— the multi—million selling meat loaf, who's died at the age of 7a. hello and welcome to bbc news. the first shipment of us military aid to ukraine approved in recent weeks by president biden has arrived in kyiv. the us embassy there says it includes 90 tonnes of what it called "lethal aid", including ammunition. it comes after the us and russia held what they called "frank talks" in switzerland aimed at reducing the risk of a conflict in ukraine. president biden has travelled to the presidential retreat at camp david, where he will be joined by secretary of state antony blinken, who is on his way back from the meeting with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. the us wants russia to pull its forces back from the ukrainian border, which western countries fear are preparing to invade. the us has promised to provide a written response to russia's security demands, which include a ban on ukrainejoining nato. our diplomatic correspondent james landale has more. more russian forces on the move. surface—to—air missiles in the country's far east due to join what moscow says are military exercises near ukraine — part of the growing build—up of troops and equipment revealed by images of strategic locations close to the border — what western powers fear may be preparation for war. but for now, the diplomacy continues too. america's and russia's top diplomats met in geneva and at first couldn't even agree how to greet one another, with one question on everyone�*s lips. reporter: is - an invasion likely, as president biden suggested? speaks russian mr lavrov seemed to suggest it was up to the united states and later dismissed talk of invasion as "hysterical rhetoric designed to provoke ukraine." what does russia want most — an unstable, dependent ukraine or a new sphere of influence in eastern europe? translation: we are not trying to get a sphere of influence, - but what nato is doing shows it considers ukraine to be a part of its sphere of influence. to the west, ukraine is an independent, sovereign nation. that means it has a right to self—determination, free from russian control. and if it wants to join nato or any other international alliance, well, that's for it to decide. russia's view is different. it sees the former soviet country as historically within its sphere of influence and also strategically important. crimea was annexed, in part, to protect russia's access to the black sea. and as for nato membership, that would be seen as a threat to russia's core security. that's why president putin wants nato to rule out ukraine ever becoming a member and withdraw its forces from eastern europe. america's secretary of state rejected these as non—starters and once again sought to deter any military action. we've been clear. if any russian military forces move across ukraine's border, that's a renewed invasion. it will be met with swift, severe and a united response from the united states and our partners and allies. there was no breakthrough at the talks here today, no deal to reduce the threat of war, but there was agreement for diplomacy to continue. the us will put forward ideas for more security co—operation next week. both sides will meet again after that. these are turbulent times. but for now, russia appears willing to continue talking, and western diplomats hope that might mean not fighting. james landale, bbc news, geneva. with more details on this shipment of military aid to ukraine, here's our north america correspondent peter bowes. we have a few details from the us embassy in kyiv. they say some 200,000lbs in lethal aid, as they put it, including ammunition for the frontline defenders of ukraine, and they point out in a second tweet that this is on top of some $2.7 billion worth of aid over the last few years, since 2014, the russian invasion, and according to this tweet, it represents the commitment of the united states to help ukraine bolster its defences in the face of russian aggression. so this is possibly the first of a number of shipments of some of the equipment. we know that nato countries are doing the same. of course what it doesn't mean is — and we've known this for a long time — it doesn't mean that the united states is preparing to send troops on the ground. the aid, as far as the us is concerned, at the moment at least, involves military hardware, but potentially, if there is an invasion, ukraine would effectively be on its own. interesting timing, though, as well, peter, of course, because we've been talking about the geneva talks, but also, president biden on his way now to camp david with secretary blinken. i mean, what's expected there? is there mood music around that meeting? well, i think the mood music will be sombre. that meeting, we don't know a timing, clearly, over the weekend, he'll be meeting — the president will be meeting mr blinken, who will be reporting back from what happened in geneva, or what didn't happen in geneva, and i think it'll be a regrouping to some extent with mr biden to essentially decide what their next move is. we know that us officials are preparing a written response to the russian demands. that's likely to come at some point next week. but in terms of the message to russia, i suspect it's going to be more of the same, and that is a very strong warning to russia that if they do invade, the consequences will be dire. thanks very much to peter. let's get some of the day's other news. two canadians have been shot dead and another wounded in mexico in a dispute among guests at a hotel. gunfire erupted at the hotel xcaret in the resort of playa del carmen, south of cancun. the attacker, a guest, is still at large. it's not known what sparked the argument. british counter—terrorism officers have been given more time to question two men arrested in birmingham and manchester in connection with last week's siege at a synagogue in texas. a british man, malik faisal akram, took several hostages during the 10—hour standoff — which ended when he was shot dead by police. a court in new york has sentenced a former associate of donald trump's ex—lawyer, rudy giuliani, to a year in prison for violating campaign finance law. igor fruman is also alleged to have helped mr giuliani to search for damaging information onjoe biden before he was elected president. us stock markets have suffered their worst week in nearly two years, with technology stocks especially hard hit. friday was the fourth successive day of significant falls. analysts say traders are responding to signals that interest rates will be rising. the united states has called for a de—escalation of the conflict in yemen after at least 70 people were killed in an air strike by the saudi—led coalition that supports the government. here's our international correspondent, 0rla guerin. and a warning — some viewers may find her report upsetting. another dawn in yemen. more destruction revealed in the cold light of day. prisoners were held here by houthi rebels, including african migrants just trying to transit through yemen. some were among the dead. in sa'dah province, the houthi heartland, they dug for survivors with their bare hands. but this was a massive air strike — the death toll is still climbing. the saudi—led coalition, which is backed by britain, says it will investigate fully. after a night of devastating strikes, the un secretary general criticised both the houthis, who carried out an attack on monday, and the coalition. any bombardment that targets civilians, or that is not careful enough to protect civilians, is of course also unacceptable. what we need is to stop this vicious circle in which things keep escalating, one after the other. but on the ground, war has the momentum. this was the port city of hudaydah. the houthis say the coalition hit a telecommunications centre, knocking out the internet across yemen. incredibly, this man was brought out alive. at the hospital, a desperate attempt to revive a child... wailing ..and a heart—rending loss. aid agencies say three children were killed playing football as the air strikes rained down. the houthis sparked the latest escalation with this deadly cross—border attack on the united arab emirates, a partner in the coalition. in the yemeni capital, sanaa, today, they staged a show of strength. here's the reality that confronts the coalition. after seven years of air strikes, it has failed to dislodge the houthis from these streets. but now, once again, it is bringing nights of terror and death to yemeni civilians. 0rla guerin, bbc news. let's turn to coronavirus come an hour. —— let's turn to coronavirus, now. the brazilian cities of rio de janeiro and sao paulo have delayed their carnival parades untill the end of april, in the face of record covid cases in the country. both cities had already canceled their carnival street parties, but were still considering having their samba parades at the end of february. on wednesday the country recorded 204,854 new daily cases, the most reported in a 24—hour period since the pandemic began. brazil has also stepped up its vaccination program for young children. earlier, the brazilian ministry of health approved the use of the chinese—made sinovac jab for 6—17 year olds. the vaccine was the first to be used in brazil, but has since laregly been replaced by other vaccines for adult use. dr pedro hallal is a professor of epidemiology at the federal university of pelotas, and was the lead investigator into the countries first nationwide investigation into the spread of covid—i9. i asked him to assess the severity of brazil's current outbreak. brazil has been devastated by the 0micron variant, similarly to what happened in other parts of the world. fortunately, we are not seeing such an increase in hospital admissions and in deaths, at least for now, we hope it will continue like that, and in part, it is because the proportion of the population vaccinated is high. so, 0micron is, you know, increasing the cases, i believe the numbers are much higher than the official statistics, but we are not seeing the same problem in terms of hospital admissions and deaths, at least yet. and how is the vaccination programme going in brazil? i know it was quite slow to start off with for many reasons. what does it look like now? it looks good now. brazil has a tradition of being successful in vaccination. in adults, it happened exactly like that, it's started very slow, the president himself was advocating against it, but as soon as it started, it went smoothly, and the same will start to happen with the kids. so, the ministry of health delayed it as long as they could, but now it's started, and i can predict that it will be another success, because you know, brazilians are used to vaccines and they trust vaccines a lot. what about this measure, though, to push back the samba parades to april — do you think that will make a significant difference? yeah, it's best to delay it than to have it right now. we are not sure whether it will be able to happen at the time they are planning, but at this stage, it would not be safe to have the parades. you know, all of us brazilians, we love carnival, it is a big thing for us, but for now, it is the wise decision to postpone it. i was looking as well, i was looking at kiribati, the tiny little nation that had two covid cases previous to this, it now has 36, they came in on its first flight, and now they are in lockdown. i guess they were going for a zero covid policy. do you think any country, big or small, can really have zero covid? yeah, i think with the 0micron variant, realistically, it will be very difficult to keep cases that low. but you know, as soon as you see the cases, you need to do something. and that's what i think many countries are failing. at least at brazil now, we're not anything to stop the 0micron curve, it's pretty much trusting that the vaccine will solve the problem. we know it helps, but it will not solve the problem itself. we need other measures, but the other measures pretty much are not happening, unfortunately. this is bbc news, the headlines: the first shipment of us military aid to ukraine, approved by president biden, has arrived in kyiv. it follows talks aimed at easing tension over russia's build—up of troops on the ukrainian border. the us has called for a de—escalation in the conflict in yemen after dozens of people were killed in an air strike by the saudi—led coalition which supports the government. anti—abortion activists gathered in washington earlier today for the annual "march for life". this year they are optimistic that the supreme court will overturn the roe versus wade decision that legalised abortion nationwide in the 1970s. 0rganisers say tens of thousands of people joined the march. earlier i asked kristan hawkins, president of the anti—abortion organisation, students for life of america if she thought roe v wade would be overturned. we believe there is a very good likelihood that we will see roe versus wade reversed within this year, in fact. the supreme court will be issuing a decision thisjune and the dobbs vjackson women's health case, based on a law passed in mississippi that bans abortion when children can feel excruciating pain during abortions at 15 weeks. the state of mississippi argued before the supreme court that roe versus wade was unreasonable, out of touch with science, and the mainstream of america and that should be completely reversed. and i should say a lot of people would take issue with your statements there and would not agree with your characterisation of a foetus at 15 weeks. however, i know that's your opinion and where you are coming from, but i wanted to state that for the record. medicaljournals with pro—choice and pro—life scientists are confirming the fact as early as 12.5 weeks, children feel pain. and there would be others that disagree with that but i want to get to some of the issues that are here because i know we can go down a rabbit hole sometimes when it comes down to abortion. there is strong support for abortion in particular issues, and some of the polls i was looking at from june, 87% support abortion when a woman's life is in danger, 84% support exceptions in the case of rape or incest, 74% support abortion if the child would be born, you know, with life—threatening illness. do you support abortion in any of those cases? well, i think you have to look at our laws here in america. roe versus wade and dobbs versus jackson — the two cases handed down in 1973 by seven men — said that abortion should be allowed and can be allowed in states up until the moment of birth in america for whatever reason, and sometimes done with taxpayer funds. both decisions are grossly out of touch with americans. in fact, even the most liberal voting bloc in america, the largest voting bloc in america, young people, people my age, gen z and gen y, three quarters of this large, very liberal voting bloc would say that they want to see at least restrictions and abortion because roe versus wade... crosstalk. sorry to interrupt but i would like to know from you, where do you stand when it comes to cases like that? do you see abortion as acceptable in certain cases? as students for life president and certainly in my work, no, i do not see there is exceptions. i have two children who were born with cystic fibrosis. children who are diagnosed in utero with cf, 90% of them do not survive, their heartbeats are ended simply because they have a genetic code and that's wrong, because a human being may be potentially suffering in their life, it is better for us to eliminate the sufferer than the potential suffering that someone may endure. i think that's grossly wrong and it's actually this ordering of the hierarchy of our rights and our... crosstalk. ..liberty over their life. that is with particular health aspects over pregnancy but in the cases of rape or incest, for example? well, that's not what we're talking about here. what we are marching for today in america is we are saying that roe versus wade should be reversed, the decision of abortion should be sent to the state, where voters — where eight out of ten young people agree that they want to actually have a vote and a voice for life. that's kristin hawkins there, just one of the views and the abortion debate. the number of netflix subscribers grew to 222 million last year, but the streaming service is facing a rocky road ahead as the surge of interest it saw during the pandemic fades. as a result, forecasts for this year sent shares down almost 20%. dawn chmielewski the us entertainment business correspondent at reuters spoke to me about what it means for the future of streaming. that was quite a freefall. as soon as netflix reported its results, its fourth—quarter results were not bad, they were roughly in line with what analysts anticipated but we were expecting netflix to return to its pre—pandemic, very predictable healthy growth and that's not what it is forecasting for the early part of the year. netflix is saying we are not emerging from the pandemic as quickly as we thought, parts of the world are recovering more slowly because of the economic impact of covid and so they forecast rather slow growth. the addition of a mere 2.5 million subscribers over the next three months to march. that sent shares plummeting, in aftermarket, even during the earnings call as netflix executives met with investors to try to rationally explain what was going on, shares continued to tank. they are down 20% today, dragging down the stocks of other companies that have built up streaming businesses that are in the model of netflix. what do you think is behind it, though? is itjust the market, those that are going to sign up to netflix have kind of done so and the pandemic was a very unique situation, or is it that there is just a lot more choice for the consumer? it's a complicated question. netflix will say, hey look, we have the world ahead of us, the trends are clear that streaming will gradually take over in the home and more and more people will sort of abandon their tvs, sorry bbc, and embrace the world of streaming. but analysts are concerned. they are saying look, netflix has a lot more competition in markets like the united states where penetration of subscription services like netflix or amazon or some of its competitors, it's 78% penetration so it is a pretty slow growth in a mature market and a lot of its growth in the future is coming from places like india where netflix finds itself competing with paid tv. a monthly cable subscription there costs $3 a month so that is not going to yield the same kind of return as netflix can command here in the united states and elsewhere around the world. so if you were going to advise netflix, what would you tell them to do? netflix has done fine without my advice so i wouldn't presume to take their place. we are going to stay the course, analysts are concerned that the enormous cost of attracting and retaining subscribers, is that going to be sustainable as growth slows or as growth comes in markets where the revenue is not as attractive. so that is the concern, that is one of the reasons why the stock plummeted today and the reason why disney was affected and other stocks that were rooted in streaming. one of the most successful artists in the history of rock music, meat loaf, has died at the age of 7a. his intense delivery helped to sell more than a hundred million records worldwide, including his best—known album "bat out of hell". david sillito reflects on the life of a rock legend. # like a bat out of hell, # i'll be gone when the morning comes...# meat loaf, bat out of hell — a sweat—drenched rock—and—roll epic that turned the man born marvin lee aday into one of the biggest—selling rock stars in the world. there have been many tributes. among them, cher, who sang with him on dead ringer, for love... bonnie tyler, and from i'd do anything for love, lorraine crosby. # i would do anything for love. # i'd never lie to you, and that's a fact. we just gelled. we gelled perfectly. and obviously, that's why the song went the way it did. so, every time i think of meat loaf, i think about being in the studio with him. # no no, no way... you just knew. you knew it was going to be great, you know. i'm sorry, i'm getting... you knew, you just knew instinctively that the album was going to be huge. # i would do anything for love, # but i won't do that. born in dallas, his mother was a teacher and singer, his father a policeman, and his childhood was tough. he was an alcoholic, and he'd always beat me up as a kid. threw me through a plate—glass window, threw me through a door. his escape was acting and musicals. he got a part in hair, and then the rocky horror picture show. bat out of hell was a project he'd been working on for years with the writerjim steinman. the rock establishment was scornful, but the fans — especially in britain — loved it. # praying for the end of time. # it's all that i can do... this famous performance on the old grey whistle test was where it all took off. but its huge success and the pressures it brought almost killed him. that was then followed by lawsuits and bankruptcy. he claimed years went by without him making a dime out of it, but nothing would ever top bat out of hell, a glorious, over—the—top, emotional battering ram, a rock—and—roll masterpiece. # hell...# meat loaf, who's died at the age of 7a. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @bbcnuala. i'd love to hearfrom i'd love to hear from you and we are going to bring you next the weather. thank you very much for watching bbc news and stay with us if you can. hello. it looks like the weather is taking part in dryjanuary — no significant rain on the way this weekend, nor indeed until at least the start of next week. there isn't going to be a huge amount of this either — blue sky and sunshine this weekend. cloud increased in the west on friday, looks like it is cloud that is going to win out across most places as the weekend goes on. temperatures edge a little bit higher. you'll notice that most in northern ireland and scotland, especially in northern scotland. so what's going on? high pressure close by, that is why we are having a lot of dry weather. around it, bringing in a lot of cloud from the atlantic. it does limit the extent and severity of frost as saturday starts. a touch of it in north—east scotland, patchy in wales and england, where we had any clear spells overnight. and a chance for some early mist and fog patches. you can see the extent of the cloud across the uk for saturday. just a few brighter breaks here and there. they are most likely across eastern parts of scotland and england, whereas towards north—west scotland, we are going to see some outbreaks of rain. and it is breezier here, compared with elsewhere, but it is also milder — 11 degrees in stornoway, 10 in belfast and glasgow. temperatures elsewhere a little higher than they were on friday. 0vernight and into sunday, quite a bit of cloud around, a few breaks in that cloud here and there, where they occur, the chance of seeing a touch of frost. parts of wales and england in particular. there will be some mist and fog patches developing towards southern areas, where the winds are light, and they could well be slow to clear in a few spots as sunday begins. the high very much here on sunday. there is a weather front edging closer towards north—west scotland as the day goes on. it doesn't look as if we will see much in the way of rain until sunday night. ahead of it, still some patchy rain in north—west scotland. the winds going to pick up here. gales developing in the western isles. a breezier day in northern ireland. light winds elsewhere. again, a lot of cloud around, just a few sunny spells. if anything on sunday, temperatures just come down a little bit. the high pressure still with us into the start of next week. by mid week, we are going to see a developing weather system heading our way. here it is, and mainly through wednesday night, we will see an area of rain moving its way southwards, weakening as it does so. and behind that, high pressure building back in again but for a time later in the week, there will be some brighter skies around. that's your weather. this is bbc news. the headlines: the first shipment of us military aid to ukraine, approved in recent weeks by president biden, has arrived in kyiv. it follows "frank talks" between russia and the us secretary of state in geneva on friday. moscow has massed one hundred thousand troops on the ukrainian border, but denies it plans to invade. the united states has called for a de—escalation of the conflict in yemen, after at least 70 people were killed when the saudi—led coalition that supports the government carried out an airstrike on a detention centre. the coalition has denied that it targeted the prison. singers, musicians and actors have been praising the achievements of meat loaf, the american rock artist, who's died at the age of 7a. the singer sold hundreds of millions of albums worldwide, with bat out of hell one of the best—selling recordings of all time. a former metropolitan police counter—terrorism