this is bbc news. the headlines: growing tension in france — riots today in the west after unrest in the capital. these are the dramtic scenes from the last few hours in saint solines where demonstrators gathered for a banned protest against a new reservoir for agricultural irrigation. several tornadoes have killed at least 23 people in the us state of mississippi. the authorities said the twisters left a trail of damage for more than 150 kilometres. and revelations from an mi5 spy who helped bring peace to northern ireland, has told the bbc he met ira leaders in march 1993, despite talks being called off by the british government. gwyneth paltrow, has repeatedly

insisted that she was the victim in a skiing accident that's the subject of a lawsuit in the us state of utah. giving evidence, the oscar—winning actress said she'd been hit from behind by terry sanderson, who claims he was the victim. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, from prague, i'm stephen sackur.

how solid is put in�*s home front? welcome to our talk.

it means nothing for russia. it means nothing for the russian president and it will not change the way putin made his decisions. first of all, you know, you are going to close all ways to legislate russia by this decision. it is the final step to close any possibility to negotiate with russia.

the second topic is the reason for this decision. you know, the arrest warrant for putin for saving children, donbas children, thousands of children who were in danger during the war, during the last nine years. and of course russia has to save their lives. and of course russia should and must give them normal life. the normal life is possible for them. and it's possible in russia. well, mr popov, you may or may not be aware that there are more than 16,000 documented cases of ukrainian children being deported, transferred to russia or russian—held territory, occupied territory in ukraine. more than 16,000 documented cases, but many more thousands, which the ukrainians believe have not yet been exposed

to the world. now, that contravenes international law and to the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, those children have been used as "the spoils of war". now, you are a human being, leave aside your politics. does it not offend you that your country is responsible for using children as the spoils of war? it is not true, of course, stephen. and you know we must save the lives of those children. and they are in families, in orphanage, and they are safe right now. they are in a safe territory. mr popov, you know as well as i do that many of these children were taken when they still had family. in some cases, parents, in other cases, grandparents,

but they still had family in ukraine, and even if they had no family in ukraine, they could have been released to the ukrainian state. even now, as the chief prosecutor says, russia has an obligation, if it has these children, to hand them back to ukraine. they are ukrainian children. we don't have any requests from relatives, from parents of those children. if we will get some requests from relatives, from parents of course, they can see their children, in russia or any other territories. but we did not get any requests from ukrainian parents, from ukrainian side. and, you know, it is a mockery.

it is a political mockery on reality. if i may say so, the mockery here is russia pretending that it is acting in the interests of these children. we know, from a yale university study, that russia has actually set up camps where these children are being "reeducated with pro—russia patriotic "and military—related education." we know that your child commissioner, the official in moscow who is the fellow inductee of president putin has already said she herself, adopted eight ukrainian child and she said this, "we are helping "the children of our country. "we don't leave them in war zones." of course, the problem there is it's not your country. it is the sovereign territory of ukraine. you know, stephen,

you are still living in a world of myths and we can't leave children on a battlefield. of course we can't leave it at the war. we can't leave it in danger. and of course, we are going to do everything to give them a new life, peaceable life in russia. but if these relatives or these parents want to see them, want to speak to them, they can do it. but we didn't get any requests. so you are giving me right now, a guarantee — and you speak of course as a russian mp and somebody close to mr putin in his own political party —

you are telling me that you guarantee if the international community, the icc, the ukrainian authorities, whoever, demand the return of these children, russia will hand them over? i did not say that. i told you that, first of all, we don't, as united states and many other countries, recognise icc. but if parents of those children want to see them, want to take him home, want to speak to them, of course they can do it. but, again, we did not get any requests from relatives of those children and from parents of those children. you say that this makes no difference to vladimir putin or to russia — that is not true, is it?

it makes a big difference to vladimir putin. there are now 123 countries, signatories to the treaties that created the international criminal court, which are now obliged to arrest vladimir putin should he step onto their soil. vladimir putin is now the president of russia, he is unable to travel to most countries in the world. most countries in the world will no longer even agree to talk to him or meet him because he is a wanted war criminal. this changes things. of course this changes things. i told you that this decision is stupid. because icc or people who are behind this decision are going to close even a little possibility to talk with russia. because, of course, we should talk to finish this war.

and we now can't do this. but if you are talking about putin's travel possibilities, he is going to join a summit in south africa in august, and nobody is going to arrest him. he is going to travel to countries, which are our neighbours, which are friendly neighbours, and nobody is going to arrest him. because president putin, as every other world leaders, have immunity, immunity to international criminal court or other stupid organisations because... maybe you should have told that to others sitting presidents that ended up before the international criminal court.

your ideas about immunity may not last. tell it to george bush. and you know what, i want to move on from international justice, but one final point on this — the united nations recently received a report from the international commission of inquiry on ukraine, which catalogued a whole series of other alleged abuses and war crimes, including systematic killings, systematic torture, the deportation of children, of course, which we have already discussed, and ijust wonder this — you are very well—connected in moscow. do you think there are people in the kremlin who are now worried when they have seen what the icc have already done that ultimately they will be an accounting for what russia has done over the past year and more, there will be an accounting and many individuals, notjust biden himself, but many individuals inside your system will ultimately be held to account for what russia has done? you were going to

change our regime. of course i know it. i know the west wants to divide my country. wants to change putin into a conveniently wielded politician. but you will lose this war — publicly, economically, militarily and other sides. because of course putin is the president of russia. the most of russian people have elected him. most of russian people voted for him. he is legitimate president of russia, head of my state. and you will deal with him of course, if you want to finish this war because we have no other president. we have no other head of state.

and the world, the western world should deal with our authority. the person dealing with... hang on. let's, if i may, get to something that is happening in your city right now — president xijinping is in moscow talking to president putin. there is a power imbalance there because xijinping represents a country with an economy ten times the size of russia, and russia desperately needs that friendship without limits that the two of them talked about more than a year ago. what do you think xi jinping is going to deliver foeradimir putin? ah, stephen, first of all, if we are talking about russian economy, i think we already showed you that our economy is not a simple 2% of world economy. it is strong economy because we

are now against 50 states. against all nato states and our economy feels pretty good. our economy is stable, our economy will be stable for many, many years. and we don't have a vegetable deficit or some other deficit in russia. we don't have inflation. it's good to know the vegetable supply is fine in moscow but what is not so fine is the weapons and military production capacity and i am just wondering whether you believe china is going to supply you, russia, with weapons? i don't know.

i don't think we need it. of course, china is the most important economy partner right 110w. and our trade with china is around $200 billion right now. and of course we have close relationship with china because we are together against western hegemony. against western tyranny. and we are going to stay close. we will develop our relationship. for sovereign policy. we want to save our way of living and we will do it with china. you say the one thing we don't need is weapons. that does fly in the face... i don't know. and no evidence.

there is plenty of evidence that the russian military is struggling in terms of its ability to rearm those forces fighting, in the heaviest fighting on the eastern front in ukraine. it's a myth. no—one knows the situation. let's analyse if it is a myth. you sit in moscow. yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of the wagner private military corporation, according to his own telegram videos, a lot of time on the front line, has been desperately seeking over the last month and pleading with the russian army to provide him with more weapons. he said his fighters are being starved of ammunition and, "my people are dying in droves." why do you think he is now so furious with the chief of the army gerasimov and defence minister shoigu? i know nothing about this conflict. i have heard him, of course, but his conflict is solved for now.

and mr prigozhin and wagner group got everything that they need for now. and of course they are successful military division and they are fighting bravely in bakhmut and other territories. and they should get everything that they need. we are a big country. and we of course in a huge war with nato and other countries right now. if i may... we last spoke in september. you assured me then that russia was winning the war and was going to win the war.

here we are in march of 2023, you have not even yet taken bakhmut. and the losses incurred by the russian military are staggering. tens of thousands of soldiers have either lost their lives or been taken out of action with wounds in that fight for bakhmut over many months. and you still have not taken the city. can you honestly sit here today, so many months after we last spoke and say that you are still confident russia is winning this war? i am strongly sure that we are going to win this war, of course. you left us no other chances. we must win because it... why do you think mr prigozhin in just the last couple of days has been extremely pessimistic about the fighting? he has said that the prospects

for russia are to use, his word, foggy and that he is deeply alarmed that russia is not doing what it should be to prepare for a major ukrainian offensive in the spring. prigozhin is worried that your own military, defence minister, chief of the army, are not preparing properly for what is to come. of course i understand, stephen, that you are going to divide our society. but you cannot do this. of course we can see some public conflict between wagner

and the minister of defence but as i know, i know that the conflict between the minister of defence and the wagner group are solved for now. and no other problems which we have between minister of defence and prigozhin. of course we cannot win tomorrow. it is a long—term process. of course, we are going to defend our state for months, years, until we get security guarantees. what you have done is increasingly wiped out all dissent inside your own country. when i say you, i mean the kremlin. why is the kremlin so frightened of its own people and criticism of the war?

we live in a democracy country and people can speak whatever they want. of course the most russian people are supporting our military. democracies don't lock up people for writing a social media post against the war and they certainly don't detain 12—year—old girls who are accused at school of drawing a picture which depicts russian soldiers attacking ukrainian civilians. these are things that do happen inside russia today. you understand that we are at war. and of course, no—one can wish our military to die. no—one can wish our state to divide. power to defeat or our regime to change. by military, by unlawful hoax or some other things. and of course in england

you arrest much more people for social media posts. much more people. i don't know where you get that idea from but i am interested that you would defend the detention of a 12—year—old masha, a well documented case. her father was interrogated and beaten and is now in an orphanage and he is now facing three years in prison on charges. you would defend that as part of healthy society? i don't defend any unlawful moments. i defend my country and my state which is at war with nato countries right now. and of course if we have some strange cases, we will solve it.

and we have prosecutors, we have courts and law in our country and we are going to follow law to defend every people who is in a strange situation like that. i don't know anything about the situation, but i will of course study and if she needs help, i will help her as a deputy. and you should understand that in great britain, you, i mean your crown, your prime minister, your scotland yard are arresting much more people

for social media posts than in russia. and i have some numbers. 2016... give me a second. we are out of time. i can't give you any more seconds. 3,000 arrested people for social media posts. great britain for 2016. all right. 3,000 people. mr popov, you have made that point, sadly we are out of time i thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you.

hello. another fairly changeable day ahead, but certainly our soggy march weather is continuing towards the end of the month. so we're going to see a mix of some sunshine, but also more of those showers. they won't be quite as heavy or as frequent as they were yesterday. and the blustery winds that we've seen of late, especially in the south, are going to be gradually easing through the day. low pressure is going to just drift its way out towards the north sea, towards the east and a smaller ridge of high pressure for a time — it was going to be building in from the south—west. so if you're stuck underneath that weather front today across parts of southern scotland, northern england, for a time for northern ireland as well, it's going to be quite grey with outbreaks of rain. into the afternoon, there is some sunshine across the bulk of england and wales. still a scattering of showers, you could be seeing one or two heavy ones, perhaps the odd isolated rumble of thunder towards east anglia, lincolnshire, could be a bit of hail, but generally, they are not going to be as frequent or as heavy as we have seen. and brightening up too for northern ireland, north wales. here, we could see some sunshine,

just one or two showers through the afternoon. but still staying damp and cloudy for much of northern england, central and southern scotland. a little bit of wintriness over the highest ground, as that cold air cuts its way in from the north. now, overnight tonight, the next area of fairly heavy rain sweeps its way eastwards across the southern half of england and wales too. so a really soggy start to sunday morning in the south, but mild, five to seven degrees. colder conditions further north, particularly for the far north of england and scotland, where we're likely to see a bit of frost to start your sunday. so that colder air moving in from the north on sunday. further south, as low pressure drifts towards the east, we'll still see that mild air just holding on for parts of southern england, perhaps south wales, but colder conditions working in for many of us through the day. some wintry showers, some snowfall for parts of northern and eastern scotland, perhaps the odd snow flurry across the pennines. further south, cloud and rain through sunday morning gradually easing away towards the south and the east through into sunday afternoon, hopefully drying up for the cambridge—0xford boat race in the afternoon. temperatures in single figures for many of us, i think, on sunday, a coolerfeeling day, but we'll just about hold on to double figures in the far south—west. and don't forget, saturday night

into the early hours of sunday, the clocks are going to spring forward by one hour. so it's the arrival of british summertime from sunday onwards. the weather not looking particularly summery over the next few days, but monday brings us a bit of a drier, quieter interlude. turns unsettled from tuesday onwards, but things are warming up during the middle of the week. bye for now.

this is bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. the headlines... at least 23 people have died as violent storms triggered by a tornado rip through the southern us state of mississippi. growing tension in france, riots today in the west after unrest in the capital. these are the dramatic scenes just a few mintues ago several tornadoes have killed at least 23 people in the us state of mississippi. the authorities said the twisters left

a trail of damage for more than 150 kilometres.