hello, and welcome. the us state department has told american citizens in ukraine they should consider getting out of the country, and has ordered family members of embassy staff in the capital, kyiv, to leave. its statement warned that moscow is planning for significant military action in ukraine. the state department also tweeted that it "continues to advise us citizens to not travel to russia due to ongoing tension along the border with ukraine — adding that it has "limited ability to assist us citizens in russia." the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has promised a significant response if moscow does invades its neighbour. here's our diplomatic correspondent, paul adams. in california, fresh supplies of american weapons destined for ukraine. hardly enough to defeat an invading russian army, but the message to moscow is clear — if you do this, it'll come at a price. but now the foreign office says it's seen signs of a russian plan to install a puppet government in kyiv after an invasion, pro—russian politicians, in contact with russian intelligence officers involved in planning the attack. it says this former ukrainian mp, yevhen murayev, is being considered as a future leader by the kremlin. he denies it. ukrainian officials seem unfazed. that's what i would expect as a logical next step in a russian invasion. they will invade and they will have to establish some sort of government, so i'm not actually surprised. we've been in war with them for seven years, and don't forget that our previous government actually fled to russia, nowhere else. it's highly unusual for intelligence of this kind to be put into the public domain in such a brief, abrupt manner. it's a reflection of the extreme anxiety across government about what vladimir putin might be planning. it's a way of saying to the kremlin, "we see what you're doing." but after friday's talks in geneva, there is more diplomacy to come, antony blinken, the us secretary of state, promising a written reply to his russian counterpart sergei lavrov, addressing russia's sweeping demands, some experts worried that russia is being allowed to set the agenda. it's asking for a demilitarised eastern europe and a denuclearised continent so that the only forces threatening europe are russian ones and the only nuclear missiles that can threaten european capitals are russian ones. that ought not to be a situation that is acceptable to anybody in the west of europe. russia's build—up along ukraine's northern and eastern borders continues, moscow still insisting it has no plans to invade, it's alljust drills. but it's now been ten months since russia started massing troops here, a gun held to ukraine's head for almost a year. what's really being planned behind the kremlin walls? as the troops assemble and the political plots swirl, the west is still left guessing. paul adams, bbc news. earlier i spoke to former us deputy assistant defense secretary, evelyn farkas, and i asked her if the state department's statement urging people to get out of ukraine should be taken at face value. well, actually that is quite serious, the fact that the state department is advising their personnel to leave, because usually, as you know or you might know, from following the crisis in the past, the state department does not want to alarm the country where the us personnel are stationed. so it would not want to give the ukrainian government any sense that it has lack of confidence that they might be able to manage that situation. so i think it does reflect, as you said earlier, the absolute sense of anxiety that the west has that vladimir putin is not deterred at the moment. nothing that we have done in the west thus far has made him de—escalate, indeed he has continued to escalate by placing troops in belarus, by conducting this political operation to try to remove the validly elected, democratically elected government in kyiv, and engineer some kind of coup. right, well, he still sees, i presume, some sense of weakness in the west's position, whether that's coming from some member states of the european union, compared to what the americans might have to put forward, and some nato states? well, i've always said that the sanctions alone were not sufficient and so i think we almost should not pay too much attention to the sanctions and look really more at the military balance of power and there, i am afraid, that vladimir putin thinks he can launch a lightning strike operation and achieve his objectives without much pain. and that somehow he is betting that the pain won't come another day if we support an insurgency or something like that. the problem is that he could be right. i mean, if he comes in with massive air power and that is why i think in the west we need to think more creatively, we need to up our game on deterrence, we need to provide maritime and air defences to the ukrainians and then i think we need to also look at other things we can do to distract vladimir putin. we should release information publicly about his finances, about his corruption and think about, certainly in the new york times there is an article indicating that the administration is looking at deploying forces in response to what is happening in belarus. whatever you might make of vladimir putin per se, as an individual perhaps, ijust wanted to draw on the remarks from the head of the german navy — we know they've been very contentious — but saying vladimir putin deserves respect, he is the leader of a very big country, russia, which has a sense that it should have its own sphere of influence and does feel under pressure from the west. does he not have a point? sniggers. i don't want to discuss all of the things that vladimir putin has authorised, including the killing of journalists, poisoning of people in your country, likely a killing in my country, even. he has of course invaded his neighbours, georgia and ukraine, he's annexed the territory of ukraine, changed borders by military force for the first time since world war ii — there's a long list of things that vladimir putin has done that i find are not deserving of any respect whatsoever. of course, he's the head of his state and as such i suppose we have to dealwith him, right? but the reality is that what he's doing right now deserves no respect and his pointing the finger at nato does not change the fact that he is the man that created this crisis, he and his cronies in the kremlin. our thanks to evelyn farkas there. if you want to follow developments on this story, just go to our website, where there's more analysis and answers to the main questions about what's going on in ukraine. gunfire has been heard near the presidential palace in the capital of burkina faso, after unconfirmed reports of a military coup by mutineering soldiers. it's been suggested the president has been arrested, and replaced by an infantry officer, but again, this has not been confirmed. our news reporter gareth barlow has been monitoring the latest reports, which are mostly coming from social media. as you say, dynamic and developing situation. it is 3am in burkina faso but reports of gunfire in and around the presidential palace in the capital, ouagadougou, and like you say, reports of president roch kabore being arrested and replaced with a member of the military. this all began earlier on sunday, a mutiny taking place in barracks across the country, soldiers unhappy with how the government has been handling the islamist militants plaguing the country for several years now. they had called, the soldiers, for heads of the government to be sacked, for more support, more arms, to really take the fight to these militants. the government had said that it contained this mutiny, but notably it was supported by civilians, people going out onto the streets of the capital, ouagadougou, setting up roadblocks, which were eventually taken down by police. that triggered a nighttime curfew being put in place across the capital, but despite that, when darkness fell, reports of a helicopter hovering over the presidential palace, gunfire, at times very heavy, sometimes sporadic as well, and now this evening some of it continuing around these barracks as well, and now we are seeing reports of roch kabore being arrested. and that is precisely the point, the extent to which any of this is verified and confirmed, i mean, that is the challenge for us. very hard to tell at the moment, it is dynamic, it is three in the morning, we don't really know who's in charge, and if all of these reports are true. we do know where this has come from, but is the important thing. this is not a flash in the pan, it has been boiling up for years. burkina faso, especially in the north, that is part of the sahel region that includes countries like mali, niger and chad as well. there's been long—standing islamist insurgencies in those countries, especially in mali, which spread across the region. burkian faso in the last few years, a million people have been displaced from their homes. in one incident in november 2021, 53 members of the military and four civilians were killed in a single incident. there has been an increasing rise of tension within the country and in the military as well. it is worth noting that of any african nation, burkina faso has seen more military coups than any other. so this is not a first for the country. we will have to watch and see how it develops. the spread of the omicron variant may have moved the covid—i9 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in europe, according to experts at the world health organisation. they predict that 60% of the region could be infected by march. stephanie prentice reports. a return to normality in europe may not be here yet but it could be on the horizon, according to experts, as infections level in the region, due to omicron, are moving it into what has been called a pandemic endgame. but what does endgame actually mean? pandemic endgame is not an endgame of the covid—i9 the prediction, a respite from case numbers and subsequent deaths, though with the risk of the winter insurgency in the past two years. the who saying the priority now is to stabilise the situation in europe, where vaccination levels range from 25% to 95% across countries. but as many of those countries have seen, not everyone agrees to being vaccinated or to control measures. something the who has also been addressing. i think what is the challenge as we move into this next phase of this pandemic, is how do we get the balance right with the measures that are needed to reduce the spread? we are asking people to be very cautious, for the moment. this pandemic will end. we will not be in this cycle forever. the pandemic has killed an estimated 5.6 million people worldwide so far, 1.7 million of them in europe. the next stage of the cycle, covid—i9 becoming endemic, constantly present but manageable without large—scale threats to health systems. time goes by and more and more people are exposed to the virus or get vaccinated against the virus than the ability of the virus to cause that kind of problem on that kind of scale gradually goes down so that we see further waves but each wave tends to be less severe. what we can't be absolutely sure about is that we have got to the end of the pandemic until it ends. the who's advice, stay open—minded about the future but stay cautious. stephanie prentice, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: i'll be introducing you to patsy and eddie, the armadillos who over indulged during the festive season. the shuttle challenger exploded soon after liftoff. there were seven astronauts on board, one of them a woman school teacher. all of them are believed to have been killed. by the evening, tahrir square, the heart of official cairo, was in the hands of the demonstrators. they were using the word 'revolution'. the earthquake singled out buildings and brought them down in seconds. tonight, the search for any survivors has an increasing desperation about it as the hours pass. the new government is firmly in control of the entirely republic of uganda. survivors of the auschwitz concentration camp - have been commemorating the 40th anniversary - of their liberation. they toured the huts, - gas chambers and crematoria and relived their- horrifying experiences. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: the united states has ordered the families of its diplomats in the ukrainian capital kyiv to leave the country. intense gunfire has been heard in the capital of burkina faso amid unconfirmed reports of a coup. representatives of the taliban are due to meet western diplomats in norway later on the second day of talks to discuss the humanitarian crisis in afghanistan. while aid agencies are warning that millions of afghans don't have enough to eat, the islamist group wants access to billions of dollars that are frozen in us banks. i've been speaking to roya rahmani, former afghan ambassador to the united states. i asked her if she agreed that the taliban are more needy than ever as they enter these talks. certainly, they already have — one of their needs is being met, which is the very trip by itself. it is their first trip to a european country and it give — it is basically opening the doorfor more to come. does that worry you? it depends what the consequences of these talks would be. afghanistan has seen way too many conferences and meetings over the past 20 years but what has been the consequence, the outcome of it, for the very people of afghanistan who are bearing the brunt of these tragedies now at this at this point? so it would really depend on what would be the consequence, or is it going to be simply or merely a coverfor the west, in order to address their own concerns, including preventing a refugee influx towards their countries? a good point you make there. i mean, there is also a degree of moral anxiety from the west about what is happening within afghanistan. and the need for the taliban, from their perspective, into do something about it. they've got to find some compromise, haven't they? certainly, the very meaning of the negotiations and compromises, moving from the very rigid points, so taliban has not demonstrated so far that they have been willing to move from that point and somehow, they have held some of the very given issues, like girls in schools, or going — the segregation of girls attending school, which has always been a problem, as a bargain chip, hostage, so let's see how willing they would be moving in that direction to see how beneficial it could be to the people of afghanistan. i'm surmising from what you've said there is that your fear is the west will give ground too easily to the taliban, for your liking? well, certainly, taliban are used to seeing this over the past couple of years. yeah! so, if you were to assess what you think will come from these talks, what would be your — the endpoint, from your point of view? well, it's clear that we know what are the main demands of the west, as well as the main demands of the taliban. the taliban will want this as a stepping stone for — towards recognition, towards a relationship with the outside world and receiving aid and assistance, lifting sanctions and whatnot. and the west wants to make sure to address the humanitarian crisis, including human rights, women's rights, and the bar has really been reduced low — like making girls going to school as a significant point. but they also would probably want to seek assurances that afghanistan will never become again a breeding ground for terrorism threatening their countries, which i'm not sure taliban, even if they promised, can deliver that. yeah. and certainly, they are asking for an inclusive government, which the meaning of which has been muddelled over previous years — and even previously when they were talking about a broad—based government, it was interpreted differently by different people. let me pick you up on some of the day's other news. riot police in belgium used water cannons and tear gas to disperse a group of protesters in brussels, after a demonstration against coronavirus restrictions turned violent. the entrance to the offices of the european union's diplomatic service was damaged. belgium has seen a surge in infections but with a high level of vaccinations, the health system has not been overwhelmed. a stowaway is reported to have survived an ii—hour fight flight from south africa to the netherlands. officials say the man had been hiding in the nose wheel compartment of a cargo plane. he's said to be in a stable condition. queen elizabeth has flown by helicopter from windsor castle to sandringham in the east of england, where she's expected to spend the next few weeks. rising covid infections meant the traditionalfamily christmas at her norfolk estate had to be cancelled as a precaution. here, two senior members of borisjohnson�*s cabinet say they want a full investigation into claims by a former minister that she'd been the victim of islamophobia. nus ghani claims she was told her muslim faith was, in part, a reason why she lost her ministerial post in a government reshuffle. downing street says the british prime minister invited her to make a formal complaint at the time, but she chose not to. here's our political correspondent damian grammaticas. this is a critical week. his leadership already in question, borisjohnson�*s actions are now under even more scrutiny. reporter: what are you hoping to hear today? i nus ghani is a senior backbencher. she's spoken out against the taliban, led a campaign to have china's repression of uighur muslims recognised as genocide, and is proud of this moment... i congratulate my honourable friend on her appointment... ..when she became the first muslim woman minister to speak at the despatch box in the commons, to a cheer. minister nusrat ghani. cheering. mr speaker, this government is committed to improving... she lost her ministerial post in a reshuffle in 2020. she told the sunday times that when she asked for an explanation from party whips, she was told her "muslimness was raised as an issue" in reshuffle discussions. her "muslim woman minister status was making colleagues uncomfortable" and if she "persisted in raising the issues, she would be ostracised by colleagues and her career and reputation would be destroyed". the chief whip mark spencer last night took the unusual step of outing himself as the person who talked to herand said: somebody is trying to — or was trying to bully her, if what she is saying is true. you have two scenarios. parliamentarian a is saying something. parliamentarian b is saying something. and we need to get to the bottom, we need to establish the truth. the allegations have caused shock. the education secretary nadhim zahawi said ms ghani was a brilliant mp. there was no place for any form of racism in the conservative party. and the health secretary sajid javid today said: last year, a wider inquiry found anti—muslim sentiment in the tory party was a problem, but islamophobia was not institutional. it didn't refer to ms ghani's claims. today, thejustice secretary said it was up to her to step forward. i believe actions — a claim like this, as serious as this, should, but it can only happen if the person making the complaint makes a formal — makes it formally. that's when the procedures kick in — and, just to be clear about this, that advice was given to nus back in 2020. now, downing street has stepped in to say borisjohnson met ms ghani at the time. he invited her to begin a formal complaint process, but she did not. ms ghani has fired back, saying she made clear an internal party investigation was not appropriate, this was government business and all she wants is for the government to investigate properly. so, as borisjohnson waits for the results of one investigation — that into downing street parties, which could decide his fate — his leadership on this issue, too, is also in the spotlight. damian grammaticas, bbc news. we're well into january now is all of those new year's resolutions are to bear. —— resolutions are coming to bear. if you're trying to lose some weight after eating too much over the holidays, then you're not alone. armadillo twins patsy and eddie have been put on a strict diet by the zookeepers at their home in south east england. the sisters, named after the characters from the british sitcom, absolutely fabulous had an over—indulgent festive period and now need an improved diet and exercise regime. talking about fitness, a very important africa cup of nations, quarterfinal, taking place later, one versus cameroon. everyone our way out of their comfort zone getting this far. they do not have a goalkeeper to draw on. the first choice is injured and the other two have covid and how will they cope? it is a game having a watch out for later. hello there. high pressure has kept most parts of the uk dry through the weekend, if rather cloudy. and high pressure has meant a dry start to january 2022, only seeing around about 50% — half the rainfall we'd normally see by this stage, and there's not a great deal of rain in the offing this week — certainly not for england and wales. we might see a little bit more midweek across scotland in particular with a low pressure approaching but for the meantime, the high pressure is still hanging on towards the south. there's a weather front to the north and that has given a few millimetres of rain during the day on sunday. it's sinking a little further southwards on monday but coming into that high pressure, it's a weak affair. but there's still quite a bit of cloud around but where we had the cloud breaks through the night, there's patchy frost and some patchy fog as well to watch out for, some poor visibilities, but again, not widespread, but it will take its time to clear at this time of year. and then, there'll be some brightness and sunshine — notably, we think, eastern scotland, perhaps parts of north—east england, but some thinner cloud elsewhere. perhaps quite gloomy, though, in some areas and cold as we had on sunday — four or five degrees at best. our weather front towards the north as well weakens as it heads towards the moray firth, some sunshine then developing to the north of it, but it's a fairly weak affair for the most part. it then starts to push northwards again through monday night and into tuesday, so through the coming night as well, it's going to be pretty chilly where we get the cloud breaks but on the whole, there'll be a lot of cloud. some pockets of fog again on tuesday, slow to clear away but where they do, then we'll see some sunshine coming through but again, it's fairly limited — there will be a lot of cloud around and it will feel cold under that cloud, even without much breeze. that breeze still bringing in some cloudier skies and some patchy rain to the north and the west. the high pressure, as you can see, is still close by for tuesday, as i mentioned, but by mid week, we've got this area of low pressure rolling in and that's when we see some rainfall coming in to scotland, in particular, but parts of northern ireland as well as that weather front starts to trail southwards. but again, ahead of it, perhaps a little bit of brightness but it's the south—westerly wind, the atlantic breeze, that starts to pick the temperatures up and perhaps turn some of that cloud over and allow some sunshine to come through. so perhaps a little bit brighter midweek but then, the pressure builds towards the south once again. there's more online. this is bbc news, the headlines: the us state department has told american citizens in ukraine they should consider leaving, and has ordered family members of embassy staff in the capital, kyiv, to return home. it's warning that moscow is planning an invasion in ukraine, and americans have also been advised not to travel to russia. intense gunfire has been heard in the capital of burkino faso after unconfirmed reports of a coup by mutineering soldiers. a government curfew is in place, imposed after protesters came out to support the soldiers. they're demanding more help in their campaign against an intensifying islamist insurgency. two senior members of boris johnson's cabinet say they want an investigation after a former minister claimed she'd been the victim of islamophobia. nus ghani says she was told her muslim faith was, in part, a reason why she lost her ministerial post in a government reshuffle.