since becoming the presumptive republican nominee for president. lam i am helena lam helena humphrey. it is good to have you with us. russia has accused ukraine of disrupting its presidential elections. voters headed to the polls on the second day of a three—day election that is almost certain to result in victory for incumbent president vladimir putin. but moscow said ukraine is "intensifying its terrorist activities" to signal to the west it needs more financial assistance and weaponry. russian authorities say two people were killed by ukrainian shelling in the city of belgorod near the border with ukraine. shops and schools were closed in the city. authorities also reported shelling at a voting station in a russian—occupied part of ukraine's zaporizhzhia region. the head of russia's electoral commission said there have been 20 incidents so far of people targeting ballot boxes. protests are likely to continue

on sunday, when supporters of the late opposition leader alexei navalny are calling on people throughout russia to protest against president putin. meanwhile in the estonian town of narva, where many residents are russian, people crossed the border to vote in russia's presidential election. narva is one of only a handful of places where the border between the eu and russia is still open. bbc russian�*s oleg boldyrev sent this report. here in estonian border town of narva lies the frontier between the western world and russia. across the river with its formidable fortress lies a town 170 kilometres away from st petersburg and this is one of a handful of places where the border between the eu and russia is still open. what is even more unusual is in this place and the surrounding region thousands of people are in fact russian citizens.

in this place and the surrounding region thousands of people are in fact russian citizens. this is the legacy of the soviet union break—up. in the 1960s and �*70s people were brought from the soviet union to work in local industries and after the collapse of the soviet union they failed to get estonian citizenship. this is a source of bitter arguments between the residents and estonian authorities but the fact is that these people have applied and got russian passports and this means they can go and vote in the presidential elections which are taking place right now. the voting station is just across the bridge. there were not any big queues on this side of the border and we tried to look for people who crossed and most people were turning away. they are clearly not willing to talk about this and afraid that if they admit that they had voted it would somehow mean trouble for them. but one woman named anna was not afraid to talk. translation: i voted for putin. he is closer to my viewpoint. i understand him. i have no doubts about him.

i think every president should care for his country and his people. i see this in putin. i have a sister there, my husband's brother is there, our relatives are buried there, and to cut us apart is painful. we spoke to several more people who confirmed that they crossed the bridge and voted supporting mr putin. they were choosing their words very carefully. if they say they support mr putin and his war in ukraine it will certainly mean trouble for them here in estonia. their votes didn't matter much for mr putin as his victory is a foregone conclusion. narva illustrates a very complex situation that the baltic states are in, nervously watching their giant neighbours to the east, russia. as oleg mentioned, it's risky in estonia to express support for russia's invasion of ukraine. that's because russia's neighbour, estonia, has been one of the most vocal regional supporters of ukraine. those support efforts

are led by estonia's prime minister kaja kallas, who is here in washington tojoin us presidentjoe biden for the annual gridiron club dinner. before that, prime minister kallas spoke to my colleague, sumi somaskanda, about russia's elections, the war in ukraine and more. prime minister, thank you so much forjoining us here in the studio today. i want to start with the fact that russians are voting in an election that many consider to be neither free nor fair. it will very likely secure another term for vladimir putin in russia. what does that mean for you and europe? i refuse to call it election. why they are playing this game, calling it an election, this is another question. it is to undermine actually our democracies and elections, saying that you have elections, we have elections. we know this is not an election butjust an appointment once again for putin. so what does it really change? in the short term, probably nothing.

after the reappointment there is going to be probably some difficult decisions that we are going to see on the russian side, for example, the mobilisation, probably also trying to raise taxes or getting some income to fund the war machine because of their budget is in a very poor state and they can't raise capital outside. and at the same time vladimir putin sees himself as emboldened and if you look at the eu and us approach we have seen both impose more than 16,500 sanctions, 300 billion in assets frozen, but the russian economy has proven to be resilient. that's because of their military spending. this is something that russia wants us to believe. this is the narrative that they want us to believe, that the sanctions are hurting you but not hurting us. it has china and india as buyers of oil.

for example, gas. they have found buyers for only 5% of the gas that they used to sell to the european union. they can't sell the gas outside, so they don't have that income, or if we take the budget, over 20% of it is in deficit and they can't raise loans outside because of the sanctions. let's talk about your country plus make support for ukraine. a study recently centred $80 million military aid package and you've said in the next four years your country will promote military assistance manager 0.25% of your gdp. if you look at the situation on the ground, the law appears to have a standstill at the moment. russia has threatened to push through the ukrainian lines. i worry that it is russia that is now on the offensive and perhaps telling thatis offensive and perhaps telling that is now on the offensive and perhaps turning the tide in ukraine? , ., , ., ukraine? the question is how much aid _ ukraine? the question is how much aid we _ ukraine? the question is how much aid we provide - ukraine? the question is how much aid we provide to - ukraine? the question is how. much aid we provide to ukraine so they can defend themselves. we've made a calculation that

is all the countries that are in the ramstein coalition, the country supporting ukraine, could also announce 0.25% of their gdp military aid for next four years, we can outweigh russia. if you think about the defence budgets of the ramstein coalition, there are 17 times bigger than brush�*s have a limited one. bigger than brush's have a limited one.— limited one. one question whether— limited one. one question whether disagreement - limited one. one question i whether disagreement exists limited one. one question - whether disagreement exists is boots on the ground. you've been asked about this but the french president raised an option on the table, the german chancellors at that what happened in the american say that what happened. at what point would you deem it necessary for estonia to centibits underground ukrainecast ——to ukrainecast first of all i think it is something we are always we are always doing, that we are trying to guess what russia is doing next, so maybe this is a good situation, let them guess now

what we are doing next, so this ambiguity is actually good, that we discuss these issues, what we are able to do or not. i think we shouldn't rule out any options because if we say very certainly that this is not what we are going to do then russia takes note. 0k, we can push this further. but when would you think it would be necessary to send troops? it is under discussion, what kind of help can we give? it is not that we are sending or discussing about ground forces. this is not the issue. the issue is training ukrainian soldiers on the ground, providing help on the ground so that they can defend themselves really on the ground. so there are different options but we have to be open to discuss those. one of the biggest players in support for ukraine as the us and you know further funding here has been caught up in domestic politics as well. some republicans we have spoken to are sceptical that there is a clear path

to victory in ukraine. what is your message to them? there is a clear path to victory and first of all we have to have victory as a goal, or no wars are won unless you have a victory as a goal. what does that look like? 0ur defence ministry has done a long paper and what does the victory look like. the peace strategy that president zelensky has come up with has all the elements. accountability, going back to its borders, by russia. all of it that i can't really list here but the point is we have to have a goal to win, otherwise it is going to be more difficult for all of us. it is an election year in the us, you have said that the answer to donald trump's criticism of nato is to spend more and commit more, also to the war in ukraine. but you saw as well after he hosted the hungarian prime minister viktor 0rban said in an interview that donald trump wouldn't spend another penny on ukraine if elected.

what do you think of that? it is concerning, of course. what is of the plans of the us? i think donald trump wants america to be number one in the world. when the us stops supporting ukraine, then the us lets russia win and then america will not be the first but the second in the world because we are against the powers like russia, iran, china, north korea. so you don't think he necessarily would follow through on that? i don't see into his mind. i hope not because i have talked to representatives on both sides of the aisle and they are very strongly in support of freedom

that they understand america is all about and this is also a fight forfreedom that is going on in ukraine. so that is the essence of the united states as well. we have heard from vladimir putin. if there is this continued strength of the war in ukraine and if the us and all other countries continue to contribute, he has continued to raise the possibility of a nuclear threat. is that one you take seriously or are worried about? of course we have to take everything seriously what he says. he has been threatening with nuclear war for quite some time but it has been only words. he is very good in sowing fear within our societies and really listing what we are afraid of and giving you the fears you have, you are afraid of nuclear war so i am giving out this kind of signal. and the public reacts, and we can't do that. it is a trap.

a trap of deterrence because if we are afraid then we start to self—deter and that is what putin wants. so we also have to think what putin is afraid of and he is actually afraid of going to war with nato. he doesn't want that. we of course don't want that either. it is, to understand the messages that he is giving out so that we would be afraid and refrain from the decisions that we would otherwise make. very good to have you on bbc news today, thank you. thank you. after five months of war in gaza, pressure is growing inside israel for prime minister benjamin netanyahu to step down. protestors gathered in tel aviv on saturday to demand the return of israeli hostages and the resignation of mr netanyahu and his government. for the third saturday in a row, police used water cannon to disperse demonstrators. it comes just days after chuck schumer,

the top democrat in the us senate, as well as the highest—ranking jewish member in the us government, said mr netanyahu had "lost his way" and called for new elections in israel. mr schumer found sympathisers in saturday's protests. my message today, according to what chuck schumer said this week in the american parliament, about how benjamin netanyahu is leading us to catastrophe and we must have an election as soon as possible otherwise we are all going to be in a bad situation. talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages could resume sunday in qatar. egyptian officials said hamas has presented a new proposal for a three—stage plan to end the fighting. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called the proposal unrealistic, but agreed to send israeli negotiators to qatar. meanwhile, a humanitarian aid shipment carrying 200 tons

of food from cyprus has been unloaded onto gaza's shore. it's the first time in two decades that the sea route has been used. it's unclear, though, how the food will be distributed. the us charity, world central kitchen, is carrying out the mission in co—operation with the united arab emirates. the charity says a second aid ship is ready to go from cyprus. speaking before a two—day trip to the middle east, german chancellor 0laf scholz urged israel to allow unlimited humanitarian aid into gaza. we have a difficult situation. it is necessary for aid to reach gaza on the larger scale. that is a topic i also have to talk about. we have concern about the further enhancement of military developments. in particular there is a danger that the large—scale offensive in rafah will result in many terrible civilian casualties which must be avoided at all costs. police in haiti are trying to crack down on the gangs which have taken control of most of the capital,

port—au—prince, and forced the prime minister to resign. the united nations has described the security situation as tense and volatile and warns that increasing numbers of children in haiti are going hungry as unrest continues. facilities have closed due to the ongoing violence, and haitians are now facing soaring prices for food and other essentials. translation: the prices of -roducts translation: the prices of products are _ translation: the prices of products are exorbitant. - translation: the prices of. products are exorbitant. when on the streets people have turned against us, they don't feel comfortable and don't live in peace. they can't even sleep at home also on the children to school because they have no money to feed them. when merchants go to the streets looking for money to feed our children and wives, we find nothing. 0ur correspondent, will grant, is on the ground in haiti and he gave me the latest a little earlier. we have heard reports today that police in haiti have been trying to arrest the leader of the gangs controlling most of the capital. what is the latest

you can us about that? it appears there was quite an extensive swat team operation in an area of the capital. that is where it is known to be one of the strongholds. clearly they were trying to either capture him or kill him but they were successful in neither of those attempts. there were a number of casualties on the side of the gangs by all accounts but if anything it is going to beget more violence. we have heard today of more shooting in the capital and a quite fierce response from the gangs to the operation by the police. it sort of paints the picture of what is going on. a cat and mouse game is going on in the neighbourhoods where the police are obviously outnumbered by the gangs at this stage unless they get serious reinforcements in the coming weeks and months. talk to us about the humanitarian situation on the ground. the united nations is warning of high levels of malnutrition and

the potential for starvation. talk to conditions for people caught up in all of this. by all accounts it is becoming extremely serious in port—au—prince. where we are we are in cap—haitien seeing so many people arriving from the capital whichever way they can. we have seen just now, while waiting to come on are to speak to you, a bus coming from port—au—prince. there are very few running because it is so dangerous and it took extra hours because it had to go out of its way because of the police operation and the response by the gangs, adding on ours to the journey. it is a grimly frightening for those who are on the bus and travelling this way. it is less frightening to get here and

make thatjourney than it is to remain at home so we are seeing more than 360,000 internally displaced people and of course the aid to deal with the humanitarian emergency is simply not coming in at the pace it should. it is a trickle, if that. as ever, many thanks for your reporting. here in the us, donald trump made his first major campaign stop since becoming the presumptive republican nominee for president. mr trump spoke at a rally to endorse republican 0hio senate candidate bernie moreno in a primary race. 0hio, once seen as a swing state, has shifted to the right over the years after voters voted for trump in 2016 and 2020. mr moreno, seen here on the left, is running against matt dolan who has the backing of the state's established conservative base. he's spent millions of his own money on his campaign. a surveyusa poll says that they're both in a statistical tie, with moreno at 29% and dolan 27%. the ohio republican primary is 19 march. as the two lead candidates face—off, democrats are running ads in support of mr moreno, with the hope that he'll be a weaker challenger to their candidate

come november. the highly anticipated senate election is an important one and mr trump's support could possibly propel mr moreno to victory in the primary. while backing mr moreno, donald trump also made his case for another term in the white house. a brilliant, very brilliant wall street analyst said the only thing good right now about our economy is the stock market and the only reason that's good is because people think that trump is going to be elected president and if they ever thought that he wasn't you would end up with a crash, the likes of which we haven't seen since 1929. so they can take that the way they want but i happen to agree. my colleague, carl nasman, was at the rally and sent this report. donald trump boarding his private

plane and getting ready to leave 0hio. this address going hard on immigration and the border, criticising current presidentjoe biden for what he says his failed immigration policies. he said during the rally that if he were elected this country would see its biggest deportation of migrants in its history. ohio is trump country and this is a state that is increasingly red, one that he has won in the past two presidential elections so he doesn't necessarily need to be campaigning here but he is here to support his preferred candidate in the republican senate race, bernie moreno, a controversialfigure, towards the far right of the spectrum, so more viewers to trump on immigration and he said he would support eliminating all us military aid to ukraine. this is a closely watched race because if the republicans are to retake the senate seat in ohio, they could likely retake control of the senate. it would be good news for the republicans and so donald trump hoping to rally his base here in ohio, to not only return to the white house

but to return control of congress back to the republicans. princess diana's brother, earl spencer, has told the bbc that the press attention suffered by his sister was more dangerous than the scrutiny faced by catherine, the current princess of wales. in an interview for tomorrow's sunday with laura kuenssberg, earl spencer has also revealed details about the violent punishments that he and his sister endured when they were young. here's laura kuenssberg with more. i always believed the press would kill her in the end, but not even i could imagine that they would take such a direct hand in her death. charles spencer's fury at the way the press treated his sister, diana, made him famous. it is a point to remember... his anger at her funeral, raw, after years of intrusion and pain. ..a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age. decades later, there's been a frenzy around the current princess of wales, kate — even around a family photo.

but does the rumour and online speculation compare to what diana endured? no, i think it was more dangerous back in the day. the circumstances of her death were so shocking that it did make the industry that supports the paparazzi really consider more carefully what it could and couldn't do. not because they had a moraljudgement, but because it was unacceptable. he's publishing a memoir about appalling, violent and sexual abuse he suffered at boarding school. sent away at the age of eight, he became a victim. innocent family snaps mask the darker secrets of what went on. he even told me, he and his sister were physically hurt by a nanny known as nanny foster, as young children. and their elder sisters were punished with laxatives by a different nanny, too. she used to crack our heads together if we were both

found to have done something naughty — obviously, without my father's knowledge. but it really hurt. it wasn't a tap on the wrist. it was a cracking crunch, you know, and i remember it still. but you and diana and your other sisters were then brought up, even in a home environment, where staff, nannies who were hired to look after you, were hurting you. again, i don't think we realised that that was wrong. charles spencer may come from one of the wealthiest families in the land, but privilege is no guarantee of happiness. aristocracy — no protection from abuse. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. let's turn to some important news around the world. niger's military government has revoked its defence accord with the united states, with immediate effect. the decade—long agreement allowed american troops stationed at a base in the desert to operate drones targeting islamist militant groups across the west african sahel region. but last year, niger's civilian president was ousted

by the military and washington cut off financial aid. a us delegation arrived in niger earlier this week hoping to resume a dialogue, but intead inadvertently sparked a diplomatic row. newjersey police have a suspect in custody following a deadly shooting and dramatic standoff in nearby pennsylvania. police say they confronted a 26—year—old homeless man who was holding people hostage at a building in the newjersey city of trenton. they say he shot and killed three people after stealing a car in pennsylvania. history was made in the uk on saturday, as vaughan gething was elected the first black leader of the welsh labour party. gething will also become europe's first black leader when he takes over as the first minister of wales next week, suceeding current leader mark drakeford. mr gething was born in zambia and is a former solicitor. before we go, i want to bring you some incredible live pictures from iceland. a volcano in iceland has erupted for the fourth time

since december, spewing lava into the air and sending fountains of molten rock soaring from fissures in the ground. police declared a state of emergency for the area, which is just south of the capital, reykjavik. the nearby fishing town of grindavik, where some residents had returned following earlier eruptions is being evacuated once again. you are watching bbc news. i am helena humphrey in washington. thanks for your company. more news at the top of the hour. join me there. hello there. at last some beautiful spring sunshine for much of the uk on saturday including here in cumbria. it wasn't long before we saw the cloud thicken from the west before outbreaks of rain moving northwards and eastwards. this will come down as rain over

wales for a time into central and southern england and eastern england so a soggy start to the day but it is a mild one, milder than it was on saturday morning. temperatures between 5—11 degrees. double figures in the south still. a mild start of the day, more sunshine on offer throughout the day on sunday but also a few showers in the afternoon. it's a very wet start for parts of southern england. the heavy rain clears over the north sea. here it should brighten up by lunchtime and perhaps more sunshine developing. sunny spells elsewhere. coastal and hill fog for a time across the west. it will cloud over northern ireland in the afternoon. outbreaks of rain here, some of the shower is heavy and thundery the northern england but mild again, we could see 17 celsius in east anglia as we head through the afternoon. looking to the west again as we had through sunday night and into monday, various weather fronts approaching. these are fizzling out. there will be rain in the north and west throughout the night and then it is a bit

of patchy cloud as we head through much of monday. for most of us on monday it will stay dry, clouding over, outbreaks of rain over northern ireland and western scotland by the end of the day. the air is still mild. again, temperatures will peak in the teens for many. keeping that mild air heading through monday and tuesday with that southwesterly wind. on tuesday we are likely to see more heavy rain across the north and the west. so for northern ireland and the western scotland. elsewhere i think it'll stay largely dry as we had throughout the day. a lot of the cloud will break up and we will see brighter spells developing. all eyes out towards the southwest by the time we get to the end of tuesday because this rain could cause some problems perhaps on wednesday. but the air is still very mild on tuesday, 12—16 celsius. it could turn cooler as we head through wednesday and thursday. it stays unsettled, more rain forecast at times. bye— bye.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. behind the barbed wire of korea's demilitarised zone sits a tiny village...

this village represents the hope of one day reunifying the korean peninsula. ..nestled in the heart of what's otherwise a no—man�*s land. here, a community of south koreans live in the shadow of their enemy, north korea. as young people shun a life of semi—captivity, its numbers are dwindling, along with the hope korea will ever be reunified. 0urjourney into the demilitarised zone begins at dawn. we pass checkpoint after checkpoint accompanied by commander chris mercado. freedom main, this is freedom 6. 0ver.