this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk britain's former chancellor rishi sunak looks set to officially enter the conservative leadership race after securing the backing of more than 100 mps. rivals of former prime minister borisjohnson dismissed minister boris johnson dismissed claims minister borisjohnson dismissed claims by his allies that he has also reached 100 backers. the leader of the commons, penny mordaunt, is the only person to formally announce that she is running, but she has fewer supporters. that she is running, but she has fewersupporters. in that she is running, but she has fewer supporters. in other news... ukrainian officials say around 1.5 million households are now without power after the latest wave of russian attacks. and at the china

congress, former president hu jintao is mysteriously led out of the hall by officials. is mysteriously led out of the hall by officials-— by officials. just don't like you know more- — by officials. just don't like you know more. and _ by officials. just don't like you know more. and we _ by officials. just don't like you know more. and we speak - by officials. just don't like you know more. and we speak to l by officials. just don't like you - know more. and we speak to colin farrell and — know more. and we speak to colin farrell and brendan _ know more. and we speak to colin farrell and brendan gleeson - know more. and we speak to colin farrell and brendan gleeson about their new film about the end of a friendship. rishi sunak, the former chancellor, has over 100 tory mps backing him to become leader and prime minister — that is the number a candidate needs to enter the race. he's yet to announce publicly whether he will bid for the top job but he got a boost tonight after cabinet minister kemi badenoch, seen as being on the right of the party, endorsed him as the next leader. meanwhile, borisjohnson has flown home from a holiday

in the caribbean as his supporters claim he now also has 100 mps backing him although others have said this is "hogwash". two sources have told the bbc that a meeting between rishi sunak and borisjohnson has been taking place tonight. so far, penny mordaunt is the only contender to have officially launched a campaign. 0ur political correspondent damian grammaticas has more. are you running for the leadership? he was tight—lipped this morning, but rishi sunak clearly has a well of support among conservative mps, more than 100 now publicly backing him. and that sets up the extraordinary possibility he could face off against the man he helped bring down. borisjohnson, flying back from a caribbean holiday for a possible political comeback. it's just over four months since mrjohnson faced a revolt by his own mps

and a confidence vote. the vote in favour of having confidence in borisjohnson as leader was 211 votes and the vote against was 148 votes. more than 40% of his mps had no confidence in him then. dozens then resigned from his government. but some now say they want him to return. what we've seen in the last few days is that some of the mps who resigned, some of the mps who called for boris to go at the start of the summer, have now said they would like to see him put himself forward. they've admitted they were wrong and i know there are many others waiting to hear on if he makes the decision to run before they go public. thank you all very much for coming! those who want him back remember this — borisjohnson as a vote winner. but many tory mps haven't forgotten what followed — lockdown parties that broke the law. parliament will soon begin hearings into whether mr johnson lied about this. it's why the man he was a deputy prime minister is backing rishi sunak.

i think the country needs a prime minister that is focused 100% on them, and ijust don't see as a practical matter that that can be boris if he is then dealing with all of those issues, and i say that as someone who would love to see boris return to front line politics. i think he can, but i don't think he can until he's addressed those issues. the first candidate to declare she was running was penny mordaunt last night, but she has far fewer public declarations of support. i'm backing penny because she's the candidate i think that can not onlyjust bring the conservative party and parliament together, but actually, the whole country. she's got a proven track record working across eight departments in her 12 years in parliament. this was borisjohnson injuly, to the right, rishi sunak. later that day, mr sunak resigned as chancellor, saying people needed competent, serious government. three days later, mrjohnson was out of office. so, the choice facing tory mps may

come down to two men with a bitter history or an untested alternative compromise candidate. damian grammaticas, bbc news. as we mentioned earlier, the bbc estimates that more than half of tory mps have gone public with their support, and there's now an update on our tally. rishi sunak has passed the key threshold of 100 backers and is on 128, borisjohnson has 53 and penny mordaunt 23. it's worth again pointing out that these are the numbers the bbc can verify, others may have different information. that means 153 conservative mps are yet to say who they'll be voting for, with a total of 357 tory members of parliament up for grabs. 0ur correspondent damian grammaticus has been following the latest from westminster, in particular, that

potential meeting between rishi sunak and boris johnson. potential meeting between rishi sunak and borisjohnson. the bbc has been told that rishi sunak and boris johnson have been meeting tonight. we don't know anything about what it might be about but you could reasonably ask yourself, why would they want to meet at this point? possibly you could assume maybe to sound each other out, perhaps to try to come to some sort of an accommodation. we know that rishi sunak has what is crucial in a race like this, momentum, he is well past that threshold that he needs, it seems very unlikely that he would be in any mood to stand aside, perhaps he could be trying to seek some sort of accommodation from mrjohnson, but borisjohnson�*s best hope might be to try to take it to a vote of the party membership where he might feel he would get some support. but when it was suggested that he might have the 100 votes today, they were asked to show the names, they have not been able to, we only have them on 50, the momentum at the minute seems to be with rishi sunak.

well, what do voters make of the turbulent events in westminster? jessica lane has been talking to people in the conservative constituency of penistone and stocksbridge in south yorkshire to find out. as mps are back in their constituencies this weekend, many will find out if what's happening in westminster is the talk of their town. i think that we've lost faith in all the politicians, labour or conservative, and i think it's time that we need to get a bit more stance within the country again. a bit of stability back. i've been in spain last week. on holiday and all the spanish people and german people keep saying, "what's wrong _ with your country? " well, we've been talking nothing else. it's the backstabbing and that's the problem. this constituency has this rural market town of penistone and the industrial steelworks in stocksbridge nearby. historically labour, it turned conservative in 2019. the local mp, miriam cates, says she has huge admiration for borisjohnson, but she's backing

rishi sunakfor leader. but some business owners say they're more bothered about getting support soon. the main thing is energy bills at the moment, that's what's crippling us. 0ur quarterly�*s gone up from £270 to £990 for three months. for a little shop like this, it's difficult. is that electric and gas? just electric, we've got no gas, so it's crippling us big time, so stuff like that needs sorting out. whatever does happen over the next few days, it's certainly giving people a topic to chew over here. jessica lane, bbc news, in penistone. president volodymyr zelensky has denounced renewed russian attacks on ukraine's energy infrastructure as an attempt to break his country. he said the world had to stop the terror. kyiv says almost one and a half million households are without power following another barrage by russian missiles on civilian energy facilities. the national electricity operator

said the latest strikes could have caused more damage than the intense bombardment lasting several days earlier this month. here's the latest from our correspondent hugo bachega. the ukrainian presidential office said around 1.5 million households across the country are without power following this morning's attacks, and the ukrainian airforce said russian forces had fired 33 cruise missiles, but that 18 of those missiles had been intercepted by the air defence systems. today's attacks targeted energy infrastructure in regions away from the front line, like lutsk in the north—west, cherkasy in central ukraine, and also 0desa in the south, where at least three people were injured as a result of those attacks. officials say the damage caused by the latest air strikes might exceed the consequences caused by last week's attacks that were carried out by russia, targeting sites across the country.

officials say that more than a third of the country's power stations have been damaged as a result of these attacks. reacting to the latest air strikes, the president's chief of staff, andriy yermak, said russia was fighting against civilian infrastructure and people and that ukrainians are getting angrier by the day. he said these attacks would lead to a much stronger ukrainian response. footage of china's former leader hu jintao being asked to leave the stage at the great hall of the people in beijing during the communist party congress is drawing global attention. mr hu, who is 79, was sitting beside president xijinping when he was approached by officials who took him by the arm and led him away. it's still not clear what was behind the move but chinese state media have blamed ill health for the incident during what is a usually highly choreographed event. our correspondent steve mcdonell

has more from beijing. the first thing you notice from these incredible events in the great hall of the people is that china's former leader when asked to leave doesn't want to go, and you have to ask yourself, why, what is going on? because he represents a type of government so different to the way things are done now. a period of opening up to the outside world, collective leadership, speculation has first turned to the possibility that this was a piece of political theatre, that he was being symbolically removed to show who is really in charge. but then when you look at the footage more closely, he doesn't seem to be welcome at times he doesn't seem to know what's going on. if there were legitimate health reasons, though, for him to be removed, why did hujintao have reasons, though, for him to be removed, why did hu jintao have to go so suddenly, and why do it in front of the cameras? unfortunately, china's system is so opaque that we are getting nothing else from the government by way of explanation. we

can speak to a specialist in chinese politics from the university of california, san diego. what do you think? symbolic purging of xi jinping's predecessor oil health? no, i think this was very puzzling and also dramatic we have not seen anything like that during these typically highly choreographed proceedings party congress. i am sceptical of the pure ill—health explanation. he clearly is not well, but he has been sitting up there throughout most of the proceedings of the party congress. the good opportunity for him to leave if he didn't feel well was after he had voted. so, his only formal role as a delegate to the party congress, he

voted for the new central committee, which he did minutes before these events took place. and he could have left the venue right after the voting because he didn't have any other official wrong to serve. yet he stayed there, he sat there rather stably, but suddenly was removed. another sign that suggests something political was that when another one of his neighbours tried to help him as he tried to get on with the one who was a close advisor of xi jinping, who was sitting next to him, pulled at his jacket to prevent him, pulled at his jacket to prevent him from rising to help hujintao so, this suggests that it would have been seen as a political mistake if he had help him out. which suggests a... y ., g , ., a... so, why would xi jinping want to do something _

a... so, why would xi jinping want to do something like _ a... so, why would xi jinping want to do something like this, - a. .. so, why would xi jinping want to do something like this, if- a... so, why would xi jinping want to do something like this, if it - to do something like this, if it were orchestrated by him? i’m to do something like this, if it were orchestrated by him? i'm not sure if it was _ were orchestrated by him? i'm not sure if it was orchestrated. - were orchestrated by him? i'm not| sure if it was orchestrated. another possibility was that hu jintao began to mutter something unpleasant or some kind of critical remarks, because he was sitting right next to xijinping, which displeased him. so it could have been something more spontaneous. i'm sure it wasn't really in xijinping's spontaneous. i'm sure it wasn't really in xi jinping's interests for the entire global media to witness this, either. remember, this was right after the media pool was allowed to get into the great wall of the people. it’s allowed to get into the great wall of the maple-— of the people. it's interesting to remember _ of the people. it's interesting to remember hu — of the people. it's interesting to remember hu jintao, _ of the people. it's interesting to remember hu jintao, he - of the people. it's interesting to remember hu jintao, he is - of the people. it's interesting to remember hu jintao, he is 79, l remember hujintao, he is 79, elderly and frail, but he was more of a liberal leader, who handed over power to xijinping, and that of a liberal leader, who handed over power to xi jinping, and that would appear to have changed quite a lot in terms of centralised power now the xi jinping? in terms of centralised power now the xi liming?— the xijinping? yes, well, i would not call him _ the xijinping? yes, well, i would not call him exactly _ the xijinping? yes, well, i would

not call him exactly liberal, - the xijinping? yes, well, i would not call him exactly liberal, you l not call him exactly liberal, you know... you know, he was one of the people who carried out to the crackdown on tibet back in 1989, but of course, under his rule, chinese society especially in the major cities have more room to be critical, have more room to discuss different kinds of political systems, for example, and he did carry out some limited reform within the party. but clearly even symbolically, his removal truly spells the end of that period. band spells the end of that period. and one of his sons _ spells the end of that period. and one of his sons is there this congress as well, in the past if there was a political removal of somebody it would be dressed up as somebody it would be dressed up as some sort of anticorruption campaign or something, some sort of anticorruption campaign orsomething, is some sort of anticorruption campaign or something, is it worthjust watching the family of hu jintao to see what sort of political motivation there could be behind this? ., ~ ., ., g ,

this? you know, next to xijinping were a number— this? you know, next to xijinping were a number of— this? you know, next to xijinping were a number of officials - this? you know, next to xijinping were a number of officials who - this? you know, next to xi jinping| were a number of officials who had been promoted by hujintao personally, including the premiere himself, who did his best to ignore what was happening. he acknowledged hujintao a what was happening. he acknowledged hu jintao a little bit when hu jintao upon his departure patted him on the shoulder, but i think it was a surprising and embarrassing event for xijinping himself but a surprising and embarrassing event for xi jinping himself but even for some of the other political elite and they were hoping to get past it as much as possible, of course the world's media is paying attention. the new italian government has been sworn in at a ceremony in the presidential palace in rome. giorgia meloni is italy's first far—right leader since the world war two and the country's first ever female prime minister. her party, brothers of italy, won last month's elections with

just over a quarter of the vote. she will head a right—wing coalition. ms meloni has sought to reassure western allies that italy's foreign policy won't change. joiing us now from rome is gianni riotta. he is a columnist at the italian newspaper la repubblica and a visiting professor at princeton. thank you forjoining us. cracks already seem to be falling in this coalition, i think the average life of a government since the second world war in italy is about 18 months, how long can she survive? well, she hopes to survive for the five years of the legislation, the problem is that in the past, we had a lot of cabinets, but stability with the same party always rotating, now the situation is really changing, and as far as foreign policy goes, she will stay put, ms meloni, she wants to stay on the european and naples side, but sell

beanie and bellows can watch more pro—russian. itruiiiiii beanie and bellows can watch more pro-russian-_ pro-russian. will she be able to convince european _ pro-russian. will she be able to convince european partners - pro-russian. will she be able to convince european partners that| pro-russian. will she be able to - convince european partners that she is on side, with somebody like silvio berlusconi, who recently was bragging about his birthday present from president putin, 20 bottles of vodka and a handwritten card? it depends on keep sending arms and weapons to ukraine, foreign minister, a bellows go no man, had a conversation today with the foreign of secretary in kyiv, reassuring him, but it depends on the if rome keeps with the allies in ukraine, and if she doesn't raise too many issues with europe on the economic plans, then things will be ok. it will be for sure a rough fall and

winter here in italy.— will be for sure a rough fall and winter here in italy. what about immigration? — winter here in italy. what about immigration? matteo _ winter here in italy. what about immigration? matteo salvini . winter here in italy. what about| immigration? matteo salvini did winter here in italy. what about - immigration? matteo salvini did not get thejob he immigration? matteo salvini did not get the job he wanted, i immigration? matteo salvini did not get thejob he wanted, i think he is now infrastructure minister, what is the view of the coalition on that? it is conservative, with really right—wing tones, ms meloni had a very rough speech with the radical right organisation in spain, where she was really rough on immigration. still there are rumours that this does sell beanie won't get any kind of assignment of immigration and that they will go to the sicilian politician that is now leads the new minister, i do not know what it is about, i am sicilian myself, but now we have and what about her choice

for finance we have and what about her choice forfinance minister? did we have and what about her choice for finance minister?— for finance minister? did she get the person _ for finance minister? did she get the person she — for finance minister? did she get the person she wanted? - for finance minister? did she get the person she wanted? yes, - for finance minister? did she get - the person she wanted? yes, because, mr geora e the person she wanted? yes, because, mr george yetti — the person she wanted? yes, because, mr george yetti is _ the person she wanted? yes, because, mr george yetti is very _ the person she wanted? yes, because, mr george yetti is very pragmatist - mr george yetti is very pragmatist quy mr george yetti is very pragmatist guy and he is one of the guys who works with italian companies, and he was minister in the mario draghi cabinet. he did not want the mario draghi experience to finish, so she made a shrewd move there, because on the economic chair, having someone like that, she now has a very strong guide against sylvinho the populists within the group. officials in sudan say the number of people killed in ethnic fighting in the south of the country has risen to 200. a chief in blue nile state has called on humanitarian groups

to help bury the dead. the two days of clashes between the hausa and berta communities were sparked by a land dispute. a 30—day state of emergency has been declared across blue nile. translation: i declare a state of emeruen translation: i declare a state of emergency in _ translation: i declare a state of emergency in all _ translation: i declare a state of emergency in all parts _ translation: i declare a state of emergency in all parts of - translation: i declare a state of emergency in all parts of the - translation: | declare a state ofj emergency in all parts of the lunar region for 30 days. the chief of the regiment, the police chief and the head of the rapid support forces, must intervene with all means to stop tribal fighting. they have all constitutional and legal powers to take proper procedures according to the nature of the situation. in germany, tens of thousands have taken to the streets of berlin in support of the iran protests. police in the german capital say an estimated 80 thousand have taken part in the rally. iranians from across europe have called on western governments to sanction the revolutionary guard and to throw out iranian diplomats. the organisers say the number of protesters in berlin was closer to 100,000. the authorities in niger say nearly 200 people have died in floods during this

year's rainy season. almost a third—of—a—million have been affected sincejune. the rains have damaged homes, classrooms, health services and grain stores. the worst—affected regions are in the centre, south and west of niger. this year's rainy season has been far deadlier than usual. a 12—year—old boy has died after a wall collapsed at a house in essex. emergency services were called to the property in clacton last night after a garage attached to the house collapsed. a man in his 30s was pulled from the rubble with an arm injury. the co—owner of red bull has died. he used his fortune from energy drinks to set up a formula 1 team which has now become one of the leading forces in the sport.

how do you respond when your best friend randomly decides to call time on your life—long friendship? well, that's the plot of the film the banshees of inisherin, set in the 1920s on a fictional remote island off the coast of ireland. our entertainment correspondent lizo mzimba has been talking to its stars, colin farrell and brendan gleeson. have you been rowing? dark and quirky. what the hell's going on with you and me brother? he's dull, siobhan. but he's always been dull. humourous and compelling. you're behaving awful unusual. the film tells the story of a lifelong friendship that suddenly ends. people have responded to it in such a positive way and it's meant something to the people that i've spoken to that have seen it — there's been a kind of relatability or personalisation of this film in regard to their own lives and their own experience of whether it's friendship, loss or isolation had to be dealt with, so it means a lot, it's lovely. yeah, breaking up and all that kind of stuff, like, we've all had a bit of it. it's hitting home with people in a way that's quite moving and stuff.

you just kind of feel, "wow, this is one that has worked the way it should." do you know who we remember for how nice they was in the 17th century? who? absolutely no—one. yet we all remember the music of the time. everyone to a man knows mozart's name. i don't, so there goes that theory. one of the central themes is how much people should sacrifice in order to create meaningful art, with both actors drawing on their own experiences. through the years, i've missed things. i've missed funerals of people who meant a lot to me, i missed... you know, i have two children — i missed the birth of one, i was there for the birth of the other one, but only because i wasn't gainfully employed at that time, thank god! so at least i was there for one of my boys being born, but you miss really important, fundamentally important moments. at one stage, i was nearly seven months away over the year in three different jobs. it was too much for my kids, it was breaking my heart to be there, and i said, "i'm not _ there's a certain level,

i'm missing too much." so, it's a constant line you're trying to walk. how gratified are you to be talked about as oscar contenders? if you got a nomination or something like that and i didn't, we'd have a laugh with it. we would. we would have a laugh with it, and then we would...it�*d be business as usual, do you know what i mean? and then it'd would be business as usual, you know, afterwards. no, but it'd be great! it'd be a laugh. yeah, yeah, yeah. "i want it," is what he's saying! "i want it! "when do we find out?" well, oscar nominations are still three months away, but when they are announced, many expect to see the names gleeson and farrell on that list. lizo mzimba, bbc news. the dead have come back to life on the streets of mexico city for its annual zombie walk. thousands of people stumbled down the city's streets wearing costumes and elaborate

makeup for the event. the zombie walk phenomenon began in california in 2001 and spread to major cities across the world including new york, singapore and sao paulo. further showers or longer spells of rain all tied in with this low pressure which will bring some thundery rain tonight and tomorrow. we have also got south or south—easterly winds with extremely mild air. staying mild by day and night. tonight, we will have further showers pushing north and eastwards. ahead and behind them for a while, some clear spells also some mist and fog before more rain comes up from the south—west. far north of

scotland is likely to keep more cloud. a very mild night for the time of year. tomorrow is another day of sunshine and showers. but this time the showers are more likely to be heavy and thundery, particularly through the morning. this band pushes northwards during the. —— during the day. further sharp showers developing in the afternoon. temperatures on a par with saturday. the winds not as strong as they have been recently. sunday night into monday, another speu sunday night into monday, another spell of heavy, thundery rain comes in from the south—west. this is how

monday shapes up, with low pressure close by and thundery showers in the early hours of monday. some sunshine developing for many eastern areas. note to the west, more showers piling in. there will still be some sunshine. temperatures will actually rise a little bit in the week ahead, we could get up to 21 in south—east england later in the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the uk's former chancellor rishi sunak looks is set to officially enter the conservative leadership race after securing the backing of more than 100 mps. rivals of former uk prime minister borisjohnson dismiss claims by his allies that he's also reached 100 backers, with speculation rife he could enter the contest. the leader of the commons, penny mordaunt, is the only person to formally announce that she's running, but has fewer supporters.