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. i'm anna foster, live injerusalem. as the first ship bringing aid to gaza unloads its supplies, the us and un renew warnings about an israeli offensive in rafah. hello, i'm lauren taylor. we start in wales, where vaughan gething will become europe's first black leader after winning 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. in his acceptance speech, 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, and we'll be there. 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 drakeford 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. 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 198 million people are eligible to cast ballots. here's the chief election

commissioner making 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 will it 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 4th 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.

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 continues to grow, doesn't it? ., �* , the toll continues to grow, doesn't it? ., �*, ., �*, the toll continues to grow, doesn't it? . a ., a , the toll continues to grow, doesn't it? that's right. that's why you have seen _ it? that's right. that's why you have seen the _ it? that's right. that's why you have seen the un _ it? that's right. that's why you have seen the un and - it? that's right. that's why you have seen the un and the - it? that's right. that's why you have seen the un and the us l it? that's right. that's why you - have seen the un and the us again in the last 2a hours or so caution against a planned israeli ground offensive in the city of rafah. this is right on the southern tip of gaza, it's the place where more than half of gaza's population are now sheltering. people you had to flee their homes in the early days of the finding in the north and central part of the strip. 1.4 million people there now, many of them living in tents and if israel is going to carry out a ground operation there, those people need

to be moved out of harms way. they could be catastrophic for those civilians so that is why have those warnings from the un. us as if this will go ahead, and benjamin netanyahu has repeatedly said it well, the uss pounds is the plan in advance but as yet it hasn't. —— the us says it wants to see a plan in advance. 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 are seeking refuge in rafah. to move in right now in a major way without a proper accounting for all those people would come as we've said, be a disaster. this is all against the backdrop of a desperate situation for civilians

in gaza. the humanitarian situation is it's ordinarily hard. we have seen just in the last 24 hours or so, the first ship to bring aid to gaza. this is a spanish charity ship telling a barge from the charity world central kitchen, carrying tonnes of meals. this is the first time ed has come in by sea from the war, it doesn't meet in any way the need that read fulfilled. they had some difficulties, they had a great appear and release this video. you can see the way that they have had to on this temporaryjetty, left of those huge pallets of aid with cranes and put them on track. the next difficulty will be the distribution of that aid to people who are absolutely desperate. we have seen convoys are swamped, people killed, shot by idf forces who felt threatened by the crowds, they said. we have seen people crushed under the wheels of those eight tracks at times as well. just

want to make sure that aid gets to people going to be difficult. not too many details yet on how they manage that. 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. that is richard makepeace talking about some of the difficulties they face trying to get aid throughout the gaza strip to those people who so desperately need it. that's all for now from here in eastjerusalem, they can hear the calls to prayer ringing out from the mosque not too far away in the old city. much more to come from here but for now, back to come from here but for now, back to lauren in london. the pakistani military says at least

seven troops have been killed in an attack on a security post in the north—west of the country. it said the insurgents began the attack by ramming an explosives—filled vehicle into the post followed by multiple suicide bombings that led to the collapse of a portion of a building in the north waziristan region. but the military did not say which group was responsible for the assault. there have been several attacks on security forces in recent months, many of them claimed by the pakistani taliban. 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.

traffic is building on the m25, the busiest motorway in the uk that connects all of the major london airports — as unprecedented closures come into force. motorists have been warned of gridlock on roads around the m25 in surrey this weekend because of the first planned daytime closure of the motorway since it opened in 1986. among those affected by the disruption are people going to gatwick and heathrow airports, as well as the channel ports. let's speak to our correspondent marc ashdown. what is going on there? not so glamorous. _ what is going on there? not so glamorous, really, _ what is going on there? not so glamorous, really, here. - what is going on there? not so glamorous, really, here. this. what is going on there? not so | glamorous, really, here. this is what is going on there? not so - glamorous, really, here. this is the sort of scene you don't usually see, the m25 completely shut, eight lines of traffic which would normally be thundering past yet at this time of day. about 100 vehicles a minute to

come through the section. the m25 is a big clock face, it goes around london, we are about six o'clock, seven o'clock down the bottom there atjunction ten over there and we arejust next tojunction atjunction ten over there and we are just next to junction 11. it is only five miles long but this is quite an important stretch and it was closed at nine o'clock friday and won't open again until 6am on monday morning because of a major improvement programme going on junction ten. as you mentioned, the advice to motorists is to avoid this error at all costs or we can. what error at all costs or we can. what ha--ens error at all costs or we can. what happens if _ error at all costs or we can. what happens if the — error at all costs or we can. what happens if the works _ error at all costs or we can. what happens if the works overrun? it can be quite disruptive if it does overrun. ., ., ., , :::: :::::: overrun. there are normally 200,000 orso overrun. there are normally 200,000 or so jellies — overrun. there are normally 200,000 or so jellies that _ overrun. there are normally 200,000 or so jellies that go _ overrun. there are normally 200,000 or so jellies that go on _ overrun. there are normally 200,000 or so jellies that go on ever _ overrun. there are normally 200,000 or so jellies that go on ever day, - or so jellies that go on ever day, around 250,000 on weekdays. ——

journeys. this is the official diversion route they have put in place. it comes offjunction11, back on over at cobham on junction ten, that intersect the a3. it is not really designed for these massive lorries, as you can see. certainly the smaller roads are definitely not. people have been strongly advised to stick to this rate if they can. as you can see, this is the busiest we have seen it this is the busiest we have seen it this morning. people do seem to be heeding this advice but the theories, if this projected overrun, what happen in rush hour monday morning. the site is very busy, lots of big drills, seem to be on track at the moment. they are hopeful of getting it reopened thursday on monday. it is a massive project.

let's have a look at the empty motorway again. lots of traffic jams, accidents that happen here. they are widening the motorway. they are removing a bridge and putting a brand—new gantry end. we are told this is the first of four, five in total, four more to come. the whole project not due to finish into the middle of next year.— project not due to finish into the middle of next year. thank you very much indeed- _ now it's time for a look at today's sport. there are four sides in the running for the title on the final day of the six nations. ireland are the clear favourites to retain the championship going into their match against scotland but if they fail to collect a point, then england could win it with a bonus point victory in lyon. france and scotland are also in contention, whilst wales and italy meet in cardiff, hoping to avoid finishing bottom. andy swiss is in dublin for us.

ireland know that if they beat scotland here this afternoon or if they get a draw, they will be the champions. in fact, they get a draw, they will be the champions. infact, even they get a draw, they will be the champions. in fact, even a narrow defeat will almost certainly be enough so the title is very much ireland's for the taking and it would be the second title in a row because they won it last year. it would be some achievement for ireland. as for scotland, if they secured a huge win here over ireland, they might still have a mathematical chance of winning the title but they will know only too well, they have a terrible recent record against ireland, they have lost their last nine meetings. it has been a frustrating six nations in many ways for scotland because at times, they have been brilliant, they were brilliant in the calcutta cup match against england but they have been inconsistent, winning here this afternoon will be very difficult for scotland. winning the

title is all but impossible. well captain peter 0'mahony is well aware of all those potential outcomes, and admitted he wants to prevent the torture" of another tense finale. you have to discuss these things. we are making discussions around three, penalties —— referees. there is a handful of us who might not have to make a decision, but we want to put in a performance that is capable of winning. that is what the super saturday means for the competition. it's great that there are so many teams involved. as well as the six nations — we've got the quarterfinals of the fa cup this weekend.

wolves against coventry under way. it's still 0-0 at half—time at molineux — both sides missing chances in the first half. later, manchester city host newcastle. it's nearly 70 years since newcastle's last major trophy. no such problems for city who could become the first english side to win successive trebles but pep guardiola knows the threat newcastle pose. they knocked city out of the league cup back in september. this isn't the previous one and the previous one, since eddie howe was there and the people from saudi arabia to take over. i don't expect differently tomorrow but we have an incredible chance again at home. from now on, we need the support from our fans like we had against united, to reach wembley, the semifinal again. bayern munich will attempt to take a bite out of bayer leverkusen's commanding lead in germany's bundesliga on saturday. it's at ten points ahead of bayern's game at darmstadt. leverkusen play on sunday. while in spain's la liga the top two

are both playing on saturday. real madrid have a seven point lead over girona and they play first at 0sasuna before girona's trip to getafe later. us open champion coco gauff has been knocked out in the semi finals of indian wells by greece's maria sakkari, who despite letting a 5—2 second—set lead slip, regrouped to beat the 20 —year—old third seed in three sets. she'll now play the world number one iga swiatek in sunday's final. much iga swiatek in sunday's final. more on our website. all much more on our website. that is all your spot for now. the supermarket sainsbury�*s said it will not be able to fulfil the mass majority of online deliveries on saturday because of what it calls technical issues. customers have been contacting the supermarket to report problems with their online

orders. some stores are also having issues of contact as payments. sainsbury�*s apologised to customers and said it was working hard to fix theissue and said it was working hard to fix the issue caused by an overnight software update. a court in hong kong has sentenced a group of people in connection with the storming of the city's legislative council building in 2019. that took place at the height of anti—government protests. most of the defendants were found guilty of rioting. the longestjail term handed down is six years and ten months. two other people were jailed for 57 and 74 months respectively. and two journalists were given relatively small fines — the equivalent of less than 200 us dollars — for illegally entering the legislative council chamber. next — something different now in mexico city. if you love a siesta, this story is for you, as hundreds of people there have been having a �*mass nap' to commemorate world sleep day.

with bright blue yoga mats, sleeping masks and travel pillows, it's safe to say people in mexico are enjoying their siesta. it was also meant to be a protest to push for sleep to be considered an essential part of health and wellness. if you are not already having a lie down, you can check out our website for the stories. details that of the election in wales and the new first minister. do stay with us on bbc news. hello there. last night was a cold one. we had a frost in places. but following on from that chilly start — at least, for a while — we did see some sunshine. but the weather is changing quite quickly because the cloud is coming in, and this area of low pressure is to the west of us, out in the atlantic. but well ahead of it, this cloud

is coming in from the west, and these weather fronts are bringing some rain and drizzle. so the weather is going downhill through the rest of the day. temperatures towards the end of the afternoon maybe making double figures. it's a bit cooler than it was yesterday across south—eastern areas, but there won't be much rain here. we do have rain across other areas pushing eastwards during this evening. the heaviest of the rain will be across scotland, before it clears away, and then we'll see some rain developing across more of england and wales by the early hours of the morning, into the end of the night. and there could be a fair bit of rain around as well, particularly over the hills. that'll keep the temperatures up. a bit chillier where we have some breaks in the cloud for scotland and northern ireland. and we should see more breaks in the cloud developing on sunday, once the morning rain clears away. sunny spells and just a few showers here and there. we do have this wet weather to move across england and wales. it does move eastwards fairly quickly out into the north sea, and then the cloud breaks up, sunny spells develop. there will be a few showers around, mainly for the northern half of the uk. one or two heavy ones perhaps in northern england. but we're drawing in milder air, actually, tomorrow.

temperatures across the board will be higher than today, reaching 15, or even 16, quite widely across england. and then, we've got a couple of weakening weather fronts moving in overnight on sunday night. not much rain on those at all. we're left with this band of cloud and a few spots of rain first thing in the morning. that moves through and then there'll be some sunshine coming out, and many places will have a dry day. but the next weather system is arriving in the west, picking the winds up, particularly through the irish sea, and bringing some rain in here and across northern ireland. but we've still got temperatures of reaching 15 or 16 degrees. and it's going to stay mild into tuesday as well. that area of low pressure is going to drive northwards, taking the wetter weather more across scotland overnight and then out of the way, so things will become drier and brighter through the day on tuesday, with some sunshine. but we've still got this cloud hanging back here in southern england, and it could turn wetter in the afternoon in the south—west. but it's still mild —

temperatures, 15 or 16.

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". now it is time for the travel show. this week, i'm in turkey, where they're gearing up for the country's 100th anniversary. rising from the remains

of the ottoman empire a century ago,