including parts of ukraine annexed by moscow. he served as vice—president to donald trump but mike pence says he will not be backing his former boss in the presidential election. it should come as no surprise that i will not be endorsing donald trump this year. and warnings of huge traffic congestion as a busy stretch of the london orbital m25 motorway is closed over the weekend. hello, i'm sarah campbell. we start in gaza where both the united nations and the us have expressed concern about israeli plans for a military operation in rafah. the city, at the southwestern edge of gaza, has seen the arrival of hundreds of thousands of palestinians, taking refuge from the fighting

elsewhere in the territory. the israeli military had previously urged civilians to go there but now, prime minister benjamin netanyahu says he has approved plans for an assault on hamas militants believed to be based there. the un issued this warning. the consequences of a ground operation in the current circumstances would be catastrophic for the people of gaza, for the palestinians. catastrophic for the humanitarian situation. it would be catastrophic all round. the us is one of israel's most important supporters — but it seems that the israeli government has not shared details of the planned assault on gaza with officials in washington. here's us national security council spokesman, john kirby. we have not seen it. we certainly welcome the opportunity to see it. as i

said, we cannot support a major offence in rafah the doesn't also include a credible, achievable an executable plan to take care of the safety and security of malt in a million gazans. to move on right now in a major way without a proper account for all those people, it would be a disaster. even without a large scale military operation in rafah, fighting continues in gaza, and aid agencies continue to call for more resources to deliver supplies to civilians there. on friday, a long—awaited cargo of 200 tonnes of food and medical supplies arrived in gaza. it was brought by a charity ship, the open arms, which had sailed from cyprus. you can see it here, just beyond a jetty, which was constructed over the last few days to enable the cargo to be offloaded. much of the aid was carried on a barge, which had been towed across the eastern

mediterranean, before being manoeuvred close to the jetty. the food will be distributed by the world central kitchen charity. it released this video of how cranes and other lifting gear were used to put the aid packages directly onto trucks. with me is mohamed taha from our bbc arabic network. thank you forjoining me here. mohamed, have there been any diplomatic developments to establish a ceasefire or pause in the fighting? there are talks ongoing currently? in there are talks ongoing currently?— there are talks ongoing currently? there are talks ongoing currentl ? . ., ., , currently? in the coming hours we meet _ currently? in the coming hours we expect these _ currently? in the coming hours we expect these talks - currently? in the coming hours we expect these talks to - currently? in the coming hours we expect these talks to start | we expect these talks to start between the israeli delegation in diehard and the mediators from egypt and qatar and the united states. the aim is to discuss a new proposal from hamas to israel to accept the paul's infighting. we

understand the previous proposal was utterly projected by the israeli prime minister, saying it was a delirious proposal. now the proposal we understand it contains three phases of fighting. each phase is 42 days of paused fighting. each days there should be an opening of the corridors to allow refugees return back home. and release one israeli hostage in exchange of 50 palestinian prisoners during this first phase. the second phase, hamas hoping talks about a permanent ceasefire would start and in the third phase, talks about the rebuilding of gaza would start. given that

israel should accept hamas would be a continuing as an authority in gaza but the initial response from israeli prime minister says this proposal might be difficult to be accepted as well.- proposal might be difficult to be accepted as well. thank you for the update. _ be accepted as well. thank you for the update. and _ be accepted as well. thank you for the update. and the - be accepted as well. thank you for the update. and the talks i for the update. and the talks are going on in doha at the moment. they did. —— thank you. russians are voting for the second of three days of the presidential election, which vladimir putin is almost certain to win. most of his leading opponents are unable to stand either because they've been banned, or imprisoned, or in some cases, are dead. there have been some protests and arrests — but little to disrupt mr putin's hopes for a further six years in power. for the first time, polling stations have also been operating in the regions in ukraine which russia has unilaterally annexed during the war. and that has been condemned by the united nations:

russia's intention to conduct presidential elections today, 15 march until 17 march are unacceptable. the un human rights monitoring in ukraine has documented that past so—called referenda and local elections have been conducted in a coercive environment. under international humanitarian law, the occupying power, in this case the russian federation, is obligated to uphold the laws of ukraine in the occupied territories. let's speak to steven fish now, who's a professor of political science at the university of california. how possible is it to get a handle on what is going on in the voting in russia? it is not

ossible the voting in russia? it is not possible to — the voting in russia? it is not possible to know _ the voting in russia? it is not possible to know the - the voting in russia? it is not possible to know the level. the voting in russia? it is not possible to know the level of| possible to know the level of protest. typically we would look to avoid for opposition candidates in order to assess the level of protest. in this case, putin disqualified everybody who could possibly be seen as an opposition candidate. there was a candidate. there was a candidate who is a local official from moscow who decided to run some months officialfrom moscow who decided to run some months ago and he was running anti—war against ukraine platform. he was disqualified. the only candidate is allowed to �*s point of this, essentially prudent allies from part is called criminal parker —— pocket parties and they are not even campaigning in this election. not good to get much information about the extent of populous people. we have to remember that we will not be able to rely on terror things to do with the support for prisoners because employers all over russia i insisting their

employees provide photographs of their ballot papers. it is understood who they are supposed to vote for in the selection. we will see turnout numbers greatly inflated by that and also above and beyond that and also above and beyond that the government will inflate the actual numbers on top of that. there is no oversight, no press oversight, no independent electoral commission to assess things. i'm afraid will not find out much about his elections except that putin is completely in charge. what do we learn about russia from the selection? if anything? we _ russia from the selection? if anything? we know- russia from the selection? if anything? we know russia . russia from the selection? if i anything? we know russia has one anything? we know russia has gone from _ anything? we know russia has gone from an _ anything? we know russia has gone from an authoritarian - gone from an authoritarian regime to a harsh list authoritarian regime. really kind of a fascist regime is now headed back toward or some people already argue is in a totalitarian regime. not even token opposition allowed to run. sometimes an authoritarian regimes, this has been in the

past to some extent in russia as well, they will allow a handful of candidates that are genuine opposition candidates, typically nobody is terribly popular to run and it creates at appearance of pluralism. elections to this point and not just a flex for prudent, they are to show the resistance is futile. ., ~ are to show the resistance is futile. . ~ ., futile. talking about resistance, - futile. talking about resistance, what - futile. talking about - resistance, what springs to mind is alexander navalny. do we think his death is going to have any impact? will it be in the minds of people voting at all? it the minds of people voting at all? , , ., all? it will be in the minds of many peeple- _ all? it will be in the minds of many people. he _ all? it will be in the minds of many people. he really - many people. he really symbolised a very different russia and was quite popular. his memory remains popular. hard to know how many russians would vote for navalny if he were alive and running against putin. not something we could possibly know. we have to keep in mind people do not get information about any other candidates any more than they got honest information about

navalny. they hear prisoners lying 24/7 in the media, other candidates are not covered in the media. if russia had an open media, and people can learn about other candidates, if that other options at the ballot box, you might give us information but all that is lacking in russia now. fascinating, thank you very much for your time. good to talk to you. airport officials in oregon in the us say they found that a fuselage panel was missing from a plane, after it landed. the aircraft, a boeing 737—800, had flown without incident from san francisco to medford, and had landed as scheduled — it seems neither the pilot nor the passengers were aware of what was happening. with the details from washington, here's will vernon. it is not clear exactly when this damage occurred. after the plane landed at the airport, the groundcrew discovered this external panel was actually

missing. a search was initiated and that airport in oregon was briefly closed while they ensured there was no debris on the runway. a photograph posted on the local news website showed a large hole in the side of the plane and the fuselage near the landing gear and you could see hydraulics and parts in that whole. we received a statement from united airlines, they told us an investigation would be carried out to determine what caused this. but this is the latest in a bizarre series of incidents involving beds fully of golden —— boeing planes. boeing triple seven taken from francisco was forced to make a emergency landing after a tire fell off the plane shortly after takeoff. it plummeted down and actually crushed an empty vehicle in the airport car park and damaged

several others. and back in january, at boeing 737 operated by alaska airlines suffered a mid air emergency after an underused cabin door blew out, broke off and plunged down to the ground below. it was later found in a science teacher �*s garden. luckily nobody was killed in this incident and america's federal aviation authority are investigating all three of them but separately. while there appears to be no direct link between them. nevertheless, boeing is coming under increased scrutiny in the us over its safety. last month there was a report released for there was a report released for the us government commissioned before any of these latest incidents that found serious concerns over boeing �*s safety management system. in response to that report, following said they have taken important steps to foster a culture of safety

a nd to foster a culture of safety and it would review the findings of the report. the former us vice—president mike pence says he is not endorsing donald trump in the forthcoming presidential election. mr pence served under mr trump — but the two men fell out when he refused the then—president's demand to reject the results of the 2020 election. after mr pence certified joe biden�*s victory, a large group of pro—trump protesters stormed congress, chanting �*hang mike pence.�* in an interview on the trump—supporting fox news network, mr pence said he'd made his choice based not just on those events, three years ago, but on what he said were profound policy differences and his decision shouldn't come as a surprise. it should come as no surprise that i will not be endorsing donald trump this year. i would never vote forjoe biden but how i vote when the curtain closes, that will be for me.

staying in the us and a judge overseeing the election interference case against donald trump in georgia has rejected an attempt to disqualify the lawyer leading the prosecution. the judge ruled that district attorney fani willis could remain on the case. but he said that the special prosecutor she appointed and then had a romantic relationship with nathan wade would have to go. mr wade handed in his resignation shortly after the ruling. the judge said the relationship gave a significant appearance of impropriety, but that mr trump's lawyers had failed to prove a conflict of interest in the case. tamar hallerman is a senior reporter from the atlanta journal—constitution and she's been covering the investigation into whetherformer president trump or his allies criminally interfered in georgia's 2020 elections. here's her analysis of this latest ruling. on the one hand, this is not the outcome they wanted. they

did not want fani willis to be staying in this position at the same time they really wounded her and a lot of damaging personal information has gotten out there into the public domain. that the da �*s critics planned to use at every twist and turn in all of this. you have seen the former president use a lot of this information in his campaign rallies. he was in his campaign rallies. he was in north georgia last weekend and as he was talking about the da and nathan wade, thousands and the crowd were lapping and pulling. a rallying cry for him and we even saw today come setting up fundraising appeal is based on today's ruling. something no matter what will be used by the republican critics. not only donald trump but also here in georgia in the statehouse where they launched a committee with subpoena power to continue digging into her personal life. a busy stretch of one of the uk's busiest roads, the m25 motorway which circles london, has been closed over the weekend, for construction work. the motorway has been shut

between junctions 10 and ii, in surrey, to the southwest of the capital with a diversion in place. that alternative route will take hundreds of thousands of cars on local roads and is expected to cause severe congestion. drivers have been urged to find other routes or methods of travel or simply not to travel, if at all possible. this was the scene on friday evening, as the closure was put in place. the road won't be fully re—opened until 6:00 in the morning on monday. with the details, here's matt graveling. 170 miles long and 37 years old. however, never before has the m25 had everyman closed for work during the day. until now. this weekend as part of ongoing work tojunction ten in summary, this five mile stretch will remain closed for 57

hours. it will be disruptive until the local roads because you cannot take four levels of traffic. as long as people are hitting the message and as far as they can avoid this part of the country. it will really help us. during the day on an average weekend the m25 will m4 at 6000 vehicles each and every hour. this closure is in effect from 9pm on friday all the way through to 6am on monday. with the plan to demolish a bridge and construct a new gantry or part of a project costing more than £300 million, the benefits of which drivers will not experience until the middle of next year. let's get some of the day's other news from the uk now. a new welsh labour leader will be elected today, to replace mark drakeford. the winner, either vaughan gething orjeremy miles, will take over as first minister next week. the labour party has been in power in wales for more than 20 years.

the result is expected just after 10:00 and we'll have special coverage for viewers in the uk. the woman who made accusations about christian horner�*s behaviour is to appeal against the red bull formula one team's decision to dismiss her complaint. the woman, who was suspended from her position by red bull last week, accused the team principal christian horner of inappropriate and controlling behaviour. he's denied all accusations. sir lenny henry has finished his final stint as the host of comic relief after co—founding the charity 39 years ago. the televised charity fundraising event raised over 38 million this year. sir lenny gave a heartfelt goodbye and said it had been an honour and a joy. iam i am moved and really finding it difficult to hold it together. so thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

the united nations is warning of life—threatening malnutrition in haiti's capital, port—au—prince as violence and political unrest continue to spread. a transitional council to restore stability is being put in place — but according to the un, the security situation remains tense and volatile. the authorities have been unable to control armed gangs, and haiti has not yet appointed a replacement for the prime minister, ariel henry, who resigned after trying to organise an international peacekeeping force. our south america and caribbean correspondent will grant has made his way into haiti from the neighbouring dominican republic. a few hours ago, he arrived in the northern port city of cap—haitien and he sent us this update. after a complicated few days at the border, we are now among the border, we are now among the first international journalists to make it in tahiti since the current wave

of violence began. we have come and driven to the coastal city of cap—haitien. haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and this current crisis is creating so much more humanitarian need and what was already an extremely complex picture. some statistics lay out how difficult and how grim the picture is. 360,000 people internally displaced in haiti at present. some 3000 women due to give birth may receive absolutely no maternity care whatsoever with so many hospitals closed. particularly in the capital of port—au—prince. yesterday at the development wing of the us government promised millions more in aid and in truth, some is now trickling in, some aid make and into the country and yet it is nowhere near sufficient to cope with the scale of this emergency. in the

political realm, the transitional council has been agreed by the gangs that control the capital port—au—prince do not recognise the council and have threatened its members in very dark language. haiti remains stock in a complex and dangerous situation and the civilian population caught between the politicians and the games. let's go a bit further north now. a team of international scientists is carrying out a remarkable experiment in the arctic circle to find out if they can stop sea ice from melting as the world gets warmer. they are trying to thicken the ice by pouring salt water on it. will it help? our science correspondent pallab ghosh reports. it's such a simple idea that it's surprising that no—one's tried it before. the team here are pumping sea water on top of the ice

so that it freezes and thickens. the aim is to stop, maybe even reverse the loss of arctic sea ice caused by climate change. we are pumping around 1,000 litres per minute of sea water. today we'll add an extra layer, so we'll add probably another five to ten centimetres of ice thickness in this area. this was the extent of the arctic sea ice in september 1979. its sharp decline since then is alarming. so, could thickening the ice stop this trend? if not, polar bears and other arctic sea creatures will lose their homes, and the rest of the world will be worse off because the sea ice is the air conditioning system for the entire planet. this is the centre for climate repair. researchers here are assessing whether the ice thickening will work and can be implemented across the arctic in a way that's affordable and practical.

if we just allow the sea ice to go, the arctic ocean becomes one of our greatest heat absorbers rather than one of our greatest heat reflectors. the idea of repairing the climate is a controversial one. if you can fix the damage, so the argument goes, then it's a green light for countries not to reduce their emissions quickly enough. but the researchers here believe that the situation is so dire that there's no alternative but to do both. if we stop doing efforts and we will leave it as it is, then we will for sure result in a really, really bad scenario. the researchers expect to know by next year whether their ice thickening has the potential to fix the arctic and buy a little more time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. pallab ghosh, bbc news. a unique moment in the recent history of the uk has been immortalised in a work of art. you might remember this moment.

it's 72—year—old anne hughes, being hoisted into the air by a shop shutter, suspended by her coat, in tonteg in south wales. the cctv footage of it has been viewed millions of times online. that episode has now been turned into a mural — painted on the very shutter where the levitation happened — and anne was gracious enough to accept an invitation to declare it open. here she is, staying firmly on the ground, as the shutter makes its way up. the painting is the work of graffiti artist tee—2—sugars, he told bbc news why he was inspired to do it. i first found out like everybody else through the

video. at its infancy around 1000 years, shared it with my wife and we both had a chuckle. just being part of that moment is brilliant. the shop owner approached me, i had done numerous rules in the area, they approached me and said would you be able to put her on the shutter where she belongs? we did it last night. thanks to and he is thankfully completely unharmed. stay with us here on bbc news. hello again. friday was a day of sunny spells and passing showers, as those shower clouds started to collapse down late in the day, we had some pretty still conditions there in the highlands. temperatures in scotland,

northern ireland and wales generally quite close to average, but across large parts of england, in contrast, it was very mild, 17 degrees in east anglia, six above average for the time of year. now the showery conditions on friday were caused by this area of low pressure that's working out of the way now. it will be bringing some heavy snow to parts of sweden and norway into saturday. get a quiet ridge of high pressure, a weather window, if you like, ahead of the next system that's working in off the atlantic. what all that means is over the next few hours, increasingly, the skies will tend to clear. and what that means is we'll see temperatures drop like a stone. and heading into the first part of saturday morning, there'll be quite a widespread frost, scotland, northern ireland, parts of northern england as well. a chilly start to the day then, but a lovely sunny morning through most of the uk on saturday. however, rain will quickly spread into northern ireland along with some strengthening winds, and we'll see some splashes of rain getting into wales and southwest england.

the rain probably not too heavy here through the course of the morning. across eastern england, eastern areas of scotland after that sunny but chilly start to the day, ok, the weather will tend to turn a bit cloudier, but it should stay dry until after dark, really. temperatures 10—14 celsius. now for the second half of the weekend, we've got a band of rain that's going to come through saturday night. the dregs of that still around across eastern england as we start the day on sunday. following that, we'll have southwesterly winds bringing mild air across the uk, and we'll be looking at some showery conditions moving back in. so, sunday weather—wise we start off with rain across east anglia, southeast england. that clears away. sunny spells follow widely, but there will be some scattered showers, some of them turning quite heavy through the course of the afternoon. the southwesterly winds drudging up some mild air across all parts of the country. temperatures about 13 celsius in glasgow and belfast, but up to around 15—16 celsius in the warmest parts of england. beyond that, southerly winds are going to kind of dominate into the early part of the new week. however, with low pressure never far away, there will be some showers

or longer spells of rain affecting western areas at times. however, it does stay mild, 13 celsius, the top temperature in edinburgh through monday and tuesday, and it stays mild, really, through the week in london with highs of around 16 celsius or so.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the us hasjoined the united nations in voicing concerns about israeli plans to launch a military operation in rafah — temporary home to more than a million displaced palestinians in gaza. russia's presidential election

is entering its second of three days of voting. the government of ukraine has condemned polling stations being used in parts of ukraine which have been occupied by russia during the war. mike pence says he will not be backing mike pence says he will not be backing his former boss, donald trump, in the us presidential election. the former vice president said he had profound policy differences — and his decision should not come as a surprise. a busy stretch of the m25 motorway near london has been closed for the weekend, for construction work. diversions are in place between junctions 10 and 11 — and there are warnings of long delays to journeys. i'll be back at the top of the hour. now on bbc news, unspun world withjohn simpson