this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at six. former conservative party leader, iain duncan smith, says the prime minister must go now or be forced out — after the party suffers heavy losses in the english local elections. former defence secretary gavin williamson claims he's a victim of a ‘witch hunt‘ after police say they won't investigate a leak from the national security council about huawei. at least one palestinian has died in gaza after the israeli army carried out air strikes in response to rocket attacks by palestinian militants. cyclone fani causes destruction in india and bangladesh — bringing torrential rain and winds of up to 125 miles per hour. a record 52,000 fans are watching the women's fa cup final at wembley — as manchester city take on west ham. in half an hour on sportsday we'll

bring you updates on the game, as well as the latest on celtic‘s win against aberdeen. good afternoon. the former tory leader iain duncan smith has said the prime minister must say she will resign "very soon", after the party suffered heavy losses in the english local elections. speaking to the radio station lbc, he referred to theresa may as a "caretaker pm". more than 1,300 conservative councillors lost their seats. labour failed to make the gains it had hoped for. 0ur political correspondent nick eardley reports.

urgently seeking a solution. tories mulling over devastating local election results, trying to find a way to solve the party's troubles. these members are in scotland. there were not any elections here this week but many agree failing to deliver brexit is behind the election drubbing. this former leader has had enough. he believes theresa may has lost her authority and has to go now. we have in a sense a kind of caretaker prime minister at the moment, you could argue a caretaker leader of the labour party but a caretaker prime minister and therefore, i think making fundamental decisions about where we go with this would be a big mistake. the conservatives always knew that voters were likely to give them a bloody nose this week, but the extent, losing 1300 councillors, was worse than they feared. because of that, some are saying their patience has run out. it is not the first time we have heard senior tories calling for theresa may to go. in the past, she has simply

ignored their calls but it is another reminder that many in the conservative party think theresa may simply can't deliver. 0thers, though, say there should be compromise with labour to make sure brexit is delivered. i think we do need a mood for compromise but compromise often involves looking at the different positions of different groups and coming up with something in between. clearly, i have supported the prime minister's deal which i think is better. but there are options in between. talks between the government and opposition will resume early next week. sources tell me there are still substantial differences. but after labour had a tough time at the polls, too, jeremy corbyn says there is impetus to get a deal done. but opinion in labour is split. some point to losses in brexit supporting areas and say failing to deliver would a breach of trust. i think we have got to leave because we had a referendum, we asked people if they wanted to leave the eu, and by a

small majority, they said they did and we said we would honour the result. but many labour mps are arguing the exact opposite. the party needs to back another referendum and ultimately, staying in the eu. they point to huge gains at the local elections for the greens and the big winners, the liberal democrats. i think there were some local factors but there is no doubt the big nationalfactor was the issue of brexit. the liberal democrats have been against brexit and campaigning against it, campaigning for a final say for the british people for the last nearly three years. i think people have heard that now from the liberal democrats, that we are the stop brexit party. these elections have caused a big questions for a government struggling to deliver brexit. answering them won't necessarily be easy. just to bring you a little bit of breaking news here. former defence secretary gavin williamson has described an investigation into the national security council leak as a "shabby and discredited witch hunt" — and called for a "proper, full and impartial" assessment of the investigation. it comes after the met police said the leak, about the chinese

tech giant huawei, did not amount to a criminal offence. mr williamson was sacked after the prime minister said she had evidence to suggest he was the source of the leak — which is something he denies. with me now is our political correspondent chris mason. so, just take us through events this morning. the latest developments in this huawei leak. the police are being clear cut that they don't think there's anything worth investigating. they saying there's nothing more that they can do. the response this evening from gavin williamson is to say is you were reporting there that this is a shabby and discredited witchhunt. effective the argument he can now mount is if the thrust of this was a meeting given there and cost him his job the police are saying there's no

questions worth answering here. i've a lwa ys questions worth answering here. i've always proclaimed my innocence and therefore what is this compelling evidence that you have on me? i think in reality politically for mr williamson the police element of this does not matter that much. ultimately this boils down to does a boss trust their employee? they did not trust mr williamson and he was fired. from the police perspective if you're going to pursue a criminal investigation that ensuring that you can investigation that ensuring that you ca n prove investigation that ensuring that you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed as a much higher bar than a boss concluding a chain of events has led you to not trusting an employee. if you to not trusting an employee. if you visit the compelling evidence is not there. there is evidence that a phone call took place between mr williamson and the disagreements

between the security council but there's not a transcript of that conversation and mr williamson maintains as he has done prior to his sacking that he did not leak that information. let'sjust go back to the local elections. summary people talking senior politicians here commenting on coming together and compromising then we are hearing about you have to step down. this is really a perfect example of this perfect message that the british public are sick of it. also an example of politicians regardless of party or persuasion on brexit saying a sentence that amounts to these results prove that i was right all along. shaping the political weather allowing people like mr duncan smith

saying that effectively a prime minister's time is up. it has turbo—charge that conversation but it was going on already and resume probably after the parliament elections in a few weeks' time. we do know is that the beginning of next week there will be more discussions between labour and the conservatives. and the tricky thing for those talks this is been a flirtation. at this going to be a consummation it will be like a chihuahua and a great dane. probably biologically possible and practically awkward and difficult. from jeremy corbyn‘s perspective he must think when he's looking at the detail of all of this, do you know what? do i really at the end of the day want to help the prime minister out? that's a huge burden if you like if he's going to sign on the dotted line for the deal. chris mason there. thank you very much.

we will stay with elections but moved to northern ireland. the cross community alliance party has made significant gains in northern ireland's local government election. the dup and sinn fein remain the largest parties, each taking around 25% of first preference votes. however alliance sharply increased their share of the vote to almost i2%. 0ther cross community parties, such as the greens, also made gains. talks aimed at reviving northern ireland's power sharing administration are due to be held next week. 0ur correspondentjohn campbell gave us this update. unsurprisingly the two biggest parties. accurate to the biggest unionist party and sinn fein the biggest nationalist party. the interesting and significant thing has been that surge for the centre

ground alliance party. adding five percentage points to their vote and really pushing out beyond their traditional bounds of belfast. they won the dairy city council something they had not managed to do in a0 yea rs. they had not managed to do in a0 years. just the other parties such as the greens and the socialist people before profit picking up seats by belfast and derry. there's a really interesting result in the election and the alliance leader said that people have become sick of the two big blocks. looking for something different and she is providing it to them. also a first for them is theirfirst providing it to them. also a first for them is their first openly gay candidate elected. why is this so significant? a lesbian being elected and standing for election and most of the uk will not be a story. but the dup are a party with roots in

fundamentalist religion. they have not been friendly to gay people in the past. they selected an openly 93v the past. they selected an openly gay woman to stand in the belfast constituency and she wanted that has been seen as quite significant. the leadership seem very content with that and they are very happy and she has been returned. 0thers that and they are very happy and she has been returned. others in the party still hold to fundamentalist religion are less keen. given the fa ct religion are less keen. given the fact that she has been selected as the thin end of the wedge and would indicate what they are thinking about reversing their policy of imposing gay marriage. the party today have given no indication of that but it's possible they may be testing the water. gay marriage is one of the issues that will feature in the talks aiming at the government in northern ireland. how much interest is these talks starting next week? some of the party speaking today about what is

going to be achieved. just short talks process because we are going to be another election cycle. a 17—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a teenage girl in wiltshire. the victim — who's not been named — died at a property in calne yesterday afternoon. police say they will have a "significa nt presence" in the town over the weekend as inquiries continue. israel says it has responded with air strikes after palestinian militants fired 150 rockets, injuring two israelis. the gazan health ministry says two palestinians, including a baby, have been killed in the exchange of fire today. israel has closed a number of border crossings in response to the rockets. i spoke to our correspondent jon donnison who gave us some background to the latest escalation.

there is apsley no prospect between a broader piece. there's terrible relations between the palestinian factions, hamas in gaza and then the west bank. no unity between them and for people living in gaza and the israelis on that side of the boundary life continues to be pretty miserable. we understand that israel has closed a number of crossings and have this blockade in place and just how much damage has the blockade had on those in the gaza strip? it's been devastating to the palestinian economy. we got unemployment running well over a0% and higher amongst young people. long periods where they are without power in the daytime for six, seven, eight, nine hours in the daytime. in the real thing that is shocking for me when i go to gaza is you have young palestinians who have never met an israeli, never left the gaza strip and they have no

interaction with israelis at all and so you really do feel the animosity between the two sides no prospect of that. do you think that israel is controlling their reaction very closely following the human investigation released back in february? there also hosting your revision later this month. so security concerns are very high. is there a degree of moderation in their reaction to these things being fired? they did get a lot of criticism when you had thousands of palestinians shot at regular friday protests. in this conflict there's a physical violent conflict and there's a pr battle as well on both sides. from the palestinian point of view the friday protests are just showing their resistance to israel's occupation. from the israeli point of view this see it as writing and

palestinian population being exploited by hamas in their militant aims. there is this kind of pr battle. it does seem as you suggest that israel has been somewhat more measured. the headlines on bbc news. former conservative party leader, iain duncan smith, says the prime minister must go now or be forced out — after the party suffers heavy losses in the english local elections. former defence secretary gavin williamson claims he's a victim of a ‘witch hunt‘ after police say they won't investigate a leak from the national security council about huawei. the gazan health ministry says two palestinians including a baby have been killed after the israeli army carried out air strikes in response to rocket attacks.

up to 12 people have been killed by cyclone fani in the north—eastern indian state of 0disha. officials say the loss of life could have been far worse — had they not evacuated more than one million people from their homes. cyclone fani came ashore near the city of puri, in 0disha yesterday. but as the storm continued across india and into bangladesh — its winds have calmed — and its power has reduced significantly. angus crawford reports. the strongest cyclone to hit india in five years. wind and rain tore through the state of 0disha. gusts hit more than 120 miles an hour, destroying homes and businesses... ..uprooting trees, cutting roads, destroying communications. this man says it doesn‘t matter what preparations we made, houses and shops, everything is destroyed. but more than a million

people were evacuated from the storm‘s path, kept safe in shelters. the numbers of deaths and injuries remain low. now, a time to assess the damage, clear and rebuild. workers start by unblocking the roads. an officer coordinating efforts says his teams are responding to reports wherever they come from. cyclone fani has decreased in strength and moved north. prompt action did save lives, but still it leaves mile after mile of low—lying areas flooded, crops, villages, livelihoods destroyed. angus crawford, bbc news.

president trump has said he remains confident of striking a deal with north korea, despite reports that pyongyang has carried out another missile test. kim jong—un is thought to have become frustrated with the united states‘ refusal to ease sanctions. the south korean government see it as both a worrying development and a breach of a military agreement between the north and the south. tens of thousands of people in glasgow have taken part in a pro—scottish independence rally this afternoon. police scotland say they estimate that between 30—and—35 thousand people attended the ‘all under one banner‘ march , which passed through the city, from kelvingrove park to glasgow green. the organisers say they are a "pro—independence organisation whose core aim is to march at regular intervals until scotland is free". a plane with 1a3 people on board slid off a runway and into a river injacksonville, florida as it attempted to land during a thunderstorm.

the chartered flight was carrying naval personnel from the us base at guantanamo bay — but none were seriously hurt. however — some pets are still on board the aircraft — and the authorities are waiting for the inspectors to deem the aircraft safe before they can retrieve the dogs and cats. the commanding officer of the naval air station says the cause of the incident is yet to be determined. it‘s a miracle. i could have ended... we could be talking about a different story this evening. so i think there is a lot to say about the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the aeroplane. there‘s a lot to say about that because it very well could be worse. thailand‘s king maha wa—chira—long—gawn has been crowned in a three day ceremony. his coronation comes at a time of political uncertainty for the country. a general election was held in march — the first since the army took control in a coup five years ago — but a new government

has yet to be declared. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale reports. this is a sight that few thais have ever seen, a new king purifying himself with consecrated waters as he prepared to ascend to the throne. maha vajiralongkorn, or king rama x, as he‘s known more formally, became king in 2016 after the death of his father, who‘d reigned for 70 long years. but he‘s waited until now to be crowned over three days of elaborate buddhist and hindu ceremony. to many thais, the monarch is revered as an almost godlike figure, and some were on the streets, dressed in royal yellow, to see their king make the transition from the human to the almost divine. and, for many, this was a rare glimpse of a sovereign who spends much time abroad and has appeared more remote than his much—loved late father.

at 66 years old, he spent his life preparing for this moment, placing a crown weighing more than seven kilograms on his head, issuing his first royal command. translation: i shall reign with righteousness, for the benefit and happiness of the people forever. king vajiralongkorn has had a colourful and at times controversial life. today, his fourth wife, whom he married only this week, was formally recognised as his new queen. he is protected by severe laws prohibiting any criticism, but some thais hope that a crown prince who was seen by some as unpredictable will become a figure of stability for a country facing political uncertainty. for the king has real political influence. what will matter is his relationship with the army, which took power in a coup in 201a, and what role he might play in the balance between military and civilian rule that emerges

from recent elections. for this king will be more than just a spiritual leader. james landale, bbc news. police are stepping up security at mosques across the uk — in response to fears that they could be targetted during ramadan — which begins this weekend. there‘s been concern over safety among some in the muslim community — following the new zealand and sri lanka attacks. the bbc asian network‘s, shabnam mahmood has more. stepping up security at the mosque. extra volunteers at the gates. extra cctv cameras put in place. is everything all right? for mosques across the country, the focus on this year‘s ramadan is on worshippers‘ safety as well as spirituality. hello, little man. how are you?

are you 0k? for mosques like this and others across the country, ramadan is one of the most important and busiest times of the year. thousands of worshippers gather for special prayers every single night during the month of fasting. in the mosque kitchen, this mum says following recent attacks on places of worship, some in her community in east london are really worried. people are scared, you know, they are afraid to come to the mosque of the kids are afraid. how is the security going to be at the mosque? are we going to be safe at the mosque? so, people feel it. and it‘s the areas where mostly women and children pray that have now been identified in safety assessments as needing extra security. mosque leaders say they have a duty to protect their congregation. the world for us changed after christchurch and the reality kicked in that it happened there, it could most certainly happen

here and we have to be prepared for it. if there is an attacked or incident, how do i help women with children... and this is how they are preparing, and nationwide security road show, giving training on how to guard against an attack. the plan was to engage 200 mosque leaders so we have seen over a thousand. we believe next week we will see another thousand. the message from the police is one of reassurance. we completely understand why people feel the way they do. i‘m here to reassure them we have no information or intelligence to suggest anybody at the uk is in specific risk and i want to make sure they feel safe and supported the uk policing in their worship. these young women are confident their mosque will keep them safe.

yes, the mosque take a lot of preparations to make sure we are saved, so i feel safe. when we all come together, we are more strong. and it is a really peaceful atmosphere. nevertheless, extra layers of security will remain in place through our the islamic holy month with a message to remain alert not alarmed. for the first time in more than 30 years, the kids from ‘fame‘ are to be reunited on stage. the tv show was a massive hit in the 80s — now eight of the original cast are getting together for two special, charity shows — and it‘s all thanks to a detective from liverpool who tracked them down. 0ur entertainment correspondent colin paterson reports # fame! the kids from fame. performing in the uk for the first time in more than 35 years.

# people will see me and cry. # fame! # i‘m gonna make it to heaven. it was a great show. a great show and a great concept, great characters. plus watching dance is fun. i could watch it all day. you have dreams. you want fame? well, fame costs and this is where you begin to pay. a spin off from the movie, the tv series began on bbc one in 1982. it was a phenomenon in the uk. the soundtrack spent 12 weeks at number one, they were regulars on top of the pops. number three, the kids from fame. the kids from fame. high fidelity made it to numberfive in the singles chart. they even ended the year playing

london‘s royal albert hall. the kids from fame have turned television fiction into fact. there was another tour the following year but fame ended in 1987 and many thought they would never see them live again. until a detective inspector in the merseyside police managed to reunite the cast for two charity shows this weekend. i‘ve loved it since i was a kid, since i was 11. it was everything to me when i was growing up. it was my dream and it has been surreal to think that that dream actually is happening right now. to be part of that with those guys is... it‘s like an alternative universe. # high fidelity. and now her childhood heroes are in liverpool. i am indelibly connected to it. we were a family. we worked 12 hours a day and when we went doing that we were in the studio. we were a family.

for better or for worse. and we were not too shabby, i must say. and we‘ve kind of gone back to that age. back to being kids again. we definitely see each other and we fall into our old habits. that little kid stuff. # fame, i‘m gonna live for ever. # baby, remember my name. last—minute rehearsals are taking place. back—up provided by the lma in liverpool. the reason i am a dancer is because of fame. so it is surreal. absolutely surreal to be here with the actual cast. and, amazingly, we have gotten through a whole report on fame without mentioning legwarmers. remember my name. colin patterson, bbc news liverpool. (tx)

now it‘s time for a look at the weather with ben rich. hello, to purchase today have been none too impressive for the first weekend in may. has felt chilly for northern and eastern areas where we have had showers and some of these across eastern england heavy with hail. wintry and a bit of snow over high ground. as we go through this evening continuing a process for their showers tending to fade. by midnight most places will be dry it with clear spells and that means for some of us with that cold air in place a touch of frost and temperatures hovering perilously close to freezing. not as cold last night but with extra cloud and a bit of rainforfar night but with extra cloud and a bit of rain for far north later on for northern ireland and england and extra patch of cloud and not as many showers today and not as windy today either the east coast. not quite as chilly and temperatures generally between ten and 13 degrees. another cool feeling day today and in the

north many places dry and shower a rain seeking southwards.