this is bbc news — i'm lewis vaughanjones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. fighting in the streets of bakhmut — as russian forces continue their attempt to capture the ukrainian city. the united nations and iran reach an agreement that would allow further inspections of tehran�*s nuclear programme. hundreds of iranian schoolgirls are targeted in a series of apparent poison gas attacks — aid agencies say they could have been singled out by religious groups still no deal as un countries try to reach an agreement on a long—awaited environmental treaty to protect the high seas. and prince harry describes writing his memoir

as an act of service — he says he hopes sharing details of his life will help others. once the book came out i felt incredibly free, i felt a huge weight off my shoulders. hello and welcome along. ukrainian forces have come under increased pressure from russian troops in the besieged city of bakhmut which russia has been trying to capture in months of intense fighting. the deputy mayor of the city has told the bbc that the 4,000 civilians still living there — out of an original population of 75,000 — have no gas, electricity or water. thousands of russian troops have died trying to take the eastern city.

if it falls, it would be the first russian victory of note in more than six months. 0ur diplomatic correspondent, james landale, reports from kyiv. munitions explode this is bakhmut, or at least what's left of it, after some of the fiercest fighting since russia invaded ukraine. for more than six months, ukrainian forces have held off a ferocious onslaught, but now russian commanders are growing increasingly confident, including the leader of the mercenaries known as the wagner group, which have been at the heart of the assault. translation: we have - almost surrounded bakhmut. there's only one road that remains in and out of the city, the pincers are closing. before, we were fighting against the professional ukrainian army, but now we fight against old men and boys. ukrainian forces are still defending the city street by street and reports suggest reinforcements are being sent in. but these russian troops

say the ukrainian army is destroying bridges like these, potentially to prepare for what western analysts call a "controlled fighting withdrawal" from parts of the city. local officials insist ukraine still controls bakhmut, but they accept there is now fighting in the streets. translation: the city is almost destroyed, i not a single building has remained untouched. currently there is no communication in the city so it's cut off. the russians are shelling everything. they want to destroy bakhmut like they did with mariupol. for sergei shoigu, russia's defence minister, making a flying visit to his forces in eastern ukraine, seizing bakhmut would be a rare military victory for him and his bosses in the kremlin. and perhaps a much—needed diplomatic boost after an international audience in india laughed at russia's foreign minister.

the war which we are trying to stop, and which was launched against us using ukraine... audience laughs ..ukrainian people... but for now, ukrainian fighters on the ground in bakhmut still seem ready to fight their invaders every inch of the way, with russia paying a much higher and bloodier price. james landale reporting. the united nations and iranian authorities have announced an agreement that would allow un officials to carry out further inspections of tehran�*s nuclear programme. the announcement was made at the end of a two—day visit to the capital, by the head of international atomic energy agency, rafael grossi. his trip followed the discovery of traces of uranium, enriched to near weapons—grade level, at an underground nuclear plant in iran. here's mr grossi speaking

earlier after he arrived back in vienna. in the first place, the interactions we have, the inspections and what is expected from iran. in the second place, the issues related to some of the questions about which, you know, locations where we have been trying to find clarifications from iran. and finally, very importantly, our ability to establish monitoring and verification measures that we believe are indispensable as a very concrete, very tangible results of this important mission. the bbc�*s bethany bell has been monitoring events for us in vienna. iran and the iaea have issued a joint statement which says that iran is prepared to give more information and more

access to un nuclear inspectors who've been looking into past nuclear work by iran. and this announcement was made after a two day visit by the head of the iaea, rafael grossi. and he said this included reinstalling monitoring equipment in some sites, including cameras. now, the iaea has also, in a separate development, been concerned about the discovery of traces of highly enriched uranium at one of iran's underground nuclear site at fordow. and the concern about this is because weapons—grade enriched uranium is 90%. and what was discovered at fordow was 84%. and we know now, mr grossi says, that there will be 50% more inspections at fordow to try to get to the bottom of this.

iran says that its nuclear programme is peaceful. and although it did acknowledge that there could have been what it called unintended fluctuations at fordow. mr grossi said he hoped that this was a new phase in relations between iran and the iaea. he said he had got concrete steps that had been agreed here, but other countries may be more sceptical, saying that iran has made such promises in the past and not delivered. will it deliver now, is the big question. we will stay in iran but a different story now. hundreds of schoolgirls in iran have been targeted, in apparent poison gas attacks. schools in at least 15 provinces were attacked on saturday. the incidents have been happening since november

but have spread in scope and scale over the past week. nobody has been arrested and public anger is continuing to grow. you may find some of this report by parham ghobadi distressing. mass poisoning of schoolgirls in iran, possibly with toxic gas. numerous schools in several provinces across the country were attacked on saturday. students who have fallen ill are being taken into an ambulance in karaj, a city near capital, tehran. this girl says she can't breathe. here in southern iran, some are taken into a hospital while coughing. hospitals are packed. a girl shouts "the principal is nowhere to be found." a student from tehran told us despite the smell of gas, they were kept indoors for a while. translation: they wouldn't let us leave the classrooms - first, although everyone

was smelling the gas. when we finally went to the courtyard they wouldn't let us leave the school. asking us not to worry and they said the smell would go away. they feared the news would make it to the media. here, an ambulance is seen inside the school, but worried parents are kept behind the closed doors. parents are furious. they chanted, "we don't want a child killing regime." it shows they think hardline elements backed by the regime are behind this to prevent girls from going to school. concerned mothers have staged a protest in tehran. 0ne says they were dispersed from the ministry of education. but the iranian president put the blame on the west, calling the school poisoning hybrid warfare. translation: in this. psychological and media warfare regarding schools, they are seeking to frighten our students and their parents. a distressed mother in central town of kashan shouts at an official, "why are you doing this to our children?"

some suspect this is a revenge attack because the schoolgirls joined a protest that swept the country in september. girls in iran have been fighting forfreedom. now, they are fighting for their breath. parham ghobadi, bbc news. to tunisia now, where hundreds of malians, ivorians and guineans living there have been flown home after controversial remarks by president kais saied sparked a wave of violence. he claimed sub—saharan africans were engaged in a plot to change tunisia's demographic makeup. rights groups say since he made the comments, many have been attacked, detained or evicted from their homes. the african union has urged tunisia to avoid "racialised hate speech." president saied denies that his views were racist. the comments also triggered widespread protests this week. earlier i spoke to human rights

lawyer meriam mastour. there's a big problem now in tunisia. the president is using black people, and this is a populist way to respond to the social and economic crisis which is happening in tunisia, so he is using them as scapegoats. this is exactly the same rhetoric of "great replacement" and everything that we have in europe, and now people are fleeing back to their country, the ones who can. what do we know about people getting out? they are scared of the violence or they do not have homes and jobs any more? exactly. some people do have to leave their homes and they are now in the streets and they have no work any more.

even students are fleeing because they are scared from the violence they can face in the street. even tunisian black people, the ones who have papers and nationality, they are now afraid of what is happening. what do you make of why this is happening right now? you said this kind of language is being used as a scapegoat to divert from other problems in the country, but why now? the population is fed up of this situation and they have to find someone who is guilty so the president and also the anti—black racism exists in tunisia for ever, even if there are black tunisians in tunisia

since always, and so now you have these two things together and it is easy to find guilty people in this economic and social situation in the person of black people in tunisia. a lot of organisations have called for an end to this kind of language and rhetoric. do you think that will happen? i hope so. for me, it is time, it can be another opportunity for tunisia to face its racism, its anti—black racism, because words, like a word used in tunisian which can be related to slavery or equivalent to the n word, and the problematic behaviour,

have existed since a long time. and activists, including one black tunisian, she said there is an opportunity to have a real national debate about racism in tunisia. so maybe it is now the opportunity and a time for tunisian people, like the other north african countries, to define their identities between arabs, muslims, africans etc, and to really speak and find a solution about it. let's get some of the day's other news. there has been severe flooding in malaysia in the southern state ofjohor near neighbouring singapore. police said at least four people have died since wednesday, including a man whose car was swept away by floodwaters and an elderly couple who drowned. nearly 41,000 people from six states have been evacuated to schools and community centres.

china's annual parliamentary session opens shortly for nine days of meetings that are expected to tighten president xi jinping's grip on power still further. the national people's congress — a rubber—stamp parliament — will confirm mr xi's third term as president — and the appointments of his top team. this is bbc news, the headlines.... fighting in the streets of bakhmut as russian forces continue their attempt to capture the ukrainian city. the united nations and iran reach an agreement that would allow further inspections of tehran�*s nuclear programme. the latest round of talks towards a united nations treaty governing the high seas has overrun its two—week deadline. delegates in new york are still haggling over the question of how to share the potential benefits of newly—discovered resources collected beyond any country's territorial jurisdiction. dr laura meller is the head

of the greenpeace delgation at the un and has been at the negotiations where shejoined me earlier. governments have been talking through the night and into saturday evening to reach agreement. these talks happen at so—called presidents' consultations, behind closed doors, and we have been waiting for an update for quite a while. the wait goes on, behind closed doors at the moment, and let's have a look at the potential problem, the issue of the high seas which means the seas which are not owned by any one country, what is the importance of trying to protect these? the oceans are in crisis. it's overfishing, climate crisis, pollution,

changing the very chemistry and life of our oceans. scientists say protecting at least 30% of the oceans by 2030 is what marine life needs in order to heal. this was agreed to just two months ago, but without a strong global treaty agreed now, they risk time running out on creating those ocean sanctuaries on time. what is your hope if you had to give a percentage, of an agreement? this is the last chance to have a strong treaty which will protect 30% of the oceans by 2030 so i'm hopeful. you're hopeful.

in simple terms, what are the kind of things that countries would have to do if they sign up and we do get an agreement, is it things like not mining in those areas and not using them as shipping lanes? this is our biggest opportunity as a generation to put conservation at the heart of how we look after our oceans. it would provide a pathway to creating ocean sanctuaries which are off—limits to activities like industrial fishing and deep sea mining. here in the uk, new powers to crack down on small boats crossings in the channel are set to be announced by the government early next week. the legislation could come as soon as tuesday. 0ur political correspondent, helen catt, tells us what the proposals could be. we have a lot of tough words this evening going into the newspapers tomorrow morning in the uk from the home secretary, suella braverman, and the prime minister,

rishi sunak, talking about this issue they have been trying to tackle of people crossing the english channel in small boats. it is obviously a very risky and dangerous crossing. suella braverman says it has to be that if you come here illegally you will be detained and swiftly removed. what we are expecting to see in the legislation when it goes to parliament is that it will place a duty on her to remove anyone who arrives on a small boat either to rwanda or a safe third country as soon as reasonably practicable. there are other measures, if anyone does come to the uk using small boat crossings, they would be inadmissible to apply for asylum and banning them from applying again if they are removed and banning them from applying for asylum when they are in the uk. concerns have been raised by some organisations, whether it would be compatible with human rights laws and the european convention on human rights and others have

pointed to the practical difficulties, the scheme the government had for moving people to rwanda for processing has stalled and no flights have taken off because of legal challenges, so people are pointing to those kind of challenges as well. downing street, though, says the legislation will come in due course. this was one of rishi sunak�*s priorities for this year, so what is the outline of the problem as he sees it? he set five priorities of what he wants people to judge him on as prime minister and in government and one of those top five is stopping the small boat crossings. it has been a problem for countless years and the numbers of people coming across on these small boats that cross a very busy shipping lane in the english channel have grown over time. there is concern about it and also knock on issues in terms of housing people who have arrived in this way.

there is tensions about people being housed in hotels, for example, a lot of tensions around this, so he is looking at trying to solve that. that is the issue he's looking to tackle. prince harry has described writing his book "spare" as an act of service — and says he hopes that sharing details of his life will help others. in a livestreamed conversation with a trauma specialist the prince said he's not a victim and has never looked for sympathy — but has always felt different to the rest of his family, and is grateful he'd been able to move to california. here's our royal correspondent daniela relph. for an hour and a half they talked. it had the feel of a therapy session. prince harry on grief, family and trauma. i certainly don't see myself as a victim. i'm really grateful to be able to share my story and i do not and i have never looked for sympathy in this. you had to buy a ticket to watch the online conversation. each one came with a copy of spare. harry described writing his

book as an act of service and spoke of feeling trapped within the royal family. i always felt slightly different to the rest of my family. i felt strange being in this container. and i know that my mum felt the same. now, 38 years old, dad to a son and a daughter, he vowed not to repeat what he saw as past mistakes. i, as a father, feel a huge responsibility to ensure that i don't pass on any traumas that... or, i guess, any negative experiences that i've had as a kid or as a man growing up. harry was candid about his own mental health. he was even diagnosed him as having attention deficit disorder, a condition that affects behaviour, and they spoke of using

psychedelic medication. i started doing it recreationally and then started to realise how good it was for me. and i would say that it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and the pains of the past. 0n serving in afghanistan, not all of us agreed with the war, he said, but we did what we were trained to do. there was, though, nothing about his current relationship with the royal family. no questions on whether he would be at his father's coronation. and as for his wife, meghan, he described her as an exceptional human being to whom he was eternally grateful. daniela relph, bbc news. police in australia say they've made what's thought to be the country's biggest ever drug bust, seizing cocaine with a street value of a billion us dollars. the joint operation with the united states has led to 12 arrests linked to a mexican cartel.

from sydney, phil mercee reports. australian phil mercee reports. police say the drugs we re australian police say the drugs were intercepted by us authorities off the coast of ecuador in november. the large haul of cocaine was bound for western australia. investigators substituted the illicit cargo with plaster of paris, a fine white powder. the shipment was dropped into the indian ocean west of perth and monitored by drones and helicopters.— monitored by drones and helicopters. monitored by drones and helico ters. . , ., helicopters. over a number of weeks our _ helicopters. over a number of weeks our officers _ helicopters. over a number of weeks our officers from - helicopters. over a number of weeks our officers from the i weeks our officers from the organised crime squad and others assisted to reconstruct those identical packages and dropped 1.2 tonnes of those drugs into the ocean a0 miles off the coast. drugs into the ocean 40 miles off the coast.— off the coast. over the next few days — off the coast. over the next few days the _ off the coast. over the next few days the police - off the coast. over the next| few days the police watched off the coast. over the next. few days the police watched as a criminal syndicate with alleged links to a mexican cartel used to boats to find and retrieve the consignment.

surveillance images show one of the vessels towing the other after it had washed up on a beach where two men were arrested. 0thers suspected were later detained at a harbour in perth, the western australian state capitol. the police also stopped a vehicle on a highway several hundred kilometres away where they found a large amount of cash. 12 people have been arrested including a 39—year—old man from the united states. law enforcement authorities say australia's appetite for illegal drugs makes it a potentially lucrative destination for traffickers, but not this time. this hall is estimated to be about half of australia's annual consumption of cocaine. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. that is it from me.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones goodbye for now. hello. there's big weather changes on the horizon, but for the time being, it's as you were. sunday, another grey day for many, particularly across england, wales and northern ireland. greater chance, actually, on sunday compared with saturday of a few showers around too, mainly of rain. there'll be some showers across scotland, heaviest in the north, but through the afternoon, central—southern scotland should see a few more sunnier breaks appear. they'll push their way into northern england, potentially north wales as well. another cool day under that cloud sheet, five to nine degrees. coldest, though, in shetland 3c, where after a brief spell of rain could see some significant snow through sunday night into monday morning and then snow showers packing in across the north of scotland. wherever you see clear skies, there will be a frost around on monday morning.

and of course, the grounds damp, the risk of some icy patches, too. but as we go into the new week, this is where the changes really begin, behind this weatherfront, which through monday will start to track its way southwards, by tuesday that will be down across the channel islands, opening the door tojust about all and some pretty cold arctic air. with it, there could be some disruption from snowfall too on monday, initially across the north and east of scotland. tuesday, that extends into northeast england. travel disruption could be possible and some very icy conditions by night. here's that weather front on monday, starts in central parts of scotland. band of rain fragmenting, turning to a bit of sleet and snow over the hills. the main snow risk will be in the far north of scotland as we go through monday. some sunshine elsewhere, turning colder here. to the south of our band, well, lots of cloud again, eight or nine degrees. but that band of fragmenting rain, sleet and increasingly snow will push its way southwards through the night. clearing skies in its wake means a significant ice risk for some of you as we go through the night and into tuesday morning. but for tuesday itself, other than a band of cloud

and outbreaks of rain towards the english channel, most, lots of sunshine around, good visibility, but frequent snow showers in northern scotland, some down eastern counties of england, too, and a very cold day. this is what it will feel like out there in the wind, feeling subzero for many. and as we go into the night, a very cold night to come, a widespread and quite sharp frost with temperatures into minus double digits across some areas of scotland, particularly where the snow is lying. so a cold start to tuesday, but with that cold air in place, there are some uncertainties as we go through the second half of the week. areas of low pressure pushing to that cold air could give a risk of some disruptive snowfall before milder air in the south. all the details, though, on weather for the week ahead on the bbc weather website.

the government will investigate

the recent spate of poison attacks targeting schoolgirls