mass from st peter s. hello and welcome to bbc news. an icy blast is affecting nearly 250 million people in the us and canada, as one of the most severe winter storms in living memory takes hold with snow blizzards, strong winds and freezing temperatures. at least 19 people have died. more than 1.5 million american households and businesses are without electricity, and thousands of flights have been cancelled. the us state of montana registered a record breaking low of minus 45 celsius. nomia iqbal reports. for much of america, this is the coldest christmas eve. millions of them had plans to get away for the holidays. but the powerful bomb cyclone has thrown everything into chaos, causing car accidents, destroying power lines, leaving millions without electricity. the warning is, don t travel unless you need to. don t travel under these conditions unless you have to. because anything can happen at any moment, and you ve got to be on your toes. some places like new york have
migration in human history. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it s newsday. it s 6am in singapore, and 2:30am in the afghan capital kabul where monday marks a year since the taliban swept back into power. the 15th of august 2021 marked their takeover of the country and caused thousands to try and leave in fear of what could lie ahead. and leave in fear of one year on life for women and girls is very different with harsh rules restricting education and employment. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who was in kabul last august, has returned there for this special report. it s a man s world. afghanistan is a conservative country. but the rules are now set by the ultraconservative taliban. spaces which had opened up for women have now been slammed shut. we met three generations of women whose lives speak loudly about their world. many are afraid. they don t want to be identified. this woman used to be a senior official in the finance minist
france will play germany on wednesday. the winner of that game will take on either england or sweden in the final. now on bbc news, the travel show. coming up on the travel show. we are finding out what s at the bottom of venice s most popular canals. they re something really big on the line here. it looks really, really heavy. we meet the chef bringing a comforting taste of ukraine to london. welcome to my kitchen! thank you. and lucy checks out the latest tech designed to inject more fun into festival season. i just love the fact that i can film hands free effortlessly. i can listen to music, i can make calls on these things. we start this week in one of europe s most breathtakingly beautiful destinations, venice, in north east italy. this city on water is made up of over 100 islands, interconnected by a labyrinth of picture perfect canals and elegant bridges. life around here has remained the same for hundreds of years and steadfast through that time have been the gondolie
and the long wait is over for millions of lord of the rings fans.as a tv pre quel is launched at comic con . a landmark agreement to allow the export of grain, from the ukrainian port of odesa has come under threat, after the city was hit by a missile strike, less than 2a hours after the deal was signed. russia had promised not to attack the port or any ships carrying grain out of it. but president zelensky said the strike showed that moscow would always find ways to avoid delivering on its agreements. there has been no direct response from the kremlin. our ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse, sent this report from odesa. in a war littered with broken promises and especially devastating betrayal, two missiles launched from the black sea hitting odesa s port. two others were taken out by air defence systems. for coffee vendor sergei, there is only one thing to do. translation: i saw black smoke after the missiles hit, so i knew i had to run to a bomb shelter and hid