live from london, this is bbc news. israel launches airstrikes on gaza and lebanon, calling it retaliation for several dozen hamas rockets fired at israel. northern ireland on high alert — police warn republicans could provoke violence as the country marks 25 years of the good friday agreement. as emmanuel macron and ursula von der leyen wrap up their trip to china, have they got what they wanted from xi jinping? translation: i made a choice to leave first to _ translation: i made a choice to leave first to give _ translation: i made a choice to leave first to give you _ translation: i made a choice to leave first to give you a _ translation: i made a choice to leave first to give you a better - leave first to give you a better life. escaping north korea. we speak to a mum and daughter who are two of the few to have fled.

hello and welcome. we begin in the middle east, where the israeli military says it has hit targets belonging to the palestinian militant group hamas. the airstrikes hit areas of the gaza strip and lebanon. israel says they're in retaliation for a major rocket attack on israel launched from southern lebanon which the israelis blamed on hamas. these are the latest images showing the aftermath of the attack in gaza. the airstrikes are the heaviest since last august. our correspondent lucy williamson spoke to us from jerusalem. israel says it carried out a series of strikes overnight against targets it says were linked to the palestinian militant group hamas in both lebanon and in gaza. in gaza, it says it hit tunnels and also weapons manufacturing sites, and reports from southern lebanon describe explosions around the palestinian refugee camp there. in return, palestinian militants

fired dozens of rockets from gaza at israel overnight. most were intercepted or landed in open ground, but one hit a house in the southern israeli town of sterot. speaking before a security meeting last night, benjamin netanyahu said any internal debate in israel would not prevent it from acting against its enemies, saying "we are all united in this." but there are fears these sorts of tit—for—tat exchanges could escalate into a wider conflict, as has happened in the past. this is a particular are particularly sensitive time, because you have holidays for muslims, jews and christians all converging, meaning any incidents around the holy sites injerusalem have the potential to trigger wider conflict. the un peacekeeping force in lebanon has put out a statement saying it believes the actions of the past 2a hours are dangerous and risk

serious escalation. sebastian usher, middle east analyst for bbc world service radio, joined us earlierfrom the newsroom. we have seen a large number of palestinian fighters and civilians killed during that, and palestinian fighters and civilians killed during that,— palestinian fighters and civilians killed during that, and we have seen attacks by palestinian _ killed during that, and we have seen attacks by palestinian gunmen - killed during that, and we have seen attacks by palestinian gunmen and l attacks by palestinian gunmen and israelis, which have also wreaked a heavy price. so in that context, this is always a simmering conflict, but something that has been coming to the boil again, and as lucy said, this is a very sensitive moment, with those three religious holidays or converging, and i think we need to look at al—aqsa compound in jerusalem for what happens next. that has really been the trigger for what has happened in the past 2a hours. the police raids by israel,

which were videoed, caused anger not just among palestinians, but across the arab and muslim world. i think very much the reason why the rocket attacks took place from lebanon and from gaza. if we see that sort of singing again over the next few days, i think then escalation will happen. if not, it is both sides sending messages to the other, israel and the palestinian militants, essentially saying that there are lines that should not be crossed, but they don't want to go beyond that if the driving force behind it isn't so intense that it builds up its own momentum. down in the south there is a camp where there is definitely militant activity, but tomorrow the lebanese militant movement hezbollah and the

lebanese government were not involved in this. certainly not the lebanese government, which has no involvement, it is a bystander in this. but in terms of the south of lebanon, nothing happens there without haswell are now in, so this is also a message to some extent from hezbollah, though they have said nothing so far, but their patience is again being tested by the scenes in al—aqsa compound. let's take you to ankara, because russian foreign minister sergei lavrov is in the turkish capital holding a news conference with his turkish counterpart. he's been holding talks about the distribution of ukraine grain. a deal allowing ukraine to export millions of tonnes of grain through the black sea despite the ongoing conflict with russia was extended last month. but it was unclear how long it will last, with ukraine pushing for 120 days, and russia calling for 60 days. russia has warned it will not allow the deal to go on longer unless sanctions against moscow are softened.

in the past few minutes, both countries have agreed the deal needs to be addressed. the turkish foreign minister has said that in orderfor a deal to be extended further, there does need to be agreement with russia to lift obstacles to russian grain and fertiliser exports. and that this is something that both countries need to deal with, and they attach importance to the continuation of that deal. more on this as new lines continue to come out of that press conference there. police in northern ireland have warned that some republicans could try to provoke street violence over the easter weekend. the country is marking the 25th anniversary since the signing of the good friday agreement, which largely ended 30 years of sectarian violence. hundreds of extra police have been brought in for events which culminate with a visit to belfast by us president biden on wednesday. vincent mcavinney reports.

final preparations are under way in northern ireland for a weekend of notjust religious observation but also a commemoration of the end of this nation's darkest chapter. events are being held to mark monday's 25th anniversary of the signing of the good friday agreement in 1998. the deal ended 30 years of violent conflict in northern ireland, known as the troubles, which cost the lives of more than 3,500 people. while there has been relative peace since the signing, the police service of northern ireland's chief constable simon byrne has warned of the potential for public disorder linked to dissident republicans. assistant chief constable bobby singleton said the psni had very strong community intelligence that attacks were being planned in londonderry, and that officers had to be prepared for that and would be prepared for all eventualities on monday. mi5 recently raised

northern ireland's terrorism threat level to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. the chief constable warned resources would be further challenged by the visits of us presidentjoe biden and former president bill clinton next week for the commemorations. in anticipation, psni has made temporary changes to shifts to put more officers on front line duties. mr byrne also warned of the problem posed by ongoing violence within loyalist groups, specifically the impact of a violent feud between criminal drug gangs which he said were previously linked to the ulster defence association, a loyalist parliamentary organisation. around 300 officers will be drafted in from other uk forces to help out. the cost of the security operation around the presidential visit and anniversary events has been put at around £7 million. northern ireland has made huge progress in the decades

since the good friday agreement signing, but it is still a post—conflict society which has seen old tensions rise again in recent years due to the impact of brexit. the message from psni is, they are prepared, though, for all eventualities on this historic weekend. vincent mcaviney, bbc news. let's get more from mark devenport, a northern ireland journalist and a former bbc ireland correspondent who covered the signing of the good friday agreement in 1998. good to see you. thanks forjoining us today. so, 25 years on since the signing of the good friday agreement. relative peace and most of that time. why now this rising possible dissident attacks? well, it is clear that these dissident irish republican organisations, whilst they are extremely small in comparison to the provisional ira which was active before the good friday agreement, are trying to ramp things up. just

in recent weeks and months, they attempted to murder a senior police officer in a callous and brutal attack whilst he was coaching young people could playing football. he survived but was seriously injured. at the flight there is a fear on the part of the police that they may use the focus being placed in northern ireland, the international media being in town for president biden�*s visit, to try to plan some disturbances, particularly on easter monday, when they were planning to march in any case to mark a historic moment in the calendar for irish nationalists, the easter rising against british rule back in 1916. what is that they want? what would they be trying to achieve? i think reallyjust to publicise their cause and to show that as far as they are concerned, the good friday agreement was in the end of the story of a violent irish republicanism. they believe that they still have a right to oppose british rule in northern ireland by

force. the bulk of the republican movement instead bought into the compromise, which was negotiated 25 years ago, which means that northern ireland canjoin the rest years ago, which means that northern ireland can join the rest of ireland if a majority of the people here vote in a referendum to decide that, but until such a time is that majority vote is secured, the communities here are meant to work together in partnership. how much to —— how much support do they have, do you think? small levels of support. you have local elections and sometimes local councils are sympathetic to these groups being voted on, but very small in comparison to the political group, sinn fein, which was associated with the ira before the peace deal 25 years ago and is still effectively as political ally, an extremely small in comparison to the other major parties that represent people at stormont. good to see. thanks joining

people at stormont. good to see. thanksjoining us. passengers travelling through dover are being warned they'll face delays as millions of travellers are expected make the crossing between france and the uk this weekend. contingency plans have been put in place to avoid a repeat of last week, which saw drivers waiting more than 1a hours. 0ur transport correspondent, katy austin, reports. the long easter weekend is here, and it's traditionally a big one for travel. at the port of dover last weekend, some coach passengers trying to get on ferries to france had to wait 12 hours or more. plans to make things go more smoothly now include spreading out some of today's coach travel to quieter times or to tomorrow. despite the measures in place, the port has warned there could be waits of a few hours at the busiest times today. it's also expected to be a busy few days on the roads, and taking the train instead won't be an option for everybody as a huge programme of engineering work is carried out on britain's railway.

for example, there are no services between london euston and milton keynes until tuesday. easter is unique in that there . is a four day window for us to be able to do work effectively. and of course fewer people do travel than during the normal week. it's a really good opportunity for us to make improvements to the railway for the future. 0ne estimate says two million brits are heading overseas this weekend. the number of flights leaving uk airports remains below pre—pandemic levels, but is 11% up on last easter. industry bosses have insisted airlines and airports now have enough staff to cope with demand. but a series of strikes in france has been causing cancellations of some flights and eurostar services. whether it's by plane, train, car orferry, the advice is to plan ahead and prepare. katy austin, bbc news. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

so i'm going to start here. a student—led well—being workshop at this secondary school in abergavenny. here, being open about mental health and supporting pupil well—being is a key focus, especially since the pandemic. a national school survey of 11 to 16—year—olds found girls were almost twice as likely as boys to experience high levels of mental health symptoms. spending too much time on my phone but also, it doesn't have to be on screens. i find that i'm impacted when i spend lots of time just not doing anything. the survey, which is carried out every two years, found that between 2017 and 2021, fewer teenagers said they were exercising regularly. there was an increase in the amount who said they were looking at screens before going to bed, and when it comes to diet, fewer said they ate breakfast on weekdays before school. it's hoped the findings of the latest survey will continue

to influence changes in communities across wales. you're live with bbc news. french president emmanuel macron and the president of the european commission ursula von der leyen are wrapping up their trip to china. on thursday the leaders held trilateral talks during which mr macron urged the chinese government to help stop russia's war in ukraine. later today, president macron is meeting president xijingping later today, president macron is meeting president xijinping for a lunch, before heading back to europe. here's our asia pacific regional editor, celia hatton. well, really, this part of the trip focuses on the personal relationship between emmanuel macron and the leader of china, xijinping. they will be going to guangzhou, where mr macron is at the moment. he has met with university students.

guangzhou is a really important industrial hub in the south of china, and the chinese state media is billing this as a charm offensive, a bit of an honour extended to emmanuel macron to travel to guangzhou, a city that represents a fifth of all trade between china and france, and this is really where xi jinping will get to talk about what he wants to talk about, which are trade ties between china and france. he's very eager to revitalise the chinese economy after years of strict covid restrictions, and so that is really being billed as a very special thing being extended to emmanuel macron, the fact that xi jinping is willing to travel to a second city with him beyond beijing. really, no talk at the moment of ursula von der leyen, highlighting this divide that china has been trying to play up between wanting to really extend a lot of honours to emmanuel macron while leaving ursula von der leyen really isolated. they don't like the things she has been saying,

nor the fact she has been highlighting a lot of human rights concerns before and during her trip. and a key focus for macron has been to pressure xi jinping into increasing its pressure on russia to bring an end to its invasion of ukraine. what's your analysis of what progress president macon has made? there has been some criticism he has achieved very little. yes, some have said that they think he has really failed in this regard. i don't know if i share that, really, because i think we just don't know at the moment whether xijinping has really digested the message from emmanuel macron. of course, he knew that it was coming. emmanuel macron said that long before he even left for beijing, this is what he wanted to push for. i think it really comes down to whether we are going to see a phone call between xi jinping and volodymyr zelensky, the leader of ukraine. we thought that this phone call was going to happen shortly after xi jinping went to russia to meet with vladimir putin. it was rumoured he was going to make a phone call to mr zelensky, which would be his first phone call

since the russian invasion of ukraine. that call has not been made yet, so i think that will be tangible proof as to whether xi jinping is opening up a little bit, whether he really wants to engage notjust russia, but whether he really wants to be a bit of a statesman, and really wants to extend chinese ties to ukraine as well. celia, what is your analysis of what xi jinping actually wants out of this visit? xi jinping comes out of this trip, this visit from emmanuel macron and ursula von der leyen, looking pretty good, i think. he is really trying to push china's role in what china wants to think of as a new world order, with china at the centre. china's relationships with russia, with saudi arabia, really being key as well. just during the past couple of days, the past day, really, we have seen talks also happening in beijing between saudi arabia and iran, the first direct talks in a very long time.

so really, at the moment, beijing looks to be the place where countries go to get things done. xijinping really looks like a very important statesman on the heels of this trip. celia hatton there. escaping from north korea has always been perilous, but the country's leader, kimjong un, made it harder during the covid outbreak by practically sealing the country's borders. the number of people making it to south korea has plunged, from around 1,000 a year to just 67 last year. 0ur correspondentjean mackenzie spoke to one of the last known people to escape before the border was closed. there are days songmi still doesn't believe she is living with her mother. what she has endured to be here made it seem like this day would never come. songmi was four years old when her mother tried to escape

north korea with her strapped to her chest. her mother was caught and sent to prison. when she was released, she decided to escape again, this time alone. songmi was left with her grandparents, but shortly after, they died, leaving songmi to fend for herself. translation: i made a living by foraging for herbs - in the mountains and selling them. i was just trying to survive for the day without starving to death. it would take years before songmi's mother was able to arrange her daughter's own treacherous escape across the river to china. translation: before you cross the river, you're supposed to be scared. the river is deep and the current is strong. i could have died. but the thought of getting to my mother felt like i was throwing away a heavy burden and flying away.

after 1a years apart, the pair have reunited in south korea. but songmi has never asked her mother why she left, until now. translation: l was nine - when you came back from prison. why did you escape then? translation: i wanted to bring you with me at first, _ but the broker said, no children. if we got caught, both of us would have suffered again. so i asked your grandparents to watch you for a year. but much more time has passed. i see. i knew the morning she left, i rememberjust lying in bed, crying. what would you like to say to your daughter? what would you like her to know?

translation: i want to say that i didn't abandon you. _ this choice might seem unthinkable, but these are the lengths people must go to to escape north korea, and it's only getting tougher. live now to our seoul correspondent, jean mackenzie, whojoins us from our studio in south korea. good to see you. a remarkable story, moving and emotional. how did you find out about these two women? i first met songmi when i went to the demilitarised zone, the strip of land that divides north korea and

south korea, and all escapees of these remarkable stories, but i was completely blown away when songmi told me the details of how she had had to survive on her own and escape and how she managed to reunite with her mother. her story on its own was incredible, but of course, i desperately wanted to meet her mother as well to get that other side of it and really to understand what her mother must have been going through. and crucially, why she made that decision to leave her daughter behind. but that bit was more difficult, because the pair were just re—establishing their relationship at that time, and it was delicate. but after a couple of months, songmi convinced her mother, so i was able to go and meet them both together. but it wasn't actually until we all sat around a table there that i realised that songmi had never actually asked her mother where she had left her behind, and she went on to explain that this was a question she had actually asked herself every single day since her mother had left, but when they were reunited, she just felt so awkward and scared to ask it. so at that moment, i was able to really step back and actually let

songmi ask her mother that crucial question, and we heard her mother explained to herfor the question, and we heard her mother explained to her for the first time why she had left her, and i think we decided afterwards that this was really the most important moment in the story, because it perfectly highlighted the sort of agonising decisions that people are having to make in order to leave north korea. and when you were speaking to them, and as we saw a new report there, it became clear that the mother and daughter were able to communicate. it's so difficult to establish any communication in north korea. how did they manage that? how did she help her escape? so, there were many years they were not in contact at all, and i think songmi lost all hope that she would never hear from her mother. but when her mother got the south korea safely, she was able to work and save some money, and with that, she was able to pay a broker to try and organise songmi's escape. they were able to have conversations about

once a year, so people in north korea, particularly near the border, can use mobile phones connected to the chinese network. so via these, they were unable to have very short conversations about once a year, and that's how her mother was able to wire her the money, and they could arrange this escape, but it happened many years later. absolutely incredible. thank you very much for taking us through that, jean. nasa has successfully launched a falcon 9 rocket from florida. it's carrying a new device that can track air pollution over north america down to the neighbourhood level. the spacex mission transported to high orbit what's known as a tempo spectrometer. it's designed to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources. the device — about the size of a washing machine — can send hourly air quality updates that will be made available to the public online. tempo will also be able to track

pollution caused by wildfires. climate change has made these increasingly common and damaging. a research team in china has published analysis of samples taken more than three years ago from the market linked to the outbreak of covid—19. the research, published in the journal nature, shows swabs that tested positive for the virus also contained genetic material from wild animals. some scientists say this is further evidence that the disease was initially transmitted from an infected animal to a human, but others have urged caution in interpreting the findings, saying it remains unclear why it took three years for the genetic content of the samples to be made public. that's it from me for the moment. you can get in touch with me on @samanthatvnews thanks very much for watching. i will be back shortly with all the latest on the top stories of the day. see you then.

hello. it may have been a chilly start to this easter weekend, but we have plenty of fine weather to come in the next few days. changes late on sunday, turning wetter in the west, that rain pushing south across the uk. 0vernight into monday, showers following behind. until then, high—pressure holds on, keeping atlantic weather systems at bay, meaning there will be plenty of fine weather and some sunshine. the best and shown in the west till late sunday, when this weather system moves on, and you can see it turning wetter overnight and into monday. that's the big picture. let's look at the detail for the rest of today. cloud increasing is one coastal parts of scotland and north—east england, so fairly grey this afternoon, may be some drizzle, and

afternoon, may be some drizzle, and a rather chilly day here. one or two light show as possible across south—eastern parts of england. 0ther south—eastern parts of england. other than that, patchy cloud here and there. most places will stay dry and there. most places will stay dry and we will get to see some sunshine, high is mainly in the range of 11—15, but those coastal parts of eastern scotland and northern england with the coastal park here may not get into double figures. cloud becoming more widespread across eastern areas overnight and into the morning, and patchy mist and fog possible here and there. not quite as chilly into saturday morning, but the coldest spots in the countryside will be close to freezing, so a touch of frost as possible. we will see quite large mass of clouds there were cloud towards eastern coastal parts of the uk to a saturday, whereas sunny spells in land. the odd spot of drizzle cannot be ruled out, and another fairly chilly day, but elsewhere may be a touch breezy, plenty of dry, sunny weather in the way. high pressure trying to hold on into sunday, but this weather system into sunday, but this weather system in the west will gradually start to

move in. while there is still something to play for in the timing of the arrival of the rain, it does look like northern ireland and western scotland will be first to see that moving in. the western areas, it could be well into the evening. ahead of that, some areas of cloud and sunny spells can had temperatures warmer, highs in the range of 15—17. 0vernight, rain move southwards across all areas. look at the showers following behind. some will be heavy and possibly thundery. a blustery day, with stronger winds, more wet weather to come next week.