and reports that one of the biggest stars in world sport, quarterback tom brady, is to retire from the nfl. america's east coast is being battered by the first major blizzard it the region in four years. experts warn of historic snowfall in some places and flood warnings have been issued near the coast. tens of thousands of power outages have been reported and more than 6000 flights have been cancelled. here's our north america correspondent peter bowes. a blanket of snow covers times square in new york city, the streets largely deserted as most people hunker down at home. this has been a colossal storm, a bomb cyclone as it is known, a combination of heavy snow and strong winds approaching the strength of a hurricane. this winter wonderland in the heart of new york city is fun for some, but heading out for a selfie moment is not advised by the authorities. the blizzard conditions can be extremely dangerous. the snowscapes in new york are repeated across great swathes of the eastern united states. boston airport in massachusetts is under a thick layer. across the region, around 6,000 weekend flights have been cancelled. in many neighbourhoods, snowploughs and salt spreaders have been working for hours to try to clear the roads. many homes are without power. we get the prevailing north—east winds. it really impacts the coastal areas. they get that strong wind that comes off the ocean so in addition to having to deal with borderline historic amounts of snow, you get the winds thatjust push all of that water onshore. along the coast, battered by strong winds, flood warnings have been issued as the storm moves northwards. with frigid, potentially life—threatening temperatures overnight, officials are urging people to stay indoors until the storm passes. this is what is the dangerousness we are talking about, we're expecting temperatures in the single digits tonight and into tomorrow morning, and this is when frostbite kicks in. look at how serious that can be. so, take this very seriously. the worst of the snowfall is almost over but the dangers posed by the extreme conditions will linger, with a huge cleanup operation likely to last several days. peter bowes, bbc news. one of the areas worst affected by the storm is cape cod in massachusetts, where some meteorologists have been to measure the weather. if you canjust make him out, that was the situation on the coast on cape cod earlier, with that weather watcher being knocked over by the conditions. a short time ago i spoke to jack sillin, another weather watcher who has been out braving the blistering conditions in cape cod. he explained whats been happening there. it's about 15 degrees here in south dennis, massachusetts. that's not how we started the day, though — we started with a temperature around 32, we had the wet, heavy snow that stuck to the trees and power lines. that is why you are seeing so many power outages across cape cod where places like boston or worcester which may have gotten more snow don't necessarily have the power impact. but now it's cold, the snow is fluffy, so it's just blowing around. hopefully we can get the power grid back up and running fairly soon. so, 15 fahrenheit, it's about minus nine degrees celsius for those of us who talk new money. can you give us a sense of the bigger picture and how this storm is moving? yeah, so the storm started last night as a small cluster of clouds of the coast of florida. it moved rapidly north—east, developing and fuelled by the powerful contrast between this arctic air mass — it was 5a below zero fahrenheit up in quebec a couple of days ago — and the cold air is moving south, smashing into this rich tropical moisture coming up from the bahamas and that is how you're able to get this prolific snow to accumulate here in parts of coastal massachusetts. the storm actually stalled out its motion a little bit after moving really quickly yesterday and that is how we have been able to get the snow to accumulate for so many hours today, prolonging the impacts from this historic blizzard. we've heard this phrase "bomb cyclone" or bombogenesis storm, can you tell us what that means? yeah, so that's a term that means the storm's pressure, it has to do with how fast the storm is intensifying. the intensity of a storm is measured by its minimum central pressure, barometric pressure. if the storm's pressure drops more than 2a millibars in 2a hours at considered meteorologically a bomb cyclone. this storm actually deep and 42 millibars in the last 2a hours, meaning it is nearly double the criteria of a bomb cyclone, so it is a very, very powerful storm. and what kind of threat does this storm pose? quite a lot. as i mentioned, we started out with the wet, heavy snow clinging to trees and power lines, so we have power outage issues. that's obviously dangerous as the temperatures are dropping tonight, lots of people without heat and electricity. a little bit further to the west, and now that we're getting the colder air, you're worried about blowing snow, significantly reducing visibility, making travel extremely treacherous. even if you didn't get a whole lot of snow, maybe only six to 12 inches, you can get drifts of several feet, over a metre of drifts, and that is making travel extremely treacherous. and then of course now the cold air is coming in, temperatures are going to be dipping into the single digits tonight with wind chills well below zero fahrenheit, that means it's dangerous cold. so if you are stuck outside in your car, if you are without power, this is a potentially serious situation. jack sillinjoing us earlierfrom cape cod. south korea and japan have reported another north korean ballistic missile launch off its east coast — the seventh missile test in the space of a month. pyongyang has not tested its long—range intercontinental ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons for nearly five years, but has instead launched a wide array of sophisticated shorter range projectiles, including hypersonic and cruise missiles. north korea's leader, kim jong—un, called on the military to rapidly develop its technology and capabilities, ignoring us calls for talks on denuclearisation. now, britain says it's preparing a series of diplomatic and military initiatives in europe next week, in the wake of growing tensions with russia. the prime minister, borisjohnson, has issued a statement saying the uk is willing to double its nato troop contingent in the baltic states and eastern europe, as well as send defensive weapons to estonia. mrjohnson is also due to go to eastern europe in the coming days as part of diplomatic efforts to prevent russia invading ukraine. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake has this explanation on the uk response to the crisis in ukraine. what we have tonight is some more detail on what boris johnson said to mps in the house of commons a few days ago, and it was that britain was prepared to deploy troops to protect nato allies in europe if russia invades ukraine. but it seems this possible move to double the number of uk forces in estonia, which currently stands at around 900 or so, so that would put it at around 2000, would be a pre—emptive move, not necessarily in response to any russian invasion. downing street is talking about this as an example of the biggest possible offer to nato that the uk is willing and able to make to step up its presence in the region, to protect nato allies and to help ukraine itself bolster its defences. this is not necessarily definitely going to happen. we are told diplomats will go to brussels this week to finalise the details, of course it will have to be signed off, you would imagine, by other members of nato as well. and the prime minister will go to the region this week, he will talk to vladimir putin, and in contrast to this, or alongside this, if you like, this pre—emptive move to send extra uk troops, we are told he will reiterate the need for russia to re—engage diplomatically, as the uk sees it, and to attempt to persuade russia to step back from any potential aggressive moves. meanwhile, russia has now gathered more than 100,000, tanks and missiles on its border with ukraine, but has repeatedly denied it's planning any sort of invasaion. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet has more from kyiv. ukrainians have long lived with war. dozens of british soldiers, here since 2015, not long after russia first invaded. but with more of moscow's troops and weapons now massed along the border, diplomacy builds, too. next week, boris johnson's visit to this region takes it up a notch. here in kyiv, there's concern that too much talk of war can be risky, too, but they need their friends. it's a good signal for us, not only for us, not only for ukraine, but also to russian federations, that we have strong partners. we will not be alone with this, if the invasion comes to be, so it's a good signal. moscow sends conflicting signals. more troops, more weaponry moving in, but its door still open to find a way out. washington does the same — talking to allies in moscow, too, while readying military reinforcements and warnings about any war. it would be horrific, it would be terrible and it's not necessary, and we think a diplomatic outcome is the way to go here. this is what it looks like now. russia released these images of its anti—aircraft missiles arriving in neighbouring belarus for next month's military exercises. a month fraught with ever—growing risk. lyse doucet for us there in ukraine. let's get some of the day's other news. 13 people have been killed and another ten injured in mexico after a a vehicle overturned. emergency services from jalisco state said the truck flipped into a ditch on a highway often used by catholic pilgrims visiting a local shrine. after a week long drive across canada, a convoy of trucks has arrived in ottawa to protest against vaccine mandates and covid-19 against vaccine mandates and covid—19 measures. the movement was sparked by new rules for truckers crossing the us—canada border, implemented byjustin trudeau's liberal government earlier this month. in italy, mps have re—elected sergio mattarella as the country's president after failing to agree on an alternative candidate. the 80—year—old had said he didn't ot want a second term, but was persuaded to stay on after a week of inconclusive votes in parliament. we go to east africa, now. the leader of the tigray people's liberation front in ethiopia says there have been encouraging signs during indirect talks with the government aimed at ending the war which began almost 15 months ago. the news comes as the bbc has heard that some of the nurses and doctors at the biggest hospital in ethiopia's war—torn tigray region are having to beg for food to feed themselves. mark lobel reports. life in food starved tigray in northern ethiopia where pregnant mothers often go to sleep on an empty stomach. translation: because of the food shortages i we feed our children first. and if there's anything left, we can eat. she is not alone. in total well over 9 million people that have no access to food at the moment. vitalfood aid and medical supplies have been cut off for much of the last 15 months as ethiopian federal government forces have been battling rebels from this region. but now a key rebel leader has told the bbc of a possible breakthrough. we started talking with federal government communications and discussions, we will see. there are signs of improvement but we are still waiting. we are waiting inaudible withdrawn a week, we are giving peace a chance. also indicating a move away from military action is ethiopian prime minister, abiy ahmed. he has pardoned political prisoners and is no longer seeing the rebels as a threat to his power so has lifted a six month state of emergency in the country. but for now the fighting goes on. any effort to reach a cease—fire may be complicated by the ongoing involvement of eritrean troops in the war. a conflict in which millions have been displaced and many have lost loved ones. for locals, any peaceful resolution couldn't come soon enough. this is bbc news. our top headline: a powerful winter storm is battering the east coast of the united states. forecasters are warning of historic blizzards, deep snowfall, power cuts and travel chaos. here in the uk, another powerful weather system, storm malik, has claimed the lives of a nine—year—old boy in england, and a 60—year—old woman in scotland. catriona renton reports. widespread disruption as storm malik swept its way into northern parts of the uk. the north—east of england took a battering. and in bradford, lee warner and his friend richard had been packing up their gear after a bike ride. we were sat between the two back seats, just crouching down, really. pushed me further down. i lay down on the floor, my friend pulled me out of the back of the van. an almighty crash. to be honest, i thought my friend were dead. i think he has been really lucky. northern powergrid says tens of thousands of customers are still without power, mostly in northumberland and county durham. tonight, county durham county council have declared a major incident following the impact of the storm. this is just day one — storm arwen lasted more than a week, it lasted ten days for some people. so we are not in the same position now as we were then, thankfully. the numbers we are dealing with are much smaller this time but, of course, for anyone affected by it, it is a significant disruption. this afternoon in staffordshire, police were called after a tree fell in winnothdale near stoke—on—trent. a nine—year—old boy later died in hospital. and in aberdeen, in north—east scotland, emergency services were called at 10:30 this morning to the place where this tree had fallen but, sadly, a 60—year—old woman had died. gusts of 85mph were recorded on the aberdeenshire coast. at one point, more than 80,000 homes in scotland were without power and transport was disrupted. a second storm, storm corrie, is now on its way, expected to bring further high winds, especially to northern scotland tomorrow. catriona renton, bbc news. it's thought that 1.3 million people in the uk are living with long covid, and hundreds of thousands of them experience breathlessness. traditional lung scans often appear to be normal though. but researchers in oxford are using a different technique in a clinical trial which does show problems in these patients' lungs. they hope that understanding the problem will lead to better treatment options. 0ur health correspondent catherine burns explains. flo van diemen van thor was never one for just sitting down inside, but she says long covid has been a horror show. it was not just the breathlessness that was really hard, it was the muscle weakness — legs like jelly and just thinking, "if i try to go down the stairs, they might not carry me". but this is the ct scan of flo's lungs and, like so many long covid patients, everything looks normal and healthy. these are my lungs. i've had them all my life. i know there's something wrong with them. flo is taking part in a study in oxford. breathe in. . .and out. researchers think they're the first in the world to be able to show abnormalities in the lungs of long covid patients. flo and the other volunteers have an mri scan as they suck in xenon gas. it behaves like oxygen and should cross from their lungs into their bloodstream. the numbers are small so far — 36 patients — 11 who didn't need hospital care when they were first infected but went on to get long covid. it's a very exciting and very encouraging first step. so what we have here is one of the patients from our trial and the ct scan is entirely normal. they have then gone on and had a xenon gas mri. this is the xenon getting through normally into their bloodstream from their lungs and the blacker areas are where the xenon gas or oxygen would struggle to get through. it's early days for this study and there are still lots of questions, including exactly what is causing these abnormal lung scans. in the meantime, there aren't many of these specially adapted mri scanners across the country. if this research proves they are worthwhile, it would take some serious investment and several months to scale them up across the nhs. and breathe out... lovely. really good, really good. flo says this was the turning point for her, learning breathing techniques with a respiratory physiotherapist. try and slow... it might take her longer to recover after exercise now, but she's moved up a level in karate. she's not back to normal yet, but thinks she will get there. catherine burns, bbc news. us media say one of the biggest stars in world sport, the american football quarterback tom brady, is expected to announce his retirement after 22 seasons. he's considered by many to be the best nfl quarterback player in the history of the game. earlier i spoke to nick hamilton, a reporter and host at nitecast media and siriusxm. i asked him about some of the mixed messages around his retirement. well, as of right now, the early reports came out that tom brady was leaning more towards retirement and was going to announce his retirement in the next couple days but as of the last few hours, tom brady's agent, along with his dad, thomas brady senior, came out and said tom brady has not made an official announcement yet, which more than likely will probably be coming sometime in the coming days of this week. i can't see tom brady allowing something as significant as the announcement of his retirement getting out before he had the opportunity to do it himself. now, for those who are not nfl fans watching around the world, give us a sense of tom brady and some of the high points of his career. i mean, tom brady is arguably the goat. he's one of the greatest of all time when it comes to the world of the nfl and the game of football. i mean, this is a guy that's thrown for over 84,000 yards, thrown for over 600 touchdowns in his career, seven—time nfl champion and just personified greatness. this is the guy that was not overly athletically gifted but he had a way and a will to win. much like how we talk about kobe bryant and his mamba mentality or the great michaeljordan, this is how we talk about tom brady — his willingness to win, his willingness to make other players around him better, and he expected nothing less than success and excellence and this is exactly what tom brady was about. tom brady was about winning at all costs. i mean, this is a guy that actually had different instruments as far as just exercise equipment, he hired a different nutritionist, just to make sure he was available and ready for the next season. and so, at 44 years of age, 22—year season — i mean, excuse me, 22 years in the nfl, i mean this is a guy who has accomplished it all. i don't see anybody eclipsing his record any time in my lifetime. let's stick with support for the time being. —— sport. to the australian open now and the historic win by world number one, ashleigh barty. she beat american danielle collins in straight sets, making her the first australian player to win a singles title on home soil since 1978. tennis commentator craig gabriel is at the open and described the moment. as i think about it, i'm getting goose bumps all over again. this was absolutely beyond electric. it was brilliant. when she hit that final point crosscourt that fought off the forehand, the crowd just rose in unison and had the roof been closed over the rod laver arena, it would have been shuddering, the noise was so loud and so adoring, as you suggested. this was just an incredible achievement on her part, to win the australian open — the first australian player to do it in 44 years and christine 0'neil did it in 1978, the last australian player to win an australian 0pen singles title, was sitting in the first row of the president's box watching it all unfold. it was surreal, just an amazing experience. we know that ash barty is a proud indigenous woman and so too is her mentor evonne goolagong cawley, herself a former tennis champ. she was there to surprise ash barty. how significant is this for first nations children watching at home? absolutely huge. evonne was a four—time champion at the australian open and the secret of evonne doing the trophy presentation was kept from ash — i suspected that something was up but only people very close to ash knew about it, and evonne was kept to one side and ash's face was beaming when she saw evonne come out and the announcement, and this was so important for first nations, indigenous children because these are two women who are incredible role models for them. they feel now that if ash and evonne in the past had achieved what they have, and she is world number one, then why can't they do it? and i think this will be such an impetus for young kids — not just girls but boys as well. and also in there was cathy freeman, who won olympic gold here at the sydney 0lympics, so the three women together, it was a powerful statement, it really was, for first nations people. and finally in a few hours' time, the men's final gets under way, both players having the chance to write history. what are we looking out for? absolutely, and i think we will see a long final between daniil medvedev and rafael nadal, rafa attempting to become the first man to get to 21 majors and break this 3—way tie that he shares with roger federer and novak djokovic. he is by far the sentimental favourite for the australian 0pen championship. but daniil is playing extraordinary tennis again, the only player to come back from 2—0 sets down to win at the australian open and he too, on the history side, could, if he wins, will be the first man in the open era to win his next grand slam after winning his first — he won the us open and now he's trying to win the australian open. nobody else has done that — to win straight after winning a first major. and you can keep up—to—date with the australian open men's final between now and medvedev on bbc radio 5 live and the bbc news website. —— between nadal. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @richpreston. stay with us. hello there. the winds from storm malik eased down quite quickly during the latter part of saturday and we saw a ridge of high pressure build in to give us a fine start for sunday morning — cold, frosty and sunny for many — but conditions will deteriorate across the north and the west of the country later as the next deepening area of low pressure hurtles in off the atlantic. this has been named by the uk met office as storm corrie, and that'll arrive later on sunday across scotland, northern ireland, northern england. but we start the day off largely fine and settled with lots of sunshine around. the sunshine will hold on across central, southern and eastern parts of england through the day. cloud will build up further north and west and it'll start turning wetter and windier for northern ireland. northern and western scotland, some snow developing on the hills. gales developing across the western isles. it's going to be a chilly day across the board for sunday — highs of 5 to 9 degrees. and then through sunday evening and overnight as storm corrie moves across the north of the uk, a real squeeze in the isobars behind this system as it pushes out into the north sea, so i think some of the greatest impacts will be felt once again across scotland. but we have a blanket yellow warning of wind gusts for the northern half of the uk, 50—60 mph gusts here — and an amberwarning for the northern half of scotland, where we could see gusts 70—80 mph, maybe even stronger than that for a time across the north—west of the country. along with that, there'll be some heavy rain and mountain snow which will clear away and then, in the early hours of monday, we'll see a rash of blustery showers pushing down from the north—west with clear spells in between, some wintriness over the higher ground. a chilly night to come, but not as cold as the previous night. so we start monday, then, off on a chilly note. there will be some sunshine around across eastern areas. the strong winds will have cleared away by this point but it will be a breezy day with further showers packing in to northern and western areas. again, some of these will be wintry on the hills. and another fairly cool day to come — 6—9 degrees. we could just make 10 degrees across south wales, south west england. beyond then, as we move through the week, we'll see further wet and windy weather affecting northern and eastern parts of the country around this area of high pressure. not as windy as what we've had over the weekend, but with higher pressure always towards the south, many southern areas will tend to stay a lot calmer. and there will be some milder air moving in from the south—west for a time. most of the rain in the north. signs of it turning chillierfor all by the end of the week. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines: a powerful winter storm is battering the east coast of the united states. forecasters are warning of historic blizzards, deep snowfall, power cuts and travel chaos. the governors of new york, newjersey, massachusetts and virginia have declared emergencies and urged people to stay home. the uk says it's preparing a series of diplomatic and military initiatives in europe next week in the wake of growing tension between ukraine and russia. the prime minister, borisjohnson, issued a statement saying britain was willing to double its nato troop contingent in eastern europe. and a more detailed study is under way after initial research finds some people with long covid may have hidden damage to their lungs. researchers asked patients to inhale xenon gas before having an mri. it revealed the lungs had difficulty in smoothly transferring oxygen into the bloodstream. now on bbc news, it's time for click.