hello, i'm carl nasman. the islamic state militant group is claiming responsibility for an attack on civilians in russia on friday night. it's a claim that us officials say they have intelligence to corroborate. russia says at least 60 people, including children, were killed and over 100 were left injured. thousands came out to see the russian rock band picnic, which was due to perform in krasnogorsk, a suburb to the north—west of moscow. the music group said on instagram earlier that they sold out the crocus city hall. videos from those inside were posted on social media, showing panicked concertgoers taking cover as shots ring out inside the venue. a large fire has engulfed the roof of the complex and russian special forces were sent to the scene. reuters reports that

president vladimir putin has wished a speedy recovery to those injured. with a manhunt underway to find the gunmen, authorities cancelled all events that were due to take place this weekend. steve rosenberg, our russia editor, has the very latest, from moscow — and there are some upsetting scenes in his report. screaming. gunshot. a russian concert hall under attack. gunshots. gunmen had stormed the venue near moscow, the crocus city hall. they went on the rampage, shooting their way through the building... screaming. ..and into the auditorium. there was supposed to be a rock concert here. gunfire. instead, this. gunfire. the attackers walked through the stalls, firing indiscriminately. dozens of people are reported to have been killed. "they've set the hall on fire! "the hall's on fire," he says, as more shots ring out. then, the rush to escape. "there's panic!

"panic," she says, as the crowds fled from the auditorium and tried to get out. soon, the whole building was ablaze. the mayor of moscow said it was a terrible tragedy. the russian foreign ministry called it a bloody terrorist attack. "i saw how the terrorists came in and started shooting "everyone," he says. "we were led to an exit but it was locked. "we ran around, looking for a way out. "in the end, we went into the basement and waited "for the emergency services." police and russian special forces rushed to the scene. some of the attackers are reported to have escaped. the search is on to find them. two weeks ago, the us embassy here issued a warning that extremists planned to target large gatherings in moscow, including concerts, within 48 hours. it's not clear whether there's any connection between that

alert and this attack. the images are just horrible and just hard to watch and our thoughts, obviously, are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack. who were the attackers? there's been no confirmation on their identities from the russian authorities but late tonight, islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack. the scale of destruction and loss of life is becoming clear after an assault on civilians that has shocked russia. and we heard there, the us had previously warned of a large—scale attack. well, the white house national security council has just released a statement about this, its spokesperson saying:

nina khrushcheva is professor of international affairs at the new school in new york and gave me her reaction to the attack. well, obviously, it is shocking. it's also somewhat unexpected. you know, a lot of talk of the united states warning russia over march 8th holiday, the women's day holiday, about the attacks but actually, about that warning, the russians then publicly said that the united states warned about that on the website — on the embassy website, and then, others copied it. i think great britain, maybe germany — i forgot which other embassies. however, the russians said, it was not officially reported as something to be expected

so, the fact that the united states says now that they warned in — formally also the authorities, that, at least early on, around march 8th was not the case. so that the warning may have come later, and that's why putin was saying that the united states was intimidating — precisely because the warning did not — at least appear, didn't go through the official channels. so, it was shocking and, as your previous correspondent, previous guest talked about, it is outside of moscow and, therefore, it seemed to be less protected. although another part that is incredibly shocking, moscow is a very tight — i mean, moscow and other areas are very tight security and so, the fact that five camouflaged men with high weapons could get in is incredibly, incredibly suspicious. so, i suspect that somebody must have been on that — on the inside. here in washington, the deadline has just passed

for senate to pass a critical bill that would avert a us government shutdown. earlier friday, the house of representatives approved a $1.2 trillion spending bill, but it still needed to be approved by the senate before midnight in washington. when a us government shutdown becomes official, thousands of federal workers�* jobs are in jeopardy. us senate majority leader chuck schumer says deal is in place, with a few amendments to be voted on in the coming hours. you are looking at it live. it is 12:07 am currently in washington. i'm joined now by daniel lippman, a washington reporter for politico. just the person we need to speak to! the deadline has passed and we are about seven or eight minutes gone now. here there is a deal to move things forward. what more can you tell us? will this get done in time to avoid a lengthy shutdown? all signs are that there is

going to be no government shutdown. they arejust going to be no government shutdown. they are just working through the night. it's not like any federal workers have to get paid at 10pm all lose government services and so, it's almost like a technical government shutdown for a few minutes but nothing in practicality but it's congress definitely acts like a teenager who reads the entire textbook the night before the exam and we see this every six months, it seems. it we see this every six months, it seem-— we see this every six months, it seems. it seems like we do. the senate — it seems. it seems like we do. the senate now— it seems. it seems like we do. the senate now will— it seems. it seems like we do. | the senate now will apparently be considering some amendments to this bill. we are hearing that those are unlikely to pass but if they do, what would that mean because then the bill would need to be sent back to the house, wouldn't it? and the houseis the house, wouldn't it? and the house is in recess.— house is in recess. yeah, you have to make _ house is in recess. yeah, you have to make sure _ house is in recess. yeah, you have to make sure that - house is in recess. yeah, you have to make sure that the l house is in recess. yeah, you l have to make sure that the one chamber passes the same exact funding bill as the other chamber and funding bill as the other chamberand so, funding bill as the other chamber and so, that's why they

have to down these amendments but a lot of senators and a lot of congressmen in general, they like to feel like they are part of the process and have made their voices heard and that includes amendments and so, i think there's a lot of frustration on capitol hill that they are not able to get much done for their constituents but what's interesting is that the government was kept open by democrats in the house of representatives, even though republicans control that chamber, just by two votes right now. and so, that funding bill got more democratic votes than republican votes earlier on friday. so, that indicates almost to the democrats are more in charge of the chamber at times. ., ., at times. daniel, what are the stickin: at times. daniel, what are the sticking points? _ at times. daniel, what are the sticking points? if— at times. daniel, what are the| sticking points? if republicans weren't happy, they weren't voting for this bill, what was

the hold—up? what were they not happy about? the hold-up? what were they not happy about?— happy about? well, they wanted ti . hter happy about? well, they wanted tighter immigration _ happy about? well, they wanted tighter immigration policy. - tighter immigration policy. there is a lot of concern among conservatives about the situation at the us border where you have millions of people in the last couple of years crossing it illegally and they blame joe years crossing it illegally and they blamejoe biden for that, for opening up the floodgates that they say. but it also comes down to traditional tax and spending policies, where republicans wanted a tighter, you know, wanted to shrink the size of government and they are not getting that much. there is an increase in climate change funding for the pentagon, for other programmes that are enjoyed by democrats like child programmes and so, republicans wanted to tell democrats hey, we need to focus on the federal debt but right now, we're not really seeing that right now.

daniel, we are looking at live pictures of the senate floor as those members are debating and about to take place and some votes and we are expecting, as you said, this will get done, the government will not be shut down, at least for long. i do want to ask you, though, this is a bill that already was six months behind schedule. why have these pending negotiations been so difficult? is it come down to the fact that this is an election year, or is there more to it? i an election year, or is there more to it?— an election year, or is there more to it? i think one of the principal— more to it? i think one of the principal reasons _ more to it? i think one of the principal reasons is _ more to it? i think one of the principal reasons is that - more to it? i think one of the principal reasons is that the l principal reasons is that the parties have become more divided and more extreme and partisan. it's not like a traditional congress, where there was much more compromise. in the 1970s, there was 170 moderate members of congress. now, there's 22, according to pew, a non—partisan think tank, and so that's driven by how the

country is further apart, where democrats, they focus on electing more liberal members, republicans or conservative ones, and so you don't get a lot of the back—and—forth and the good—faith negotiating to come to a common ground. it's members of congress who are very concerned about losing primary by going too far to the centre instead of sticking to their base.— centre instead of sticking to their base. , , ., ., their base. daniel lippman, a washington — their base. daniel lippman, a washington reporter - their base. daniel lippman, a washington reporter with - washington reporter with politico, thank you for helping us break it all down as the senate goes into overtime but does look like the bill will pass. thank you very much for your help. pass. thank you very much for your help-— the princess of wales is undergoing treatment for cancer. catherine made the deeply personal announcement herself in a video message. it comes after she had stepped back from public life to take time to recover after undergoing abdominal surgery injanuary. catherine says that although it was thought at the time that her condition was non—cancerous, tests had found cancer had been present and she is in the early stages of a course of preventative chemotherapy.

here's that very personal message, filmed at windsor earlier this week. i wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you personally for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding whilst i've been recovering from surgery. it has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family but i've had a fantastic medical team who've taken great care of me, for which i'm so grateful. injanuary, i underwent major abdominal surgery in london and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non—cancerous. the surgery was successful. however, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. my medical team, therefore, advised that i should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy, and i'm now in the early stages of that treatment. this, of course, came as a huge shock and william and i have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately, for the sake of our young family. as you can imagine,

this has taken time. it has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment but, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to george, charlotte and louis in a way that's appropriate for them and to reassure them that i'm going to be ok. as i've said to them, i am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal in my mind, body and spirits. having william by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance, too, as is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you. it means so much to us both. we hope that you'll understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while i complete my treatment. my work has always brought me a deep sense ofjoy and i look

forward to being back when i'm able but for now, i must focus on making a full recovery. at this time, i'm also thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer. for everyone facing this disease, in whateverform, please do not lose faith or hope. you are not alone. that message from catherine, princess of wales. and from windsor, our royal correspondent daniela relph has more. this was the last official footage of the princess of wales alongside the royal family, on christmas day at sandringham with her three children, who she is now so keen to protect after going public with news of her diagnosis. back in december, all had seemed well as she spoke to the crowd. thank you so much. that's very sweet of you to come and say hello to us. yeah, well, very happy christmas. but three weeks later, she was admitted to hospital

for major abdominal surgery. it was in her post—operative tests that signs of cancer were found. tonight, buckingham palace issued a statement on behalf of the king. he said: he also said that he and the queen: a message, too, from california. the relationship is still strained but the duke and duchess of sussex issued their own statement. harry and meghan said: but perhaps the most personal message of all came from the princess's brother on instagram. james middleton posted a childhood photo with his sister and said:

the clamour for information about the princess's condition has been intense. this footage, published earlier this week, filmed by a member of the public, showed her shopping in windsor with her husband last weekend. and this photo, released on mother's day, to ease some of the public speculation did the opposite, with the princess issuing a statement to say she'd made some edits to the image. a turning point appears to have been this thanksgiving service in windsor for king constantine of greece at the end of february. the rest of the royal family were there but the prince of wales pulled out that morning very suddenly, due to a personal matter. we now know this was around the time the princess was diagnosed and began her treatment. it's been an incredibly turbulent few weeks for the family. the couple's priority has been to protect their children and ensure they have time to explain what's wrong to prince george, princess charlotte and prince louis.

they now hope the speculation will stop as they spend time privately for the easter break. in windsor, whether family lives, there was sympathy and support for the princess. i think she very brave to set the record straight and i hope she will now get privacy for her and herfamily. it is sad. you don't wish that on anybody, whoever they are. ready? the princess won't be back to a full programme of public duty for some time. we may see her occasionally, but only when her medical team have approved. for now, the princess of wales wants time, space and privacy to deal with her diagnosis and recovery. the us state department says it facilitated the safe departure of more than 230 american citizens out of haiti since march 17th. gang violence has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. the united nations welcomed reports that political groups selected all members of the transitional council that would take over presidential powers ahead of future elections in haiti.

it's been 10 days since haiti's former prime minister ariel henry resigned after being faced with international and internal pressure. unicef says it's unable to get enough aid into the country and that "many, many people" are suffering serious hunger and malnutrition. the white house said on friday they are working with the haitians on a haitian—led political transition to restore governance there. and, notably, education is increasingly one of the biggest casualties in haiti as young people have been forced to choose between their studies and surviving the chaos. a short while ago, i spoke to former haitian ambassador to the us, herve denis. i want to ask about the transitional council that has been put in place to appoint a temporary leader of haiti. how difficult will that mission be, and how much more authority will a temporary leader have than the former prime minister,

ariel henry, whojust stepped down? thank you, first, for having me, sir. and this is a real question that they were asking. because the position of a group of seven people does make a lot because the trasitional position of a group of seven people does make a lot of people to work together with, so, you know... but they have to face that issue because i know there is a loss of pressure from caricom also to set down some solution. and there aren't many actual haitians on this council, are there? it's mostly to be an international body, mostly leaders from other countries, or is it... crosstalk. no, no — only haitian in that council. but you have the people from caricom, which is another group that is involved — as haiti is part of

the caricom — so they are concerned, with the back—up of the united states — to solve that issue. but we will see, we hope that this country has not been suffering too much. we hope that it will have the kenyan people soon and i heard there would be also people from benin, and benin has a particular use to haiti because benin — most of the haitians they come from that region. and you are referring to the many hundreds of police officers — there was a deal agreed for international security forces to go to haiti, which is on hold currently. exactly. i want to ask about security — we heard security forces in haiti had killed a gang leader, ti greg, the head of the delmas 95 gang — had you heard about that? does something like that signal to you that potentially believes might be able to gain

the upper hand there? the issue is haiti has suffered from a lack of institution. normally, we are supposed to have the police and the army. for some reason, you know, the army in the past is a bad story, but the new army, i was minister of defence, so i really wanted to install the army myself, but if we need really to respond, have a response to those situations, we have to find a way to uphold that new defence force — and the police also and the army force — to be able to face that issue. the bbc�*s hardtalk programme has been speaking with the dominican republic president, luis abinader. he was asked whether or not he would be willing to allow displaced haitians to take refuge in the dominican republic temporarily. i want to play you his response. take a listen. no, we will not do it because we have a lot of historic reasons to do that. i think they have a lot

of opportunities around the haitian, even territory and haitian island — they have an island they can utilise like that. but we will not authorise any refugee camps at this moment for a lot of security and also historic reasons. what is your reaction to the dominican president? this is a country that shares a border with haiti and there are many hundreds of thousands of displaced people. this is very sensitive history when come, you know, relationship between haiti and dominican republic because, you know, in the past we occupied that part — not dominican republic, it was not formed yet, for 25 years, you know? so, very sensitive history, so i understand the president there. so, we face a situation where to find a solution to resolve it. we have about 30 seconds left. i so want to ask you,

as the former haitian ambassador to the us, what more would you like to see the us do? well, i think the us should be very concerned about that, because this is very close to the us and that concerns even the international security of the us. when there's a problem in haiti and you see a lot of people coming, people crossing the border, this is part of the internal problem. beside of that, there is a security matter. take benefit from that situation. maybe north african. they may be enemies of the united states. because haiti is the caribbean — part of the caribbean. 1.5 hour of airplane from the united states. so i think they should be concerned very much. herve h denis, the former haitian ambassador to the us, thank you very much. i thank you very much, sir, for having me. and before we go, let's

recap our top stories, gunman have killed more than 60 people at a theatre outside moscow. russian authorities say more than 100 others were injured. the shooting took place in a venue northwest of moscow. the national guard is now searching for the gun men who have yet to be identified and you can see here now live images of the venue where the shooting happened, you can see is about 7am and the sun has risen and it looks like the fire that had engulfed the roof of the complex has now been extinguished and we know that those investigators and other authorities are now on the scene, searching for clues and looking for the gunman, who have yet to be identified. islamic state militant group claimed responsibility for the incident. and our other main story. the princess of wales says she is in the early stages of cancer treatment. in a video message, she says the news came as a "huge shock"

and herfamily had experienced "an incredibly tough couple of months". king charles, who himself is being treated for cancer, says he is "so proud" of his "beloved" daughter—in—law�*s courage. that's all from us here in washington and we hand over to our colleagues in london. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. for the start of this weekend, it's going to feel like we've stepped back into winter, rather than spring, and it's due to the strength and direction of the wind — a cold north—westerly which will feed in a rash of frequent, heavy showers as well. and it's all because we've got low pressure that's pushing its way north and east and spiralling around that low in an anti—clockwise direction is a cold northwesterly wind. frequently packed isobars. the strongest of the winds further north. clear skies, though, over the next few hours will allow those temperatures to fall away, so a chilly start to our saturday morning. and then, as we start saturday, a frequent rash of showers to the north but we will see them pushing across wales, central and southern england as we go through the morning, too.

and some of the showers heavy with rumbles of thunder. so, through the middle part of the afternoon, we're still likely to see some showers across england and wales, most frequent further north and west, across northern ireland and up into scotland. and, yes, with elevation above 500 metres, we could see some snow as well. now, the wind will play its part, too. it's going to be a strong north to northwesterly wind at times. gusts in excess of 110—55 mph in the north but even further south, we're looking at 30—110 mph, and that is really going to have an impact on the feel of the weather. so, your thermometers may suggest 9 or 10 degrees but it's unusual to be talking about it feels like this time of year but the wind chill will have an impact. it'll feel much colder — and really cold, considering we saw temperatures peaking at 19 degrees a week ago. the showers will tend to fade as our low continues to pull away, and we actually see this little ridge of high pressure building.

so, i've got some good news for you — sunday should be a quieter day before the next area of rain waits in the wings. so, there's a risk of a few showers running down through north sea coasts and here, a little bit more of a breeze with generally lighter winds, more sunshine coming through and it will be a drier day — 9—12 degrees the highs — feeling a little warmer. but cloud and rain gathers out to the west and look what's in store for the week ahead. it stays decidedly unsettled with a glimpse of something a little bit more promising as we head towards easter.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. thailand's landscapes are like something from a dream... ah! imean... i mean, look at this. this is absolutely stunning! ..from dazzling coastlines to lush countryside and wildlife that will take your breath away. visions of paradise that in normal times attract more than 30 million of us every year. but that weight of numbers

isn't necessarily good news for this country's fragile natural heritage.