this is bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm annita mcveigh. our top stories: us presidentjoe biden warns russian leader vladamir putin that he'll respond with "severe economic sanctions" if ukraine is invaded. that he'll respond with "severe economic sanctions" as russian military drills continue with belarus, the kremlin has accused the west of "hysteria". meanwhile, the ukrainian president warns against creating panic. the best friend for enemies — that is panic in our country. and all this information, that helps only for panic. it doesn't help us. breaking up the blockade — police in canada move in on truckers who cut off a major crossing to the us in protest

against vaccine mandates. and copy—cat chaos in paris, as police fire tear gas at protesters in the french capital. and the story of ooka the dog, who loves paragliding over the french alps. hello and welcome. the presidents of the us and russia have held direct talks by phone to try to resolve tensions over ukraine. the white house said president biden had told his russian counterpart vladimir putin that the us and its allies would impose "swift and severe costs" on russia in the event of an invasion of ukraine. earlier, following a phone call with president macron of france, mr putin dismissed claims that such an attack was imminent as "provocative speculation".

from washington, here's our north america editor, sarah smith. there is a pessimistic mood in washington tonight, as a senior administration official says there has been no fundamental change in the dynamic after that call between presidents biden and putin. the us says it is unclear whether russia is interested in pursuing its goals through a diplomatic solution rather than through the use of force. so president biden was blunt about his intention to impose punishing economic sanctions — "swift and severe costs", he called them — if russia does further invade ukraine. and after the call, the kremlin�*s top foreign policy adviser said, "hysteria has reached its peak." now, as america believe that president putin is in a position to order an invasion any day now, they're warning about the possibility of a manufactured attack on russian forces that could be blamed on ukrainians and then

used as a trigger for military action. new details about what the us calls a false flag operation were discussed in an emergency meeting in the white house situation room two nights ago. they say it could involve russian operatives with explosives carrying out attacks on russian forces that would then be used as a pretext for an invasion of ukraine. so tonight, the us says it has not ruled out the possibility of further talks, but they are now also planning for a worst—case scenario. ukraine's president volodymir zelensky says the west�*s continued suggestion that russia may be preparing to invade is not helping his country. he said ukraine had lived with the threat since 2014 and is prepared for any such eventuality. we have to be ready each day. it began not yesterday, it began in 2014 so we are ready. i have to analyse all the information which we have. we have a lot of information because we are on these borders. it's our borders,

it's our territory. you know? i have to speak with our people, like, you know, like the president, and say the people's truth, and the truth is we have different information. and, now, the best friend for enemies — that is panic in our country. all this information, it helps only for panic, it doesn't help us. president zelensky. our correspondent fergal keane is in kyiv and has been speaking to ukrainians at a protest in the city. the event was organised by a right—wing nationalist group, but those attending were from across the political spectrum. this is the first real manifestation we've had of public feeling since the anxiety of a possible russian invasion has increased over the last 2a hours. what you can see around me here is people of all ages and seemingly from all sides or all shades of political

opinion coming out onto the streets here in a very important place in terms of ukraine's progress to democracy. people saying they will resist any russian intervention. why have you come here? the main reason is to show the unity of the people before the threat of russian occupation. this is the main reason, that we are all united, because different people, different political positions, different political parties, but today we are altogether

because we have a threat of a russian invasion, and that's why we show this to each other, the whole world that we are ready to fight and ready to defend our motherland, our country, that's the reason, actually. i'm here because i want to show that i'm not. terrified by the threat. we are ready to oppose i putin or anyone who wants to invade our country even more because you know some regionsi already don't belong to us, - so we are ready to fight by any means that we have. i'm getting some training, but i will fight with any. means i have in my hands. i will do anything my. country asks me to do. medicine, shooting, anything. i love my country, i'm not afraid. - let's hear now from someone who is close to the centre of power in russia. sergei markov is former member of the duma and was also an aide to president vladimir putin. ukraine is a country, but it's a country where united states overthrow democratically elected president eight years ago and imposed illegal and oppressive regime to the ukrainian people.

liberation is a humanitarian goal for all those who support democracy. probably great britain, if you want, also can play some role and help to minimise this repression. more than a dozen countries have advised their citizens to leave ukraine — including the us, the uk and germany. our correspondent paul adams sent this report from kiev. how best to leave? stuart mackenzie is looking for flights with his sons robert and stuart. after 28 years of life here, he can't quite believe it. you have this moment of, is it real? this is just crazy. just crazy. it is a peaceful country. in this day and age, you're talking about tanks and bombs coming in, it's just crazy. i don't understand it.

you're in europe! there's a lot to think about, what to do with stuart's elderly mother—in—law, his brother's family also here, and his 20 local employees. so, plan a is we are looking at flights now immediately. we are having a look at that. if there are flights available for the family, then that is a good option for us, that gets us out within hours. if that is not the case, then plan b is taking the car and trying to get to the border. and praying that we're not too late. at the british embassy, signs of urgency and departure. no—one here willing to talk. the foreign office says it is not in a position to help british citizens with their plans. while british and otherforeign nationals figure out how best to leave ukraine, embassies here in kyiv are beginning to shut down. at the british embassy, the ambassador tweeted this morning, "i am staying in kyiv and continue to work

there with a core team." russia's war games in belarus are now well under way. this, american officials warn, is how an assault on ukraine could begin. moscow still says it has no plans to invade but there is a lot the russians can do without ever setting foot inside ukraine. the reason you've seen such a shift in messaging from western governments to their citizens in ukraine in the last 2a hours is that the russian troop build—up has now reached such a point that with no notice, it is possible that an attack could be launched. it could come from any direction, including the black sea, where more than 30 russian ships are also conducting drills. frantic diplomatic efforts continue with the growing sense that these are critical days. pauladams, bbc news, kyiv. to candidate now. to canada now. and police have started clearing protesters blocking a bridge linking canada and the us — after a court

ordered an end to the blockade. just a handful of the group which had been demonstrating about canada's covid restrictions remained near the ambassador bridge on saturday. protestors had been warned they could face fines or up to a year in prison. ontario's premier says the demonstration has been blocking more than 550 million us dollars�* worth of trade crossing between the two countries each day. michelle maluske is reporting for canadian media at the ambassador bridge. she gave us this update. so we are just outside the perimeter right now that various police forces here in ontario have set up, just steps from the ambassador bridge around 8am this morning. there was still about 20 protesters, approximately three transport trucks, and dozens of passenger vehicles that were parked on a busy thoroughfare that connects the ambassador bridge, as you said, into detroit, michigan. just to give a bit of context — every single day, more

than $400 million in trade crosses over that bridge. so it being shut down for the whole week, as you can imagine, has had a very quick impact on the local economy — we had auto plants shut down across the border, across canada because they didn't have enough parts to make vehicles. so last night, as you said, the court approved an injunction at 7pm — at 8am this morning, police came onto the scene from three different areas. and what they did was walk in behind the protesters and split the blockade in two. they went to the right and spoke with the owners of the vehicles that were parked on the foot of the ambassador bridge to the right and asked them to leave, which they did willingly. michelle maluske reporting. meanwhile, the protests continue in ottawa. hundreds of people remain camped out near the parliament building. so far, there do not appear to have been any efforts to move them on — the only legal action taken

against them an order banning them from continually sounding their horns. 0ur reporterjessica murphy is in the canadian capital. she sent this update. there are plenty of protesters here on... here in ottawa, mainly in and around the centre of town near parliament hill. we've seen this third weekend now, like the other two weekends, that hundreds of protestersjoined the ones who were here during the week, and they're here now. and it is almost a party atmosphere. you can hear music. there are people carrying flags and even families, and theyjust crowd the streets here in downtown 0ttawa. canadian prime minister justin trudeau is meeting with advisers this afternoon to discuss the blockades. as you heard earlier, they are moving to clear the one on the ambassador bridge, but there are ongoing protests here in ottawa and other parts of the country. and other protests have cropped up over the weekend in major cities, including

in the province of new brunswick and we're seeing one in toronto. and right now, there is no clear end to this impasse. trudeau did say yesterday that all actions are on the table, although he was very clear. in his words, it was a "very, very, very remote possibility" at this point that they're considering bringing in the military, but as i noted that all possibilities in terms of ending these protests are still on the table. jessica murphy reporting. meanwhile, french police have fired tear gas to disperse groups of activists attempting to blockade paris as part of protests against covid restrictions there. hundreds of vehicles were intercepted on the way to the city and more than 300 fines have been issued. many of the protesters had driven in convoys from all over france. hugh schofield reports from paris. in the early afternoon, 20 or 30 cars managed to get past the police checkpoints and block the champs—elysees at the top end by the arc de triomphe. chanting the occupants flying tricolour flags and chanting anti president macron slogans. there was a tense standoff

with police firing tear gas to disperse groups of protesters, scenes similar to if less violent than the yellow vest protests of three years ago. protesters said they were inspired by the canadian blockades and wanted an end to government covid rules. translation: we've come - from reims, an hour and a half away from paris to be a part of this freedom convoy. we are here today notjust because we are against the vaccine pass but also because of all the taxes the government is imposing on us. police tow trucks were brought in to remove the protesters' vehicles and traffic was able to resume. but some hours later, as evening set in, there were still small—scale skirmishes down the avenue and more tear gas being fired. the scenes on the champs—elysees may have been reminiscent of the yellow vest movement but, overall, the impact of the french so—called "freedom convoys" has been limited with no serious disturbance to life in the capital.

many of the protesters who'd driven in convoys from points all over france in recent days have said they now intend to continue on to brussels. hugh schofield, bbc news, paris. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: us presidentjoe biden warns russian leader vladamir putin that he'll respond with "severe economic sanctions" if ukraine is invaded. as russian military drills continue with belarus, the kremlin has accused the west of "hysteria". protests have been held in several towns and cities around the uk to highlight the impact of the cost of living crisis on workers and theirfamilies. the austerity campaign group the people's assembly co—ordinated the demonstrations, supported by trades unions. inflation, the measure of how quickly prices are rising, is at a 30—year high, amid steep increases in the cost of fuel, heating and food. yet official inflation figures

look at a wide range of goods, notjust food, so can often mask some steep rises seen at the supermarket tills, especially on everyday items. new data for the bbc suggests that a basket of mid—range groceries has gone up in price by 8% in just one year. our business correspondent emma simpson reports. somalia is experiencing its worst drought charlotte jessops, a money—saving blogger. she hosts a monthly zoom session, passing on tips. thank you for coming. we're going to be talking about the rising costs of food. my shopping bill for me and my partner has gone up at least £20 a week. the bread, even the, you know, the lower end brand has- gone up like 20, 30p. we are... we all decant inches

smaller containers. according to the official stats, inflation is running at 4%, but that does not tell the full story. take spaghetti. it's gone up by an average of 41% since last year. a tin of tomatoes has jumped 2i%. every shopping basket is different... this is a once—in—a—generation moment forfood price inflation in this country. the supermarkets are incredible

competitive. it can'tjust put a prices without anybody noticing. shoppers will shop around. ~ , , , ~ around. mrs... this feels like around. mrs... this feels like a supermarket. _ around. mrs... this feels like a supermarket. are - around. mrs... this feels like a supermarket. are you - around. mrs... this feels like a supermarket. are you after| a supermarket. are you after the weekly — ? are you after the weekly shop? absolutely. we are adding. he has not absolutely. we are adding. he has got rising costs across his supply chain too.— supply chain too. high single fiaure supply chain too. high single figure inflation _ supply chain too. high single figure inflation is _ supply chain too. high single figure inflation is low - supply chain too. high single figure inflation is low we - supply chain too. high single figure inflation is low we are | figure inflation is low we are facing. that does not mean our shoppers have defaced that. i am not a shoppers have defaced that. i am nota magician, not shoppers have defaced that. i am not a magician, not paul daniels. i cannot magic the stuff away, but i can do is make sure that we mitigate as much as we can.— much as we can. and after a tou~h much as we can. and after a tough pandemic, _ much as we can. and after a tough pandemic, he - much as we can. and after a tough pandemic, he says . much as we can. and after a | tough pandemic, he says this much as we can. and after a i tough pandemic, he says this is counters are growing once

again. somalia is experiencing its worst drought crisis in a decade. according to the charity save the children, 70% of households do not have enough food to eat. thousands of children are reportedly dropping out of school and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. according to the organisation, donors now only have a narrow window to prevent a looming, major humanitarian disaster in somalia. the bbc�*s merchuma reports. families are now going without meals on a regular basis. save the children say that in more than one out of every three households, they've found at least one person who hadn't eaten at all in the last 2a hours. and in over half the households they look at, at least one person in each family had lost their source of income, largely due to the wholesale death of livestock.

translation: the previous drought was a tough one, i but this is worse, with water being harder to find. we don't have food, and our livestock are dying. people have died of this drought and will continue to die if we don't get help soon. we depend on our livestock and our crops, which in two consecutive years have been decimated by desert locusts. translation: our kids have not been to school for some time now. it's impossible for us to send the children to school without food and water. also, we don't have any money to pay the school fees. somalia has experienced three major drought crises since 2011. this year, latest food security projections suggest that 4.6 million somalis will face crisis to emergency level food insecurity in the next few months. we were focused for a below. average march—to—may season. we're extremely concerned.

it is uncertain how people will survive there. - the next two to three months are going to be critical. - and early action is - indeed needed to prevent a humanitarian disaster. across the horn of africa. in the 2011 drought crisis, when the un declared a famine in somalia, 3.7 million people faced crisis levels of food insecurity. a slow global response to the early warnings of the famine led to at least 260,000 people, half of them under the age of five, dying from hunger and related conditions across the horn of africa. save the children estimates that this time, over $1.5 billion us is needed to give vulnerable children and their families across somalia enough food, health care, education and water to get through this crisis. merchuma, bbc news. a ship sent by the government of mauritius has arrived

at the chagos archipelago in the indian ocean. those on board include a number of islanders who were forcibly evicted to make way for a us military base. our correspondent andrew harding was with them. they have just arrived here on the home islands. it has been 50 years since the british kicked them off and removed them forcibly from the place of their birth. today they are back, courtesy of the mauritian government. in the past, it has been impossible for anybody to come here without british permission and a british guard, military escort. today, the mauritian government, in a very bold — some would say provocative — move, has come here under its own steam, insisting that it has the right and exercising its right to visit what it considers its own territory. this is a really important moment in the tug of war between britain and mauritius over these incredibly isolated but strategically very important islands. mauritius insisting they are ours, and you can hear

there olivier bancoult, who has campaigned for so long in british courts for his right to return to live permanently on these islands, getting very angry, very worked up, criticising the british government, saying it is long overdue that britain renounced its sovereignty and allow them to return to live here. you probably know the saying that a dog is man's best friend. well, one french man has been testing that theory to its limit. afterjust a month and a half of training, he managed to teach his pet dog how to fly. and footage of the two of them gliding over the alps has gone viral. tom brada has the story. here's something you definitely don't see every day. this is ouka the dog and his owner, shams. a video shams posted of the two of them paragliding among the peaks of the french alps has taken off on social media. the first video we did, it did maybe 150 million views.

i think most of the people were... like, it's something completely amazing, and they never saw that before. what gave you the idea and take him paragliding? what gave you the idea to take him paragliding? well, the first thing i noticed is ouka was not afraid of ice. for example, when we would go hiking, he was standing super on the edge of the cliff, and after that, i started to play with my own glider to teach him that it's ok, it's not scary and he was super fine with it. after that, we checked if he was ok to wear a special harness for flying. so, i teach him to come between my legs on command, so i said "decollage" — it's "take off" in french. and then we ran together andjust run, run, run and we take off. can you describe for me what it was like when you first met each other, when you first got ouka?

before i got ouka, i was not in my best period of life. like, i was not working so much because of the covid. i was having, like, some personal issues in my life. and, yeah, iwas, like, fighting a big, big depression, actually. ouka was not very lucky or so in his life. he has been abandoned two times. the second owner of ouka, i think they were not taking him outside so much. when they gave him back, he was full of parasites, he was really in bad shape. i think i gave ouka the life he was needing to have. he pushes me, yeah, to wake up in the morning and to find motivation to do stuff. so, yeah, ithink i need to tell him, like, a big thank you. their adventures perhaps prove that you can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks. tom brada, bbc news. and you can reach me on twitter. from all of the team,

goodbye for now. hello. there is more wind and rain in the forecast, not only for the rest of the weekend, but indeed throughout the coming week. sunday looks like this. heavy rain affecting many parts of the uk, windy weather across the south, lighter winds further north. but on the satellite picture, you can see this shield of cloud racing in from the atlantic. this will bring wet weather to start sunday across western england, wales. the rain quickly getting into northern ireland, northern england and up into southern scotland as well. for east anglia and the south east, the day will start off on a dry note, but rain will arrive here through the afternoon. northern scotland likely to stay mostly dry with some spells of sunshine and just the odd shower, and slightly drier conditions could develop in northern ireland through the afternoon. the winds across northern areas are relatively light. southern areas, brisk winds. those are the average

wind speeds. the gusts could touch 50 mph for english channel coasts. but it will be relatively mild, 7—11 degrees. a very, very soggy sunday evening across east wales, central and eastern parts of england. that rain taking a long time to clear away. some drier conditions will develop out west, but with some showers. a fairly brisk northerly breeze, but i think given the strength of the breeze, it's not going to be a particularly cold night. but low pressure will still be close by into monday morning. showers circulating around that low, some brisk winds. just a little bump in the isobars, a ridge of high pressure just trying to drive things out as it topples in from the west. so, we will see some early rain across southern parts. that will clear to a mix of sunshine and showers. some of those showers wintry in scotland, especially over high ground, but potentially even to lower levels. feeling relatively chilly, i think, on monday given the strength of the breeze. top temperatures between 6—10 degrees. into tuesday, we see another band of rain pushing in from the west,

some snow for a time across high ground in scotland and some wintry showers following on behind with some sunny spells in between. top temperatures on tuesday between 6—11 degrees. it is going to be another windy day, but those winds could well step up a gear as we move into wednesday thanks to this deepening area of low pressure. lots and lots of white lines on the chart here, lots of isobars squeezing together. while the details of this forecast will change, it does look like we could see gales or severe gales in places on wednesday with some heavy bursts of rain. but it will be really mild for a time, turning chillier towards the end of the week.

this is bbc news. the headlines — us presidentjoe biden warns russian leader vladamir putin that he'll respond with "severe economic sanctions" if ukraine is invaded. the white house said that an invasion could happen at any time. many countries have told their citizens to leave ukraine. meanwhile, the ukrainian president said invasion warnings could stoke panic, which he called "the best friend of our enemies". canadian police have begun clearing a blockade of the main us border. protesters against covid restrictions had stopped traffic crossing the ambassador bridge, a major link to the us. in paris, french police fire tear gas at demonstrators after a convoy carrying protesters against coronavirus restrictions made it into the capital. more than 7000 officers have been deployed in a bid to stop the demonstrators. in 1976, john curry became

the olympic, world and european champion in figure skating, but off the ice, the impact his