and we have a special report from the himalayas. on how vital these yaks are to life in the mountains. this is bbc world news. it is newsday. welcome to a special programme from the iowa caucuses and we will be bringing all of the results from this first contest. this is a first time that the democratic party contenders are up against each other is out of tonight there will be winners and losers. we will be winners and losers. we will bring you all the results as we get them. in about 1.5 — two hours will be getting the results. it is a first time voters get to say we like you, we don't like you, a chance to sort things out. 1600 caucuses around iowa. around 3 million people. it is important not because it is necessarily the most important state around the country but because it is first and it will give us an indication what these candidates can expect over the next 3—4 big races all the way to super tuesday in march. it does not look like other states as well, predominantly white, rural. we will start to get results in about two hours time and it will tell us how these are gonna go in the next few weeks. just up the road from the state capital, des moines, is thejohn wayne museum, celebrating iowa's most famous son. and, like a western, politics is always looking for the hero to ride into town to the rescue. the early favourite to win the democratic party nomination wasjoe biden, but he's not exactly fizzing with high energy. we can't turn four years of donald trump into an aberration, historical aberration. but eight years, he'll change the country in a way we can't tolerate. we need you, we need you. we need you. much more than the republicans, democrats have tended to go for the bright new thing. jimmy carter, barack obama, bill clinton. john f kennedy. not this time round. joe biden is 77 years old. bernie sanders, 78. but that's where the similarities end. polls suggest the socialist firebrand, bernie sanders, is the other frontrunner. he's way to the left of anyone who's ever been the democratic standard bearer. it is absolutely imperative for the future of this country that we defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. but he has momentum and passionate young supporters. he wants to take care of our planet and, if we don't do that, then there's not going to be a planet left for us to live on, when i'm older. he's really passionate about the issues that we are passionate about and he's the one that's really going to fight for this stuff because he's been fighting for so long. but traditional democrats believe he's unelectable in a country where the centre of political gravity is much further to the right. do you think america would vote for someone as left—wing as bernie sanders? no. no, no way. he's not talking about things he's accomplished. he's got lots of great plans that i don't know are realistic. i just don't think he's going to have the appeal to be able to bring... ..to expand the base, to bring in moderates. train horn. next stop after iowa will be new hampshire. but whoever wins the democratic nomination, further down the tracks, donald trump will be waiting. and beating him will be a tough fight, and an ugly one. jon sopel, bbc news, des moines, iowa. that is the democrat's main concern, beating donald trump. they are terrified about picking the loser this time. it is important to say, they are not putting crosses in a piece of paper. caucusing is confusing. it's not like voting. you don'tjust turn up and tick a box. caucus goers enter their facility, a school gym or a church hall, stand in the area marked off for their preferred candidate and then get counted. the names of the candidates. they have to get to 15% of the people end of the room to be viable. that is the main point. this is the first round. if the candidate is not viable, either they can move to one of the other candidates or they can try and pull supporters from other non—viable candidates to them in order to be viable themselves. an awful lot of horsetrading going on. it is like a political cocktail party without the cocktails. mixed without the cocktails. mixed with a strategic tough game of risk. we went and saw a veteran caucus organiser, tom fey. this is tam a lovely producer andi this is tam a lovely producer and i am looking pretty viable. i have four seats. sam, you're looking hopeless, you have one seat. tom, you may be viable, you have three seats. cathy and sam are in the wind. —— katty soi sam are in the wind. —— katty so i say, come to me. ori say to sam, you are not viable but if you join me, we could be viable. you come to me, sam, he is already fine. we are more aligned on policy, sam. sam, you should come to us for sure. we are on all the issues important to america. thank you so important to america. thank you so much, hugh made a wise decision. so this meant i am not viable. you need to think which candidate is the best candidate for your ideas. that is an easy choice, i am adjoining tom as well. it is about team spirit. the key to this shows that make it proves to the public in katty and across the country which candidate has the best organisation for grassroots politics. shoe leather on the ground and you cannot beat the iowa caucus for that. two important real changes. if you go to a candidate who is viable, you are locked in. and only two rounds this time so a second round of alignment as of the collet and that he said. some interesting results tonight. we will get the popular vote but also how many delegates we'll see. joe biden, the former vice president, is leading the polls nationally but it will be a tight race in katty. how are they feeling over? i am with bernie sanders, notjoe biden. over? i am with bernie sanders, not joe biden. there we go, this fake news. i did not know how to say, fake news. we are bernie sanders headquarters. laughter. bet you come out early and tell us. we'll christian ever forgive me for saying that back anyway, i think they are feeling pretty good about everything. remember how close they came. it is essential to have people who are captains at each particular precinct so they know what to do and they know how the system works and it is complicated. bernie sanders has done this before. arguably, when the scales were tipped against him four years ago, some might say by the democratic national community but certainly the hillary clinton campaign, felt they should have won it easily and shejust they should have won it easily and she just squeaked through with 50.2% of the vote and bernie sanders had 49.8%. they are feeling very confident stop when he thunders has spent more money on advertisement. of course nothing compared to michael bloomberg maybe that is something that happened the road. and you have a sense, where is the heat coming off the campaign? when he thunders campaign. —— bernie sanders. the campaign? when he thunders campaign. -- bernie sanders. so bernie sanders went tonight and is lodged on a path where he looks to be the nominee potentially could be the result? exactly. you look at the success rate for precedent and you win iowa and it is a good chance you win the nomination. there is a terror and the centrists see this as a binary choice. you can have collectability or collectability or collectability —— collectability —— collectability or ideology. —— electability. what bernie sanders people will say, four yea rs sanders people will say, four years ago it was a centrist who ran against donald trump and lost so maybe we can rewrite the rulebook and regain how elections vote, bring in new people to vote and that is what the bernie sanders campaign are hoping to achieve. they think they should not be discounted because we cannot win. we can win and be principled. an awful lot of hurdles and senior democrats and people i have spoken to who say if any thunders becomes the candidate, we have lost the election and you can imagine donald trump just rubbing his hands slightly like that. bernie sanders hoping for a big night. thank you very much for that. let's go to elizabeth warren, another progressive candidate. chris butler is at her headquarters. she has lost a little bit of ground in recent months and thatis ground in recent months and that is because bernie sanders has been calling back his base? you can just imagine what is going on inside those rooms. it isa going on inside those rooms. it is a bit ofa going on inside those rooms. it is a bit of a fight for the progressive left—wing vote between elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. people at the moment trying to persuade them to each side of that room. i was talking to a bernie sanders organiser and they said they have bad food because they were using it as a bribe almost. —— band food. they are pretty happy here with the way things are going. they may not have the cookies to encourage people but they think they have the policies. elizabeth warren has been so active, done her best to be seen, taking selfies, really energetic at times. to some extent, let's be honest, this is all about donald trump and who is the best candidate to ta ke and who is the best candidate to take he mine. elizabeth warren has that further in her bonnet, she has fought donald trump before, she could go forward with no fear about what donald trump is going to say but there is appreciation here and everywhere else that things are going to be tight, particularly for that first vote. at the same time, each of these candidates has set up where they want to be seen behind the podium, and a victory rally and say whatever the result here was a victory. i often wondered what the iowa caucus is would be like with a vodka martini as opposed to cookies and milk. some candidates have distinctive followers. joe biden, older more moderate, bernie sanders younger. what is elizabeth warren's core group of supporters? ca rd card all i think truth believe they are going to hold off on they are going to hold off on the vodka martinis but there will be people who are grateful to have one. bernie sanders has ca ptu red to have one. bernie sanders has captured that young vote and elizabeth warren is doing her best to appeal to some people but she is also playing the fa ct but she is also playing the fact that she is a woman, a strong female politician who perhaps reflects the current democratic party. diversity is the key and the whole election. if they know they have a woman who represents the democratic party they might be in a better decision. thank you very much for that. it doesn't necessarily mean. it's about fundraising, money, that's the life out of a presidential campaign. if you do here, the money starts to roll in. big expectations forjoe biden and bernie sanders. we will have more later on, kasia, with results from iowa. as always, katty, thank you. we will be straight back to katty, and john will be straight back to katty, andjohn in will be straight back to katty, and john in about 45 minutes. let's take a look at some of the day's other news: president xijinping has told his most senior team that stopping the new coronavirus from spreading is the country's most serious task. he spoke as shanghai's stock market crashed and the us closed its doors to any new visitors from china. in the last hour it's been confirmed that 425 people have died from the virus, and there are over 19,000 confirmed cases from hong kong, rupert wingfield hayes sent this report. in a wuhan virus ward, a group of nurses and patients are singing a famous patriotic anthem. "my motherland and i," they sing, "are never apart." the propaganda message is not difficult to understand. in china's state media, the focus is now on uniting the country to fight the virus. hundreds of military doctors and nurses have been arriving in wuhan to join the battle. "when our country is in difficulty," this female soldier says, "it is our duty to be on the front line." china's logistical capabilities are beyond dispute. which other country could complete a 1000 bed hospital in less than two weeks? today, that is exactly what happened as the first patients arrived. but there is an ugly side to this all—out fight against the virus. in this unverified footage, the man pinned on the ground was caught without a face mask. "spray him with disinfectant," the official shouts. in much of china, wearing a mask is now compulsory, despite doubts about their effectiveness. in this video, a whole family is being forcibly removed from their home, to a waiting ambulance. lots of videos like these are being shared to foreign websites. they show police locking an old man suspected of having the virus in his home. "do you have enough rice," the policeman says. "0k, we're chaining the door." here the policemen are warning a resident who has posted something about the virus on social media. "sharing any information about the virus is illegal," he tells her. scenes like those now can be found right across social media and they are really fuelling the sense of anxiety and fear about the coronavirus that is spreading right around the world, but nowhere more so than here in hong kong. people here simply do not believe they are getting a realistic picture of what is happening in wuhan and central china, and that is why there is now a crescendo of demands that hong kong close its border with the mainland completely. hong kong's chief executive today ordered more border crossings closed but said some must remain open. there were indeed more hong kong people crossing the border, almost on a daily basis and then they have to come back. that was not good enough for these hospital workers who have now voted to strike until the border is shut. fear is even more contagious than the virus. this is the centre of shanghai, china's biggest city and economic heart. when the bill comes in for all of this, it is going to be huge. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in hong kong. your're watching newsday on the bbc. we are monitoring the caucus in iowa. and still to come on the programme: scientists say they're deeply disappointed that an experimental anti—hiv vaccine does not work — we'll find out what that means in the battle to stamp out aids. this is the moment that millions in iran had been waiting for. after his long years in exile, the first hesitant steps of ayatollah khomeini on iranian soil. south africa's white government has offered its black opponents concessions unparalleled in the history of apartheid. the ban on the african national congress is lifted immediately, and the anc leader, nelson mandela, is to be set free unconditionally. ..four, three, two, one... a countdown to a critical moment. the world's most powerful rocket ignited all 27 of its engines at once. and apart from its power, its this recycling of the rocket, slashing the cost of a launch, that makes this a breakthrough in the business of space travel. two americans have become the first humans to walk in space without any lifeline to their spaceship. one of them called it a piece of cake. thousands of people have given the yachtswoman ellen macarthur a spectacular homecoming in the cornish port of falmouth after she smashed the world record for sailing solo around the world non—stop. welcome this special edition of newsday live from london and iowa. voting is coming to a close in the iowa caucuses — the first clear indication of who's leading the way in the race to be the democrats' presidential candidates. china's top leadership has admitted shortcomings in its response to the coronavirus outbreak. the number of people who've died from the virus in china has now risen to 414. also making news today, seven critically ill children in war—torn yemen have flown out of the country for medical treatment. the life or death mission took two years to organise and is a rare moment of cooperation between the warring factions. 23 others will follow on a second plane. the un says it's a temporary solution to reduce the suffering of yemeni people. here's the bbc‘s chief international correspondent lyse doucet. saying goodbye after months of waiting in a hotel in sana'a, critically ill children and their parents, now at last heading to the airport to take them for the life—saving treatment they so badly need. it's taken two years of tough negotiations to reach this point. this airfield is controlled by the houthis. the airspace is controlled by the saudi—led coalition. and in the midst of these warring sides, a cot. the littlest, and most vulnerable. hundreds of yaks starved to death during an unusually severe winter last year in the north—eastern indian state of sikkim. now, herders and officials are concerned about the fate of the remaining population. only 76,000 yaks are left in india. the difficult plight of the ack there. —— yak. we will be back with coverage of the iowa caucuses. hello. we've got some fairly chilly and windy conditions out there at the moment. with low pressure very much in charge of the weather at the moment, it is an unsettled story. quite lively weather, in fact. early tuesday, we're likely to see a bit of travel disruption, particularly for scotland and northern england, with a combination of some severe gales and also some icy stretches, and wintry showers around too. now, we've got an area of low pressure that's moving south through the north sea. quite a lot of isobars on the map, so it is going to be a windy picture first thing tuesday morning, and quite a chilly morning too. temperatures just about above freezing for most of us, but a little below freezing, i think, in the countryside first thing. and if we take a look at the wind gusts we're likely to see tuesday morning, up to around about 40—50 mph quite widely across much of scotland, perhaps even 55 mph across the pennines. windy too for northern ireland, down towards the midlands, and even along the south coast we could see gusts of wind reaching around 45 mph. so tuesday, blustery showers really wherever you are, also a bit of sunshine on offer. but do watch out for those icy stretches first thing, particularly across the pennines, southern uplands, and highland scotland as well. most showers should gradually ease away, though, through the day on tuesday, so a gradually improving picture. sunshine developing, a bit of patchy cloud here and there, and those strong, gusty winds slowly starting to ease on into the afternoon. but temperatures only around about 8—10 degrees, and with the wind chill, with a brisk northerly wind, it will feel a bit colder than that. and then, as we move through tuesday night and then on into wednesday, eventually we'll start to see this area of high pressure building in from the west, so that will quieten things down. we're going to be seeing largely dry, clear conditions through tuesday evening and overnight into wednesday as well. perhaps a little bit more across the north—west of scotland, with a few showers here. elsewhere, clear spells, a few mist and fog patches, and a touch of frost. first thing wednesday, temperatures quite widely down to around about freezing, perhaps a degree or two above in more rural spots, but a chilly wednesday. a little bit of mist and fog around, especially further south across england and wales. that should lift into low cloud, more sunshine developing during the afternoon. cloudier across the north—west of scotland. fairly cool temperatures, between about 7—9 degrees for most of us. towards the end of the working week, high pressure stays with us, so not only dry on wednesday, but also thursday and friday too, with a bit of sunshine. look out for frost, mist and fog. as we look towards the weekend, later on friday into saturday, the first weather front moves across the uk, bringing outbreaks of rain at times. a bit of an unsettled story as we look towards the weekend. particularly by sunday, things turn wet and windy again. bye for now. i'm kasia madera with bbc news. our top story: the race for the white house begins in earnest, with the iowa caucus getting underway. the democrats are competing for the right to face donald trump in november's presidential election. that's because mr trump is expected to secure the republican nomination with ease. xijinping says stopping the spread of the coronavirus is the most serious task facing china. the leadership has admitted shortcomings in its response, as the number of people killed in the outbreak there has risen to more than 400. and on our website, scientists say they are deeply disappointed after trials involving an experimental vaccine against hiv proved ineffective. it had been hoped the jab would work against a southern african strain of the virus which causes aids. other research will now be prioritised instead. that's all. stay with bbc news.