welcome to bbc news, i'm monika plaha. our top stories. anger and poor organisation mars nigeria's closest elections in recent memory, as millions vote for a new president. the uk and the european union appear to be on the brink of finalising a new deal on post—brexit trading rules covering northern ireland and the republic. i think the talks on reforming the protocol are inching towards a conclusion. certainly the deal isn't done yet. turkish officials investigate more than 600 people over substandard buildings that collapsed during this month's earthquakes. international aid agencies continue to focus on helping survivors.

some of these guys have been flying over 1000 hours since the earthquake struck. they say they will continue to keep going as long as aid is needed. china fails to condemn russia's invasion of ukraine, causing tensions at a meeting of the 620 major economies. marchers in sydney's gay and lesbian mardi gras are joined by their prime minister in a first of its kind. most importantly, for the people of australia. everyone should be respected for who they are, and tonight's a celebration of that. votes are being counted in nigeria's most competitive presidential election in decades.

the process has been largely peaceful, but there were some reports of violence in lagos earlier. the contest is a tight race between three frontrunners, as mayenijones reports. shouting. frustration and anger. many nigerians want to take part in this election but have been disappointed by the lack of organisation. gang violence and threats by militant islamists have made voting difficult in some regions. and in this polling station on the mainland of lagos, electoral officials never even showed up. they will tell us that the area is dead. there is nothing free and fair in this election. most people passing through this place were telling us that they were not able to vote. they are cancelling polling units all over this place. we have stayed here since past ten and this is past three. we've not heard anything, we've tried to call them. i have a twitter account,

i've been trying to tag any officials. actually it's a sin _ for you to stay at home today. young urbanites who want better economic opportunities have been encouraging each other to vote on social media. and it seems to be working. in lagos, despite the lack of organisation, voters told us more people showed up than in the last elections. turn—out here in lagos, nigeria's most populous city, tends to be quite low. in 2019, only 18% of the electorate showed up but here, in one of the city's neighbourhoods, people tell us that the turnout is unusually high. at 6pm, three and a half hours after polls officially closed, some polling units were onlyjust opening. having a third candidate for the first time is an encouraging sign, in a region where democracy feels under threat. but whoever wins will have to deal with a struggling economy, high youth unemployment and widespread insecurity. mayenijones, bbc news, lagos.

britain and the european union appear to be close to finalising a new deal on post brexit trading rules for northern ireland. under the current protocol— northern ireland follows some eu laws, and goods arriving from the british mainlund from the british mainland are subject to checks. 0ur political correspondent iain watson reports. the political stakes for rishi sunak are high. a deal with the eu appears to be moving closer. this would avoid a trade war between the uk and its largest market, but it could lead to a growing gulf within his own party, with some mps wanting the entire brexit agreement in northern ireland upended, and unless the democratic unionist party approve a deal, they won't agree to rejoin a power—sharing government at stormont. so, the prime minister has taken to the pages of usually conservative supporting newspapers to reassure sceptics in his own ranks that any deal won't be a sell—out. in an interview with tomorrow's

sunday times, he says... but in the sun on sunday, he seems to suggest that his oven—ready deal still requires a few more ingredients. as for that progress, it's understood that any deal would make it much easier and less bureaucratic to move goods from great britain to northern ireland and there would be a less rigid application of eu law on vat rates and subsidies to industry. the irish prime ministerfelt that things were moving in the right direction. certainly, a deal isn't done yet but i do think that we are inching towards a conclusion and i really want to thank the uk government and the european commission and the northern ireland parties for the level of engagement that they have done in recent months to get us to this point. we would just encourage everyone to go the extra mile. this weekend the prime minister says he is giving it everything

he's got to achieve a deal, but it might be easier to reach an agreement with the eu than northern ireland's dup, so the political risks for the prime minister remain high. turkish officials say they're now investigating more than 600 people in connection with buildings that collapsed during major earthquakes earlier this month. more than 50,000 people are known to have died in the earthquakes which struck turkey and syria. turkey's justice minister says more than 180 suspects are injail pending trial, including construction contractors and building owners. experts say many of the buildings that collapsed were made with poor materials and did not comply with safety standards. 0pposition parties have accused president erdogan�*s government of failing to enforce building regulations. well, as international aid flows into the area, the focus now is on helping survivors, but getting

help to those who need it can be challenging. 0ur correspondent laura bicker reports from turkey. aid that was slow to arrive is now in full flow. helicopter after helicopter of tents, food, medicine all crammed on board. no more room, signals this load master. there are more than 100 flights a day from here. international aid from the us and the uk has also ramped up. 0ur aircraft is stacked, with tents around our feet. we head over the mountains, towards one of the ten zones in a state of emergency, to get an idea of the scale of this disaster. this is by far the biggest logistical operation turkey's forces have ever faced. they've got more than 100 kilometres along a fault

line to cover, with tens of thousands in need, and most of them need these, which need room in a helicopter. we're flying to the first drop—off, near hatay, the worst—affected region in turkey. in the city of antakya, survivors say help took more than two days to arrive. at least 20,000 people lost their lives here. further down the coast, it took more than two weeks to get basic shelter to the people of remote kapisuyu. villagers need to stay to feed their livestock. guner�*s daughter was killed in the earthquake. she's now too frightened to live under this roof, especially after the area was hit by another tremor on monday. translation: we live in fear.

we can't sleep well at night. . when the quake happened, we suddenly woke up. what can we do? we can't go outside either, it's cold. there is nothing that can be done. tents are temporary. guner says she needs a new home. there have been major challenges to overcome. airports are damaged and landing in remote areas has been difficult. some of these guys have been flying over 1,000 hours since the earthquake struck. they say they will continue to keep going as long as aid is needed. many of them off camera have told us about the harrowing moment when they had to fly in the earthquake—affected zone. they say they were medically evacuating casualties for hours, but they say they'll

keep going as long as they can. aid is now getting to most who need it. but the long—term plan to help the tens of thousands in crisis is still unclear. laura bicker, bbc news, in the skies over hatay. let's look at some other stories in brief. tens of thousands of people have held demonstrations across israel against planned legal reforms. the prime minister benjamin netanyahu insists his government is carrying out the will of the people. the proposed changes would give ministers the power to appoint supreme courtjudges, and end the court's ability to review or annul legislation on constitutional matters. the french president emmanuel macron says that a long—delayed trade deal between the eu and a group of four south american

countries can't go ahead unless they follow european environmental policies. french farmers fear competition from the mercosur countries if they are not subject to the same environmental standards. protests have been held in the tunisian capital tunis against a speech by the president, calling sub—saharan migrants "illegal hordes". the demonstrators accused president kais sayeed of racism and called on him to apologise. the african union has strongly condemned what it described as racialised hate speech aimed at fellow africans. sharp divisions over the war in ukraine have emerged at the g20 finance ministers�* meeting in india. moscow has accused the united states and other western nations of destabilising the talks. no closing statement was agreed, as russia and china refused to accept a passage condemning russian aggression.

0ur political correspondent leila nathoo is in bangalore, and sent us this analysis of india's role. it's here in the hills near bangalore that the first major meeting of the g20 under india's presidency has taken place, a forum to discuss issues affecting the world economy. the fallout from the ukraine war is having a huge impact. but prime minister modi's address was notable for the absence of any mention of russia's invasion. instead only referencing rising geopolitical tensions. india maintains a neutral stance on the war, a position starkly at odds with g7 countries condemning russia, reaffirming their support for ukraine and calling for further sanctions. india wants a very different conversation, it wants to use its presidency of the g20 to represent developing nations who don't have a seat at the table of major economies, to champion their needs. so it wants to talk about food

security, sustainable growth, countries�* debt burdens. india is growing in international, political and economic importance and increasingly wants to set its own agenda. the european union is bringing in more sanctions against the russian mercenary group wagnerfor human rights abuses in three african countries. i spoke to drjonathan shroden, a military analyst from washington, about the group's global activities. wagner's what is known as a private military corporation, a pmc. it operates outside of the law inside of russia, in so much as pmcs are technically outlawed there, so it is mostly unacknowledged by the russian government and various individuals believed to be in control of the wagner group. globally it operates in a lot of locations, it has been active in syria, very active in ukraine as part of the russian invasion, and increasingly

active across africa. so it's mostly active in the central african republic and sudan, but also present in mali, libya and half a dozen other countries in africa as well. on that note, why does the wagner group operate in africa? for a couple of reasons. it offers russia some plausible deniability, in terms of the activities it engages in, in africa. which is to say, russia's interested in a lot of resource extraction from africa, and using the wagner group to advance most types of economic interests allows it to do so in ways that it doesn't have to formally acknowledge. it can get those resources in ways that are unavailable to it otherwise. a second reason is it allows russia to displace other countries that have had traditional influence in africa.

the most notable is france, which used to be quite active in the central african republic as well as in mali, but has been effectively kicked out of those countries and replaced by wagner. and why does the european union want to impose sanctions on their activities outside of europe? again, a couple of reasons. one, a sort of moral aspect. wagner has been involved in gross human rights abuses pretty much everywhere it has operated, but specifically in africa it's been accused of rape, torture, extrajudicial killings and executions. so from a moral perspective, this is a company, wherever it goes, instability tends to follow. the second reason, and i should say human rights abuses as well... the second reason, that instability that wagner tends to bring with it is something european powers would like to avoid in africa.

what happens in africa doesn't usually stay there, with respect to european countries�* views, so they are concerned with the spread of wagner and the instability it tends to bring with it. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. anger and poor organisation mars nigeria�*s closest elections in recent memory, as millions vote for a new president. the uk and the european union appear to be on the brink of finalising a new deal on post—brexit trading rules for northern ireland. divers in scotland have recovered two bodies from the firth of clyde after a tugboat capsized on friday. it had been escorting a cruise ship when it overturned. 0ur reporter suzanne allan has the latest. as you can probably see, a large police cordon is still in place here at east india harbour. since ten o�*clock this morning, the police dive and marine unit have been in and out

of the water to find the missing crew members from the tugboat that capsized here yesterday afternoon. just a short while ago, police scotland confirmed two bodies were found and brought out of the water this afternoon. the boat went down just off greenock at 3.30pm yesterday afternoon. eyewitnesses told me it had been escorting the hebridean princess cruise ship into harbour when it capsized. the emergency services rushed to the scene, including police scotland airand support units, hm coastguard and the rnli. the search was called off last night and began this morning again at ten o�*clock. police divers have now left but the investigation into why this happened will continue for some time. hundreds of protestors have gathered to demonstrate against the housing of asylum seekers in two english towns. people gathered in skegness on saturday calling for an end to the use of local hotels for asylum seekers.

a similar protest took place in newquay, but there was also a seperate rally there in support of the migrants. there were no arrests in either location. more than 350,000 residents are still without power in the us state of michigan, three days after one of the worst ice storms in decades knocked out utility poles and wires. tens of thousands across the western united states are also without power, as a rare cold weather system continues to pummel parts of california. widespread snow and flooding have forced several road closures in los angeles. san francisco is expected to experience record cold temperatures over the next 2a hours. but officials say the worst is yet to come. i spoke with seth guikema earlier — a professor at the university of michigan on forecasting power outages. he himself has been without power now for three days and says it could be some time

before power is fully restored. we are lucky that we have a generator that runs the basics, heat, refrigerator, so in that sense we are ok. a lot of people don�*t have a generator and have it much harder given the cold weather. when did you lose power, and when are you expecting everything to be restored? what are the power companies are saying at the moment? we lost power wednesday 9:30pm, while the ice, the rain was still falling and turning to ice. they aren�*t giving good estimates at this point, certainly still a lot of people without power. just tonight as my wife was driving home after dropping me at the office, she saw a transformer on fire, so there continue to be problems and it�*s going to be a struggle to get people restored. and just give us a sense of the frustration you are hearing

from people that you know have also been in similar situations to you? a lot of people are very frustrated. schools have been closed, we don�*t know if they are going to be open on monday. grocery stores and those sort of things are open now as far as i�*m aware, but a lot of people at home without heat and without refrigeration forfood, without power and hot water, and it causes a lot of frustration. this will probably become more common as we get more extreme weather. yeah, as you were saying, there�*s mounting frustration. 0n the time it�*s taken to get the power restored. we are hearing it hasn�*t been restored yet. has the storm highlighted issues with old infrastructure? yes, it has. and there are really two aspects. 0ne, preparing the

infrastructure for weather events, trimming trees and reducing the vegetation around the lines so that when the ice and the wind hits, you don�*t get outages. undergrounding lines, although that�*s expensive. the other part of that from a utility perspective is being prepared so when the power does inevitably go out, they can respond quickly, they can forecast the event and see it coming, which we could have in this case, and they can have the clues ready to go and restore power so we don�*t have a 36—hour ramp up period. huge crowds packed the streets of sydney for this year�*s gay and lesbian mardi gras parade, one of the biggest events of its kind in the world. among them was australia�*s prime minister anthony albanese, but not everyone was pleased to see him. phil mercer reports from sydney. anthony albanese has become the first sitting australian prime minister to take part in the mardi gras parade. he said his government was committed to ending inequality

based on sexuality or identity. well, australia�*s an inclusive country. there are benefits for our economy, benefits most importantly, though, for the people of australia. and everyone should be respected for who they are, and tonight�*s a celebration of that, and it�*s a great example of what an amazing country this is. critics, though, accuse the prime minister of pandering to a small minority that was hijacking australia�*s social agenda. but campaigners argue that the mardi gras is a time to acknowledge and celebrate those who have in the past suffered shame, rejection and discrimination because of who they are. everybody�*s welcome — heterosexual, cisgenders, queers, bisexuals, everybody. i love you all so much, let�*s come together. no more separation. for many, the struggles

continue — being gay is illegal in dozens of countries around the world. sydney�*s mardi gras began as a civil rights march in 1978. it�*s become one of the world�*s biggest lgbt events. it�*s the first time in three years the parade has made its way through australia�*s biggest city, because of covid restrictions. up to 300,000 people were expected to attend. members of the military, police officers and politicians were among 12,500 marchers. this year�*s mardi gras coincides with sydney world pride 2023, a global rights festival. a russian spacecraft on a mission to bring back

to earth a crew stranded on the international space station has successfully docked there. the russian soyuz capsule, which has no crew, will eventually bring back two cosmonauts and an american colleague. they�*ve been stranded since the capsule that was intended to make the return journey began leaking coolant. the french film on the adamant has been awarded the golden bear for best film at the berlin film festival. the award is considered the festival�*s top prize. it was given to french director nicolas philibert�*s documentary which is about a floating day care centre for adults with mental disorders on the bank of the river seine in paris. we do not always distinguish very clearly between patients and carers. and that�*s fine. i try to reverse the image that we always have of mad people, so discriminating,

so stigmatising. i wanted us to be able, if not to identify with them, at least recognise what unites us beyond our differences. something like a common humanity. the feeling of being part of the same world. 3,000 tickets for the eurovision song contest in may are being made available to ukrainians living in the uk. the event will take place in liverpool, which will host it on behalf of ukraine, who won last year. the uk government has announced £10 million in funding for the contest to cover operational costs and to ensure it "truly show cases ukrainian culture". thanks forjoining me.

you can reach me on twitter — i�*m @ monika plaha. hello. high pressure continues to dominate the weather picture this weekend. now, the best of the sunshine on saturday was across western areas, but the high pressure not only brought these sunny skies to northern ireland, but also brought this squished cloud as the air descended down through the atmosphere. whereas further east, we had extensive cloud really for most of the day and a number of showers coming in off the north sea. now, yesterday�*s satellite picture, you can see the extent of the cloud. it was particularly cloudy across these northeastern areas. but if we take a look at the satellite picture in a bit more detail, this cloud sheet is going to continue to feed in this kind of direction, which will take cloudy weather into northern england, the north midlands and north wales, whereas we�*ve got much clearer skies in this part of the north sea, drier air and that�*s set to move into east anglia, southern england and the south midlands. so there will be changes

in the distribution of cloud as we head into sunday. now the clearest of the skies over the next few hours across southern areas of england, southern wales, scotland, northern ireland and perhaps parts of western england, there�*ll be quite a widespread frost. the lowest temperatures, west scotland get down to about minus five degrees. so it will be a cold start, but extensive cloud will continue to feed in across northern england, the north midlands, north wales with some light showers coming in from the north sea, whereas across east anglia, the south midlands, probably southern wales and definitely most of southern england you should have more in the way of sunshine compared with yesterday. the other place that will do quite well for sunshine, west scotland and maybe northern ireland, because here we�*re close to the centre of high pressure and that high pressure continues to build in on monday. so again, it�*s probably west scotland and northern ireland will have the best of the day�*s sunshine, otherwise probably a little bit more in the way of cloud filtering down the north sea. so it could well be a cloudier picture across england, wales and eastern scotland through monday. tuesday, well, the high

pressure is still there. however, this is a troughjust coming in from europe. and what that will do is it will thicken the cloud a little bit across southern areas, enough to bring some scattered showers in. so you might find a few patches of rain here, not expecting anything to be particularly heavy, whereas the weather should be drier with the best of any sunshine again for west scotland and northern ireland. temperatures continue to be quite close to average, really, for the time of year and with the high pressure staying close by the british isles really through the rest of the week, the weather stays quiet with cloud varying day by day.

this is bbc news. the headlines: there�*s been widespread anger and frustration during nigeria�*s closest presidential election in recent memory, as poor organisation and logistical problems led to severe delays at polling stations. there were also reports of violence, including gunshots near a polling station in lagos. the uk and the eu appear to be on the brink of finalising a new deal on post—brexit trading rules covering northern ireland. the british prime minister says he is "giving everything" to secure an agreement, as his government is determined "to get the job done". officials in turkey say they are investigating more