live from london, this is bbc news: the european union says a maritime aid corridorfrom cyprus to gaza could begin operating within hours. the first vessel is being loaded now. thousands of people march in central london in support of gaza — the tenth major protest in the city since the october 7 attacks. armed men have abducted students from a school in northwestern nigeria this morning, with four women also taken. officials say hundreds of students are missing. voters in ireland look set to reject proposals to replace constitutional references to the makeup of family and women's "life within the home" in a significant defeat for the government. more than 10 years after leaving office, the veteran pakistani politician asif ali zardari has been elected president and new life is springing

from the sycamore gap tree. seedlings from the famously felled tree are starting to grow. hello, i'm nicky schiller. we start this hour with the latest on the israel gaza war. a ship carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid for gaza is getting ready to set sail from cyprus. the spanish vessel, open arms, is preparing to tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food and medical aid provided by the us charity world central kitchen. our correspondent anna foster is injerusalem. there is a development in the aid effort towards gaza. a ship has been loaded in cyprus and we can

show you pictures of that happening which is going to mark the start of a new maritime aid corridor. a vessel carrying humanitarian aid is expected to set sail from cyprus to gaza in the coming hours. it's the first delivery of supplies to use the maritime aid corridor, announced on friday. it was announced yesterday by ursula von der leyen and is expected to become operational in the next few hours. it would be a new way to get large amounts of aid into gaza and is considered absolutely crucial to change the situation for people in the gaza strip, many of whom the un has warned are facing famine, and they say a quarter of the population at the moment in gaza, especially women and children, are finding themselves at risk of famine, starvation, and the hamas run health ministry says 23 people have died from malnutrition in the last ten days. the new maritime aid convoy the new maritime aid convoy could possibly move the dial on the humanitarian situation.

this is the scene live in larnaca in cyprus where, as you can see, the 200 tonnes of food and medical supplies are being loaded onto a ship. it will be towed by a spanish ship to gaza. there are questions over how it will be distributed because we have seen how desperate people are in gaza. we have seen aid convoys being mobbed by people who are desperate to get their hands on the dwindling numbers of supplies in gaza. this sea corridor is a joint operation between the eu, us, uk and united arab emirates — aiming to take supplies from cyprus to the gazan coast. they are hoping to expand this but it is early days at the moment. the pressure continues to encourage people in israel to encourage the israeli authorities to get more aid in and the pressure is coming

from the uk, the us and others. i spoke earlier to a former washington post middle east correspondent. earlier i spoke to david ottaway. he's a fellow at the woodrow wilson center and the washington post's former middle east correspondent. he told me about the us administrations plans for the aid port.

i think the us military knows how to build temporary piers and causeways but the physical part is probably the easiest in my mind because the military is totally in control of the operation. it is notjust the us, but the eu, the outsize powers are getting involved in setting up a new corridor, a major new corridor to provide assistance outside israeli control. this is a major change. yes, it will take a month or six weeks to get this thing going, but the problems are not going to be offshore. the problems will be onshore, how do you distribute this and how do you protect those who are distributing it? we will see but this is a major game changer in the us involvement in the whole conflict. even as we see the ship being loaded, we know that when it gets to gaza, getting it distributed will be key.

the spanish ship towing the barge is owned by charity open arms. its owner has told the bbc the exercise is "quite a challenge". it's still unclear where or how the boat will dock. wyre davies reports from jerusalem. in the cypriot port of larnaca they have been working around the clock. the spanish ship, open arms, is preparing to tow a barge with 200 tonnes of food with medical aid all the way to gaza. it's a precarious, untested plan with obvious risks. translation: yes, we will tow this platform to gaza, where the last - mile will be the most complicated operation. the disembarkation will be done on a pier that is being built right now by the world central kitchen. it is a precarious, untested plan with obvious risks. how the aid will be unloaded into gaza, where there is no port orfunctioning harbour, is not clear. air drops and some land deliveries were often swamped by thousands of desperate, hungry people. some aid agencies say that the plan

is misguided and ineffective. the humanitarian crisis is worsening by the day. the un says there is a danger of famine, and children are already reported to be dying of malnutrition. all of this is happening because israel and hamas have been unable to agree a ceasefire that would have allowed more aid in by road through israel — still the preferred, most effective route. and the fighting continues. a tower block in the southern city of rafah was hit in an air strike overnight. and israel, despite growing international pressure for a truce, says the military campaign is not yet over. wyre davies, bbc news. it is worth underlining that even though the new maritime aid corridor is being put into place and even though the us announced as part ofjoe biden's state of the union address that they will build a pier to get the aid into gaza, many world leaders and foreign ministers around

the world are very clear that their preferred option right now would be an immediate humanitarian ceasefire but that still seems as far away as it has been for a while. the talks have been going on again in cairo this week, brokered by the egyptians and the qataris, and this week israel chose not to send a delegation to cairo even though they say they are constantly looking at what is on the table, they are still considering it from afar. hamas had negotiators there but they were withdrawn at the end of the week. it was less than two weeks ago when the us presidentjoe biden said he hoped that a humanitarian ceasefire could be in place for ramadan, he was confident that could happen, but ramadan is due to start tomorrow or on monday in the way things stand at the moment, the humanitarian ceasefire will not be coming into effectjust yet. thanks to anna foster there.

here thousands of people are gathered in central london for a pro—palestinian rally. it is the tenth major demonstration in the capital since the 7th october attacks by hamas on israel. the march comes after the uk government's counter—extremism commissioner, robin simcox, said weekends in london have become a no—go zone forjews. let's go live to our correspondent louisa pilbeam, who has been following the rally. well, we're at the concluding part of the march

here just outside the us embassy. and i must say that when we were with the start of the march, there were thousands of people which was significantly lower than in previous weeks. i have been here and witnessed the numbers which are very, very large numbers of people. but being here along the way, tens of thousands of people, i would say, are here now. and as you mentioned, the government's anti extremism commissioner, he has spoken about the fact that what during these marches it is a no go zone, as he put it, forjewish people to come into central london. now, when i spoke to the organiser of this march and put those comments to him, let's have a listen to what he had to say in response. i think his remarks are disgraceful. one of the things he ignores is that on every single march, you'll see it again today we have a block of members of the jewish community, usually about 3000 strong, who march with us. if there are members of thejewish community who feel afraid, then possibly that is something to do with hearing people say things like, "these are hatemongers, these are islamist mobs, "these are people chanting genocidal chants," where the reality, as you will see, is these are people from all walks of life, young and old, from many, many backgrounds who are here marching for peace.

and as the police themselves have said, these marches are overwhelmingly peaceful. it is very loud down here. very vocal. but i must say that in response to those comments you just heard from the organizer, we have seen groups ofjewish people and from jewish organisations here, and they have said that they feel comfortable being here. the organiser also said that he feels that in response to policing numbers, there are around 1500 police from across the country policing this kind of event week after week. and upwards of £25 million has been spent since the first couple of months since the 7th of october hamas attacks on israel. and the organiser feels that this is overpoliced in his words. he said he feels that that actually creates a sense of anticipation of trouble. and i have to say that it has been very well organized from what i have witnessed, and it's very peaceful, a very calm atmosphere down here.

we have some breaking news from nigeria. more students have been kidnapped in the north of the country. an unspecified number of students have been abducted by armed men from their school in the northwestern state of sokoto in the early hours of saturday morning. four women were also taken. that's all the infomation we have at the moment. but it comes as the armed forces are searching for almost 300 students who were abducted by armed men on thursday in kaduna. the nigerian army is leading the search for the children, who were abducted from the north west town of kuriga in kaduna state. reports say students between the ages of eight and 15 were taken, along with a teacher. the abductions have been blamed on a breakaway faction of the militant islamist group boko haram. victims of kidnappings usually pay a ransom to secure their freedom. a controversial law passed in 2022 made it a crime to make ransom payments, with a potentialjail sentence of at least 15 years.

but many victims feel they have no choice but to pay. earlier, before news of that latest kidnapping, i spoke to our west africa correspondent mayeni jones and asked her how the families of those children taken on thursday were coping. a visit by the state governor, uba sani, to the school on thursday. many of them pleaded with him to ensure that their children came back. he says he will do exactly that. president bola ahmed tinubu has also pledged to send more troops to the area to help find the children. currently, soldiers, police officers and local hunters are combing the forest across kaduna, but also in the neighbouring states of zamfara and katsina trying to find them. these are incredibly remote areas and there are real concerns about the conditions under which the children are being kept in, whether they have enough water orfood, for example. some of them as young as eight. it's a story that's raising a lot

of international concern. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has released a statement condemning the attack and saying the perpetrators should be taken to justice. unicef has also said more needs to be done to ensure the safety of children in north—western nigeria. we're not sure who's carried out this attack. at the moment, nobody has claimed responsibility, but it's believed to have been carried out by the group ansaru, which has close links to al-qaeda and is very active in that region. and we do know that some children did manage to escape. any news on them? no, not much details, unfortunately. during his interview with the bbc, the governor said he couldn't say any more so as not to jeopardise the security operation, which is currently ongoing. and nigeria, of course, is known for these sort of kidnappings in the past as well, isn't it? absolutely. everybody will remember the kidnapping of the chibok girls in 2014. the anniversary is in just

a few weeks, so these kidnappings are really bringing those memories back. now it's time for a look at today's sport. hello from the bbc sport centre outplayed for the last four tests in india but has dared anyone to write them off at their own peril. they lost the final test inside three days by an innings and 64 runs. losing the series 4—1. the only highlight of the day was jimmy anderson bringing up his 700th test wicket at the age of 41. he dismissed kuldeep yadav to reach the milestone. only the late shane warne and sri lankan spinner muttiah muralitharan — both spin bowlers — have taken more wickets.

they dismissed india for a77 in their first nnings but were then skittled for just 195, 84 from joe root the only meaningful resistance. they now return home for series in the summer against west indies and sri lanka. we came here with the high hopes and we were very confident about what we could achieve out here, and we started off very well but losing the series 4—1, notjust myself, but the team, we are big enough to say we have been completely outplayed in the last four games. england came here with a very experienced batting line—up, three guys playing 100 tests. their inexperience was in their bowling. though their spinners did well. they had the ascendancy with bat in hand, and we needed to respond. our experience was in the bowling and we won those contests. there are five matches in the premier league today.

one result so far. manchester united still have faint hopes of qualifying for the champions league next season. they beat everton 2—0 in the lunchtime kickoff. both goals from the penalty spot in the first half. bruno fernandes with the first and marcus rashford scored the second. everton wasted a string of chances to score. they remain 16th five points above the releagtion zone. united are still sixth, 8 points off the top four. three more matches underway. arsenal will go top of the table for 24 hours if they beat brentford this evening. anthonyjoshua took less then two rounds to win his fight

against former ufc champion francis ngannou in riyadh last night. joshua was in completecontrol, flooring him in the first round, and twice in the second. ngannou needing medical treatment after the final knock—down. so what next forjoshua? talk has inevitably turned to tyson fury and olexander usyk, the curent world heavyweight champions who are due to face each other in a unification fight may. why not fight them both? it should not be one of the other. i should have the opportunity to compete with them both, and notjust those two, there are so many other fighters i want to compete with. i think both of them are very credible fighters, and i would love the opportunity to face them at some stage. it's the penultimate round of matches in the six nations championship. scotland are looking to keep themselves in title contention in rome.

they lead 27—16. no matter what hapens there, the grand slam champions ireland will retain their title with a game to spare if they get a bonus point win over england at twickenham later. irish captain peter o'mahony has praised every member of his squad in their three wins so far. we have players who have been left out of the squad who would be in most teams in the world. but that has to be the case, if you want to be competitive. we push each other hard. i have spoken about the people before. it's all about the team. it is not about you. you cannot be that selfish. it's about the team. and that's all the sport for now.

voters in ireland appear to have rejected two referendums — regarding the redefinition of family and women's roles, signaling a setback for the government.voters were asked if they wanted to expand the definition of family to include those not based around marriages. and they also voted on whether to remove a reference in the constitution to the role of women in the home, and replace it with one recognising care provided by family members. irish prime minister leo varadkar has recognised what he calls a �*comprehensive' defeat. we will respect the result fully and we accept responsibility for the result as the government, because it was our responsibility to convince the majority but we failed to do so. we did not convince people of the necessity for the referendum at all, let alone the detail and the wedding, so this is something we will reflect on in the weeks and months ahead —— let alone the detail and the wording. when it comes to

the work of government in relation to gender equality and improving rights for people with disabilities, that work will continue and we press ahead with our plans to introduce a state pension for carers, and means tested payments which are made to carers to ratify the optional protocol, and also do all we can to improve services and therapies for people with disabilities which are hugely deficient in our society. none of those things require constitutional change and we will continue to press ahead with that work. , ~ , continue to press ahead with that work. , » , ., work. the irish prime minister leo varadkar speaking _ work. the irish prime minister leo varadkar speaking there. - now it is of course hollywood's big night on sunday with the oscars. but before that we've had the razzies. they name and shame the year's worst films. the organisers describe the awards as the "ugly cousin to the oscars".

so what won worst film? this is the moment it was announced. winner of the razzie award for picture is... winnie—the—pooh: blood and honey. well if winnie the pooh: blood and honey wasn't on your watching list, our culture correspondent charlotte gallagher is here to explain more. what is the film about? it is about winnie the pooh _ what is the film about? it is about winnie the pooh and _ what is the film about? it is about winnie the pooh and essentially i what is the film about? it is about winnie the pooh and essentially it| winnie the pooh and essentially it is winnie the pooh and his friends taking their revenge on christopher robin, their old friend, if they feel has abandoned them and it is a slasher kind of flick, essentially the copyright on the creation of winnie the pooh ran out so anybody

can do to winnie the pooh what they want so they made a firmware winnie the pooh, the lovable bear, is a serial killer. they —— they made a firmware. one person said the scenes were so poorly lit they could not tell what was going on. so unsurprisingly, it has swept the board, winning the worst picture of the year, the worst director, worst screenplay, worst remake, and worst on—screen couple which went to winnie the pooh and piglet. the makers of this film are laughing all the way to the bank because this room cost $100,000 and it made 5.2 million at the box office which is a tiny amount of money to make of them, so winnie the pooh blood and honey, the sequel is going to cinemas this month.

better chance of having seen sylvester stallone's expendables. he has won more of these awards than anybody else and he won supporting actor, that it is 12. meghan fox won the worst supporting actress and she also won worst actress forjohnny and clyde, and the oscar winnerjohn ford won worst actor for the irish mobsterfor mercy so ford won worst actor for the irish mobster for mercy so big ford won worst actor for the irish mobsterfor mercy so big names picking up those awards —— jon voight. halle berry actually claimed her award when she won in previous years. some actors have turned up for both ceremonies. some people love about it but others might have their egos punctured. it

love about it but others might have their egos punctured.— their egos punctured. it has been auoin now their egos punctured. it has been going now 44 _ their egos punctured. it has been going now 44 years. _ their egos punctured. it has been going now 44 years, and - their egos punctured. it has been going now 44 years, and a - their egos punctured. it has been going now 44 years, and a bit - their egos punctured. it has been going now 44 years, and a bit ofl their egos punctured. it has been i going now 44 years, and a bit of fun before the oscars which is on sunday night. before the oscars which is on sunday niuht. ~ .,, before the oscars which is on sunday niuht. , .,, ., before the oscars which is on sunday niuht. , ., , . night. most people are expecting oppenheimer— night. most people are expecting oppenheimer to _ night. most people are expecting oppenheimer to do _ night. most people are expecting oppenheimer to do incredibly - night. most people are expecting l oppenheimer to do incredibly well, it did very well in the bafta awards. cillian murphy could be a shooin awards. cillian murphy could be a shoo in for best actor. paul giamatti is also a very good actor and many people feel he deserves a oscar. the race for best actress, you have emma stone, and lily gladstone. that will be one of the hotly contested races.— hotly contested races. charlotte, thanks forjoining _ hotly contested races. charlotte, thanks forjoining us. _ hotly contested races. charlotte, thanks forjoining us. we - hotly contested races. charlotte, thanks forjoining us. we will. hotly contested races. charlotte, | thanks forjoining us. we will have full coverage of the oscars on monday and i will be back with a special programme on who has won

what and there is a preview of the oscars on the bbc news website and app. stay with us here on bbc news. good afternoon. it is not the most inspiring weekend of weather overall. there are some brighter spots. this was how it looked earlier on for a weather watcher in kent. but for many more places it is pretty cloudy. we've got some rain around. it's all driven by a big area of low pressure to the south of us. this swirl of cloud on the satellite picture. we're on the northern flank of the low and that means we've got quite a strong easterly winds blowing across the uk today. where you're exposed to that wind, particularly for some of these north sea coasts where it stays cloudy, but it is going to feel decidedly cool. there'll be some bits and pieces of rain in the mix, perhaps most especially across the south west of england by the end of the afternoon. limited, bright or sunny spells, generally quite a lot of cloud. and as we head through this evening and tonight, the winds will ease a little bit

across the south, but it will stay blustery across the northern half of the uk, will see extensive cloud. we'll see some outbreaks of slightly heavier rain pushing northwards across england and wales and generally speaking, temperatures holding between five and nine degrees. now tomorrow, low pressure will still be with us but this low tending to weaken, tending to fill. so the winds easing across southern parts. it does stay blustery across northern parts. again, there's going to be a lot of cloud. in fact, if anything, more cloud for many areas than we've had today and more rain as well across many parts of england, wales, some rain into northern ireland and scotland, maybe holding onto some brightness in northwest scotland. perhaps something brighter into the south west of england and some sunshine for the channel islands. the strongest winds for sunday across northern areas and again exposed to that wind, aberdeen, for example, just six degrees celsius. further south and west, london, plymouth, cardiff, 11 or 12 degrees. now into monday, that easterly

wind continues to ease, but we'll keep a lot of cloud. there'll be some bits and pieces of rain here and there. quite a lot of dry weather, too. temperatures again between six and 11 degrees. but there is a change on the way later in the week because we'll start to see areas of low pressure pushing in from the atlantic and that will change the wind direction. we will lose the easterly wind and pick up more of a south or south—westerly wind and that will bring a milder feel to proceedings. so temperatures, if anything, climbing as we head through the middle and the end of the week. but don't expect blue skies and sunshine all the time. they'll still be some cloud and rain at times.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the european union says a maritime aid corridorfrom cyprus to gaza could begin operating within hours. the first vessel is being loaded now. but with the situation becoming increasingly desperate, the us warns a temporary dock in gaza could take 60 days to build. armed men abduct another group of students from a school in northern nigeria. four women are among those taken. the army is still looking for more than 200 schoolchildren kidnapped on thursday. a state governer says at least 28 have managed to escape. in a major defeat for ireland's government, voters reject two referendum proposals on family and care. proponents wanted to amend the constitutional definition of a family to include people who were not married. it was also proposed that a constitutional reference to �*women in the home' should be removed.

prime minister leo varadkar says it was a �*comprehensive defeat�*.