paid their last respects to the former pope benedict 16th before his funeral at the vatican on thursday. it s seven in the morning in singapore, and one in the morning in ukraine, where a ukrainian battlefield commander in the eastern town of bakhmut has told the bbc that the fighting there is ferocious. a us official has said russian forces have made incremental advances around the town, with mercenaries from the russian paramilitary wagner group heavily involved in the assault. the battle has been described as a meat grinder with high numbers of casualties on both sides. almost all of the city s 70 thousand occupants have fled. russia is working hard to capture bakhmut in the hope it could lead to the fall of sloviansk and krama torsk as well the two most important cities in the donbas still under ukrainian control. but ukrainian forces are holding firm. the bbc s yogita limaye reports from the city. this is what the merciless bombardment of a city looks like. a
patches of frost possible and in north scotland. and the sunshine will be in the morning across northeastern areas are the should be a fine start to the day in the cloud will thicken up pretty quickly and across northern ireland and particularly scotland were will be quite windy as the day goes by. and a customer northwesterly direction to the temperatures will have highs of around 13 or even 15 degrees and thatis of around 13 or even 15 degrees and that is around six or 7 degrees above average. and around the stage of january. above average. and around the stage ofjanuary. beyond that, thursday night with a low pressure winds up in strong winds affecting the northwest of the uk in gales and also severe details around the far northwest and a band of rain sweeps across the country with blustering showers continuing to feed and close to that low pressure centre will be to that low pressure centre will be to the north of scotland and here on friday, it would be quite blustery with further
continue through the day bringing covering in places. an area of rain in southern ireland with some snow which will be moving into south west england this afternoon. some other and eastern areas staying dry. feeling cold, a blustery westerly wind feeling much colder than temperature is around 3 7 would suggest. these are the sort of temperatures you normally expect at this stage of january. temperatures you normally expect at this stage ofjanuary. tonight, temperatures plummeting and eastern areas getting down to 7 or 8. lifting later on. a wet start to saturday and dry and bright in the west later.