this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughanjones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. overnight curfew and internet shut down, as tanks roll into cities in myanmar. of the jailed opposition leader, alexei navalny. a coronavirus outbreak in new zealand results in a three—day lockdown in the city of auckland. and the duke and duchess of sussex announce they're expecting a second child — harry and meghan are said to be overjoyed. hello and welcome to audiences

in the uk and around the world. we start with the latest on the military coup in myanmar. there's now an internet blackout enforced across the country. and there are troop deployments in response to the mass demonstrations. western embassies in myanmar have called on the country's military to refrain from violence against demonstrators and civilians. this comes after reports security forces opened fire to disperse a protest. armoured vehicles have been seen driving round the streets of central yangon for first time since the coup two weeks ago. many drivers expressed their anger by beeping their horns. our reporter nin yah ay filed this report from yangon just before the blackout started. back on the streets for the first time since the coup, the military have returned to central yangon. tonight, the generals want to send a powerful message

to those planning to take part in a nationwide strike on monday. tensions are high across the city. as news of more arrests filter out, people are taking to the streets tonight, setting up barricades and patrolling their neighbourhoods. the people here want to stop more night—time raids from the military. all across the city, you will find scenes like this one. dozens of people are staying up all night to protect their neighbours. if police arrive to make more arrests, they bang their pots and pans to sound a warning. banging on pots. there's also many rumours here. people are worried about attacks on their homes by strangers.

translation: we're hearing. things about attempted arsons and chaos, they're trying to create an impression that there is a lack of security. that is why we are making our own arrangements together to protect our communities, our towns and villages. we are providing security from 9pm to 5am. tonight, western embassies here, including the british, are calling on the country's military to refrain from violence against demonstrators and civilians. gunfire. but there is already reports of shooting in the northern part of the country. nin yah ay, bbc news, yangon, myanmar. to russia now: valentine's day has seen more protests in support of the jailed opposition leader, alexei navalny. women took to the streets with flowers — and this evening supporters across the country lit torches and candles, some forming heart shapes in the snow.

there was no repeat of the violence and arrests of previous demonstrations. here's our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford. the cold was toe—numbing in moscow today. but these women defied the frost and their fear to turn out for a valentine's day protest. they called it a chain of solidarity and love, and they carried flowers, not placards. but the hearts were black, in memory of all the russian women detained and persecuted because of their politics. i want to support all these women, and all these prisoners. there are some of my acquaintances in prison also. we hoped that today it wasn't to be so many arrests. not for struggle. the numbers here are not huge, but the message the women are sending is a strong one. about the right to political, peaceful protest, and for an end to arrests of people just for expressing their views.

today's protest was inspired by alexei navalny�*s gesture to his wife in court. yulia was there as the opposition politician was sentenced to almost three years behind bars. chanting that ruling brought crowds onto the streets last month, chanting for navalny�*s freedom. they were the biggest protests against president putin for years. and the response was tough. thousands detained and dozens facing serious criminal charges. the kremlin calls the rallies illegal, fomented by the west, it says, to weaken russia. so, navalny�*s team have switched tack. across russia tonight, his supporters formed heart shapes in the snow in their own backyards — a protest both peaceful and riot police—proof. they then flooded social media with the images. filipp and ignat came out tonight too.

they were both arrested last month at the first street rally for navalny. locked in the same police van, they then shared a cell for ten days. undeterred, theyjoined the flash mob in filipp�*s yard. we want to feel free, we want to say our opinions, we would like to change something, yeah. but you don't feel free now? no, no. so the protests have moved off russia's deep frozen streets for now, but it seems the protest mood hasn't faded here. sarah rainsford, bbc news. let's go to the us now. presidentjoe biden has called for congress to pass gun law reforms, including a ban on assault weapons. in a statement, mr biden said:

this statement comes three years to the day after the parkland school shooting in florida where an ex—pupil killed 17 people. the shooting sparked outrage across the us and prompted fresh demands for firearms control. i've been speaking to professor robert spitzer — political scientist and author of five books on gun policy. he explained which of president biden�*s proposals would be the mostly likely to pass through congress. the best chance among the proposals he's advancing is to establish uniform background checks for all gun purchases. most people think there are background checks for all gun purchases in america, but that's not so. roughly 20% of all gun purchases and exchanges occur without a background check. over 90% of americans support

that measure, over 80% of gun owners support that measure, and it actually passed the house of representatives in 2019, and if it comes to a straight vote in the senate, both the senate and house controlled by the democrats, who are more friendly to stronger gun measures, surely it will pass barring a filibuster attempt or effort in the senate. that by far would have the greatest chance of passing. ok, greater chance for more background checks. what about the idea of restrictions on the magazines? magazine limits should also be a measure that should be able to pass through, simply because it doesn't mean you can't have a gun or even a gun that holds a large capacity magazine, meaning one that does not hold more than ten rounds. the gun industry and the gun lobby, the nra, do not like that measure, but that's also one that should be able to win a fair amount of support because it's hard to make a rational argument that civilians should be able to buy bullet magazines that hold more than ten rounds.

ok, so biden looking promising on those two measures. what about this idea of holding manufacturers more responsible? that will be a little more complicated, partly because many people don't really know about it because it's a fairly complicated measure relating to tort law, but it was a giveaway to the gun industry because it provides them special legal protections that no other industry has, and it simply means, or if it were removed, it would mean that if they engaged in behaviour that's irresponsible, people could sue for damages, as you could for any kind of manufacturer. that i think would be a tougher haul but not impossible. more broadly overall, for many americans, as soon as they hear about any gun law reform, they immediately hear the phrase "oh, they're trying to take my guns off me", and that blocks any kind of progress. do you think that's really changed? that attitude is very

strong among gun owners and when you marry to that the second amendment, which talks about the right to bear arms, which by the way, as a matter of law, would not be a bar to the enactment of any of these measures, as virtually any legal expert would agree, but when those two things are brought together, for gun owners it means running to the barricades to prevent the enactment of new gun laws, and unfortunately, america is in a position right now where the far right is in a very heightened state of political awareness and anxiety, and this will likely add some fuel to what i would label the paranoid fears of some in the gun rights community who fear that any step towards stronger gun measure is simply moving down the road towards gun confiscation, which is not something that's going to happen in point of fact. professor bob spitzer there. to spain's catalonia region next where sunday's election has seen separatist parties boost their

together they're set to get 7a seats in the 135—seat assembly. the vote comes more then three years after a failed bid to break away from the country. paul hawkins reports. this is a man who for four and a half miles has been the acting president of catalonia. after the selection he is now favour to keep the job. after the selection he is now favour to keep thejob. he is centre—left, pro— independence party won 303c whatever to make pro—independence seats won 41 seats. combined, gives separatists parties in the catalan parliament 7a cents, up four from the previous selection in the 135 assembly. the first time ever more importantly, separatist parties have polled more than half the vote in the catalan election. i vote in the catalan election. 1 would like to send a vote in the catalan election. i would like to send a message to european authorities, the results are clear. we, the

separatist parties, have a majority. we have reached more than 50% of the popular vote. the catalan people have spoken. the catalan people have spoken. the time has come to negotiate a referendum for self deregulation. please get involved. good times for spain's governing socialists who also increase their number of seats from 17 to 33. but celebrations will be short lived. all three pro—independence parties have agreed not to deal a deal with them. so now the bargaining begins between the three separatist parties as to how they will govern catalonia. it is a highly prosperous region of spain home to the city of barcelona and 7.5 million people with their own language and culture. its economy is about the size of denmark. in fact, no other spanish region has a higher gross domestic product so catalonia is vitally important to spain. four years ago, the region had its

autonomy suspended for almost seven months by the government in madrid after a failed bid for independence. two years ago, nine catalan politicians and activists were jailed for “p and activists were jailed for up to 13 years for their part in an effort to break away. the selection however has been overshadowed by the pandemic. it is thought to be one of the main reasons why turnout was down from 80 to just 53%. a separatist parties getting a record share of the vote, calls for independence won't be going away anytime soon. paul stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a brother or sisterfor archie — the duke and duchess of sussex announce they are expecting their second child. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had

been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible affect on the morale of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions on the streets, one wonders who is next. gunfire. as the airlift got under. way, there was no letup in the eruption itself. lava streams from . a vent low the crater flowed down to the sea the east of the island, i away from the town for the time being. | it could start flowing again at any time. i the russians heralded their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch, they called it �*mir�* — the russian for peace. this is bbc news, our main headline this hour. in myanmar the internet has

been suspended and a curfew imposed as protests against the military coup continue. western ambassadors have warned the burmese military not to harm civilians. here in the uk more than 15 million people have now received their first dose of coronaviurs vaccine. but the bbc�*s panorama programme has been investigating the people trying to derail the rollout. conspiracy theorists are targeting people who have fears about the vaccine. some have gained millions of followers during the pandemic. our reporter marianna spring has more. the majority of people in the uk want the vaccine. but there is a committed minority deploying anti—vaccination messaging online to influence those hesitant about the jab. this is rosemary and donald who are in their 80s, from norwich. they were on the government's priority list. but then they got

a message on whatsapp. it features 33 people, some brandishing medical credentials. some alleged, contrary to scientific evidence, that the vaccines are unsafe and they can alter a person's dna. so this is the video that you had seen. let's watch. video: the covid-19 vaccine is not proven safe. - it left me in quite a lot of anxiety. because it sounded so real. and the people were so plausible. and they were named as clinicians and doctors, surgeons. the video frightened rosemary so much that she felt unsure about having the vaccine. the real danger to people, in fact those who have the most to lose by not having this vaccine and face are most severe threat for mortality and death from covid—19 but also long—term

illness from covid—19. panorama contacted all of those in the video. of those who responded, four defended its contents. five said if we referred to them as anti—vaccine they would take legal action. oracle films, who produced the video, chose not to comment on its contents. this isjust one part of an online anti—vaccine blitz. social media use has increased across the board during the pandemic. exclusive bbc monitoring research reveals a huge spike in followers of accounts promoting anti—vaccination claims. especially on instagram which is used by lots of young people. facebook, which owns instagram, has removed some pages highlighted by panorama. the company says it removes harmful misinformation and actively promotes good information. back in norwich, once rosemary realised that many of the claims in

the video were false she made her decision. how are you feeling about having the vaccine today? so pleased, i can't even say. relieved. i think we're looking forward to having it done. but the ask the experts video continues to circulate on whatsapp. and as long as it is there, it will still scare those yet to have theirjabs. in new zealand, new 3d lockdown is under way in the city of auckland after three new coburg cases were reported. the level three restrictions will require everyone to stay home except for essential shopping and work. new zealand hadn't had any local cases for months and has been one of the most successful countries in containing the spread of the virus. prime minister, jacinda ardern said the authorities would work quickly to assess the extent

of the new infections. i've been speaking to doctor suzie wiles who is a microbiologist at the university of auckland. for us, we are living at a low level one which is basically life as normal but no tourists, essentially. and in order to stay that way we need to stop community these three cases and having a three—day lockdowns is to stop any potential transmission while we try and identify who else may be involved and where these cases have come from. and is this a system that will carry on now? this aim of zero covid, the lockdown, the amazing testing and tracing system that the country has there. this is just carry on? it is certainly going to be for the foreseeable future. we have vaccines coming into the country this week but only a small number and that will be for our border workers. so until we get supplies later in the year for the rest of the country this is definitely the strategy. is there a reason why vaccines are relatively late? in the uk we had 15

million of our first doses on the presumption is that the sooner those vaccines are in, that critical mass of the population, the sooner that life can return to normal. it is unclear whether that will be enough at the moment. in new zealand, the strategy was to stop covid—19 in its tracks from the very beginning so for many months now we have been living as though there was no covid. we had hotel quarantine for travellers for many months now so we stopped cases at the border and if there are incursions, and we have had very few, they are an opportunity to understand how the transmission happened, how we can tighten our border and return to normal. we had some cases where we have not had to do this kind of lockdown so they have been transmissions in the community where we have stop it without contact tracing but there are some features around these three cases, and it is one of the new variants, more infectious variants so that made us take these more stricter measures for the first few days. we saw pictures of that normal life, almost normal life in new zealand and many people around the world are looking on quite jealously.

but it is not normal life for those involved in international travel moving back and forth and the only way staying with the coronavirus — in february last year the world's attention was gripped by the diamond princess cruise ship and the passengers stuck on board. they were quarantined for weeks as the disease swept through the ship. it was one of the first widely reported coronavirus outbreaks outside china. a year on, what hope is there for an industry cast adrift by covid? rupert wingfield hayes reports. diamond princess had set off from her homeport in late january with more than three and a half thousand passengers and crew on board. three days from yokohama an elderly passenger fell ill, a serious cough, and was taken to hospital on arrival in hong kong. no—one was particularly worried and the ship continued its journey. but on—board, other passengers were starting to become ill. in hong kong authorities

confirmed the elderly man tested positive for covid—19. back in yokohama on february 3, japanese authorities refused to let anyone disembark, but on—board the ship, infections were continuing to grow. from then from the day the ship arrived, infections soared to nearly 700. and despite what the japanese government were saying, it was very obvious that the quarantine on—board that ship was not working. you can imagine the situation for the 2500 passengers locked up in their cabins 2a hours a day. how frightening it must have been as they wondered how the virus continued to spread and "will i be the next to be infected ? " i don't know how all of us have been sitting here for 12 days and getting contaminated, but something is going wrong. this is a failed quarantine. by february 20 under huge pressure from the united states and other countries, japan allowed the passengers to be evacuated to their home

countries where they faced more quarantine. the diamond princess may have been the first cruise ship to be struck by covid—19, but soon more followed. in early march its sister ship the grand princess was ordered to dock in san francisco after a former passenger fell ill and died from covid—19. president trump notoriously tried to stop the passengers from being allowed onto us soil to prevent them being counted in the us covid numbers. where it up to me i would be inclined to say leave everybody on the ship for a period of time and use the ship as your base. but a lot of people would rather do it a different way, they would rather quarantine people on land. and when we do that our numbers will go up. the owner of the diamond princess, carnival cruises, and the industry in general has strenuously defended its safety record. by mid—2020, most of the industry was completely shut down. some ships have tentatively put back to sea in the last few months on so—called cruises to nowhere but many remain

idle, like these ones anchored in manila bay in the philippines. according to its website, the diamond princess hopes to welcome its first passengers in over one year sometime this july. next, the duke and duchess of sussex are expecting a second child. a spokesperson for the couple said: "we can confirm that archie is going to be a big brother" and described harry and meghan as "overjoyed". more on this from our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. they certainly look very happy in this black—and—white photograph that they have released to accompany the news. barefoot amid the apple blossom, harry, at least. and this happy news just come 72 hours after they learned they had won a case against the mail on sunday so that was a double celebration. the queen, the duke of edinburgh, the prince of wales and the rest of the family are said to be delighted and they have sent the couple their good wishes. this will be the

queen's 10th or 11th great—grandchild depending on whether zara phillips's baby is born before the sussex baby in the summer. one unusual thing about the sussex baby, it will almost certainly be born in the united states. it will therefore almost certainly be a citizen of the united states, notwithstanding that it will be eighth in line, boy or girl, to the throne of the united kingdom. thanks to nicholas there. the united arab error emirates space capsule called hope has sent the first picture back from mars. the probe entered mars' orbit last week, and it's theirfirst mars' orbit last week, and it's their first major venture into space, part of the uae�*s attempts to post itself as a future space nations. i will be back with the headlines in a couple of minutes, in the meantime you can get me on

social media. this is bbc news, goodbye. hello. having another week as very cold it was last week could be quite an achievement but so is swinging the weather pendulum so quickly into the very mild category which is exactly what we're doing this week. temperatures so very different by day and by night but the change is coming with a fair bit of rain, rather than snow and it is a blustery week. the high pressure that was pumping cold at us from the east is now retreating. low pressure is in control this week and a flow of air around the low pressure system that draws the air in from a mild direction from the south—west. as long as it stays that way we will have temperatures above the average for the time of year. it looks to be staying that way for quite a while. as we start off on monday morning, look at that, no frost out there.

for some of us temperatures will have headed up a few degrees overnight. plenty of cloud to start the day, misty and murky in places with rain still to clear away from parts of east anglia and south—east england. elsewhere showers into northern ireland will run across scotland and northern england, especially west of the pennines, a couple for wales and another reaching towards the midlands. it will gradually brighten up in the afternoon but many of us will end the day dry. breezy, and not as windy as it was over the weekend but look at these temperatures. 10—14 degrees and we are talking above freezing. and although we are largely dry to end the day here comes the next set of weather fronts, that wet weather pushing across us overnight and into tuesday morning and it will be a mild night and mild start to the day. still with a bit of rain to clear away from east anglia and south—east england on tuesday morning, bright skies following, showers moving in towards the west, some of these could be heavy and thundery and a few will push further east during the day accompanied by a strengthening wind across north—west scotland. it will stay quite windy into wednesday. for the most part temperatures are in double figures. into wednesday, an area of showery rain pushing eastwards, still with us, those strong winds north—west

scotland. a few sunny spells and to end the day the next area of wet weather shows its hand towards the south and that will push in wednesday night into thursday. further rain heavy in places. the temperatures take a step backwards on thursday but then into next weekend if you avoid the rain and see some sunshine it could turn out to be exceptionally mild for you.

this is bbc news,

the headlines: in myanmar, the internet has been shut down and a curfew imposed as protests against the military coup continue. western ambassadors have warned the burmese military not to harm civilians as troops are deployed across the country. the un is demanding the release of the elected leader, aung san suu kyi. supporters of russia's jailed opposition leader, alexei navalny, have held short valentine's day torchlight protests across the country, using their mobile phones or candles. they posted photos under the hashtag �*love is stronger than fear�*. a human rights monitor says several people had been detained. the duke and duchess of sussex have announced they're expecting their second child later this year. a spokesperson for harry and meghan said the couple is overjoyed, and looking forward to the arrival of a little brother or sister for theirfirst son, archie.

now it's time for dateline london.