a ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid to gaza is preparing to leave cyprus after securing all necessary permits to travel. victims of islamist terror attacks in the uk call on politicians on politicians to stop suggesting all british muslims are extremists. this all british muslims are extremists. agenda of hate not this agenda of hate and division is not good for anyone. the princess of wales thanks the public for their support as kensington palace shares the first official photo of her since she underwent surgery. and hollywood is gearing up ahead of the biggest night on the entertainment calendar — it's the 2024 oscars. will it be a big night for christopher nolan's oppenheimer? we begin in cyprus, where a spanish charity ship carrying aid

is preparing to set sail for gaza along a new maritime aid corridor. the vessel, operated by the open arms charity, has been repositioning itself in the harbour in larnaca while another smaller boat towed a barge carrying aid supplies out onto the water. over the last two days, it's been loaded with around 200 tonnes of food and medical supplies. the aid will be overseen by the world central kitchen organisation. but without a working port, it's not clear yet where the ship will actually dock or how its cargo will be distributed inside gaza. the us military has confirmed that one of its ships is currently sailing to the middle east, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of gaza. the support vessel, the general frank 5 bessonjunior, left virginia on saturday. it will take at least a week to arrive and the pentagon says it could take up to 60 days to build the structure. meanwhile, talks involving mediators aimed at establishing a pause in the fighting before the start of the muslim holy month of ramadan have so far

failed to reach a deal. both israel and hamas are accusing the other of preventing any progress. and the stakes are high. the hamas—run health ministry says more than 31,000 palestinians have now been killed since israel began its military action following hamas�*s attack on october the 7th. around 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 people were taken hostage. with the latest — here's our chief international correspondent, 0rla guerin — and a warning, it contains images you may find distressing. from the skies over gaza, aid comes dropping. but so little, and so late. 0n the ground, a desperate rush. many are left empty—handed. "i'm taking care of orphans," says this woman. "i want to feed them."

and here, some of the most vulnerable, born prematurely into war and man—made hunger, now in intensive care. staff say since december all the babies born at this hospital in rafah have been underweight. dr ahmed al—shair says there's been no proper food for pregnant women for the past four months. no meat, milk, eggs, fruit or vegetables. barak is struggling to keep her children alive. she can't hide the bullet holes, and she can't hide her despair. "i'm feeding my baby with water," she says, "just so she doesn't die." "i shouldn't be giving her this at her age,

but i have nothing else to keep her alive." after five months of war, much of gaza is in ruins, and hunger is killing now as well as israeli missiles and bombs. this man was buried alive after an israeli air strike. palestinian civil defence prised him free. but they say nine people were killed here in this residential building, crushed as they slept — the fate of many palestinian civilians. in gaza, the muslim holy month of ramadan will be marked in the rubble, amid grief, burials and a looming famine. whatever aid may trickle in by air or sea won't be enough, and won't stop the war.

meanwhile, sweden and canada have said they will resume aid payments to the un agency for palestinian refugees, unrwa. they were among 16 countries that paused funds after israel accused at least 12 unwra employees of involvement in the brutal attacks by hamas on the 7th of october. unrwa is the biggest un agency operating in gaza. it not only provides health care, education and other humanitarian aid, but also employs about 13,000 people in gaza. the un says it is still conducting an investigation. earlier i asked scott anderson — deputy director of unrwa affairs in gaza — about the status of the investigation. the investigation is ongoing. it's being conducted by the office of internal 0versight services from un headquarters in new york. it's the highest investigative body

within the united nations, and as unrwa, we have no input or control over the investigation. so like everyone else, we're just merely waiting for the outcome and hope that will come soon. and it's my understanding that unwra has agreed to make some changes, to make some checks on its staff and its finances in orderfor donors like sweden, for example, to start resuming its payments. is there any more you can tell us about some of those changes? well, i'd say every donor has different requirements based on their national law, and we do our best to adhere to those at all times. and then for our staff, we already do a lot. we do reference checks, we do background checks for all our staff. and in addition to that, we share our staff list with host countries, including israel, every year. and the last time we'd shared the list for staff employed in gaza or in west bank was in early 2023. and we've never heard from israel or any of the other hosts about the status of any of our staff having ties that would be contrary to un values. right/

but in this case you have now and an investigation has been launched and that's why these countries, some of your largest donors, 16 total, pulled some of theirfunding. philip lazzarini, at the time the head of unwra, said that unwra was close to death after these payments had been suspended. is that still the case? well, i'd say we're not close to death, but probably on life support would be a better way to say it. thankfully, we had donors such as the european union and now sweden, canada, united arab emirates that have stepped up and sent additional money. there is an increase in funding from spain recently. so many donors have really stepped up and provided additionalfunding. that doesn't mean we're out of the woods. there's still a lot of work that we have to do, but the funding situation looks better, which is very important for the people we're taking care of in gaza, and the entire population

of 2.2 million is in need, and we're most critically concerned with 300,000 people in the north where there are pockets of starvation. well, you bring up the north, and that is one of the problems, isn't it, getting that aid to the 300,000 people it's estimated up north? what do you believe needs to be done to make those land routes more viable for aid groups? do you believe aid groups like unwra, but also others like the world food programme, are receiving the adequate amount of security that they need? i think that it will require all of us working together unwra, wfp, unicef, who, unfpa to fix the problem that's been created by the lack of supplies flowing to the north. i think the security environment certainly has degraded across unwra to the point that it's become dangerous in some cases for the convoys to move. and i think what would really change the approach of the entire humanitarian community is if there was an opening from israel into the north of gaza where we could transit supplies there's a port in ashdod, not even 50 kilometres away. we could move food in very quickly,

and i think we could begin to address the problem of malnutrition and pockets of starvation that exist. and scott, ramadan is fast approaching. of course, that means that there's concern around how that could increase tensions around the war. and unwra knows gaza intimately, employs 13,000 people there. what are your concerns around this war continuing past the holy month? i mean, ithink, unfortunately, in gaza, there has been war during the holy month of ramadan previously, when i was here in 2014. i think this time it's much different — the scale of the conflict, the reason for the conflict, the number of displaced people. so you have now a population, many are living in tents or living in makeshift plastic structures. they currently don't have enough food or supplies to address their basic needs. and now, as you know, they fast, including no water, no food, nothing between set up and sundown, and i think it's going

to be a much more difficult environment and i think it will make people irritable and perhaps lead to civil unrest because they find themselves in a very difficult situation at the start of ramadan and it's a time that should be for self improvement and reflection and togetherness as a family. and what they're faced with is destitution and an inability to meet their basic needs every day. and scott, before we we end the interview, we're running out of time, i'd love to know from you, many will believe, as some of the donors have, that unrwa's credibility is shot after the accusations of any complicity with the attack on the 7th. could you spell out the impact that unrwa's closure or inability to effect its services might have on the ground in terms of humanitarian assistance? it would be a significant impact to the population of gaza. unwra currently is the backbone

of the humanitarian response in gaza and when we're not in war time we do four million patient visits a year in health. 80% of children's vaccinations are done through unwra and gaza. i mean very much akin to shutting down a cabinet department or branch of government. it's not something that can be done easily. unwra is designed to transition to a government of palestine when there's a two—state solution, so we would very much like to see unwra shut down for that reason. but until then, we need to stay here and continue delivering humanitarian assistance to the population. scott anderson from unrwa. also in gaza, the bbc has verified satellite imagery, that appears to show a new road, running east to west across the territory, which has been constructed by the israeli military. you can see it here, outlined in white, running from right to left across the screen. it starts at gaza's border fence, near the israeli kibbutz of nahal 0z — and goes across gaza's two main north—to—south roads, salah—al—din, in the centre, and al—rashid, near the coastline on the left. much of the construction took place in the last five weeks.

some buildings were demolished along the route. the israeli military has told the bbc it's trying to gain an operational foothold in gaza to make it easier to move troops and equipment. however, some pro—palestinian groups have raised concerns that the road could be used as a barrier to prevent palestinians in gaza from moving freely. more than 50 victims of islamist—inspired terror attacks in the uk have signed a joint letter warning against what they describe as anti—muslim hatred. they say it's the "height of irresponsibility" for some politicians to equate extremists with "the vast majority of british muslims who deplore such violence". their letter comes as the government prepares to set out a new definition of what �*extremism' is. damian grammaticas reports. 58 signatories who have survived terror attacks by islamist extremists,

lost children, parents or partners. hamas�*s attack on israel, 7/7 in london, and many more. they say it's important to distinguish between the extremists and the vast majority of british muslims who deplore such violence, but warn recently some politicians and others have been facilitating anti—muslim hate. one of those who signed, who lost his partner elaine mciver in the manchester arena attack, is paul price. everything is to divide and people wanting to choose sides, and thatjust leads to hatred, people being entrenched in eitherside, and ijust... you know, i thought it was important for someone like me to put an open letter to mps to say, you know, stop using this inflammatory language. crowd chants: ceasefire now! ceasefire now! _ this weekend, tens of thousands were out in london again. the signatories to the letter

say it's important that being muslim is not equated with being an extremist. mr anderson. lee anderson was suspended as a conservative mp last month. commenting on the marches, he said islamists had got control of london and its mayor sadiq khan. but the government is concerned about extremist elements within such protests who makejewish communities and others feel unsafe, so it's taking action. there are some people, sadly, who hold views that are contrary to the values that we hold as a country, and we should not allow those views to percolate through society. this week the government will unveil a new definition of what constitutes extremism to highlight groups that threaten democracy. they'll be banned from getting government funding. but civil liberties campaigners say it could be far too broad and backfire. essentially, this new definition scoops up a number of community groups and charities that it might not be intending to scoop up. ministers say free speech and

religious belief will be protected. labour says it's important extremism is defined and hatred tackled wherever it's found. damian grammaticas, bbc news. in the netherlands, hundreds of protesters have demonstrated against israel's actions in gaza, as the israeli president attended the inauguration of a museum commemorating the holocaust. some of those protesting about isaac herzog's visit were themselves jewish. they chanted "never again is now! " — accusing him of complicity in a genocide, an allegation he and the israeli government strongly reject. the human rights group amnesty international put up detour signs around the museum, directing mr herzog to the international court ofjustice in the hague. let's get more on president herzog's visit to amsterdam. 0ur europe regional editor, danny aeberhard is following the story. well, he's representing the israeli state at the opening of this extremely important museum. the dutch national holocaust museum is the first and only museum

in the netherlands to concentrate exclusively on the fate of dutch jews. it also obviously looks at other victims of the holocaust, such as the roma, but the vast majority of people who died were jewish. 102,000 dutchjews were killed during the second world war. that's about three quarters of the population. it was a very well—integrated population at the time, and it's the worst percentage for any nazi—occupied country in western europe. so, you know, some terrible tales of killings, also some tales of survival as well. so it's about educating people never to forget. here in the uk, the princess of wales has thanked the public for their support as she recovers from recent surgery. in a mother's day message, accompanied by a family photo taken at windsor,

catherine said "thank you" for the kind wishes she's received since she underwent an abdominal operation two months ago. 0ur royal correspondent daniela relph reports. a family photo for mother's day that is hoped will calm some of the more extreme gossip about the princess�* recovery. an informal image with her three children in windsor. her husband, the prince of wales, was behind the lens. with the photo a personal message... signed with a "c" for catherine. the last time we officially saw the princess of wales in public was on christmas day as she met the crowds at sandringham. thank you so much. that's very sweet of you to come and say hello to us. thank you. have a very happy christmas. a few weeks later, she was in hospital having abdominal surgery. her exact condition has never been made public and the team

around her have fiercely protected her privacy. prince william has continued with royal duty without his wife at his side. flowers and messages wishing her well have become part of every engagement he now does. there is unlikely to be any more detail released about the princess�* recovery for now. buckingham palace has taken a different approach with the king in recent days because he is monarch. we've seen several pictures of him carrying out limited public duties, including a video call with the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau. there's also been a mother's day post on social media from buckingham palace — a photo of the king and the late queen, along with a message wishing all mothers, and those who are missing their mums today, a peaceful mothering sunday. the new photo of the princess won't drown out all the rumours. some new ones have even started today. but palace advisers hope it will address the public curiousity about her

and quell wilder speculation. princess diana's brother, earl spencer, has said he was sexually abused as a child. an extract from his memoir says he was targeted by a female member of staff at his boarding school, maidwell hall, in northamptonshire. for more on this i spoke to reporter charlotte gallagher earlier. well, really distressing allegations from earl spencer. he says this abuse began when he was just 11—years—old and at boarding school, and he was targeted by a female member of staff who he describes as a voracious paedophile. he says she groomed him and other young boys and he was abused in his bed at night in his dormitory. he also makes allegations about the then head teacher, john porch, saying he inflicted brutal beatings on the boys at that school,

and earl spencer believes he gained sexual pleasure from those beatings. been absolutely hellish. and has there been any reaction from the school? we have heard from the school, maidwell hall. they say it's been "sobering" to learn of the experiences of earl spencer and other pupils. it added the allegations of sexual abuse had been referred to the local authority designated officer. the school stressed really that almost every facet of school life had changed significantly since the 1970s, and at the heart of those changes had been the safeguarding of children and the promotion of their welfare. the school also has urged any former pupils with similar experiences to earl spencer to get in touch with the police. polling stations have closed across mainland portugal after a snap election for the next parliament. people in the azores have another hour to vote. the vote was called

after the socialist prime minister, antonio costa, resigned over a corruption investigation involving some of his staff. neither the governing socialists nor the opposition centre—right bloc are expected to win an outright majority. the far—right chega party has been growing in popularity, but the centre—right leader has ruled out any deals with them. as of 4pm turnout stood at 51%. results are expected around midnight. we will have those results for you as soon as they come in. ukraine has insisted it will never surrender in its war against russia after pope francis said it should "have the courage to raise the white flag". the pope has come under a barrage of criticism after saying ukraine is facing defeat and should negotiate with vladimir putin's regime. the vatican later clarified that he'd used the term "white flag" to indicate an end to hostilities, not an outright surrender. an 0desa mp has suggested he go to ukraine to witness the consequences of the war.

seven people, including two children, have been reported missing after a violent storm in the south of france. rising waters are believed to have swept away cars trapped on flooded bridges. only the mother out of a family of four escaped from one vehicle as it fell into the gardon river north of the city of nimes. rescue crews and helicopters have been dispatched to help with search efforts. it's hollywood's big night — the oscars. things are livening up in los angeles, as stars start hitting the red carpet. christopher nolan's 0ppenheimer, which has 13 nominations, is expected to sweep up many of the top awards. then there's barbie — last year's biggest hit at the box office — which has eight nods. our culture editor katie razzall has the latest from hollywood. a last chance to rehearse, a few final adjustments for the day that hollywood prepares for all year. this red carpet will soon

be full of the a—list, stars vying for the highest accolade the movie business has to offer. and the sense here in hollywood is that this year belongs to director christopher nolan. his 0ppenheimer biopic looks set to win best picture, best director, best actor for cillian murphy, and best supporting actor for robert downeer. can you explain quantum mechanics to me? but not best supporting actress for britain's emily blunt. i heard you got stuck with baby—sitting duties... it would be a huge 0scars shock if the holdovers�* da'vinejoy randolph didn't win that one. the only acting race that feels uncertain is best actress. and here, history could be made. if lily gladstone triumphs for killers of the flower moon, she'll be the first native american to win an acting 0scar. she's an experiment! but she could lose out to emma stone for her tour de force in frankenstein—esque poor things. it's not all red carpet glamour for oscar nominees. jonny byrne is also collecting sound

for a new film while he's here. it's the background sounds, the unusual things that you only get if you go out and collect them in the real world. those are the things that give credibility to a film soundscape. byrne created the haunting sound in the zone of interest. you never see what's happening in auschwitz, what you hear tells the horrors. he also worked on poor things. i've worked on films that have come to the oscars, but never with this much buzz around them. and obviously, to be here with two films is pretty extraordinary, so, yeah, it's quite wild. here we are, the oscars. with the academy trying to lure back viewers, oscars hostjimmy kimmel made a parody film with the barbie cast. the biggest film of the year is unlikely to be taking many oscars back to the barbie dreamhouse, but what it's done for cinema is something to shout about. screaming katie razzall, bbc news, los angeles.

we will bring you updates from the red carpet and at the winners' room on the live page. you can access it on the live page. you can access it on the live page. you can access it on the bbc website and app and i reporters will be giving you all the updates. the ceremony itself kicks off at 11pm gmt and 4pm local time. finally this half hour, how's this for an election promise — the premier of the australian island state of tasmania has promised to build the world's largest chocolate fountain if re—elected. jeremy rockliff shared this image of the new "chocolate experience" that would sit alongside the island's existing cadbury�*s factory. he said his government would commit $8 million in funding for a tourism experience that visitors would remember forever. plenty more coming up in the next few hours, please do stay with us on bbc news.

hello. for many of us, sunday's weather story has been one of cloud and rain and where you've been stuck under those grey and wet conditions, particularly when you've been exposed to the breeze, it has felt decidedly chilly. temperatures, though, will climb through the week ahead, albeit with some further bouts of rain at times. low pressure has been dominating things through the weekend, that low centred just to the south of us, clouds swirling around it. and this stripe of cloud that you can see here that has been producing some outbreaks of quite heavy and persistent rain. now, the rain will slowly but surely peter out as we head through the night. certainly the heaviest bursts will ease, but it'll stay quite damp and drizzly with some areas of mist and hill fog and any clear spells that you might see across, say, south wales and the south west of england will they could just fill in with patchy fog as well. so monday morning, quite a murky start. it's an in—between day, really. this low clearing eastwards, other weather systems waiting

in the wings out west. but for many of us, not a huge amount going on, aside from a lot of cloud, some mist and murk, a few brighter spells, perhaps most especially for wales and the south—west of england. this area of low pressure mayjust bring some rain perilously close to the east coast of england and this frontal system will bring some rain across northern ireland and into western scotland. temperatures 6 celsius in lerwick, 12 celsius in plymouth. through monday night and into tuesday, this little weather system saunters its way in from the west. this first pulse of wet weather bringing rain across wales, parts of the midlands and southern england. as we start tuesday, that should tend to pull away southwards, but we'll see more rain getting into northern ireland, perhaps west wales, north—west england and south—west scotland as we head towards the end of the afternoon. temperatures, though, beginning to creep upwards. the winds start to come from the south or the south—west, so we'll see highs between 8—13 celsius. a sign of things to come. through the middle of the week, these frontal systems just continue to wriggle around but will generally shift northwards.

some outbreaks of rain, yes, but a feed of pretty mild air starts to set itself up. those south—westerly winds bringing a mild, even warm feel to proceedings, actually, particularly where you get to see some sunshine, and there will be some sunshine as we head through the second half of the week and into the weekend. but some rain at times. those temperatures, though, up to around 16 or 17 celsius. bye for now.

this is bbc news, the headlines — a spanish charity ship carrying 200 tonnes of aid to gaza is preparing to leave harbour in cyprus. the open arms is carrying food and medical supplies. the us military has also sent a ship carrying equipment to build a temporary pier in gaza, though it will take at least a week to arrive. victims of islamist terror attacks in the uk have called on politicians to stop suggesting all british muslims are extremists. more than 50 survivors and relatives of people killed have signed a joint letter against what they describe as anti—muslim hate following major protests over the war in gaza. and the princess of wales has thanked the public for their support as kensington palace posts the first official image of her since she underwent abdominal surgery. in a mother's day message, catherine said thank you for the kind wishes she's received during her recovery.