good afternoon. the united nations says houthi rebels in yemen appear to be honouring a pledge to withdraw troops from key ports. it's the first signficant step since a ceasefire agreement was signed in december. the three ports are crucial for the distribution of international aid in a country where millions are on the verge of starvation. for the last four years, the houthi, supported by iran, have been fighting the yemeni government,

which is backed by a coalition of countries led by saudi arabia. a warning, this reoport from the bbc‘s chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, does contain some distressing scenes. a vital lifeline for a nation on the brink of famine. nearly all of yemen's aid comes through here. the houthis control this port and two others nearby. now they say they are pulling out theirfighters. if they do, it's the first step in the deal reached in stockholm in december, hailed then as a rare breakthrough. you have reached an agreement which will see a mutual redeployment of forces from the port and the establishment of a ceasefire. now the deal is on the verge of collapse.

so is yemen, a country facing what the un calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. images like this have shocked the world. not enough to end a brutal war between houthis aligned to iran and yemen government forces backed by a saudi—led coalition and armed by the west. earlier this year we saw how a fragile ceasefire in hudaydah was largely holding. but both sides agreed in stockholm to withdraw their forces from this strategic corner of yemen. there is deep distrust. if this first step succeeds, it could lead to broader peace talks. if it doesn't, yemen's best chance in years could also fail. lyse doucet, bbc news. labour has said that if it wins power, it will change the minimum wage, so that 16 and 17—year—olds will be paid £10 per hour, up from the current rate of £4.35. it would put them on the same

rate as that pledged by labour to older workers. some business leaders say it could risk reducing the number of under 18—year—olds in work, especially apprenticeships. here's our business correspondent katy austin. how much should you pay a young person to work for you? workers in the hospitality and retail sectors are the most likely to be on lowest pgy- are the most likely to be on lowest pay. today, labour said the youngest employees should be paid more. very strongly believe there should be genuine parity, genuine parity, between vocational education and academic education. at the moment, the independent low pay commission advises the government on what the minimum wage should be. workers under the age of 18 are currently entitled to a minimum wage of £4.35 pereira. for over 25 cities nearly double that, £8.21 per hour. under

the labour plan, a £10 para living wage would extend to people under 18, adding, it says, £2500 to the amount 16 18, adding, it says, £2500 to the amount16 and 18, adding, it says, £2500 to the amount 16 and 17—year—olds earn each year. this is a big change, we do not know what the effect would be because nothing like it has been tried before. this is more than doubling the minimum wage for 16 and 17—year—olds. the risk is that employers might not want to take them on at £10 per hour and if this applies to apprentices, it may reduce the training some of these young people are getting. labour says it will give smaller firm support to help them afford the rise, saying it with you savings from a reduction in the amount the treasury pays in in work benefits to pay for it. the group representing small businesses told me firms are already squeezed and it wants to hear more detail about what support would be an offer to help them shoulder the cost and avoid job cuts. the conservative vice—chairman for policy said...

labour's idea is clearly designed to appeal to younger voters. the verdict from businesses, more detail needed. let's take a look at some of today's other news. concerns over climate change might restrict the growth of aviation in the uk, the government has admitted. a senior civil servant says ministers may have to review their strategy, including plans to expand heathrow. it follows a recent warning from the committee on climate change, which advises the government that the planned increase in aviation would need to be curbed to control carbon emissions. two men charged with rioting offences in londonderry the nightjournalist lyra mckee was killed have been refused bail. the men, aged 51 and 38, have been charged with riot, petrol bomb offences and arson of a hijacked vehicle. ms mckee was shot dead while watching disturbances in londonderry last month. dissident republican group the new ira said its members carried out the killing.

the united states says it's ready to defend its forces and interests in the gulf, as tensions with iran escalate. the pentagon is sending an extra navy ship and a patriot air defence missile system to the region, but said it was not seeking conflict with tehran. theresa may is expected to answer questions about her departure when she meets with senior conservative mps next week. the prime minister has promised to stand down after her brexit deal is passed through parliament. but she's facing increasing pressure to go after disappointing local election results. 0ur political correspondentjessica parker is here to tell us more. it is speculation, but it comes from what you might call an informed source? the pressure on theresa may is heating up, she said she will go once phase one of brexit is through comedy divorce element of the process but with questions over when that might be, some tory mps are saying she needs to set out a more unconditional road map for her departure. so graham brady chairs

the 1922 committee of backbench conservative mps. he says he understands why she might be relu cta nt to understands why she might be reluctant to set an exact date. i do not think it is about an intention of staying indefinitely, as the prime minister or leader of the conservative party. i think the reticence is the concern that by promising to go on a certain timetable, it might make it less likely that she would secure parliamentary approval for the withdrawal agreement rather than more likely. while expressing sympathy, so graham brady has also said it would be strange with this meeting she has with tory backbench mps this week does not result in a clear understanding of her departure plan. a clear understanding might be what they're asking for but it does not guarantee that is what will get. with all the sport now, here's mike bushell good afternoon. england's cricketers made a great start to the second one—day international against pakistan in southampton. put into bat, they reached 115 before losing their first wicket, johnny bairstow out for 51, thanks to a terrific catch on the boundary.

jason roy has also made a half—century. england are 170—1 in the 29th over. they have been forced off by rain. it looks torrential. there's commentary on radio 5 live sports extra and over on the bbc sport website, there's live coverage of ireland's tri—nations match against west indies. after a week of drama in european football, this evening two giants, leinster and saracens, meet in the final of european rugby union's biggest club competititon, the champions cup. 0ur reporter patrick gearey is at st james's park in newcastle for us. hello. this is a place so associated with clu b this is a place so associated with club football, and today it will host the biggest game in club rugby of the season. it is saracens of england against the irish side leinster, leinster going for a record fifth european title, the defending champions. saracens one to two years defending champions. saracens one to two yea rs before defending champions. saracens one to two years before that and they are undefeated in the competition this season. undefeated in the competition this season. there are stars all over the

place, more than 20 internationals, ten british and irish lions. jonny sexton will go up against 0wen farrell, two of the best flyhalves on the planet going head—to—head. there is not much between the sides and it may come down to planning and tactics, so let's hearfrom and it may come down to planning and tactics, so let's hear from the and it may come down to planning and tactics, so let's hearfrom the man in charge of that. —— the men. we have a lot of respect for leinster and the quality of the player that they have. it is stacked with british lions and international players. the quality of the coaching they have... it is obvious that the experience that they have and we have some big match experience ourselves and i think that's why everyone is so excited. when you go for match ups across the board, both teams are full of internationals and lions and if there is an overseas player he's normally an international as well. i think it is a fantastic testimony

to both squads that we have both reached the final and everyone is looking forward to it. there is an added layer of intrigue because it is a world cup year and this might be the last chance we get to see a lot of these players and a real pressure environment. it has been a brilliant week of european clu b football been a brilliant week of european club football and rugby has a lot to live up to but this mightjust be the final to do it. fantastic. thank you. patrick gearey in newcastle. the race for promotion to the premier league is under way with the first legs of the championship play—off semifinals. and west bromwich albion are leading their midlands rivals aston villa after dwight gayle took advantage of a mistake in the villa defence. it is the away leg for west brom. it's approaching half—time there. later on, derby county take on leeds united in the other semifinal. mercedes told lewis hamilton there aren't many areas he can improve on after dominating final practice ahead of qualifying for the spanish grand prix. the world champion was more than half a second quicker than the ferrari of charles leclerc at the circuit de catalu nya near barcelona.

hamilton's mercedes team—mate, valtteri bottas, had been on top in friday's practice, and despite this mistake, he went on to end up third. ferrari's other driver, sebastian vettel, was fourth in a session that ended early after briton george russell crashed his williams. qualifying starts at 2 o'clock. great britain face 0lympic silver medalists germany in their opening game of the ice hockey world championship in slovakia this afternoon. it is the first time in 25 years that britain have competed at the top level of the sport and they'll also face powerhouse nations the usa and canada later in the tournament. that's all from me for now, but there's more on the bbc sport website, including live coverage of the world relay championships in yokohama, where great britain's men's and women's 4 x 400m teams have both made it into their finals. back to you, shaun. you can see more on all of today's stories

on the bbc news channel. hello. you're watching the bbc news channel. concerns over climate change might restrict the growth of flying in the uk, the government has said. a senior civil servant has said ministers may have to review its aviation strategy — including plans to expand heathrow. roger harrabin has more. flying is on the up and the government has been planning for it to continue to grow. what about climate change, you might ask? under current policy, industry will have to cut more greenhouse gases so aviation can expand. but the government is now considering a plan to virtually eliminate emissions by 2050. and a civil servant has admitted

in a letter to a green group that it may have to take note of advice from the independent climate change committee, saying that although people could continue to fly while meeting climate change targets, it was not possible for aviation to keep on expanding. in the end, i think the logic of this is completely inevitable. we know that we have to reduce our emissions urgently and radically and expanding them is going in the opposite direction. itjust does not make sense and i don't think the public want to see the government committing to a plan that is inconsistent with a safe and prosperous future for all of us. any policy change may affect controversial plans to expand heathrow. it definitely means the government will have to think hard about whether aviation can continue to grow at a time of what parliament calls a climate emergency. meanwhile, a challenge to the expansion of london's heathrow airport failed last week. the judgment was issued by the high court hours before

parliament voted to formally declare a climate emergency. well, tim crosland, from the pressure group plan b, who took part in that legal action, told me that despite that setback, it seems the issue of climate change is being taken more seriously. the morning we got that bad news and then by the afternoon parliament had accepted we were in a state of climate emergency and a few hours later shortly after midnight the climate change committee which is the independent expert advisory body for the government said we have got to get the uk to net zero emissions by 2050 so two very fundamental changes since the judgment last week. but to meet that emissions target, it will need some fairly dramatic changes and i wonder how you think we get from a to b in this context? the committee has said it is necessary to get there, not that we have a choice

or it is desirable. but how do we do it? it is urgent and radical reductions of emissions, and then action to extract c02 out of the atmosphere which is planting, reforestation and rewilding the countryside which has all sorts of benefits. i was talking to the prime minister of iceland a few days ago and she said exactly that, but she had to acknowledge coming from the country she does that she has huge demands to provide cheap energy and an industry which needs to keep going in order to employ people and she has an island relatively small but where there are more cars than people and she said it is going to be very hard to get people to change their behaviour. a lot of politicians say they are environmentalists but asking people to do things we have taken for granted is going to be hard. it will be very hard, we should have started this project decades ago, but we have left it very late and that has made it harder, but the one thing you don't do

is make life more difficult by increasing emissions from aviation which means you will cut even harder in other sectors across the economy, so that is why this seems an obvious thing to do. the expansion, you think that is a problem because it will simply put more pressure on other parts of the economy? hugely expensive and we will end up not being able to fly more anyway. one more question relating to that, given this problem, if you do it in one place, someone else has got to make up the slack, but these problems are global, and even if we reduce our climate, the strain we are putting on the climate, other countries are flying even more, india, china? the first thing we have to do is live up to our claims to climate leadership — we are telling people constantly we are leaders and the direction

we are leading is over the cliff edge, so that is a bad start. if people take us seriously, within a day of the uk parliament declaring a climate emergency, ireland had done the same thing and so if we lead the way, others will follow. let's get more now on yemen, where the un says moves are being made towards a ceasefire between the rebels and the saudi—backed coalition. the situation for civilians caught up in the conflict is said to be dire. earlier i spoke to the head of the international rescue committee in europe. i asked him how significant it will be if houthi rebels do begin withdrawing from major ports like hodeidah. if it is carried out it is huge, because over 50% of the aid yemen needs and there are 24 million people who need aid, 7.5 who are malnourished, this can be a big game changer.

we have people trying to save as many lives as possible. in effect it will make your chances easier if you can get your own stuff through? absolutely. we are seeing children coming to us malnourished, getting treated and then going back and coming back malnourished again because there is no food in the community and hodeidah opening up and getting commercial and humanitarian access will change that. what impact has this had on yemen? it has displaced 3.5 million people, this has the largest population of malnourished children under five. the conflict is taking no account for civilians at all. neither humanitarians or civilians are being respected and our sincere hope is that this is the first step on a long track to peace but it is only the first step and there is a long way to go. you are going to go out

there shortly, what operation have you got on the ground? is this a country where it is possible for your operatives to travel freely and actually get to all parts of the country? health care is our biggest service provision on the ground, reproductive health care so mothers can deliver babies safely, giving them the nutrition they need to keep the children alive especially in the first five years. it is possible to work but it is very dangerous and we are having to work around the conflict. both sides are not taking account of humanitarians or civilians so it is becoming very difficult and our operations will continue with hodeidah open but hopefully we will see a lessening of the demand for our help. are you worried that because this is a unilateral move by the rebels, that when they move out of hodeidah, otherforces might move in and it might not simply be a case of opening the port up,

and the problem remains? whoever is in charge of hodeidah, they have got to respect the access humanitarians need to bring aid in, and there will be a lot of negotiation about this and we would like all sides to adhere to what they agree in stockholm and for the un to be given access to monitor what happens next. it has been a painfully slow process? it has. we did see an intent to see this happen in february but it did not happen, but now the signs on the ground is that it is tentatively looking good but let's see in the coming days whether that is fulfilled and the lives of people are saved. a point about the port, i saw in the notes that there is a vast store of grain in the port that has been inaccessible for many months, what chances of any of that actually being used ?

i think it can be used but we need to see what it looks like, but more importantly there are ships coming in with fresh aid and medical supplies, and as the international rescue committee, we can use this to save lives, that is our hope. they can come in quickly? yes, aside from the military withdrawal, assuming we have the port actually functioning, and the port authorities able to do theirjob, and no bureaucracy preventing aid coming in. as we've been reporting, two men have appeared in court in belfast this morning as part of the investigation into the murder of the journalist lyra mckee. two men appeared in court.

they were christopher gillen, 38, of balbane pass and paul mcintyre, 51, of ballymagowan park, were remanded in custody. a detective said that the evidence against the men had come from mobile phone footage handed in by members of the public and also footage seized from a documentary film by mtv on thursday in derry which included filming in the offices of the dissident republican linked group, and also rioting in which lyra mckee was shot, and he also said he believed the men were ringleaders. both men were denied bailand ringleaders. both men were denied bail and thejudge ringleaders. both men were denied bail and the judge said ringleaders. both men were denied bail and thejudge said he did not believe there was a address in the city for them to be reminded to and they were both remanded in custody. thanks forjoining us. fly—tipping has increased by almost 40% in the past five years according to councils in england.

the local government association said nobody convicted of fly—tipping since 2014 had been given the maximum penalty of a £50,000 fine or a year in prison because of funding pressures. the goverment says they've strengthened local authorities' enforcement powers. simon armitage has been named as the new poet laureate, a role that lasts 10 years. he says he wants to use the role to ensure poetry embraces major global issues, including climate change. earlier i asked him how he views the role. it has really changed, if you go back a few hundred years it was a very mysterious post, it was a job for life and on occasions people would be obliged to write to commission for royal occasions and there is still some of that element attached to it but it has really been modernised over the last two decades, since it became a decade—long appointment. it is more about rolling our sleeves up these days, some elements

are ceremonial and ambassadorial, but there are other parts which are to do with the promotion of poetry and celebrating poetry and trying to encourage younger writers to try their hand at it and to identify people who might have a future in poetry. with the title poet laureate that might open a few doors in terms of the lobbying you do on behalf of poetry and the work of your fellow poets? that's the key, the fact it is a royal appointment, it helps to raise the prominence of this post and if the role is about making noises and asking questions, lending a voice to certain ideas and ideologies, that association with the monarch, i suppose, is probably

the reason why i'm talking to you this morning. that probably is the reason, when else would we invite a poet onto a news programme? that is a fair comment. it's a busy morning for many people, on a saturday, i wonder if you could read us something? because you say poetry should be for crazy times as well as calm times. it's a poem about climate change and clean air, something you were talking about earlier — it's called in praise of air. "i write in praise of air, i was six or five when a conjurer "opened my knotted fist and i held in my palm the whole of the sky. "i carried it with me ever since. "let air be a major god, its being and touch, "its breastmilk always tilted to the lips, both dragonfly "and boeing dangle in its see—through nothingness.

"among the jungled bric—a—brac i keep a padlocked treasure chest "of empty space and on days when thoughts are fuddled with smog "and civilisation covers the street with a white handkerchief "over its mouth, and cars blow kisses to our lips from theirs, "i turn the key, throw back the lid, breathe deep. "my first word, everyone's first word, was air." the new poet laureate there, simon armitage. it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. decent afternoon for smelling spring flowers but you might get wet, there are plenty of heavy showers, that is the limit of my poetry, i'm afraid. plenty of showers in the eastern side of england, but further north and west the pressure is rising, and the squishing of the clouds, you

won't get showers out of that but in eastern england there are plenty of heavy showers, and this was the scene a few hours ago in north yorkshire. the showers are showing up yorkshire. the showers are showing up on the radar picture, a line going through east anglia and south—east england and that is caused by a trough where the winds lashed together, and that encourages the showers to form. it really is across these eastern areas of the uk that we are going to see the lion's share of the heavy showers which could turn thundery over the next few hours. further west, could turn thundery over the next few hours. furtherwest, if could turn thundery over the next few hours. further west, if showers and more dry weather, temperatures in cardiff up to 17, feeling very pleasa nt in cardiff up to 17, feeling very pleasant —— fewer showers. the showers clear off this evening and we will have a dry night with clearing skies and it will turn cold, as well, temperatures down into low single figures, but if you

head into the countryside, cold enough for a few patches of frost, a cold start to the day on sunday, but a different day weather wise. the area of high pressure having built across the uk, that will bring dry and unsettled weather through sunday and unsettled weather through sunday and much of the week ahead. —— and settled weather. lots of sunshine to start the day, not a great deal of cloud and with the light winds and temperatures rising, it would be a warm day, 16 in edinburgh, and also in cardiff and london. the area of high pressure is going to last well into next week, so the weather will stay fine and it will feel much warmer than last week. plenty of sunshine on monday, high cloud making the sunshine hazy in northern parts but otherwise more of the sunshine to go round and the temperatures build, 19 in edinburgh, and 17 in belfast. generally it is

across the south and east where temperatures will be fairly close to average for the time of year, still feeling warm in the sunshine but across western areas where we will feel the best of the warmth, look at the temperatures in aviemore, climbing to 24 in northern scotland and also the western side of the uk will generally see the high teens and low 20s. that is the weather forecast for now.

hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: concerns over climate change might restrict the growth of flying in the uk, according to a senior civil servant. the un says houthi rebels in yemen appear to be honouring a pledge to withdraw troops from key ports, opening a lifeline for millions of people facing famine. theresa may is expected to give more detail in the coming days about leaving downing street, according to the most senior conservative backbencher. jeremy corbyn announces that labour will pay 16 and 17 year olds the same minimum wage as everyone else — if it wins the next election. equal pay for equal work is hardly a controversial idea.