live from london, this is bbc news. russia detains a women after a pro—kremlin blogger was killed in a bomb blast at a cafe in st petersburg. russia's wagner mercenary group claims it now controls the embattled ukrainian city of bakhmut. but kyiv insists its forces still hold it. from centre left to centre right — finland's conservative leader petteri orpo wins a nail—biting three—way election race, defeating prime minister sanna marin. schools in england face further closures as the uk's largest teaching union rejects the government's pay offer and calls further strikes. and — australia's prime minister leads tributes to one

of the country's most influential aboriginal leaders, yunupingu, who has died at the age of 7a. hello and welcome. let's look at some of the main stories in the uk. uk passport office workers are staging five weeks of industrial action over pay, pensions and job security. union reps say walking out now will cause maximum disruption, because people will be trying to renew their passports in time for summer travel. the british government has called the industrial action �*disappointing' and says it's working to manage the impact it may have. our employment correspondent zoe conway reports. it's at this time of year that the passport service is at its busiest as people get their passports renewed in time for the summer.

the pcs union says it's going on strike now to cause maximum disruption. 1,900 civil servants are directly involved in issuing passports. the union says more than 1,500 of them will go on strike. the union says there needs to be a dramatic improvement on last year's 2% to 3% pay rise and an increase this year that matches inflation. it's always unfortunate when there's disruption because of strikes, but the blame should not be laid at those people who are using food banks and claiming benefits despite working full time for this government delivering front line public services. this has all happened on the government's watch. we've seen more strikes in britain over the last 12 months than we have seen for decades. that is the fault of the government. a home office spokesperson said...

of all the public sector disputes, it's the civil service dispute that's looking like the hardest to solve. unlike health workers and teachers, there have been no negotiations with the government over pay. zoe conway, bbc news. the realities of living with motor neurone disease will be reflected in a tv soap for the first time tonight — as one of coronation street's much loved residents is tested for the life—limiting condition, in a new storyline. inspired by the story of rugby league legend rob burrow and his family — the drama will follow the impact the disease has on builder paul foreman and the challenges he faces. rob and his wife lindsey took a trip to the corrie cobbles to meet some of those involved — and john maguire was with them. he's experienced some of the most famous locations in the country. old trafford, wembley. see the rovers return, rob?

want to pop in for a pint? today, coronation street. hi, hello! you all right? oh, my goodness, this is really surreal. so surreal, isn't it, yes? rob burrow and his wife lindsey are on set to meet the actors involved in one of the soap�*s storylines where paul, played by peter ash, develops motor neurone disease. couldn't carry on on the game for me, could you? why, where you going? i've got to send some emails, they need to be there tomorrow morning. in this scene, paul tries to play darts in the rovers return, but realises he has a problem controlling his right hand. thanks for the invite to come to the best soap on tv. i'm so happy to be here with my family. i'm blown away from the response i have but coronation street will have the awareness on a whole new level. i'm so happy to be here and have a story about mnd. i think people who are looking

for someone who will acknowledge the amount of work and time that goes into a patient with that horrible disease, i think that this will help bring it home. people through this story will find hope that one day they will find a cure, they hope that this disease will be beaten. on behalf of the mnd community, a big difference will be made. thanks so much. thank you. thank you for coming along today. that was the correct answer, | by the way, of the best soap! one of the first things i i did was read your book, rob, when i found out. i was doing this storyline. i loved it, by the way. it was great. i love all your ricky gervais references. i'm a big ricky gervais fan myself, so i loved it. - diagnosis? of what? the story follows the early stages of paul's anxiety and then the realisation that he has mnd. so how long are we talking? how long have i got? as i say, we don't know... how long? results vary from patient to patient. so it's hard to say. if you're not going to tell me, . i'm just going to search it online. so come on, tell me.

how long? generally speaking, following a diagnosis, the life expectancy of 50% of people with mnd is less than three years. i think the education around mnd and the awareness and i think for the mnd community not having to kind of explain, you know, over and over again what mnd is and about the disease, and i thinkjust having that reality bringing it into people's living rooms will have a massive effect. paul's partner, billy, is played by daniel brocklebank. in real life, he's an ambassador for the motor neurone disease association and is all too familiar with the impact the disease has. his grandfather died with the condition after being diagnosed 20 years ago. it's sort of doubly special, really, as a storyline to not only be able to raise awareness, but also to sort of commemorate

all the people that i've known over the last 20 years. and the association who, as you guys now know, work tirelessly to sort of try and find a cure. so yeah, and i know that my grandfather would be more than happy for me to be discussing it. oh, yeah, jack and vera! recent years have seen awareness of mnd grow hugely. rob's story has been a large part of creating that wider understanding. in fact, along with doddie weir, they inspired the writers' decision to tackle the issue. and with corrie now taking the story to its 5 million viewers, it too is joining the fight. banging the drum, raising awareness and searching for a cure to bring about mnd�*s final episode. it's been quite surreal. i'm a massive coronation street fan and grew up watching it with my mum and dad at home. so to be here actually on the cobbles is, you know,

it's quite surreal and obviously meeting the characters. yeah, it'sjust been, just been quite a surreal experience. but really we had a brilliant time, haven't we, rob? it's been great to have a chat to them and to see this. we'll be watching the story glued to the telly to watch how the storyline progresses. that wasjohn maguire reporting. after hundreds of grassroots football referees in england told the bbc they feared for their safety on the pitch, a world first trial was launched, allowing amateur referees to wear bodycams. around 100 people have used the equipment in the first three months of the scheme and if it proves successful, the trial will be expanded. our sports reporterjane dougall has been to see how it's working. afternoon, lads. so obviously, i've got the body camera on today. so what will happen if i need to switch this camera on, i will announce i'm activating the camera. in the first of its kind in the world, sophie wood is one of 100 grassroots referees taking

part in a body cam technology trial. the aim is to see if they can improve the behaviour of players and coaches. it means that i've got that safety net there. if anything was to cross that line for me, i'm able to switch the camera on, it captures, starts recording from that moment, it also captures the 30 seconds beforehand, so then context can really be gained around the situation that you've switched it on. many worry that when incidents like this one are broadcast on television, the behaviour can be copied at a grassroots level. the professional game of course are very aware of the fact that they are often seen as the example and that people can aspire to the behaviours seen and, you know, they are working collaboratively with the football association to ensure that actually they are also addressing poor behaviour from the coaches, the players. so hopefully, you know, if we do this united we'll get some really positive results. in february, a bbc questionnaire found that out of almost 1,000 referees who responded,

just under 300 said they'd been physically abused by spectators, players or managers. the mere presence of them, the fact that somebody sees the device there, makes them sort of think twice about their behaviour really. these really are just there to explore whether, you know, it improves the level of participant behaviour within the grassroots game and also give the referee that added level of safety and security for them refereeing. one of the four leagues in the country where the trial is being rolled out is middlesbrough, where19—year—old referee 0llie cairney has already used the equipment in matches. i'm a player, you're the referee, i come up to talk to you and you worry that i might start abusing you. if i feel threatened in any way, i'll press that button and then they can actually see the player, their face on the screen. do you think also if the player sees themselves on that screen, that will stop them from shouting or pushing you or anything like that? 100%, yeah. i think they see themselves

and they'll probably realise they're in the wrong straightaway and they'll step back from it. and have you actually noticed a difference, then? a little bit, yeah. it's fair enough for them like, "come on, ref, it shouldn't be a foul against me," but that's about it, really, that's all they'll say, they won't, like, go any further with it, and i think that's partly because of the camera. we can't show body cam footage from this match because there weren't any abusive incidents. so is it working already? a positive impact on players�* behaviours and attitudes whilst on the pitch. you know, they're understanding that there's the need for referees to wear these now so they're thinking about their behaviour even before they've stepped on the field of play. then obviously when they can see it, it's there to act as a major deterrent. the fa will track the impact of body cams across the participating leagues, which also include liverpool, worcester and essex. if they see positive results then it may become the norm for grassroots referees to wear one, and easier to name and shame those

who might want to abuse them. jane dougall, bbc news, middlesbrough. millie wheeler is a referee at devon county fa here in the uk, and has been refereeing for the past two years and is in favour of using bodycams. i think it would really help. i think it would slow abuse so much. at the minute when i referee i get a lot of abuse on the pitch, i wake up on a saturday morning and i dread going to the game because i know the abuse i get, it happens every game. it's more common for me to get abuse in a game than away from the game but i think the cameras will help and show people how bad it actually is. whether that be the coaches, the players or the spectators that also give the abuse. i wanted to ask you about that, your experiences of a typical game. where is the abuse coming from —

players, spectators and do you find you get a different sort of abuse given that you are a female referee? yeah, you get the abuse from the parents and players, the managers and spectators, whatever. you get the abuse from everyone. a lot of the time it depends on the team and the club, what it will come from mostly. from a female refs perspective, i feel i sometimes get less abuse than others in some games, depending on...in female games you get a lot less abuse and in male games, older people give you more respect, the younger people do not as much and they see you more as a target. the older people respect that you are a female ref more. you say some of that abuse comes from parents who i assume are watching their children play and you are refereeing so what sort of example does that set, if the parents are sending

abuse your way, an example maybe to set the children who are playing on the pitch that you are supposed to be refereeing? it's awful. a lot of the time you can tell the parents and the players. you can tell who is family. i have had parents that are worse than the players i have had before, a parent threatened a linesman for giving an offside which was completely correct and i think it shows an awful example. the same with the coaches. if their behaviour is bad it will reflect so much in the players, i have had coaches where they behaved amazingly and have been so supportive had so have the players so it completely depends on the older people that are showing them how to behave. what impact does this have on you? it is hard, it's really hard. i will walk away from games and i will come away in complete tears sometimes, it will really knock my confidence and i do not want to do it any more

but i still remember decisions and people that have given me abuse from when i first started refereeing and it is really hard but around you you have to make that support with other refs and create that system around you which is nice and helpful but coming from a game where you get so much abuse, it is so knocking. have you been able to wear one of the body cams or would you because one would assume this makes those players and supporters accountable for their actions? i have not yet but i would definitely welcome it. i think it would really help the players see how they are actually treating you and seeing on the camera how they are acting toward you, whether that be aggressive, or calmly, seeing how they react. do you feel you have enough support when you are on the pitch? is anyone looking out for you and your well—being? a lot of the time, no.

sometimes there will be a mentor or someone like that in the crowd that may know you and the coaches may back you but a lot of the time there is not that support there, especially at lower league grass roots. it is hard to get support and help. if i am in a situation where i really needed it, a lot of times someone would not be there and it can be scary at times when there is no—one there for you. 50 years ago today, on a busy new york street — a phone call was made that would change life as we know it. it was the first one ever made from a mobile — and signalled the start of a new era of communication. our technology editor zoe kleinman has been talking to the man who made that historic call, on april 3rd, 1973. mobile phones, we love them. the un estimates three quarters of the world's population owns a mobile phone and there are more mobiles than people in the united kingdom, according

to the industry's trade body. this man helped make it all happen. marty cooper was an engineer at motorola. 0n the 3rd of april, 1973, on a street corner in new york, he made the world's first public mobile phone call to a competitor at a rival company. i was on sixth avenue demonstrating this cell phone. i took out my phone book. that gives you an idea what primitive times these were. and i called my counterpart in the bell system, a fellow named joel. i dialled his number, and amazingly, he answered. and i said, "joel, i'm calling you on this cell phone. but a real cell phone, a personal, hand—held, portable cell phone. " silence on the other end of the line. i think he was gritting his teeth. bell had been focusing on developing a car phone and marty wasn't impressed. is this mrs p? we have been trapped in our homes

and offices by this copper wire for over 100 years. and now they were going to trap us in our cars. and we at motorola just didn't believe that was the way to go. goodbye. the way the first call was made hasn't really changed. the phone converts your voice into an electric signal, which then modulates a radio wave. the radio wave goes to a mast, the mast sends your voice to the person you're calling, and by reversing the process, that person can hear you speak. except there weren't many masts around in 1973, and mobile phones are now unrecognisable from the first model. well, there's some real icons from the mobile phone kind of timeline here. ben wood knows all about the history of mobile phones. he has his own collection. so here we have really a true icon, the motorola dynatech 8000 x, the first truly hand portable mobile phone, conceived in 1973 when the first phone call was made on a prototype of this, launched eventually in 1984, and that device cost

about $4,000 at the time, which would be about £9,500 today. £9,000? and it's pretty heavy again. what's the battery life like, dare i ask? the battery life on that was about 30 minutes. it would take about ten hours to charge. had a standby of around a similar time as well. wow. marty cooper, the pioneer of the mobile phone, isn't a fan of current designs. i think today's phone is suboptimal. it's really not a very good phone in many respects. just think about it, if you take a piece of plastic and glass and put it, that's flat and you put it against the curved head, you hold your hand in an uncomfortable position. so what does marty think about the future of phones? we are still at the very beginning of the cell phone revolution. we are going to eliminate poverty because we are becoming more productive because of the cell phone, and ijust mentioned, we're going to eliminate disease.

0ur educational system is going to be revolutionised. i think all of these things are potentials of the cell phone. not doing it by itself, but it will be an essential part of this great future. zoe kleinman, bbc news. a teenager now known as �*tent boy�* has spent his final night sleeping under the stars — after spending three years camping in his garden. max woosey has raised more than £750,000 for his local hospice, met the prime minister and won a pride of britain award. fiona lamdin was with him, as he woke up on his final morning outside. after more than 1,000 nights under canvas, max's final one had to be pretty special, and all his friends and familyjoined him to make sure it really was. morning, campers. hello. did you get any sleep? not much. it feels brilliant because last

night was actually honestly one of my favourite nights i've had. there were loads of my friends up there, loads of my family. it was lovely to see everyone together. would you like to be camping like this? no. why not? it would be so cold. yeah. what about you ? yeah, it'sjust it was freezing last night. i my feet were frozen. i don't know how he does it every night. | bonkers. i'm just bursting with pride. it'd be nice to be able to lock the door again, because ijust couldn't bring myself to lock him out. and that was another reason why the dog was out with him. because it was just so not secure, having everything open. so i'm going to be able to go to bed, i'm going to lock the door, the dog will be inside so he's not going to be barking and annoying neighbours, and max is going to be upstairs, and i'm going to sleep. i'm just going to sleep. that he's done three years... one night was absolutely plenty.

the condensation on the inside of the tent, it was, yes, deeply unpleasant. and i know cos rachel has to hang his stuff up every night, i've also got utmost respect for her having to do that. three years is enough. one night was absolutely enough. it all started during the first lockdown. max's neighbour rick had cancer and was being cared for by north devon hospice. he gave max his tent and told him to go and have an adventure. i don't think this was the adventure he set out for me to have, but i bet he would have loved it anyway. i bet he would have been in the tent sleeping with me. 25 tents later, with almost £800,000 raised for the hospice, it's safe to say he's fulfilled rick's final wishes. this was max two years ago, in march 2021, after 365 days. i think i might carry on for a bit, and then just see where it goes.

a bit somehow turned into another two years but now he is finally ready to pack up for the very last time. i think i'm probably going to miss not having to wake up outside, because it's always a nice feeling when you've just woken up, you can... you can hear cars, hear birds, you'rejust in your sleeping bag, looking around, and that's always a lovely feeling. what are you looking forward to the most? getting into bed again. sleeping on a nice mattress. and camping alongside max for one night only was his friend hughie. like max, hughie has raised thousands for charity after he was diagnosed with leukemia. the two met at the pride of britain awards and have stayed friends ever since. i think i slept better than max because i was in a van, so i wasn't quite brave enough as max. max has done it for over over 1,000

nights and i can't even manage one night in a tent. that's. .. yeah. at the start, max was only ten. now he's a teenager who's broken world records, received awards and, just recently, an invitation to the king's coronation. it's lovely to think that, actually, you know what? after the amazing three years, it is a bit sad, but you know what? we had so much fun. with the adventure under canvas now behind him, it won't be long before max is already dreaming up another one. fiona lamdin, bbc news. congratulations and a well earned sleep in a real bird for max tonight! killing eve starjodie comer triumphed at last night's 0livier awards — which celebrate live theatre. suitjacket, flung on the back of chairs.

1am, still dancing. she picked up the award for best actress for her one—woman play — prima facie and praised the "complete sisterhood backstage". 0scar nominee paul mescal won best actor for his role in a streetcar named desire. speaking after her win, jodie comer said that being involved in the production of the play prima facie had been wonderful. itjust felt like a very spiritual experience. i don't think any of us could have anticipated the effect it would have on the relationship particularly with the audiences that we had. and it's interesting now, we are in the rehearsal room in broadway and we haven't changed anything drastically because she feels different because ifeel different, ifeel like i've grown, you know? it's a really interesting process now, finding what we did and also having all these new discoveries so, yeah.

that was jodie comber. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. hello again. many of us started on a cold note, but with some clear skies and we're hanging on to a lot of clear skies today under this area of high pressure. so very settled conditions. but we do have a weather front making its way in from the atlantic. that will throw more cloud ahead of it as it does so through the course of the afternoon, especially and across the western isles and also northern ireland. here, too, it's going to be windy, gusty winds around the outer hebrides. breezy along the north sea coastline, east anglia, kent and the english channel. so feeling a little bit cooler here. but for most of us, the breeze is very gentle. now, temperatures today could get up to 15 degrees somewhere around the moray firth. but generally, we're looking at about 9 to 13. through this evening and overnight under clear skies. temperatures will follow quite rapidly. as the weather front comes in,

it will bring thicker cloud and some rain across western scotland and northern ireland. so not as cold here, but temperatures freezing or indeed below for much of the rest of the country. tomorrow then, the high pressure is still with us. these weather fronts trying to make inroads, not making a huge amount of progress, but they still will produce thicker cloud and some spots of rain across the north and also the west and still gusty winds here. we could have gusts as much as 45 miles an hour. ahead of that, we're looking at a lot of dry weather. once again, a lot of sunshine, sunshine turning hazy as the fronts try to push that little bit further south and east across eastern scotland. and our temperatures once again, 9 to about 15 degrees, but not feeling as cold along the north sea coastline. wednesday sees a bit more in the way of an active front coming in, introducing thicker cloud and also some rain pushing steadily south eastwards. ahead of it, the cloud will build, but it should stay dry until later. and then behind it in the far north of scotland, it will brighten up, but that will be quite later

on in the day, highs of about 14 degrees. and then as we head towards the easter bank holiday weekend, we do have that weather front stalling for a time on thursday in some eastern areas, but it clears, then high pressure takes over once again. so on thursday, in the east in particular, there'll be some rain around and thicker cloud. but then we see the sun return with highs potentially up to 14 or 15.

live from london, this is bbc news. russia detains a woman after a pro—kremlin blogger was killed in a bomb blast at a cafe in st petersburg. russia's wagner mercenary group claims it now controls the embattled ukrainian city of bakhmut. but kyiv insists its forces still hold it. schools in england face further closures as the uk's largest teaching union rejects the government's pay offer and calls further strikes. the man who shot and killed a nine—year old schoolgirl in north west england last year will be sentenced for her murder later. the former president of kosovo, hashim thaci, and three other ex—leaders plead not guilty to war crimes during the fight for independence from serbia. from centre left to centre right —

finland's conservative leader petteri 0rpo wins a nail—biting three—way