country free of covid. that also describes hundreds of millions of people. like any large country you have really mixed opinion and this could go in a number of different ways depending on how bad the economic effects are and how widespread the anger is at the effects of the sudden reopening. police in india are investigating the deaths of two russian men, one of them a politician who had criticised the war in ukraine. pavel antov appears to have fallen from his hotel room window,

while his friend, vladimir bidyonov was said to have had a heart attack two days earlier. taiwan's president, tsai ing—wen, has announced that all men will be required to serve one year's military service. the announcement came after china carried out one of its biggest incursions to date in the seas and skies around taiwan on sunday with fighter jets and warships deployed around the island. the taiwanese leader said it was needed to counter the growing chinese military pressure. serbia has put troops on high alert over rising tensions with kosovo. it comes after weeks of escalating rethoric. new roadblocks appeared on tuesday, in the majority—serb town of north meetrovitsa. kosovo is a small, landlocked country which many serbs consider the birthplace of their nation. but they are only 6%, of 1.8 million people that live in kosovo, the rest, 92%, are ethnic albanians. in 2008, kosovo unilaterally declared independence from serbia.

many countries, including russia and china, don't formally recognise it as a state. the latest tensions surround conflicting reports about a shooting incident. reports from serbia allege ethnic serbs came under attack, that claim was rejected by authorities in kosovo. our balkans correspondent guy delauney has more details. belgrade is well aware if its troops crossed the border the administive line between serbia and kosovo, they will come into contact with nato's k1; peacekeepers. that would not seem to be a sensible thing to happen for serbia. that's not really what they want. they are also relying on k1; right now and have been for a number of years to ensure the safety and security of the ethnic serb minority in kosovo. so it would be counterproductive for serbia to do anything which would lead it to any sort of conflict or disagreement with k4. they are very important actor as far as serbia is concerned. the matter is serbia does not

recognise kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence which kosovo made in 2008. as far as serbia is concerned kosovo is serbia and you will hear this stated, chanted and repeated by everybody from the leaders of serbia right down to football supporters at the world cup, for example. that is a statement of fact as far as they are concerned. so if you are an ethnic serb living in kosovo you consider yourself not just an ethnic serb in kosovo but a serbian citizen. that is why we have this dispute about car number plates, people are scratching their heads over why fall out over car number plates. the symbolism is important. kosovo wanted to assert its authority by ensuring ethnic serbs use kosovo number plates while ethnic serbs wanted to continue using their serbian plates. it is a matter of identity. but i think what is

forgotten in all of this. whether you're in ethnic serb or kosovan. these are ordinary people who want to go about their business. none of this is good for anybody. right now there are tens of thousand ethnic serbs who live in north kosovo are having their lives massively disruptive. and all the talks it's been 25 years since world leaders agreed to ban the use of anti—personnel landmines — in what is known as the ottawa treaty. it's considered to be one of the world's most successful disarmament treaties, but every year thousands of people continue to be killed or injured by the devices. anna foster reports from lebanon, where a huge de—mining operation is going on. three, two, one, demolition. nine anti—personnel mines destroyed in a split second. for years, the ground here has been sick with them. many were laid less than a metre apart by israeli forces

during the conflict of 1982. every day, a team of de—miners carefully scans the land. they uncover the mines and make them safe. suaad is an expert now. when i found the mine, i call the supervisor to check it. and after that, and at the end of the day, i make an explosion. you say that in quite a relaxed way, you make an explosion? yeah, because it's four years, so it's a daily routine. it's dangerous work. the mines advisory group has been active in lebanon since 2001. here in this village alone, they've cleared nearly 800 devices. it's right next to the politically sensitive boundary with israel. that means special techniques

are needed to destroy the explosives without damaging the barrier. this is a clear, safe channel through the minefield. on this side, behind the white sticks, you have these new green shoots and they were planted right after the land was handed over only about a month ago now. but look how close it is to this. this is an active minefield, still contaminated land, still loaded with anti—personnel and anti—tank mines. and they plant their crops fast. lebanon's economic crisis makes them desperate for cleared land to grow food. translation: we were frustrated. i can't describe the feeling of not being able to use the land where we grew in the past. we had to stop because of mines. it was an awful feeling. worldwide, around 15 people a day are still injured by landmines. translation: l was knocked i

unconscious and when i woke up i could not see my fingers. they were gone. heider detonated one while planting trees in his garden. i still keep the photos from when i was injured. it was horrible back then. my hands were about to be amputated. they turned black. but thank god they are ok now. 80% of lebanon's mines have now been removed. but each year the funding to clear them decreases. and that makes it hard to predict how long it'll take before these people can walk on their land again. anna foster, bbc news, lebanon. plenty more on our website on bbc news. if you are in line to get me there too on social media.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones. hello. on tuesday, it was cold enough for snow in parts of scotland. through the rest of this week, and indeed the rest of the year, there will be some snow, but only really over hills in the north, because elsewhere it'll be too mild for that — some spells of heavy rain instead and some strong winds. a lot of rain to come, actually, particularly over the hills in wales and the western side of england. some places here could see over 100 millimetres of rain over the next five days, so that could cause some flooding and some disruption. and this bout of wet weather will move its way northwards and eastwards during wednesday, a frontal system pushing in quite quickly from the south—west. rain moving quickly northwards across england, wales, into northern ireland, southern and central parts of scotland.

we may see some snow mixing in over the highest ground of the grampians. it's going to be windy, particularly across england and wales. those are the gusts we can expect through the afternoon. but it will be mild for most, 11 or 12 degrees for much of england and wales, 10 there for northern ireland. for scotland, highs of six or 7 degrees. now, as we go through wednesday night, this band of rain — with some snow over the mountains in scotland — will continue to drift northwards. plenty of showers following on with some blustery winds. overnight, temperatures generally between 4—8 degrees. but as we go into thursday, a subtle change because as this area of low pressure drifts through and we end up on the back edge of it, well, the winds will shift direction to a northwesterly, so it's going to feel a little bit chillier on thursday. nothing exceptional for the time of year. it's certainly not going to be a cold day butjust a slightly chillier one, 6—10 degrees, sunny spells, some showers, which will be wintry over high ground in the north. and then for friday, another weather system. an area of low pressure hurtles

in from the atlantic. that will bring some very heavy rain, again, moving its way quite quickly northwards and eastwards, with some snow over the mountains in scotland, clearing to sunshine and showers. the risk of gales in places on friday. but with the winds broadly coming from the southwest, it is going to be a mild day. now, for the end of 2022 and into the start of the new year, northern parts of the uk will see something a little colder and there could be some snow over the hills. further south, it'll be milder with some rain at times.

this is bbc news. the headlines: hundreds of people are fleeing the ukrainian city of kherson because of intense russian shelling attacks. bombardment of the city has increased sharply over the past few days. on tuesday, a shell hit the maternity ward of a hospital. at least 62 people have been killed in winter storms across the united states and canada. president biden has approved emergency federal help for new york state, as the arctic freeze continues. in china, people will be able to travel abroad from the 8th of january. the move will end one of china's last covid restrictions, which had been in place for nearly three years. and serbia has put troops on high alert over rising tensions with kosovo. president vuchich said

he would "take all measures" to protect his nation.