the us says it's chartering a plane to evacuate its civilians from the north. a state of emergency in iceland after a fourth volcanic eruption in as many months. the village of grindavik is evacuated, only weeks after residents were allowed to return. we start in russia — and bring you these live pictures from moscow, where voting has entered its third and final day for the country's presidential election, which is certain to hand vladimir putin another six years in power. ballots have been cast over three days. there has been some vandalism and a number of arrests at polling stations, but the final result is not in doubt, as mr putin has no credible opponent. it comes as supporters of the late opposition leader, alexei navalny, have urged people to turn out en masse at midday

in each time zone and vote for any candidate other than mr putin or spoil their ballot papers. the rolling protest has been dubbed "noon against putin". one of the main issues that voters are thinking about, is the war in ukraine. on that, here are two voters from an area just north of moscow. "i wish this special operation would end as soon as possible. "it is a pity people are dying," she says. "can you imagine how many people died, and now ourfront line "regions are suffering? "i am an elderly person but i'm really worried about this". "i came to vote for a man who does everything to ensure there is no war "in the world," this man says, "that our country lives and prospers "and that there is no fascism in any country, "not in ukraine or any other part of the world." our russia editor, steve rosenberg is in moscow and gave his assessment of the calls from kremlin critics — for protests across russia.

this was an idea that was proposed by russian opposition figures abroad in exile, it was supported by the most prominent opposition figure alexei navalny shortly before his death in a penal colony. it has been endorsed by alexei navalny�*s widow. they are calling on russians to come out to polling stations at midday local time in large numbers and vote for any candidate other than vladimir putin, or to spoil their ballot. and they say that if large numbers of people come out, that will undermine the official result, which is expected to show a vladimir putin landslide. but as i say, it is unclear how people will come out and here in the russian capital, the moscow prosecutors office has issued a warning, basically saying that large numbers of people at polling stations at midday will be considered an unauthorised mass public event and suggesting that will be illegal. it is not clear how that would work. i mean, people have the right

to come out and vote today on the third and final day of the presidential election. breaking news. the turnout to brush up breaking news. the turnout to brush up two presidential election according to the day control agency hit 67.5% on sunday —— mark the russian presidential election. several hours before the end of polling, polling has been over three days, turn out in 2018 was 67.5% and today they say it was 67.54%, slightly higher. the highest ever turnout in modern russia presidential election was injune presidential election was in june 1991. presidential election was injune 1991. this could be an interim figure but estate new adjacency —— state new agency.

paul moorcraft is a foreign policy expert and author of "putin's wars and nato's flaws: why russia invaded ukraine". i asked him whether putin will use another election victory, to justify pushing forwards with the war in ukraine. this is going to be seen as a great victory by putin, of course. but you shouldn't underestimate the fact that he does have a lot of popular support in russia, and i have no personal support for putin. i have experienced first—hand russian military behaviour and very bad behaviour. but you forget that there's a lot of old fashioned nationalists, including people like solzhenitsyn or alexei navalny. lots of people are in support of putin's takeover of the crimean, which is always seen as essentially russian. so he does have a lot of support, and i might add in a contrarian fashion that if alexei navalny was alive and kicking and back in russia, i'm not sure,

and was allowed to stand, i'm not entirely sure that he wouldn't be defeated by putin. so don't underestimate the nationalist support for putin in the country, particularly at a time when nato in russian perspective, is seen as at the height of his power here with finland and with swedenjoining, this is the mother of all unintended consequences. and many russians feel, genuinely feel that they are encircled and putin is defending them in their existential war with the west. so as a result on that, do you think that there will be another round of mobilisation and an intensification of the war in ukraine? i think there will be. i think they will continue pushing extra mobilisation on the back of this election and putin and will say, look, the people are supporting me in this special military operation.

and he will push, keep pushing. he's gaining ground in their counter—offensive against the ukrainians because the west has got compassion fatigue. it's not sending weapons. the french and the germans are arguing with each other. so from putin's perspective, the west at the height of nato's power, is actually looking very disorganised. he will certainly set out and wait for a trump victory. meanwhile, he will keep pushing. at the moment, you know, britain in its last budget last week didn't even mention defence. i'm not sure that britain, with its military weakness, can control its own or even defend the isle of wight. so from the russian perspective, the west looks as though it's in disarray, although of course it looks much stronger from the western perspective. russia has accused ukraine of trying to disrupt the russian election with drone and missile attacks. russia's defence ministry says that overnight its air defence systems brought down 35 ukrainian drones across eight regions, including moscow. drones also started a fire at an oil refinery

in the krasnodar region, and these images are from the belgorod region which the ministry said had come under attack from ukrainian rockets; the governor said a teenage girl died when a shell hit a residential building. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford has this analysis on these attacks from the ukrainian capital kyiv. and certainly there has been an intensification of attacks by russia and ukraine around this election over the three—day period. and of course, in the run up to it, i'd say it's pretty much war as usual here, frankly. russia has been launching missiles and drones targeting cities like kharkiv in the north and 0desa on the black sea. and 0desa on the black sea in the last day or so and overnight. russia is saying that drones from ukraine are being launched at targets there, reaching as far as moscow, we understand, and also krasnodar in the south of the country. the accusation is it's an attempt to to disrupt the election. i think ukraine would argue that it's defending itself

against an illegal invasion. and certainly president putin, as he has moved towards this re—election, he wants this vote, i think, to give him a mandate to continue with that war. he wants to portray it as a vote of support for the war that he launched and that he wants to continue to prosecute. but i think it's interesting to remember in all of this that the vote is also taking place on occupied territory here in ukraine, the east and south of the country. ukraine says that's utterly illegitimate. and we've been talking to activists and to ukrainian citizens on the ground in those areas who say that they're attempting to disrupt the vote. they say turnout is extremely low. they say russia wants to portray them as supporting vladimir putin and supporting the annexation of those areas. but they say they are quite firmly still pro—ukrainian and they're trying to resist going to the vote, although they're being pressured. there are armed men coming around with ballot boxes and with election officials trying to pressure people into voting in this election. they say that the turnout for moscow is extremely important. they want to show this as a huge

vote of support for vladimir putin. activists on the ground are saying it's nothing of the sort. the uk defence secretary, grant shapps, had to abandon a trip to the southern ukrainian city of 0desa last week, after he was warned moscow had gained knowledge of his travel plans. the sunday times newspaper said a last minute intelligence assessment deemed the security risk too great. it follows an incident last week when an raf plane mr shapps was travelling in between the uk and poland had its gps signal jammed while flying close to russian territory. here's our political correspondent helen catt with more. well, of course, because this is a security and intelligence incident. we don't have a lot more detail, really, that we're able to share with you. but we do know that, as you mentioned, there was that incident earlier in the week where mr shapps was travelling on a plane and the gps was jammed when he came near to russian territory. he went to ukraine. we know that he arrived in ukraine for a planned trip, but part of that trip was supposed to include a visit to 0desa

and that was pulled. the ministry of defence has confirmed that — it said that he did not make a planned visit to 0desa for security reasons. now, the sunday times says that that is because there was intelligence that moscow had learnt about the detail of that, and the paper said that it was already on high alert because just a few hours earlier there had been a near miss in 0desa where a russian strike had almost hit president zelensky and the greek prime minister, who was then visiting. so that's what we know about this incident. grant shapps said to the sunday times that president putin had shown himself to be reckless, ruthless and careless, and he said he hoped that his visit would act as a wake up call to push, persuade and even embarrass the rest of the world into action. health officials in gaza say more than 60 palestinians have been killed in israeli bombardments overnight. the health ministry said 12 members of one family were killed

when their house in deir al—balah in the centre of the territory was hit. these images are from the hospital in the aftermath of that attack. ceasefire talks are expected to resume in qatar later today, with an israeli delegation likely to join the negotiations, but it's not yet clear when it might leave. well, the us secretary of state antony blinken has made a brief stop in bahrain to discuss efforts to secure a potential ceasefire deal with the country's crown prince and foreign minister. he made the diplomatic stop on his way to south korea, where he'll attend a two—day summit on democracy. our state department correspondent is travelling with him and sent us this update from the runway in seoul. we have just landed after a long trip, which stopped in bahrain for refuelling. the secretary of state while we were there for around 1.5 hours had talks with the crown prince, with the foreign minister. a short statement released after that meeting around the continued

push for what they are now calling at least a six—week ceasefire between israel and hamas in gaza in return for the release we know that effort goes on but few signs of a breakthrough at this stage. i imagine that pretty intensive work is going to continue during this brief trip to asia. at the same time, we know that the response by hamas went to the israelis on friday. to the israelis on friday their war cabinet met, and then today talks resuming, indirect talks, with israel sending a delegation to qatar who have been mediating these discussions along with the egyptians, and these will be the first talks that both hamas and israel have attended indirectly like this, the first talks that both of them have participated in since the start of ramadan.

news coming in from benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, who said israel will continue to operate in rafa and will evacuate civilian populations from the battle zones. netanyahu said it will take a few weeks, and it will happen, in spite of international pressure and he criticised international ally for what he said were a short memory regarding the october the 7th attack and he said, mounting international pressure will not stop us from achieving the goals of war against hamas. to afghanistan, where local officials say 21 people have been killed when a bus collided with a tanker and a motorbike, in the southern helmand province on sunday. a spokesman for the governor of helmand province said the accident took place on the main highway between kandahar and herat. 11 injured victims have been taken to hospital.

traffic accidents are common in afghanistan, often due to poor road conditions. the united states embassy in haiti says it is arranging a charter flight to evacuate us citizens from the northern coastal city of cap haitian. many of the several hundred thousand people displaced by haiti's gang—related violence have fled there. the embassy warned that americans would have to travel to the airport at their own risk. the situation in port—au—prince remains very volatile. earlier, haitian police said several gang members were killed in a weekend operation to clear roadblocks and seize weapons in the delmas district of the capital. they've been trying to arrest the leader of the gangs controlling most of the capital. 0ur central america and carribean correspondent will grant gave us this update on that. well, it appears there was quite an extensive swat team operation in an area of the capital, and that is where there is known to be one of the strongholds of this gang.

they were clearly trying to capture the leader or kill him but they were successful in neither of those attempts. they were a number of casualties in the gangs by all accounts, but if anything it has beget more violence. today there has been more shooting in the capital, and a quite fierce response from the gangs to the operation by the police. this paints a picture of what is going on, really. it is a sort of cat and mouse game going on in the neighbourhoods, with the police who are outnumbered by the gangs at this stage, unless they get serious reinforcements in the coming weeks and months. by all accounts, it is becoming extremely serious in port—au—prince. here where we are, the way it is seen is the fact that there are just so many people arriving from the capital whichever way they can. we sawjust now while we were waiting to come on air and speak to you, a bus coming from port—au—prince. there are very few running

because it is so dangerous. 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 hours onto the journey. it is extremely frightening for those on the bus and travelling this way. but 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 that it should. it is a trickle, if that. now it's time for a look at today's sport with chetan pathak. we start with tennis. it's finals day at indian wells. the world number one iga swiatek will play greece's maria sakarri later. meanwhile, in the men's draw, the two time grand slam champion carlos alcaraz has ended jannik sinner�*s19—match unbeaten run to reach the final alcaraz, defending his title, dropped the first set 6—1 in a match that was interrupted by rain — but he took charge of the second and third sets — this was the long

rally on match point. the 20—year—old from spain at the bottom of your screen — aiming to win his first title since wimbledon last year — got the job done — three and two — becoming the first man to beat the australian open champion sinnner this year. iam i am really happy to classify further final. i am really happy to classify furtherfinal. it means i am really happy to classify further final. it means a lot to i am really happy to classify furtherfinal. it means a lot to me to play such a great level and play another final and to play such a great level and play anotherfinal and of to play such a great level and play another final and of course winning today. 16 matches straight. and to be able to win something like this, it is incredible for me. and alcaraz will meet daniil medvedev in a repeat of last

year's final in california, after the russian player also came back from a set down to win his semifinal 1—6 7—6 6—2 against american tommy paul. in the nba, a0 points from lebronjames wasn't enough to prevent the la lakers slipping to a 128 to 121 defeat against the golden state warriors, for whom steph curry scored 31 points after missing the three previous games with an ankle injury. meanwhile, the new york knicks won their third game in a row, beating the sacramento kings 98—91. jalen brunson scored 42 points, becoming only the fourth knicks player to register consecutive 40—point games alongside carmelo anthony, bernard king and patrick ewing. brunson�*s 42 points came two days after his 45—point game against portland. he's now scored a0 or more points in seven games this season. elsewhere, the houston rockets kept their play—in tournament hopes alive with a win against the cleveland cavaliers — theirfifth in a row, jalen green led the way for the rockets with 26 points and 11 rebounds.

houston, who made 15 three pointers, have won seven of their last eight, pulling within three games of the golden state warriors for the final western conference play—in spot. xander schauffele will take a one—shot lead into the final round of the players championship at tpc sawgrass as americans dominate the top of the leaderbaord. the american hit seven birdies in a 65 that saw him overhaul halfway leader wyndham clark's four—shot advantage and finish on 17 under par at sawgrass. clark is 16—under while brian harman is a further shot back. england's matthew fitzpatrick is on 13—under, the only non—american in the top nine. after wins for manchester city and coventry city, there are two remaining fa cup quarterfinal ties in england on sunday as chelsea host championship leicester — followed by the old rivals meeting at old trafford — manchester united and liverpool, withjurgen klopp admitting the game means a bit more than most.

it was always a tough place to go feral. it is not easy. it means everything to both fan groups, absolutely everything, we know that, we try to show that on the pitch as well with their workrate. but you never know. there are no guarantees, just opportunities, and we really do give it a try. xabi alonso's bayer leverkusen travel to face freiburg in the bundesliga later, looking to re—establish their ten—point lead over champions bayern munich who beat darmstadt 5—2 on saturday. meanwhile, wolfsburg have parted ways with head coach nico kovac with immediate effect. wolfsburg were beaten 3—1 at home by augsburg on saturday and are without a win since december, taking just six points from their past 11 games. and that's all the sport for now. let's take you live to iceland now, where a state of emergency has been declared after another volcanic eruption

on the reykjanes peninsula — the fourth since december. among those being asked to leave the area are residents of the town of grindavik, which has been badly affected by the continuing flare—ups. iceland's airspace remains open, but the nearby blue lagoon, one of the country's most popular tourist attractions, has been evacuated. this is now the seventh eruption since 2021, and scientists believe the area is entering a new volcanic era that could last for decades, or even centuries. dr rikke pedersen is the head of the nordic volcanological centre at the university of iceland. she gave me this assesment on the latest eruption. of the four that we've seen in this particular volcanic system, this is the most powerful so far. and the fourth eruption since december. how significant is it that to have a run of eruptions like this? well, this is a typical pattern

of these rifting volcanic systems. so it initiates with a dyke intrusion, that is magma moving below the surface into a fracture. the one formed on the 10th of november was 15 kilometers long and widened up to several meters. but following that, we will have repeated injections of magma into the same fissure system and eventually it starts spilling out on the surface. and that's what we're seeing now. so in the future we will also expect to have further eruptions and likely bigger eruptions. and when you say likely bigger eruptions, is it possible to predict the scale of them and how much damage or how much they'll affect people there? no, it's not possible to predict, but of course, we can look at what has happened in the past and compare it to what was seen, for instance, in the past eruptive episode

in that particular volcanic system. and we see some of the lava fields that were erupted in that episode were quite substantially larger than what we're seeing now. give us an idea for people who don't know the region that well. so, 33, i understand, volcanic systems or active volcano systems in the area. in all of iceland. so give us an idea of why that is and how often they erupt. oh, so iceland really is situated on a plate spreading on a boundary where plates are spreading apart. and also we have a mantle plume in the area that lifts the entire bottom of the sea below the sea surface. so that's why we have this dual production of magma, both from the mantle hotspot and from the plate spreading. so that's why iceland is such a volcanic region and we have on average eruptions every fourth years. so this is out of the ordinary that

we have repeated eruptions every month. and people have talked about this new volcanic era. do you agree with that prediction? well, it seems like the reykjanes peninsula, which has these long periods of dormancy, and then eruptive periods have entered from more than 800 years of dormancy and into a new eruptive era from the 2021 eruption. and at the moment, the airport is not closed. but do you expect there will need to be further measures to protect people? well, as long as we don't have a significant ash production, there is no need to close the airport. so ash production is only relevant within this volcanic system if the magma comes into contact with large amounts of water. so if we would have in the future an eruption initiating in the sea, then that would be a possibility that it would affect the nearby airport.

but at this point, there is no risk to the airport. we are keeping an eye on those live pictures coming to us from iceland where the state of emergency has been declared in the southern iceland area. another volcanic eruption on the reykjanes peninsula, the fourth since december and lava has now reached the eastern defences around the evacuated town of grindavik. around the evacuated town of grindavik. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. a wet morning for many so concerns of localised flooding and that will be an issue through the week as i'll show you in the next minute or two. but what a contrast between yesterday morning when we started with a widespread frost and some sunshine. today, temperatures have been much higher because of rain has moved

in this massive cloud here as well shrouding the hills and the headlands in fog has given a very murky start to the day, but it is starting to clear in western areas. and so for the next few hours, central and eastern areas got some heavy rain and hail, fog, the combination making some really quite miserable conditions on the roads, lots of spray and standing water because there is nowhere for that rain to go. there are ground flood warnings out at the moment, but as we get towards lunchtime, we should see the back edge of that rain clearing into the north sea. brighter skies follow. there'll be a legacy of mist and fog around the hills and coasts, particularly in the west, but also east and scotland. but in between, just a few sharp showers and temperatures rising higher than they did yesterday, 16 or 17 in that stronger spring sunshine now. but that could trigger some heavy showers and the odd rumble of thunder. the showers will continue through this evening and overnight, always heaviest in the north and the west, tending to ease off a little bit further eastwards. but there's probablyjust enough cloud to keep things relatively mild again overnight. not as mild as the nightjust gone, but 5 to 7 degrees celsius and perhaps a little bit of mist and fog. but actually, monday looks

like for many of us there'll be a drier window of weather, just a few showers. yes, rain returns with stronger winds for northern ireland later. but in between, there'll be a good deal of dry and bright weather, some strong spring sunshine coming through those uv levels starting to get into the moderate category, 1a to 16 in that sunshine. but then monday night brings us more rain. as you saw for northern ireland through the afternoon and evening, pushing across the rest of the uk and a weakening band as it reach the southern eastern areas. but there's another pulse developing on it as we go through tuesday and into wednesday. so that is a concern. we could see another dose of rain. this is today's rain. this is the rainfall totals as we go through the week and not that much for scotland and northern ireland today, but certainly so late tomorrow, overnight, monday into tuesday and another pulse on wednesday. so a good 30 to a0 millimetres in many western areas. but even in the east, 10 to 15 millimetres on to saturated ground because it is an unsettled looking picture. keep up to date as ever

on the website with the warnings.

this is bbc news, the headlines: large queues have formed at polling stations in russia in an apparent show of dissent. kremlin critics say the election is designed to confirm vladimir putin as presidenct. they're calling for supporters of the opposition to turn out at noon in moscow and other cities and vote for any candidate other than mr putin or spoil their ballots.

police in haiti say they are trying to crack down on the gangs which have taken control of most of the capital, port—au—prince. police have killed a number of gang members in an operation to clear parts of the city. a state of emergency in southern iceland after a fourth volcanic eruption in as many months. it's forced residents who've just returned home to re—evacuate. now on bbc news — living between enemy lines. soldiers sing 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.