Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are to end on Wednesday, when a five-year deal between Ukraine's gas transit operator Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom expires.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would not allow Russia to "earn additional billions on our blood" and had given the EU a year to prepare.

The EU has significantly reduced imports of gas from Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but a number of eastern member states still depend largely on the supplies, making Russia about €5bn ($5.2bn; £4.2bn) a year.

The European Commission said the continent's gas system was "resilient and flexible" and that it had sufficient capacity to cope with the end of transit via Ukraine.

Russian gas made up less than 10% of the EU's gas imports in 2023, according to figures from the bloc, compared to 40% in 2021.

But several EU members, including Slovakia and Austria, continue to import significant amounts of gas from Russia.

Austria's energy regulator said it did not forecast any supply disruption as it had diversified sources and built up reserves.

But Ukraine's decision has already caused serious tensions with Slovakia, which is now the main entry point of Russian gas into the EU and earned transit fees from piping the gas on to Austria, Hungary and Italy.

On Friday, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico - who had just made a surprise visit to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin - threatened to stop the supply of electricity to Ukraine.

This prompted Mr Zelensky to accuse him of helping Mr Putin "fund the war and weaken Ukraine".

"Fico is dragging Slovakia into Russia's attempts to cause more suffering for Ukrainians," the Ukrainian president said.

Poland has offered to support Kyiv in case Slovakia cuts off its electricity exports - supplies that are crucial to Ukraine, whose power plants come under regular attack from Russia.

Moldova - which is not part of the EU - could be seriously affected by the end of the transit agreement. The gas fuelled a power plant on which Moldova relies for most of its electricity needs. It also supplied the Russia-backed breakaway region of Transnistria, a small sliver of land sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine.

Moldova's energy minister, Constantin Borosan, said the government had taken steps to ensure stable power supplies to the country but called on citizens to save energy. A 60-day state of emergency in the energy sector has been in place in Moldova since mid-December.

President Maia Sandu accused the Kremlin of "blackmail" possibly aimed at destabilising her country ahead of a general election in 2025. The Moldovan government also said it had offered aid to Transnistria.

Russia has transported gas to Europe through Ukraine since 1991.

As the EU has reduced its dependence on Russian gas, it has found alternative sources in liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar and the US as well as piped gas from Norway.

Once the Ukrainian transit route is cut off, the Black Sea's TurkStream - which reaches Turkey, Hungary and Serbia - will be the only Russian gas supply to European countries.

In December, the European Commission laid out plans it said would enable EU member states to entirely replace gas transiting through Ukraine.

Under the EU's contingency plans, affected countries will be supplied with Greek, Turkish and Romanian gas from the Trans-Balkan route, while Norwegian gas will be piped through Poland. More supplies will also reach central Europe through Germany.

New Year's Eve events across the UK have been cancelled as the country braces for high winds, heavy rain and snow.

Most parts of the UK are covered by at least one Met Office weather warning until Wednesday.

Transport delays are "likely" as strong winds may reach speeds of up to 70mph in parts of England and Northern Ireland, forecasters warned.

Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh have already been cancelled over public safety concerns, as have fireworks displays in Blackpool, Newcastle, the Isle of Wight and Ripon in North Yorkshire.

Hogmanay organisers, Unique Assembly, have apologised to international tourists who travelled to Edinburgh for the street party and midnight fireworks display.

Scotland's Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said cancelling the festival was "undoubtedly" the correct decision.

"I'm truly sorry for everybody who has travelled but I think given the extent of the weather forecast - it's really, really bad in some parts of the country - it's not the right thing to proceed," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The fireworks display in Blackpool was cancelled because of the expected high winds. The town's other events will go ahead, including a projection show to mark the start of 2025.

A spokesperson for London's mayor said the capital's firework display would go ahead at midnight despite concerns over the weather.

Darryl Fleming, who runs the company in charge of the display, said his team was "looking forward to delivering a full show".

Celebrations in Manchester will also go ahead as planned, after its fireworks display was moved to the top of the city's central library.

Councillor Pat Karney, Manchester City Council's designated New Year spokesperson, said: "Mancunians know that when it's a bit cold and wet you have to wrap up warm, but we're looking forward to seeing everyone tonight.

"All you need is your dancing shoes, party spirit and your nearest and dearest. Grab hold of those and we can't wait to see you in St Peter's Square for the last party of 2024."

Some parts of the country may get to welcome the new year with nature's own fireworks display - the Northern Lights.

Its colourful auroras may be visible in Scotland, Northern Ireland and possibly northern England "depending on the cloud cover", the Met Office said.

The weather warnings in place across the UK include:

• On New Year's Eve, an amber warning for rain is in force in the Highlands and Moray until 17:00 GMT
• A yellow warning for snow and rain covers the Highlands and Moray until 04:00
• Parts of central and southern Scotland and northern England are covered by a yellow warning for wind from 07:00 until 23:00, with a separate wind warning covering much of Northern Ireland from 06:00 until 14:00
• A yellow warning for rain for much of Wales and north-west England is in force until 11:00 on Wednesday
• A yellow warning for snow is in place until midnight in Orkney and Shetland

In the Highlands, forecasters warned "blizzard conditions are possible", especially in the far northern regions of Sutherland and Caithness.

The Environment Agency (EA) issued a flood warning for the River Rothay at Grasmere, White Bridge and Stock Lane in the Lake District. It is the only flood warning in England.

The poor weather conditions were expected to cause travel disruption in parts of the country.

Transport for Wales and London North Eastern Railway warned some services could be delayed or cancelled at short-notice.

Northern Ireland's Translink advised passengers to check online before travelling.

A number of routes in Scotland have been impacted because of speed restrictions, including Inverness services to Perth and the Kyle of Lochalsh; Perth to Stirling; and Edinburgh to Inverness.

The EA warned those travelling or celebrating on New Year Eve to be "especially careful".

Stefan Laeger, the agency's flood duty manager, urged people to "stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through floodwater as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car".

Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are to end on Wednesday, when a five-year deal between Ukraine's gas transit operator Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom expires.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would not allow Russia to "earn additional billions on our blood" and had given the EU a year to prepare.

The EU has significantly reduced imports of gas from Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but a number of eastern member states still depend largely on the supplies, making Russia about €5bn ($5.2bn; £4.2bn) a year.

The European Commission said the continent's gas system was "resilient and flexible" and that it had sufficient capacity to cope with the end of transit via Ukraine.

Russian gas made up less than 10% of the EU's gas imports in 2023, according to figures from the bloc, compared to 40% in 2021.

But several EU members, including Slovakia and Austria, continue to import significant amounts of gas from Russia.

Austria's energy regulator said it did not forecast any supply disruption as it had diversified sources and built up reserves.

But Ukraine's decision has already caused serious tensions with Slovakia, which is now the main entry point of Russian gas into the EU and earned transit fees from piping the gas on to Austria, Hungary and Italy.

On Friday, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico - who had just made a surprise visit to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin - threatened to stop the supply of electricity to Ukraine.

This prompted Mr Zelensky to accuse him of helping Mr Putin "fund the war and weaken Ukraine".

"Fico is dragging Slovakia into Russia's attempts to cause more suffering for Ukrainians," the Ukrainian president said.

Poland has offered to support Kyiv in case Slovakia cuts off its electricity exports - supplies that are crucial to Ukraine, whose power plants come under regular attack from Russia.

Moldova - which is not part of the EU - could be seriously affected by the end of the transit agreement. The gas fuelled a power plant on which Moldova relies for most of its electricity needs. It also supplied the Russia-backed breakaway region of Transnistria, a small sliver of land sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine.

Moldova's energy minister, Constantin Borosan, said the government had taken steps to ensure stable power supplies to the country but called on citizens to save energy. A 60-day state of emergency in the energy sector has been in place in Moldova since mid-December.

President Maia Sandu accused the Kremlin of "blackmail" possibly aimed at destabilising her country ahead of a general election in 2025. The Moldovan government also said it had offered aid to Transnistria.

Russia has transported gas to Europe through Ukraine since 1991.

As the EU has reduced its dependence on Russian gas, it has found alternative sources in liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar and the US as well as piped gas from Norway.

Once the Ukrainian transit route is cut off, the Black Sea's TurkStream - which reaches Turkey, Hungary and Serbia - will be the only Russian gas supply to European countries.

In December, the European Commission laid out plans it said would enable EU member states to entirely replace gas transiting through Ukraine.

Under the EU's contingency plans, affected countries will be supplied with Greek, Turkish and Romanian gas from the Trans-Balkan route, while Norwegian gas will be piped through Poland. More supplies will also reach central Europe through Germany.

Three people have been seriously injured in a suspected gas explosion.

Cumbria Police said emergency services were called to an address in Hugh Street in Whitehaven at 16:23 GMT.

Two men and a woman have been taken to hospital with serious injuries, the force confirmed.

Crews from Cumbria Fire and Rescue and the North West Ambulance Service are at the scene, as well as engineers from Northern Gas Networks (NGN).

The emergency services are urging people to avoid the area.

They also said "all known persons" were accounted for but work to confirm this was "ongoing".

Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.

Police in New York City have named the woman who was set on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn.

Authorities on Tuesday identified Debrina Kawam, 61, of New Jersey as the victim of the seemingly random 22 December attack that burned her body beyond recognition.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, is accused of starting the blaze with a lighter while Ms Kawam was asleep. He allegedly fanned the flames with a shirt and then watched the fire grow from a bench outside the subway car.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Mr Zapeta, who claims to have no memory of the incident, on four counts of murder and one count of arson.

It took authorities more than a week to fully identify the body.

Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said at a press conference early in the investigation that authorities had worked to collect DNA evidence and fingerprints from Ms Kawam's remains.

"It's a priority for me, for my office, for the police department to identify this woman, so we can notify her family," Mr Gonzalez said.

False and unverified information about her, including a fake AI-generated picture, circulated online as authorities worked.

There was also an outpouring of support, including a vigil held for the then-unidentified victim last week.

Police say that Ms Kawam was motionless, apparently asleep, on a stationary subway train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn early on 22 December when Mr Zapeta allegedly approached her with a lighter.

The pair never interacted, and police believe they did not know each other.

Video appears to show the suspect waving a shirt at her in an apparent effort to fan the flames, rather than douse them. He then exits the subway car and watches the blaze from a bench on the platform.

Jessica Tisch, New York police commissioner, said that the smell of smoke drew police officers and Metropolitian Transit Authority personnel to the fire where they extinguished the flames.

"Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car," Ms Tisch said.

Authorities declared Ms Kawam dead at the scene.

Ms Tisch described the incident as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being".

In a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said Mr Zapeta told investigators that he had been drinking and did not remember the incident, but did identify himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit.

Mr Zapeta, who is originally from Guatemala, was deported from the US in 2018 and later re-entered the country illegally, immigration authorities said.

He is due back in court on 7 January, prosecutors said.

Puerto Rico was plunged into darkness early Tuesday morning by a nearly island-wide blackout.

The cause of the blackout is under investigation, but preliminary findings pointed to a fault in an underground line, according to Luma Energy, the island's main power distributor. Fully restoring service could take between 24-48 hours, the company said on X.

Only 13% of the island's 1.4 million customers had power as of about 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT), according to the New York Times.

An hour later, power had been restored to some areas, as well as San Juan's municipal hospital, Luma said.

The New Year's Eve blackout prompted renewed calls from elected officials and residents to address the unincorporated US territory's ongoing power issues, which have persisted since Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The island cannot continue to put up with an energy system that fails its citizens so often, Jenniffer González-Colon, Puerto Rico's current US congressional representative and the incoming governor of Puerto Rico, wrote on X.

Blackouts continue to affect Puerto Rico's economy and quality of life, she said.

On Facebook, the current governor, Pedro Pierluisi, demanded answers and solutions from the two main power companies, Luma and Genera.

Hundreds of thousands of residents at a time have been affected by power outages this year. A June outage left about 350,000 customers without power as temperatures climbed, and more than 700,000 customers lost electricity after Hurricane Ernesto in August.

As they awoke to another day without power, Puerto Ricans expressed frustration to US media.

"They're part of my everyday life," Enid Núñez, 49, said of the outages to the Associated Press.

Puerto Rico's power grid was strained even before Hurricane Maria devastated the island. US government funding helped shore up the grid, facilitate recovery projects from other natural disasters, and make other important infrastructure improvements.

But the implementation has been incomplete due to a variety of factors, such as issues starting construction and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's requirements to authorise use of some of the funds, according to a February 2024 report from the US Government Accountability Office.

"Inexcusably the power grid has still not recovered from damage in Hurricane Maria," Mark Levine, New York City's Manhattan borough president, wrote on X.

New York City is home to the largest Puerto Rican community in the mainland US.

"This is 3.5M American citizens," he wrote. "We owe them so much better."