here in the uk, 2022 saw the highest number of excess deaths outside the covid pandemic in half a century. and france tries again to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. it s an unpopular reform that didn t go well last time it tried. we ll be live in paris. we start in ukraine. president volodymyr zelensky has said ukraine s army is facing an extremely difficult situation as fighting continues in the eastern donbas region. the focus is the salt mining town of soledar. the uk defence ministry says it s likely that russian forces including wagner group mercenaries now control most of the town. we ll be taking a look at why it s become central to this conflict. but first, here s president zelensky. translation: and what did russia want to win there? i everything is completely destroyed. there was almost no life left. thousands of their people are gone, the whole land in soledar is covered with the corpses of the invaders and scarred from the strikes. this is what madness loo
concerns about safety. paramedics and support staff are taking further action in their dispute over pay and conditions. they say the current situation is not sustainable. we don t meet minimum levels now on a day to day basis. i cannot stress enough how difficult it is for us to be able to deliver that care to patients. here at westminster, the government not was planning ahead. it wants to change the law to force unions to offer emergency cover during strikes. labour say that is insulting to workers. we ll have the latest on the series of disputes in different public sectors and the likelihood of resolution any time soon. also tonight. 2022 was a year of climate extremes, weather experts say. europe and the polar regions were hardest hit by global warming. the latest on the fighting in eastern ukraine, where the mining town of soledar is reported to be under russian control. and the popularity of gaming helps boost the uk s home entertainment industry to record levels. and s
but that could rise even higher, as officials carry out more search and rescue missions today and work to access areas cut off from flooding. more than 800,000 customers are still without power in the state. and new today, the ft. myers police department is warning residents to be on the lookout for hurricane recovery scams. ft. myers beach will be closed for the next week. as some are demanding answers over whether lee county ordered mandatory evacuations soon enough. every loss of life you have to say to yourself, what could you do differently next time. should that have been done differently? unfortunately, we can t bring anything back. we ll look and find out. i want to know because it s an issue i had as governor trying to stay what did i learn to make sure we don t lose a life? the new york times had one of the six models, one model said 40% probability. and that s what they re hanging their story on. we have done everything we can from using state resources,
languages. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening it is a restless night in kyiv after the ukrainian capital came under a barrage of russian missiles that struck across the country earlier today, killing nearly a dozen. officials say at least 84 cruise missiles and 24 drones were used in today s attacks that russia calls an act of revenge after accusing ukraine of being behind the weekend explosion that destroyed parts of a major bridge and critical supply route connecting russia to annexed crimea the russian strikes hitting ukraine s energy infrastructure, plunging many cities into an unsettling darkness president biden condemning russia, saying it destroyed targets with no military purpose the attack comes as vladimir putin faces growing pressure at home to take a harder stand against ukraine, which has made major gains on the battlefield recently tonight we have teams on the ground both inside ukraine and in moscow let s start with cal perr