this is bbc news — i'm rich preston. our top stories. polls are open in australia's general election, with voters choosing between the incumbent scott morrison and his rival, the labor leader anthony albanese. voting is under way, between scott morrison and the labour party leader. the commander of ukraine's azov regiment says his soldiers have finally ended their defence of the devastated port city of mariupol. the world health organization convenes a meeting to discuss the global rise in monkeypox infections — more than 100 cases are reported across 11 countries outside africa.

we look at how ethical hackers are helping farmers vulnerable to cyber attacks. double fault for wimbledon, as it's stripped of its ranking points, over its decision to ban russian players from this year's championships because of the war in ukraine. how a new exhibition in wales tells the story of the millennium falcon. hello and welcome to the programme. polls have opened in australia's general election in a vote which will decide the country's next prime minister. the race is between the incumbent scott morrison and his rival, the labor leader anthony albanese. these are live pictures from a polling station in sydney.

there are tough challenges ahead for whoever�*s successful — the cost of living crisis is squeezing households, and many say climate change is making some parts of australia unliveable. more than 17 million people are enrolled to vote — which is compulsory for over—18s. let's go live to our correspondent, shaimaa khalil, who's in sydney. good morning from australia's famous bondi beach. as every saturday, there are surfers, swimmers and people walking their dogs from the early morning. notjust yourtypical saturday, this is election day. voters lining up in this polling station. first, some very important action. these

are the famous democracy sausages. a real tradition of election day. essentially, voters cast their ballots and then treat themselves to a barbecue. they smell amazing. this election has become a real referendum on the characters of both party leaders. but also the issues. the economy and climate change. really crucial for voters. even though the economy has fared well during and after the pandemic, australians increasingly worried about the rising cost of living. australia also raised... i lost my words! interest rates, sorry! that worries a lot of homeowners.

those who have to pay mortgages. buyers and borrowers. so the economy is a real worry among australians. the other thing they are worried about, climate change. this country has been three major catastrophic natural disasters, the bushfires three years ago and recently the floods. you would think this would be a prominent issue discussed by both party leaders, but actually it has barely been mentioned. this is because it has been politically divisive and contentious. by contrast, it has been at the centre of campaigning for independent candidates, which has made them a real threat to safe government seats, like the one here in wentworth, near bondi beach. but also in big cities like melbourne. in a close election like this, the independent candidates may hold the balance of power. tell

independent candidates may hold the balance of power.— the balance of power. tell us more about _ the balance of power. tell us more about the _ the balance of power. tell us more about the main - the balance of power. tell us - more about the main contenders, the prime minister is scott morrison, claiming success with the covid pandemic but not untouched by criticism. absolutely. scott morrison is a very experienced campaigner, he has projected the image of the average australian dad, someone you can trust, who has seen the country through the pandemic. but many voters have said the trust has eroded through the years. many said especially during the natural disasters, he just hasn't been there when we needed him. remember, there is an infamous image of the australian prime minister in hawaii, wearing a hawaiian shirt, while many australians dealt with a burning country. on the other hand, the labour party leader anthony albanese,

one of australia's more experienced politicians, but he hasn't been visible in the past few years. partly because of the pandemic. he has been telling australians it is time for a change. but with a big story to come out of this election so far has been the independents. an interesting visual image of four female independent candidates running against, and posing a threat to four male candidates in presumably safe government seats. in presumably safe government seats. ., , seats. in a country where politics — seats. in a country where politics is — seats. in a country where politics is seen _ seats. in a country where politics is seen as - seats. in a country where politics is seen as toxic i seats. in a country where. politics is seen as toxic for women, their performance is quite significant. very envious of the barbecue! thank you. in ukraine, russian forces have been advancing on the battlefield in the south and east of the country, after suffering weeks of setbacks since their

invasion in february. the last few ukrainian defenders of mariupol are finally ending their resistance. now the donbas region is the key focus for russia. it says that what it calls "the liberation" of luhansk province is nearing completion, and it's intensifying its attacks on neighbouring donetsk. jeremy bowen sent this report from ukraine. explosions. the russians are shelling severodonetsk, as they try to encircle it. more than 100,000 people lived in the city before the invasion. now, it's one of russia's biggest targets. this is russia using the methods it perfected in syria and chechnya. heavy bombardment to try to break the will of its opponents. ukrainian rescue crews can still operate to reach civilians who need to get out. day by day, family by family,

russia is grinding forward. it is a long way to safety, down roads out of severodonetsk that the russians are shelling. they're trying to cut the city off from support, rescue and reinforcement. children here were born into a war. ukrainians have been fighting russian—backed separatists in donbas since 2014. in moscow, sergei shoigu, the defence minister, held a made—for—tv briefing, designed to back the kremlin's message that russia is winning. the minister said their advancing forces would soon take all of luhansk, which is one half of donbas, including severodonetsk. ukrainian combat engineers are trying to slow down

the russian advance, laying charges to blow this bridge on a strategic road. explosion. president zelensky started with his good news. translation: the ukrainian i armed forces continue to make progress in liberating the kharkiv region, but the occupiers are trying to further strengthen the pressure in the donbas. it's hell and that's not an overstatement. bombardment of severodonetsk is brutal and meaningless. ukraine's defences in donbas are creaking — they're still not breaking. away from the front lines, life goes on in ukrainian cities. in the end, the outcome of this war depends on ukrainian resilience, on the amount of help its army gets from nato, and president putin's determination to fight on — whatever the cost to russia.

jeremy bowen, bbc news, dnipro. a federaljudge in the us state of louisiana has blocked an attempt to lift covid restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum. the checks, known as title 42, were introduced by the trump administration in early 2020. they've been used to deport more than a million migrants since 2020. the usjustice department said it would appeal. two us secret service employees have been sent back to the us from south korea after reports they were drinking and got into a fight. local police, hotel security and two other individuals are said to have been involved. both were part of a team preparing for president biden's visit. borisjohnson is among the senior figures in the uk government who are being told that they'll be named in the sue gray report, on lockdown breaches at westminster.

the bbc has been told there'll also be new details about parties involving civil servants. those identified have been given until five o'clock on sunday afternoon to respond. many parts of spain could reach the highest temperatures recorded for 20 years on saturday, with the southern region of andalusia expected to register 42 degrees celsius. spain's been experiencing abnormally hot weather for may, with temperatures up ten to 15 degrees above average. the weather is being driven by hot dry air coming up from north africa. finland's leading gas supplier says it's been told deliveries of natural gas from russia will cease from saturday. russia's state—owned gazprom says finland is refusing to comply with moscow's demands that it pay for energy supplies in russian roubles rather than in euros or dollars. russia stopped providing electricity to finland last week for the same reason. the united states has told the uk and the

european union to "lower the temperature" in their dispute over the post—brexit trading rules in northern ireland. senior state department official, derek chollet, warned that the row risked undermining western unity over ukraine. the uk has threatened to unilaterally override elements of the northern ireland protocol it agreed as part of the brexit deal — a move strongly opposed by the eu. we really want to see this resolved. the last thing we believe that we need collectively is a big fight between the uk and the eu, at a moment where we need to be showing a message of unity. so we hope that this issue is resolved, we hope that both sides refrain from unilateral acts and that they find a way to lower the temperature and resolve this issue. more cases of monkeypox have been reported around the world, with two new cases in australia from travellers who recently returned from europe, and several cases also found across north america and canada. the uk has a total of 20 cases, while portugal has five

and spain has identified seven. our medical editor fergus walsh has more on this virus. it has been around for more than 50 years, usually cases are in west and central africa, but we have had scores in this current outbreak in europe and north america. symptoms start with a fever, a headache, and then a rash on the face or genitals, it leads to blisters and scabs, so it can be confused with chickenpox. it usually clears up of its own accord in 2—4 weeks. how do you catch it? it does not spread easily, it is not another covid. you require close physical contact with an infected person. skin to skin contact, exposure to blisters or scabs, perhaps touching clothing or bedding from an infected person. the uk health security agency said a significant proportion

of recent cases have been among gay and bisexual men, and it has urged them to be alert to the symptoms. there is a vaccine effective at preventing both monkeypox and smallpox, which has been eradicated. sajid javid said today the uk had bought more doses. i understand staff in sexual health clinics have received the vaccine. this morning, an indian air force plane carrying mr gandhi's body landed in delhi. the president of india walked to the plane to solemnly witness mr gandhi's final return from the political battlefield. ireland has voted overwhelmingly in favour of gay marriage.

in doing so, it has been come the first country in the world to approve the change in a national referendum. it was a remarkable climax to what was surely the most extraordinary funeral ever given to a pop singer. it's been a peaceful demonstration so far but suddenly the police are tear gassing the cloud, we don't yet know why. the prelaunch ritual is well established here. helen was said to be in good spirits butjust a little apprehensive. in the last hour, east timor has become the world's newest nation. it was a bloody birth for a poor country and the challenges ahead are daunting, but for now at least it is time to celebrate. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. polls are open in australia's general election, with voters choosing between the incumbent scott morrison and his rival,

the labor leader anthony albanese. the commander of ukraine's azov regiment says his soldiers have finally ended their defence of the devastated port city of mariupol. agriculture is becoming increasingly high—tech and automated, with robots which can pick crops, and driverless tractors. but it also makes the sector vulnerable to cyber attacks, affecting the ability of farmers to bring in harvests. now, the bbc�*s rural affairs correspondent claire marshall has discovered that at least one top agricultural firm is turning to so—called "ethical hackers" for help. an autonomous robot roams the dry earth. this isn't science fiction, it's harvest time in gloucestershire. this machine guided by artificial intelligence could replace human asparagus pickers. i think this is the future. the uk requires over 30,000

seasonal workers every year, during the season, to harvest the crop, and they can't get that quantity of people any more, so we are developing this to kind of supplement that workforce. now a robot like this could help solve labour shortages, but it raises a whole new set of problems. more and more farm tech is linked to the internet, and the threat from malicious hackers is growing. this is agricultural giant john deere's latest tractor — no human in the driving seat. highly sophisticated, but the company is now working with so—called ethical hackers, who have found vulnerabilities in the organisation's wider operating software. we made contact with one of them, who asked to remain anonymous. he believes a targeted attack on the industry could cause serious damage to food supply systems. so, you could literally stop a harvest in its tracks by getting into all the relevant systems and tractors? theoretically, yes, and that's what we're trying to prevent.

if you can't move your tractor during that time, or if you can't take the crop out of the ground, you can imagine what would happen, it stops the whole thing, everything stops. that's worse case scenario, but that is possible. john deere says the weaknesses identified by the hacker so far could not be practically exploited by cyber criminals, and do not pose a threat to customers or their machines. it said the company's top priority is and always will be to protect our customers, their machines and their data. however, experts warn this is bigger than one company. state sponsored cyber attacks are a growing threat. hacking into one tractor, yes, you, you could do some damage like that. hacking into fleet of tractors you can do more damage. hacking into a whole organisation and supply chain can really disrupt, actually destabilise economies. meanwhile, out in the field, even every day farm machinery uses systems that are vulnerable. unless defences evolve

as quickly as the technology, those who produce our food are increasingly at the mercy of cyber criminals. claire marshall, bbc news. to tennis now, and wimbledon has been stripped of its ranking points from the sport's governing bodies. it comes after its decision to ban russian and belarusian players from competing at this summer's championships because of the war in ukraine. players will now receive no ranking points for taking part in wimbledon. bbc sport's lizzie greenwood—hughes has more on the story. the background is the all england lawn tennis association the lta decided to ban russian and belarusian athletes from wimbledon in response to what is happening in ukraine. they decided to do that. it didn't go down particularly well with the atp or the wta, the men's and women's tour,

and they said in their statement that they didn't really want to have to do this but they said they saw no option but to remove atp ranking points from wimbledon for 2022. the event to you and i would be exactly the same, it will still have the big names except the russians and belarusians, including world number two daniil medvedev, but the players wouldn't gain any more ranking points, so it is more like an exhibition event, not affiliated to the world tours. it hasn't gone down well with wimbledon, they say they are deeply disappointed and they called it disproportionate in the context of the exceptional circumstances and damaging to players competing on the tour. the atp felt they had no choice but to bring in some sort of sanction because they didn't agree with the decision by the lawn tennis association to ban all russian athletes and those from belarus from all

uk grass court tournaments. this doesn't affect queens, nottingham, birmingham, the other grass court tournaments, it's just wimbledon. the 12—day cannes film festival, one of the biggest events in the movie industry calendar, is coming to the end of its first week. the organisers have been hoping to see a return to normal after covid—19 forced the cancellation of the festival in 2020 and its postponement last year. tom brook reports from the french riviera. i am very happy to report there is a festive atmosphere in cannes this year, very normal, quite different to the past, very little talk of covid—19. one of the biggest events this week was the arrival in the building behind me of tom cruise, who came here to promote his new hollywood film, top gun maverick, i was very impressed by the film—making, some of the content leaves

a bit to be desired but it made a big impact, it got a standing ovation. the festival people gave him an honorary palme d'or, the highest award of the festival. that was for his body of work over the past a0 years. but cannes isn'tjust about hollywood stars, it is also about serious international cinema. one of the finest films i saw was called tchaikovsky's wife, made by a russian dissident film—maker, about the contortions people in tchaikovsky's life made to deny he was a gay man. and some very sobering films in cannes, the war in ukraine continues to be an ongoing feature of the festival. this morning, i saw a documentary shot in a rather tragic way by a lithuanian film—maker who was killed, allegedly by russian forces, in april. his fiancee smuggled out the footage and they assembled the film together.

it is a grim portrait of a community living amid devastation. it's strange, you come to cannes, you watch a film like that, beautiful mediterranean sunshine, cappuccinos, baguettes, and you are in a different world. it is certainly a lively, inspirational atmosphere. and i have to say, as an assignment as a journalist, i treasure coming here. fans of star wars will recognise the fastest hunk ofjunk in the galaxy — the millennium falcon. but what they might not know, it was the last ship to be built at pembroke dock in south west wales. now an exhibition will tell the story of how han solo's beloved spaceship was built, back in 1979. aled scourfield reports. it was a project so secret it was codenamed the magic roundabout, but it was also the worst kept secret in pembroke

dock. jeff was part of the team that built the millennium falcon. ~ �* ., ., ., falcon. wasn't allowed to say anything- _ falcon. wasn't allowed to say anything. when _ falcon. wasn't allowed to say anything. when i— falcon. wasn't allowed to say anything. when i went - falcon. wasn't allowed to say anything. when i went home| falcon. wasn't allowed to say i anything. when i went home to my wife, my two boys were nine and 11, not to say anything outside the house, no? they went to school the following morning and told the whole school, didn't they? the engineers _ school, didn't they? the engineers normally - school, didn't they? the engineers normally work in the petrochemical industry, but in spring 1979 they were building the fastest hunk ofjunk in the galaxy, otherwise known as millennium falcon. it was painstakingly moved to elstree studios for the filming of the empire strikes back, and the scenes of the frozen planet hoth. now the story of the last ship ever to be built at the royal dockyard. just like the

original plan to build the millennium falcon, there has been a fair bit of secrecy about this exhibition, but some of us have been lucky enough to have a sneak peek. can of us have been lucky enough to have a sneak peek.— have a sneak peek. can i see our have a sneak peek. can i see your identification? - have a sneak peek. can i see your identification? people i have a sneak peek. can i see i your identification? people are so proud — your identification? people are so proud of the fact they have been — so proud of the fact they have been involved. it so proud of the fact they have been involved.— been involved. it has to be told in the _ been involved. it has to be told in the right _ been involved. it has to be told in the right way. - been involved. it has to be told in the right way. the i told in the right way. the exhibition will open to the public on monday and tell the story of a spaceship built in pembroke dock making it to a galaxy far, far away. in switzerland, it looks like it may be snowing in may, but not quite. the locals call it may snow, but these are narcissist flowers blooming on the foothills of the alps, creating an illusion of fallen snow. it has been a popular tourist attraction since the 19th century, and you are even

allowed to take a handful of flowers away. you can reach me on twitter. the weekend not looking too bad, some sunshine around, feeling pleasantly warm, but we have scattered showers in the forecast too. in fact, it will end up fairly cloudy in northern ireland and western scotland later on saturday. the clouds have been clearing overnight and into the early hours of saturday morning. in fact largely clear across the uk. mr and fact largely clear across the uk. mrand mark fact largely clear across the uk. mr and mark run coast in the south—west, just a few showers in the western isles and may be central scotland.

other than that, mostly sunny from the word go. temperatures between 9—11. saturday morning, largely bright and sunny across england and wales. northern ireland and western scotland will cloud over with some rain. apm, the best of the weather across england and wales, with temperatures around 21, just the chance of a shower, an outside chance. most of the cloud in northern ireland, south—western and western scotland, outbreaks of rain as well. although the north will have sunny spells, maybe aberdeenshire getting some sunshine, and around 70 degrees. through the afternoon, progressively wetter in the western isles. further south, it stays dry in england and wales. one sunday, a weather front blushing north—western

parts of the uk, the south and the south—east under the influence of high pressure sitting around holland and germany. and some warmth, so temperatures will rise only a bit on sunday across the south and south—east. north—western and south—east. north—western and western areas remain cool. still have the atlantic breeze, showers, may be 16 at best. whereas in london and the south—east, temperatures around 23. next week stays relatively settled in the extreme south—east, but for many areas, a case of sunshine and showers.

this is bbc news, the headlines... polls are open in australia's general election, with the opposition labor party hoping to end nine years of conservative rule. voters will choose between the incumbent scott morrison and his rival, the labor leader, anthony albanese. whoever wins has tough challenges ahead, including the cost of living and climate change. the commander of ukraine's azov regiment says his soldiers have finally ended their defence of the devastated port city of mariupol. the russian defence ministry says its forces are in complete control of the vast steelworks there. fighters from the azov regiment were holed up inside the plant for weeks, while the city suffered constant bombardment.

the world health organization has convened a meeting