as the first ship bringing aid to gaza unloads its supplies, the us and un renew warnings about an israeli offensive in rafah, saying a ground assault would be a "humanitarian catastrophe". in the world's biggest democratic exercise, india will vote in national elections from the 19th april. and here in the uk — a developing story — a major it glitch at one of the country's main supermarket chains leaves thousands without grocery deliveries. hello, i'm lauren taylor. we start in wales, where vaughan gething has just been announced as the winner of the welsh labour leadership election. the outgoing first minister, mark drakeford, will step down from the post next week. vaughan gething, wales�* economy minister and a former solicitor, was born in zambia and will become wales�* and europe's first black leader.

in his acceptance speech after being voted as the new welsh labour leader, he highlighted the historic nature of his win. today, we turn a page in the book of our nation's history. a history that we write together. notjust because i have the honour of becoming the first black leader in any european country, but because a generational dial has jumped too. like ken and jane, devolution is not something that i have had to get used to, or to adapt to, or to apologise for. devolution, welsh solutions to welsh problems and opportunities, is in my blood. it is what i have always known through my adult political life and that is the same for a growing number of our citizens and i want us to use this moment as a starting point for a more confident march into the future. a march into the future on behalf of a generation that, too often,

is being asked to pick up the pieces and the bill for those who came before them. in wales, it often takes the worst times to get the best out of us. in adversity, you can't match us. we will be there, fighting tooth and nailfor the impossible to happen. for the underdog, for the oppressed. when your back�*s against the wall, you want welsh people by your side. our wales correspondent, hywel griffith was watching the announcement and gave me his reaction. well, he's been congratulated by his rival, jeremy miles, although mr miles didn't want to speak to the cameras as he left the building here in cardiff. he has issued a statement where he congratulates him, talks about the welsh labour family.

but he also makes this point — "we must never forget this is an honour and responsibility underpinned by trust that must be continually earned." why is he talking about trust? while there were questions about vaughan gething's campaign and a donation that he accepted of £200,000 from a business whose owner had been prosecuted for illegally dumping waste in wales. it was probably the only controversial moment of this campaign. mr gething's campaign team saying everything was declared properly and nothing was done wrong. but it does give a little hint of the tensions that lie behind what was a united face and knighted presence by the welsh labour leaders on this stage there. vaughan gething will also need to speak to the other senedd members as he decides who's in his cabinet. he served as the economy minister, so they'll need a new one of those. he was previously the health minister. we expect there to be a new health minister. he didn't have the majority of those labour senedd members behind him going into this. it was the party membership, the general party membership, which won him the vote. so although he is clearly the winner today, there will be an instant test in bringing everyone in behind him.

in your report earlier on, we saw some interviews with ordinary people on the street who didn't seem to know who either of the candidates were, frankly. so is there an issue with profile for gething as he starts the job? absolutely. arguably, you could have said the same about mark drakeford back in 2018 when he took the post. known within welsh political circles, but not really on the street, let alone beyond wales. but the pandemic shifted that dial completely. mark drakeford arguably became the most prominent first minister wales has ever had in the quarter of a century of devolution. now, vaughan gething will hope he doesn't face the same circumstances, but he will be responsible for the big decisions. he will be the one coming to the podium to make those announcements. he will hope, although he's held high profilejobs, arguably as health and economy before, this will give him a bigger platform. and i guess the biggest platform will be the uk general election expected before the end of this year. he's in charge of the campaign in wales. he'll need to work with keir starmer.

you would expect they'll be on to the phone to each other pretty quickly today to start those conversations. but what's the message in wales? is vaughan gething the man to lead that? maybe do they ask mark drake to be the face of it, given that he was relatively popular in wales and recognisable at least during the pandemic period? so he'll know that there's a lot of work to be done in raising the welsh government's profile and its performance. let's remember there are big questions here which might come up in the election, such as labour's running of the health service in wales, such as labour's running of the economy in wales, particularly with a cliff edge coming at the steelworks in port talbot over the next few months and potentially 2,000 jobs being lost. so as i said, while he'll be smiling and accepting congratulations today, there are very big challenges ahead for vaughan gething. to the middle east — and gaza's health ministry hasjust updated the number of people who have been killed in the territory since israel launched its military action there in october to 31,553. most of the dead are women and children.

anna foster is in east jerusalem and joins us now. the toll keeps rising, doesn't it? it does. that's one of the reason why the us and the un have expressed fresh concerns about an israeli ground offensive in rafah. the city, at the south—western edge of gaza, has seen the arrival of hundreds of thousands of palestinians, taking refuge from the fighting elsewhere in the strip. the israeli military had previously urged civilians to go there. but there are real concerns that could cause a humanitarian catastrophe because so many people are sheltering their without homes. the response has been strong. this is what the un had to say. i think the consequences of a ground operation in rafah in the current

circumstances would be catastrophic for the people of gaza, for the palestinians. it would be catastrophic for the humanitarian situation. it would be catastrophic all around. the us have also echoed those sentiments. they have made it repeatedly clear that they will not support any israeli ground offensive in rafah unless they have seen a plan that will move civilians out of harms way and don't forget that the us is a key, probably the most important diplomatic and military ally of israel. here is the us national security spokes man john kirby. we haven't seen it, we certainly would welcome the opportunity to see it. as we've said, we cannot support a major offensive in rafah that doesn't also include a credible, achievable, executable plan to take care for the safety and security of the more than a million gazans that are seeking refuge in rafah.

to move in right now in a major way without a proper accounting for all those people would, as we've said, be a disaster. the aid situation and the humanitarian situation in gaza remains enormously difficult. we have seen a first aid shipment arrived by sea during this war. this has come from a spanish charity open arms, they provided the ship and it towed a bird with around 200 tonnes of food from wild central kitchen along this newly created corridor. they had to build a temporaryjetty to unload it. they have managed to take all of the supplies of and they released this video that shows the pallets being lifted on a crane and loaded into lorries. the difficulty now will be how they distribute that aid for gaza. you have a desperate

population of around 300,000 people who stayed north of the straight. they are finding it difficult to find any aid deliveries at all. security and civil order have really broken down altogether so it remains to be seen how they will actually distribute that aid and do it in a secure and fair way to the people who so desperately need it. richard makepeace from the medical aid for palestinians spoke to us about the issues facing aid organisations like his, who deliver aid and medical services in gaza. well, it's obviously extremely difficult given the general insecurity in this conflict. humanitarian agencies have come under attack, convoys have come under attack. and there needs to be a proper plan of how to get the aid to those who need it most, precisely as you've said. and just talk us through, if you would, the issues with getting aid in, because we talk about trucks coming in by road. we know that the number of trucks that have been coming in has been drastically reduced since the war began on october the seventh. whose responsibility is it to make

sure that palestinians in gaza have the basics for life? well, it's the responsibility of the israeli authorities, because they control the situation at the moment. and under humanitarian law, they are obliged to protect civilians. what is happening, though, is that convoys, even those run by the un, are being blocked on a regular basis. some convoys have been attacked. there are not proper arrangements being made for convoys set off and then are stopped at checkpoints. people are taken off and detained even though they've been notified as humanitarian workers. and in the worst circumstances, of course, there have actually been attacks on ngo and other humanitarian facilities. i wanted to talk a little as well about what israel says is a planned

ground offensive in rafah, which it says is essential if it's going to fully remove all of hamas from gaza. but of course, is set to take place at a in an area where more than half of gaza's population is now sheltering. just try and describe for us, if you would, what the situation is like in rafah for people there right now. well, people are crammed together. there are a million more than would normally be living in that space. many are having to live in tents or out in the open air. there's no proper hygiene facilities. sanitation, food is not as plentiful as one would like it to be, nor are medicalfacilities, given the damage done to hospitals. so people are traumatised and both physically and mentally in a very weak state. and the idea that they can simply be told to move yet again, many of these people have had their homes destroyed and have moved three orfour times in the past to a so—called safe zone.

it's frankly appalling. we've seen what safe zones are like. they get bombed just like everywhere else. this, i assume a possibility as well, that as you say, people who've already moved several times, who have very few possessions left, they mightjust decide not to move again, even if they're told to. they may just want to remain in the place that they've managed to find a tent and a small piece of ground. i'm guessing that moving all these people is not going to be a simple operation at all. absolutely not. it would be a very dangerous operation. people are weak, children are weak, there are babies. and as you say, i think people might simply be fatalistic and say they'd rather stay together as a family and die together rather than dying on the road, trying to get somewhere where they'll probably be attacked again. and of course, in the north,

the situation is even worse, with the onset of what really can only be called famine. the latest figures from unicef suggest that a third of children are severely malnourished, and between 5% and 10%, even in the central area in khan younis, are suffering from severe wasting. the pressure remains for some sort of humanitarian ceasefire to be reached so additional aid can get into gaza and also so the release of more than 100 hostages can be negotiated. hamas put out a proposal, but israel said it contained unrealistic demands that they are sending a delegation to talk to qatari negotiators. there are times when both sides are together around the table so to speak, everything happens through

the brokers of qatar and egypt because israel and hamas don't have direct diplomatic. we know that israel will go, they will put forward the israeli position. we have heard before that there are still gaps in language that both sides are using but the fact that this is going to be discussed has drawn some cautious optimism in some of the israeli media and from the us as well. we will keep you up—to—date with that and everything else. for now, it is back to lauren in london. thank you very much indeed. in the world's biggest democratic exercise — india has just announced that it will vote in national elections from the 19th april, with the polls to be held over several weeks. the hindu—nationalist and incumbant prime minister, narendra modi, is strongly favoured to win a third term. it is the world's largest democracy in which one hundread

and 98 million people are eligible to cast ballots. here's the chief election commissioner making the announcement. we will do it in seven phases, as was done last time. seven phases. phase one will start from 25th march, five days from now. 0ur south asia correspondent, samira hussain is in new delhi, where the announcement was made. i asked her how long it will take before we get the results. this is the world's most populous country and there are 198 million eligible voters in this 2024 election so, actually, it doesn't happen over one day, it happens over several weeks. for this particular election, they have decided it is going to happen in seven phases and in total it will be about six weeks before we get the result. the last day for polling in a few states, they divide the country into seven different areas and different areas vote all at once and in terms of when we get the results, the big results day for everyone will be the 11th ofjune. so it does take a long time to get the pulse of the people in this country but i wanted to know what are people thinking about when it comes to this election?

what are some of the issues that really stand out? have a listen. translation: i'm going to vote - for modi and the bjp because no-one stands out as a possible candidate from the opposition. translation: the modi government has - not fulfilled any of their promises. - he promised to help- the farmers, but he hasn't. i will vote for the one who helps the poor. i each and every one, even if it's someone small, even if it's someone poor, someone who doesn't come from a solid background, each and everyone's rights should be heard. and the lower segment of the society, their word should also have a validation. pollution problem, which comes up every time, it's going on every year, and people with bronchitis, elderly people, young people, everybody is suffering. something needs to be done. we just cannot treat this and not do anything about it.

we know that prime minister modi is hoping for a third term. tell us a little bit about the state of the opposition and what kind of chances they have to go up against him? a third term in office is what prime minister modi is seeking. he has been in office now for a decade and he has pretty much dominated the north part of the country, what is called the hindi belt. it has been a difficult road for the main opposition party, the congress party. they have really tried to make inroads in different parts of the country but they have really been, they have not been able to gain that much traction. part of it has to do with the prime minister's political party which really has a strong hold on the country and in terms of disseminating information. but the other problem, of course, is the disorganisation within this particular opposition party.

that said, if you look at the country, although i mentioned that the prime minister really pretty much dominates the north part of the country, if you look at the south, there is a lot of regional parties that actually are able to sort of keep the bjp at bay. so what we are going to see in these upcoming elections is certainly a push by the government to try and make inroads into the southern part of the country. it's really going to be an interesting election to watch. look, we are talking about the world's most populous country. clearly evidenced by the number of people around me now. and i think this is certainly an election that not only people in the country are going to be watching, but certainly one that countries around the world will be keeping an eye on as well. let's return to the evolving situation happening in pakistan, where its military now says seven security force members have been killed by militants who attacked a military post in northwestern

pakistan on saturday morning. the attack was carried out by six fighters who used a vehicle laden with explosives. the military�*s statement does not name the group responsible for the attack. we are joined now from islamabad by our reporter sahar baloch with the latest. currently, a covert operation is going on were militants apparently attacked security check post. so far, the military has not name the group that so from what we have seen happening in pakistan is that there is a resurgence of militant attacks in pakistan. at the moment, there is a rescue operation under and the military says there is a covert operation going on but we are also witnessing that since december last year, and especially in tone 23, there were 79 attacks that happened in pakistan resulting in around 1000 fatalities. the in pakistan resulting in around 1000 fatalities. . , ., , in pakistan resulting in around 1000 fatalities. . , ., fatalities. the military has named an one. fatalities. the military has named

anyone- has _ fatalities. the military has named anyone. has anyone _ fatalities. the military has named anyone. has anyone came - fatalities. the military has named l anyone. has anyone came response penalty for this? so anyone. has anyone came response penalty forthis?_ penalty for this? so far, no group has claimed _ penalty for this? so far, no group has claimed any _ penalty for this? so far, no group has claimed any responsivity - penalty for this? so far, no group has claimed any responsivity for. penalty for this? so far, no group i has claimed any responsivity for the attack. in november 2022, has claimed any responsivity for the attack. in november2022, is has claimed any responsivity for the attack. in november 2022, is the pakistani taliban ended its ceasefire contract with the military, since then there have been resurgence in the attacks but so far, none of the groups have claimed responsibility for any of the attack. , . , responsibility for any of the attack. , ., , ., ., attack. tell us a bit more about the security operation _ attack. tell us a bit more about the security operation around _ attack. tell us a bit more about the security operation around this? - attack. tell us a bit more about the| security operation around this? this all started in _ security operation around this? to 3 all started in 2020 when the pandemic started, when the covid—19 pandemic started, when the covid—19 pandemic started, when the covid—19 pandemic started, there are people who are saying that pakistani taliban are coming back in the peripheral areas of pakistan. so far what we have seen is the biggest part of it, the military started their operations in these areas. so

it is normally an area that is because considered to be densely populated as well so once again, this area has been targeted and this is also raised alarms. as war continues to devastate sudan, the un's humanitarian chief says that up to five million people are at risk of catastrophic hunger in the near future. in a letter to the security council, martin griffiths warned that 18 million sudanese were already facing acute food insecurity due to the damage in agriculture, infrastructure and steep price hikes. mr griffiths appealed to the warring factions of the conflict — the sudanese army and paramilitary rapid support forces — to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid urgently to avert famine conditions, pariticularly in the western region of darfur. earlier i spoke to our africa correspondent in addis ababa, kalkidan yibeltal, and asked him about the severity of this warning.

indeed. and it's a manifestation of the dire humanitarian situation in the country. it's currently a country where around 8 million people are pushed out of their homes because of the violence there. some of them have crossed borders into neighbouring countries like chad, ethiopia and also egypt as well. but a large portion of these people are currently inside sudan as internally displaced people. now, these people require aid, which is not being provided sufficiently. on top of that, the ongoing violence has disrupted agricultural production, and logistical efforts are also disrupted because the violence has has impaired transportation. a combination of all these are have created a sense that things could go worse. and as mr griffith is warning that in the coming months, particularly as the lean season approaches, millions of people could be finding themselves in famine—like conditions, in catastrophic hunger. here in the uk — supermarket sainsbury�*s says it will not be able

to fulfil the "vast majority" of online deliveries on saturday because of "technical issues". customers have been contacting the supermarket on social media to report issues with their online orders. some stores are also having issues with contactless payments. sainsbury�*s apologised to customers and said it was working hard to fix the issue caused by an overnight software update. for more on this, i am joined by sean dilley. the dreaded software update has struck again. i sean dilley. the dreaded software update has struck again.— sean dilley. the dreaded software update has struck again. i think we all know this. _ update has struck again. i think we all know this, anyone _ update has struck again. i think we all know this, anyone who - update has struck again. i think we all know this, anyone who works i update has struck again. i think we i all know this, anyone who works with organisation with it department has had an issue where something has gone wrong overnight. this has impacted so many customers up and down the country who were waiting, maybe you are getting ready to do your sunday roasts tomorrow and you will have to go out to another supermarket. but we do have an updated statement from sainsbury is, they have been untouched and said due to an area with a software update, we are exposing issues with contactless payments. all of our stores are open, they say, as usual,

today, accepting a chip and pin and cash payments. they say they will not be able to deliver the majority of the days delivery. customers can place a new order now delivery from tomorrow. they do say, we apologise tomorrow. they do say, we apologise to customers to the inconvenience and are working hard to fix the issue. ,, , _, , and are working hard to fix the issue. ,, , .., , ., ~ issue. super competitive market, uroce issue. super competitive market, grocery shepping- _ issue. super competitive market, grocery shopping. how— issue. super competitive market, grocery shopping. how damaging | issue. super competitive market, i grocery shopping. how damaging is this a sainsbury�*s? it is grocery shopping. how damaging is this a sainsbury's?_ this a sainsbury's? it is damaging for any business _ this a sainsbury's? it is damaging for any business that _ this a sainsbury's? it is damaging for any business that is _ this a sainsbury's? it is damaging for any business that is losing - this a sainsbury's? it is damaging for any business that is losing so | for any business that is losing so much money because there will be an awful lot of people who have put orders through and they will go shopping elsewhere, the danger of any of these things is that people break habits and then move on to different brands but i think in the zist different brands but i think in the 21st century, people understand the technical issues do happen. so they will be hoping that customers will keep a very close eye on social

media channels the sainsbury's and return to them. what i would say, we do also understand that click and collect is also impacted so if you have one those books then the vast majority of orders not being fulfilled. ., ~ majority of orders not being fulfilled. . ~ , ., , . fulfilled. thank you very much indeed for _ fulfilled. thank you very much indeed for that _ fulfilled. thank you very much indeed for that update - fulfilled. thank you very much indeed for that update on - fulfilled. thank you very much indeed for that update on the | indeed for that update on the sainsbury's story. you can catch up with all of the stories we are covering by checking out our website. plenty more on there for you. do stay with us here on bbc news. i'll be back more shortly. hello. there was plenty of sunshine to start the day, although it was frosty, with some isolated freezing fog as well. but all is to change because we've got rain already getting into western areas. that will linger overnight and into the start of sunday, before we see a little sunshine come back, but some showers as well.

this is yesterday's area of low pressure. a brief ridge of high pressure brought the cold weather through the night, allowed temperatures to fall to freezing, but already, the cloud sweeping in off the atlantic. low pressure with it will mean the winds will pick up as well through the day ahead. so lifting the mist and the fog and the frost, and the sunshine should hang about across northern—eastern scotland. plenty of it to start across eastern areas. but even here, it will tend to fade later on, as the thicker cloud sweeps in. probably the wettest weather for northern ireland and across ireland. some spits and spots elsewhere through western and central parts of england, wales too. and despite all the cloud and the freshening wind, temperatures won't be as high as they were yesterday because it's been such a chilly start. so these sort of temperatures around about average for the time of year. but actually, they'll continue to rise through the evening, as the cloud trundles further north and east. it does look as if we will see some rain for the last day of the six nations in both cardiff and dublin. perhaps some heavier rain here, but probably staying dry in lyon for france's game against england this evening. but this evening, across

the united kingdom, we're going to have more cloud around. as i say, temperatures continue to rise in the north and east. heavier rain arrives as well. more pulses of rain push in across southern and western areas, getting into central and eastern parts through the night. so with all the cloud and the rain, it will be a much milder night tonight. so as we start our sunday morning, it could be quite drab underneath this weather front, which still lingers across eastern scotland, much of england and perhaps parts of wales as well, with more to come later for northern ireland and western scotland. but what a dreary start. lots of misty low cloud, because that's mild air, on a relatively chilly sea. so it'll take a time for the brightness and sunshine to emerge, perhaps into the afternoon before that rain finally clears the east coast to reveal some sunshine. but come rain or shine tomorrow, it will be mild. temperatures will be well above average again, 1a to 16, perhaps 17 in some of the sunnier spots. and the milder weather should linger with us into next week. however, as you can see from the chart, it remains unsettled. there's more rain in the forecast.

this is bbc news. the headlines: as the first ship bringing aid to gaza unloads its supplies, the us and un renew warnings about an israeli offensive in rafah, saying a ground assault would be a "humanitarian catastrophe".

nearly a year on from the outbreak of civil war in sudan, the united nations urges its warring factions to allow aid in, warning that five million people face catastrophic food insecurity. vandalism arrests in russia, as voters spoil their ballots on day two of the country's presidential elections. vladimir putin is almost certain to win a further six years — his only serious rivals are dead, in prison, or in exile. vaughan gething has been elected as the next welsh labour leader and first minister of wales — the first black leader of any european country. in his acceptance speech, he said it marked a generational shift. a second day of voting is taking place in russia's presidential election. here are live pictures of a polling station in moscow. looking relatively quiet at the moment. vladimir putin is expected to win a further six years in power,

as his opponents are either dead, in prison or in exile.