into this stadium injohannesburg. the president will address his supporters, but this has been a challenging election for the ruling party. hello, i'm lucy grey. we start this hour here in the uk, where the former conservative ministers michael gove and dame andrea leadsom have added their names to a list of more than 100 mps who say they won't contest their seats at the general election. the announcements came as the parliamentary session was officially closed last night, allowing full—scale campaigning to get under way. party leaders have already begun touring the country as they take their message directly to voters. our political correspondent hannah miller has the latest. through the brexit campaign, borisjohnson�*s friend, but at times his greatest foe, michael gove wasn't afraid to make enemies, pushing through education reforms and serving under four prime ministers over nearly 20 years in parliament.

but he says he's now concluded, "there comes a moment when you know "it's time to leave, that a new generation should lead. "rishi has the plan our country needs," he added, "i will do everything i can to support him." but as rishi sunak toured the titanic quarter in belfast, the list of mps jumping ship continued to grow. among more than 100 other mps standing down, the former prime minister theresa may, the former leader of the house of commons, andrea leadsom, and former defence secretary ben wallace. while the conservatives are now seeing more mps walk away than in 1997, labour's losses are less substantial. keir starmer took his campaign to glasgow, hoping scotland will pave his way to a win. after mps lined up to mark the close of parliament last night, the campaign is well and truly under way, with both potential prime ministers constructing their arguments to the country as they try to build up support to win.

hannah miller, bbc news. let's cross to the newsroom and speak to our political correspondent helen catt. they are out and about today, the leaders. talk us what they will be doing today and their focus. yes. leaders. talk us what they will be doing today and their focus. yes, we will be seeing _ doing today and their focus. yes, we will be seeing them _ doing today and their focus. yes, we will be seeing them out _ doing today and their focus. yes, we will be seeing them out in _ doing today and their focus. yes, we will be seeing them out in various i will be seeing them out in various locations across the country. rishi sunak has been out this morning in the north of england meeting veterans. it is a lower case bit of campaigning than we have seen from him in the last couple of days when he has been doing a frenetic tour of all four nations of the uk. today much more low—key, quieter. we are expecting sir keir starmer to be out later. he will be talking about the economy, during a big campaign events and also expecting to see ed davey, the lib dem leader, out in another target seat that the liberal

democrats are targeting in england. we expect him to talk about the lib dems�*s position on water quality. the snp leaderjohn swinney is taking part in a day of national action in scotland. fix, taking part in a day of national action in scotland.— taking part in a day of national action in scotland. a busy all day. let's talk about _ action in scotland. a busy all day. let's talk about michael _ action in scotland. a busy all day. let's talk about michael gove - action in scotland. a busy all day. let's talk about michael gove and | let's talk about michael gove and andrea leadsom, and the growing list of mps, particularly tory mps, who we won't be seeing again in parliament afterjuly because they are not contesting their seats. i pick a blow as this to rishi sunak? michael gove is a massive figure in conservative circles and for him to step down, that is going to be a blow. he is seen as a political operator, someone very good at the politics out of things. he has been in politics for a long time, nearly 20 years, so that will be seen as a bit of a blue. it is more of the

sort of dangerfor bit of a blue. it is more of the sort of danger for rishi sunak is that as you get these mps having to step down because of a snap election, those who are deciding to go have to do it in a short time frame, so you're getting a flow of mps leaving, so for example it wasn'tjust mps leaving, so for example it wasn't just michael gove mps leaving, so for example it wasn'tjust michael gove and andrea leadsom yesterday, also the former business secretary greg clark was standing down after more than 20 years another minister saying there are going, too. the rich risk for rishi sunak is that it looks like a lack of confidence in this election. there are a large number of conservative mps who are going, 78, thatis conservative mps who are going, 78, that is more than step down at the i997 that is more than step down at the 1997 election and the later numbers are much smaller, closer to 20. there are a lot more conservative mps leaving at this stage.- there are a lot more conservative mps leaving at this stage. thank you ve much, mps leaving at this stage. thank you very much, helen. _ i asked lizzy buchan, deputy political editor

at the daily mirror, and james hanson, times radio presenter and political commentator, what they thought of the latest election developments. it's become quite dramatic in the last two days. so we've been tracking the number of mps standing down for a while. there was a sort of steady drip of conservatives in the last six months, and there's lots of people who've been employed for a long time. it's been a very turbulent parliament. you can see that some people might want to go and do something else, but obviously the timing of the general election was sprung on a lot of conservative mps and there's been this sudden sort of influx of people deciding they've had enough and they they don't want to fight the elections. so it's a bit destabilising for the prime minister, but i expect, you know, there are some people who think five years more, i'm not sure i'm not up for it. james, how big a loss is michael gove to rishi sunak, do you think? i mean he's been there for such a long time and right at the front, hasn't he?

he has. and a lot of people inside whitehall, even though he's a very divisive figure, would say that he has probably been the standout minister of the past 14 years of conservative—led government because he does have a reputation for being a real reformer and being on top of his brief have been very good at delivering in government. but the fact he's standing down is a symbol of the fact that many leading conservatives simply don't think there is any chance they're going to be back in office after the next election. so if you're michael gove, you are young enough to go off and do something else after this election. there have been all kinds of rumours about him returning to fleet street, for instance, so clearly he's decided that is preferable to sitting out his time on the backbenches in opposition. yeah. well, should we talk about the economy, then? that seems to be the one that they're going on principally. i see rachel reeves writing in the mail today, the shadow chancellor, saying "i won't play fast and loose with your money". i suppose, lizzie, in terms of what labour are wanting to sort of get across is that they are the party to be trusted on the economy, aren't they? meanwhile, we have the conservatives promising tax cuts, although we don't have anything specific on that. what do you make of rachel

reeves comments today? labour will be very pleased to see those comments splashed on the front page of the daily mail. you know, they've they've thrown everything at trying to show that labor is a party to be trusted on the economy. they've tried to capitalise on everything that happened during liz truss's premiership and they've tried very hard to not make any unfunded spending commitments to repeatedly say that they can be trusted. so, you know, talking about sound money, that's the key message that they're going to want to be landing with voters, that that labour aren't scary, they're not going to do anything that means you're worse off. and those voters in the mail on some of the kind of more right—leaning papers are people that labour

still needs to convince, to make sure that they can, you know, to ensure that they can win a majority at the next election. yeah, and yes, go ahead, james. do you want to come back in? no, i completely agree with lizzie, to be honest. you know, the big hurdle, the big fear for labor is, is this going to be 1992 all over again when despite dissatisfaction with the conservative government, the tories were able to accuse labor were able to accuse labour of planning tax hikes after the election. we remember those posters, labor's tax bombshell and the fallout we remember those posters, labour's tax bombshell and the fallout from john smith's shadow budget. now, i think this election actually is going to be very, very different to 1992. but you speak to labor insiders, that's their big fear that you might have a repeat of that. so they're being incredibly cautious. keir starmer and rachel reeves, to avoid any such a piece of that. so do you think, james, that we will see specific promises on tax cuts from the conservatives? i see this warning from the ifs, the think tank, the institute for fiscal studies today, talking about how the current financial situation is a dark cloud hanging over the election and basically talking about how anybody is going to have

to increase borrowing. and in terms of the tax cuts, it looks very like a challenging prospect. do you think we'll hear specifics in the run up to the election from the conservatives on that front? well, what we're waiting for now, of course, is the manifesto launches, and there may well be in the tory manifesto a commitment to reduce taxes. for example, the headline rate of income tax will move the threshold by the end of the next parliament. but there is a risk for rishi sunak because one of the reasons many people say he chose to go for this july election as opposed to wait until the autumn, is that he actually thought there wouldn't be what they call the fiscal headroom. they wouldn't be able to afford to make tax cuts in the autumn, they wouldn't be able to do another mini budget. and that actually it might backfire because a bit like liz truss found out in 2022, you may get forecasters saying actually these are unaffordable, so there are risks here, but i think given where the conservatives are in the polls and given a very difficult first few days of campaigning for rishi sunak, it wouldn't surprise me if they do decide to gamble and put some kind of commitment for tax cuts over the course of the next parliament into the manifesto. yeah, and how much is decided by voters in an election campaign, how much is what is said between now

and and six weeks' time actually listen? i know that they will be repeating their slogans over and over again in the hope of getting their messages across, but how much do you think in terms of if somebody is turning away from a party, the damage has already been done. yeah. i think that's the real battle, particularly for the conservatives, is to try and get their voters to turn out, to hold on to people who backed them in 2019, particularly the people who had never voted conservative before, who sort of came in to where borisjohnson�*s kind of get brexit done message appealed to them and they moved over and it wasn't a natural space for them. there's a huge amount of disillusionment. you can see it sort of anecdotally and in the polls that people are really fed up and it's going to be very difficult to get people, get voters to really listen to all of this stuff when they feel that politicians aren't really doing anything from them anyway and it's just more of the same. and particularly with the timing, obviously, you know, a summer election people weren't expecting. there are other things going on at the moment. there's the football.

there's, you know, looking ahead to the summer holidays, people do have other things on their mind. so it is going to be a real battle, i think, tojust make sure that those messages are getting across. the tv debates, as well. do they do they make a massive impact? i'm not sure. i mean, in 2010 they certainly appeared to do so. but it depends whether it depends whether people actually want to watch them. i mean, the conservatives were sort of trying to challenge labor to case starmer to do six, whichjust seemed an excessive number to me. i mean, even politicaljournalists don't want to watch that many, so i don't know why a normal person would. the european union's top diplomat says the bloc will have to make a choice between supporting israel or international institutions and the rule of law. josep borrell was speaking after the un's highest court ruled that israel had to halt its military offensive in rafah in response to a case brought by south africa. theyhave accused israel of violating the un genocide convention in gaza. israel has said no power on earth will stop it going after hamas. lucy williamson reports

from jerusalem. there's certainly no sign yet of a let—up in israel's military campaign in the southern gaza strip. we've heard reports this morning of fresh air strikes in the rafah area. what we don't yet know is the situation on the ground. we know that israeli troops and armour are poised very close to the center of rafah, but they haven't yet gone into the center of that built—up area. and we don't know exactly what the military�*s plans are. israel continues to say that the operation is limited. it highlights the fact that it has given civilians lots of opportunity to move out of harm's way. but the un's humanitarian affairs boss, martin griffiths, tweeted last night that there is nothing limited about this campaign. he said, and i quote, "the ground incursion in rafah has displaced more than 800,000 people, fleeing once again in fear for their lives and arriving in areas without adequate shelter, latrines and clean water". so the un's view is that this is having a major impact

on the civilian population of the southern gaza strip and one that is not being properly addressed from the point of view of aid and shelter and everything else that people need. of course, there is still the fear of what happens to the hundreds of thousands of people who are still in rafah, who have yet to flee, who have yet to be told to flee by the israelis. what happens to them if indeed a full—scale invasion of the city takes place? 0ne slight development on the aid situation last night following a call betweenjoe biden and the egyptian leader abdel fattah al—sisi. egypt has agreed to send trucks that were backed—up, waiting to go into through the rafah crossing, which is closed has been for the last two or three weeks, egypt has agreed to send those trucks round to the kerem shalom crossing, that is the israeli crossing nearby that could help the flow of aid into the southern gaza strip, but it's

a little early to know. political rallies are taking place across south africa today as parties make their final attemps to win support ahead of wednesday's election. let's cross to my colleague catherine byaruhanga, who is following events from the anc�*s final pre—election rally in johannesburg. this is shaping up to be an exciting, loud events for the anc supporters here injohannesburg. the stadium behind me helped the world cup final back in 2010 and it has and 90,000 capacity and the anc is adamant it will fill it with its volunteers and activists. the other

parties are also holding rallies this weekend. tomorrow, the democratic alliance, the long—standing opposition party here in south africa, will be holding its rallies. the focus is on the anc at the moment. its legacy as the party that helped bring down the apartheid regime 30 years ago is cemented in south african history. at right now with the question that faces the party is whether they have done enough to provide for south africans after three decades in power. i will tell you some of the challenges that south africans are facing right now. the issues around employment, around 30% of south africans don't have a job. the chronic issues with power shortages, water shortages, health care. when president cyril ramaphosa

comes here and a couple of hours his message will be that the situation has improved to where it was 30 years ago after apartheid. we have done a lot as the anc to bring a lot of services to south africans, but he will be asking for more time. he insisted his party is the one that will bring about the fundamental change that so many south africans are calling for today. in change that so many south africans are calling for today.— are calling for today. in terms of what the opposition _ are calling for today. in terms of what the opposition are - are calling for today. in terms of. what the opposition are promising, what the opposition are promising, what are they going on? well. what the opposition are promising, what are they going on?— what are they going on? well, it is those key issues. _ what are they going on? well, it is those key issues. a _ what are they going on? well, it is those key issues. a lot _ what are they going on? well, it is those key issues. a lot of- what are they going on? well, it is those key issues. a lot of the - those key issues. a lot of the opposition will tell you the challenges that south africa faces are not only down to the history of apartheid and colonialism, it is down to the anc�*s governance itself. they talk about things like corruption. this party has been marred by numerous scandals, including the former president, jacob zuma, who was embroiled in a

massive scandalfor over jacob zuma, who was embroiled in a massive scandal for over nine years whilst he was in power. they also say that the anc has lost ideas, it is not good enough and has not done enough to providejobs. there is not good enough and has not done enough to provide jobs. there are a plethora of parties, around 70 different parties and entities vying in this iraq —— in this election. some parties say it is about liberalising the economy. there is a lot of choice for south africans at this election. thank you very much. the white house has called for the swift deployment of a kenyan—led multinationalforce to haiti after a us couple was named among three missionaries killed in the caribbean nation. a missouri state politician confirmed that his daughter and son—in—law had been killed by gang members in the capital, port au prince. president biden has pledged to support the "expedited

deployment" of kenya's forces in talks with the kenyan president on thursday. president william ruto has been in washington this week on a state visit and sat down with my colleague caitriona perry. she began by asking mr ruto about the plans for kenyan forces in haiti. i have a team already in haiti as i speak to you. i spoke to them this morning. they are finishing a mission tomorrow. that will give us a frame of what things look like on the ground, the capabilities that are available, the infrastructure that has been set up. and once we have that assessment that we agreed with the haitian police and the haitian leadership, we are looking at the horizon of between three weeks and thereabout for us to be ready to deploy once everything on the ground is set. what is the situation on the ground like, in terms of those preparations? us officials were helping prepare base, for example. i think the base that was being

prepared is, i think i was given that is maybe 70% complete. my team met with the transitional presidential council yesterday. they also met with the leadership of the police the day before. i think they are meeting with other groups just to make sure that we all, we have all the, you know, all the items in place for us to facilitate the deployment because there are many actors, you know, we are working under a un resolution that gives kenya the mandate to lead. and we're going to be working with others who will be contributing different capabilities to facilitate this because we're doing it for the people of haiti.

families of the victims of the uvalde school massacre in texas two years ago are taking legal action against several major companies. they accuse the social media firm meta, the maker of the "call of duty" video games, and a gun manufacturer of promoting dangerous weapons to teens like the attacker. this was one of the worst school shootings in us history. and these are wrongful death lawsuits targeting not only the gun manufacturer — daniel defense — the 18—year—old responsible for this shooting had one of their guns, but also in these lawsuits targeting the developers of the video game call of duty and instagram. and the claim being that, in effect, these three organisations collaborated to market assault—style weapons to teenage boys, that these adolescent boys were, in effect, groomed

to carry out the violent video game experiences, things that they had watched, but they would carry out those fantasies in real life. that is the claim. and instagram's parent company, meta, are accused of having lax oversight of this process. now, these lawsuits are quite separate to another one, a $500 million lawsuit that has been filed against almost 100 law enforcement officers, the police officers who went to the scene of this shooting. but as has been now widely reported and criticized in a justice department report, it was a response that was lacking in urgency. it took more than an hour, 77 minutes, for those officers to eventually move in to the part of the school where the gunman was and where indeed young children had been dying. so a widely criticised response now the subject of this huge lawsuit. and what is happening here is that this is the accountability,

accountability on the part of individuals or organisations that the families of the victims have been calling for for much of the past two years. let's turn to papua new guinea now where rescuers have arrived at the site of a massive landslide that buried more than 50 homes on friday morning. hundreds of people are feared dead after the disaster struck whilst people slept in the country's remote highlands. a rapid response team of medics and military personnel have now reached the site of the landslide, around 600 kilometres from the capital, port moresby. a united nations official in the region said at least four bodies have been recovered from the rubble. a little earlier we got an update about the situation on the ground with chrisjensen, national directorfor the charity world vision. it's a really tragic scene there in a remote part of papua new guinea. we've got approximately 60 households that have been impacted

directly by a really large landslide there. as you've said, there's been a few bodies found and at the moment we're just assessing that and looking at further actions that need to be taken. 0bviously, search—and—rescue continues as best we can and we're also looking at what medical interventions, as well as looking at recovery around shelter, food and other items that will need to be required in the coming days and weeks. i mean, one thing to be said is papua new guinea is an incredibly beautiful country and amazing landscape and diversity, from coastal areas to the highlands and islands areas. in this part of papua new guinea there is really steep topography and we have in the past had a number of earthquakes or flood events that have triggered landslides, and other natural disasters.

we've also seen el nino recently impacting know with drought considered in some areas. so there are a whole lot of natural kind of disasters that that do impact this area. it is incredibly remote. as you've said, it's 600 kilometres from the capital city here where i am in port moresby, so accessing this area at the best of times is a challenge. now many people dream about turning left as they board a flight into the first class section but a new airline has launched a first class flight for some of the most pampered pooches. bark air took off for it's maiden flight from new york to los angeles with 10 dogs and their owners on board. prices start at 6,000 dollars for a us flight and its 8,000 dollars for a one—way ticket from new york to london. there are no dog—eared in—flight magazines but an on—board spa for the dogs as well as tasty treats including frothy milk drinks and even old shoes. the company says it's already planning new routes from the us to paris and milan.

stay with us here on bbc news. hello, there. plenty of sunny spells around at times this bank holiday weekend. today is probably the best looking day for the vast majority of the next few. a lot of sunshine to start off the morning here in north yorkshire. we will be seeing some showers. most of those showers will pop up on sunday and bank holiday monday and they could be heavy, thundery and also slow moving too. a little bit of wet weather around, as well, this afternoon across parts of norfolk, into lincolnshire, stretching up through the east midlands with plenty of cloud here. another weather front out towards the south—west of england bringing outbreaks of rain here. but there will be a lot of dry weather around. one or two isolated showers. sunny spells developing, variable amounts of cloud and highs in the best of the sunshine of 20 or 21 degrees celsius.

through this evening and overnight, outbreaks of rain will continue to spread their way further northwards. it's quite a wet night to follow with plenty of cloud, a milder night than we saw last night. temperatures for the most part will stay in double figures as we head into sunday morning. on sunday, well, it's quite a disappointingly wet start to the day. we've still got these weather fronts around, so we are likely to see further outbreaks of rain. we'll see some some thundery showers spark off where we get the brightest spells. for much of the northern half of the uk there will be a lot of cloud around through the morning, with some outbreaks of rain. if we do see those brighter skies, then watch out for some cloud building, heavy, thundery downpours developing, but they will be mostly across the south of england and wales. some of those showers will be slow moving, as well. largely dry across the far north of scotland. here we could see highs of around 20 degrees celsius yet again. further south, of course, underneath the cloud and the rain it's always going to be feeling cooler. still that leftover weather front

as we head into bank holiday monday, so again we're expecting some heavy, thundery showers to develop as we head through the day, but also some sunny spells, it won't be raining all the time. in fact, a lot of those showers will be towards the north, they'll track eastwards, so towards western parts of the united kingdom we could even see a mostly dry end to the day perhaps. another slight drop in temperature, but still round about the seasonal average, which is where our temperatures will probably stay as we head through the week. it's half—term, of course. it won't be raining all the time, there will also be some sunny spells. bye— bye.

this is bbc news... the headlines. party leaders hit the campaign trail —— in the uk's general election — and there's a growing list of tory mps who announce they'll be standing down. the eu's top diplomat says the bloc will have to choose between supporting israel or international law — that's after the un ruled that israel must stop its assault on rafah. with south africa's general election just days away — will nelson mandela's legacy be enough to secure another anc win — or will voters turn away? and — kenya's president william ruto speaks to the bbc — confirming his country's peacekeeping police force will arrive in haiti

in three weeks' time the former post office boss paula vennells has completed three days of public questioning at the inquiry into the horizon it scandal — in which more than 900 sub postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after faulty software said money was missing from their accounts. her answers included more than 20 apologies, four tearful moments and boos from the gallery. our international business correspondent theo leggett has more on how it unfolded.