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 ukrainian 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 in taiwan — all men will be required to serve one year's military service. in response to the threat from china.

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. a short time ago i spoke to yogita limaye who is now in mykolaiv about 60 kilometres from kherson and asked her what she thought the russian strategy was. when the russians 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, strategically this area, if ukraine's ambitions to reclaim all of its territorial integrity are to be met. absolutely it is often called the gateway to crimea. when it was liberated on the 11th of november there were the scenes of jubilation 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, 11 people killed and dozens injured. on that day we saw that shift happening, before people had been 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. then 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 pack 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 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 before i let you go on a more personal level we heard those distressing personal stories of what people are having to put up with there and on the bbc website there is an article which tries to canvas opinion from 4—5 military experts with their assessments of when this conflict will and some say as 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 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. 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. 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. 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. stay with us on bbc news, still to come. the fashion designers using artificial intelligence to help create cutting edge clothing. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland we're going to use money we picked up in belgium today, and then we'll be in france and again it'll be the same money. it's just got to be

the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his oxfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it was good. just good? no. fantastic. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. hundreds of people are fleeing the ukrainian city of kherson because of intense russian shelling attacks.

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. 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. the china analyst, jake werner, told me that the decision to open up will have an impact on the country. 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. 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 fighterjets and warships deployed around the island. the taiwanese leader said it was needed to counter the growing chinese military pressure. our news reporter azaday moshiri joins us now. talk us through this change in policy for military service in the country. it policy for military service in the country-— policy for military service in the country. it does not come into effect — the country. it does not come into effect until _ the country. it does not come into effect untiljanuary - the country. it does not come into effect untiljanuary 2024| into effect untiljanuary 2024 but it signals how concerned how taiwan is about the threat posed by china at the moment. china does not consider taiwan as a independent country despite its own constitution and elected leaders but at a breakaway province that needs to be reunited. military conscription has been extended to a year for med but there are also changes and with that training will look like. more physical and robust tending to

focus on menial tasks before and the wages have also increased as well for all conscripts. this is a reversal for taiwan since the 1990s the ease their military preparedness but the events of the past year, the ratcheting up the past year, the ratcheting up of tensions from time to have cemented in their mind that china is at the same level of threat from before it is more significant. one of those fence was the visit by the former us speaker of the house nancy pelosi. she visited taiwan making her at the highest rank official in the us to have visited back in august and it led to a fierce blowback by china which established a military blockade around the island for days. and of course the war in ukraine has change the thinking of a lot of leaders around the world who realise that the status quote cannot be taken for granted. fix, cannot be taken for granted. a lot of commentators walking around and then turning to china and trying to assess the chances of an escalation.

president biden essentially was said to have discussed this at the 620 said to have discussed this at the g20 summit back in november and after that meeting president biden said he did not think china would not invade taiwan. but they did not take the action that they did in ukraine. that is partly why many leaders and private sector companies are trying to ward off any unexpected changes and as far as the us is concerned, it is a very difficult tightrope for them to walk. on the one hand it only recognises one chinese government in line with the one china policy and therefore only has an official relationship with beijing but on the other, it has this unofficial robust relationship with taiwan which means in defence and increases in military spending up to $10 billion in the next five years

so those tensions for the leaders from the world with china are at the heart of this as well. . ~ china are at the heart of this as well. ., ~ , ., china are at the heart of this as well. ., ~ i. ,., china are at the heart of this as well. . ~' ,, . china are at the heart of this as well. ., ~ i. . ., as well. thank you so much for that. a humanitarian migrant ship at the centre of november's diplomatic row between italy and france will be allowed to dock at an italian port. permission�*s been given for the ocean viking to disembark more than a hundred migrants in ravenna. the ship which is run by the charity sos mediterranee was forbidden from docking in sicily by the far—right government of prime minister giorgia meloni. two—hundred and thirty migrants on board were eventually allowed onshore in the french port of toulon. fashion designers in hong kong are embracing artificial intelligence to help them create cutting—edge modern clothing. it's said to help designers consider new prints and fabrics for their collections. emer mccarthy reports.

science fiction meets high fashion. at this hong kong fashion show, more than 80 outfits by 14 different designers paraded down the runway, all with one thing in common — they were designed with the help of an artificial intelligence assistant. the rationale of developing aida is not to use ai replacing designers, what we are talking about is al is just a supporting tool for the fashion designers, so that is why we named aida — an assistant of fashion designers, just to help them, you know, to work together. designers can upload design sketches, materials and colour palettes to a virtual mood board in the system. the software algorithm then generates blueprints which designers can tweak and add their own unique flair to. it can produce a dozen templates in just ten seconds. translation: our relationship is compatible to a romantic- relationship, in that i seem to gradually get to know the assistant and she gradually

got to know my own designs. in accordance with my lines, styles and databases, the system will suggest something to me that i may not have ever considered. i believe we are developing a long—term relationship. talk about dressing to impress! emer mccarthy, bbc news. this is apprently the most active time of year for giant pandas. and this is how to really have fun in the snowy conditions. the giant panda research centre in northwest china's shaanxi province is the place where the world's only captive brown giant panda lives. and as you can see, he and his friends have rather enjoyed the conditions. 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 seven 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. serbia has put troops on high alert over rising tensions with kosovo.

president vuchich said he would "take all measures"