this is bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: the russian opposition leader, alexei navalny, remains in hospital in germany. his supporters say his condition is very worrying. lithuania and poland deny claims that nato is building up its forces along their borders with belarus. wildfires continue to burn out of control in california, fuelled by ongoing lightning strikes on the dry countryside. tiktok takes on trump: the chinese company behind the social media app says it will sue the us government. hello and welcome to bbc news.

the russian opposition leader and one of president putin's fiercest critics, alexei navalny, is being treated at a hospital in germany after a suspected poisoning. mr navalny fell into a coma after drinking a cup of tea at an airport cafe. his supporters believe the cup was laced with poison. russian doctors initially said there were no traces of poison in his body. our berlin correspondent jennie hill reports. oblivious to the political storm around him, alexei navalny, arriving in berlin for treatment. the man who took on vladimir putin is in a coma. he collapsed on thursday during a flight over siberia after drinking what his supporters claim was a poisoned cup of tea. i'm sure that they can treat him and do everything to eliminate maybe this toxic agent from his body,

and i hope that the germans, with a high level of medicine... we have no such opportunities in russia as german doctors have. mr navalny is one of vladimir putin's fiercest critics, an anti—corruption campaigner with powerful enemies. his supporters claim he was poisoned last year but lived to tell the tale. now, they believe the russian authorities have tried to silence him again. that is something the kremlin denies. it was a german ngo which organised mr navalny‘s transfer to berlin, though it's believed western political intervention finally persuaded russia to let him go. he is a healthy, strong man with a good constitution. the night before the attack, whatever you want to call it, he was swimming in a river, and there is this video that we have all seen from the plane where he gets this incredible pain, he's screaming. doctors here say it will take

time to examine mr navalny. it may now be too late to establish whether he was poisoned and harder still to discover by whom. it's not the first time an opponent of vladimir putin has come to berlin with suspected poisoning. just two years ago, a dissident was treated in the very same hospital. this could be the latest in what some here say is an increasingly provocative pattern of behaviour. and tonight, as a man fights for his life, that's putting pressure on what is already a tense relationship between russia and the west. late in the programme... —— later in the programme, we'll speak to heather conley who is director for europe and russia at the center for strategic and international studies. lithuania and poland have denied claims that nato is building up its forces along their borders with belarus. poland's government says the claim is just "regime

propaganda." it comes after the president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko, accused what he described as foreign powers of orchestrating the protests against his disputed re—election. he made his remarks in a visit to a military facility in the west of the country. protesters returned to the streets on saturday evening, demanding mr lu kashenko stand down. david campanale has more. his report contains scenes you may find disturbing. bc but they were sent in they show beatings by security forces. multiple cases of police detainees on the streets and in temporary detention facilities. president lukashenko has been reported as saying that images of beatings and bruises shown by families were largely staged. it's an accusation that

is firmly denied. it is his usual way of behaviour, and i know that many of the people are afraid of reporting to police about the torture. they are documenting their bruises and the damage that has been done to their bodies. there is widespread anger in minsk over what many people see as president lukashenko ridding the vote to stay in power. this has turned to outrage and despair at the injuries in gatherings held by relatives and friends of the detained protesters. a week ago, minsk saw the biggest protest in modern belarus in history, with hundreds of thousands of people falling the streets. at the man who led belarus for the last 26 yea rs shows who led belarus for the last 26 years shows no sign of going. he has stepped up the rhetoric ofan he has stepped up the rhetoric of an external threat. speaking

ona of an external threat. speaking on a visit to a military testing range, mr lukashenko once again accused foreign powers of orchestrating the protests against his contested re—election. translation: military support is evident. nato forces are moving to the borders of our country. of this is done to pull here, and allegedly, an alternative president. he told his commanders to introduce the toughest measures, and for the armed forces to be prepared to defend the country. in the last few days, president lukashenko has ordered riot police back onto the streets. with first rallies cold for sunday, it is still unclear what attitude the president and the security forces will take to those who join the demonstrations. david camp alali, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. a delegation of west african leaders has held talks with the leaders of the military coup which overthrew president keita in mali. ecowas, which is led by the former nigerian president

goodluck jonathan, says it is asking for a swift return to civilian rule. israeli police have clashed with protesters in jerusalem demanding the resignation of the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. a number of arrests were made as police tried to clear the crowd from a square near the prime minister's official residence. protesters are angry at mr netanyahu's handling of the coronavirus crisis and alleged corruption. demonstrations have been held every weekend for two months — but observers say this was the biggest one yet. reseachers in germany held a coronavirus experiment in the form of a concert. held at an indoor stadium in leipzig, the partipants were asked to wear contact tracer devices around their necks and to disinfect their hands with a fluorescent hand sanitiser to allow scientists to scour the venue with uv lights after the concerts, to identify surfaces where a transmission of the virus could happen. in australia, antarctic air reaching the south—east of the country triggered snowfall across several states. many people — and kangaroos — were out enjoying the rare

event, despite wild winds and heavy snow that closed some roads. the rare weather comes to days before the official start of spring. the us house of representatives has voted to pass an emergency bill to inject $25 billion into america's cash—strapped postal service and prohibit any operational changes. the legislation also bans the removal of sorting machines and mailboxes and requires all election post to be ranked "first class". democrats are concerned that the trump administration may try to disenfranchise millions of americans who choose to vote by mail in november's presidential election. let's cross over to virginia and speak to steve herman, the white house bureau chief for the us broadcaster, the voice of america. steve, the bill has got through the democratic led house, will it go through the republican led senate? this legislation has marked return to sender by the senate majority leader. the republicans controlled the senate. while they will get

some votes from republicans if this were to come to the floor in the senate, there are vulnerable republican senators who are hearing a lot of complaints from their constituents, especially in rural areas, there isjust not enough votes as a standalone bill as it is, and the president of course is also threatening to veto it. what kind of changes in the postal service are most worrying the democratic party, causing them to try to pass this bill? well, there were a number of concerns. the most visible were the removal of the sorting machines in the post offices. what do the post office officials were saying was this actually was to make the post office more efficient because they handle less letters and more packages, and they need room for those packages. but of course in this election year, with a pandemic, they are going to have a lot of ballots % in which are not packages, and there was concern that removal

of those machines along with letterboxes that postal authorities also said were routine, that this was some sort of lot on behalf of the president to slow down the balloting and grow the election to the president. in general, how reliable is the postal service? if i was to send you an important package, would you expect to get it quickly? i would would you expect to get it quickly? iwould hear where would you expect to get it quickly? i would hear where i live, which is just quickly? i would hear where i live, which isjust outside washington, dc, it has been pretty consistent, but what we are hearing, even as close as baltimore to the north of us and definitely in rural areas to the west, there has been a significant slowdown, and people have been complaining about their medications not arriving on time, also people that were mailing lives chicks to farms, those packages were being held, and thousands and thousands of chicks apparently we re thousands of chicks apparently were dying. steve, dated talk to you. thank you.

staying in the united states, more than 20 wildfires continue to burn across california. high temperatures and ongoing lightning strikes make the situation harder to control. six people have been killed and more than 700 properties have been destroyed over the past week. the fires more than doubled in size on friday. 0ur correspondent peter bowes has more from los angeles. it is still extremely hot all the way through california. the worst affected areas are in the north of the state, east of palo alto, which is in the san francisco bay area, and then in wine country to the south of sacramento, and the firefighters are fighting really difficult conditions, it has been quite windy also, and these fires, by and large, were started by lightning strikes, very unusual, it happens about once every 20 years, these dry lightning strikes, and the forecast sadly is for more of these lightning strikes in the next 2a, 48 hours. these lightning strikes in the next 24, 48 hours. it will be

extremely difficult for at least the next week. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the russian opposition leader alexei navalny remains in hospital in germany. his supporters say his condition is very worrying. lithuania and poland deny claims nato is building up its forces along their borders with belarus. tiktok has confirmed that it will file a lawsuit against the trump administration. it comes after the us president signed an executive order banning transactions with the chinese—owned app and its chinese parent company, bytedance. tiktok has repeatedly denied washington's accusations that it is a national security threat, and beijing has called the trump crackdown political manipulation. i'm joined now by ashkhen kazaryan, director of civil liberties at techfreedom, a think tank which examines legal and policy issues raised by tech. this sounds like quite a serious fight back by tiktok. it is, and they are fighting for a huge market that they exist in, so i think they have

a reason to fight. let's look at the heart of the us government complained that tiktok might pass the data of users in the users in the united states to china and the chinese government. is that a credible concern? so what we know as a public are a few things. number one is that tiktok‘s parent company is byte da nce, tiktok‘s parent company is bytedance, a chinese parent albany. they have sent letters to the chinese communist party multiple times saying we are following —— reassuring cooperation. the privacy policy itself disclaims they might, if they want to, share data with china. tiktok says they don't and all the servers are of us user data are located in virginia with backups in singapore, but we keep seeing them in the statements, reassuring us, claiming that, yes, we can share if we want to, but the same time we are not going to. that is where the

concern is. we haven't seen a smoking gun. at the same time they collect an immense amount of data and often it is reported that they collect about the same amount of data other social networks do, but it is not true. they have more access, collect way more data about the user, their search history, the model of their phone and so on, so altogether it is not hard to connect the dots and say there is concern, but we haven't seen a smoking gun yet. at the same time, the owner, bytedance, is seeking to sell the us part of the company. that end the dispute? we did not hear about the negotiations about the sale until we heard president trump say he is going to. we are not sure what came first. maybe there were already negotiations in both because tiktok is still considered a start—up, but it has the highest growth rate. maybe the parent company was already negotiations. now, if they do sell tiktok

hypothetically, that is supposed to take the national security interest concerns off, but it would take a lot of work. these mergers and acquisitions are not done easily, and a lot of the engineers as far as i understand are located in china and other countries, so it be like an infrastructure move. how are us tech companies like facebook dealing with this rival? i would say that different tech companies obviously have different markets and different focuses and facebook owns instagram, it is opposed to have something to rival tiktok in the marketplace. it was launched in the united states just a few weeks ago i believe, so we are not sure how the market is going to react, but i think it isa going to react, but i think it is a competitor and shows the power of a free market because it is extremely popular, tiktok is extremely popular with the younger generation in the united states. thank you so

much. the world health organization has recommended that children aged 12 or over should wear face masks under the same conditions as adults. the guidance applies in areas where there is high transmission of covid—i9, and where social distancing cannot be maintained. 0ur correspondent imogen foulkes has more. this latest advice from the world health organization comes just as schools around the world, especially here in europe, about to reopen after — for some of them anyway — months and months of closure, and what the who says is that children over the age of 12 should be following the same kind of mask etiquette as adults. there are some suggestions that children over the age of 12 act similarly to adults when it comes to transmission of the virus and infecting others. that means masks, the who insists, can prevent you

infecting someone else, and that's why kids should wear them. but the who says this is not a substitute for the rest of the staff. hand hygiene, keeping your distance wherever possible, and really, really being aware of the time that you're doing your best to protect yourself and to protect others. the advice from the who comes as the global number of registered coronavirus cases has surpassed 23 million. according to johns hopkins university, more than 800,000 people globally have now died after becoming infected the united states leads the world in both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths. more than 176,000 people have lost their lives to covid—i9 in the country. two latin american countries follow the us as the worst—affected countries by the pandemic. there have now been over 113,000 deaths in brazil, and nearly 60,000 in mexico. it's almost 18 months since the terror attacks on two

mosques in the new zealand city of christchurch. this week, the gunman responsible for killing 51 people will be sentenced. in a hearing set to last four days, dozens of survivors will explain how the mass shooting changed their lives forever. the bbc‘s shaimaa khalil reports from sydney. it was an attack that devastated new zealand and shocked the world. the quiet city of christchurch became the scene of the country's worst mass shooting. 0n scene of the country's worst mass shooting. on march 15, 2019, a gunman opened fire in two masks, killing 51 people and wounding dozens more as they got ready for friday prayers. taj was shot three times in the lake at al—noor mosque, his best friend died next to him. he struggles to walk, and the horrors of the day still haunt him. he is now dreading facing the killer in

court at sentencing. because i see the gunman, he shot me and shot my friend. it's too hard for me. i see, watching, looking, that was very difficult. yes, guilty. earlier this year, brenton tarrant admitted 51 murders in 41 cou nts admitted 51 murders in 41 counts of manslaughter. the 29—year—old australian was also the first person to be convicted under new zealand's most convicted under new zealand's m ost rece nt convicted under new zealand's most recent terror laws. dozens of survivors and victims‘ relatives will address the court in the presence of the killer. they will describe how his crimes changed their lives. but when new zealand‘s water is close because of covid—19, many families as well as to national media will have to follow the sentencing remotely. media will have to follow the sentencing remotelylj media will have to follow the sentencing remotely. i did go back and forth with making the decision. despite the restrictions, some relatives we re restrictions, some relatives were granted visas to attend. this man died in hospital almost two months ago after he was shot. she has travelled from singapore and spent two

weeks in quarantine. my husband was not here to speak for himself, so i am his voice. the children love him so much. of course i hope, and shall are, when my boys are big enough to refer to this event or day they will be proud of their mother, that they were able to do this in the middle of the pandemic to see that their father‘s killer is locked away in prison for a long time. and how do you feel about seeing the killer in court? i haven't really hard with the time to think about how i feel about him or how i feel about seeing him in the flesh. i hope i will be cool, calm and collected. renton tarrant is calm and collected. renton tarra nt is responsible calm and collected. renton tarrant is responsible for one of new zealand‘s darkest days and will get a mandatory life sentence. thejudge must now decide if you will ever be considered for release. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, sydney. the captain of manchester

united, harry maguire, has pleaded not guilty and has been released from police custody in greece following a disturbance at a bar on the greek island of mykonos. the england defender was one of three men arrested on thursday. the police say the accusations against the three include bodily harm and the attempted bribery of an official. 0lly foster reports. after two nights in police custody, harry maguire, seen here at the rear in the light blue shirt, faced the regional prosecutor on the island of syros today. he‘s now free to return to the uk, but his legal team are due back in court on tuesday to try and clear the manchester united captain‘s name. he was arrested with two other men on the neighbouring island of mykonos on thursday night. he was staying with friends and family. this hearing him socialising. police there claimed they had to break up a fight outside a bar. this was on thursday night. the three men were then accused of assaulting and verbally abusing an officer before a further

altercation at a police station. yesterday, he was taken by boat to syros to spend another night in a police cell before his appearance in court this morning. the exact nature of the charges that maguire faces isn‘t clear. the file opened against the three men also alleged that one of them attempted to bribe an official. mcguire, who is 27, has risen to the top of his game, a key player in glen, originally woke up player in glen, originally woke up semifinals years ago. became the world‘s mystic answer defender when hejoined the world‘s mystic answer defender when he joined united for £18 million last summer —— the world‘s most expensive defender. the club released a short statement after their captain‘s appearance in court. they say the adjournment will give their lawyers the time to fully assess the case, and they‘ve confirmed that maguire has pleaded not guilty to the charges. 0lly foster, bbc news, old trafford. well, let me introduce you to

temmy, the newest member of staff at a hospital. designed to treat coronavirus patients from a safe distance. a microphone, camera and video screen allows it to be an ideal intermediary between patients and medics. heather connolly is director for and medics. heather connolly is directorfor europe and medics. heather connolly is director for europe and russia strategic international studies. what we have learned about apparently similar cases in the past, would we expect german doctors treating alexander novell need to be able to say definitively what caused him to get sick?” able to say definitively what caused him to get sick? i think it‘s highly unlikely that we will be able to have a definitive answer and through the russian doctors in hospital almost preventing a eight alexei navalny —— preventing

alexei navalny —— preventing alexei navalny. but this hospital in berlin treated a similar russian opposition figure in 2018. nearly the exact same symptoms, so hopefully they will be able to draw some comparisons and tragically, this hospital as had a great deal of expertise in russian poisoning. they prevented alexei navalny‘s blood from being taken when he was in siberia. was this poison 01’ was in siberia. was this poison or simply was in siberia. was this poison orsimply —— is was in siberia. was this poison or simply —— is alexei navalny a serious threat to the kremlin 01’ a serious threat to the kremlin oran a serious threat to the kremlin or an irritant? even by being a nuisance is starting to embarrass the kremlin. when he was doing in siberia, he was campaigning nearand around was doing in siberia, he was campaigning near and around the largest city, he was organising for the municipal elections on september 13. he was organising so september 13. he was organising so the opposition could follow behind one candidate in a variety of municipalities in order to beat the united russia party, the programme lan party,

so party, the programme lan party, so this is going to be an embarrassment. —— the pro— kremlin party. and also uncovering a lot of local corruption, so this could have been something that occurred as a local level as he wasn‘t uncovering some nefarious activities, but the kremlin is very nervous right now. what they have seen in belarus and they have seen in belarus and the restlessness across russian society is causing them to be very concerned about the september 13 regional elections. briefly, however, what effect has his condition had upon opposition activists inside russia? and this is the great unknown. while it does strike fear, of course, these brave, courageous opposition, and people who simply want a choice in russia, are risking their lives. it will likely embolden them as well. alexei navalny has a vast network across russia. this is something to watch in coming days. heather connolly, thank you forjoining us. more on all

our stories on our website. and iamon our stories on our website. and i am on twitter. i‘m @jamesbbcnews. to stay with bbc news. —— do stay with bbc news. hello there. at the moment the weather doesn‘t feel much like summer. weather doesn‘t feel much like summer. 0ver weather doesn‘t feel much like summer. over this weekend we have seen showers and rains. we got more showers to come during the second half of the weekend. the big cricket match of course is taking place at southampton, england, on top, hoping for some more wickets. generally speaking, the day should be dry. there are going to be many showers across this part of the country. many bases will start sunday with some sunshine and dry. showers coming into northern ireland, spilling into southern scotland, northern england, moving into the midlands and into the afternoon down towards the south—east. some of those showers could be happy, possibly boundary. more such overwhelmed in the south—west, the winds will be

lighter on sunday, turning north—westerly in scotland, but there should be very few showers away from the far south. it will be quite cool area, attempt is only 14— 16 degrees. we could make 22—23 in the south—east head of those heavy showers. those will move away fairly quickly in the evening, linger little bit longer across northern england and then later in the note we will see some rain coming into wales and the south—west, but some clearer spells elsewhere. a little bit cooler, i think, by monday morning, particularly in scotland. quite chilly in the glens of scotland for this time of year. monday is a messy day, we have more cloud and patchy rain in the morning moving eastwards across england and wales and in some sunny spells, a few showers around here and there. the winds will be quite late on monday, again, attempt as may be making 17 in the central belt of scotland to a high of 21 in the south—east of england. a fairly quiet day but the changes overnight into tuesday, perhaps lingering into wednesday. we got more gales arriving across the uk, particularly in the south and this is where we are more likely to have some further

trouble disruption. another dose of weight and very windy weather, and usually when you‘ve at this time of year is a deep area of low pressure again sweeps its way across the uk. when arriving overnight, the wind is picking up by the morning in the south—west in particular, blowing it ran northwards, probably not reaching northern scotland, the wind is really picking up away, across wales, the midlands, southern england, gusts of 50-60 southern england, gusts of 50—60 miles an hour along some of exposed coastal areas. a bumpy ride on tuesday, temperatures probably don‘t meana temperatures probably don‘t mean a great deal in that rain, it is going to be pretty cold for most of the day, pfizer 21 again in the south—east. —— highs of 21 again in the south—east.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the leading kremlin critic, alexei navalny, is in berlin receiving emergency treatment after a suspected attempt to poison him in russia. mr navalny‘s supporters have described his condition as very worrying, and say he‘s been the target of an assassination bid. russia denies any involvement. nato has dismissed claims by the president of belarus of a troop build—up on its border as baseless. nato said it posed no threat to belarus or any other country. president alexander lukashenko has been facing mass protests since claiming victory in a contested election earlier this month. firefighters in california are struggling to contain some of the state‘s largest ever blazes as forecasters warn that more lightning strikes on sunday could spark new wildfires. more than 500 separate fires have burned more than 4,000 square kilometres in a week. six people have been killed. six years ago, the life of the pakistan schoolboy,