this is bbc news. i'm david willis with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. hundreds flee the ukrainian city of kherson because of intense russian shelling. we'll have a special report from on the ground. 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 the city. more than 60 people are killed in winter storms across the united states and canada. president biden approves emergency funding. the un security council denounces a ban by afghanistan's taliban—led government on women attending universities or working

for humanitarian aid groups. and who is george santos? we'll tell you about the ambitious us politician who seemingly lied his way into congress. 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, it 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. i should warn you — it contains some distressing images. kherson is being pounded. this is where one of more than a0 mortars fell in a single day. a city haunted by relentless attacks. another shell hit nearby 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 the 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, 56—year—old serhii breshun was killed here while he was sleeping. we met his mother tamara. serhii was her only child. translation: | must have feltj 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's more bombing. where do you live? man: 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. viktoria yaryshko, a red cross volunteer, was killed just outside this base, a few feet from safety. in the underground shelter, her mother liudmyla 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. viktoria's son sasha and his sister live here, clearly comfortable with other volunteers. war and loss bind them together. dmitro was viktoria'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 iryna antonenko why 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 selivanova told us. she doesn't know when she might see these friends again. everyone in this city has a painful choice to make. mac the desperate plight of the people of kherson there.

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. buffalo—based meteorologist josh nichols says the weather is slightly improving but there's still a long way to go. the situation is no longer as bad as it was in terms of weather. we had the last advisory lifted early this afternoon. we still have a little light snow falling at this time but it is not nearly to the extent of what we have been dealing with. 51.5 inches of snow over four days. there are too many records to describe that 51.5 inches, one of the largest calendar day

daily snowfalls in buffalo weather history is part of that total. we now have more than 100 inches of snow for the season and the season just started. am i right in thinking that some people were found dead in their cars, and a driving ban is still in place? the travel ban is still in effect with the city of buffalo. they have reopened some main thoroughfares like the 90 which is the new york state thruway and others remain closed at this time. it is remarkable that the storm is worse than one of the biggest storms in buffalo weather history which was the blizzard of 1977. more deaths have unfortunately been recorded in this blizzard than what took place in the historic blizzard of 1977. and as the snow melts there is the danger of flooding, presumably.

if there was a lot of rain in the forecast with this snowmelt then that would be an issue. at this time that does not seem to be the case. we just went through what many are terming snowvember 2.0 which was a very large snow event for buffalo leaving hamburg, new york, with more than 6.5 feet of snow and there were concerns at that time for flooding. it was a slow and organised melt and the good news is that if we can get some sublimation in association with gusty winds and less rain in the forecast we should be able to see an organised melt. if there is rain in the forecast that would cause issues. and there are warnings of heart attacks and back injuries on the part of people clearing the snow i understand. many people tackle that snow with shovels and they are not up to task, shall we say. as a result with all that exertion blood pressure tends to become an issue and

cardiac arrest follows. many of the deaths that have taken place, some of which were people who were just left abandoned in their cars, some of which were people venturing out into the storm which i tried, briefly, just to get from a television station to the hotel and i tell you, i lasted five minutes, i turned right around. the disorientation factor with whiteouts in conjunction with several hours of near—hurricane force wind gusts with that heavy snow and double digit sub zero temperatures made it impossible to get around. meteorologistjosh nichols there. the un security council has denounced a ban by the country's taliban—led administration on women attending universities or working for humanitarian aid groups. in a statement, the council members call for "the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls."

the statement says the restrictions imposed on female aid workers contradict commitments made by the taliban to the afghan people, as well as the expectations of the international community. mariam atash is an afghan—american attorney and women's rights activist, and a member of the us—afghan women's council. i asked her if these bans can endure given the international outrage. it is very sad for me to be on this programme began speaking about this issue. it has only gotten worse since the taliban takeover last august. it started with some policies and there has been an encroachment, a slow taking away of afghan women's rights, by first segregating them in university, then preventing girls from grade six from attending school under the guise that these

are suspensions, not bans, that they would do something different but it has only gotten worse. there has been, to a degree, the limiting of women's access from university access, as well as working for international or local ngos. this policy is totally wrong, it goes against islamic law, long—standing afghan law that was just changed by the taliban in a short time, and international law. i have heard it said the international law could do more to protest these measures, but what more could be done? you know, we have to go and say, "how did the taliban come back into power after 20 years?" that the us, not only the us, but nato was also there fighting against this war, saying they were terrorists and extremists, basically handing over everything that had been rebuilt back to this group without negotiating how these issues were to be handled.

it has been a total failure of the international community including the united nations and the us administration to basically allow this group to come in without any preconditions. there was a chance to negotiate and have an interim government that would have been representative of the afghan people. if these measures remain in place, what would be the impact on the people of afghanistan and indeed the country's economy? right now the afghan economy is already suffering. so much brain—drain has happened of people fleeing the country because of not only the taliban but the lack of opportunity, and this will only cripple the economy further. having 50% of the population not being able to work... women are heads of households, they are widows. it is their islamic right that is democratic, their right under law. afghanistan has signed treaties for women to be able to work, but i also want to add that afghan men on not

supporting this policy. the taliban do not represent the will of the afghan people with these policies. just this past weekend about 60 university professors resigned from their positions, stating they will not agree to teach classes if they cannot teach women. this is just going to further not only destabilise the economy but destabilise afghan society. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: meet the mystery man of congress — the ambitious us politician who wasn't exactly straight with the voters. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. 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, i

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. - no, fantastic. big ben bongs this is bbc news, the main story this hour: hundreds of people are fleeing the ukranian city of kherson because of intense russian shelling attacks. 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. earlier i spoke to our reporter azadeh moshiri who explained the wider context of the decision. this does not start untiljanuary 2024, it's worth mentioning that, but it signals how much of a threat taiwan views china. china which does not recognise taiwan as an independent country, despite the fact it has its own constitution, its own elected leaders. china sees taiwan as a breakaway province that needs to be reunited. now, the events of the past year, things things like the visit of the former speaker of the house nancy pelosi to taiwan in august — something that deeply upset china, that caused china to

launch one of its biggest military exercises around the island — have very much concerned china as well as taiwan and have had very strong rebukes from politicians on both sides. and so taiwan clearly views this as something that it has to prepare for, a danger and a conflict that could be coming, and of course, the war in ukraine has changed people's minds, leaders' minds about how prepared they need to be and that the status quo may not be the status quo for long. you mentioned nancy pelosi and there has been tension between the united states and china. how has the us reacted? the main response now is from the american institute in taiwan. the united states does not have an embassy in taiwan so that's the closest you get to an intermediary, and they have essentially repeated things the united states typically says, things like this are about self defence, this is about deterrence, that the united states supports a peaceful resolution between these two parties. but the united states has long walked a difficult tightrope between these two parties.

on the one hand, it recognises only beijing has the one china policy, which means they only recognise one chinese government, but on the other hand it has what it calls an unofficial robust relationship with taiwan, which is why it sells taiwan weapons to defend itself and recently approved $10 billion in spending for taiwan over the next five years. the tensions between china and the united states are at the heart of this. azadeh moshiri there. there have been calls in the us for a newly—elected republican congressman to resign, after he admitted embellishing his resume. throughout his campaign, george santos — who is set to represent a district on long island — said he'd worked for major banks, and graduated from a university. but an investigation by the new york times found that many of his claims were false. on monday george santos spoke to the podcast political personalities with skye about being caught out. did i embellish my resume? yes, i did. and i'm sorry

and it shouldn't be done and words can't express 100% how i feel, but i am still the same guy, i'm not a fraud, i'm not a cartoon character, i'm not some mythical creature that was invented. i apologise if anybody feels hurt or betrayed. i will gain everybody�*s trust back byjust delivering results for them and making sure they do not forget why they voted for me in the first place, which was to get stuff done. earlier i spoke to steve herman, who is chief national correspondent with voice of america news and i asked him if george santos had to resign. it's unlikely he will be expelled from congress even though he hasn't officially entered congress yet — that's a very, very rare occurrence in the history of the united states congress. we've only had a trickle

of republicans who have actually called for him to resign so far. it's been of course mostly democrats. how come it was the media and not his democratic opponents that actually caught him out? certainly, it could be argued it was a failure of the republican party to vet him but opposition parties do opposition research. this was not a safe republican district that he won election to. he flipped the seat in a very close congressional difference between the republicans and democrats, so i think there are going to be questions asked by the democrats of themselves, how come they did not catch this before the election? of all these embellishments, it is perhaps the claim, is it not, of his �*jew—ishness' that's perhaps the most difficult to explain away? yes, he is a catholic.

he claimed to bejewish and that he was the descendent of holocaust survivors from ukraine who had fled to belgium. that appears to be made up. when he was asked to explain this, he said, "i never claimed to bejewish. "i claimed to bejew—ish," which was also false. the republican party will be in no hurry to throw this man out. they need him for a variety of reasons? right now, kevin mccarthy, who is the top republican in the house, certainly needs him because he wants to be house speaker, and that vote is going to be very close because he does not have the support of all the republicans, and santos has said previously that he would vote for kevin mccarthy. we will find if that one is true or not sometime soon. but there could be some action against him after that is all said and done, and he is in a position now

where if he were to even be caughtjaywalking after he swears the oath of office in the us house of representatives, he would end up in even more trouble. there will be a lot of people including republicans looking for any excuse to boot him out. briefly, could there be other shoes to drop, other claims to emerge about the man? he seems to have embellished, as he puts it, a lot of people are saying he is an outright serial liar, a fabulist, have you, and there is almost certainly more to come out every day, it seems, the new york times, new york post and other members of the media are revealing something new about george santos's past, which is turning out to be a lie. pop—star mel c has announced she's pulling out of a new year's eve concert in poland.

she didn't specify why but her decision has been praised by members of the lgbt community. the polish authorities and the television company that was going to broadcast the concert have been widely criticised for their attitudes to gay rights. tim allman reports. # i thought that we would just be friends # things will never be the same again. for more than 25 years, both as a solo artist and as part of the spice girls, mel c has been performing all around the world. but now she has decided there is at least one place where she does not want to perform. in a statement on twitter she said: mel c is a high—profile supporter of lgbt rights, even being named as honorary

gay by attitude magazine earlier this year. gay rights have become something of a flashpoint in poland, with demonstrators on both sides taking to the streets. same—sex marriages and civil unions are not recognised in the country and same—sex couples have no legal right to adopt children. earlier this year amnesty international said the atmosphere of hostility towards the community is growing dangerously worse. the issue of pop stars performing in countries with a conservative attitude to lgbt rights was recently highlighted by the world cup in qatar. big names like robbie williams and the black eyed peas held concerts during the event, even though homosexuality is illegal in the country. as for mel c, her decision was welcomed by some in poland. "equality is equality. no discussion or compromise." tim allman, bbc news.

can get more on these stories on our website. or downloading our bbc app. this is bbc news. 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 6 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 north—westerly, 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 ends 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.

with the voters.

this is bbc news. the headlines: hundreds of people are fleeing the ukranian city of kherson because of intense russian shelling. bombardment of the city has increased sharply over the past few days. on tuesday a shell hit the maternity ward of a hospital. president zelensky said russian airstrikes would not harm the spirit of ukrainians. at least 62 people have been killed in winter storms sweeping across north america. us officials are calling it the �*blizzard of the century.�* the storm has affected a vast area from canada in the north down through the us, and reaching as far as mexico. the un security council has said restrictions on female aid

workers in afghanistan go against commitments made by the taliban to the afghan people.