but fewer showers this time across parts of scotland. still one or two isolated showers, and it's still rather windy across the northern isles, down through northern scotland and for these eastern coastal areas as well. more showers — they become more frequent as we head down further south across england, a few showers perhaps too, for northern ireland, but temperatures disappointingly low for the time of year. into wednesday, high pressure starts to build in, so it's dry air for most of us, but still some more showers across the south east of england, in particular. further north and west, it is a drier story, and temperatures will rise by a degree or so, and the winds will be lighter. but then big changes happen on thursday — we draw in more of a south—westerly wind, we start to see atlantic systems approach from the west. so it's a mostly dry start to the day on thursday, but the cloud is going to be thickening from the west. and eventually we'll be seeing this band of rain sweep further eastwards, followed on by some showers, of course. so turning wetter, windier, particularly for irish sea coasts. but the temperatures will start to rise a little, 13—18 degrees celsius as we head through thursday. and you'll notice that temperatures

recover back to the seasonal average as we go through the course of the weekend. but it is going to be rather wet and windy at times. until then, still chilly for the time of year. bye— bye. this is bbc news, the headlines after refusing to resign over leaving d—day commemorations early — in an interview with the bbc the prime minister insists he is the person to lead the country so, the choice for everybody, only one or two people, keir starmer or myself, a vote for anyone who is not a conservative candidate makes it more likely keir starmer is that person. the liberal democrats launch their manifesto, with the focus on the nhs and social care. the party is promising to spend, an extra nine billion pounds. us secretary of state antony blinken arrives in tel aviv to push for a gaza ceasefire deal

between israel and hamas. and initial autopsy results on the body of television presenter michael mosley, who died on the greek island of symi, show he died of natural causes. at the start of this election campaign we asked you to get in touch to tell us about the issues you want the bbc to cover — and time and again the issue of housing came up. peter felix who lives locally was one of the many who contacted us through your voice your vote: he and his partner are both in their 40s — they would love to buy a home together, but can't get onto the housing ladder. our midlands correspondent navtej johal has been to meet them there's nothing, there's no help. we just want a home. we just want to have our own home. that's what we'd probably like. peter paints and decorates homes. do you want to hand, pete? please. but he and his partner rebecca are desperate to own one of their own.

it's quite depressing that you can go out and earn a decent wage, but not be able to afford to buy a property because your money is going towards the rent. they're in their early 40s and met on a dating app three years ago. it was his personality that kind ofjumped out. said something like, "if you want a lifetime of disappointment," because i thought, i'm not going to lie and say i'm great. i just thought, if you want disappointment, i'm your man. and that persuaded you? it was worded a lot better than that, let's put it that way. they earn around £30,000 a year each and rent this three—bed house in south—west birmingham for nearly £1000 a month. and that's gone up twice injust over a year. what is the biggest obstacle to you two actually buying a home of your own? deposit. i mean, look, we're not struggling, but at the same time, the rent will keep going up and we know that every time the rent goes up, it means there's less and less

in our pocket to put away, to save. and that is why peter got in touch with us via your voice, your vote. in this election, he and rebecca point the parties to focus more want the parties to focus more on housing and help people like them get on the property ladder. how long do you think it will be before you are actually able to afford a deposit that you can put towards a house? well, at this rate, to get £12,000, it will take us five years. if we put £100 a month away each over five years, that's £12,000. is that the wine? don't look at it. have you seen the cost of your shopping going up? i think our shopping bill has gone up... what would you say, about an extra £20, £30 a week? we roughly spend about £100 a week on food. and half the time, you walk out the supermarket and you look and think, "how have i spent £100?

there's hardly anything here." they're calling on the parties to help people in their position so that they don't need as big a deposit. it would be such a help and it would also be a big persuasion into who to vote for. how close are you to just giving up? giving up the idea that you will ever be homeowners? i don't want to give up, i really don't, because i really, really would love to have something of our own. i'm at the opposite end of it, i think. i'm pretty much ready to give up, because itjust feels like we're a losing battle. so, yeah, i'm kind of losing hope of ever owning my own home. the average price paid by a first time buyer in the uk last year wasjust over quarter of £1 million — that's up from £109,000 20 years earlier. the average age of a first—time buyer in the uk is now 33. at the same time, private rental costs have gone up more than 9% in just the last year.

so what are the wider issues in the housing sector and why aren't we building enough homes? here's our economics editor faisal islam. as the cost of living squeeze from energy and food costs starts to settle, there is no such luck with housing. mortgage and rental costs are still rising, the latter by record amounts. this is a long—term issue, basic supply and demand, as you can see at this new housing development in warwickshire. many of these new homes are going forjust over £300,000. that's bang on the average house price in this country. and we can see how that changed over the past three decades or so. no surprise to see that line going up and up. what has changed has been the relationship with affordability. back in the late �*90s, five years worth of annual average income was more than the average house price. now it's crossed over, and the gap is massive and looks very difficult to bridge. it's all about house—building. successive governments over the years, over decades, have made big promises

on house—building, often not met. this is what's happened for england over the past ten years, broken down per three—month quarter. a similar pattern across the united kingdom. the conservatives made a promise in 2017, a manifesto commitment in 2019, to meet a target of 300,000 homes per year by the mid—2020s, so that's about 75,000 a quarter. it's only even nearly met a single quarter, and that's because of a rush on green targets, but it falls quite sharply in the second half of last year. now, the government argues it has met a separate, lower target of one million new homes in the past parliament, but we don't have the full figures for that yet. the labour party say it will continue that target for the next five years if it wins — 1.5 million new homes over that five—year period. the financial crisis, the pandemic, rising interest rates and inflation all can be blamed, but mass house—building has only historically been done when government funds it,

and the parties seem to agree there isn't the money. in the �*60s, local authorities were building a lot of social housing, and that has died down in the �*90s. and without this push, we can never get enough new builds. and then there's planning. so planning permission has therefore been refused. up and down the country, in lengthy councillors�* meetings just like these, now recorded on council websites... applause. ..there are the familiar sights and sounds of new homes not being built. planning permission refused repeatedly. the two main parties do differ here. labour says it's willing to build on specific areas of the green belt that are not so green they call the grey belt. ultimately, both for buying and renting, supply not responding to demand means higher housing costs, the most enduring aspect of the cost of living crisis. as we've been reporting —

it is manifesto week in the general election, and the liberal democrats have been the first to launch theirs. the party's key offer is "to save the health service" in england , with a boost to health and social care funding totalling more than 9—billion—pounds, by 2028. they say it'll pay for the recruitment and retention of 8,000 gps , and will be funded by changes to capital gains tax and a levy on banks. a little earlier, the liberal democrats leader sat down with our correspondent tom symonds — take a listen i am taking the issues of the voters in our country very seriously in our manifesto today for a fair deal for people. we've talked about the health and social care systems that are in crisis, and we put forward some detailed cost of programmes to tackle that crisis. we are taking the concerns of voters very, very seriously. but i think you can also not take yourself too seriously. and what i'm saying to people with this roller coaster analogy, if you like, is come on the ride

with us, read our ideas back our local champions. there are so many parts of the country that if you want to get rid of the conservatives, you vote liberal democrat. and frankly, in scotland, if you want to get rid of the snp, you vote liberal democrat as well. this morning, you gave a very personal pitch to your opening statement about this manifesto. you talked about care — both in the nhs and social care. i think it's eight billion. is it? about nine billion you're putting forward as the cost of dealing with both of those problems. is that enough money? the health foundation very recently said that the scottish system that you're looking at would take six billion on its own to introduce. and i think you're looking at something like three or four billion. have you got nearly enough money there? yeah, we have. i mean, we've looked at all the expert advice and taken that advice. there's some money already in the budget which we're going to put towards that. there's the reversing the conservatives cut in taxes for the big banks.

that raises £4.3 billion. we're going to close the tax loopholes in capital gains tax, which the very, very wealthiest in our country, billionaires and multi—millionaires benefit from. that will raise over £5 billion in our costings. actually we've been quite cautious. we haven't included savings for the nhs. so experts like the institute of public policy research say if you do what we're proposing on personal care, that will save the nhs £3 billion by the end of the decade. we've not included that in our figures, so we think we're being cautious on our costings, but ambitious in our desire to rescue the nhs and really support people who need care, their care workers, social care workers and their family carers too. that was spending. 0n tax, the institute for fiscal studies has said that there are risks with your plan that you will not get as much as you want to get out of that taxation package. yet you say you're cautious. so the ifs seems to be saying you're not cautious. well, i've got huge respect for the ifs and worked with them

over the years and looked at their work. i think when everyone really looks at the detail, they'll know we've taken into account some of those uncertainties which the ifs are pointing to, particularly with what they call behavioural change. when people change in a different way as a result of a tax change, we've taken that into account, and the things we haven't taken into account, our costings, the savings for the nhs, for example, we haven't suggested that the economy is going to grow faster, even though i strongly believe it would do under our policies and that would mean that we could afford for all this. just one more question. normally with the liberal democrats, there's a really important question about tactical voting, about how you might be the balance of power in lots of different constituencies in this situation. labour are way ahead in terms of the polls. it does make a lib dem vote seem a bit less relevant. i couldn't disagree more, i'm afraid. in so many parts of the country a vote for labour will let the tories

back in, and in large swathes of the home counties from surrey to sussex, from hampshire to hertfordshire, 0xfordshire, cambridgeshire, berkshire, buckinghamshire. a liberal democrat vote is the powerful vote to defeat the conservatives in the west country, for example. in cornwall, in devon, in somerset, in dorset and elsewhere. we are the ones to beat the conservatives, and if people vote for the liberal democrats, they'll get a strong local champion who will stand up for that community, stand up for yourfamily and we'll put forward these proposals for a fair deal. and in the next parliament, i believe it'll be the liberal democrat policies, the liberal democrat values, that are ones that people will listen to. i think we could be really influential in the whole debate going forward if people back as many liberal democrat candidates as possible. two 12—year—old boys have been found guilty of murdering a man who was stabbed through the heart with a machete. shawn seesahai died last november after an unprovoked attack in wolverhampton. he was 19 years old.

the two boys, who cannot be named, are believed to be the youngest people convicted of murder since james bulger�*s killers were detained in 1993. phil mackie reports. a 12—year—old boy poses with a machete tucked into his tracksuit hours before using it to kill. his victim was shawn seesahai, who'd come to the uk from the caribbean island of anguilla for medical treatment. this was him the night he died, just before he and a friend went to a park where there was an altercation with the two 12—year—olds. it's not really clear what happened, but one of the 12—year—olds produced a machete. shawn and his friend tried to run away, but when his friend turned around, he saw shawn lying there, being kicked and beaten and repeatedly stabbed. the boys started messaging each other. the first wrote, "i'm scared, man." the second said, "i'm not." and his friend replied, "idrc." which means "i don't really care". detectives found the machete under one of their beds, and they were charged with murder.

i wouldn't say it something good for a child, like 12—year—old to walk with a machete. kids are dangerous now. and if we don't pay attention to our kids, it will happen every day. because they are so young, during the trial they sat in court next to a family member and someone who could explain what was happening. it's not the first case i have investigated involving a young man losing his life to knife crime, but it is the first time that i have looked at two 12—year—olds as being responsible. it was very similar to another murder in wolverhampton a year earlier. two teenagers attacked ronan kanda, thinking he was someone else. his family want such weapons banned. i actually wrote to the website that sold my brother's murderer the weapon, and he came back to me with, "well, if it's within the law, i'm going to continue to do it." weapons like those used to kill ronan and shawn are still legally available to over 18s. but in these cases, they were used by much younger children.

i can't see my son any more, you know. i can't see him any more. i just want justice for my son, that's all i want. we simply don't know why two children still not in their teens carried a machete and used it to kill. phil mackie, bbc news, wolverhampton. the french president, emmanuel macron, has surprised even his closest political allies by calling a snap parliamentary election. it's after his centrist alliance suffered a big defeat by the far—right in european union elections. 0ur paris correspondent hugh schofield reports. national rally headquarters when the exit polls came in last night. they were expecting a big win and they got it. more than a third of those who turned out to vote choose the populist right, victory far greater than any they have had before.

at the elysee, president macron was taking stock, and then a bolt from the blue, this dramatic announcement... translation: after having | carried out the consultations provided for in article 12 in our constitution, i decided to put back in your hands the choice of our parliamentary future by the vote. in a few moments, i will sign the decree convening the legislative elections which will be held on the 30th ofjune for the first round and on the 7th ofjuly for the second round. it means that in just three weeks there will be more elections, this time for the national parliament, with macron gambling the national rally won't pull off a double, but how can he be sure? for the national rally leader marine le pen and her young colleague, jordan bardella, early elections offer a tantalising glimpse of the possibilities of power. but if they are to repeat their triumph at the europeans, they need to convince the public they are a party of government. translation: we are ready to be

empowered if the french - people give us the support in the forthcoming legislative election. we are ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the french people, ready to put an end to mass immigration, in short we are ready to turn the country around, ready to bring france back to life. this morning, president macron was paying respects to french victims of the second world war, blithely confident as ever, so he seems, but his rule is at a turning point — turbulent times lie ahead. hugh schofield, bbc news, paris. the bbc has confirmed that giovanni pernice will not return as a professional dancer for the next series of strictly come dancing. it comes after the 33—year—old dancer has denied allegations of abusive or threatening behaviour and said he looks forward to clearing his name. health bosses have issued an urgent plea for 0—blood type donors after a cyber attack which affected several major hospitals in london last week. pathology firm synnovis was attacked, which has led to serious it issues and caused

cancelled operations and tests. the disruption means hospitals can't match patients�* blood at the same frequency as usual. 0ur health correspondent dominic hughes told us more about the appeal. there are two types of 0—type blood. there's 0—negative, which is known as the universal blood type. it can be used on anybody. about 8% of the population have 0—negative blood, but 0—positive blood, which about 35% of the population have, that can be used on around three quarters of all patients. so between them, these two types of 0—blood covers almost every patient. now, this all relates back to, as you were saying, matthew, the cyberattack, the ransomware attack on these two big hospital trusts in london, guy�*s andn st thomas�* guy�*s and st thomas�* and the kings college hospital. now, that has meant that, as we understand, they can�*t match patients blood with the same frequency as usual. so in other words, the whole system

has slowed right down. we know that lots of planned surgery has been cancelled as a result. but for those surgeries and procedures that really do need to go ahead, they need that old type blood they need that 0—type blood because it�*s safe for the vast majority of patients. we also know that over the weekend, medical students have been asked to volunteer for shifts at those two big london trusts because they need to help out with what is now essentially a paper—based system. so for example, they�*ll be hand delivering blood tests, for example. so this disruption, we understand, will last for weeks to come. so that ransomware attack really has had a very profound effect on these two trusts. cat owners in england face a fine of £500 from today, if their pet isn�*t microchipped. the new law applies to all cats that are 20 weeks old or more. the latest figures from the cats protection charity suggests

nearly two million in england don�*t already have the chips. 0ur reporter dave guest has more. princess is about to be microchipped. it�*s quick — no more painful than an injection — and it means that in future, no matter where she may wander, she could always be reunited with her owner. microchipping is the quickest and most efficient way in reuniting cats with their owners if they become lost or stolen or injured. obviously, we always hope that the worst won�*t happen to our cats, but sadly, sometimes it does. well, princess seems none the worst for having been chipped, in fact, the cats don�*t feel it at all. this is the microchip that is injected into them. the details are then logged onto a national database, and if ever you need to find a cat�*s details, you simply go onto one of these websites, put in the number, and there you go. of course, the thing is, you must remember that if you move or change your phone number, you have to update the database.

yet, there are still lots of cats out there who are not microchipped. there are almost nine million cats in england, but around 22% aren�*t chipped. if it�*s such a good thing, why are so many owners currently not having their cats microchipped ? i think some people don�*t quite realise how beneficial it can be, or they don�*t think that their cat�*s going to go missing or be injured. so they don�*t realise how important it would have been, and how much better it would have been if it had had them cats microchipped. is it possible that cost puts people off? i mean, how much does it cost. potentially, it varies between vets, but somewhere between £10 to £30. there are places, if people are worried about the cost, that could offer you reduced fees. from today, all cat owners in england must have their pet chipped, orface the possibility of a £500 fine. i think, sometimes we need to encourage people to do the right thing for their pets. also for the rspca, we�*re at the forefront of rescue and we have to spend a lot of time and resources trying to reunite cats with their owners if they come into our care, and they are even not

microchipped or the contact details aren�*t up to date. what�*s the reaction to the fact that people could be fined £500 if they don�*t have the cats microchipped? yeah, well, i mean, i think the rspca, we don�*t want to see people being fined, but there are often lots of low cost cat microchipping schemes available across the country. so, some local rspca branches will provide low cost microchipping and there�*s lots of other animal welfare charities out there that do as well. pet owners are being allowed 21 days grace before the law is enforced. dave guest, bbc news, salford. french guiana has become the first french guiana has become the first french overseas territory to welcome the olympic torch ahead of the paris games injuly. 0ver the olympic torch ahead of the paris games injuly. over 11,000 games injuly. 0ver11,000 torchbearers will take part in the relate which begun a month ago in marseilles, the church with go to church is like new kind in the south pacific before the 19 of the unpick cauldron in paris. this reminder,

keeping abreast of events at the un headquarters where there if it�*s in a vote at the united states —— united nations security council, regarding a draft resolution back in a resolution byjoe biden for a cease—fire between israel and hamas it would occur after six days of negotiation between the members of the concert. it is not clear this evening yet whether russia and china will actually veto the resolution, or whether they would abstain, and the resolution that reminds you my needs at least nine votes in its favour. that is all happening by the un -- us favour. that is all happening by the un —— us secretary of state antony blinken is travelling in the middle east in israel at the moment and just said just now earlier on, that he spoke to the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu of the importance of a post—conflict plan

in gaza, and he reiterated that the proposal on a table would unlock the possibility of the calm along the israel northern border and, the state department coming there. now time for the weather. hello there, good evening. you�*ll have noticed that it�*s feeling rather chilly for this time of year. now, today, a wet early start, followed by variable amounts of clouds and sunny spells, but also some showers. and some of the best of the weather was across the south west of england and western wales, but it�*s more of the same again tomorrow. it�*s still feeling cold for this point injune. some more sunshine, but also some more showers to come in the forecast. and we�*ve still got that brisk and chilly northerly to north westerly wind blowing, too. and it�*s that that�*s ushering down this colder air from the north marked in blue here, particularly blustery again for north sea facing coast, but the winds lighter than they were earlier on today. and the winds will start to lighten overnight tonight. again, a good scattering of showers for eastern coast and also down through the liverpool bay area, too. its cold start to the day tomorrow

for this moment in the year, temperatures for many back to mid single figures, maybe even one or two degrees celsius only in some of the shelter glands of scotland. and tomorrow, another day of sunshine and showers with that cold northerly wind blowing, too. but fewer showers this time across parts of scotland. still one or two isolated showers, and it�*s still rather windy across the northern isles, down through northern scotland and for these eastern coastal areas as well. more showers — they become more frequent as we head down further south across england, a few showers perhaps too, for northern ireland, but temperatures disappointingly low for the time of year. into wednesday, high pressure starts to build in. so it�*s dry air for most of us, but still some more showers across the south east of england, in particular. further north and west, it is a drier story, and temperatures will rise by a degree or so, and the winds will be lighter. but then big changes happen on thursday. we draw in more of a south—westerly wind. we start to see atlantic systems approach from the west. so it�*s a mostly dry start to the day on thursday,

but the cloud is going to be thickening from the west. and eventually we�*ll be seeing this band of rain sweep further eastwards, followed on by some showers, of course. so turning wetter, windier, particularly for irish sea coasts. but the temperatures will start to rise a little, 13—18 degrees celsius as we head through thursday. and you�*ll notice that temperatures recover back to the seasonal average as we go through the course of the weekend. but it is going to be rather wet and windy at times. until then, still chilly for the time of year. bye— bye.

this is bbc news — i�*m rajini vaidyanathan. there are nowjust three and a half weeks to go until the uk general election which is onjuly 4th. as part of the coverage here on bbc news, we�*ve been sitting down with the leaders of all seven main parties, for longer, more in depth interviews. my colleague bbc presenter, nick robinson, is the one asking the questions, and tonight we air his first half hour — with the prime minister, and the leader of the conservative party rishi sunak.

we will have anlaysis of all the big moments with our panel afterwards, so see you shortly. but for now, here�*s the prime minister, with nick robinson. tonight, it�*s the turn of the prime minister, rishi sunak. prime minister, welcome. my promise to you, to everybody watching, is that everything you say in the next half hour or so will be broadcast in full. i want to give you, all the leaders i interview, the chance to make your case to people who�*ve got a vote. i simply ask that you try and answer the questions that i ask you. questions, to be clear, that you have not been told about, that you don�*t have any advance warning of. well, good evening, nick, nice to be here. looking forward to it. we�*re going to talk a lot about policy. a lot about the choice that you think faces people. i want to begin, though, with the fact, to put it bluntly,

it does feel for you, doesn�*t it, rather like it�*s not stopped raining