of dozens of protesters by the security forces in myanmar — on what was the deadliest day since last month's military coup. the us and the eu have condemned the violence as "horrifying" and "indefensible". diplomatic sources in mozambique say fighting is continuing between islamist militants and government forces near giant gas projects in the north of the country. the french news agency quotes security sources as saying the jihadists have seized the town of palma. there's been an explosion outside a catholic church in the indonesian city of makassar, on the island of sulawesi. a police spokesman said some people had been killed and injured. reports suggest the explosion happened while people were attending a palm sunday service. now on bbc news... the week in parliament.

hello and welcome to the week in parliament. as mps debate extending emergency coronavirus powers to the autumn amid calls for a faster easing of lockdown. which is important to save jobs, save businesses and maximise the economic future of our young people. a former defence chief gives his reaction to the reshaping of the armed forces with fewer troops and a shift to cybersecurity. it is attempting to balance the books, whether or not that survives over the next ten years, i have no idea. and scotland's first minister survives a vote of no—confidence put down by the conservatives. how can parliament have confidence in the words i of a first minister whose words

have been found to be false? l if you think you can bully me out of office, you are mistaken, and you misjudge me. but first, it was a week and a milestone that no—one wanted or would have envisaged. tuesday marked the one—year anniversary of the day borisjohnson announced the first uk—wide coronavirus lockdown. 12 months on, people across the uk came to a standstill to remember those who'd died. the uk's offical death toll was 364 on the day boris johnson called the first lockdown. it's now more than 126,000. in the commons the speaker, sir lindsay hoyle, paused proceedings just before noon for a moment of reflection. every single one of us has been affected. it is right that we pause now together with the whole country and remember those who have died and those who are bereaved. silence well, when boris johnson appeared in front

of the liaison committee of senior mps the next day, the labour chair of the home affairs committee challenged him over what was being done to stop new variants against which vaccines may be less effective coming into the uk. you said just this week, "previous experience has taught us "that when a wave hits ourfriends in europe, i'm afraid it washes up "on our shores as well." but that's because we have no border restrictions in place. shouldn't that previous experience have taught us that what we need is effective border arrangements stopping cases is spreading? prime minister, i prime minister... all right, yvette, thank you. that you need to bring in restrictions and testing on hauliers coming from france? no. thank you, yvette. prime minister. actually that isn't true but thank you for giving me the opportunity to clarify that, yvette. there is a balance to be struck and what we don't know is the exact state of the efficacy of the vaccines against the new variants and we have to balance that against the very serious disruption that is entailed by curtailing cross channel trade.

this country depends very largely for the food in our shops, for the medicines we need on that trade flowing smoothly. now we will take a decision no matter how tough to interrupt that trade and to interrupt those flows if we think that it is necessary to protect public health and to stop new variants coming in, and it may be that we have to do that very soon. the next phase of lockdown easing in england is due on march the 29th when people will be allowed to meet outside, either with one other household or within the "rule of six". 0utdoor sport facilities including for golf, tennis and basketball will reopen and formally organised outdoor sport can restart.

and if you fancy a quiet wedding, nuptials can be attended by up to six people. but one mp on the committee pointed out that before then mps were due to debate and vote on renewing the sweeping emergency powers granted by the coronavirus act for another six months, extending it beyond the date when all restrictions are due to end. borisjohnson said the renewal of the law was needed to deal with backlogs that had built up. to be able to, for instance, use remote hearings for courts to clear the backlog in the courts, to make sure that people who return to the colours in the nhs who are volunteering can continue to practice and to serve, and there are various powers that we need to ensure that education can continue to run smoothly. so those are the reasons why there are powers and differences that will persist beyond the end of the road map onjune the 21st.

borisjohnson. and next day mps did debate that renewal of those government powers. the health secretary warned "cases are likely to rise" as lockdown eases, and while labour backed the continued road map and emergency powers a hard core of mps continued to argue for a faster easing of restrictions. we clearly want to lift these measures as soon as is reasonably possible, and my goal is that we will eventually see covid as something that has to be managed rather like the flu. we don't put in place restrictions on normal life to tackle flu but we do have a regular vaccination programme, and that is where i hope, with vaccines, that we're able to get to. a leading lockdown sceptic worried that the road map was based on out—of—date models about take—up and effectiveness of vaccines. could the secretary of state

ensure that that modelling is re—done with those new assumptions to see whether that that would justify a faster unlocking of the country which is important to save jobs, save businesses and maximise the economic future of our young people? the reason for the timings in the road map is so that after each step we can see its impact before being able carefully to take the next step. as to the powers in the coronavirus act, he repeated borisjohnson�*s point that they enabled important provisions in areas like sick pay and tackling the backlog in courts. although this act remains essential and there are elements of it which we are seeking the renewal of, we've always said that we will only retain powers as long as they are necessary. they are exceptional powers, and they are approved by this house for the use in the most extreme of situations. in six months' time, will we need that? will we have therefore dealt with the backlog in the health service and in the courts? or will he be needing to renew this again in six months? i cannot answer whether we will be retiring it in six months.

my preference would be yes, but given the last year i think a prediction would be hasty. but concern about the powers wasn't limited to the tory benches. look how much we've all learnt about viruses, - mutations, vaccinations — so why are we still - voting through an old bit of legislation? - this act is a blanketj of draconian powers that this government has wrapped itself in. - under the coronavirus act, we've had 250 people wrongfully charged. this act is full of far—reaching powers that are not needed. we do accept that restrictions have to stay in place, and for that reason we support the renewal of the act and the public health regulations before us. but we do not support that renewal with any enthusiasm or relish. quite the opposite. neither the secretary of state nor i came into politics to put powers like this on the statute book. the snp called for restrictions

on those coming to the uk. the prime minister must stop dithering, heat the coals - and bring in a comprehensive i system of supervised quarantine for the whole of the uk - to stop us going backwards and to save lives. the ayes have it, the ayes have it. and at the end of that debate, and despite opposition from some mps, the commons voted to renew the government's coronavirus measures. now, there are big changes are ahead for the armed forces, with fewer soldiers and tanks and a reduction in the number of older aircraft. the cuts are being made to help fund new equipment and technologies. the army currently has 76,500 personnel and the defence secretary told mps it hadn't been at its "established strength" of 82,000 troops since the middle of the last decade. ben wallace said the changes marked a shift from "mass mobilisation" to information age speed, readiness. in defence, it is too tempting to use the shield of sentimentality to protect

previous battle—winning but now—outdated capabilities. such sentimentality when coupled with over ambition and under resourcing leads to even harder consequences down the line. it risks the lives of our people, who are truly our finest asset. we welcome the plans announced today for cyber, for space, for defence science, for artificial intelligence, for the next generation of fighterjets, but these new technologies may take years to come on stream. so this is a plan for cuts now with a promise ofjam tomorrow. the chair of the defence committee said there was much to welcome. but they come at a huge price to our conventional defence . posture, with dramatic cuts i to our troop numbers, tanks, armoured fighting vehicles and over 100 raf aircraft, | including fast jets and heavy lift — cuts which, if tested i by a parliamentary vote, .

i don't believe would pass. whilst the government has paraded all of this flashy expensive new tech, and i understand that members of this house — notjust on the governing benches — get very razzle—dazzled with this stuff, what are we going to see come forward in terms of the proper oversight of the use of this technology? we cannot have — we cannot have a situation where killer robots are sent into battlefields but there is no proper oversight over weapons deployed on our behalf and in our name. next day, a minister unveiled the defence industry strategy with a shift away from global competition by default and a move to giving british firms more work. but giving evidence to mp5, a former chief of the defence staff said cuts to the armed forces would mean the uk was "less able "to deploy to conflicts at scale". we can't have it both ways. this is something that is

matching money to credible ambition, turning hollowed out forces into credible ones, but not at the same scale. so it is attempting to balance the books, whether or not that survives over the next ten years, i have no idea. another former chief of defence staff worried about what could happen while new equipment and strategies were being built up. ..the mid—20s, i see a significant dip in conventional capability before the new capabilities have been properly grown. and in that period, an adventurous russia that — i'm not suggesting will try to sieze paris or berlin — but mightjust be tempted to cause trouble by seizing a chunk of estonia or one of the other baltic states. that becomes a real problem for us. and at prime minister's questions next day, the labour

leader said borisjohnson had promised not to cut the armed forces and reckoned it wasn't the only promise he'd made and broken. he promised the nhs that they would have "whatever they need". now nurses are getting a pay cut. he promised a tax guarantee. now he's putting taxes up for families. he promised he wouldn't cut the armed forces. now he's done just that. so if the prime minister is so proud of what he's doing, so determined to push ahead, why doesn't he at least have the courage to put this cut in the armed forces to a vote in this house? prime minister. mr speaker, i'm proud of what we're doing to increase spending on the armed forces by the biggest amount since the cold war. the only reason we can do that, mr speaker, is because under this conservative government, we've been running a sound economy. it is also because we believe in defence, we've been getting on with the job. he talks about nurses and investment in the nhs, i'm proud of the massive investment that we've made in the nhs and, actually, we have 60,000 more nurses now in training. an snp mp moved on to

more possible cuts. we learned today, _ unfortunately from the media rather than a minister, - that the treasury has informed the veteran's office - that their budget is to be cut by 40% from £5 million to £3 million. - now, this cannot be right, i mr speaker as just yesterday graeme dey, the snp - scottish government's veterans minister, announced a further £1 million to support - scottish veterans alone. these disparate positions are irreconcilable. - this is a tale - of two governments. so will the prime minister follow the snp's lead - and assure the house today. that he will not allow this cut to uk funding for veterans? prime minister. not only was this the first government to create a veterans minister specifically with the charge of looking after veterans, mr speaker, not only have we invested in them but we've also taken steps to protect our armed service veterans from vexatious litigation pursued by lefty lawyers, mr speaker, the kind sitting not a million miles away from me today. borisjohnson. now for a look at some news in brief. the government has announced that the uk alongside

the united states and the european union has imposed sanctions on chinese officials held to be responsible human rights abuses in china. the foreign secretary announced a package of travel bans and asset freezes against four senior officials and a state run bureau in the xinjiang region. dominic raab said the treatment of the uighur muslim minority was "one of the worst human rights crises of our time". state control in the region is systemic, over a million people have been detained without trial. there are widespread claims of torture and rape in the camps based on first—hand survivor testimony. people are detained for having too many children, for praying too much, for having a beard or wearing a headscarf, for having the wrong thoughts. labour welcomed the move but suspected the government's

motives ahead of a vote on the trade bill. the truth is that the timing of this is grubby and it is cynical. it is designed to send a signal first and foremost, not to the chinese government, but to his own backbenchers. it is motivated primarily by a desire to protect the government, not the uighur. will he call out whatl is happening in china as quite simply genocide? the home secretary has announced an overhaul of the way asylum seekers are dealt with. under the plans, people who arrive by illegal means will no longer have the same entitlements as those who get here through proper routes. last year, more than 8,000 people crossed the english channel in small boats, with the help of people smugglers. our new plan builds on the work already done to take back control of our borders, build in a system that upholds our reputation as a country where criminality is not rewarded but which is a haven for those in need. there are no quick fixes or short cuts to success, but this long—time plan pursued

doggedly will fix our broken system. the plans outlined have been described as "inhumane" by the british red cross. the plans risk baking into the uk system the callousness, frankly, of this government's approach. the home secretary should be ashamed to make this- statement today, mr speaker. there is nothing. pretty about this. it is ugly dog—whistle - politics, and i can tell her that the snp wants no part in it _ the government has defended a move to force the stormont executive to commission abortion services. abortion was decriminalised in northern ireland by mps at westminster in 2019. dup mps opposed the move. there is still time for the secretary of state to think again before he takes action which will undermine and further destabilise the devolved institutions. it is unacceptable that there are women and girls in the parts of the united kingdom that cannot access these fundamental rights as they can elsewhere in the uk. even though the law was changed some 12 months ago, services have not been commissioned yet. that leaves many women and girls in vulnerable positions. i have spoken to many women and health care professionals in northern ireland,

some of their experiences are truly harrowing. too many women and girls are still having to travel to other parts of the united kingdom, to mainland great britain, to access this care. the parliamentary week began with tributes to pc keith palmer, on the fourth anniversary of his murder. the 48—year—old police officer was killed when he tried to stop a knife weilding attacker entering parliament. he was one of five people killed in that day's westminster attacks. now, the week saw the final battle over the trade bill and whether the uk should do deals with countries that have committed genocide. in the latest round of the row, the crossbench peer lord alton had inserted a clause whereby genocide claims would be examined by a committee of people with judicial experience — an idea rejected by the minister but supported by tory rebels when the bill returned to the commons.

it is not a court, it isjust a select committee in the house of lords. what has my minister got to fear? i thank my honourable friend for that intervention, but it is clear, madam deputy speaker, that the definition in the amendment of those who have held highjudicial office will — in the view of the government — inevitably infer quasi—judicial status on that committee. so he offered a compromise, the government would work with committees which reported on genocide, just not one made up exclusively of formerjudges. when it came to the vote, the government saw off the alton amendment but with tory rebellion of 29 and a reduced majority of just 18. the next day, when the bill returned to the upper house, lord alton finally conceded defeat but with a warning... last night, 300 members of the house of commons brought the government within a whisker of defeat.

that and repeated majorities of over 100 in your lordships' house have demonstrated that as new genocides occur in places like xinjiang, this argument is far from over and is unlikely to go away. scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, comfortably saw off a no confidence vote in her, brought in the wake of her government's botched handling of harassment allegations against alex salmond. the conservatives pressed the vote after two reports were published. an independent investigation chaired by a senior lawyer, james hamilton cleared nicola sturgeon of breaching the ministerial code. but the scottish parliament committee set up to investigate what went wrong in the government's handling of the complaints claimed ms sturgeon had misled them. no first minister who truly wanted to live up to the ideals of this parliament should feel able to continue in post after having beenjudged

guilty of misleading it. how can parliament have confidence in the words of a first minister whose words have been found to be false? the honourable thing would be to resign. whether the first minister has that sense of honour is now between her and her conscience. i move the motion in my name. had mr hamilton's report gone the other way, i would have accepted it. had he found that i had breached the code in anything other than the most technical and immaterial of ways, i would have been standing here right now tendering my resignation. if you think you can bully me out of office, you are mistaken, and you misjudge me. if you want to remove me as first minister, do it in an election. there are no winners in this debate, not the snp, - the spectacle of usingl a harassment inquiry — as a recruiting tool-

was grotesque, and the tories, in the face of all of these - failures, playing politics, interested only - in getting a scalp. scotland's politics today does not look pretty, talk of lynching, assassination, leaking the private evidence of complainants, tabling motions of no confidence before even all the evidence had been heard. attacking a committee because it does not agree with the first minister, lording the performance of nicola sturgeon because she talked to a committee for eight hours as if the show is more important than the facts. a green msp new which verdict on miss sturgeon he backed. so here we are, in one hand, we have an independent report by someone with enough professionalism not to go hawking quotes to the press in advance. it clears the first minister of any breach of the ministerial code, and in the other hand, we have a report by a committee

of this parliament whose members have prejudged the evidence, called for resignations before listening to it, betrayed the original complainants in the case and leaked their own conclusions to the media. the motion is - therefore not agreed. and when it came to the vote, ruth davidson's vote of no—confidence and nicola sturgeon was defeated by 31 votes to 65 — 27 members abstained. it was the last session of first minister's questions in wales ahead of elections in may. questions focussed on the welsh government's relationship with westminster. a conservative accused the first minister of being a constant critic of the uk government. you in fact have notjust been critical, but you have regularly tried to undermine the uk government's policy, particularly with regard to brexit, and you recently described the prime minister, borisjohnson, as being "awful". that's not conducive to having a positive working relationship between ministers. the first minister said the uk government wanted to roll back

devolution and "put wales back in its place". i am critical of uk government, of course i am, but i do it because i am a firm believer in the future of the united kingdom. yet, we have a government at westminster who every day stokes the fires of nationalism. it was one former first minister's last appearance before stepping down at the election. do you look forward to a date when the uk has a proper- constitution, a proper- structure, a time when the rule of law is enshrined in the law and not simply a conventionl and a time when wales. is a full and equal partner in the governance of the uk? mark drakeford paid tribute to him, as to the wider point... how is it possible to have confidence that the uk government is genuinely interested in securing a future for the united kingdom when at every opportunity it has to do something positive and constructive in that

direction, to describe its actions as "tardy" would be to give it the most generous possible construction. plaid cymru turned to a different issue. will you now commit. to extending free school meals eligibility? but will you take this - opportunity to promise a hot meal for every child whose family is in receipt- of universal credit? i will not go into an election promising people things that i know are not simply not possible. 0n free school meals, this government has a very proud record, indeed. the first government in the united kingdom to guarantee free school meals during school holidays, during the pandemic, the first government in the united kingdom to guarantee that that will continue through the whole of the next academic year. mark drakeford. finally, the remaining peers who inherited their seats

in the lords have faced a lot of criticism recently but some of them can claim to be experts in theirfield. in his youth, the hereditary peer, lord palmer, was sent to work at the family biscuit firm huntley and palmer. and that experience may have given him an insight into the issue of food wastage. i am sure one of the main problems is that the sell by dates on products are far, far too cautious. i remember once eating a biscuit which was 20 years old and perfectly edible. laughing. my lords, i have considerable sympathy with that point. i don't think i've eaten a biscuit quite that old, but i wouldn't be afraid of doing so. the fearless lord goldsmith bringing us to the end of the week in parliament. mps and peers are off now for easter so do join us when the commons returns on tuesday the 13th of april. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello there. as the clocks spring forward, the temperatures prepare to spring upwards. some warm weather on the way for the next few days, although if you are in the north—west of scotland, prepare for heavy rain which could cause some localised flooding. the rain has already arrived, a band of rain to start sunday across parts of northern england, wales and northern ireland. that will move north through the day, so sunshine and showers will be replaced by cloud and persistent rain, especially heavy across high ground in the west. some brightness for north—east scotland. further south and east, a bit of brightness, the cloud should break up across eastern england, stronger in places, but my even warm in places with temperatures up to 16 degrees across parts of yorkshire and lincolnshire. as we head through sunday evening, further rain up towards the north—west. remember, the sunset will be later, nearly eight o'clock across parts of northern ireland.

7:47pm in penzance, west cornwall. through sunday night, we will see further rain, becoming focused across those western parts of scotland. that is where we could see flooding. exceptionally mild night across the central areas, temperatures for some staying in double digits. monday, the wriggling frontal system will continue to bring rain towards the north, but to the south of the weather front, we will import some very warm air for the time of year. monday, cloud and rain in northern ireland, but especially across western scotland. eastern scotland, some brightness. england and wales, spells of sunshine, cloud broken up, and if you see sunny skies, temperatures could reach 21 degrees. temperatures have further to climb. tuesday, rain still in north—west scotland. over the next few days, we could see 200 millimetres. but further south, with the sunshine, tuesday is when temperatures could reach 23 degrees. but don't get used to it. from mid week, this frontal system will push southwards, opening the door to some colder air to push in from the north in time for

the end of the week. london, 23 on tuesday, just 10 degrees on good friday.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with rogerjohnson and rachel burden. 0ur headlines today: health bosses' message to the over 50s — book a coronavirus vaccination before supplies become limited next month. it is never too late. it is an evergreen offer. if you've decided actually i'm now ready for my vaccination, you will absolutely be able to get it. as england prepares for lockdown changes on monday, the head of the nhs warns the public not to squander the gains made against covid in recent months. high tide fails to dislodge the giant container ship blocking the suez canal in egypt. good morning. the world cup qualifiers continue:

scotland take on israel, while england take on albania,