welcome to bbc news — i'm lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: in a bid to boost the global vaccine rollout, the united states backs an idea to remove intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. facebook upholds its suspension of donald trump, ruling that the former president broke its rules. the uk is sending two royal navy patrol vessels to monitor a planned blockade ofjersey�*s main port. it's the latest escalation with france over post—brexit fishing rights. the entire indian delegation at the g7 summit in london, is self—isolating after two members test positive for coronavius. nine little miracles. a woman in mali expecting to give birth to seven children has been surprised by two more.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. after increased pressure the biden administration says it supports a removing patent protections for covid—19 vaccines. the move aims to make it easier for more companies to produce vaccines and make them more widely available for developing countries. us trade representative katherine tie said in a statement: "this administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in the service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for covid—19 vaccines." well this was welcomed by the director—general

of the world health organisation, who said this was "a monumental moment in the fight against covid—19." on the other hand — a vaccine waiver makes it harder for vaccine manufacturers to make money out of their products. shares in a number of them tumbled on the news. the international federation of pharmaceutical manufacturers and associations says the plan is a red herring when it comes to improving the distribution of vaccines. here's the association's director general. the decision by the us administration is disappointing, but it doesn't change that it's a wrong answer to complex problem. it's a wrong but simple answer to a complex problem because it disrupts, it distracts from tackling the real challenges, which are trade barriers, including from the us, disrupting supply chains. it prevents the immediate tackling of the bottlenecks

in the supply chain, the scarcity of raw materials, where you really need full partnership. and it also prevents a fast move because what we need now, looking at the dramatic situation in india, is rich countries starting rapidly to share their doses with poor countries. it is unfair to see that we have countries where 20—year—old healthy young people vaccinated, and most of africa, basically, doesn't get any vaccine now that india is in such a dramatic situation. professor george contreras, is a professor of law at the university of utah and says while addressing intellectual property rights is important, it's only one piece of the puzzle. it's a really surprising an unprecedented move by the us department of state and the us government, which has usually been quite protective of intellectual property rights.

ok, so where does this leave us? what are the implications of it? you know, as many have said, this is a necessary but not sufficient step to distributing a covid vaccine on a worldwide basis. intellectual property rights are there, they're important, but there are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle, including supply and manufacturing, regulatory approval, safety and so facebook says it will continue to stop donald trump from directly using its platforms. the social media giant ruled the former president had broken its standards and rules by appearing to sympathise with january's capitol building attack, while continuing to falsely insist that he had won a landslide victory in the presidential election. facebook�*s oversight board said it upheld the decision, but that a review would be carried out within six months. james clayton has more.

trumps use of social media almost possible impossible to disentangle with jumpers amidst the. it was his way of communicating directly with americans, bypassing mainstream media that he so loathed. the did he also use that platform to radicalise? were his posts in part responsible for these deadly riots? the facebook boss thought that his posts could lead to further violence and suspended donald trump permanently. twitter banned him for ever, he will never be allowed onto the platform to facebook asked for its decision to be reformed —— reviewed by a 34 —— to be reformed —— reviewed by a 3k —— board it claims is 3a —— board it claims is independent. it is designed to make difficult decisions and the decision today was complex to get said the oversight board upheld the decision to suspend access to post content on facebook and instagram. but it

also said that facebook could not ban donald trump indefinitely. the company must reassess the penalty within six months. thejudgement reassess the penalty within six months. the judgement does leave away back for donald trump on facebook but for now the dough —— door is firmly closed. and that is a huge problem for donald trump and his hopes of a political return. in a statement, the former president lashed out saying that facebook was an embarrassment to our country. and they and other social media countries must pay a political price. facebook has been essential for mr trump. price. facebook has been essentialfor mr trump. his essential for mr trump. his campaign used essentialfor mr trump. his campaign used it to raise money and micro target voters. he sent and micro target voters. he spent more _ and micro target voters. he: spent more than $200 and micro target voters. he spent more than $200 million in 2020 between his campaign and his bac on facebook advertising. it is notjust an opinion that it was early in essential part of his political power, it was one of the few places where he was putting his money where his mouth was. yesterday mr trump released his own communications platform. that it is really no

replacement for being on twitter or facebook. at the click of a button mr trump could beam himself onto the computers and phones of tens of millions of americans to that button is now gone, perhaps for ever. israeli president has asked the leader of the centrist yesh atid party, yair lapid, to try to form a coalition government. it could mean an end to 12 consecutive years in power for benjamin netanyahu — who was unable to form a coalition of his own after the elections in march. our correspondent in jerusalem yolande knell has the latest. the president spent the day talking to members of the different political parties here and then he announced his decision in a live broadcast a short time ago saying he had asked yair lapid, a centrist politician, former finance minister before its time in politics he was a television anchor. he said he had the

backing of 56 of the 120 members of the israeli parliament so, obviously, still short of a majority but he thought that he had the best chance of being able to form a government that had support of parliament despite their still being difficulties, the president said. so now yair lapid will enter into political wrangling with many of the other parties that had lined up to oppose benjamin netanyahu returning to another term in office. but what will be a real challenge for him is that those parties are from across the political spectrum in israel from left to right so they have dig ideological differences between them that he will have to bridge. britain is sending two royal navy patrol vessels to the island ofjersey, in the english channel, to monitor the situation after a row erupted with france over post—brexit fishing rights.

the french government threatened to cut off power supplies to the channel island in a dispute over new a licensing system for french fishing vessels. butjersey�*s government says a more imminent danger is a blockade by fishing boats of st helier — the island's main entry point for goods. our correspondent robert hall has the latest from the island. news that those vessels were being deployed followed a phone call to the jersey being deployed followed a phone call to thejersey government from number 10, from boris johnson who expressed his unwavering support forjersey�*s unwavering support for jersey's position. unwavering support forjersey�*s position. to be fair, jersey politicians have been trying hard the past few days to calm things down ahead of a protest of which more in the moment. how did we get here? french fishermen and channel islands fishermen and channel islands fishermen have traditionally worked together well most of the time but that is starting to go downhill after brexit whenjersey began to re—establish its territorial waters to on the weekend it

also began to issue licenses to french boats. those licenses cover boats that i regularly hear, they cover what they can catch, the amount of time that they are in jersey waters and that was almost immediate pushback from the french communities along the normandy coast who said, look, this is untenable. we have not had enough time, there is detail here which is unacceptable and unworkable. and at a meeting a couple of days ago they got together with other fishing ports and said we're going to have to do something here. we are going to stopjersey boats from landing, will protest in jersey, that looks like it will go ahead, and that we had a speech in the french parliament yesterday from the maritime minister saying that we may use jersey's supply from our grid as a negotiating tool. as i speak around 70 boats are on their way tojersey, speak around 70 boats are on their way to jersey, they will anchor outside st helier and they may be protesting and whether the presence of the royal navy will help or hinder we shall see in the coming

days. the entire indian delegation to the g7 summit is self isolating after two members tested positive for covid—19. the news came as foreign minister is reconvened for the last day of the talks. our correspondent reports. borisjohnson, dropping by the g7 talks this afternoon, determined to show confidence in an international meeting hit by a covid scare, determined to show that face—to—face diplomacy is possible in a pandemic. i had a very good meeting with secretary blinken. india's foreign minister, a guest at the talks, has spent the last few days in london meeting counterparts from the united states and south africa, even the home secretary, priti patel. but then this morning, this. in a tweet, he said that he was made aware yesterday evening of his exposure to possible covid positive cases. "as a measure of abundant caution, i decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode." india has suffered grievously

in recent weeks, and it appears two junior officials may have travelled while infected. the foreign office has imposed tight covid rules at lancaster house and the indian delegation had yet to attend any meetings here, but the cases were picked up by mandatory daily tests. the foreign secretary said the problem had been managed and it was vital for essential diplomacy to continue. we've done this in a very secure way but we've got to get governments together, leaders together and countries together if we're going to solve what is clearly notjust a global pandemic but a global plan for recovery. so, today, the indian ministerjoined the meeting in the now traditional way. officials say the discovery of these two cases shows the effectiveness of the tight regulations they put in place. but it will surely raise questions about whether it's too early for face—to—face diplomacy like this and whether future, planned international meetings should go ahead in person as planned.

as it happened, the pandemic was top of today's agenda. ministers agreed to produce more vaccines, share them more fairly, but there was no promise to spend more money doing so. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a look at how rangers in south africa are going to extreme measures to tackle the problem of rhino poaching. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic of south africa. after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally opened by the queen and president mitterand. the tunnel is not yet ready for passengers and freight services to begin. for centuries, christianity and i islam struggled for supremacy. now the pope's visit symbolises

their willingness to coexist. - roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile in underfour minutes. memories of victory as the ve celebrations reach their climax. this night is dedicated i to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. - this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the united states backs an initiative to waive intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines. facebook upholds its suspension of donald trump, ruling that the former president broke it's rules. let's stay with that story now:

alan rusbridger is a member of facebook�*s oversight board and we asked him why no clear decision was made on whether donald trump can return to facebook. i think it was a clear answers. i think that we said they were both right and wrong, they were right to take the stuff down, they were right to stop him because he was a clear and present danger at a time of great volatility in the united states, but it was wrong then to go on and say, well, you are banned indefinitely because indefinitely is not a word that appears anywhere on facebook�*s own rulebook, and it is an arbitrary thing, and so we've just gone back and said, you know, "well done forgetting the original decision right, but can you think more carefully about defining what what this period of ban is, and why?" i've been speaking to evan greer who's a digital rights activist and i asked him what he made of the decision made by the facebook oversight board.

i think when we focus on these individual moderation decisions, especially ones about high profile individuals like former president trump, we are missing the point which is that facebook�*s business model of harvesting our data and using it to algorithmically amplify and suppress certain content is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. we can go back and forth all day about whether or not he should have been banned, how long he should be banned for but in the end that is not going to solve that fundamental problem. we need comprehensive policies to address the harms of big tech. but given all that you have to make decisions and just wishing them away by saying that we need stronger oversight or whatever, in the here and now, decisions have to be made about whether or not donald trump is allowed back on. that's certainly right and i think it makes sense we're having this conversation

and donald trump is a repugnant human being that has used facebook and other platforms to espouse racism and other harmful ideologies. and so, i certainly understand the ground swell of outrage and the desire for him to be removed from these platforms but again i think we need to look at the bigger picture because even if we do kick trump off of all of these platforms we still have a real problem on our hands, which is that these companies that are harvesting our data and amplifying some of the worst content on the internet in pursuit of advertising dollars are actually building the foundation that brought us donald trump in the first place. and so even if we never hear his name again, we're not to address these concerns that are undermining democracy and human rights and civil rights until we get those policies in place, get that oversight in place of these companies,

notjust facebook but all of these surveillance companies — amazon, google and youtube as well. facebook is saying, this isn't a perfect answer and they introduced this oversight board in the absence of any government regulation. they said it is a fairly unprecedented move they took to try to get some consistency in these decisions. they themselves admit it is not perfect but it is better than what is out there at the moment. what do you make of the oversight board and how it is working? i think the most important thing that came out of this oversight board decision today is the fact that facebook refused to give the oversight board information that they requested — this allegedly independent oversight board — requested information from facebook about how its algorithms operate and whether its algorithms were amplifying donald trump's racist and harmful content. facebook refused to give their own oversight board that information. and again to me that points to the fact that this is not about some partisan bickering back and forth about whether this

content should be up or down, this is a broader problem, a problem of this business model and one that can only be addressed through robust anti—trust enforcement, privacy legislation and more. our thanks to evan greerfor us there. in atlanta in the united states, a sacked white police officer is to get his job back despite facing murder charges for fatally shooting a black man lastjune. rayshard brooks was shot outside a restaurant by garrett rolfe — who faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. he lost his job after the shooting, but a police oversight board has ruled that his dismissal did not follow due process. to myanmar now. with the military still in control of the country — the main civilian opposition has now formed its own armed forces unit. the national unity government says it created a quote "people's defence force" — to protect civilians from military attacks. our southeast asia correspondent, jonathan head gave us this update.

there are lots of people willing to fight. there are many groups involved in the civilian opposition in the cities who have now taken up basic weapons, and we are beginning to see some groups in places like chin state way out on the border with india. we've seen a number of soldiers killed there, and the ethnic insurgent groups that have been fighting for years on the borders who have formally pledged their support to this national unity government, which in return says it will create a federal system including properly representing them for the first time and incorporating those insurgents into what they say will be a federal army. they say this people's defence force is the first step in that. there's also a great deal of frustration about how little international support there has been for a different outcome in myanmar.

the national unity government was formed in the hope they'd get recognition internationally as a far more legitimate government than the military men who seized power back in february. seized power remember from a government that had just been re—elected by a landslide. that hasn't been forthcoming and i suspect in some ways this declaration of an armed wing of what has to now been in unarmed movement is also a warning shot to the outside world saying we have no choice, we will have to start arming to defend ourselves and to fight against the dominance of the military because nobody else is helping us. it does raise the risks of a much wider conflict in myanmar and there are lots of fears that is where myanmar is heading. all of their neighbours, particularly thailand where they have the longest border, big economic ties, and china most critically, and india, all of the bordering states and southeast asia — this is a warning sign to them as well, take it more seriously and take more action to resolve this conflict otherwise it must inevitably descend into a much more serious war. our thanks to jonathan there. now, to an extremely rare case that has generated huge

interest on social media. a 25—year—old malian woman has given birth to nine babies at once. two more than doctors had detected during scans. courtney bembridge has the details. one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. and nine. halima cisse gave birth to five girls and four boys. the babies are all well and, if there are no complications, the family will set a new world record.

nonuplets are extremely rare and risky. doctors in mali were worried, so the government intervened and the mother was flown to morocco. translation: she was 25 weeks pregnant so we tried to make - the pregnancy go longer until she reached 30 weeks. she gave birth eventually with the help of a cesarean operation. we were surprised to find nine babies. nadya suleman came to international attention when she had octuplets in 2009, and she holds the current world record for most babies born in a single birth to survive. courtney bembridge, bbc news. one unexpected consequence of the coronavirus pandemic was a dramatic reduction in the poaching of wild rhinos. the figure fell by around a third last year — the lowest level in nearly a decade. but — as lockdown restrictions ease — that number is creeping up again. rangers in south africa

are going to extreme measures to tackle the problem. tim allman reports. by by air... and by land, the battle against the coaches rages on. here at this nature reserve they hunt down and sedate a giant rhino. what they do next may strike you as rather gruesome. me do next may strike you as rather gruesome. we have decided to _ rather gruesome. we have decided to the _ rather gruesome. we have decided to the haunt - rather gruesome. we have decided to the haunt the i rather gruesome. we have - decided to the haunt the entire population because of our high level of threat — de—horn, we're going to de—horn every rhino and even rhinos with calves. , ., , calves. de-horning can be controversial, _ calves. de-horning can be controversial, critics - calves. de-horning can be controversial, critics say l calves. de-horning can be controversial, critics say it

can leave the animals defenceless. it is designed to deter poachers. why hunt a rhino for its horn when it has already been removed. a lot say it is a relatively short term fix and the horns do eventually grow back but something needs to be done. rhino numbers in this area fell by two—thirds between 2008 and 2019. lockdowns load that decline but then the lockdown was eased. since november, december, last yearand since november, december, last year and into 2021, this landscape and in particular kruger national park has been experiencing serious numbers of rain approaching incidents. south africa is at the centre of a poaching crisis. local hunters supplying a lucrative international trade. this may seem like a cruel solution but the poachers will simply let these rhinos die. tim allman, bbc news. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @ lvaughanjones. iam i am lewis vaughan—jones and this is bbc news. goodbye. hello there. the weather is set to change a bit this weekend as the wind direction changes. at the moment, though, we've still got that cool northerly airflow and that means more showers, heavy showers again during thursday. certainly a dramatic day on wednesday, lots of downpours, hail and some thunder in there as well. a lot of those showers have faded away, so we've got a cold start. may be a frosty start in places on thursday morning. not as cold in the southwest where there is more cloud moving in. that's going to bring a bit of rain and drizzle that will run its way along the south coast through the english channel for a while. but could be a bit snowy to start with in scotland. snow levels will tend to rise, but these heavy showers will move across scotland into northern england. fewer showers for northern ireland,

while some may see some sharp showers in the southeast corner of england for a while, there should be fewer showers through the midlands, wales and southern england. temperatures still only 9—12 degrees. another chilly feeling day despite some sunshine. as we head into the evening we will see those showers continuing to move their way southwards, fading away for most inland areas overnight. that means temperatures are going to fall away. it's going to be another cold night. there is a risk of a frost, but may not be quite as cold by friday morning. plenty of sunshine to start the day. we will see the cloud developing, and a few showers breaking out as we head into the afternoon. most of those heavier and perhaps thundery showers with hail confined to eastern scotland and some eastern parts of england, turning drier further west. temperatures should be a little bit higher on friday, but still no better than 1a, maybe 15 degrees. now into the weekend, the changes i promised. we've got another area of low pressure. that is going to strengthen the wind and these weather fronts will bring some rain up from the southwest. looks like it's going to be a southerly wind that brings that rain and eventually that will introduce some warmer air, especially during the second half of the weekend.

wet weather, though, i think for england and wales on saturday and for a while in northern ireland, the rain moves slowly northwards into scotland where it's going to be a cold day here. temperatures across england and wales away from the north should get up to 1a or 15 degrees. maybe a touch warmer than that in the southeast if it brightens up as the rain clears later in the day. we should be turning more showery, i think, during sunday and with that warmer air across most areas, 19 or 20 as possible in the southeast. it cools on monday, but the showers will continue. in a future of peace

and freedom. - this is bbc news,

the headlines: the us will support a plan to remove patent protections on covid vaccines. the move would make it easier for more companies to produce vaccines, making them more widely available for developing countries. the world health organization calls it "a monumental moment" in the fight against covid—19. donald trump's ban from facebook and instagram has been upheld by facebook�*s oversight board. the social media giant ruled the outgoing president had broken its standards and rules by appearing to sympathise with the capitol building attackers, while continuing to falsely insist he won the election. the uk is sending two royal navy patrol vessels to the island ofjersey — to monitor the situation in the english channel — after the french government threatened to cut off power supplies to the channel island, the probation officer

who was in charge of the man who carried out the fatal attacks at fishmongers' hall