this is bbc news, welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm mark lobel. our top stories: thousands of people take part in protests across europe, against coronavirus lockdown measures. demonstrations in istanbul as turkey's criticised for pulling out of a treaty protecting women and girls. the main opposition party has put it like this: women will be kept as second—class citizens and left to be killed. homes washed away in australia as heavy rain and flash floods batter the east coast — thousands of people are ordered to evacuate. and coming to life after 800 years — a volcano erupts 30 kilometres

outside iceland's capital reykjavic. tens of thousands of people have taken part in protests across europe to demand an end to coronavirus restrictions. it comes as much of the continent faces a third wave of deadly infections. there've been protests in poland, where a strict new lockdown has come into force, after a sharp increase in cases. there were also angry demonstrations in vienna, with many frustrated protesters calling for chancellor sebastian kurz to step down. this protest took place in finland, which has more than 70,000 confirmed cases, and where 800 people have died since the pandemic began.

there were also anti—lockdown protests in london. they came despite a fall in infections and a fast—paced vaccination programme. meanwhile, german police used pepper spray during ugly clashes in the northern city of kassel — another city where demonstrators are angry about covid—linked restrictions. 0ur berlin correspondent, damian mcguinness, is following developments. anti—restrictions demos in germany have become a common sight over the past year, really, and we saw the high measures were relatively light and the pandemic was seen as quite under controll here in germany but what we've seen over the past few months is quite a change in mood across the country. now, these particular demonstrations are a complete mix of people, so you have all sorts of people from far—right groups to just people who don't agree with this government, right through to anti—vaccination campaigners, even a few people there

who don't even believe covid—19 exists and then other people with more moderate views, so a real broad range. a large demo, about 20,000 people, clashes with police but i think what we are seeing is, this particular demo and these demos across the country here in germany are not really representative of mainstream feelings. the mainstream feeling is not so much angry at the restrictions but angry at the very slow vaccine rollout. many people, in fact, think it's wrong of the government to start loosening restrictions in some areas which is also happening at the same time, quite a confusing situation here in germany, and i think what brings a lot of people together now, the majority probably in germany, is a general feeling that the government doesn't really have control of the situation and whether you think the restrictions should be harsher or looser, the government is losing popularity and certainly that's the case for angela merkel�*s conservative party which is not good news considering we have an election here in six month's time. as people took to

the streets in france, 35,000 new coronavirus cases were confirmed — a slight increase on the proceeding 2a hours. the country has re—introduced a partial lockdown, affecting some 21 million people in 16 areas, including the capital, paris. one of those affected is our correspondent, hugh schofield. yes, well, if you went out today, as i did, it didn't feel that different on the streets of paris. the markets were open, the parks were full of playing children and families. it didn't feel that different from yesterday or the day before, and partly of course that is because this is a lockdown—light. we are allowed to leave our homes for as long as we like, within a radius of 10 kilometres, and that means that life apparently is going on as normal. but i think beneath the surface there's a big psychological burden nonetheless in all of this. partly it's because we can't leave paris, that's one

of the big rules, you can't travel outside of the area that's in lockdown now, and partly there's this bureaucratic element too, which means again that if you leave your home you have to have this piece of paper or a web document to show, to justify why you are out. so there's this feeling that every time you go out you might be accosted by a policeman or policewoman and told to show why you are out of the house, and that weighs on people, i think. above all there is this sense that, in spite of the fact that life in many ways is no worse than it was yesterday, it's not getting better, and it should be. the restaurants, the cafes, there is absolutely no prospect of them opening now in the weeks to come, or even for another couple of months, maybe. and we were all hoping that the end was coming, and i think that really is what weighs on people — that exactly a year, exactly one year to the day after the first lockdown, it's coming again. it's like a treadmill. the sharp rise in infections across europe has coincided with a slow rollout of vaccination programmes, and the temporary suspension

of the astrazeneca jab in several countries. richard galpin has more. here in germany, the authorities are warning the country is facing a third wave of coronavirus. infections rising exponentially. particularly worrying, as just 8% of the population has had a first dose of vaccine. lockdown measures are now expected. the situation also serious here in france as well as in poland and other eu countries, where covid cases are surging because of the spread of the uk variant of the virus. infections are starting in western europe and moving gradually eastwards, and we are seeing this particular variant, being more severe in terms of the clinical picture, it's leading to bigger pressure on hospitals. europe's problems are in part a result of a faltering vaccine programme and delays in deliveries, made worse by the eu's recent suspension of the astrazeneca vaccine,

but many eu countries are now using it again. let's get some of the day's other news in brief. 11 people who were being investigated by the maltese journalist daphne caruana galizia, before her murder have appeared in court in valletta. they're facing charges of money laundering, corruption and fraud. among the accused is keith schembri, the chief of staff to the former prime minister of malta. he denies any wrongdoing. a court in pakistan has sentenced two men to death for raping a woman on the side of a highway last year. the attack triggered nationwide protests. it happened in front of the french woman's children after her car had run out of fuel. the two men, named as abid malhi and shafqat hussain, were convicted of rape, kidnapping, robbery and terrorism.

there've been big protests in istanbul after turkey pulled out of its landmark global convention aimed at combatting violence against women. europe's top human rights body, the council of europe, has called it a huge set back for the protection of women in and outside the country. the bbc�*s 0rla guerin reports from istanbul. even behind the mask, the defiance is clear. this was the response in istanbul to president erdogan�*s decree issued in the dead of night, pulling turkey out of the landmark treaty protecting women and girls. this in fact proves that the government enables these men, enables these men in their violence towards women, domestic violence, abuse, sexual harassment and murder. i felt the biggest ache in my heart

and it'sjust the biggest disappointment as a woman you can feel in turkey. well, there's plenty of anger here. these women believe the decree is an attempt to drag them and their country back in time, to deprive them of key rights and protections. turkey's main opposition party has put it like this, "women will be kept as second class citizens and left to be killed." it was a very different picture ten years ago. turkey was first to proudly sign up to the treaty, ironically called the istanbul convention. the council of europe has branded turkey's withdrawal from this line—up "deplorable." and domestic abuse survivors like daria say they are now more vulnerable. these horrific images were taken

after she was attacked by her husband who has been convicted but is free on appeal. "with this decision, i'm an open target," she told us tonight. "i'm worried for my life because i have kids. "if i die, many others will be affected." at the protest, some held photos of women who have been killed. rights campaigners here say last year alone there were around 300. 0rla guerin, bbc news, istanbul. crowds gathered across the united states on saturday to protest about hate crimes against asian americans. this comes four days after the shootings of eight people including six asian american women in atlanta, georgia. the bbc�*s azadeh moshiri reports. we have lived in the shadows, invisible. 0verlooked, stereotyped and relegated as second—class citizens.

anger, frustration, and a call for change. across the united states, protesters gathered on saturday, following the shootings of eight people in atlanta spas, six of whom were asian—american women. those gathered at the rallies were not only crying out against the murders, but also the aftermath. local law enforcement said the suspect denied any racial motive to the killings and told them he was struggling with a sex addiction. a police spokesman said it was, quote, "a really bad day for the attacker". this has led to the outcry seen at these rallies. a 21—year—old white man targeted three asian businesses, driving a0 minutes from one spot to another, passing other adult entertainment businesses. no matter how you want to spin it, the facts remain the same. this was an attack

on the asian community! while it's difficult to track hate incidents against asian—americans, the us advocacy group stop aapi hate said it received more than 2,800 reports of hate incidents directed at asian—americans last year. even if i am asian, i am also american. and throughout my personal experience i have always been invisible, but i want to make clear to the world and the people that i am here and i am visible. georgia is in the heart of america's deep south and it became a battleground state in the 2020 election. its changing demographics and grassroots activism handed a victory to two democratic senators as well as to joe biden, the first democratic presidential candidate to win the state in nearly three decades.

after these shootings, their asian—american constituents are now speaking up, arguing that lawmakers need to do more to protect them. you are watching bbc news. the main story this hour: thousands of people take part in protests across europe, against coronavirus lockdown measures. emergency authorities in australia are warning of life—threatening flash—flooding as storms batter parts of the east coast. evacuation orders are in place in many low—lying areas. david campa nale reports. the aftermath of significant record—breaking rainfall in new south wales. got to go around to the other side of the car now to get the other patient out. across australia's most populous state, dozens of people have been rescued from floodwaters, and residents in many low—lying communities ordered to leave. major highways have been

closed and wild surf is battering the coast. more storms are forecast in the coming days and parts of eastern australia could receive up to a metre of rain in the space ofjust a week. officials say sydney is facing what they are calling a rain bomb. the main water reservoir there has overflowed for the first time in years as the city of 5 million braces for what's coming next. in the suburbs, descriptions of fear as the first sweep of rain came through the area. and then we saw the tornado form and then we saw trees and plants and people's furniture flying in the air, rubbish bins. and then i screamed and just ran back inside. i've never been so scared in my life. it felt like a movie. yeah. there have been over 500 rescue operations from the rising floodwaters. state political leaders said the storms could last for some days yet and gave a plea to residents to obey evacuation warnings.

i hate to say this again to all our citizens of this state, but it's not going to be an easy week for us. but i know that no matter what comes our way, we'll be able to deal with it. the federal government said the extreme weather has affected its covid—i9 vaccine delivery in sydney and throughout the state, but said delays should only last a few days. australia plans to deliver the first vaccine doses to almost 6 million people over the next few weeks. david campanale, bbc news. elon musk, the chief executive of the us electric carmaker tesla, says his firm would be shut down if its vehicles were used for spying on china. his comments were in response to reports that china's military had banned tesla cars from its facilities. the military had raised security concerns about the data collected by cameras in the cars. in a separate matter, a russian man in the us has pleaded guilty to plotting to extort money from the company's nevada plant.

0ur north america correspondent, peter bowes, has more. it's quite a strong denial from elon musk that, as you say, that tesla vehicles could be used as a vehicle for spying for americans spying on china. this followed reports on friday that some members of the chinese military, some senior members of government run companies there, had been ordered not to use tesla vehicles. now, elon musk says quite simply they would be put out of business if this were true. in fact, he said if any businesses did engage in spying on a foreign government, the negative effects for that company, he said, would be extremely bad and added that there is a strong incentive for them to keep any information that's gathered by a very sophisticated vehicle that is company has produced, but incentive is wrong to keep

that information confidential. i think another incentive for him and his company is that china is actually very important to tesla, second only to the united states and the fourth most important, in terms of global income. absolutely, they are hoping to sell 200,000 vehicles there this year. presumably, the concerns of china relate to the technology in these cars? yes, and specifically, the camera technology. that is where the apparent concern is, about data being collected by the vehicles. these cars have very sophisticated camera systems. that is what makes them so unique, but the concern seems to be there could be used to gather sensitive information. again, elon musk has hit back at this and turned the argument around, and referenced

the row over tiktok, the company that, or at least the app that donald trump tried to ban from the united states last year out of similar concerns that a camera on a mobile phone that had the app tiktok that was used could gather information from americans that would be useful to the chinese. indeed, parallels all over the place and tesla faces its own fate, the story of a russian man, pleading guilty of trying to recruit a tesla employee in order to put ransomware into the computer network in the nevada battery plant for tesla. tell us about that? yeah, this is a 27—year—old russian national, egor kriuchkov, accused and pleaded guilty to offering a tesla employee $1 million to essentially damage and break into the computer network of tesla's battery plant in reno, nevada. this never actually came to fruition. according to prosecutors and

the fbi, it was a conspiracy that was foiled and no damage was done but, according to prosecutors, the goal was to extract data from that computer system, using ransomware, and then in effect, hold the company, tesla, to ransom by threatening to release the data probably on the internet but at least to make it public and that data that could potentially clearly be very valuable to tesla and its release would be damaging for the company. this man, this russian national, is currently in a us jail and will be sentenced in may and because he has reached a plea agreement with the prosecutors in this country, he is likely only to get a sentence of about 10 months. peter bowes on those spy stories are there. a night time curfew has been imposed on the entertainment district of miami beach in florida after the authorities said it was being overwhelmed by visitors. police blocked off the art deco historic district in

south beach at eight pm local time, and all businesses within the area have been forced to close for 72 hours. the order aims to control the numbers of spring breakers who have flocked to the city. the mayor says the move is pre—emptive. too many people are coming here right now and too many people are coming here with bad intentions. at night, there is no question that it becomes a place that feels a little bit out of control or a lot out of control. 0ur city right now in this area has become a tender, and we cannot have a policy of simply hoping that make hoping it is not lit. we have to act before one of those incidents happen. we cannot act on the wake of something. —— in the wake of something. —— in the wake of something. —— in the wake of something. an attempt by canada's conservative oppostion to reform it's stance on climate change has failed. their new leader erin 0'toole had warned his party that not supporting his motion could leave them open to attack by liberals. laura lynch — host of

the canadian broadcasting corporation's radio show �*what on earth', explains why efforts failed. you have to understand this was a policy debate within the party, erin 0'toole had only hours before said the party needed to embrace change and things that were not orthodox for the party, and he did not want to go into the next election being branded as climate change deniers, and the party turned around and defeated putting in language in the policy that says climate change is real. you have to remember in the last election, the conservatives lost to the liberals, and a lot of people suggested that was due to the fact that the previous leader had carried into the election no real plan for dealing with climate change, and so, the new leader, erin 0'toole, knows he needs to have this in place to go forward into the next election which could be coming up sometime soon, some are suggesting, this is certainly a blow to his efforts to remake the party's

image and it could be much more difficult for him to persuade voters, most of whom believe that climate change is real, that the party is acting in their best interests. why was that not clear to his colleagues? if you look at the boat and how it breaks down, ——if you look at the vote and how it breaks down, it's not that much of a surprise. the eastern part of the country, quebec and maritime, delegates there voted in favour of this change, and in the western part of the country, that depend on fossilfuels for so much of their revenue, their economy, jobs, that is where the support began to falter, and that reflects a real debate within the country, those western provinces that are so dependent on resources, specifically oil and gas, who see climate change in many cases as a threat to their well—being, so that is a struggle not only liberal party as well, which even though it has put

forward a programme to deal with climate change, it is criticised because not long ago, it bought a gas pipeline, and oil and gas pipeline, in order to send heavy oil out of the west coast for shipment abroad. and your neighbour, presidentjoe biden has aggressively pursued climate policies ever since he took office. do you think that would affect things in canada? it has to. the economy goes hand—in—hand in so many ways, there are expectations that the two countries will move in lockstep in making electric cars more available and more affordable, something that president biden wants, and i think the canadian government will help all it can in that respect. in other respects, presidentjoe biden has a ready cancelled the key pipeline project at the canadian government wanted to go forward with, so differences indeed, but also expectations that the canadian government will be able to work more closely with this president then with the previous one.

you may have seen the pictures of a volcano in south—west iceland erupting, releasing streams of lava from under the earth's surface. the fissure, 30 kilometres from the capital, reykjavik, is more than 500 metres long. it's the first eruption in the area in centuries. 0ur europe correspondent, jean mackenzie, visited the volcano last week. the lava bursting through a long crack in the earth's crust, the moment icelanders have been bracing for turns into a spectacle, rather than a threat. translation: the nation has been waiting with bated breath for three weeks for it to happen and it's been 15 months since seismic activity started increasing significantly on the reykjanes peninsula. since the activity ratcheted up three weeks ago, iceland has recorded more than 50,000 earthquakes, a sign this eruption was imminent. we visited the volcanic

area just 20 miles from the capital, reykjavik, last week. so, the eruption is going to happen most likelyjust beyond that ridge. is used to eruptions, but not here — this area has sat dormant for centuries. this is very different to the explosive eruption in 2010 that blanketed the skies of europe in ash for weeks. the biggest threat this time is the pollution from the gases released, with residents being asked to keep their windows shut. icelanders have nicknamed these pretty eruptions tourist eruptions only with no tourists around to witness this one, it's the locals who get to marvel at their latest geological wonder. jean mackenzie, bbc news.

thanks for watching. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @marklobel. hello there. most parts of the country are going to have a dry day on sunday with some sunshine at times. on saturday, the sunshine was focused more across eastern scotland and the north—east of england, and temperatures reached 17 celsius at bridlington, 18 in aboyne, aberdeenshire after a frosty start. quite a bit colder in merseyside and kent. those areas may get a little bit milder during sunday but we're not expecting 17 celsius because that warmth was ahead of this weak weather front here that's been bringing some thicker cloud and a little drizzle southwards. but once that moves through, it actually introduces cooler air, a different sort of air mass. so, temperatures won't be quite as high on sunday despite the fact that there will be more sunshine more widely. and by the time we get to the morning, temperatures could be close to freezing where we've got those clearer skies around lothian, fife and tayside. we still have some more

cloud and some damp weather across south wales and the south west of england to move away and it should brighten up here in the afternoon. still quite cloudy in the far north of scotland, a bit damp as well. but elsewhere we should see some sunshine coming through from time to time. and the winds, they should be quite light as well but remember, the area is a bit cooler on sunday. so, temperatures are typically 10—12 celsius, may be lower than that in norfolk with the onshore breeze and also in the far north of scotland. but high pressure is keeping it quiet throughout the weekend and into the beginning of next week keeping these weather fronts at bay in from the atlantic. so, we're looking at cloud again and how much there will be and i think many places will see a little sunshine at times on monday. always more cloud towards the north—west. with the breeze picking a little bit up here, there could be some drizzle in the north—west of scotland but again temperatures aren't changing very much. typically 11—12 celsius, that's near normal for this time of the year. and moving quickly onto tuesday, it's a similar sort of picture.

again, some sunshine in many areas, a fair bit of cloud around too, mind you. you'll probably notice a stronger breeze, i think, on tuesday. similar sort of temperatures and rain's not far away from the north—west. now, that band of rain on a very weak weather front will push its way eastwards tuesday night and into wednesday, and then pressure will fall and we're looking at our weather to come in from the atlantic. there won't be much rain at all in the south—east.

this is bbc news. the headlines: thousands of people have taken part in protests across europe against coronavirus—related restrictions. it comes as a third wave of infections forced millions more in the eu back into lockdown. in istanbul, thousands took to the streets after turkey pulled out of an international treaty aimed at preventing violence against women and girls. the government there says existing laws already offer protection but the main opposition party says abandoning the treaty keeps women as second class citizens, leaving them to be killed. the premier of new south wales has pleaded with residents to heed evacuation warnings as life—threatening flash floods threaten australia's most populous state. thousands of people have been told to leave their homes. the floods have been caused by record rainfall with the bad weather set to continue until as late as thursday.

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