this is bbc news. i'm monika plaha. our top stories: western defence chiefs fail to agree on the provision of advanced tanks to ukraine. the americans say it's still under discussion. anti abortion activists have marched through washington calling for further restrictions on the termination of pregnancies. chris hipkins is set to become new zealand's new prime minister replacing jacinda ardern who stood down on thursday. a top un official tells the bbc she believes progress is being made towards reversing bans on women taking part in public life in afghanistan. we are going to use this to push the door wider and not allow it to close, and not allow it to close because it

would close on the women of afghanistan. lost at sea. the man who survived alone for nearly a month with the help of a bottle of ketchup. welcome to the programme. president zelensky says he will continue to push allies to send tanks to ukraine after a meeting of 50 countries ended earlier with no agreement on the issue. ukraine says the tanks are needed to break the deadlock in the war. russia has warned that such a move would mark an "extremely dangerous" escalation. here's our europe correspondent, jessica parker. this is what kyiv wants, but can't yet have — german—made leopard tanks

to help defend and reclaim its territory from russia. britain has gone first in sending western main battle tanks, but it is a fraction of what is being asked for. hundreds of thankyou are not hundreds of tanks. all of us can use thousands of words in discussions. but i cannot put words instead of guns that are needed against russian artillery. defence chiefs have pledged fresh support. but berlin is still resisting pressure to release its leopard 2s. it gets to decide where german—made tanks can go, even those bought by other countries. minister, why is berlin so hesitant on this issue? we are not really hesitating, we are just very carefully balancing all the pros and contras. we are not talking just about delivering anything to anybody.

this is a new kind of measure. these crowds in berlin want germany to do more, but the government has its eye on broader public opinion. the country's world war ii history still casts a long shadow while there are fears of escalation. they've not made a decision on the provision of leopard tanks. what we're really focused on is making sure that ukraine has the capability that it needs to be successful right now. the nato military alliance is pressing a sense of urgency. there is a need for support to ukraine, to enable them not only to survive, but actually, to retake territory to win this war. but there is a lot of talk of course about a russian spring offensive. but do you think ukraine can take back territory this year? absolutely, and that's the reason why nato allies and partners

are providing significantly more support to ukraine. a soviet era tank in a war of today. frontline ukrainian units are hungry for more modern weapons to help unfreeze this conflict. jessica parker, bbc news, in ramstein. well, earlier i spoke to michael o'hanlon who is a senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the brookings institution. i asked him why america doesn't just send its own tanks to ukraine — instead of relying on germany. i think we should. i think we're getting caught up in technicalities of what the tank can do, it is hard to maintain and it basically runs offjet fuel and requires different logistic infrastructure but i think we're getting too many of our green eye shades on and thinking about this in a kind

of technical logistical term when the nato alliance, let's face it, requires american leadership at times and big decisions and it is important to form consensus european countries and canada have good ideas but when you get to this kind of a threshold, the us cannot step back and be a good multilateralist. we represent two—thirds of the alliance overall military spending at some point you need to accept the responsibility that goes with that. even if we do not have tanks that are easy to maintain or to fuel on the front lines i think we have to send a signal that this is the correct next step and it is not escalatory because they will not march on moscow, they will be used locally and regionally. different from the long—range missiles which i think the biden administration has rightly decided not to provide because they could hit interior russia. these tanks give ukraine at least a decent chance at seeing how much of its territory it may win bad. we should help them try.

on that point, michael, what do you think about the fear and the threat from that the delivery of these tanks will further threat from russia that the delivery of these tanks will further escalate the situation? at one level it is laughable that a country that invaded a sovereign nation to its immediate south and west wants to talk about escalation because they are trying to help to talk about escalation because we are trying to help that country defend itself and retake territory. but another level we have to take russian threats of escalation seriously and that is why i do not want to provide ukraine things like long—range bombers or long—range ballistic missiles. but tanks, tanks are harder to use over many hundreds of miles when they are provided in relatively modest numbers. if we provide ukraine with a couple of hundred tanks, i think that is about the right number, it is enough to give them a decent chance to take back its territory, it will not constitute a threat to the interior of russia itself. so i believe that at this point the russian threat are,

frankly, the only thing russia has left in its arsenal to oppose what is an otherwise overdue and smart military decision. and what do you think of the knock—on effect here from all of this? countries poland and finland are unable to supply leopard tanks until berlin gives them the all clear. i want the us to take the first step here because you are right, all these internal european debates and all these history that this debate brings back make it complicated for one european country to act when in disagreement with another. but when we have a consensus forming it is time for the united states to take the lead and not put the burden on germany to make this call with a brand—new defence minister and relatively new chancellor. anti—abortion activists in washington have called for more restrictions on the termination of pregnancies at the country's annual "march for life".

it's the first such event since the supreme court overturned federal abortion rights. nomia iqbal reports. there are thousands of people here from different backgrounds and a mix of religious schools, churches and organisations, people from all different ages. usually they bypass congress and go straight to the supreme court but it is symbolic that they have come to congress. showing that it is not so much a legal argument now as it is a legislative argument. there are 13 republican—led states that have a near total ban on abortion and there are still legal challenges going on elsewhere. so marchers here say their work is still yet to be done, there is still more that they want to achieve. president biden issued a proclamation today and to read you what he said, he said that never before has the supreme court taken away a right so fundamental to americans and he said his administration will continue through executive actions to do everything it can to protect access to contraception and abortion services in america.

chris hipkins is set to replace jacinda ardern as new zealand's prime minister after being the only nominee for labour party leader. hipkins is expected to be confirmed as the new leader by a meeting of labour's 64 lawmakers — or caucus — on sunday. he is currently the minister for the police, education and public service— and serves as leader of the house. i wasjoined earlier by professor anne marie brady — from the department of political science and international relations— at the university of canterbury. she told me more about chris hipkins. chris hipkins — �*chippy�* is his nickname — is widely regarded as a very hard—working, very capable minister, and it is going to be very interesting to see him step up as prime minister, because when you are the minister, yourjob is to be

loyal to the leader. now we need to see him shine and really inhabit the space of prime minister, and he has very big shoes to fill. jacinda ardern has done an outstanding job dealing with an extraordinary level of crises in new zealand and internationally in her term, as well as a major programme of social reform and administrative reform on things like health and the media and education. so he is inheriting a role where he has been part of that change, but now, he has got to set his own mark, and that is going to be a challenge, i think, coming up to the election in october this year. so, how might new zealand change now on that international stage post jacinda ardern, given her international

acclaim and status? well, jacinda ardern has attracted an unprecedented level of interest in her as our prime minister and what she thinks and what she's doing in her life. i wouldn't expect that chris hipkins is going to attract the same level of interest. women prime ministers are relatively rare, let alone ones who are young and have a baby in office. so she — and her values and her outspokenness on some issues, that has really attracted international attention and admiration as well. so i would expect that it is going to be returned to more normal days for new zealand that we will have for the rest of the year, we are going to have a prime minister who, bearing some unusual international domestic crisis, who will be the safe pair of

hands who is running the show. we shouldn't be attracting the same level of attention for our prime minister, i would say, once chris hipkins is in the role. jacinda ardern was extraordinary and she has made a difference and she hasjust been so widely admired by many around the world, as well as in new zealand. the social media influencer andrew tate and his brother tristan are to stay in custody until the 27th of february after a romanian court extended their police detention. the pair are being held while police investigate allegations of trafficking and rape, which they both deny. meanwhile, teenage girls have told the bbc how the brothers contacted them online, apparently using a standard formula. our correspondent lucy williamson sent this report from bucharest. andrew tate

and his brother tristan still draw the spotlight, even behind the walls of a romanian detention centre. today, bucharest�*s main court extended their detention for another month, until february 27. the tates' lawyers said prosecutors had not presented any new evidence. any evidence prosecutors may have against andrew tate or his brother is still a well—guarded secret. neither man has yet been charged. but their public image has been complicated by criticism over the things they say, and the way they behave online. daria was 16 when she says she received a private message on instagram two years ago from andrew tate�*s account. it read simply, "romanian girl," followed by a strawberry emoji. it was very obvious we were high school girls. we had our high schools in our bio and everything. i feel like he was just trying to find girls that seemed

as innocent or naive as possible, in my opinion. daria, who's now at university in the uk, says it's important she speak out, because so many young men idolise andrew tate. this is a big problem, because we can't wake up in 20 years with, like, two million andrew tates. in a video, andrew tate outlined his method for approaching women online. sometimes, cos, like i said, intrigue, i'll put a completely pointless emoji on the end. some cherries or an orange or a strawberry. because it doesn't mean anything. he also recommends asking a woman, "why do i never see you? where are you hiding?" 99% of them say, "i'm not hiding," he explains. this woman had an exchange that seems to follow this script. she showed me messages, apparently from andrew's brother, tristan, sent when she was 17 years old. "you're beautiful," he says. "i feel i've seen you

around town before. "where have you been hiding?" as andrew tate predicts, she replies, "i didn't hide." translation: | knew - he was writing the same thing to a lot of girls, including a friend of mine. he used the same approach, always starting the conversation with exactly the same line — "you're beautiful." in publicity for his online courses in manipulating and exploiting women, andrew tate has said his job was to "meet a girl, sleep with her, "get her to fall in love with me to the point "where she'd do anything i say, and then "get her working on webcam "so we could become rich together." with the tates now starved of the spotlight themselves, police have until the end of february to sift their potential crimes from their public image. lucy williamson, bbc news, bucharest. let's stay with ukraine, and the united states treasury is imposing extra sanctions on the russian mercenary group

wagner, which has been fighting alongside moscow's forces. wagner has faced american sanctions since 2017. the new measures treat it as an organised crime group. the us says vagner employs 50,000 fighters in ukraine, most of them convicts. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes explains why the americans are taking this action now. this is another attempt by the united states to curb the activities of the wagner group, said to number some 50,000 in ukraine right now, made up mostly of convicts from russian prisons. it first came to prominence in 2014 during the annexation of crimea, and then in the months before the russian invasion of ukraine last year, wagner group were said to be involved in the false flag attacks that we heard so much about at that time — essentially the fake, provocative attacks that were supposedly designed to give

moscow some justification for its invasion of ukraine. and ever since then, wagner group has been very prominent in ukraine, responsible, according to the united states, for a number of atrocities. and by debt designating them and organised crime group, this is an attempt to really curb its activities in notjust ukraine but globally, by making it more difficult for other countries, other organisations, other entities, to do business with this private group. something else that the united states has identified is an apparent gulf in thinking, perhaps a lack of respect, between the traditional russian army, the russian military, and the leadership of the wagner group. the us is talking that up. it is playing it up, presumably in a further attempt to curb the overall activities of the russians in ukraine. let's turn to afghanistan now, where a top un official believes progress is being made towards reversing bans on women taking part in public life.

last month the taliban banned all women from working for aid agencies, the latest in a series of restrictions on the rights of women and girls. amina mohammed, the un deputy secretary general, has been in afghanistan for talks with the taliban. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucent has been travelling with her. a space to call their own — their own shops, run by afghan women for afghan women. but a new taliban edict shut down a training programme here. all of us cried. this, their response. full nights, we cried. these four women, all university—educated, lost theirjobs, the life they knew and loved. our future is very dark. it's not bright. do you see any light? no. we're here because we really want to hear your voices. that is why the un's second—in—command is here —

amina mohammed, its most senior woman — trying to change taliban government edicts barring women from most workplaces and education. that's why she headed to the southern province of kandahar to meet some of the most conservative taliban leaders. we're going to use this to push the door wider and not allow it to close, and not allow it to close because it would close on the women of afghanistan. and that's just not an option that we will leave on the table. the council of islamic scholars explaining their strict interpretation of women's rights within islam — so strict, it has been criticised by many islamic countries. ms mohammed, a muslim herself, made her case too, in a man's court. amina mohammed, how did it go? tough. tough? tough.

as in, no meeting of minds? i think that there is a distance to be covered. we've come little closer to understanding better why they took the decisions, and there is some hope, but it's tough. so when we sat down, i asked, what gives you hope? i think there are many voices we heard which are progressive in the way that we would like to go. but there are others that really are not, and i think that it is a struggle within them to bring those that are not forward, too. there are many who believe, many afghan women, some even in the united nations, who believe that when the taliban say "until further notice", it means never. they say the taliban haven't and won't change. what do you say to that? well, i always have hope, because by agreeing to that is that i've just written off 23 million people in this country. that's not acceptable to me,

and i will fight until we make sure they're included. because if we give up on the women of afghanistan, how many other women are we going to give up on when it gets too hard? the taliban — still not recognised by any government, under sanctions — say they should be brought into the international community. the message from envoys like ms mohammed is, first, demonstrate your commitment to international norms, including women's rights. lyse doucet, bbc news, kabul. scientists from the european space agency are putting the final touches to a pioneering mission tojupiter�*s icy moons in the hope of finding primitive signs of life. here is our science editor rebecca morelle. bleak yet beautiful, the giant moons ofjupiter, covered in a thick crust of ice. but hidden beneath, hints of vast oceans where life could thrive. now a mission is getting ready to make an epicjourney to study them.

at airbus in toulouse, in france, engineers are putting the finishing touches to the spacecraft. it is called thejupiter icy moons explorer, orjuice. this is a number of the scientific instruments that we have onjuice. they range from a radar that will see beneath the ice to lasers creating 3—d models of the surface and high—resolution cameras. these oceans could sustain the necessary conditions necessary to support emergence of primitive forms of life in these oceans, and this is this environment that we want to further investigate. juice will travel more than four billion miles before it arrives at its destination in eight years' time. the spacecraft will visit three ofjupiter�*s moons. it will fly around ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system. its ocean could contain more water than all of earth's oceans put together. it will also study callisto, whose ancient surface is covered in craters.

this moon could harbour life, but that is not as likely as on europa, where the spacecraft will be trying to spot plumes of water vapour erupting from beneath its icy crust. i don't think we're expecting to go there and find schools of fish in the ocean. but to be honest with you, we really don't know, and i think that's it. we're at the very beginning of our understanding and ourjourney towards understanding the habitability of these environments. the next step now is to pack the spacecraft up, ready for its launch in april. scientists hope we will finally discover what lies beneath the surface of these mysterious moons and whether it is possible for life to exist elsewhere in our solar system. rebecca morelle, bbc news, toulouse. now a remarkable story of survival against the odds — one man's triumph over the elements. elvis francois spent 24 days alone at sea with next to no food.

he was eventually rescued by the colombian navy. tim allman has the story. just imagine it — day after day after day, alone at sea. a pinprick in a vast expanse of endless water. sometimes you have to contend with the merciless heat of the sun, and other times you're confronted with raging storms and crashing waves. well, that's the ordeal elvis francois had to endure. here he is, being given the once—over by a navy doctor. the key to his survival — rainwater and condiments. i had no food. it was just a bottle of ketchup that was on the boat, garlic powder and maggi,

so i mixed it up with some water so i had it with me to survive the 24 days on the sea. elvis's maritime odyssey began when he was repairing a sailboat at a port in saint martin, part of the leeward islands. bad weather swept him out into the caribbean sea, where he tried to use his mobile phone to call for help, but he couldn't get a signal. eventually he attracted the attention of a passing plane using a mirror and was picked up near the colombian port of puerto bolivar. 24 days, no land, nobody to talk to, don't know what to do, don't know where you are. it was rough. sometimes i lose hope. i think about my family. quite the ordeal, quite the survivor. being alone at sea must have been tough, but it was preferable to the alternative. tim allman, bbc news.

what an incredible story of survival. you are watching bbc news, and you can reach me on twitter. i'm @monikaplaha. hello. well, overall, the weekend for most of us is going to remain pretty cold. we've also had some snow recently. here's a beautiful picture from wales, from gwynedd, that wonderful wintry scene. now, across the north—west of the country, it's actually going to be a little bit milder through the course of the night, particularly around the western isles of scotland and northern ireland. a southerly breeze here, cloudy with spits and spots of rain, so seven in stornoway by 6:00am on saturday, six in belfast. elsewhere across the country, that blue colour indicating the frost. now, the reason for this temperature difference is actually this tongue of milder air that's streaming in from the southern climes. and you can see it's in place across ireland, scotland, the north—west of england, and wales. elsewhere, towards the east, it's going to be colder.

so let's summarise the weekend, then, with this tongue of milderair coming in from the south. south and eastern parts of the country will stay in the cold air. it'll be sunny. but north—western areas will be often cloudy, spits and spots of rain, and quite a bit milder. so here's the picture first thing on saturday — that weather front hugging north—western areas of the uk, that southerly breeze. elsewhere across the country, we've got sunny, crisp and cold weather. there could be some mist and fog lingering into the afternoon across parts of the midlands and northern england. so typical temperatures here around four degrees, but up to around nine or so in the western isles of scotland. let's have a look at the weather on sunday. high pressure in charge of the weather in the south—east of the country. but in the north—west there, you can see a weather front affecting scotland, which actually will also affect the irish sea coasts, western fringes of wales and also the far south—west of england. so here, in that southerly wind, temperatures could actually make double figures, at least in one or two spots. the further east or south—east

you are, the temperatures will be quite a bit lower. so look at that — struggling in london, norwich and hull. 0nly around two or three degrees above freezing, so really quite a raw day for some of us on sunday. here's monday's weather map. high pressure in charge of the weather, in fact, all the way from western europe through central europe, into russia too, so lots of fine weather. and there is an indication that here in the uk the temperatures will recover a little bit as we go through the course of the week, perhaps making double figures in some spots. that's it from me, have a good weekend.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a major meeting of ukraine's allies has ended without agreement on whether to send more tanks to kyiv. representatives of around 50 countries gathered at the us airbase in ramstein in germany to discuss anti—abortion activists in washington have called for more restrictions on the termination of pregnancies at the country's annual "march for life". it's the first such event since the supreme court overturned federal abortion rights. new zealand's minister for police and education, chris hipkins, is expected to become the country's next prime minister. he's the only candidate nominated by the labour party to replace jacinda ardern. he faces fighting a general election in october which polls indicate labour could struggle to win.