strong winds are forecast to pick up again in california, hampering efforts to contain the wildfires. a further 166,000 people have been warned they may have to leave. the army in sudan says it has captured a key city in the east of the country in one of its biggest gains yet in an almost two—year—long war against rebel forces. the leader of the paramilitary group acknowledged the loss in an audio message. the remarkable story of baby luca, when doctors discovered his spine was not firing properly, he was removed from the web at 27 weeks for surgery, then burn properly at nine months. we will bring that story to you in just under half an hour —— born properly.

four wildfires are still raging in parts of los angele, destroying huge swathes of the city. the number of people killed has risen to 16 and at least a dozen are missing afterfive days of fires. the neighbourhood of altadena is near the eaton fire — the second biggest fire, which has burned more than 1a,000 acres. just bringing you the live shots from the idiot. they have burnt all the way from the —— the live shots from there. . the kenneth fire has been contained 100%, the fire still burning but they have put a ring around it of fire retardant and other methods which mean it should not spread any further. the three other burning are the palisades,

eaton and they're expecting stronger winds. eaton and they're expecting strongerwinds. let's eaton and they're expecting stronger winds. let's hearfrom helena humphreys. with so many communities destroyed and evacuation orders still in place, you have to look around areas like this one to get clues as to people's story, how they got out when the fires came through here. as you can see here, for example, didn't even have time to flee in their cars, but some of them completely burnt out. and just the dichotomy of others that are relatively unscathed. and as you go through areas like this one here in altadena, what you'll see on the landscape time and time again is chimneys like this. essentially gravestones, really, of where these houses once stood. and of course, with people now in shelters, staying with family, of course, they've got nothing to come back to, you startjust to get to indications as to who might have lived here. in this home, for example, perhaps you canjust make out behind me here, that twisted metal of what appears to have been a home, personal gym. that is some of the destruction that we are seeing in these areas. of course, as firefighters continue to battle those

blazes, we just saw a fire crew from arizona coming in here trying to tackle some of the hot spots, otherfire crews are coming in from canada, mexico, for example, because the concern is that these winds could pick up once again, they could fan the flames further. and the warning from authorities is a grim one. the death toll is rising now in areas like this one. they are, very sadly, having to send in cadaver dogs to try and help people recover their loved ones as that death toll continues to grow and authorities and fire crews really battle to try and get these blazes under control, with limited success. dean ferreira is a former firefighter and the managing director of the ncc group, which was set up to promote the idea of sustainable environments. he's been telling us how things need to change in response to wildfires in urban environments. hopefully they get higher levels of containment.

but i'd say if the weather conditions are getting back to worse with the santa ana winds, we'll probably see a lot more of the same. so hopefully the extra resources coming in and the preparedness levels they have at the moment, they can contain more of these fires and put them out as quickly as possible. what you're seeing now is a problem that's been created over time bya lack of land use planning or appropriate land use planning, building with inappropriate building materials, which is now burning fuel. first of all, my condolences to those who have lost their lives and those who've lost their properties. this is no hit on them. but you're trying to put a band—aid on a problem that's been there for a long time. back to your question around the retardant and the aircraft. firstly, the aircraft have to be able to fly and some of those wind conditions, they cannot fly. so that's limited the ability of those aircraft to deliver their payloads of retardant. but that payload retardant is there to create these fuel breaks, same as what the crews

are doing on the ground by cutting line. they're trying to put a barrier between the flames and the next load of fuel. and they are effective. they are used around the world. when appropriate. when it's inappropriate like this, they're not as effective. what i think should be happening and what we should have been saying for a long time — i'm a firefighter, not a town planner, but we now need to put more effort into our educational component, and that looks at educating town planners so when they start planning communities planning, individual residences, start looking at taking fire into cognisant not just your electrical demands and your access and egress, but what about wildfires? so that's the first part. where do you place these communities on a landscape, knowing that these communities could become a fire? so what we're seeing now, we usually see these big wildfires in the natural environment. those fires also occur, as we're seeing now, in communities. and this is a wildfire in an urban area. this is not a structural fire anymore. this is a wildfire moving through a landscape like a wildfire would do. and we need to take that

into account when planning these communities, but also what type of building materials we put in place, how we landscape our gardens, and how each homeowner builds their own defence for their own properties. we cannot always leave this up to the responders. let's speak to meteorologist alex dasilva who joins us from pennsylvania. give us an idea of the forecast for today and the next few days and how it will affect the fires. ., , ., , fires. over the last 24 hours, the wins _ fires. over the last 24 hours, the wins have _ fires. over the last 24 hours, the wins have come - fires. over the last 24 hours, the wins have come down - the wins have come down considerably, lowering containment to be around 100% on the kenneth and hurst fires, but the other two, the palisades and the eaton, still 15% or less containment, and the winds look like they're going to be picking up sunday into monday as well. we are talking about wind gust 60—8 emails per hour, 100—130 kilometres per hour in some of the idiots at risk. it unfortunately looks like those places could be coming back out of control over the next 24—48

hours. we are concerned about the areas north of santa monica, there have been new evacuation orders. so unfortunately looks like these blazes will continue to spread over the next few days. tell us about the _ over the next few days. tell us about the air _ over the next few days. tell us about the air quality _ over the next few days. tell us about the air quality and - over the next few days. tell us about the air quality and how. about the air quality and how it is affecting people. you can see the tan — it is affecting people. you can see the tan colour— it is affecting people. you can see the tan colour here - it is affecting people. you can see the tan colour here all. see the tan colour here all across the los angeles area. it is all the smoke of these wildfires. there are more than these four or five wildfires, there many small ones burning in the city as well and the smoke comes out, get trapped in the city, so the air quality has been very poor over the last couple of days. unfortunately, it looks like it will continue to be poor. certainly individuals with respiratory issues are going to have to deal with this as well. even people without respiratory issues, this air quality is poor enough to affect everyone, regardless of hill fog status in the los angeles area. there was lots of _ in the los angeles area. there was lots of talk _ in the los angeles area. there was lots of talk that _ in the los angeles area. there was lots of talk that it - in the los angeles area. there was lots of talk that it were . was lots of talk that it were santa ana winds. presumably,

this is still at phenomenon? how that works. aha, this is still at phenomenon? how that works.— this is still at phenomenon? how that works. a large area of hiuh how that works. a large area of high pressure — how that works. a large area of high pressure builds— how that works. a large area of high pressure builds down - how that works. a large area of high pressure builds down into | high pressure builds down into portions of nevada, which is a state north and east of california. to the south of california, we get an area of low pressure, so between these two areas of high and low pressure, you get what is cold a wind gradient, which causes a wind to come out of the northeast are like this. it comes down the tops of the mountains and speeds up as it comes towards the ocean, so thatis comes towards the ocean, so that is what we have been seeing, the winds come over the top of the mountain, come through the gaps in the mountains, and the speed towards the ocean and accelerate. that is how we see the at times hurricane force wind gusts. the at times hurricane force wind gusts-— the at times hurricane force wind custs. �* , wind gusts. and when the winds are too strong, _ wind gusts. and when the winds are too strong, the _ wind gusts. and when the winds are too strong, the planes - are too strong, the planes can't go up, the planes trying to put the flames out. in your forecast in the next couple of days, reaching the speeds where they will be grounded again? it's certainly possible. with the main event a couple of days ago, many planes were grounded

in the area because the winds were too strong. every plane has slightly different criteria about what they can fly in and what they can fly in, but it is certainly possible some planes could get grounded during the height of the event, which is probably monday and tuesday. from what you have seen about where they have douse the flames and tried to build the breaks around them, can you tell from your forecast weather it will be enough to stop the winds bringing more flames to certain areas? how accurate can you be? it certain areas? how accurate can ou be? . ., , certain areas? how accurate can ou be? . . , ~' you be? it certainly looks like the winds _ you be? it certainly looks like the winds will— you be? it certainly looks like the winds will be _ you be? it certainly looks like the winds will be speeding . you be? it certainly looks like the winds will be speeding upj the winds will be speeding up considerably, so unless they have good containment, like we said, the kenneth and hurst fires nearly 100% containment on those, so looks like they have good handles on those, but they're still burning, even though those fires are mainly contained, they are still burning, so potentially they could become less contained here over the next couple of days, so the firefighters will be out here making sure those fires are contained, but i'm much more concerned about the palisades and the eaton virus, which are much less contained

now and the wounds will be strong enough to cause these fires to get out of control again —— the palisades and eaten fires which are less contained in the winds will be strong enough to stop if people are advised to evacuate, please, please do so, because the winds can drive things very quickly. the winds can drive things very cuickl . , ., ~ the winds can drive things very cuickl . , . ~ , quickly. some breaking news. three teenagers _ quickly. some breaking news. three teenagers have - quickly. some breaking news. three teenagers have been i three teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of milder after a 17—year—old was fatally stabbed near a town centre bus station. —— on suspicion of murder. the bedford academy student was taken to hospital after being stabbed, with serious injuries, but was pronounced dead a short time later, and now three teenagers have been charged with murder following the death of thomas taylor.

the leader of sudan's paramilitiary rapid support forces has admitted losing a key city to their army rivals, one of its biggest setbacks since the civil war began. ululating these images are from wad madani, where celebrations broke out after the sudanese army officially announced the capture of the city. but in an angry audio message, the rsf�*s general mohamed hamdan dagalo vowed to continue fighting until victory, even if it took another 20 years. the group had held wad madani for the past year. since the start of the war in april 2023, tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 11 million people displaced. 0pheera mcdoom was the former reuters head of office in sudan and now runs a school in khartoum. she explains why the rsf is such a strong force in the country. unfortunately, with the civilian government after the revolution that ousted former president 0mar

hassan al—bashir, the rsf was brought to the capital — it was a militia mainly working in darfur — it was brought to the capital by the president, the former president, to try and stop him being ousted. and unfortunately, when they came, they brought many troops. so, you know, the people who took over from bashir, aligned themselves with the rsf, which was so when that happened and you have two armies a militia, and almost it became a second army. so when that happened and you have two armies in a country, many people saw this as almost inevitable that they would turn on each other. and unfortunately, they had so many troops already in the capital, which is where almost the entire economy of the country is based, so when that happened and they turned on each other in an instant, you had a war that happened in every part of the country in every army base. they turned on each other and it was almost instantaneous. there was no warning. so the war happened very quickly, and people had to stay where they were for almost ten days without water, without electricity, without food. whether in a hospital, they had to stay there.

and then after ten days, there was a lull, they were able to leave and you saw pretty much a mass exodus of everywhere in khartoum, in the capital, and many other cities. and still khartoum, the capital is still the focus of the fighting. there is still a lot of areas controlled by the rsf. the army is making grounds, but this is seen as a key battleground. so medani is a gateway to the capital, regaining control of the capital. so people are very happy. it's very significant in terms of the economy of the country and having people return home and try to rebuild. last summer saw the worst unrest in the uk in more than a decade. the disorder followed the southport knife attacks, fuelled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspect. officers from durham police have been speaking to our reporter peter harris about the violence they faced. it wasjust carnage. we had a line of six police officers and myself with hundreds of people standing in front of you, they were shouting abuse with their weapons. at any moment, that could turn.

i genuinely got the feeling on that night the people that were doing it did not care if me or my colleagues made it home that night. as police struggled to contain the riots, durham's cops were deployed to shore up neighbouring forces. their first shout was to hartlepool. we turned into the street and it was just a sea of probably a few hundred people in front of us and just six cops and a sergeant. there was missiles getting thrown, which were bricks, and we were just met withjust carnage, basically. it was a strange feeling. it was a mixture of not... a bit of fear, a bit of... just the unknown. you mentioned it was kids were involved. i mean, that in itself must be pretty shocking to see. there was just a line of what i'd say children — children, i'd say primary school age, in front of us, and they were picking anything they could go... adults were handing them bricks and they were throwing them at us. the adults behind were picking the heavier objects up and they were throwing them over the children's heads. it was like concrete

and stones all mixed together, and it got thrown over the over the children and just exploded in front of my shield on the floor. keep coming, keep coming, keep coming! a big chunk of it came under my shield and took my leg out and hit us straight on the shin. i believe that if i didn't have my shin guard on, it potentially would have broken my foot, the force that it was thrown at us. eventually, they must have run out of bricks because then all of a sudden we had kitchen cabinets, like fully, still built kitchen cabinets coming around the corner, and ijust see one absolutely bounce off one of my colleagues shields. and we just had to basically hold the line. i could see that there was houses that had been absolutely trashed. it wasjust going through and it was just destruction everywhere. and ijust remember one of our colleagues on the left hand side saying, oh, there's a police vehicle there, but it looks like it might be on fire. and then as they said, that it's just an almighty bang. and then literally the whole the car was on fire and then literally the whole car was on fire was basically exploded and we were like, backed off and werejust like, it was a hard thing to see. 0ver those ten days

of violence last summer, durham's flying officers were sent far and wide in mutual aid, from middlesbrough to hartlepool and further afield to south yorkshire. 0nce deployed, those officers faced long hours, potentially in the front line and, of course, in the most hostile of circumstances. and what they couldn't know was how long this disorder would actually last for. probably the most violence that i'd seen throughout the whole period was in middlesbrough. i'd never seen it on such a scale from so many people, at so many different locations, in such a small space of time, and that has really stuck with me. rocks, anything they could find. cones. like i've said, wheelie bins set on fire and then wheeled into lines of police officers. get off! i rememberjust cars on the street being set on fire, as if it was normal. do you know what i mean? at the end of that week and a half, we were all exhausted.

and what sort of after effect does that have? we're six months or so on now. you know, there's some memories form that week that i'd rather not have. 0fficers that have been injured, members of the public that have had, you know, absolute, you know, petrified when you're speaking with them. it's them kind of things that ifeel now, you know, i'd rather not have dealt with that, if i'm being honest completely. hopefully, that won't happen again, but we're here if it does. hundreds of rail managers at avanti west coast have gone on strike today in the first of a rolling series of walkouts. the dispute is over rest day working, with rmt union members walking out each sunday until the end of may. our business correspondent marc ashdown has more. it's all aboard for a potentially frustrating day of train disruption across a big swathe of the uk rail network. avanti runs trains the length and breadth of britain, but very few will be running today, with some areas

getting no service at all. train managers who are members of the rmt union rejected a revised offer about working on rest days, so they walked out on new year's eve and january the 2nd, and now plan to go on strike on each of the next 20 consecutive sundays. just one train an hour will run between london euston and each of birmingham, manchester, liverpool and preston. they will only run between 8am and 5pm too. glasgow and carlisle will have a limited service, with rail—replacement buses running between carlisle and preston due to planned engineering work. and north wales, blackpool, edinburgh, stoke on trent and macclesfield will have no ava nti west coast services whatsoever. both sides say they're open and willing to negotiate but have criticised one another. the rmt general secretary mick lynch accused avanti of paying its own senior managers extortionate rates for working on their days off, while those who are union members were paid lower rates. avanti said it was disappointed by the strike action

and thanked passengers for their patience and understanding. it said customers with tickets for strike days were strongly advised to travel on alternative dates, or they could claim a full fee—free refund. after doctors found that baby luca's spine wasn't forming properly in the womb, his mum was faced with a remarkable treatment option — effectively giving birth to him twice. he was removed from the womb at 27 weeks for an operation to help reduce his spina bifida. baby luca was then born naturally atjust under nine months. leanne rinne has the story. meet cheeky little luca. he's just turned two and his favourite thing to do is play peek—a—boo. again! his parents were told early on during pregnancy that luca had spina bifida, which is when a baby's spine and spinal cord doesn't develop properly in the womb.

at first, they thought terminating the pregnancy was their best option. 0n the day that we were going to go through with termination, instead, we had a scan and luca's foot was moving and his toes were moving as well. and they brought all the doctors in to have a look which, for us two, we were just like, well, why are we going to terminate if...? because that shouldn't have happened. like, for what they were telling us. and then they spoke to us about surgery, how it would work, and we thought that would be the better option for us, and hope for the best. when lisa was 27 weeks pregnant, doctors removed luca from her womb during surgery to repair some of the damage caused by spina bifida. he was then placed back into her uterus and was born naturally at 38 weeks and has been thriving ever since. luca has proven everyone wrong. he is learning to walk, but he can take steps and he shouldn't have been able

to do that. obviously, the walking and the talking is a bonus, but ijust want him to have a great life. that's all i care about, that's all i ever say. so, yeah, he does make me really proud. there are challenges when you have a baby with spina bifida. i obviously, that can affect people's mobility, it can. affect their bladder and bowel. however, there are lots and lots of services - there to help people, including shine — all of our children are at clinics. - so, you know, there are always physiotherapists, occupationall therapists and people to assist with that. i and all of our adults are able to go on and lead very full i and individual lives. it's good to be supporting himself. luca is making huge progress with his mobility during physiotherapy sessions. and at home, he's also going from strength to strength and enjoys keeping everyone on their toes. here's a story to give you a bit of a lift.

for centuries, people have been picking up ancient stones as a show of strength. the stones often weigh hundreds of pounds. it's an activity that's popular in ireland, scotland, and iceland — but what about england? 0ne farmerfrom cumbria has made it his mission to restore what he says is a lost art, asjonathan swingler reports. they're a part of history. it's a stone that generations of people had their hands on, have challenged themselves and their friends to lift. you're linking yourself through the stone to history, and ijust find that fascinating. it's euphoric when you get it off the floor. you've challenged yourself, you've challenged the stone. callum has become obsessed with finding historical lifting stones. he's discovered one in someone's back garden in county durham. it's the first what you'd call

a challenge stone that's been found in england. it's a lovely, 130kg lump that young men walking home from the pub would pass the blacksmiths and challenge each other to lift. we think potentially 1830s but it could well be older. the only person i ever knew who lifted it was my dad's brother, my uncle brian, in the late 605, but nobody had brother, my uncle brian, in the late '605, but nobody had ever lifted it until callum got in touch. i think it's important that these stories are told and not lost. 0ral history's important, but it is weird! my drive is to revive the culture of stone lifting here in england. it's present in iceland, scotland, ireland, sweden, japan, and it must be present here, and i'm determined to build it up again and get it going. i thought, there must be that crossover of culture and we must have lifting stones here. i started researching them and looking for them. callum's mission to find lifting stones means he's searching all over

the north of england. we are not in county durham any more, we're in the lake district national park. we are walking over to st kentigern's church, in mungrisdale. i've been sent a picture of these two stones outside a church thatjust stand out as out of place, as potential lifting stones. a lot of our history, oral history of the rural parishes and the rural people, has been lost because it wasn't recorded. and i feel i'm here to save that history and potentially restore it and recover it for future generations. good for him. finally, a pair of glasses belonging to the late comedian eric morecambe has sold for £20,000 at auction. his distinctive tortoiseshell specs went under the hammer — thankfully, not literally —

this weekend alongside his tail coat and trousers, writing desk and smoking pipes. you can catch up with all the stories we are covering, including the fires in la, on our website, and we had a live page there, details of where the fires have been contained and also some figures now coming through suggesting the palisades fire is a ten mile wide plays. it has destroyed 5000 structures, just that fire alone, and killed five people overall —— ten mile wide blaze. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. hello there. for most of us it's been another very cold start this morning. widespread frost across eastern areas but less cold across the west — temperatures above freezing, and we're starting to see a thaw of the snow and the ice. and that's the theme to come for this upcoming week. it will be turning less cold or even milderfor some of us through the week. mostly dry thanks to high pressure, but we will have some issues with mist and fog, particularly at night, where winds will be lighter

under this area of high pressure across england and wales. but breezier conditions across scotland and northern ireland through today and that's bringing the mild air in here, that rapid snow and ice thaw too two and outbreaks of rain with a few weak weather fronts. so a breezy, cloudy mild night to come here. but for england and wales, lighter winds, variable cloud, a little bit of mist and fog, and again it will be another cold one. not as cold as it has been but again a touch of frost here. very different to how it's going to be across scotland and northern ireland. and that rapid thaw of snow and ice could lead to some localised flooding as we head on into monday here. further rain falling on that snow and ice melt as well. that weather front weakening as it pushes into the area of high pressure. england and wales, i think monday mostly dry, variable cloud, a bit of sunshine and turning less cold. 5 to 7 celsius here, but double figures across scotland and northern ireland. that weather front through monday night fizzles out as it moves into the area of high pressure across england and wales. it leaves a legacy of cloud. a milder theme for most away from the very far south and south—east,

which could see the last cold night here, but double figure values, as you can see, for glasgow and for belfast, so a lot milder here. tuesday, variable cloud, breezier conditions in scotland and northern ireland. i think it will be mostly dry apart from a bit of drizzle across western hills. could see a little bit of mist and fog across england and wales where we'll have lighter winds thanks to that area of high pressure, but a milder day, less cold for all. 8 to 13 celsius from south to north across the uk. as we head through wednesday, thursday, friday, that area of high pressure continues to bring similar conditions. these weather fronts always grazing the far north—west, where it will always be a bit breezier and it will always stay milder here as well, as you can see, from the darker orange colours. further south, we're closer to the seasonal norm, but still less cold than what we've had of late. so there's the outlook, then. a lot of fine weather around, bit of mist and fog in england and wales. mildest for the north and the west where there'll be a little bit of rain at times. take care.

live from london. this is bbc news. the number of people killed in the los angeles wildfires rises to 16, with firefighters battling to contain the two biggest blazes.

winds are picking up again — strengthening the flames. a further 166,000 people are being warned they might have to leave. a police officer dies on a uk motorway — struck by a lorry as she investigates a crash. detectives issue an appeal for witnesses. the army in sudan says it has captured a key city, in one of its biggest gains in an almost two—year war against rebel forces. and nobel peace prize winner malala yousafzai urges muslim leaders not to legitimise the taliban administration. hello, i'm lauren taylor. the wildfires emergency that's engulfed parts of los angeles shows no sign of letting up. the federal emergency management agency has just said us military personnel are ready to join the crisis team. we're expecting an update from the authorities in la in the next few minutes.