live from london. this is bbc news. the european union says a maritime aid corridor from cyprus to gaza could begin operating within hours. the first vessel is being loaded now. armed men abduct another group of students from a school in northern nigeria. the army is already looking for more than 200 children kidnapped on thursday. in a major defeat for ireland's government, voters reject two referendum proposals concerning families and women. 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 with the latest on the israel gaza war. 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. the un says a quarter of gaza's population is on the brink of famine, and children are starving to death. 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 barge. it will be towed by a spanish ship to gaza. the 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. this video shot today along the israeli border into gaza shows more aid being dropped. the parachutes carrying the boxes of supplies to the people of gaza. the us has confirmed that its troops conducted an airdrop

into northern gaza today. our correspondent 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. 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. here thousands of people have joined a pro—palestinian rally in london. it is the tenth major demonstration in the capital since the 7th october attacks by hamas on israel. on friday, the uk governments counter—extremism commissioner, robin simcox, said weekends in london had become a no—go zone forjews.

our correspondent louisa pilbeam sent this report from central london. well, we're at the concluding part of the march here just outside the us embassy. 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 thejewish community, usually about 3,000 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. they are 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 1,500 police from across the country policing this kind of event week after week. 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 organised from what i have witnessed, and it's very peaceful, a very calm atmosphere down here. there's been another mass kidnapping — the third kidnapping injust over a week. armed men abducted 15 students from their school in the northwestern state of sokoto in nigeria in the early hours of saturday. four women were also taken.

the armed forces are still searching for almost 300 students who were abducted by armed men on thursday. the nigerian army is leading the search for those 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. and about 200 people were abducted in borno state on february 29. 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. let's speak to west africa correspondent mayeni jones. what correspondent mayenijones. do what correspondent mayeni jones. do we know about th abduction?

what do we know about the latest abduction? flat what do we know about the latest abduction? ., , . abduction? not very much, it happened _ abduction? not very much, it happened very _ abduction? not very much, it happened very early - abduction? not very much, it happened very early in - abduction? not very much, it happened very early in the i abduction? not very much, it - happened very early in the morning, and local media reports say armed men stormed the area and took away 15 students who were running towards their dormitories as well as four women. the search for the 300 schoolchildren that were taken on thursday is ongoing as well, and 28 of them managed to escape but the armed forces are combing the forest along with the police looking for them. ., , along with the police looking for them. . , , , ,, ., ., them. families must be desperate for news. absolutely. _ them. families must be desperate for news. absolutely. the _ them. families must be desperate for news. absolutely. the families - news. absolutely. the families themselves — news. absolutely. the families themselves have _ news. absolutely. the families themselves have joined - news. absolutely. the families themselves have joined in - news. absolutely. the families themselves have joined in the | news. absolutely. the families - themselves have joined in the search and the neighbouring community is trying to find out any information at all, and they said they felt abandoned and that there was not

enough security in their community and they wanted a police station there, an area of the country that is susceptible for kidnappings for ransom with a number of gangs who operate in the area. they usually target farmers because they want to extort them for money but many farmers have not been able to farm lately because of the insecurity so it is possible that the mass kidnappings are away for the armed gangs to make money now that they are no longer able to extort the local population.— are no longer able to extort the local population. nigeria has either had a number— local population. nigeria has either had a number of _ local population. nigeria has either had a number of kidnappings - local population. nigeria has either had a number of kidnappings overl local population. nigeria has either i had a number of kidnappings over the last decade. —— has had. the had a number of kidnappings over the last decade. -- has had.— last decade. -- has had. the most notable was _ last decade. -- has had. the most notable was of _ last decade. -- has had. the most notable was of course _ last decade. -- has had. the most notable was of course the - last decade. -- has had. the most notable was of course the 2014 - notable was of course the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls. that led to a global campaign for their release and the anniversary of that abduction is coming up next month and 100 of those girls are still missing. this is a reminder of how prevalent the problem is in nigeria.

thanks forjoining us. in a setback for ireland's government, voters in ireland have rejected two referendums — concerning the redefinition of family and women's roles. voters were asked if they wanted to expand the constitutional 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 to vote yes but we failed to do so. we did not convince people of the necessity or need for the referendum

at all, let alone the detail and the wording, so this is something we will reflect on in the weeks and months ahead. when it comes to the work of government in relation to gender equality and in relation to improving rights for people with disabilities, that work will continue and we press ahead with our plans to introduce a state pension for carers, through means tested and no 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. the irish prime minister leo varadkar speaking there. veteran pakistani politician

asif ali zardari has been elected as the president of the country for a second time. the pakistan people's party leader defeated his rival mahmood khan achakzai, an ally of the jailed former prime minister imran khan. members of newly elected national and provincial assemblies voted in the presidential poll. mr zardari was nominated for the post under a coalition deal between his party and their historic rivals, the pakistan muslim league — nawaz. our correspondent saher baloch who is in islamabad, sent us the latest following the result. asif ali zardari has been elected as the president of pakistan and what is interesting to note, during his time in 2010, when he amended the constitution in order to limit and curtail the powers of the president, this was also done to limit the military interventions in pakistan, so he willjoin parliament as the president who has limited powers. i spoke with some of his political friends and some of the politicians

and most of them think it is going to be asif ali zardari it will bring together the divisive and polarised parliament together, and now for the challenges for him, as president, one of the biggest challenges we have seen so far is going to be how to bring together the divisive parliament together because in the general elections there was a lot of problems and a lot of people and political parties basically speaking about irregularities and fraud in the elections so it would be on tome on on how he brings the polarised parliament together. —— on asif ali zardari on how he brings this polarised parliament together. we return now to the situation in the middle east. the us military says its ships and aircraft have shot down more than a dozen drones in the red sea after coming under what it called a sustained attack by iranian—backed houthi forces in yemen. us central command said the drones represented an imminent threat to merchant vessels, and us and coalition warships. here's david waddell.

the singapore registered propel fortune is the latest commercial ship to be targeted by the houthi movement. the bulk carrier departed india just under two weeks ago, with her automatic identification system signalling that she was not connected to israel — supposedly to deter this kind of attack from yemen. the uk maritime trade organisation said the captain reported no collateral damage to the ship and that she was bound for her next port. these attacks have been ongoing since october, both in the red sea and in the gulf of aden, causing many commercial ships, both freighters and passenger liners, to divert around the cape of good hope. this attack took place about 50 nautical miles south of the port of aden. here's the houthi description of what happened. translation: yemen's naval forces . and the air force carried out two l specific military operations. the first targeted the american ship propel fortune in the gulf of aden, with a number of suitable naval missiles.

while the second targeted a number of american destroyers at the red sea and the gulf of aden with 37 drones and the two operations successfully achieved their goals. so the second attack was focused on us warships which have gathered in the region in greater numbers since the red sea crisis began, led by the uss dwight d eisenhower. us central command said that us naval ships and aircraft shot down 15 unmanned aerial vehicles early in the morning. they regard this large—scale attack is an ongoing imminent threat to merchant vessels, the us navy and coalition ships in the region. breaking line on that story because the british defence secretary grant shapps has tweeted a video which he says shows the uk ship hms richmond using its missiles to shoot down two attack drones and he said they

successfully repelled another illegal attack by the iranian backed houthis. grant shapps goes onto say that the uk and its allies will continue to take necessary to save lives and protect freedom of navigation. there you can see the video that the british defence forces have released of what they say is hms richmond using its missiles to shoot down two attack drones launched by the iranian backed houthis. we will bring you more on that late in the programme. now it's time for a look at today's sport with olly foster. italy are celebrating their first six nations championship win for two years. they beat title chasing scotland 31—29 in rome. they trailed by six points at half—time but though they were outscored by four tries to three, four penalties in the match helped them

get their noses in front and they witheld a late comeback from the scots to secure their first win since victory in cardiff against wales in 2022, it's their first home win in the championship since 2013. they are on course for their best finish in the six nations with one match left to play. they also drew against france and they have moved up against france and they have moved up into fourth. ater that result, the grand slam champions ireland will retain their title with a game to spare if they beat england at twickenham later. they do not need a bonus point victory any more. 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. 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 kick—off. 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 relegation zone. united are still sixth, eight points off the top four. i have to say, we created a lot of chances and we had very good counter attacks and overall we could have scored three or four goals and i thought we defended very well. they had attempts but we dealt with this.

the defence but also the keeper and also the other players, we defended as a team very well. three more matches underway. later arsenal can go top of the table for 24 hours if they beat brentford. the england captain ben stokes has admitted that they were completely 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. they dismissed india for 477 in their first innings but were then skittled for just 195,

84 from joe root the only meaningful resistance. they now return home for test series in the summer against west indies and sri lanka. india can celebrate a resounding series victory even though india can celebrate a resounding series victory even though they india can celebrate a resounding series victory even though they were missing several regulars including virat kohli. 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. chastening defeat for england's cricketers. more reaction to that on the bbc sport website. and that's all the sport for now. the felling of the sycamore gap tree on hadrian's wall led to an outpouring of emotion from around the world.

it became famous after featuring in the 1991 film robin hood: prince of thieves, starring kevin costner. two people are on bail after the tree was chopped down last september, in what police say was a deliberate act of vandalism. but now, it could live on. horticulturalists from the national trust have successfully grown the first seedlings from the felled tree. harriet bradshaw reports. at a top—secret location in devon, a site of biosecurity where the national trust is protecting the legacy of the nation's most famous trees. i've been invited to witness history, hope for the future of the sycamore gap tree. a lot of people might think, "well, it's just a sycamore", you know, a sycamore, but it is a really important sycamore. the sycamore gap tree in its prime. but last september, it was chopped down. everyone seems to have a story

about how they connect to the tree. some people, literally have been proposed to underneath it. other people just saw it as a way marker on theirjourney. and yet there are signs of life. in a race against time, the national trust managed to rescue seeds from the felled tree. and now they're growing. within this mini greenhouse, within this secret greenhouse, is a tiny little seedling. and this was the first of the sycamore gap's seeds to pop up. and the team here say when they saw this growing, they knew there was hope. but raising seedlings isn't the only way the tree's legacy can be preserved. there is also another method called grafting, using living twigs. and nine of the 20 grafts are now showing signs of life. i think there's a great deal of relief. it is a race against time because, obviously, once you cut a tree down,

it's physically dying straightaway. you know, there's a lot of pressure on us to actually get them growing. luckily, we did. the grafting of the sycamore gap materials would have looked something like this. this method means that we've actually used the original- material from that tree, - so we've got a genetic clone. so, basically, the sycamore gap can live on? yeah, it is the same tree. when they've grown up, the national trust says it'll be the community and the nation who decide where they're planted. for now, seeds of hope protecting the legacy of the sycamore gap tree forfuture generations. harriet bradshaw, bbc news, devon. 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.

the winner of the razzie award for picture is... drumroll winnie—the—pooh: blood and honey. the bbc�*s charlotte gallagher joined me earlier to explain more. it is about winnie the pooh and essentially it is winnie the pooh and his friends taking their revenge on christopher robin, their old friend, who 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 film where winnie the pooh, the lovable bear, is a serial killer. the reviews were terrible. 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 pooh and piglet. however, the makers of this film are laughing all the way to the bank. because this film cost $100,000 and it made 5.2 million at the box office. a tiny amount of money to make a film. so winnie the pooh blood and honey, the sequel is going to cinemas this month.

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 have abducted another group of students from a school in northern nigeria. 15 children and four women were taken. the army is still looking for more than 200 schoolchildren kidnapped on thursday. officials say 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 and to remove a constitutional reference to �*women in the home'. prime minister leo varadkar says it was a �*comprehensive defeat�*.