welcome to bbc news. our top stories. the russian and french presidents say their talks in moscow on defusing the military crisis surrounding ukraine have been constructive. protestors in london harass opposition leader sir keir starmer as the prime minister boris johnson faces more calls to withdraw a false accusation he made against him in parliament. hundreds of moroccans attend the funeral of the five—year—old boy who died after being trapped inside a well for five days. israeli police face allegations of using spyware against public figures — including aides of the former prime minister benjamin netanyahu. we are going to the pictures. he is taking us to titty titty bang bang. what in the name of god is that? and the nominations are about to roll in.

hollywood waits to hear which films are in the running for this year's oscars. welcome to our viewers in the uk and around the globe. �*there is no security for europeans if there's no security for russia' — that was the tack taken by president macron of france as he spent five hours in the company of president putin in moscow. his search for a diplomatic breakthrough in the tensions between russia, ukraine and the west pointed to an appreciation on both sides of the need to compromise. but still there was no indication of an imminent solution to the current crisis. the efforts by the french president come after russia amassed more than one hundred thousand troops on the border with ukraine. mr macron said he hoped the talks would help reduce

�*the risk of conflict�*. the talks would help reduce moscow has been clear that it won't allow any more expansion of nato — as it seeks to minimise what it perceives as threats to its borders. at the same time, president biden has been hosting the new german chancellor, olaf scholz inside the white house. our moscow correspondent, steve rosenberg has the latest. from one president to another, warm words. how are you? fine, just fine. how are you? but there'd be no cosy chat. socially—distanced summits is how the kremlin likes it. "emmanuel, i'm so pleased to see you," said vladimir putin. behind the smiles, though, serious concerns. what worries the west is moscow's muscle flexing near ukraine — like these war games involving russia and belarus, and the russian troops massed near ukraine's border.

what worries moscow is nato. it's demanding an end to nato enlargement to the east. signs of de—escalation? not yet, but vladimir putin said he would keep talking to president macron. a number of his ideas and proposals, which are probably still early to talk about, i think it is quite possible to make these the basis of our furtherjoint steps. we are aware today, both of us, of the gravity of the situation and of the urgent and imperative necessity in the interests of everyone to find a path of and stability in europe. just having the french president in town is being seen as a success for the kremlin. there's a very long but very colourful russian word, "nyeroka pazatny". it means quite literally, "no

one wants to shake your hand." you're like a pariah. after russia's annexation of crimea eight years ago, vladimir putin was nyerokapazatny. world leaders avoided him like the plague. now, they're queuing up to meet him — today, it was president macron, in a week or so, it'll be the german chancellor — and the west is willing to discuss russia's security concerns. that's why moscow believes that coercive diplomacy is working. but what if diplomacy fails? america has sent these troops to poland to protect nato's eastern flank in case of a russian military escalation in ukraine. and to signal transatlantic solidarity, german chancellor olaf scholz flew to washington for talks on the crisis with president biden. if russia makes a choice i to further invade ukraine, we are jointly ready- and all of nato is ready.

moscow insists that it is the victim here, that russia is a besieged fortress, threatened by america, by nato, by a ukraine hostile to moscow. what the west is struggling to work out is if diplomacy ends, what will russia do next? steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. britain's prime minister borisjohnson has condemned the harassment on monday of the labour leader sir keir starmer, near the houses of parliament. he was escorted to safety by police after shouts of �*traitor�* hurled at him, and someone can be heard shouting �*jimmy savile�* — taken to be a reference to the false accusation made by borisjohnson — that sir keir had failed to prosecute the late tv personality savile for child sex offences when he was director of public prosecutions. in his statement mrjohnson made no reference to the accusation despite calls from senior aides and party colleagues for him to withdraw it in full. our political editor

laura kuenssberg reports. this is not normal rough—and—tumble, but abuse and untrue accusations being hurled at the leader of the accusation — one false claim that he protected the paedophile jimmy savile. all shouting. keir starmer bundled to a police car. two arrests were made. it happened outside parliament, where, seven days ago, the prime minister made a false link between the two. look, i�*m sure there were some people out there who already had conspiracy theories in their head, but the prime minister�*s given them a platform and permission, and that is tantamount to inciting them to these kind of horrific mobster activities. the prime minister wrongly suggested the labour leader had been involved in the decisions not to prosecute jimmy savile when he was the boss of public prosecutions. boris johnson clarified after an outcry, but he did not say sorry.

a lot of people have got hot under the collar and i understand why. let's be absolutely clear, i'm talking not about the leader of the opposition's personal record when he was dpp and i totally understand he had nothing to do personally with those decisions. the prime minister wrote online... but others in his own party want him to say much more. the former tory cabinet member julian smith said... there�*s no sign of that. borisjohnson�*s failure to apologise has already cost him one of his closest political confidants. munira mirza, who worked for the pm for more than a decade, quit last week in disgust.

protests around here are nothing new — for or against brexit, anti—lockdown, pro—public anger. but the prime minister may find himself accused of stirring up unacceptable behaviour, just when number ten hoped to calm things down. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. let�*s get some of the day�*s other news truckers in the canadian capital ottawa have been ordered to stop sounding their horns in an ongoing protest that has snarled up the city. the loud constant blare of truck horns has become one of the defining features of the movement — pushing back against covid restrictions. a state of emergency has been declared in the city. campaigning for presidential elections in the philippines is officially getting under way. the country�*s millions of voters will have three months to ponder which candidates to go for when election day finally arrives on the 9th of may. among the main candidates are the daughter of the country�*s notorious outgoing president,

the son of a former dictator and a world—famous boxer. the us have offered a reward of up to 10 million dollars for information leading to the identification or location of the leader of the islamic state militant group in afghanistan — sanullah gafari. washington believes he was behind the bomb attack on kabul airport last august. the sportswear giant nike has dropped the manchester united forward mason greenwood after his arrest on suspicion of rape. the 20—year—old was also held on suspicion of assault and making threats to kill, but later released on bail. in morocco the funeral has taken place of rayan, a five—year—old boy who spent five days trapped down a well. the boy had fallen down a narrow, 32—metre dry well last tuesday — sparking a complex digging operation to try to reach him, which gripped the world.

aru na iyengar reports. the final journey for five—year—old rayan, whose plight touched a nation and reverberating around the arab world. hundreds of mourners came to the village in morocco�*s rural northern province to pay tribute. among them, rayan�*s father. the community coming together to give support. social media across the arab world has been flooded with messages of support for the community. grief and praise for rescue workers. grief and praise for rescue workm— grief and praise for rescue workers. ~ ., workers. we will never forget our son. _ workers. we will never forget our son, rayan. _ workers. we will never forget our son, rayan. he _ workers. we will never forget our son, rayan. he will- workers. we will never forget | our son, rayan. he will always ourson, rayan. he willalways be in our hearts. little rayan is not only the son of this village, but the child of the whole world.— village, but the child of the

whole world. ,. . , , whole world. rescue crews using bulldozers mounted _ whole world. rescue crews using bulldozers mounted a _ whole world. rescue crews using bulldozers mounted a huge - bulldozers mounted a huge operation to get rayan out stop crowds came to watch and thousands more are followed on social media. the opening to the well was just 45 centimetres wide, too narrow for rescuers to enter, so they dug a slope into the hill before carefully tunnelling towards rayan to avoid causing a landslide. on saturday night, crowds cheered as rescue workers finally reach rayan and pulled him out, but thejoy turned to grief when it was announced that the boy was dead. king mohammed the sixth called rayan�*s to give condolences. pope francis on the french president, emmanuel macron, have also sent messages with the pope praising the beatle sight of people gathered together to try to save a child. —— the beautiful side. the boy�*s death has left moroccans in shock but there is thanks as well.— thanks as well. thank you to the journalists, _ thanks as well. thank you to the journalists, to _ thanks as well. thank you to the journalists, to the - the journalists, to the excavator driver is common to

the people who helped us, to the people who helped us, to the people who came from all over morocco from the arab world and every person he reached out to us.- world and every person he reached out to us. the area excavated _ reached out to us. the area excavated is _ reached out to us. the area excavated is now _ reached out to us. the area excavated is now being - reached out to us. the area. excavated is now being filled back. many here take strength from the goodwill showed by different faiths towards a defenceless boy in danger. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: hollywood waits to hear which films are in the running for this year�*s oscars. kenneth branagh�*s belfast is expected to be among the nominations. there�*s mr mandela, mr nelson mandela, a free man taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran�*s spiritual leader, ayatollah khamenei, has said he�*s passed a death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many

muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked to church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, ba by doc duvalier. because of his considerable value as a stallion, - shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud - farm's central block. shergar was driven away. in a horse box the thieves had brought with them. there stepped down from the plane a figure in mourning — elizabeth ii, queen of this realm and all her other realms and territories, head of the commonwealth, defender of the faith. this is bbc news. the latest headlines. the russian and french presidents say their talks in moscow on defusing the military crisis surrounding ukraine have been constructive.

protestors in london harrass opposition leader sir keir starmer as the prime minister boris johnson faces more calls to withdraw a false accusation he made against him in parliament. the israeli government has anounced an independent inquiry into reports that police illicitly used spyware against its own citizens, including aides of the former prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the reporting by israeli newspaper calcalist alleges that police had used the controversial pegasus spyware made by israel�*s nso group. pegasus has been sold to numerous authoritarian regimes and has been linked to numerous acts of repression, including the assassination of saudi dissidentjamal khashoggi. following the report judges have cancelled a scheduled hearing in mr netanyahu�*s corruption trial to allow israel�*s state prosecutor to respond to the phone spying allegations. israel�*s current prime minister

neaftali bennet said the public would get answer quickly. translation: regarding - the pegasus affair, the reports allegedly describe a very grave |situation, that is unacceptablej in a democratic state. these cyber tools were - designed to fight terrorism and serious crime, not to be used against citizens. - we will see to a transparent, quick and in—depth inquiry i because, all of us, citizens of the state of israel, - government ministers, - all establishments, deserve answers. john scott—railton is a senior researcher at the university of toronto�*s citizen labs, whose team has exposed numerous uses of the pegasus spyware by autocratic regimes around the world. i asked him about the implications of its use by a democratic government.

i think from our experience of eight years of tracking pegasus it�*s mostly used in autocratic regimes and i think this is the tip of an iceberg and in the first weeks of the scandal we saw a lot of pushback from the israeli government in terms of minimising the revelations and more recently today these scandals have taken a strong turn toward something every israeli wants to know about carabao we saw it with the language coming out but i have to point out a remarkable thing about that language. i feel like an advocate could have written the language years ago talking about pegasus abuses more than any other countries in the world and it�*s just interesting that the medicine has not been tasted at home. is there a suggestion it�*s directed in one political direction or another or is it pretty much across the board? this is an interesting question and we are trying to figure out what the full political import of these revelations but it does show one thing clearly which is police forces around

the world love to be be able to get deep into peoples lives and if you don�*t give them sufficient oversight and they think they are acting secretly, they will have an incredible temptation to abuse the technology and i think what we see in these revelations is that police forces clearly appease the technology among the list of targets that we saw from reporting on israel which is a disability rights group. not exactly a state threat. good point. the nso group would look on pegasus as a great commercial success story and they�*ve done extremely well, but what are they saying? anything about the allegations? like so many big tech stories it�*s risen high and then comes crashing down and is wrecking democracy along the way. i think we�*ve seen it before and so for years this has pitched itself as selling stuff to combat terrorists or go after paedophiles but in truth what we�*ve learned year after year is the technology gets used for human rights

abuses and what�*s been interesting is for years it�*s been regarded if anything is a kind of a bit of a foreign policy complexity within israel but suddenly israelis are learning more and more about this technology and coming to terms with the fact that this is pointed at themselves and it�*s a terrifying thing. think about how breathtakingly invasive the spyware is. the australian prime minister scott morrison has made a formal apology in parliament to brittany higgins — a former staffer who alleges she was raped in parliament house in 2019. ms higgins�* allegations and complaints about the way she was treated afterwards, sparked an independent review into the workplace culture in parliament offices. iam i am sorry. we are sorry. i am sorry to miss higgins for the terrible things that took place here, in the place that should have been a place of safety and

contribution which turned out to be a nightmare. next, a remarkable medical breakthrough. a paralysed man has been able to walk, using an electrical implant, developed by swiss researchers. it is the first time, someone who�*se spine has been completely severed has been able to restore the ability to walk. our science correspondent, pallab ghosh, has the story. michel roccati was paralysed after a motorbike accident five years ago. his spinal cord was completely severed and he has no feeling in his legs. but he can now walk using a frame because of an electrical implant that�*s been surgically inserted on his spine. using a remote control, he�*s able to send signals to his leg muscles, which enables him to walk. it�*s the first time that someone this injured has been able to do this. michel, i can�*t believe that you were paralysed once. i know, it�*s very close to before the accident, yes.

i stand up, i walk where i want alone, i can do the stairs. david m�*zee is another patient helping scientists with their research... it looks like it works! ..which has been published in nature medicine. they don�*t use the technology to help them walk in their everyday lives — instead, they use it to practise walking, which exercises their muscles. this is not the cure for spinal cord injury, but it is a critical step to improve people's quality of life. we are going to empower them with the ability to stand, maybe make some steps. it is not enough, it's not a cure, but it is a significant improvement, i believe, for the future. david and michel stroll together on the banks of lake geneva. so far, nine people have been successfully treated with the implant. david was one of the first people to have the implant. michel is the latest. both of them say that it�*s transformed their lives, and the hope is that the treatment could benefit many more people.

the technology has helped david and michel do more in their lives, but it cost more than £100,000 for the first two years, and it�*ll need more improvements in clinical trials over several years before it can move out of the lab into the clinic. cheers! but it is a new way forward for researchers. pallab ghosh, bbc news, lausanne. awards season is upon us and in a matter of hours we�*ll find out which actors and filmmakers are nominated for this year�*s oscars. lady gaga could see a nomination in the best actress category for her role in �*house of gucci�*, while will smith is predicted to be in the lineup for the best actor award for �*king richard�*. this year, 10 films will be nominated for the academy�*s top category — best picture. among the favourites is sir kenneth branagh�*s powerful memoir of childhood �*belfast�*. he said it would get

decided by christmas. when is he coming back? at the weekend. he is going to the pictures, he is taking us to titty titty bang bang. what is the name of god is that? it is a flying car. it goes over a cliff and you nearly fall out of your seat. do you want to come? it will be company for you. if god wanted had wanted me to seek flying cars he would have given me blinking wings. sandro monetti is editor in chief of the hollywood international filmmaker magazine, he says the wider voting field this year makes for a more interesting contest. let with take the opportunity to applaud the academy. it was only a few years ago that the very future of the oscars was in doubt with the oscars so white controversy. they�*ve moved swiftly and i was believe if you change

the numbers, you change the game and so did the academy and five years ago there were 6000 voters for the oscars and now there are nearly 10,000 and the majority of those new members are women and minorities, so it�*s a much more diverse group voting for the oscars and this makes the oscar race much more wide open than before and it�*s not the usual predictable contest, so this is the 94th oscars but with a wider voting field and we could be seeing some surprises in a few hours. so do you think it does become a bit more popular and box office orientated than perhaps has been traditionally? this is the academy�*s next great challenge, the idea of having ten best picture nominees and it�*s normally five in the other categories is to give the opportunity for more of the crowd pleasing favourites to find their way in. and i think this really needs to happen if the academy awards is to have a future.

for example, spider—man: no way home is not just the biggest hit of the pandemic comments one of the biggest box office hits of all time but is a rank outsider in the oscars race. the favourites for the academy awards are belfast, liquorice pizza, the power of the dog but they did not set the box office alight so it will be interesting to see when the nominations come out if this larger membership has continued to reward just arthouse favourites or has been able to close the gap between the movies the critics like and the movies that the public alike. that�*s a really interesting point and we will see how it pans out. of those that looked to be in line for best picture and maybe we can look at the actors as well, what is your personal feeling? where does your favouritism lie this year? i�*ve been lucky enough to interview most of the main contenders and i don�*t think

i�*ve ever met anyone more dedicated and focused on their craft than lady gaga. she is a force of nature and hearing how hard she worked to pull off the performance in house of gucci has convinced many oscar voters that maybe she should be the name on the ballot. interesting that the actress race is ride open. lady gaga is the only one to have been nominated in all the awards so it�*s a huge surprise if she�*s not there in the morning. on the actor aside, will smith who has been nominated twice before but has never won an oscar but i think he gets his big chance, his best chance so far with king richard where he plays the father of serena williams and venus williams and has strong competition from benedict cumberbatch, the edge but beyond those two, the field is pretty wide open. and jane hill will present a special programme —

as the oscar nominations are announced — on the bbc news channel in the uk and bbc world news at 13:10 gmt on tuesday. hello there. we�*ve got the battle of the air masses taking place this week, certainly for the next few days, we will have a north—south divide, much colder air across northern areas with some wintry showers. further south, it�*ll be very mild indeed for the time of year, and there will be some sunshine around. so, the dividing line between the cold air to the north and the mild air to the south is this weather front, which will be hanging around through central parts of the country throughout tuesday, so thicker cloud for northern ireland, southern scotland, northern england, outbreaks of rain on this weather front. to the north of it, it�*s brighter with sunshine and blustery showers. these are wintry on the hills of scotland, and it will be windy here. further south, also quite

breezy, but dry with sunny spells, a bit more cloud for wales and southwest england. a blustery day, as you can see across the board, but gusts will be reaching in excess of 50 mph across northern scotland into the northern isles. temperatures in single digits, to the north of the weather front, to the south of it, 11 to maybe 1a celsius, so very mild indeed, particularly where you get the sunny spells. through tuesday night, that weather front hangs around through central areas, outbreaks of rain on it, slowly pushing southwards into england and wales, to the north of it, again, further snow showers. and these will be blustery, accumulating snow on the hills of scotland. very windy here, breezy in the south where it�*ll stay mild. so, into wednesday, then, that weather front slowly pushing its way southwards across england and wales. again, the mild air to the south of it, but more areas will be in the colder air on wednesday. so, that�*ll be scotland, northern ireland, northern england, perhaps north wales later in the day, plenty of snow showers across scotland. significant accumulations

across the scottish hills, and it�*ll be very windy, gusts of 60 mph in northern scotland. a breezy day to come for all, but our weather front will be bringing more cloud across southern england, south wales, where it�*ll remain very mild. the mild air eventually gets pushed out of the way as that weather front slips into the near continent. keeping an eye on this feature, this little low pressure which could bring severe gales and some snow to northern scotland on thursday, but then for friday, there is a ridge of high pressure building in to settle things down. so, it is turning colder for all into thursday. you can see single figure values there. it�*s chilly on friday, but light winds with some sunny spells and the return of overnight frost.

this is bbc news,

the headlines: president putin has said talks with france�*s president macron to de—escalate tensions surrounding ukraine have been useful and substantive. at a joint news conference in the kremlin, mr putin said some of mr macron�*s ideas for security in europe were realistic. president macron said the coming days would be decisive. the uk opposition labour leader, sir keir starmer, has had to be escorted to safety by the police. he was targeted by a crowd near parliament — as the prime minister borisjohnson faced more calls to withdraw a false accusation he made against him in parliament. israel�*s government will hold an independent inquiry into reports that police illicitly used spyware against aides of the former prime minister benjamin netanyahu and other public figures. the allegations relate to the israeli—made pegasus hacking tool which can be used gain covert access to telecommunications equipment.