this is bbc news, i'm victoria fritz with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. china slaps sanctions on nine britons — including five mps — in retaliation for penalties imposed on its own officials over alleged human rights abuses in xinjiang. eu leaders call for an increase in vaccine supplies as cases rise across the continent. and there's a strong warning for producer astrazeneca. the company has to catch up, has to honour the contract it has with the european member states, before it can engage again in exporting. we're given rare access inside the disputed nagorno—karabakh region five months after the end of the brutal war between armenia and azerbaijan. underwater dreaming —

new evidence from brazil shows octopuses have stages of sleep similar to humans. hello and welcome. china has imposed sanctions on nine britons — including five mps and two peers — for spreading what it called "lies and disinformation" about the country. the measures come in retaliation for british sanctions against chinese officials — for human rights abuses against the uighur minority in xinjiang. it's estimated that a million, mostly muslim uighurs, are detained in camps in the north—west of the region. let's speak to our china correspondent robin brant who's in shanghai.

correspondent robin brant why correspondent robin brant these people and why g after why these people and why go after barristers, for example? they are going after mps and politicians because they are exerting the most pressure on borisjohnson and his boris johnson and his administration borisjohnson and his administration to be tougher on china when it comes to xinjiang but also hong kong and took the overall on the rise of china and the threat there is believe beijing poses to countries like the uk. that is why tondu can no, iain duncan smith, alanna kennedy, they are being targeted, they have been the largest voices in drawing attention to the evidence of abuses in xinjiang. pressuring dominic rob, borisjohnson, the foreign secretary and prime minister going to be tougher on china. the reason and ethics barristers has been touted is because they were responsible for drawing up an opinion that said that china had committed

genocide, using the g word, in xinjiang. it shows what of independentjudicial systems independent judicial systems and that is independentjudicial systems and that is that theyjust don't believe in it. why do we know what form these sanctions will take? we do. most people cannot come to china, neither can immediate members of theirfamily, and people here in china and chinese entities cannot do business with them. it is mostly tokenistic because those people are almost certainly unlikely to have those kind of business relationships anyway but nonetheless china is retaliating after a uk sanctions after a coordinated campaign from the uk, eu and us with sanctions of its own. in the last hour we are seeing some developments in terms of a separate story but one that is converging with these sanctions, and that is the targeting of some foreign companies for their criticisms of xinjiang and in particular

claims of forced labour being used for harvesting cotton. we saw the focus on h&m and adidas. in the last half hour, burberry, british luxury fashion brand is being targeted and this is because it doesn't support the use of cotton in xinjiang. we are seeing a chinese actress who has pulled her support and also iocent, a big video game company. it has pulled. moves in the last half hour against belarus.- pulled. moves in the last half hour against belarus. china has already warned _ hour against belarus. china has already warned it _ hour against belarus. china has already warned it will _ hour against belarus. china has already warned it will go - already warned it will go forward. —— burberry. there are alleged human rights abuses in china and its record.— china and its record. what we have now _ china and its record. what we have now is — china and its record. what we have now is a _ china and its record. what we have now is a real— china and its record. what we have now is a real stark - have now is a real stark contrast between china and the increasingly strong position it holds in terms of continuing to deny, labelling as lies and

disinformation, a huge body of evidence that china's uigurs are being persecuted and the rest of the country, being held in what china calls re—education camps and more recently are being used for forced labour. on the other side we have the us, the uk, the eu, like—minded democracies choosing to call out china on these abuses and taking measures like sanctions, economic sanctions, targeting people, targeting institutions and seeking to punish them to try to send a strong message to beijing that as far as those countries are concerned it will not be tolerated. at the moment beijing is doubling down, no sign it is willing to or even preparing to back down on its position. preparing to back down on its osition. ., ~ , ., , preparing to back down on its osition. ., ~' ,, , . covid cases are going up all over europe, but vaccines are in short supply. eu leaders are fearful that the shortfall will cost lives, but even so, at a meeting in brussels

on thursday they stopped short of announcing an export ban on vaccines. european commission president ursula von der leyen did warned astrazeneca that it must catch up with vaccine deliveries to the eu before exporting doses elsewhere. she said the firm had only provided 30 out of 90 million doses it had promised and that 20 million doses had been exported to the uk. here'sjon donnison. with much of europe battling a third wave of the virus, no eu leader wants to appear weak on ensuring the eu receives its fair share of vaccines. last night, the president of the european commission said the eu had exported 21 million doses of the astrazeneca vaccine to the uk in the last four months, and nothing had come back in the other direction. i think it is clear for the company that, first of all, the company has to catch up, has to honour the contract it has with the european member states before it can engage again in exporting vaccines.

but while the threat of an export ban on vaccines is there, many eu countries are still reluctant to enforce it in practice. and a statement issued after a marathon video conference call between the 27 eu leaders stopped short of explicitly backing the commission's call for export restrictions. france's president, emmanuel macron, has said he backs export controls. but the german chancellor, angela merkel, warned it was important to protect global supply chains... guten abend. ..concerns shared by the leaders of the netherlands, belgium and ireland. and as covid—i9 cases continue to rise across much of the continent, the tensions over vaccine supply are unlikely to end here. jon donnison, bbc news. the official number of people

in mexico who have died of covid—i9 has passed 200,000, although the true figure is thought to be higher. mexico's death toll is the third highest in the world after the united states and brazil. a mass vaccination campaign is gathering momentum, but the government has been criticised for concentrating on remote areas which aren't suffering as badly as the major cities. joe biden has held his first news conference since becoming president of the united states. 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. our north america editor jon sopel has this report. 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'll 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. on 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. police in georgia have been criticised after they arrested an elected state representative after she refused to stop knocking on a door to the governor's office. as you can see here, democratic representative park cannon approaches the door and bangs on it before officers move in and handcuff her. supporters filmed the arrest calling on the officers to explain why she was being detained. ms cannon was urging republican governor brian kemp to let the public witness the signing of a controversial bill. the law will impose new voting restrictions following presidentjoe biden�*s victory there. in a statement georgia state patrol said ms cannon had been "beating" the door to the

governor's office. hm! she had been warned twice not to do so. representative cannon was then arrested and taken to the fulton county jail before being released late on thursday night stay with us on bbc news, still to come... van gogh goes under the hammer — a painting by the iconic artist fetches a hefty sum after being auctioned off. . .twice. 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 i wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. - this is bbc news, the latest headlines china has imposed sanctions against britain in retaliation for penalties imposed on chinese officials accused of human rights abuses against the uighur minority. the eu stops short of banning the export of coronavirus vaccines but says astrazeneca must deliver its promised doses to them before

sending jabs elsewhere. now to the disputed region of nagorno—karabakh which is an armenian—majority area inside azerbaijan's international borders. during the first karabakh war in the 1990s, armenia invaded, taking over nagorno—karabakh. but within 44 days of the beginning of the second war that erupted six months ago, azerbaijan regained control of large parts of the region. armenia, which lost, has been gripped by political instability and demonstrations — with the country's prime minister announcing fresh elections injune. russia has nearly 2,000 peacekeepers on the ground — and as our correspondent, jonah fisher, reports, has significantly increased its influence in the region. we are on the road

that armenia... these guys ahead of us are azeri soldiers, and just behind us we have russian peacekeepers. journalist, bbc. armenians�* defeat in last year's karabakh war has brought the azeris up very close. are you allowed on the road here? this is an armenian road, no? i don't know — on the map. no? whose road is this? we drive towards armenia's border with nagorno—karabakh. with the armenian army pulling out, it's now russia acting as the guarantor of the enclave's security. so this road is the only link between armenia, the outside world, and what's

left of the ethnic armenian enclave of nagorno karabakh — it's just over there, those hills there. now, since the war, the armenians have not had control over who and what uses this road — that's down to the russians. the russian military have a checkpointjust down there. they decide, they call the shots round here now. we're denied permission to enter, and are told privately that the russians are now blocking almost all foreigners. it's a real pain that we have to talk like this rather than in person. that evening we speak to a nagorno karabakh official on a whatsapp call. so you're happy to have russia there? it's better than having azerbaijan occupy you. we are happy to live in our homeland and to continue our struggle for our independence

and for our dignified life in the world. the shock waves of the defeat continue to reverberate in armenian politics. there have been regular demonstrations calling for nikol pashinyan, the prime minister, to step down. critics say he should have maintained better relations with moscow and — given azerbaijan's alliance with turkey — made concessions to avoid war. despite all of these facts, nikol pashinyan chose to reject the peace proposals before negotiating. to reject the peace proposals that were negotiated. so that was a huge diplomatic failure that actually brought a catastrophe to armenia and nagorno karabakh. for nagorno—karabakh

the question is now what russia does next. does moscow want a long—term military presence that protects the armenian enclave, or will it go along with azerbaijan's wishes and eventually hand all of karabakh to them? jonah fisher, bbc news, armenia. 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. 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. others 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. time for the sport. i hope we have some optimism for you! hello there, i'm tulsen tollett, and this is your sports news, where we start with football and the four—time world cup winners, italy, who missed out on the 2018 tournament in russia, got their bid under way to qualify for next year's finals in qatar with victory over northern ireland. they 2—0 in parma, with both goals coming in the first half. they won 2—0 in parma, with both goals coming in the first half. sassuolo's domenico berardi dominic berardi put gli azzurri in front after only 14 minutes

with lazio striker ciro immobile scoring the second just before the break with his 11th goal for his country. england were 5—0 winners over the world's lowest—ranked team, san marino, at wembley. ollie watkins scored on debut while dominic calvert—lewin picked up two. very happy, you know, that's what i set out to do when i stepped on the pitch and i saw that i was starting, you know, i was very much looking forward to it. and i knew that i would get chances. and it was about staying patient because we had a lot of the ball, and being in the right place and do what i'm good at — and that's put the ball in the back of the net. england captain eoin morgan will miss the rest of the one day series in india after sustaining a hand injury in the opening match on tuesday. morgan left the field as soon as he picked up the injury in pune, and it meansjos buttler will skipper it the team for the last two matches at the same venue. sam billings will also miss out on friday's second match of three — also through injury — which means liam livingstone will make his one day international debut. never nice to see team—mates get injured, but fingers crossed that they're not quite as serious as they

could have been. so speedy recovery for them two and hopefully they're back before before the ipl. but, yeah, like you said, it's obviously not nice to be able to... to have to come into to replace injuries, but really nice to be given the opportunity. world number one and defending women's champion ashleigh barty played her first match outside her native australia in over a year on thursday after winning the first set 6—3 against slovakia's kristina kucova at the miami open. the world number one faltered and lost the second before regaining her composure to win out 6—3, 4—6, 7—5 against the world number 149, setting up a third round match against latvian jelena ostapenko. rory mcilroy kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the round of 16 at the wgc match play event in texas after he beat us 46 seed lanto griffin 4&3. while in this same group, england's ian poulter beat australia's cameron smith 1 up and now plays griffin on wednesday, knowing if he avoids defeat, he'll move into

the knockout stages. onto rugby now, where scotland are in paris to play france in their delayed six nations clash later on friday. this match was due to be played at the end of february, but was rescheduled after a covid outbreak in the french squad. the hosts can win the championship with a bonus point win, plus securing victory by at least 21 points. you can get all the latest on our website — that's bbc.com/sport — but from me, tulsen tollett, and the rest of the team — that's your sports news for now. 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 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 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 octavia, 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. what do you know! 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 — that's more than $15 million. street scene in montmartre was painted by the artist in 1887 while he was living in paris. it captures the social changes taking place in the area at the time. the sale price was more than double what had been predicted. what do you make of that? and all the other stories we are

covering at the moment. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @vfritznews. i would love to hear from you. i would love to hear from you. i will be back with the business news in about four minutes. 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 11; 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 with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. suez crisis for global trade — as salvage experts warn the vital route could be blocked for weeks. commodities and goods and e—commerce is going to slow down. amazon is going to tell you that the next day delivery�*s not going to happen, probably. capitol hill versus silicon valley. tech bosses get a grilling from congress over the spread of extremism — is a legal crackdown finally on the way? from boom to bust in a matter of weeks — myanmar�*s economy slumps as protests and sanctions bite — following last month's military coup plus, high—octane ambitions. could aston martin become britain's ferrari? the carmaker returns

to the grand prix circuit for the first time in 60 years — we hearfrom its new owner