this is bbc news — with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm nancy kacungira. doctors give permisson for russian opposition leader alexei navalny to be flown to germany for treatment — it's claimed he was poisoned. tens of thousands flee their homes in california — as wild fires burn out of control south near san francisco. another mad dash for british holiday—makers to get home ahead of new coronavirus quarantine rules — this time affecting croatia. and swift's gift — why this london student is celebrating after being given a taylor—made donation.

we start in russia — where the opposition leader alexei navalny is being allowed to travel to germany for medical treatment. his supporters have accussed moscow of deliberately poisoning him. navalny has been confined to a coma, in the siberian city of omsk — after drinking tea at an airport cafe. sarah rainsford reports from moscow. she spent all day battling for her husband. convinced alexei navalny has been poisoned, yulia wants him moved abroad. away from a siberian hospital that is bristling with plain—clothes security. translation: this situation is outrageous. it is clear they are hiding something. we demand that the hospital

release alexei to us immediately, so we can take him to doctors we trust. alexei navalny collapsed on a flight to moscow, carried off in a coma after an emergency landing. "crooks and thieves," is what he calls those in power here. mr navalny is russia's loudest voice of opposition and his forensic anti—corruption investigations are hated by those they target. today, his russian doctor suggested there could be an innocent explanation. not poison, but low blood sugar, perhaps. his family are not chancing it. an air ambulance was flown in, and when the german medics on board finally saw mr navalny, theyjudged him stable enough to leave. so the russian team have done a u—turn, earning themselves a round of relieved applause.

alexei navalny remains critically ill tonight, still unconscious, but his family hope a foreign clinic can give them some clearer answers. sarah rainsford, bbc news, moscow. nadya tolokonnikova is founder of the punk rock group pussy riot. a longstanding critic of president putin — she previously spent solitary isolation in prison for her activism. she gave this reaction to the hospitalisation of alexei navalny. well, it was unbelievable because i thought that alexei navalny is so powerful as a political figure that things like that cannot happen within because putin would fear immediate revolution. —— could not happen with him. but it looks like in the light of recent events in belarus, putin has lost any rationale. so, he's decided to poison navalny to intimidate everyone else but also at the same time,

this event brought me back to my own past when my ex—husband was poisoned two years ago and i had to find this medical plane to transport him to german clinic. and definitely, it's not a really pleasant memory. well, you seem to be quite sure that this was a poisoning and moscow was involved. why do you think that? because there is no other reason why navalny would fall in coma all of a sudden. he didn't have any pre—existing conditions that could lead to what he's experiencing now, and also it does resemble the poisoning that happened to my ex—husband. the doctors in russia, however, are saying that they haven't found any traces of poison. yeah, and for that reason, navalny is still being held in russia. but german doctors told me

after that they didn't find traces of poison in pyotr‘s blood, my ex—husband, the poison disappears from your blood in three days. and russian doctors let pyotr‘s transportation only after three days of holding him in russian hospital. so, they let the poisoned person go only after they are sure that there is no traces of poison in their blood left. six people have died in wildfires that are sweeping across central and northern california. the fires are likely to have been started by lightening and have more than doubled in size to become some of the largest in the state's history. at least 175,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and the coronavirus pandemic is complicating matters. sophie long reports from los angeles. vast infernos blaze throughout northern california,

claiming at least five lives destroying hundreds of buildings and an area bigger than los angeles. copy, we're going in now. satellite images show the smoke cloaking most of california creating the worst air quality on the planet at a time when people are fighting a respiratory pandemic. and yet, this is political. but there are massive fires again in california. maybe we're just going to have to make them pay for it because they don't listen to us. we say, "you got to get rid of the leaves, you got to get rid of the debris, you got to get rid of the fallen trees. but most of the blazes were sparked by what's being called a trifecta of fire conditions. a freak summer lightning storm, the most intense for more than a decade, collided with a heat wave recording record temperatures, and the resulting claims fanned by high winds. record temperatures, and the resulting flames fanned by high winds. if you are in denial about climate change, come to california. 11,000 dry lightning

strikes we had over a 72—hour period leading to this unprecedented challenge. california is no stranger to scenes like this but the ferocity of these fires so early in the season has astonished many of the thousands fighting them on the front line. temperatures are expected to ease but the fires are now generating so much heat, they are creating their own winds — pushing them in multiple unpredictable directions, threatening tens of thousands of homes. sophie long, bbc news, los angeles. to the situation in belarus — where opposition leader svetla na tikhanovskaya has spoken out for the first time since fleeing the country. she has called on her supporters to step up their strikes at factories across the country to try to force new presidential elections. ms tikhanovskaya has been speaking exclusively to our europe correspondent jean mackenzie in lithuania. the woman many think should've been crowned as president of belarus.

a woman who never even wanted to be a politician — breaking cover for the first time since being forced into exile. she now leads the 0pposition from afar. and when we sit down with her, that reluctant sense of duty still shows. i just can't step away now, you know, because i became like a symbol of freedom. i understand that i'm not a leader. i'm more frightened than anybody else among them. what frightens you 7 i'm afraid that maybe i will not be able to do enough. i don't know, it'sjust a fear of responsibility. this was the moment she disappeared, the day after the election when long—time president lukashenko declared himself the victor. when she emerged in lithuania, she hinted at a terrible choice she'd had to make to keep her children safe. can you tell me anything about what happened in those election offices

and what choice you were given? i'm sorry, but i can't. not now. bela russians have ta ken to the streets like never before, to show they voted for tsikhanouskaya and are ready for change. "enough is enough," was her message for the regime today. "enough lying, intimidation and violence." the past weeks have seen protesters detained and badly beaten. how do you feel when you see the reports of violence that have come out of the country in the last week? you know. . .i was really shocked. i didn't tell anybody, but i couldn't find peace, i was just crying. after a couple of hours, when we saw the first pictures,

i can't imagine the terrible russian people can be so cruel. with protests and strikes nearly into the third become alexander lukashenko shows no sign of backing down. are you worried that the movement could fail? no, i'm not worried because i believe in belarussian people the same way they believed in me. we have no right to step back now because — if not now, we will be slaves. and our people understand this, and i'm sure we will stand till the end. that end for her is new elections, ones that are free and fair. only then, she tells us, will bela russians know who their president truly is. jean mackenzie, bbc news. thousands of british holiday—makers are racing to get back to the uk, before new government coronavirus quarantine restrictions come into force. in four hours' time here in london, anyone returning from croatia,

austria and trinidad and tobago, will have to self—isolate for two weeks, because of a rise in infections in those countries. gavin lee reports from croatia. a late summer getaway on croatia's dalmatian coast, where there are more british holiday—makers than from any other country. 17,000 uk tourists are here at the moment. for many, the break is now over just as it was beginning. they are leaving before mandatory quarantine rules kick in. i'm a teacher, so if i don't go back today, i miss being back at school, and the kids have been off for six months. we are both key workers in england, so we've had to pay an extra £400 for a flight home which leaves in two hours' time. so, we're heading there now. i'm just getting into a taxi, by the way. lawrence manning's on holiday with his partner in dubrovnik. they were due to fly back on saturday, but they are rushing to the airport this evening. our flight for a return was something like £350,

and we just had to payjust over £750 to get two tickets back to the uk. further up the coast in this harbour, a group of students from nottingham trent university say they need to be back for the start of term, but they can't afford the ticket prices. we obviously don't have that much money saved up to get a flight home because of the inflation of prices. we are just really stuck here. we've all got part—time jobs as well, it's slightly annoying, because now we have to take time off of work, so we don't get any money to save up for uni. so what's going wrong in croatia? back in may and june, this country of 5 million people barely registered a single case a day. in the past week, there has been a notable rise — 265 cases in the past 2a hours. other eu countries are attributing clusters of new cases to tourists coming back from here. the country's secretary of state for tourism said the british decision was unfair but acknowledged there is a problem. it is true that we have several

hotspots in croatia in recent days, but they are the result of non—compliance with the epidemiological measures. mostly, it's younger people in some nightclubs and other gatherings. but the uk isn't the only country to add croatia to the quarantine list. there are four other countries this week, and it's here in split, where there'e concern that it's the epicentre, that people aren't listening to social distancing advice, and that's why it's become a problem here. tonight, this was the last uk—bound flight out of the country. a frantic day almost at an end for those getting back in time. for others, thinking ofjetting off for a late break elsewhere, the official advice is be prepared to unexpectedly have to quarantine. gavin lee, bbc news, split on the dalmatian coast. the head of the world health 0rganization says he hopes the coronavirus crisis can be

over in less than two years. the comments by tedros adhanom ghebreyesus come as cases of the disease continue to surge in europe. france, spain, italy and germany have recorded their highest numbers of daily cases since the spring. meanwhile, lebanon and beirut have both introduced a two—week lockdown following a spike in cases. joseph deangelo — the man known as the golden state killer — has been sentenced to life in prison. it marks the end of a criminal investigation that began more than a0 years ago. deangelo was a californian police officer during his 12 year spree of brutal crimes in the ‘70s and ‘80s. the bbc‘s regan morris explains why the sentencing of deangelo was so usual. he was sentenced today and, unusually, not in a courtroom, but they actually had the sentencing hearing in a university ballroom. that's to allow social distancing, but also

because so many people were there — victims, survivors, victims' families. prosecutors said the depth of his crimes werejust staggering. he was sentenced for attacks in the 1970s and ‘80s. he admitted to many, many more, though, that are out of statute of limitations and could not be prosecuted. but they were factored into court. witnesses were able to give testimony and, over the last three days, he listened to his victims, he listened to the pain he caused. and he didn't express much emotion — he was in a wheelchair in court — but apparently today he took off his mask, stood up from his wheelchair and apologised. but thejudge, you know — he's 7a years old, and that apology is not enough. he will die in prison. stay with us on bbc news, still to come — swimming into the unknown. the volunteers who are putting themselves forward to be deliberately infected with

covid—19. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed, i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we are all with them now. they're within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us", chanted this ocean of humanity.

"well, well," joked the pope. "so, you want me to desert rome? " this is bbc news. the latest headlines. doctors in russia are allowing opposition leader alexei navalny to be flown to germany for treatment. his supporters claim he has been poisoned. more than 12,000 firefighters are battling hundreds of separate blazes in northern california. some of the fires are the biggest the state has ever recorded. the us postmaster general has told a senate committee that ballots in november's presidential election will be delivered securely and on time. amid concerns that recent policy changes were made to help re—elect president trump — louis dejoy denied he had spoken to the president about service operations

and said he himself would be voting by mail. barbara plett usher has more. louis dejoy landed in the centre of a perfect storm when he became postmaster general two months ago, or did he create it? that's what this hearing was about. cutbacks that he's made to the postal services have delayed the mail and there's concerned that they will also delay mail—in ballots especially in a year where there is going to be a lot of them. and there's a suspicion that this is deliberate because president trump is against expanded mail—in voting, he says it's going to lead to widespread fraud although there's no evidence of that. and he is opposed extra funding to the postal services because of that. but mr dejoy said there was no conspiracy to undermine the vote. he said that allegation was outrageous. he said he was a businessman who'd been brought in to fix the postal service, to whip it into shape because it was billions of dollars in debt. he said the changes he made so far did not reduce the capacity to deal with a lot of mail—in ballots but because of the concern expressed, he would put them on hold until after the election

and he would make sure that things went as smoothly as possible with the mail—in ballots. but this isn't over yet, he's going to be appearing in front of another congressional hearing on monday and he's being sued by dc and six states. so thatjust shows you how much concern there is among democrats about this issue of voter suppression in this election year. scientists have repeatedly warned it could be many months before we know if any of the 30 or so coronavirus vaccines currently undergoing trials, are effective. but one way to speed up the process would be to use so—called "challenge trials" — where volunteers are given the vaccine and then deliberately infected with coronavirus. here's our medical editor — fergus walsh. the longer we go without a vaccine, the longer people will die unnecessarily. young, healthy and determined. sean mcpartlin is 22 and studying in oxford.

he keeps fit by swimming in the thames. i volunteered to be infected with the coronavirus. sean wants to take part in a so—called challenge trial, where he would first receive a vaccine against covid—19 and then be deliberately infected with coronavirus, to see if the vaccine protects him. my mother has a hereditary lung disorder, and every day we go without a vaccine is a day where she faces a risk that she might not have to. so i want to do everything i can to help get that vaccine to her and everyone else like her as quickly as possible. the only way we'll know if a covid vaccine works is if volunteers later get exposed to the virus. but at the moment, that's being left entirely to chance. it could take months. deliberately infecting volunteers could speed things up. one day sooner is a group campaigning for vaccine challenge trials and it has

the support of 15 nobel prize winners and many leading scientists. dominic wilkinson is an expert in medical ethics and an intensive care doctor. if you look at what's at stake, that thousands of lives that might be saved if we could get to a vaccine sooner, there is an ethical imperative to investigate and conduct challenge studies. a safe and effective vaccine against coronavirus is probably the only way our lives, our society, the economy, will return to normal. so anything that can speed up its delivery has to be worth considering. but what about the risks of challenge trials? they are hard to calculate. but for healthy volunteers in their 20s, they are probably lower than the chances of dying from donating a kidney or having your appendix removed. dr katrina pollock is not

convinced — at least not yet. she's running the trial of imperial college london's coronavirus vaccine. i'm not sure that it's going to necessarily accelerate development of the vaccine in a way that some people might hope. and there are certainly significant, at this point, ethical and safety considerations for doing it. we need a lot more understanding of this disease before we start thinking about those kind of studies. if coronavirus challenge studies do ever take place, volunteers would need to spend at least two weeks in quarantine at a clinical research unit. there are plenty like sean who are ready to sign up, hoping to play their part in the search for a vaccine. fergus walsh, bbc news. the last few weeks have been uncertain for many school leavers in britain but for one student her dream of going to university is a step closer — thanks to the kindness of a very famous stranger. david sillito explains.

i couldn't believe it. i feel like even now, i am still processing it. ijust can't believe it. it began with this text message. 18—year—old vitoria mario was in church and a friend wanted to let her know that there had been a donation to her university gofundme page. from taylor swift. 2a hours on, it's still rather difficult to process. i was overwhelmed, i was happy, of course, very happy. i was thankful, grateful. i wanted to hug taylor swift, i guess! i want to say thank you, it's so amazing. i don't even know how to feel or how to handle my feelings. taylor swift had also left a message saying she had been inspired by vitoria's story. vitoria had arrived from portugal on her own at 1a. four years later, she has two a stars and an a. but couldn't see any way

of affording university. so, you're not eligible for any maintenance grants because you arrived here in britain on your own, aged 14? yes, that's correct. speaking no english? no english at all, yeah. i learned mostly through netflix! you learnt english watching netflix? yeah, watching films with the subtitles so i can learn how to say it and learn how to write it. of course this isn't the first pop charitable donation. ariana grande, rhianna, and stormzy with his scholarship programme for black students have all made large donations for those who are struggling. and taylor swift, who does have a new album out, has a track record of surprise gifts. but why vitoria's story touched her in particular is a mystery. were you a taylor swift fan? of course! you are a fan now? of course i know who she is of course. i wouldn't say i'm super fan. i have loved ones who keep contacting me, like every day, but...

i still don't know. i just don't know. david sillito, bbc news. in football, seville have won the europa league final against inter milan. the spanish side won an entertaining match by 3—2 in germany. they've now won the trophy six times. the game was played before an empty stadium in cologne. before we go — let's take a look at some youngsters who are causing quite a stir at a wildlife park in northwest china. they are a group of siberian tigers four siblings born earlier this year. they've only recently been shown to the public — who seem rather keen on the animals. their keeper said the cubs were initially rather shy — but have now got used to being the centre of attention. iam sure i am sure there will be a lot more attention for them. didn't get touch with me on twitter.

thank you for your company and stay with us on bbc news. —— you can get in touch with me on twitter. hello there. the last few days has brought some very windy weather across many parts of the country. on friday, we had winds well over 60 mph here in the southwest of wales, also the southwest of england. and we saw those very strong winds pushing through the english channel as well, leading to some very dramatic weather watcher pictures ta ken early on in the day. now for the weekend, it won't be as windy — that's because the deep area of low pressure that brought those unseasonably strong winds is moving into the norwegian sea, so already winds are dropping. but we will continue to see some sunshine and showers during saturday. there could be some heavier ones moving down into scotland for a while, actually some stronger spells of rain for northern ireland, and those showers pushing into england and wales. driest and sunniest weather likely to be across southern counties of england and east anglia. but for england and wales in particular, it's still a blustery day —

not as windy, but still those gusts of 35—40 mph taking the edge off the temperatures, which may be a bit lower than we had on friday, with the top temperature 22 celsius there. further north and west, quite a few degrees cooler than that. those heavy showers continue into the evening before fading away overnight, and the wind continuing to drop, as well. as we head into the second half of the weekend, there is a brief sign of this ridge of high pressure in from the atlantic — but all it's doing is changing the wind direction to a cooler northwesterly. again, the winds continuing to drop, though, on sunday with lighter winds for most of the country, some sunshine and showers for scotland, the heavier ones in northern ireland, pushing it in northern and eastern parts of england with the risk of some thunderstorms, too. our top temperature will be 21 celsius in the southeast on sunday. but quite a bit cooler than saturday across scotland with those northwesterly breezes. into the early part of next week — first of all, we have a weather system coming in from the atlantic.

it is quite a weak affair, really, and winds are light on monday, but we are looking at a lot of cloud to move its way eastwards and some patchy rain too, maybe a little bit heavier for a while across southern parts of england and wales. drier whether in the northeast of scotland, but it's only 13 celsius in aberdeen and 19 celsius in cardiff. then for tuesday and wednesday, we have another deep area of low pressure heading our way, threatening to bring some more very strong winds across the uk. a spell of rain probably will be followed by some sunshine and some showers.

this is bbc news,

the headlines... doctors at a hospital in russia have agreed to allow the opposition leader, alexei navalny, to be flown to germany for treatment. they had earlier insisted he was too ill to be moved. his supporters suspect he drank poisoned tea, and accuse authorities of trying to cover up a crime. more than 12,000 firefighters are battling over 500 separate blazes in central and northern california. the state governor says lightning strikes over the past 2a hours have ingnited several hundred more wildfires in the region. more than 100,000 people have been evacuated. thousands of british holiday—makers are racing to get back to the uk before new government coronavirus quarantine restrictions come into force. in a few hours' time, anyone returning from croatia, austria, or trinidad and tobago will have to self—isolate for two weeks because of a rise in infections.