live from london, this is bbc news. an italian man has died and three british citizens are among the wounded after a car ploughed into tourists near a beach in tel aviv. in iran, local media report that dozens of schoolgirls have been poisoned in several schools across the country. the taiwanese president's visit to the us sparks three days of military exercises from china. there will continue to be full cooperation, and the last few days have been difficult. nicola sturgeon has vowed to "fully cooperate" with police after the arrest of her husband, the snp's former chief executive.

welcome to the programme, i'm tanya beckett. an italian man has died and three british citizens are among the wounded after a car ploughed in to tourists near a beach in tel aviv. the attacker was shot dead by police. it comes after two british—israeli sisters were killed and their mother injured in a shooting in the occupied west bank on friday, in what has been a week of heightened tensions in the region. our correspondent lucy williamson reports from tel aviv — a warning, her piece contains some distressing images. last night, tel aviv�*s holiday crowds became targets. gunfire. this, the moment when police surrounded the attacker and then shot him dead. people shout. you can hear the fear of people filming nearby.

the driver was a 45—year—old man from a nearby town who drove his car into pedestrians, killing an italian man named as alessandro parini, and injuring seven others, three of them british. we heard gunfire. we saw shots and then we saw people sprinting across the street, and then we heard sirens and we decided it was time to get out of here. today, the car's journey through the grass is marked with flowers and candles — tributes to the tourist who died. this is where the attack happened last night, right on tel aviv�*s promenade. hours afterwards, you've got locals and tourists already gathering here. on a warm weekend evening, this place would have been packed with people. one of the doctors treating the injured said some had broken bones and one a fractured spine, but an event like this leaves psychological wounds, too. i think that nobody's prepared ever for this type of situation.

you know, it's impossible, ithink, to understand the fact that somebody one day decides to take the life of another person. this was the second attack to hit israel yesterday. two british israeli women were killed in a shooting attack in the occupied west bank. tensions between israel and palestinian militants have spiralled this week. the flowers along tel aviv�*s seafront today, an uncomfortable reminder that places like this are an easy target against the backdrop of a conflict that seems very difficult to resolve. lucy williamson, bbc news, tel aviv. i am nowjoined by khaled elgindy in amsterdam, who is a senior fellow and director at the middle east institute programme on israeli—palestinian affairs. this looks like a very serious escalation of tensions, doesn't it?

well, we've seen a very serious escalation over the past several weeks. it'sjust escalation over the past several weeks. it's just that most of the violence has been directed at palestinians, something like at least more than 80 palestinians already killed since the start of the year. and there's been an uptick in reprisal attacks mostly by loan worlds volatility in asters —— lone wolf palestinian actors opposed to militias. so far, we've seen very little of that, and i think the latest lone wolf attacks are inward direct response to the violence inflicted on palestinian worshipers at the alaska mocks —— i'll ask the

mosque. worshipers the were simply praying —— al aqsa. i think that elicited a response we saw in previous years. elicited a response we saw in previous yew-— elicited a response we saw in previous years. what was the justification _ previous years. what was the justification of _ previous years. what was the justification of this _ previous years. what was the justification of this raid - previous years. what was the justification of this raid on . previous years. what was the | justification of this raid on the mosque? justification of this raid on the mosaue?, , u, ., justification of this raid on the mosuue? , ., _ mosque? justification given by the israelis, mosque? justification given by the israelis. the _ mosque? justification given by the israelis, the official— mosque? justification given by the israelis, the official was _ mosque? justification given by the israelis, the official was that - israelis, the official was that palestinians had barricaded themselves in the mosque and have prevented people from leaving. the reality, based on eyewitness accounts from palestinians who were there and even human rights reporters who have since reported on this situation, the reality is it's quite common for muslim worshipers in ramadan to spend the night in any mosque, but particular, holy sites such as al—aqsa, very popular for muslims to do that during the holy

month. the problem is that israelis also don't want muslims to spend the night at al—aqsa because they want to allowjewish visits early in the morning and want to avoid any contact between the two groups, so it's really a way to allow increasing jewish visitation and possibly prayer on the al—aqsa compound, which is also holy tojews as the temple, but under the status quo that has been in place for many decades, jews are not allowed to pray on this site because it would threaten the muslim claim to that holy site and eventually turn it into a jewish site. that is the fear that palestinians have.— that palestinians have. thank you ve much that palestinians have. thank you very much for— that palestinians have. thank you very much forjoining _

that palestinians have. thank you very much forjoining us, - that palestinians have. thank you very much forjoining us, khaled. | to iran now, where local media reports that dozens of schoolgirls have been poisoned in several schools. this phenomenon began last november, and since then, there have been reports of poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances. in some cases, students have been hospitalised. i was joined earlier by bbc persian service's parham ghobadi, who told me how widespread these incidents are. just before coming to the studio, the number of cities that were targeted rose to six, actually, and as you remember, as mentioned in your intro, for several months, we had the story of iranian school poisonings, but it went quiet for a while and the reason for that was that there was persian new year for two weeks, so students were on a break at that time. they went back to school on monday, and again, reports of school poisonings started appearing here, but today is the most

widespread one. as i already mentioned, six cities across iran were targeted and in some of the cities, multiple schools were attacked. we started receiving videos from the city was that there was persian new year for two weeks, we started receiving videos from the city of the iranian vatican. parents are furious, they're talking to officials, they're shouting at them, there are scenes of chaos and horror. in other cities, we have obtained videos from hospitals where parents are picking up a girl student who has fainted on the floor, other students are crying, gasping for breath on hospital beds, and we have reports in the northwestern town and also in the southern kurdish town in western iran, the hospitals are packed with schoolgirls. do we have any information or indication at all as to how they're being poisoned? there's no clear answer, so that is one of the reasons that iranian parents are really furious, because the authorities have not given them any clear explanation. they said they have made some arrests, but they are not

being really clear that who are these people that have been arrested and what is their intention. that's why it is raising suspicion that iranian hardliners, religious hardliners might be behind these attacks, which kind of links it to the iranian protests because as you remember, iranian girls, especially at the schools at the forefront of the protests, calling to an end for mandatory hijab in iran. so they think that iranian hardliners are taking their revenge on the schoolgirls. there has been some suggestion that the government is putting forward the hypothesis that this is psychological in origin. that's correct, but the videos we are seeing, and we were just actually talking to a schoolgirl in iran a few minutes ago, and she was saying that they smelled something unusual at the school. it didn't immediately cause panic, so they went back to their classroom, their principal told them that everything is fine, they're just burning

something next to the school. they went back to the school and students started falling sick one by one, and that created the panic among the students. so, we are talking to many students in iran and all of them categorically so far have rejected that idea and they are saying that, first, they smelled something first, they smelled something unusual, the spell of a tangerine or garlic, and then they fell down. the videos we've seen, students are gasping for breath, some on oxygen masks — it's really not possible that so many students across the country start fainting or pretending to be sick. let me take you live to the vatican in rome, where we can bring you live images of the traditional easter vigil. this is the most important liturgy in the catholic calendar. it celebrates the resurrection of

christ. choir singing this is st. peter's basilica. we have seen the appearance of the 84—year—old pope, suffering from poor health, who was emerging from hospital a week ago from bronchitis. however, he clearly has been able to attend. he has had to cancel one appointment, but he has been able to attend this evening. at this very important moment. he speaks italian

amen. amen. the pope was absent at the good friday procession because of ill health and it is comparatively cold in rome. the easter vigil mass in st. peter's basilica. china has started three days of military exercises off the coast opposite taiwan. beijing, which views taiwan as a breakaway province of china, called the operation a "stern warning" to the island's government. taiwan says 71 chinese planes and nine ships crossed the taiwan strait median line, an unofficial dividing line between chinese and taiwanese territory. the mobilisations began hours after taiwan's president returned from a trip to the united states, where she angered china by meeting

the house speaker kevin mccarthy. i wasjoined earlier by the founder and senior advisor at china dialogue, isabel hilton. my first question was how important are these drills. they�* re pretty important. there's a very large deployment of ships, a large deployment of aircraft flying into the air defence zone, identification zone, essentially into taiwan's airspace. the ships are crossing the median line in the taiwan straits, and there was a bit of live fire across one of the islands, which is the island closest to the mainland. so, it's unmistakably large deployment, and beijing is calling it an exercise in encirclement — in other words, saying we can blockade taiwan whenever we want to and this is how we do it. right, understood.

the backdrop, the political backdrop is important. if you talk us to the sequence of events of visits to china and the us if you talk us to the sequence of events in terms of visits to china and the us and how they plan to this. it's been a pretty busy week. the one that has resulted in military exercises was of course tsai ing—wen�*s visit to the us. which was played pretty coolly in washington. she didn't have any high—level meetings in washington. she didn't meet president biden, but she did need kevin but she did meet kevin ?mccarthy in california. the thing about kevin mccarthy is that the house has to vote on arms to taiwan, so they uk military support requires the approval of the house. clearly, tsai ing—wen has to maintain warm relations with the house speaker.

that's not difficult, they're very much inclinded to support taiwan, much to beijing's fury. we are the european union at the same time, president macron of france with 50 important businessmen, and the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, both visiting china. president macron was rather warmly received, ursula von der leyen rather less warmly received because she's critical of china's position on russia and in fact in general, and the relationship between the eu and china. indeed, this is a very difficult line to tread for, simply because of china's rather opaque role in this war. indeed, china is providing substantial support to russia. if you look at the trade figures, trade has increased hugely.

it's trying to position itself as the peacemaker at the same time. china's been picking up the slack on a lot of energy exports and it's been sending drone supplies and digital information, which is used in the front line. so, china tries to say it's neutral, but actually, it sactions tell you something different. it's trying to position itself as the peacemaker at the same time. but there's very little sign that it's exercising any influence on putin, so it's a pretty hollow claim. unless china can put some action behind that plan, then it's going to lose credibility. there's uncertainty about access to a widely—used abortion pill in the united states after conflicting court rulings. a federaljudge in texas suspended government suspended

government approval of mifepristone after anti—abortion activists claimed it wasn't safe. the biden administration appealed against the ruling and a federal judge ruled access to the drug must be preserved in 17 states. samantha simmonds explains. this row is all about this drug, mifepristone, which has been in common use for 20 years as a widely used anti—abortion drug. it was given full fda approval and tested for its safety back in 2000, as you can see from this headline here in new york times. now, though, a trump—appointed judge in texas — this man, judge matthew kacsmaryk — has ordered a hold on the approval of the drug after an anti—abortion group argued that its safety was never properly tested. one of those isjonathan keller of the california family council. we are encouraged that the federal judiciary is finally taking a look at the approval of mifepristone and really holding the fda to account for cutting corners and failing to protect women and children with the approval

of the drug originally. well, the biden administration immediately appealed against that ruling. on top of that, a federaljudge in washington state ruled that access to the drug must be preserved in 17 states and challenged the attempt to block it. vice president kamala harris says that banning the drug sets a dangerous precedent. it is contrary to what makes for good public health policy to allow courts and politicians to tell the fda what it should do. this is a drug that the fda approved as safe 20 years ago, and has been proven to be safe for 20 years. since roe was overturned, removing constitutional protection for abortions last year triggering a wave of state—by—state bans, the us abortion battle has increasingly focused on abortion pills. banning them would be another win for the anti—abortion movement. so, what happens next? well, the ban on mifepristone

doesn't actually go into immediate effect, so nothing will change in the short—term, and the duelling court orders actually mean it's likely the issue will escalate to the us supreme court. earlier, i spoke to our correspondentjessica parker, who started by telling us where the legal situation stands now, particularly with the backdrop and given the overturning of roe versus wade. 0bviously what happened with roe versus wade is the supreme court overturned that, but opened the door for individual states to ban or severely curtail abortion access, which is led to abortion access, which has led to a kind of patchwork of access across the united states. we've seen it all being played out in the courts as well, and this particular court ruling, or the two we've had in the last day or so, some are describing as the most significant abortion—related rulings since roe v wade was overturned because of what is potentially seeking to deal with

the implications in terms of maybe limiting access or taking away the approval of a pill that's part of a two—stage regiment used by many women across america, accounting for over half of abortions. but i have to say, i've reported from countries before, like malta, where abortion is banned, but many women still use or order these pills illegally. what is the role of the fda here? the food and drug administration are the ones that approved this pill over two decades ago, and legal experts say the fda has now been left in a pretty tricky situation because you have one ruling saying

that approval is suspended. the biden administration is seeking to put a block on that and it doesn't kick in for another seven days, and then you've another ruling from washington state applying to 17 democratic states and the district of columbia as well that says that access to the pill should be retained. 0ne legal expert speaking earlier was basically saying the fda mightjust have to use its discretion here because it can't follow both, and then wait for how this plays out in the courts, and as many people are saying, could end up in the supreme court eventually. just about —— jessica parker. it's likely to be the biggest party of the year — the coronation of king charles iii — and invites have been sent out to hundreds of community and charity representatives from across the uk. invitations have also been extended to hundreds of british empire medal recipients. azadeh moshiri has more details. now, this is the invitation to the coronation, and you can't tell from my screen, but it's made from recycled paper — fitting for a king who's made the environment a lifelong focus. now, if you look a little closer, you'll see if there are other symbols that represent the environment —

flowers, fruits, plants — but also, right at the bottom, there's a symbol from english folklore, and that's the green man. according to the palace, he represents spring as well as renewal and rebirth, and that's to represent the king's new reign. now, king charles and queen camilla, as she's referred to on the invite, have invited 850 community champions. a50 of these are from local communities, but there are also 400 younger champions, who have come from organisations like the scouts, but also girlguiding uk. now, we caught up with three of them to see what this invite means to them. franstine jones was the first female president of the national black police association. she is seen there with the then home secretary theresa may and she explained what this invitation means to her. you don't see many people like me in suffolk being awarded for the work they do, so yeah, i do feel like

i'm representing the community. it's notjust my award, it's the award for all people who look like me who live in suffolk. now, manju malhi is a british chef who was awarded and this is one of the young champions. sahil usman, at only 15 years old, helped his community in blackburn during the pandemic, as well, but he did so while he was facing a very serious personal challenge. i was diagnosed basically injuly 2018 with leukaemia. _ but what happened was during covid, i was in the extremely. vulnerable category and i knew that i'm not going to have _ anyone there for me. i mean, i will have - someone there for me, but the elderly won't have anyone there for them. i so what i did, i gathered around 300 hampers, going to the shops- and getting all the essential items and i put them together— and i basically gave them out to the elderly people - in my community of lancashire. to the elderly people _ reporting to the elderly people from as a day machinery.

the former first minister of scotland nicola sturgeon has vowed to "fully cooperate" with police after the arrest of her husband, the snp's former chief executive, during an investigation into the party's finances. in her first public comments since peter murrell�*s arrest, ms sturgeon said recent days had "obviously been difficult" as she gave a short statement outside the couple's glasgow home. there is obviously nothing i can say about the ongoing investigation. as much of the things i might want to say, i'm not able to do so, other than to say that as has been the case, there will continue to be full cooperation. the last few days have obviously been difficult, quite dramatic at times, but i understand that is part of a process. let me take you live to the vatican in rome, where we can bring you live images of the traditional easter vigil.

pope francis is leading the easter vigil mass. yesterday, the pope missed the good friday procession due to "extremely cold weather in rome". he has of course recently been in hospital suffering from bronchitis. a very evocative and moving service under way there in st. peter's basilica. arguably the most important date in the christian calendar and it is the celebration of the resurrection of christ.

he prays in italian hello there, good evening. it's been a beautiful day of weather for most of the uk with lots of blue sky and sunshine, as captured by our weather watcher here in derbyshire, but a bit more cloud towards eastern coastal areas. still even, here, some sunny spells breaking through, and it's more or less the same again tomorrow — in fact, it could feel a little warmer for most, but there will be some rain later on in the day out towards the north and the west. most of us won't be seeing that rain until early on bank holiday monday morning. but overnight tonight, it's set to stay dry. lots of clear spells, especially through the central swathe of the country. 0ut towards eastern coastal areas, some cloud, cloud thickening, too,

across northern ireland. more cloud and a bit more of a southerly breeze, so frost—free without so much mist and fog as we start off sunday morning. so, easter sunday, lots of sunshine around for the vast majority of us. it will be quite cloudy towards eastern coastal areas — again, the cloud just coming in from the north sea, but that should break up, especially through the afternoon, so a sunnier day here. cool underneath the cloud across aberdeenshire, outbreaks of rain moving into northern ireland from our weather front, approaching western scotland by the end of the day. temperatures slightly higher, between 15—17 celsius quite widely. if we see 18 celsius — always possible, especially across central, southern england — it will be the warmest day of the year so far. but of course, it's not set to last, the dry, warm weather, because we've got outbreaks of rain from these weather fronts, sweeping eastwards from sunday night into bank holiday monday morning. it's a much milder start to the day on bank holiday monday, outbreaks of rain clearing the east anglian coast as we head through the morning. there will be some bright and sunny spells behind, but also some rather hefty showers, and raining for much of the day — longer spells of rain

towards the south coast, especially across the channel islands. temperatures gradually dropping throughout the day. this is how we'll end the afternoon, between about 10—14 celsius, so obviously not as warm with all that wet weather around, and it's staying unsettled as we head through much of the rest of next week. a deep area of low pressure swinging across england and wales, into scotland as we head through tuesday night and into wednesday. some strong gusty winds potentially on this and some outbreaks of rain. here's the outlook for our capital cities as we head through next week. as you can see, it is going to be really very unsettled, wet and windy, especially towards the northwest, and also feeling a lot cooler.

this is bbc news. the headlines... israel mobilises its police and army reserves following deadly attacks in tel aviv. on friday, an italian tourist was killed and the attacker was shot dead by police. several others were also wounded including three british citizens. ukraine says its energy export can resume — despite russia firing a total of more than 1,200 missiles and drones at key energy facilities throughout the war. they say the country survived "its most difficult winter". and, buckingham palace has invited more than 850 community and charity representatives from across the uk to attend the coronation of king charles, which will take

place on the sixth of may at westminster abbey in london.