hope on the horizon — an aid ship towing food approaches gaza. and at the princess diana legacy award ceremony in london — both her sons make an appearance — but not together. here in the uk, the conservatives are under fresh pressure over ties to a party donor at the centre of a racism row. the party has refused to confirm, or deny, reports that the donor has reportedly given more money to the party, than was known publicly. frank hester has apologised for what he called being "rude" about the mp, diane abbott, but said his comments were nothing to do with skin colour. downing street called the comments "wrong" and "racist", but said he'd apologised and showed remorse. opposition parties have said the tories should return his donations. i spoke to cat neilan, she's the political editor at tortoise media who broke the story of further donations, about the lag in the money being sent

and when parties have to report it. this is one of the many problems that we have in our system. it appears to be born out of historical reasons rather than anything else. we do have, for what is supposed to be a very transparent system, quite a complicated one in which there are various different registers updated at various different points. the electoral commission's register is only updated every quarter and i think this story has sort of renewed questions about whether that's really appropriate in this day and age when websites can be updated at the drop of a hat. that was the conservative party response so far when it came to frank hester�*s donations, that they have reported everything that needed to be reported in the public sphere. you have looked into this closely, could you tell us how big a donor frank hester is, how important he is to the tory party's treasure chest, essentially? sure, i would say first of all,

for many people, even political obsessives and conservative figures he is a name that drew a blank with many people until this week when it transpired that he had donated already £10 million in the last year. the original guardian article which sort of started all of this row had a quote from a party spokesman describing him as the biggest ever donor to the conservatives. but actually, if you look at what has currently been declared, that honour goes to a different person, lord john sainsbury. and so the question, therefore, is sort of what is it that we don't know? what is it that has not been publicly declared? and as you mentioned earlier, the line that they have been putting out has evolved over the course of the week. the story broke on monday. on tuesday initially there were two ministers that were sent out to say that the comments were wrong but to insist they did not believe

they were race—based. that line changed after the trade secretary kemi badenoch issued a statement, as i understand it, not one that number 10 had been expecting, describing the comments as reported as racist. shortly after that, the number 10 position changed again to describe the comments as racist but not the individual. we heard that line then put out by rishi sunak during pmqs on wednesday. the one thing that has remained consistent on this is not to criticise frank hester individually and not to respond to calls for the money to be returned. and indeed you had another minister kevin hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, saying he would be happy to receive further donations. all of which kind of leads you to the question, why is that? and as we have seen from the story i managed to report yesterday, that is because there is another donation thatis

working through the system as we speak. cat, diane abbott, when it came to the alleged comments, said they were frightening, she said she already felt vulnerable. there has been heightened concern when it comes to the safety of members of parliament. absolutely and on that it is worth reflecting on what the comments were. frank hester is alleged to have said in a business meeting, and he hasn't denied he said these comments, that diane abbott, who is the uk's longest—serving black female mp, makes you want to hate all black women and that she should be shot. these comments were supposed to have taken place, have to have taken place, been made, in 2019, that's three years after the murder of a labour mpjo cox, and a couple of years before the murder of a conservative mp david amess. so i think there are a lot of mps on both sides of the house who are very, very conscious about the rising security threat and i think that's one of the reasons

why conservatives are not terribly happy with the way this has been handled by number 10. young men are four times more likely than other drivers to be caught dangerous or careless driving, according to new bbc analysis. dvla data also reveals men under the age of 25 are four times more likely to be caught drug—driving and twice as likely to be caught drink—driving. each year, more than 1,500 young drivers are killed or seriously injured on uk roads. one of those was 19—year—old sammy phillips. his older brother, jamie, has been investigating why so many young men are killed on the roads. young men, fast cars — it's a lethal combination. the thrill of the speed, smoking tyres, you know. you just feel like — you do feel like you're invincible. my name's jamie morris and i'm 25 years old. my brother sammy was 19 when he was killed in a horrific high—speed car crash,

along with the driver. he's obviously left the road, hit there. it wasjust carnage. this collision will stay with me forever. it's probably one of the worst ones i've been to and i've seen. stop there, stop there. wait _ sammy's friend lewis was driving. the police found his blood alcohol was three and a half times the legal limit. hearing all the excruciating details was tough. extensive skull fractures, and both of their deaths were a result of the catastrophic and traumatic injuries that they have sustained. he won't have suffered. he really won't have suffered. that would have been instant. chris was the first paramedic on the scene. i quickly went over to the car where sammy and his friend were, felt him for pulses and things.

and the level of injuries that they had, there was quite obviously nothing that we could do to reverse it. seeing the car, the speed they were going, the age, you know, what goes through your mind? you kind of, in a way, if i'm honest, you think you idiots, you know, what were you doing? yeah. this could be so avoidable, you know. my brother's friend john was with sammy and lewis earlier in the evening on the night they died. we were all smiling and happy in that photo. it's my most cherished memory, yeah. god, yeah. the fact that there's like a time on it, as well. i find... you know what i mean? and then like an hour later. yeah. it was actually less than an hour later that sammy and lewis were dead. i was supposed to give sammy a lift home, but i ended up not because lewis had a new bmw and sammy had not been in it yet. so quite excited for that. show off the wheels?

yeah. has it scared you? yeah, definitely. yeah, it definitely has, mate, yeah. it's like the world stops for you. i think people need to realise that it's not — like, you don't come back, you know. you make a mistake, that's it. that's the thing, yeah. jamie, do you remember this video that i found? after sammy died, mum found a couple of videos like this on his ipad. he filmed them at different times over the years. 110, 120. it's just really frightening. we've no idea whose car he's in. but my brother's filming from the passenger seat. we found no evidence sammy ever shared his videos. but when i looked on instagram, tik tok and youtube, i found some shocking posts. people boasting about driving dangerously. can people be prosecuted even if no accident occurs — just from posting that? yes, most definitely. there's the evidence.

and i would encourage prosecutions, because people who do that, they're doing it only for one reason — glorifying themselves. and they�* re lawbreaking. dr shaun helman is from the transport research laboratory in berkshire. the psychological trait of sensation—seeking peaks at mid to late teens. so this is literally at the point where we're giving them access to motorised transport and they're kind of unleashed on this new world. and, unfortunately, that's really, really risky for some individuals. like many bereaved families, dr helman believes graduated driving licences are the way forward, with a minimum supervised learning period, curfews and a limit to the number of passengers new drivers can carry. those systems are really effective. we think they save between 20% and 40% of collisions. we know it can be done because many other countries have done it. i learned my lesson a lot more from my licence being revoked

than actually crashing myself. rapper ned price is from sussex. he passed his test at 17 and the very same day he crashed, rolling his car four times. it didn't scare him as much as it should have. after being able to survive something like that, you do feel like you're invincible. you shouldn't think like that, but at that age, it's how you think. i didn't really even learn that much from that. i'd just go straight back into another car, like a week after, and i crashed that into the back of a beamer. do you think that having your licence revoked potentially saved your life? i've got to retake my test. i've got to do my theory again, all of that. so that's kind of what's taught me the main lesson, i think. i'm sure i would have got in a worse accident if i didn't have it revoked. jo shiner is the national policing lead on road safety. i think we need greater sentencing powers. i also think that the idea around whether you call it progressive driving licences or graduating driving licences really does need to be taken forwards very strongly.

the hardest thing for me now is when i think about the future and i think about all the things that i might have to look forward to. it's upsetting because they're all going to be without him. they're going to be without sammy. violent online content is now "unavoidable" for children in the uk, with many being exposed to it while still in primary school, according to a new 0fcom report. the regulator is urging social media companies to strengthen child protection on their platforms. our technology reporter shiona mccallum reports. how much time do you think you spend on your phone a day? even prince william is asking these questions when meeting with a group of schoolchildren at a west london youth centre yesterday. hours. that's quite a lot. but i bet you feel better coming here. but when children are on their smartphones, their innocence can soon be compromised. 0fcom say out of the 2117 children it spoke to,

all of them had encountered a range of violence, including gaming content, variable discrimination and fighting. and all of them, some as young as eight years old, had seen these posts pop up on social media, video sharing and messaging sites, many before the minimum age requirements. children should not feel that seriously harmful content, whether that's violence or content about eating disorders or suicide and self—injury, should be an inevitable or unavoidable part of their lives online. i think today's research really sets out clearly that the platforms just need to do more. so what can be done to prevent this type of harm? well, from this research, a lot of the children didn't know and felt they had no control over it. they also said they had no trust in the reporting systems on social media platforms. the children in this research said that they wanted the internet to be a safe place to be, but many had to rely on themselves to keep it that way,

rather than the adults in charge. now, of course, when a child has been exposed to violence is really too late — it cannot be unseen. esther ghey knows that all too well. her daughter, brianna, was murdered after her killers were able to access violent content. i would like to see phones that are made suitable for young people. and i really think that if this was in place before, then this could have prevented what happened to brianna. kids are so much more tech savvy and i wasn't aware of what brianna was looking at online. two other studies for 0fcom also had similar messaging. one said suicide, self—harm and eating disorder content was prolific on socials. the other said cyberbullying had a negative impact on children's health. all make for grim reading, but the recurring theme here was the children's lack of trust and confidence in reporting these problems online. shiona mccallum, bbc news. there's growing anger in hull

as people wait for answers about what happened at a funeral director's in the city. investigations are continuing into legacy independent funeral directors where 35 bodies were removed by police, including what's believed to be human ashes. it comes after concerns were raised about the care of the deceased. leanne brown reports. the door is boarded up and flower baskets that hung on the walls are on the floor. this is the anlaby road branch of legacy funeral directors, where anger is growing. it's disgusting. it's utterly disgusting, it really is. and to be round here, local, as well, absolutely... i can't even imagine what families are going through. absolutely disgusted. all i can say is it's disgusting. you know, it's... i mean, i noticed somebody has put the window in. it's a wonder they haven't put all of the windows in, you know. alljust shocked, really, - and dismayed that it's happened. you know, it'sjust unbelievable

in this day and age. _ in the company's leaflet, which is available outside, they say they pride themselves on the quality of care they offer their clients. they go on to say they treat people with dignity and respect and they understand that it's the small things that matter the most. but police have removed 35 bodies and a quantity of ashes during a raid at their hessle road site. a man and woman were also arrested on suspicion of fraud and prevention of a lawful and decent burial, but have since been bailed. i think it's the uncertainty. it's not knowing whether or not your loved one has been embroiled in what's gone on or whether they were dealt with as you thought they were. there is anger in the community, and i think it's probably, to a degree, understandable because, obviously, the funerals and the passing of close relatives is one of the most emotional times in anyone�*s life. 0ne therapist says,

for the families affected, it's a new layer of grief. there's going to be a mix of real emotion. so from anger to sadness to overwhelm. i think one of the most traumatic things is that people's sense of trust has been violated. so there's lots of not knowing and that can be really unsettling. so we might see changes to moods — so highs and lows in mood, perhaps feelings of anxiety. as families anxiously wait for news, signs have been removed at the beverley branch as the community can't bear to see legacy�*s name. leanne brown, bbc news. a fresh attempt to tackle puppy smuggling will be discussed in parliament again today by mps. the ban would stop puppies and kittens younger than six months�* old from being brought into the uk. it was first pledged by the government more than two and a half years ago. 0ur political correspondent helen catt reports. just a few weeks ago, five month old puppies zonic, leo and togo were in romania and life was looking very different. puppies of that age are very vulnerable in romania.

the shelters aren't heated, they're not lighted, they don't have regular veterinary care. so the chances of recovering from a disease like parvo, which can be deadly, is over 68% for a dog that receives prompt veterinary care and it is less than 10% for a dog that doesn't. hello! no dog over there receives prompt veterinary care and so it is significantly riskier. rachel's not—for—profit dog rescue has brought them to merseyside with their mum magda. she says all the dogs which she imports are jabbed and tested for diseases. she thinks the law does need tightening, but under the proposed changes these puppies wouldn't yet be able to be in the uk and that worries her. i believe that there is a need for change, but i believe that that change is necessary in relation to puppy farming, which is extremely cruel and there is quite a lot of it, particularly in eastern europe, but also further afield. what i would hate is for hardworking, not—for—profit rescues who are desperately needed

within the countries that they operate to fall foul of that and those dogs to suffer. several major animal welfare charities do support raising the minimum age to six months and have been campaigning for it for years. this bill is really going to help to crack down on the age at which puppies can be brought into this country, meaning they're not being taken away from their mothers too early, they're not being exposed at such a young age to so many illnesses and so many potential things that could cause behavioural problems later in life. and it also means that it's making them less marketable to the people who are exploiting their cute puppy charms. as well as tackling smuggling, the proposed new law will also ban another welfare concern — mutilations. it's currently perfectly legal to import an animal which has been mutilated in a way that would be against the law here. it will mean that it will now be illegal to import a dog who has got cropped ears, who has got a docked tail, and it will also be illegal to import cats who have been declawed. and these are all processes which should not be undertaken

because they are really significantly impacting the animal's welfare. the government promised to make these changes more than two and a half years ago. it dropped some legislation that would have done it last summer. it's almost certain that it will back this bill, but there's still no guarantee that it'll actually become law. how confident are you that this is going to happen before the election? i will do everything i can, but unfortunately it's not my decision when the election is. but i will certainly be driving it like a train to see that we can get it through as quickly as we possibly can. the final details of the bans are still to be worked out, but animal welfare charities hope this may finally move the long promised crackdown on those who import puppies without care for their welfare a step closer. helen catt, bbc news. i want to bring you an update on a story we brought to you earlier, that customers at mcdonald's

websites dominant venues in several countries have reported technical issues in ordering food. we have an update from mcdonald's. they say we are aware of a technology outage that impacted our restaurants. the issue has now been resolved in the uk and ireland. they then once again confirmed this is not a cybersecurity related issue. just as a reminder, issues were reported in japan, australia, new zealand, germany, austria, but now mcdonald's says the issue has been resolved in the uk and ireland. we will bring you more updates on that as they come through. at the end of another difficult week for the royal family, both the prince of wales and the duke of sussex took part in an event paying tribute to their late mother last night ? but did not appear together. prince william was at the diana legacy award ceremony in london, while harryjoined later via video call — after his brother had left. 0ur correspondent sophie long has more.

there was a time on a night like this that the prince of wales would have had his brother by his side. not now. with the divide between them as deep as ever, william attended the diana awards alone. i'm thoroughly delighted, as always, to be here to recognise the transformational achievements of 20 exceptional young people from across the world. each and every one of their stories, which you will hear shortly, are testament to their character, their passion, and their determination to make a lasting and meaningful difference to the lives of others. his royal highness presented the prestigious diana legacy award to young change—makers from all over the world who have selflessly created positive social change. many of the recipients weren't born until after his mother was tragically killed in a car crash. now they are proudly part of her legacy. she is very much loved in nigeria and her legacy kind of transcends generations. and i think for my generation, because we have social media,

we get to read about her and it's inspiring then. even without information, she was able to do so much. and now that we have so much, we can do even much more. prince william laughed and joked with the award winners, showing little sign of strain amid the health issues facing his father and his wife catherine. after william had left, his brother harry congratulated the winners from california via videophone. my mum would be incredibly proud of all the work you have done. i am incredibly proud. and thank you for doing everything that you do. a sign that despite their differences, the two brothers remain committed to honouring their late mother's efforts to empower young people. but also that any chance of resolving the rift between them remains remote, too. sophie long, bbc news, london. sir lenny henry will present his final comic relief tonight after almost a0 years. the comedian, who co—founded the charity, fronted the first programme back in 1988 which built

on the success of band aid. it's gone on to raise millions of pounds for good causes. let's see what they've got in store for us tonight with our culture reporter noor nanji. what are you doing? you need to be... you're so unprofessional, man. i can't believe it. the big comic relief night of tv is back. time to once again do something funny for money. richard madeley, tell us, what do you think you could bring to red nose day? oh, well, that's easy. i mean, obviously, you've got to be funny. and there will be a lot to laugh about, including when the cast of the tv series w1a reunite to find sir lenny henry's replacement. yeah, hi, yeah. will? _ yeah, so, like, romesh ranganathan's here. i right, great. romesh? yeah, i know, yeah, i but i couldn't stop him. well, you know, i might as well get out of here. i mean, what's the point? i mean, romesh gets everything, doesn't he? everything. jeez! ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to a night of comic relief. there will also be a special show dedicated to sir lenny�*s 39 years of comic relief, including a vote that will see the public choosing their favourite lenny sketch. what you've got there, fam, is a chicken — well, like, bruv, it's dead. to see a new generation of people taking it forwards... remember, we've got maya jama, we've got david tennant, romesh ranganathan. there's such a huge amount of people coming up that it will be fantastic to leave knowing that there's... i'm getting emotional now. ..a new group of people taking over and treating it the way we did. the traitors: the movie. other highlights from the fundraising bonanza include an all—star line—up in the traitors: the movie. prepare to die. but in, like, a super nice way. it's the first time i felt real terror. this year's challenge took place in the arctic circle in norway. it was comic relief�*s

coldest ever challenge where stars laura whitmore, vicky pattison, alex scott and sara davies all pushed themselves to the limit. one of the mornings we actually woke up in a hut and that was in a sheltered area and i looked at the thermostat and it said —13, and that was inside. and it's a different type of cold. and this is why it all matters. the money raised on red nose day goes towards funding projects like this food redistribution charity in north—west london. so how important are comic felief funds to a project like this? you know, this year we'll rescue about 15,000 tonnes of food. so that funding supports all of the infrastructure and distribution apparatus that gets that out into the community, which is incredibly important. comic relief also supported the felix project with the cost of providing this massive walk—in freezer. having the increased storage capacity allowed them to give out more than 30 million meals last year.

# you give me something i need... behind all the fun and games, a serious goal. raising funds to help people in the uk and around the world. noor nanji, bbc news. # come on, baby, do what you do.# red nose day is on tonight at 7pm on bbc one and bbc iplayer. so please do watch. now it's time for a look at the weather with elizabeth. hello there. well, it's still unsettled today in through the weekend, so there will be further outbreaks of rain to come at times. but today, something a little cooler and a bit brighter emerging from the north and the west as we head through the afternoon, as low pressure starts to drag these weather fronts further southwards and eastwards. so some sunny spells emerging across northern ireland through the afternoon and also across parts of western scotland. but there'll also be some showers here just moving through on that now, northerly to north westerly wind. further south across much

of england and wales for the second half of the day, it's a mixture of cloud, some brighter spells and possibly some heavy, even thundery downpours. the thunder most likely across central southern england and east anglia for the second half of the day. temperatures are lower across the board than they were yesterday, with that colder air sinking further southwards and eastwards. and that process continues overnight tonight. still a hang back of cloud across many parts of eastern england, this will help to keep the temperatures probably in mid single figures here. but there will be a touch of frost developing across northern england and scotland and a bit of frost probably for at least part of the night across northern ireland as well. with lighter winds, there'll also be some mist and some fog forming perhaps, too. and then into tomorrow when we look out towards the south and the west again to find another set of weather fronts, gradually sweeping eastwards, introducing more cloud and some outbreaks of rain, but probably dry for much of the day across eastern scotland and down through eastern england with some sunshine hazy at times. but turning wet through the afternoon for western spots — again, it's mild with now that

south—westerly wind blowing all of these fronts further northwards and eastwards as we head through the night. now there will be some heavy rain through the night across southern areas of england, probably lingering on into sunday morning as well. we've still got that south—westerly flow so the air is going to be really quite mild again. but a lot of cloud around on sunday, some brighter spells developing perhaps particularly towards the east as we head towards the end of the day. some showers moving across northern ireland and western scotland and it will be turning quite windy across the northern isles again. it's mild highs of around 13 to 16 degrees celsius for the vast majority. and we are set to keep the same sort of conditions as we head into the start of next week. monday could be mostly dry with a few showers. we'll be keeping that mild air again on tuesday. bye— bye.

live from london, this is bbc news. russia votes in an election which vladimir putin is bound to win, securing another six years in power. israel has rejected the latest hamas proposals on a ceasefire in gaza.

hope on the horizon — an aid ship towing food approaches gaza. finally visible from the coastline. the leaders of germany, france and poland head to berlin in a show of unity for ukraine. it issues leave customers in several countries unable to order at mcdonald's — the company says the issue is "resolved in the uk and ireland". hello, i'm azadeh moshiri — welcome to the programme. we begin in russia where voting is under way in presidential elections, which will almost certainly see vladimir putin extend his quarter of a century in power. the process began in russia's far east several hours ago — these pictures are from vladivostok. and let's bring you some pictures live from a polling station in moscow. now, there is the potential for a run—off vote

if no candidate wins more than 50% in the first round.