this is bbc news. the headlines at apm: seniorfigures in gibraltar have demanded that the british government stands firm and resists any moves by spain to regain sovereignty of the rock. the foreign secretary borisjohnson tweeted his support, "the uk remains implacable and rock—like in our support for gibraltar". research says that nearly half the people who used the government's help—to—buy scheme to buy a house did not need it. the bbc understands that only 5% of existing prison staff in england and wales will get new pay allowances of £5,000. also in this hour: the row at the centre of the eurovision song contest. the hosts ukraine face expulsion from future competitions unless russia's entrant is allowed into the country. and at 4.30pm, a closer look at the triggering of article 50, that's in the week in parliament in 30 minutes. good afternoon and

welcome to bbc news. the government has said that britain will defend the interests of gibraltar during the brexit negotiations, following warnings that spain is attempting to use the process to regain sovereignty of the rock. the eu has suggested that a brexit deal won't cover gibraltar without a separate agreement between london and madrid. here's our political correspondent, matt cole. the imposing rock at the mouth of the mediterranean has been in british hands since 1713. its fortified location, ten miles from north africa's coast, has made it a key strategic base for britain's military, as well as home to 30,000 british subjects. the outpost shares a border with spain which has long sought to reclaim it, but this week, theresa may made it clear that would not

happen as part of brexit. gibraltar is not a separate member of the eu nor is it a part of the uk for the purposes of eu law. but we're very clear that it is covered by our exit negotiations. we're committed to fully involving them in the work that we're doing. yesterday, just two days after that commons statement, the eu's draft brexit negotiating guidelines were issued, including this clause, which said, "no future agreements between the eu and the united kingdom may apply to gibraltar without the kingdom of spain's approval." some say spain is trying to exploit brexit. every country looks to look after its own interests and this is what spain is now trying to do over gibraltar. it's absolutely wrong that any future free trade agreement, any future security, bilateral arrangements, or anything else, should depend on britain giving some concession to madrid over gibraltar. in gibraltar, officials are furious. we are not going to be a pawn in brexit. we weren't the culprits of brexit.

the european union looks at the united kingdom as if, you know, they're in an acrimonious divorce. we are the partner of the eu and we are the ones walking away. well, gibraltar wasn't responsible for that. the letter handed to the eu on wednesday, triggering the article 50 leaving process for britain, didn't include reference to gibraltar, some critics say it should have. what this perhaps underlines is the challenge facing britain as it begins negotiating as a single nation against 27, each of which has their own vested interests. thousands of households on high incomes have received taxpayers money to buy a home, according to official figures. they reveal that the help to buy scheme, which offers subsidies to buyers, has helped four thousand households in england earning more than a £100,000 a year to purchase a home. our business correspondent joe lynam reports. introduced four years ago, when the uk economy simply wasn't growing at all, the help to buy scheme aimed to stoke up house building and help

mostly first—time buyers get on the ladder. since then, 250,000 people have bought property using the help to buy schemes. research by labour suggests that existing home owners from wealthy households have benefitted as well. using official data, research found around 4,000 households in england, earning more than £100,000, used the help to buy equity loan scheme and 20,000 households used it, even though they weren't even first time buyers. this scheme in place playing a valuable part in helping people get into the housing market for the first time should only be there for first—time buyers. and really shouldn't be there for people who are earning over £100,000 a year. itjust doesn't make sense. the help to buy equity loan scheme offers buyers up to a fifth of the cost of a new—build home, so they only need to provide a 5% deposit.

the government says almost 400,000 people have been helped and £8.6 billion has been promised for it in england until 2021. lenders now, once again, are not scared about falling house prices and are prepared to advance money to people who want to buy homes. the question is, has it now gone on for too long and is it now artificially pushing up house prices, particularly those of new build homes? the fact that the help to buy scheme has helped existing and sometimes wealthy households will worry some eeconomists. —— the fact that the help to buy scheme has helped existing and sometimes wealthy households will worry some economists. they have long seen concerns about consumer indebtedness, rising house prices and savings the an all—time record low. if the cost of living continues to rise, as it has in recent weeks and months, that will make the problem even worse. speaking earlier, reuben young from priced0ut, a group campaigning for first time buyers and cheaper housing, told us he wanted to see an end to the help to buy scheme.

the whole thing should be scrapped. the money should be put into subsidising the supply of housing and not the demand. the more money you have chasing the same supply of homes, the more expensive those homes will become. build more, sure, lift housing revenue caps, let local authorities borrow money to build housing, that's a better way to spend the money. government really has a good grip on the scale of this crisis. they have the right rhetoric. unfortunately, as we saw from the housing white paper, they're not prepared to take the steps necessary to actually get that done. gavin barwell is always saying there's no silver bullet. allowing local authorities to build housing themselves would be a silver bullet. reviewing green belt policy would be a silver bullet. reviewing property taxes would be a silver bullet. help to buy is a drop in the ocean. bbc news has learned thatjust 5% of prison officers in england and wales will benefit from new allowances of up to £5,000. the ministry ofjustice announced the new payments two months ago after criticism that low pay

and morale were leading to a crisis in the prison service. mark fairhurst from the prison officers association said giving some staff pay allowances, and not others, was demoralising their members, and failing to get to the heart of recruitment problems. those of us who are experienced are very demoralised. because we haven't had a pay rise in over seven years. those new recruits, for example, a new recruit at the newjail in wrexham will be receiving £21,000 a year, yet someone with the same level of experience as them, with only ten weeks in the job, working in brixton, will be receiving £31,000 a year. now that's no incentive to stay in the job. they need to tackle the real issue, the real issue we can't retain staff is because of the violence, because of the working conditions and because of the severe lack of support from management, when we deal with that violence. the other issue is the starting

salary throughout the country apart from the 31 sites identified, simply isn't sufficient enough. it doesn't compete with other industry. nottinghamshire police say they're becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of two young children who are believed to have been abducted by their mother. 42—year—old samantha baldwin from newark, has not been seen since monday and is believed to be with 9—year—old louis madge and dylan madge, who's six. police say they are treating the case as an abduction. from door to door, the police are looking for clues in their search for the missing boys and their mother. samantha baldwin, nine—year—old louis madge and six—year—old dylan vanish on tuesday. ——— dylan vanished on tuesday. the previous day, nottingham family court had ordered her sons should be removed from her care. the police are now treating it

as an abduction inquiry. i would like to say to samantha directly, please do the right thing and return the boys safely to the court. secondly, to anybody out there, across the nation, who has any information, however small that may be, to contact us. that includes anyone who runs or owns bed—and—brea kfasts, hotels, caravan parks, camp sites or holiday lets to check your registers, check who you've got occupying your premises and please bear in mind the group could be staying under a different name. the two boys have now been made wards of court. their mother regarded as posing a risk of harm. the police haven't ruled the possibility of someone else might be involved in harbouring samantha baldwin. two women, arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, have been bailed. peter harris, bbc news. documents released by the white house show donald trump's

senior staff hold millions of dollars in assets. ethics regulations require white house staff disclose their finances. according to us media, the figures appear to show the individuals are much more wealthy than officials in previous administrations, including barack 0bama's. earlier, our washington correspondent tulip mazumdar said the news was the latest criticism of the administration's ethics. i'm not sure that anyone's going to be hugely surprised that donald trump's administration has a lot of money between them. he, of course, is a multibillionaire. he has brought members of his own family into the white house with him. but it is very interesting to see the particular amounts we're talking about. just to talk you through some of them, jared kushner, the president's son—in—law and a chief advisor now in the white house, him and his wife ivaka had around $2110 million to $740 million in assets. that's up to around £590 million. that includes a stake

in trump international hotel, which earned ivanka trump between £1 million and $5 million last year. now, ivanka trump hasn't done a financial disclosure yet, because she's onlyjust officially joined the white house staff. we may get more numbers from their family in the coming weeks or months. others who are interesting, steve bannon, the president's, one of his senior advisors, chief strategist, he has somewhere between £3 million and £12 million in assets. gary cohn, a former goldman sachs head, now heads up the national economic council at the white house, he has assets of around $230 million. clearly big numbers here. i mean, the administration itself is thought to be, there are estimates around $12 billion. this is considered one of the, if not the richest administration's cabinets there's ever been and certainly more wealthy than the 0bama administration. the press secretary

to the white house, sean spicer, said in a statement that, look, we appreciate these are blessed and successful individuals, but these are people that care about the country. they have given up a lot to come into office and work at the white house, including some of these assets, because these are numbers that were the case when theyjoined the white house and they've had to divest some of the interests in the meantime. what about mr trump himself? have we learned more about his particular numbers? these are from white house officials. there were a number of them. donald trump didn't feature specifically, but, of course, his finances have been looked into at some length during the campaign. since he's been into office, they've been scrutinised again and again. in fact, ethics experts have said in the past that there are conflicts of interest there. they have encouraged the president to divest further. we know that he has given his trump organization, he has passed that onto his sons.

some people say, look, that's still too close for comfort. you need to divest further. in washington, you have the trump hotel and concerns have been raised that people will go and stay there, to please the administration before meetings. that will go down well with donald trump himself. there are concerns about that. we see the president going back to miralago, he's called it the southern white house, or the winter white house. but that is a private members club that makes a lot of money for the trump organization. he's taken dignitaries there. there are concerns again that this encourages people to get membership so that they can get closer to the president. we still haven't had the president's tax returns, even though he's been asked again and again to do that. he's the first president not to release his tax returns, though some of them have been leaked in the last couple of months. so there is a lot of uncertainty, confusion perhaps tied up in some of the money in the white house at the moment. but the white house itself

said, look, we're being completely transparent, we're releasing these figures. we're doing what we've been asked to do and that actually, a lot of people who had a lot of money have had to give up a great deal to come into the white house and be public servants. the headlines on bbc news: the uk says it will stand up for gibraltar‘s interests after the territory accused spain of using brexit to forward its territorial aims. research says that nearly half the people who used the government's help to buy scheme to buy a house did not need it. bbc news learns that only 5% of prison staff in england and wales will get new pay allowances of up to £5,000. in a moment: liverpool have won the merseyside derby 3—1. they are at the third but there are

several premier league matches. chelsea are currently losing to crystal palace in the second half. the first of the european championship quarterfinals are underway. at the first women's golf major at the —— of the year, the british player is three shots off the lead at the halfway stage. i'll be back with a fellow update at 5:30pm. —— full. demonstrators in paraguay have set fire to the country's congress in protest against a bill that would let the president seek re—election. the head of the main opposition party says an activist had been shot dead. the country's constitution limits the president to a single 5—year term. but the sitting president horacio cartes is trying to remove the restriction and run for re—election. greg dawson reports. this was a night of violence in paraguay that has followed months of speculation about the country's future. the protesters were directing

their anger at the riot police and politicians, who they believe are steering this country towards dictatorship. hours earlier, a secret vote had taken place here to approve a new bill, which could allow president cartes to run for another term of government. the offices of lawmakers were set alight, with computers and tvs becoming missiles. reports say dozens of people, including police and politicians, were injured. this is the man at the centre of the dispute. horacio cartes came to power in 2013, but paraguayan presidents have been banned from re—election since 1992 to try and stop a return to authoritarian regimes in the country. president ca rtes wants the restriction removed. trouble began earlier in the day,

with tears and tear gas on the streets of the capital. rubber bullets were also fired at demonstrators. translation: the people of paraguay can fight against these rubber bullets. they've installed a dictator in this country. the bullets against paraguayans will soon be metal. the controversial bill still needs further approval, with another vote in the congress. that was due to happen on saturday, but has now been postponed as lawmakers and the president appealfor calm. officials in australia have been warning that swollen rivers are continuing to threaten tens of thousands of people in queensland and new south wales. the police commissioner in the city of rockhampton in queensland said the flooding would be the worst in nearly a century. the floods come in the aftermath of tuesdays category four tropical cyclone debbie. tammi walker reports. authorities in australia have warned local residents, stranded by floodwaters,

to remain vigilant in the aftermath of a powerful tropical cyclone. as swollen rivers continue to rise, threatening tens of thousands of people living near major rivers in queensland and new south wales. cyclone debbie hit the eastern coast on tuesday, with winds up to 260 kilometres an hour, causing major damage to buildings, roads and crops. it's unbelievable, mate. it's picked it up like a big eskie and whipped it across the road. the country's prime minister, malcom turnbull, confirmed fatalities in the wake of the storm. two women in new south wales have died as a result of these floods. our thoughts and prayers are with their families. this is going to be a tough time for them. military and rescue teams have been mobilised to help with the emergency, rescuing stranded people and distributing supplies, such as food, water and fuel. officials stress the danger will continue for some time. we hope, by the end of the day,

we will see easing of those conditions and improvement into tomorrow. but it's not over yet. after three days of chaos and destruction, the people of queensland and new south wales are left with the damage and trying to rebuild their lives. venezuela's supreme court has reversed its decision to strip the opposition—led congress of its powers after two days of protests on the streets. venezuela's president nicolas maduro had earlier gone on television to say he had resolved the crisis. on friday the court's decision was condemned by the attorney—general, luisa ortega. the authorities in hungary are ready to start transferring asylum seekers to container camps on the border with serbia. the prospect of being held there has already put off some migrants and refugees from transiting the country. the camps have also attracted criticism and could be delayed by rulings in the european court of human rights. nick thorpe reports from roscke on the hungarian—serbian border.

this container camp is still empty. there's space here for 250 asylum seekers. so far, it is home to just two families. the government says it is locking them up to close a loophole, to stop those who seek asylum in hungary slipping away, deeper into europe. but detaining asylum seekers automatically is illegal. they should never become illegal, but they are treated as if they were illegal, from the first moment. whereas the european union's law requires to accept that they have a right to stay until the first decision. they are treated, first as if they are illegal, second as if they had not entered hungary. call it a reception centre, called it a container camp, by building it, the hungarian authorities have issued a direct challenge to the international community. no—one can tell us, they say, how to deal with asylum seekers.

yes, this is our food warehouse, one of two that we have... just across the serbian border, volunteers provide food to refugees. they used to rest here on their way to hungary. now they are looking for alternative routes. this is a time of experimentation. the refugees in serbia, i think, are trying to see if there's any better routes, trying the croatian border, the romanian border, and many have gone back to belgrade to get a rest. in a ruined brick factory on the edge of the town, this pakistani refugee contemplates his next move. maybe i will try from the croatian side, from the romanian side, because this border is now totally closed. they built another fence there, wso that's why it's a problem for us. hungary, at great cost, has sealed its southern border, so zarar and his friends plan to travel through romania instead. for the past ten years, young people who've made amazing

contributions to their communities have been recognised at the rotary young citizen awards. kirsty ashton was 19 when she won her award, in 2009, for herfundraising work. she suffers from a rare nerve condition, which can mean she can have 100 tumours on her body at any one time. today, she's working hard to raise awareness of disabilities. this is her story. i'm kirsty and some people call me kay. i'm from manchester. i'm 26 years old and i won the rotary young citizen award in 2009, because of the amount of money i've raised for when you wish upon a star and helping dreams come true. i live with a condition called neurofibromatosis and scoliosis. neurofibromatosis is where tumours grow on the nerve endings. scoliosis is curvature of the spine. i do voluntary radio presenting for uk health radio. i have a show called

the sunshine uk health show. i have become a role model for scope. that means i come into high schools and i will do a q&a with children about disability. the idea of the sessions are that we make them more aware and inspire them about disability and breaking boundaries as well with disabled people. kirsty ashton there. and all this week, the bbc news channel will be featuring the stories of past and present award winners. and next saturday, we'll be broadcasting the 10—year anniversary ceremony live from manchester. that's at 10.30am next saturday morning. the organisers of the eurovision song contest have threatened to ban this year's hosts, ukraine, from future competitions unless russia's entrant is allowed into the country. last week, ukraine barred yuliya samoilova because of a visit she made to crimea after it was annexed by russia three years ago.

earlier, i spoke to alsadair rendall. he's the president of the ogae, the uk's biggest eurovision fan club. he told me that the row between russia and ukraine goes back to the eurovision song contest last year, when ukraine won. the lyrics were deemed to be a bit political, perhaps anti—russian. skip forward 12 months and kiev is getting ready to host the contest. russia at the very last minute, there was a bit of will they, won't they take part. they submitted their song at the last minute. then the ukraine said, hang on, she's visited crimea, that's illegal. she cannot come to kiev to perform. so the ebu looked at a compromise which may have involved yulia performing live by satellite. the russian broadcasters said no, that's not acceptable. we're sending yulia to ukraine. we now have reports that the director—general of the ebu has contacted the broadcaster in ukraine to say hang on, this has got to be sorted out otherwie you will face sanctions.

this has never happened before in eurovision history, yet there's no love lost between russia and ukraine. there's not. it's fairly unprecedented. the nearest was in 2009 with georgia in the aftermath of the south ossetia crisis. there was a song and the lyrics were rather anti—putin. they had to withdraw. this stand—off, there's a bit of brinkmanship going on here. it difficult to see how it's going to be resolved. should politics be involved in something that's meant to be fun, it's entertainment, bringing people and nations together? absolutely not. the clue's in the title, the eurovision song contest. there's enough politics in europe at the moment. we need a bit of escapism from that. it's inevitable with the olympics and the world cup, when you have big, international events that politics will play a part. but, no, for the fans, for the viewers, for the musicians, it's a song contest. and let's hope this doesn't distract from that too much. we'll come back to what the fans

think in a moment. may 13th is the date, could this be resolved by then? it's going to have to be. we don't know what the resolution will be. i know the ebu were working really hard to find a solution that pleases everyone. but with the clock ticking just a few weeks to go until the contest, we're all really interested to see what's going to happen. it's hard to see what the way out is. you run the biggest uk eurovision fan club, what are the fans saying? the fans are saying this is not a politics contest. it's a song contest. it gives fuel to the fire to all those people who like to criticise eurovision and say it's all about politics, that's why the uk will never do well. at the heart of it is the best song will win. let's hope this doesn't distract too much from that. what was yulia doing in crimea? i think she performed in a concert within the last couple of years. obviously since the occupation of crimea by russia, that's seen as something that the authorities

in ukraine asjust a no—no, if she wants to perform in kiev. she's quite an interesting performer as well. she's performing from a wheelchair, is that right? exactly, yes. she is disabled. she wouldn't be the first disabled artist or even the first performer in a wheelchair. a polish singer sang from a wheelchair, but it adds to the whole kind of media hubbub around the story. the artist, gilbert baker, who created the rainbow flag that became an international symbol for gay rights, has died. he was 65. baker was asked to come up with a flag design for the lgbt community in 1978 by harvey milk, who was california's first openly gay elected official. time for a look at the weather now. here's jay wynne. on april one and we saw some fairly

typical in the weather. a little bit of sunshine out there and some angry looking clouds in the distance. the showers are fading away this evening and overnight becoming few and far between. the sky are squeezing and it will turn cold. showers in the latter pa rt it will turn cold. showers in the latter part of the evening, for the midlands in particular. even here, they tend to fade away. typically, it is dry with clear skies and that will mean a cold night. rueful spots called to five celsius and perhaps a touch of frost. it should be a wobbly start the day across much of england and wales, certainly the case in the southern part of england and wales. a bit of a breeze coming down from the north—west, but nothing too untoward. always a bit more close for the north sea coastal areas, maybe the odd spot of grain

to go with that. across most of northern ireland and scotland, it is called, there in all sports, more cloud towards the far north of scotland. most places starting on a pleasa nt scotland. most places starting on a pleasant note. it will be a pleasant day across a large sweeps of the uk. there might be the odd rogue show. ——. —— the odd rogue shower. it looks good for the board races through the afternoon. not particularly windy, which is good news, so the water won't be too choppy. there shouldn't be trouble with the weather at the premier league matches on sunday afternoon. looking ahead to the start of the

new week, in the north—west, the wind is fishing and the weather front is approaching, bringing a breeze, cloud and outbreaks of rain. the fuss will see some rain as the date develops. the further south and east you go, it will be a decent day, try and break and quite warm. —— try and bright. this is bbc news. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines at 16.30pm. the uk says it will stand up for gibraltar‘s interests after the territory accused spain of using brexit to forward its territorial aims. research says that nearly half the people who used the government help to buy scheme to buy a house did not need it.