this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the world, it's very good to have you with us. i'm rich preston. our top stories... strong words from brussels after european union leaders meet for talks — saying astrazeneca must catch up on vaccine deliveries for the eu before sending them elsewhere. joe biden holds his first presidential news conference — setting a new vaccination target and defending his gun control and immigration policies. at least five people have been killed in alabama after a series of tornadoes tear through the us state — destroying entire neighbourhoods. a painting by the iconic artist vincent van gogh not seen in public for more than a hundred years — sells at auction...twice.

the head of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, has said that astrazeneca must catch up on vaccine deliveries for the european union before exporting vaccine supplies elsewhere. european leaders have been meeting to discuss the covid crisis. cases are rising across the continent. miss von der leyen says astrazeneca has only delivered 30 million of the 90 million vaccines it promised, despite tens of millions being sent to other countries. from brussels, here's our europe editor, katya adler. prague is remembering its dead — simply, painfully. with one of the highest covid fatality rates in the world, the czech republic, like many other eu countries, is in the grip of a third wave.

vaccines are in short supply. national rollouts like here in belgium in disrepute, the eu's credibility on the line. eu leaders have been meeting remotely today to discuss how to secure the eu's vaccine supply, ensuring companies deliverjabs promised and, controversially, potentially blocking vaccine exports to vaccine—producing countries like the uk, which have an already advanced rollout. we want to make sure that europe gets its fair share of vaccines, because we must be able to explain to our citizens that if companies export their vaccines to the whole world, it is because they are fully honouring their commitments and it does not risk security of supply in the european union. what started as a health crisis now has political overtones here — especially after brexit.

eu leaders are under huge pressure to act. their voters increasingly frustrated about a lack of vaccines and fearful because of a third wave of the virus. but not all of those leaders want vaccine export controls. tonight, the commission is trying to persuade them otherwise. it says since december the eu has exported 77 million jabs to wealthy countries. 20 million to the uk, i'vejust been told, without receiving one back in return. intentionally provocative, perhaps. the commission now insists brussels was key in making the uk's vaccine effort a success. some eu countries say they prefer never to use vaccine export controls for fear of disturbing international relations or supply chains. france is more hardline. but today, president macron admitted the eu had made mistakes along the way.

translation: we didn't go fast enough, strong enough, - it's absolutely true. we thought the vaccine would take time, but we are catching up. not a moment too soon for europeans languishing in lockdown, decimating their economies. joe biden has held his first news conference since becoming us president. mr biden announced a doubling of his vaccination target in his first hundred days to 200 million doses, and defended his policies on immigration and gun control. the 78—year—old also said he expected to run again in 202a. 0ur north america editor jon sopel was there. no fanfare, no hail to the chief, no fight with journalists... please, please, sit down, thank you. no—one even called another "beauty". this is about as different from the trump era as you could get, though the memory was there. my predecessor, oh, god, i miss him.

he wanted to parade achievements — the speeding up of vaccine delivery, the boost to the economy from his stimulus package and a new tone for political debate. the third reason i said i was running was to unite the country, and generically speaking, all of you said, "no, you can't do that." well, i've not been able to unite the congress but i'm uniting the country. but on the southern border, his problems are growing as quickly as the number of immigrants trying to cross into the us is swelling — the first real test for the president. the idea that i'm going to say, which i would never do, if an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, we're just going to let him starve to death and stay on the other side... no previous administration did either, except trump. i'm not going to do it. he's also talking tough over gun crime, where, in the last week, there have been two terrible mass shootings. but what can he do? not much, it would seem, given the votes in congress

and that means on these big issues, he could look weak. abroad, he said that north korea was still the biggest problem. but i'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearisation. there would be no big changes on china policy. doesn't have a democratic with a small d bone in his body but he's a smart, smart guy. and would he be going along with donald trump's timetable for getting american troops out of afghanistan? we will leave — the question is when we leave. sir, do you believe, though, it's possible we could have i troops there next year? i can't picture that being the case. this news conference, in terms of style, represented a complete break with the donald trump era. but in terms of substance — say it quietly — not so much. 0n policies like the border, globalisation, china, afghanistan — it was all quite similar.

it may not have been full—throated america first but there were strong hints of it. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. the large numbers of migrants on the southern border are one of the most immediate challenges to mr biden�*s administration. he told journalists there's "no easy answer" to why so many people want to come to the us. violence, climate change, and the search for a better life all play a part. the bbc�*s will grant has been to guatemala and spoke with the families of those who've made the dangerous trip north — here's his report. this man set off from his village in the guatemalan highlands and no doubt carry its name, meaning new home, in his heart. just 16 is travelling alone, hisjourney endedin travelling alone, hisjourney ended in the worst possible way. he was brutally murdered

just miles from the us border. his parents were still trying to comprehend the decision to allow their elders to some to leave unaccompanied on the treacherous trip north. translation: i treacherous trip north. tuna/mom- treacherous trip north. translation: 4' , ., �* translation: i knewl shouldn't let him no translation: i knewl shouldn't let him go but — translation: i knewl shouldn't let him go but no _ translation: i knewl shouldn't let him go but no work— translation: i knewl shouldn't let him go but no work i - translation: i knewl shouldn't let him go but no work i tie - let him go but no work i tie into the bed. every single young person has a right to life, a right to pack their bags, to try to fulfil their dreams. as a father you have to look at which is the most viable option so they have a better life so that they don't live the same as you. the sad truth is that _ live the same as you. the sad truth is that the _ live the same as you. the sad truth is that the green - live the same as you. the sad truth is that the green and - truth is that the green and won't dissuade other teenagers in his community from attempting the same trip. not evenin attempting the same trip. not even in his own family. translation: ~ ., ~ ., translation: working the land here, i translation: working the land here. i would — translation: working the land here, i would only _ translation: working the land here, i would only make - translation: working the land here, i would only make about l here, i would only make about $6 per day. that doesn't go far. translation: ~ ., �* translation: i know i'm young but i have to _

translation: i know i'm young but i have to work _ translation: i know i'm young but i have to work in _ translation: i know i'm young but i have to work in the - but i have to work in the fields with my father were often there is only two or three days worth of work per week. . , , week. families in these highland _ week. families in these highland communities i week. families in these i highland communities say week. families in these - highland communities say their young people are notjust leaving, they are being forced out. 0bliged leaving, they are being forced out. obliged to leave their homelands through a potent combination of high unemployment and poor soils, damaged by climate change and drought. little wonder that many see no alternative than to pay for people smuggler and to head north. 0pportunities if you are young here are scarce. the players for the local club dream of playing in europe some day but the likelihood of breaking through is slim. most of these players have spent the morning working the fields before training. the team's left—wing get was among those killed in the mexico attack. at home he was the only breadwinnerfor an home he was the only breadwinner for an unwell mother and several sisters. i

would humbly tell his team—mates not to travel, his mother explains in the local language. but i see the needs of every family here and sometimes they choose to take the risk. amid the town's grief for its lost children, the authorities can provide little incentive for young people to stay, with few resources for education or employment. translation:— education or employment. translation: ., ., , translation: the magnet has tear options- — translation: the magnet has tear options. reach _ translation: the magnet has tear options. reach their - tear options. reach their destination or die trying. it is no use me telling a young person, hey, when you get there you will be washing plates and sleeping in a fleapit, they are not thinking about that. many here will not _ not thinking about that. many here will not be _ not thinking about that. many here will not be put _ not thinking about that. many here will not be put off - not thinking about that. many here will not be put off by - here will not be put off by either the dangers of the road or by seeing at this scale before then. when most families eatjust before then. when most families eat just once a before then. when most families eatjust once a day, twice at most, the motivation of poverty here is stronger than the obstacles ahead, and until that

improves most young people will opt to flee. at least five people have been killed in northern alabama when a tornado tore through the area destroying entire neighbourhoods. dozens of people were injured and tens of thousands left without power when the tornado swept across the state and into georgia. the authorities have warned of "significant damage" and advised residents to stay home and off the roads. glenn burns is chief meteorologist at the television station wsb—tv in atlanta — he says residents in affected areas are still on their guard for more bad weather. in the states now, we are still under a tornado watch through much of northern georgia, atlanta and back into alabama, more severe storms developing there. this afternoon was just unprecedented across northern alabama, we feared for our lives in birmingham when the tornado touched down. this was one of the most unusual cases i have ever seen,

and i began tracking that storm this afternoon in alabama ataround 1:30pm. we were still tracking it at a:30pm. this tornado was producing winds of at least 150mph, and was on the ground for 150 miles. on a given afternoon, you might see a tornado warning last for 15 or 20 minutes, this was three hours of a tornado warning that it was on the ground from birmingham, alabama into the north—western part of georgia, where it did considerable damage. they are caused by wind shear, we have some cold water off the eastern equatorial pacific ocean off south america, which changes the global wind patterns in such a way that we have a lot of cold air bottled up across the western united states, across the rocky mountains, a lot of snow bringing cold air, which rushes to the south and east, colliding with the warm air over the south—east, you have winds changing direction and speed and elevation, so that cold air meets the warm

air, you have the added supply of wind shear, adding fuel to the storms, you have rotating thunderstorms and you get tornadoes. stay with us on bbc news — still to come... no success yet in efforts to dislodge this giant container ship stuck in the suez canal — meanwhile dozens of vessels remain in limbo. i'm so proud of both of you. let there be no more wars or bloodshed between arabs and israelis.

with great regret, the committee have decided that south africa be excluded from the 1970 competition. chanting streaking across - the sky, the white—hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. - this is bbc world news — the latest headlines... a virtual summit has ended with european union leaders emphasising their wish to make sure the eu gets its fair share of coronavirus vaccines. the challenges at the us—mexico border have taken centre stage atjoe biden�*s first

presidential press conference. thousands of people have been displaced by a fire which tore through a slum in freetown, sierra leone. local authorities are still assessing the full extent of the damage — including the number of casualties. tanya dendrinos has this report. homes and livelihoods ablaze, the fury of this inferno was clear as it destroyed everything in its path. those able did all they could to fight the flames. 0thers simply watched on in the devastating glow — the battle against this fire proving futile. translation: firefighters really struggled _ to stop the fire. they came and went with equipment and went to the sea to get water, up until the fire started to diminish, with the help of the young people that were around. as day broke, with smoke still hanging in the air,

residents poured through. their community largely reduced to ash and rubble. translation: l was at. the market when i heard about the fire, so then i came back here and there was no way for me to enter my house. i just fetched my children and went somewhere safe until the fire was put out. thousands have lost everything. they need food and water — the priority for community leaders and humanitarian organisations, who are trying to establish the full extent of this disaster and how to help residents get through. the mayor of freetown said this fire comes in the wake of six others in recent weeks, saying again there was no access for fire crews, with a focus on how to turn this around and prevent putting more lives at risk. china has imposed sanctions on four organisations and nine individuals in the uk over what it's called "lies and disinformation" about human rights abuses in the western

xinjiang region. those named will be prevented from entering chinese territory and will be banned from dealing with chinese citizens and institutions. here's our china correspondent robin brant. these are retaliatory sanctions imposed on four uk entities and nine individuals. it comes several days after the uk in a coordinated effort with the us and eu imposed sanctions on some prominent chinese figures all over those allegations as you heard john go into some detail in his report of human rights abuses in the xinjiang province against those uighur minority muslims. an hour or so ago we had this list from china's ministry of foreign affairs. among those being targeted includes an arm of the conservative party, it's human

rights commission, prominent tory mps, iain duncan smith, tom tugendhat, the man in charge of the china research group. both of those men are among the harshest critics of beijing, among those putting the most pressure on boris johnson and his administration to be tougher on china. what it means is that these nine people and these four entities cannot have anything to do with china in terms of business or any chinese people either. if they own anything here those assets will be frozen. we are hearing some reaction very quickly from people like iain duncan smith and he essentially in a brief statement had said that he will wear the sanctions as a badge of honour. he is proud to stand up of honour. he is proud to stand up and speak up, he says, for those being persecuted by china. the salvage company hired to free the huge container ship blocking the suez canal since tuesday has warned it could take days or even weeks to move the vessel. it's one of the worlds busiest trading routes — with more than 10% of

global trade passing through the waterway that connects the red sea to the mediterranean. the ship itself, people don't understand how big it is. it is 60 metres longer than the hms queen elizabeth the super carrier. you could put the queen elizabeth and i us nimitz carrier inside of this ship, thatis carrier inside of this ship, that is how large it is. all that is how large it is. all that weight and size is making the salvage operation that much harder to get it dislodged and brought out. they are talking about $400 million per hour being lost, 9 billion, you hear all these big numbers, but that isjust all these big numbers, but that is just the loss of the cargo containers at the time to the shipping companies and logistics firms. all the factories now run just in time. the large warehouses factory is used to have are gone. these ships to serve as mobile

factories and arrive with good just in time to produce goods and services and you have covid, there are respirators and ppe on this ship and the global world is interconnected and this is turned into a perfect storm. we lose a large ships about the world almost once a week, an average of 50 ships per year, but what is unusual is the size of this ship in the panama canal and just as we hopefully start to reopen the economy for covid. it is notjust one thing, it is these towering consequences. fix, these towering consequences. a couple of firms have said they are contemplating re—routing their ships around the south of south africa, what are those implications? figs south africa, what are those implications?— south africa, what are those implications? as a ship captain like myself. — implications? as a ship captain like myself. it _ implications? as a ship captain like myself, it is _ implications? as a ship captain like myself, it is easy, - implications? as a ship captain like myself, it is easy, we - like myself, it is easy, we turn around, plot course and we can do it. it is about 3500 extra miles, depending on the speed of the ships. container

are faster, some of the tankers and bulk carriers are slow. this isn'tjust container ships. you have soybeans and cement and aggregates ships, tankers. notjust a full tank is trying to get out but also the empty ones back in. as we learned at the beginning of covid we cannotjust shut down the oil supply, it has to go somewhere on these tankers. and military ships. the us fleet is now split between the mediterranean and persian gulf and cannot communicate with each other. again, it is these domino. as a captain we look at certainty. we can plan our course and departures and time and even plant the weather now be certain of our arrival. the word of the day now is uncertain to it. we are uncertain to it. we are uncertain what is in these containers, what will be delayed, how long it will take. whether we will be routes around africa or wait until monday and hopefully the next high tide hope that they can

pull this off on monday, or will they wait the full week or turnaround now? these are questions nobody really can answer. captainjohn captain john conrad speaking captainjohn conrad speaking to me earlier. scientists in brazil have published new research suggesting octopuses might dream. it's believed the aquatic creatures experience different types of sleep — one of them similar to the rapid eye movement — or rem sleep that humans undergo when they dream. the bbc�*s tim allman reports. eight legs, three hearts, one impossible dream. marshmallow the octopus, quietly snoozing away in her tank. but look at this, she is suddenly changing colour, her muscles twitching, her sucker is contracting. her suckers contracting. researchers believe marshmallow may be dreaming. # dream... a team of scientists at a university in the west

of brazil recorded four octopuses over several days. their sleep pattern went through cycles. during quiet sleep they were still, during active sleep they moved around. similar to humans when we dream, a period of neural activity that can boost health and cognition. they look so strange, so different, they seem almost alien, but it is thought octopuses have the most complex brains of any invertebrates. perhaps the most famous was paul, the eight—legged soothsayer who had an uncanny — albeit not perfect — record of picking winning teams at the 2006 world cup. then there's 0ctavia, the octopus from devon who could solve puzzles that would help her attain food. # dream... the researchers have speculated this octopus — asleep, displaying the colours seen

during courtship — may be thinking of romance. a beautiful dreamer indeed. a painting by vincent van gogh that had been held in a private family home for more than a hundred years has been sold at auction for more than 13 million euros — more than $15 million. street scene in montmartre was painted by the artist in 1887 while he was living in paris. 0ur correspondent lucy williamson reports. and now we have arrived at lot six... after more than a century hidden from public view, this painting was sold twice today. the first bid, won by an online buyer whose offer came in just as the hammer fell. but there was a problem with the sale, and the auction had to be rerun. she speaks french. the painting finally went to a buyer in london forjust over 13 million euros, several

million lower than the first time around, but still one of the highest prices ever paid for work from van gogh's paris period. the artist only lived here for a couple of years, during which time he painted many scenes from around montmartre, then in transition from a sleepy rural area outside the city to a vibrant bohemian suburb. the painting, hidden away in a private collection for 100 years, shows a couple walking along a rural lane in front of a windmill. nearby, the top of a fairground carousel peeks through the trees. but this picture also tells the story of van gogh's own artistic transition — his colours becoming brighter and his tell—tale brush strokes beginning to appear. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. that's it from a knee for now. i will be back in a few moments with the latest headlines. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @richpreston. the latest news on the bbc news

website and the bbc news app. hello there. the weather will be turning much colder today. we look at the temperatures we got to yesterday, in the warmer spots we had highs of around 15 celsius, for example, in sheffield. today, those temperatures quite widely across the uk down by about five celsius. from 15 to about 10 later this afternoon. the change is brought about by an area of low pressure, this one here, and there are a couple of weather fronts on it. the first, an impostor bringing in a little rain eastwards. the second is the cold front, and it's behind that that the colder air will spread its way in across the uk. over the next few hours, ourfirst band of rain moves from wales across into central and eastern england. our main band of rain, our cold front, will be bringing wet weather and gusty winds to scotland, western parts of wales and northern ireland as well.

through friday morning, this band of rain will push eastwards and only really reaching east anglia and southeast england in the afternoon. so there will be a bit of sunshine for a time. behind that, some sunny skies but also plenty of showers. the showers have hail and thunder mixed in across northwestern areas, where it'll feel particularly cold. highs of seven celsius, and factor in the brisk wind and it will feel colder than that. in fact, through the weekend, i think it will stay on the windy side, rain around as well. we start off with a risk of icy stretches across higher parts of scotland and northern england because there may well be some snow showers here through friday night. so, icy conditions. sunshine for a time, but further west the cloud building in and eventually outbreaks of rain spread in to northern ireland, perhaps western scotland towards the end of the day. blustery and still quite cool, temperatures about 9—10 celsius through saturday afternoon. into saturday night, more outbreaks of rain, particularly across northern areas of the uk with the rain turning heavy at times. the weather front slow—moving

somewhere across northern ireland, northern england and north wales. to the north, cold air in scotland, so sunshine and a few showers, and to the south across southern parts of england and wales, temperatures will not be quite so low — highs of 13 or 14 celsius. and that trend to slightly milder conditions continues into monday. for many of us it will be a much milder day, with temperatures as high as 18 celsius, but there will still be rain around across the north and west uk. that is your weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines. the head of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, has said that astrazeneca must �*catch up' on vaccine deliveries for the eu before exporting its vaccine supplies elsewhere. the eu has not received all the number of vaccines it ordered slowing down its rollout even as cases are rising. in his first news conference as president, joe biden has doubled his goal for coronavirus vaccinations — saying 200 million will be delivered in his administration's first hundred days. he also dismissed suggestions of an immigration crisis at the southern border and said he will revisit gun control. at least five people have been killed in alabama after several powerful tornadoes tore through the us state. some neighbourhoods are reported to have been completely destroyed and thousands of people are without power. the authorities have warned of "significant damage" and advised residents to stay home.