welcome to bbc news — i'm anjana gadgil. our top stories: russia launches missile strikes across ukraine, with one in the city of dnipro, killing at least 12 people in an apartment block. a further five classified documents have been found at the delaware home of us president, joe biden. china reports 60,000 covid—related deaths in just over a month. california prepares for more flooding, high winds and snow. the governor warns residents to stay vigilant. greta thunberg joins demonstrators in western germany to rally against a new coal mine. because it is still in the ground, we are still here, luetzerath is still there. and as long as the carbon is in the ground, this struggle

is not over. russia has launched missile strikes across ukraine, hitting residential areas as well as energy infrastructure, plunging much of the country into an emergency blackout. at least 12 people were killed and dozens injured when an apartment building was struck in dnipro on saturday. according to the regional governor, several children were among those hurt. rescue workers are still combing the rubble for survivors. 0ur correspondent, paul adams, is in dnipro with the latest. this was one of the worst attacks here in dnipro in many months. we don't know what russia was aiming at or even exactly what caused the damage, but whatever it was, a russian missile or perhaps something intercepted overhead by ukrainian air defence,

it tore into this apartment building, carving a great gaping hole. as you can see, rescue workers and volunteers worked frantically for hours, trying to find survivors, but as night fell, the official number of those killed or injured began to rise inexorably. sirens did sound several times during the afternoon here in dnipro. people were advised to go to their shelters but it's been months since something like this happened here, so it's likely that plenty of people were in their apartments not underground. this all came on a day when russia once again launched attacks all over ukraine, clearly aimed at disabling the country's power grid. with a piece of the country's energy infrastructure not that farfrom here, it's possible that that and not the apartment block was the target of this strike. but it's been two weeks since the last wave of russian attacks on critical

infrastructure and people here and in the west had started to wonder if russia might be running out of missiles or thinking of changing its strategy. it seems there were not quite so many missiles this time, perhaps less than a0. but it's clear tonight that russia has not changed its strategy and seems intent for now on causing maximum hardship for ukraine's civilians whenever and wherever it can. president zelensky has called on other allies to follow britain's lead, and provide more weaponry to his forces. the uk is to send around a dozen challenger ii tanks. downing street says rishi sunak has asked britain's foreign and defence secretaries to lobby allies to do more. here's our defence correpondent, jonathan beale. britain is the first western nation to confirm it will provide ukraine with modern main battle tanks. the prime minister told president zelensky in a phone call. the british army's challenger 2 is more than 20 years old, but it was designed and built to go up against russian armour. and ukraine says it needs more

tanks to break the deadlock in the war and go back on the offensive. the british army's challenger 2 will provide ukrainian tank crews with more speed and accuracy and more protection than their own russian designed tanks. but the uk is only expected to send around a dozen challengers, when ukraine says it needs another 300 tanks. it hopes others will follow. germany's leopard tank is used by several european armies. some have signalled they are willing to supply them, but that still needs germany's approval. then there is the us—made abrams. america has been ukraine's biggest military backer, but so far hasn't sent tanks. but does britain's decision signal a wider shift? the provision of this small number of tanks is not a game changer in terms of whether it is going to change the course of the fighting everywhere in ukraine. it is a game changer in that it symbolises how the west,

including the uk, is stepping up to provide the sort of equipment ukraine has been asking for for over a year, in order to win its country back on the battlefield. so far, in ukraine, tanks on their own have proven to be relatively easy targets, for drones and shoulder launched missiles. ukraine claims to have destroyed or damaged more than 1,000. but western military experts say tanks, combined with infantry, artillery and air support, will be essential to take back territory, with a shift from defence to offence. jonathan beale, bbc news. the white house has confirmed five additional pages, of classified information, have been found at us presidentjoe biden�*s family home, in delaware. his legal team acknowledged it had uncovered the documents relating to his time as vice president, just hours after a statement on thursday about the discovery of one

document in a storage area at his wilmington home. additional classified materials were identified at a former office used during the 2020 presidential campaign. an independent lawyer has been appointed to investigate. 0ur north america correspondent, david willis, told us howjoe biden�*s political opponents have reacted. if you're a democrat, or you're in the white house at the moment, this drip—drip of allegations isjust embarrassing. the gift that keeps on giving, though, for republicans, it has to be said, and they've seized on this, as you can imagine. the white house is trying to draw a distinction, between the documents that were found in mar—a—lago, for example, and those that were discovered atjoe biden�*s residence and former office. they're saying that president biden has voluntarily handed over all these classified documents and has sought to cooperate fully with government investigators,

as distinct from donald trump's behaviour. and he had to basically be coerced into parting with hundreds of classified documents that were found in a raid by the fbi on his florida residence, mar—a—lago. but as i say, it is this drip—drip that keeps coming up and keeps embarrassing president biden. it's preoccupied his agenda over the course of the last week, certainly as far as the media is concerned here. the presidential records act maintains that e—mails, documents, letters and all sorts of things relating to a presidential run in office should be handed over to the national archives and be stored for the public�*s use in the future. this is not something that can be taken away and basically kept in storage facilities or in cars or in residences when people leave office. so there is currently a special investigator looking into the behaviour both

of donald trump, in this regard, and that ofjoe biden. well earlier i spoke to to republican strategist rina shah and asked how embarassing it was for president biden after critising former president trump for doing something similar. certainly, what's most embarrassing is that there seems to be a drip—drop of these documents being found. it's important to note the timeline here. the first documents were found at the top of november by biden�*s attorneys here in washington, dc at his think tank and they quickly alerted the necessary people who needed to know — whether it was the national archives, department ofjustice — but it was just in this month, now mid january, that the department ofjustice, merrick garland, has taken such swift action to appoint a special counsel, a special person to investigate why these documents were mishandled.

so, certainly an embarrassment but a very quick timeline when we compare it to that of former president trump's mishandling of his classified documents. so, how similar are these two cases and how has each man handled his own case? they are quite different, actually. the one thing in common is that both men mishandled their documents after leaving office — trump upon leaving the presidency and biden upon leaving the vice presidency in 2017, so let's note that much. with the discovery that was just announced yesterday, saturday, in wilmington, delaware, the president's home, where he frequently visits on the weekend — and actually there right now — we now know there are a grand total of about two dozen classified documents that biden is said to have had in his possession after leaving the vice presidency. there were far more for trump — we're talking hundreds, if not thousands. and again, talking about timeline for a moment, it's very important to note what timeline it was with trump.

everything began with him in may of 2021, the national archives started requesting the documents and, of course, as it was well publicised globally, our federal bureau of investigations, the fbi, raided his mar—a—lago home. that took place in august 2022 and they found even more classified documents than those they were requesting, so both cases mishandling are very different cases in many ways. again, trump was subpoenaed, asked nicely, and then he had no choice but to turn them over when the fbi raided. in biden�*s case, it's very voluntary. the lawyers are letting law enforcement know every time they're coming upon these classified documents. and what's even most interesting to note is that biden�*s lawyers, upon making these discoveries, those that did not have our top security clearances, they even refrain from looking at the documents that were marked classified, so a mess on both fronts but very different cases.

so, is the security around these documents tight enough, if two such powerful people are able to take documents home? that's a question that many americans are asking. and for your sort of everyday american who isn't really keeping in touch with the latest news out of washington, they might find themselves wondering, "gee, i didn't even think that somebody could take documents with them once they leave a federal position" because by our constitution, both the president and the vice president become private citizens. but i'd would like to submit to you a really interesting angle that i've been thinking about in this — and i certainly don't mean to be ageist — but trump left office at age 7a and biden took office at age 78. both of these men, again, past the us retirement age here. barack 0bama left office when he was 55. really big differences. now, we've all been in positions where we've been asked to help elderly relatives clear out their homes or downsize or deal with sensitive documents. i'm not trying to paint

with a broad brush here but perhaps it's just that biden and trump both trusted the wrong people to take care of their effects upon leaving the white house. it really could just be chalked up to simple mishandling. the real difference here is that trump lied about it, didn't want to voluntarily return the documents, and we see biden not doing either of those things — the white house has been quite forthcoming about even having these documents. the world health organization has urged china to provide detailed information about the level of covid infections in the country. china has reported 60,000 covid—related deaths in just over a month. reports suggest the chinese government failed to release data about the status of the pandemic. china dropped its strict zero covid policy on the 7th of december, leading to a surge in infections among the population. victor gao is vice president of the centerfor china and globalization —

i spoke to him earlier. i am traumatised and i consider this a great tragedy. china right now is in a major transition from the pandemic zero covid policy which china practised for three years with huge spectacular successes in terms of minimising death and infections, to a new paradigms of living with covid just like the rest of the world. in this sense we are crossing through a wall of fire with much uncertainty and high risk and huge costs and the numbers of deaths for the past 3a days or so is really a huge cost. it is a tragedy. 0n the other hand it is not surprising because even though the numbers themselves are huge and each death is a tragedy and i mourn each and all of these deaths, when you live with covid like the united

states or britain or any other country in the world have been doing for the past three years, you have to bear the cost and deaths will very much be in that process. ijust hope we will be able to pass the wall of fire as soon as possible with a minimum amount of death. i think we are already past the worst stage because a huge number of people have already been infected and a collective immunity, herd immunity is being developed in china so going forward while there will still be infections and deaths unfortunately, the worst, most likely, is behind us. but going forward you have chinese new year around the corner which is the time when traditionally chinese families travel, they mingle. surely infection rates will increase during that period? yes. the chinese spring festival is coming and normally you are talking about 2 billion people or 3 billion people

travelling throughout china from all corners of china to the other side. and this is a cause for real concern. however, i think the chinese people after the first wave of infections and large number of deaths have become much more aware of the need to constantly wear a mask, even at home, for example, and also be prepared with medicine or drugs and keep them at hand in case something happens. and then, i would say, the hospitals and clinics around the country today are much better prepared than in december because the change of policy really came with abruptness and many of the hospitals were not fully prepared for a complete reversal of the policy and i would say, based on my personal observations, the society at large and hospitals and everyone in china are much better prepared to handle further surges and hopefully we will go through this massive

migration of people in china around the spring festival better. around 25 million residents in california are under third watch as a storm was south. state authorities say at least seven waterways offloaded and at least 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, mainly in coastal parts of northern and central california. the governor of california, gavin newsom has warned that there's more bad weather to come and advised residents to be prepared. the reality that this is just the eighth of what we anticipate to be nine atmospheric rivers. we're not done. i know the point comes in any challenging time where people are fatigued, and i am mindful that people are fatigued about evacuation

orders, fatigued by seeing signs saying d2. and fatigued generally. and they may be less prone to be influenced by some of that. i just pray for all of us to maintain our vigilance and common sense over the course of the next 24—48 hours. chris 0utler is a meteorologist with the national weather service and hejoins me now from monterey. you are in northern california that has really borne the brunt, how bad is it been there? we have been in this weather pattern since december so this is the third week of active weather, we have had storm after storm after storm and todayis after storm after storm and today is no different we continue to get rain today and through the weekend. how is it affecting people who live there? it has just been relentless rain so people are starting to get fatigued, as the governor mentioned there, we are dealing with a lot of impacts related to rain and wind, the soils are

very, very wet and soggy so doesn't even take a lot of wind to start knocking down trees and power lines, so we are starting to see some of the damage really start to add up with the storm series that we have had, and with more rain on the way it will continue to add to some of those impacts. 0ur homes being evacuated? some areas have been evacuated, mainly in river zones where rivers are starting to exceed at specified locations. we have also had some coastal erosion and coastal flooding, also had some coastal erosion and coastalflooding, so they are the main areas where they have been evacuations, and some of our dams have been stressed by the amount of water that is currently contained in them so there have been some localised levy breaches as well, so that is where most of the evacuation orders have been taking place. of course these storms come of course these storms come after a prolonged period of incredibly dry weather, you are incredibly dry weather, you are in drought conditions for an incredibly long time. is the water soaking into the ground or is it running off?

a lot of it is running off because it is coming and so quickly and the soil is so soaked at this point that it is not really absorbing any of the rainwater so a lot of it is running off, it would be more preferred if we had a longer duration, gentle rain, but instead we have a very compressed period of high intensity rain since the last week of december. how do you think it will affect the summer if you have another dry spell that we have had in previous years? any rain that we can get through the winter season is always welcome in california, the winter is primarily when we get most of our ran across the west coast, so it is always beneficial to be getting it. we hope that we can see this pattern last at least until the spring before we do dry out in the summer, that will certainly be beneficial to any ongoing drought issues. do you see an end to the drought in california? hopefully if we can continue this pattern for a while maybe a little more gentle rain, that would certainly ease the drought issues a little bit but we are going on three or four

years denial of persistent drought in the west, and so it is going to take a little bit more than a few weeks of active storms to really put a strong dent in the drought. thank you, chris. the climate activist, greta thunberg, hasjoined demonstrators in western germany, protesting against plans to expand a coal mine. energy company, rwe, wants to demolish the abandoned luetzerath village — which it owns — so that it can extend a huge, open—cast, coal mine. emer mccarthy reports. they came in their thousands, with a familiar face among the crowds. the fact that all of you are here is a sign of hope. this is only a part of a much larger global climate movement — a movement for climate and socialjustice and racial justice. luetzerath. what happens in luetzerath doesn't stay in luetzerath. cheering and applause germany, as one of the biggest polluters

in the world, has an enormous responsibility. wielding batons on demonstrators. scuffles quickly broke out with police clad in riot gear the village of luetzerath is set to disappear to make way for the extension of an adjacent coal mine, owned by energy firm rwe. coal is the single biggest contributor to climate change. the protesters�* battle has been a long one with demonstrators occupying the hamlet for almost two years, but it's recently intensified with the german government arguing the coal is needed in the short term to replace lost energy supplies from russia. because we want to have sanctions effective enough that leads us to foregoing gas and oil supplies from russia. we need to replace that. and how to replace it, if not by coal? and unfortunately, the kind of coal germany mostly has is lignite, which is the most polluting of all the kind

of coals that you have. germany's economy minister has called luetzerath "the final "frontier" — and says it's the last place that ground coal will be mined in germany. but for some, that is still not enough. the carbon is still in the ground, we are still here, luetzerath is still there. and as long as the carbon is in the ground, this struggle is not over. emer mccarthy, bbc news. in the czech republic, the retired major general affairs former prime minister andre babic sheh nabo to become the country's next president. he emerged from this weekend first round ofjust over 35% of the vote, narrowly beating mr babbage by 35 imposed. they will have to meet in a second

run off two weeks. now to a tourist attraction that's been luring in thousands of visitors in adelaide australia, despite making those that see it feel a little queasy. the endangered titan arum, or corpse plant, hasjust bloomed for the first time in years, but has a smell that's been likened to dead rats. sounds lovely, doesn't it? matt coulter is a horticulture curator at the adelaide botanic gardens and told me more about how popular the plant has been. people have been lined up for 2.5 hours to actually come and see it and to smell it, yeah, it's an amazing plant. but, yeah, it's quite interesting that people want to actually come and smell something that's quite vile. so, how strong is this smell and from how far away can you smell it? so basically, it only — itjust — only smells for two days and the first night that it starts to open is when it's at its strongest. and the interesting thing about the smell, it actually pulses, so it's notjust

the smell around the flower, it actually pushes it away from the flower as far as possible. so, as people were lining up to come down to see the flower, they can smell it when they were probably 100m away. you can actually smell it outside our conservatory probably more than you could inside, so it's quite remarkable, actually, how it pushes away from the flower. yes, we're seeing some brilliant pictures of the flower there and the queues of people going past it. what is the purpose of its odour? so, it's all about pollination. so, this plant took us ten years to bring it into flower and it has only actually has one night that it can get pollinated. so in the wild, it can't — the flower can't pollinate itself, so it needs to engage an insect to actually bring the pollen to it, so an insect may be in a two—day old flower, get covered in pollen and then, it thinks it's going to lay its eggs on a rotten bit of meat, so it actually comes, brings the pollen to it and as it is going through the flower looking for somewhere to lay its eggs, it actually deposits the pollen, so it actually only has that one night that it actually can get pollinated. if it doesn't get pollinated that night, it could be another 3—5 years�* time. so, i'd imagine with those sorts of odds, it must be quite

so, it's not native to australia but is it now growing in australia? yeah, so it's only native to sumatra, the only place in the world that it occurs naturally, and we are conserving it in our collections here. and back in 2006, we received three seeds, which we then germinated. and from those three seeds, we've actually been able to flower it 11 times. but the exciting thing about this last flowering for us is actually in 2013, we set up a propagation trial to see whether we could propagate it by leaf cuttings. this is the very first one that we've actually propagated that we started ten years ago. so, if you — you can propagate it by leaf cuttings. therefore, amateur gardens — gardeners could maybe grow one in their back garden? yeah, so, it's not an easy plant to cultivate — it needs to have that warm, tropical environment. so even here in south australia, you wouldn't be able to grow them outdoors, so we grow them in a climate—controlled glasshouse... crosstalk. ..constant temperature through the year so, yeah. if someone in england actually had a conservatory, it is possible to

grow one, for sure. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @anjanagadgil. hello, there. there are still lots of flood warnings on rivers in england at the moment but there's not much rain in the forecast. instead, it's going to be different sorts of hazards that will trouble us in the next few days because the wind direction is changing and we're drawing down colder air from the north. and that colder weather is arriving in scotland, hence some icy patches early on sunday morning. even though it's windy, temperatures elsewhere won't be far away from freezing. the colder weather is following this band of what is mostly rain that trundles its way southwards and tends to peter out. following that from the north, we'll get some sunshine, more snow showers in northern scotland, keep some showers in wales, in the south—west and more damp weather will push back into northern ireland during the afternoon. now, the winds will gradually ease down, so it will become much less windy, but it's going to be a colder day

on sunday with temperatures of 5—8 degrees. and overnight, we could see that wetter weather moving away from northern ireland, hitting the colder air in southern scotland and northern england to bring some snow for a while, especially over the hills. there's even the risk of some rain, sleet and snow running along the south coast of england into the far south—east by the end of the night. it will be a cold night. colder more widely. temperatures in northern scotland could be down to minus ten and there'll be some icy conditions as well. but things do tend to dry off across northern england. any wet weather in the south—east moves away and for most places, it'll be dry with plenty of sunshine on monday. more snow showers in the north—west of scotland, perhaps the north of northern ireland, the odd shower in the far south—west of england but otherwise, plenty of sunshine around and temperatures struggling to 2—4 degrees. it's going to be a cold day — not terribly windy, mind you. still in that cold air from monday and into tuesday. we're looking at more weather systems just sliding into the south—west, developing into an area of low pressure.

looks like most of that wet weather will actually be in the english channel — which is good news because if it's a bit further north, there'll be the risk of some snow in southern england. we've still got some snow showers in the north—west of scotland, perhaps affecting northern ireland. large parts of the uk will be dry and sunny but again, it is going to be cold — those temperatures typically two or three degrees after a widespread frost. and we're going to keep this cold weather for a few days into next week. the frost becoming widespread and severe across parts of scotland. there's also the risk of some ice and, for some of us, some snow.

this is bbc news. the headlines: russia has launched missile strikes across ukraine. 0ne hit an apartment block in the city of dnipro, killing at least 12 people. a number of other cities, including kyiv, kharkiv and 0desa, were also hit. a further five classified documents have been found at the delaware home of us presidentjoe biden. the five documents were found by mr biden�*s lawyer who said they were immediately handed to they were immediately handed to the department ofjustice officials. the world health organization has urged china to provide detailed information about the level of covid infections in the country. 60,000 covid—related deaths have been reported injust over

a month, but the chinese government has been accused