this is bbc news, welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. 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 agancies continue to focus 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 arejoined 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. and over 2,000 people take part in copenhagen�*s "light run" as the city celebrates being designated this year's unesco world capital of architecture.

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. you mentioned there have been several delays of the company. at one polling unit i went to earlier in lagos, the electoral officers came an hour before voting was meant to end. people had been queueing for over five hours at that point, people were frustrated, angry, annoyed, but people remained determined to exercise their vote. �* �* , ., . ., vote. and it's a huge election, incredibly _ vote. and it's a huge election, incredibly competitive. - vote. and it's a huge election, incredibly competitive. give i vote. and it's a huge election, | incredibly competitive. give us some context, tell us more

about the issues that are concerning nigerians at the moment as they vote, why does this matter so much? this matters — this matter so much? this matters so _ this matter so much? this matters so much - this matter so much? this matters so much because| this matter so much? ti 3 matters so much because this election has come at a time of crisis in the country. several issues that are concerning nigerians. insecurity, for example, kidnappings have been rampant across the country. islamist militant groups especially in the north, and violent separatists in the south. the issue of the economy, inflation over 20% at the moment. the cost of living crisis is really hitting families hard. and the issue of unemployment as well, especially amongst young graduates who are finding it really hard to get a job. and most recently, the cash crisis. people have literally been struggling to get a hold of their money from the banks. the sense of the country is one of a need for change, a need for someone to be elected who will

exact change in the country. 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 the major earthquakes earlier this month. 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. 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've been speaking 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 the 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 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. 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.

states are also without power, as a rare cold weather 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. 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're 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 outage restoration time 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 crews ready to go and restore power so we don't have a 2a or 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, accused 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. 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. now to denmark, where the copenhagen lights festival came to an end this weekend, with nearly 2,000 people taking part in a light run. the city has been designated as unesco world capital of architecture this year, as sofia bettiza reports. they braved the february cold weather and ran for eight kilometres across cope and

hagan. all the runners were given an led light chain to wear during the race. they themselves became a feature of themselves became a feature of the copenhagen light festival. we've been running in copenhagen with all this artwork and lights in cold february... it'sjust february... it's just fantastic, i february... it'sjust fantastic, i can't wait to see the art as a one to my hometown. —— i run through my hometown. -- i run through my hometown-— hometown. the art is scattered around the _ hometown. the art is scattered around the city, _ hometown. the art is scattered around the city, like _ hometown. the art is scattered around the city, like this - around the city, like this sculpture made entirely of reused plastic. 0r sculpture made entirely of reused plastic. or this installation, called, on the otherside installation, called, on the other side of the sun. i thought the festival was an art piece in itself and to be part of this going through the streets and corners of copenhagen was quite an experience.— copenhagen was quite an experience. copenhagen was quite an exerience. , ., . experience. they ended the race with her two _ experience. they ended the race with her two daughters. - experience. they ended the race with her two daughters. it - experience. they ended the race with her two daughters. it was i with her two daughters. it was very pretty. — with her two daughters. it was very pretty. we _ with her two daughters. it was very pretty, we were - with her two daughters. it was very pretty, we were looking l with her two daughters. it was | very pretty, we were looking at it and everyone was stopping

and we could take pictures, it was very beautiful. it was very good plans all over so we could see all the different places. despite the weather, people still come here and meet with friends — still come here and meet with friends and walk around. all the city— friends and walk around. all the city streets and routes have — the city streets and routes have been filled up with people. really enjoying this. we are — people. really enjoying this. we are really thankful for this and also — we are really thankful for this and also waiting for next year. the 23 — and also waiting for next year. the 23 day _ and also waiting for next year. the 23 day festival is now in its sixth year. in a country where the wind is bitterly cold, with snow and frosty winds, many danes have come to love this festival which they say celebrates life and brings people together. the light run definitely looks eventful, some lovely pictures. you are watching bbc news, thank you for watching. lots to come so stay with us.

you can reach me on twitter — i'm @monikaplaha. 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 than 600 people over sub—standard buildings that collapsed during this month's earthquakes. meanwhile, internationalaid agencies say reaching

survivors is proving to be very challenging.