live from washington, this is bbc news. hundreds of palestinians have barricaded themselves inside al—aqsa mosque, injerusalem. girls at schools across iran are taken to hospital after another outbreak of apparent gas poisoning. and, four days after an ice storm, more than 100,000 people in the canadian province of quebec are still without power. hello. i'm carl nasman. we want to start with the latest news from israel. hundreds of palestinians have barricaded themselves inside al—aqsa mosque

injerusalem. remember, earlier this week, israeli police raided the mosque after palestinians barricaded themselves inside, after the evening ramadan prayer. that led to palestinian militants firing rockets into israel from lebanon and gaza, and israel hitting back with airstrikes. the al—aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in islam, is located on a hilltop complex known by muslims as al—haram al—sharif, and byjews as the temple mount. jews revere it as the location of two biblical temples and it is the holiest site injudaism. thousands of muslims and jews are gathering injerusalem with ramadan and passover overlapping this year. earlier, tens of thousands of people protesting against the israeli government's plans to gain more control over the judiciary, held a minute's silence for the victims of a wave of recent attacks on civilians. two british—israeli sisters

who were killed in a shooting in the occupied west bank yesterday have been named as maia and rina dee. their mother was injured in the shooting. another attack has left one person dead and seven injured, including three britons, after a car ploughed into them near a beach in tel aviv. all the victims were tourists. 0ur correspondent, lucy williamson, reports. awarning — her piece contains some distressing images. maia dee was 20 years old and volunteering for national service in a high school. her younger sister rina was 15. theirfather told me they were beautiful, popular and wonderful. they died yesterday when their israeli car came under fire as they travelled from their west bank settlement to the sea of galilee for a family holiday. their mother is still unconscious and critically ill in hospital. theirfather, a rabbi who was travelling separately, heard the news of an attack on the road before realising

his family was involved. and i couldn't sleep at all. every time i had a nightmare, i woke up. and then the reality was worse than the nightmare, so i went back to sleep. but it was just recurring nightmares of how it went. hours after maia and rina died yesterday, another attack in tel aviv. holiday crowds became targets when a car rammed pedestrians on the busy promenade. this is the moment when police surrounded the attacker and then shot him dead. you can hear the fear of people filming nearby. the driver was a 45—year—old man from a nearby town. he killed an italian national named as alessandro parini and injured 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 very... it's impossible, i think, to understand the fact that somebody one day decides to take the life of another person. israel's prime minister says attacks will only unify the country. tonight in tel aviv, another protest against his divisive judicial reforms stopped

for a minute's silence to remember the victims of these latest attacks. politics and religion may divide people here. grief and loss is familiar to all. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. and we talked a few moments ago about israel coming under rocket fire from palestinian militants in lebanon and gaza and retaliating with airstrikes that happened earlier this week. now, in the last few hours, the israeli military said on twitter that it's shelled syrian territory after rockets were fired towards israel. we'll bring you more on that developing news as we get it. to iran now, where local media are reporting that dozens more girls have been poisoned in suspected gas attacks on iranian schools. bbc persian�*s parham ghobadi has the latest. six cities across iran were targeted, and in some

of the cities, multiple schools were attacked. we started receiving videos from the city of qom, which is 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 that in the north—western town of ardabil and also in a southern kurdish town in western iran, the hospitals are packed with schoolgirls. reports of poisonings have become frequent. no girls have died, but dozens have suffered respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. at the beginning of this month, bbc reality check looked into this, reporting: the first known case was recorded in november,

in the city of qom and its spread to a number of other provinces, including the capital, tehran. the bbc has analysed dozens of videos posted to social media and has verified many of the school locations filmed. iran's parliament says it's investigating. but the chief of that investigation blamed iranian students. some speculate whether the schoolgirls are being poisoned as payback for their role in these anti—government protests but there are no actual answers. here's parham ghobadi again. iranian parents are really furious because the authorities have not given them any clear explanation. they said that they have made some arrests, but they are not being really clear about who are these people that have been arrested and what is their intention. that's why it is raising

the 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, were at the forefront of the protests calling for an end for mandatory hijab in iran. so they think that iranian hardliners are taking revenge on the schoolgirls. now in another worrying development in iran, authorities have announced they will be installing smart cameras in public places to identify women who are unveiled, and not observing the country's strict dress code. for more on that, here's azadeh moshiri. the mandatory hijab has been at the centre of protests in iran ever since 22—year—old mahsa amini died in police custody after she was arrested for violating the country's strict dress code. now, it led to protests around the world and across the country. it even led to some women burning their veils during those very same protests. but it also led

to something else. women developed a laxer attitude towards the mandatory hijab. it wasn't unusual to go to a big city in iran, like tehran, the capital, and see several women walking around the streets unveiled. it also led to law enforcement hesitating in how they would respond, given the protests in the country were growing. but that's changing. iran's law enforcement has now announced that they're installing smart cameras on streets in order to identify women who are violating the mandatory hijab law. they also said that they would send warning messages to the violators of the hijab law and violators of public decency. now, this follows a recent incident in mashhad where a man poured a tub of yoghurt over the heads of two women who were unveiled. all three were arrested. here's a reminder of that moment that was caught on cctv.

now, the issue of the hijab was never something that the islamic republic was going to take lightly, and that's because the hijab is an important symbol of the islamic revolution. it's when the country physically started to look different. it's when a country where women had choice turned into a country where they don't. these smart cameras signal that not only is the mandatory hijab here to stay, but it will be heavily enforced. earlier, i spoke about these issues with sussan tahmasebi, a women's rights expert from iran and the executive director of femena, an organisation supporting feminist movements in the middle east, north africa and asia regions. can we talk about the suspected poisonings of female students

who may be behind these, and what could be the intention here? well, it's not clear exactly who was behind it, but there's a lot of speculation. many people speculate that its government forces or that it's extreme religious forces that are somehow close to the government. the deputy minister of health, he was the first official to actually comment on this several months ago. and the one thing that he did say — he didn't explain very clearly what was going on, but he said that there are people who want to see girls out of school, not attending school. but he didn't speculate, he didn't give more information, and actually government officials have been reluctant to give any more information. they have skirted around the issue. they've come up with multiple, multiple task forces charged with investigating, but they haven't given anyone a clear answer. no matter who's behind it, whether it's actually people

associated directly with the government and the state or people who are supportive of the government who are religious extremist groups, what happens, the result of these attacks, is one in the same. it helps the government, who is trying to send a message and create fear among women and girls, and it also keeps girls out of the public space and women out of the public space, and especially girls out of school. speaking of the public space, i want to go now to those security cameras that we heard about which are meant to detect women that may not be wearing a headscarf or may not be following those strict dress codes. how will that affect the way that women move through that public space in the country? well, you know, ishould just go back to the chemical attacks. many people feel — they believe that this is a retaliation against women and girls for their public participation in protests. these measures around the hijab are also retaliatory,

because women are appearing in public spaces much more often without the hijab, completely without the hijab. before, they used to have their scarf around their neck, but many women are now going out even without that scarf. and the head of police mentioned, starting from next saturday, they're going to have a new programme where they're going to be targeting women in the public space using cameras to detect them, to identify them and then to send initially warnings and then to call them in to start court cases against them, potentially arrest them. they didn't mention arrests, but definitely starting a court case against them and definitely fining them, which is something they have been doing all along. and i think that this will create some fear among some people, but women seem to be pretty determined to continue exercising their right to dress how they want and to have control over their own body and have bodily autonomy. so i'm not sure how it's going to impact what women — you know, the bravery of women

in terms of taking the hijab off and appearing in public without the hijab. but one other thing that the police is also doing is they're fining and closing down businesses that cater to women who don't have the hijab, so they're using this policy of people against people, citizens against citizens, to control women. so i think that, if anything, that might have a more significant impact on how women appear in public. and we saw an incident, as well, caught on tv of that yoghurt attack, so to speak. we remember back in december when iranian officials had announced that they were disbanding what they call the morality police, the actual people on the streets that were enforcing some of these dress codes. does it seem now that they potentially have been replaced instead by this new security camera system? yes, they've never officially announced that they are disbanding the morality police.

i think they made a lot of confusing announcements so they could deflect in terms of the state's responsibility in terms of the violence that was being used against women, and specifically the one that resulted in the death of mahsa amini. so it was never their intention. people within the state weren't in agreement in terms of disbanding this policy. but it seems that everybody now is in agreement, and the parliament recently also announced that they are very much in agreement with controlling women in this way, making sure that they are observing the law, the hijab laws. so i think that they're stepping up in reaction to how women are actually taking their liberties and using them. quickly, if you can, i'm curious what you think. we saw that massive wave of anti—government protests

earlier last year. could we see more protests potentially coming about now? i definitely think so. we also saw massive protests of teachers union workers, who were also objecting to the chemical poisoning of schoolgirls in the lead—up right before the end of the iranian new year in early march. i mean, the new year is 20 march. so i think that because none of the demands of the iranian public have been responded to, and the government has not taken any steps to respond to the many points of dissent and dissatisfaction that iranians have, i think that protests are likely to happen again. it's not only going to be about women's rights, because i think this is a point of serious discontent among iranians, and this pushback against women, especially schoolgirls, could result in mass protests again. but i think it's the economy, it's the political freedoms, it's the lack of accountability on the part of government, it's corruption. so i think that we're definitely going to see more protests in the months to come.

susan tahmasebi, human rights activist from your own. let's go to the canadian province of quebec, where more than 100,000 people are still without electricity, four days after an ice storm disrupted the power grid. the city of montreal is one of the worst—hit areas. most of the damage was caused by falling trees and branches that gave way under the weight of the ice. temporary shelters are open so people can warm up and charge their phones. canada's prime minister justin trudeau, visited montreal on thursday. here's what he said. it isa it is a very difficult moment for montreal is, people across the region, hit by this ice storm. 0bviously

the region, hit by this ice storm. obviously the power being down for so many folks, the trees coming down, hitting buildings and cars and what not, is of course an ongoing concern. it's important people to stay safe and it's important that people do we always do at times of difficulty, neighbours be there for neighbours, people will help out and support. live now to anne—marie provost from le devoir newspaper in montreal. i understand your power is out was not exactly. my i understand your power is out was not exactly.— i understand your power is out was not exactly. my power went out on wednesday _ was not exactly. my power went out on wednesday evening. - was not exactly. my power went out on wednesday evening. it . out on wednesday evening. it came back after two full days. i didn't have power and it was the same for everybody in my neighbourhood, many streets closed because we had a lot of trees and branches falling down on the streets, also electricity lines falling down on the street it was quite dangerous that the police are pretty much everywhere in the

city making sure everything was safe and the people are getting their power back stop sea still have many people power now. you mentioned — have many people power now. you mentioned falling branches and trees on the streets but this was a very widespread power outage. hundreds of thousands of people without power for many days. what was the reason behind it, was it simply these branches falling, but how could that caused such a widespread outage? that caused such a widespread outaae? , ,., that caused such a widespread outaae? , ., �*, ., outage? yes, so that's a massive _ outage? yes, so that's a massive cartridge - outage? yes, so that's a massive cartridge like i outage? yes, so that's a l massive cartridge like that outage? yes, so that's a - massive cartridge like that is quite unusual in quebec stop at the bigger you had 1.1 million people, customers without electricity and what happened is that early wednesday you had freezing rain falling and falling around three millimetres, and during the day it went on the trees, on the branches, on electricity lines, so it was very heavy ice that fell down on electric poles,

elected lines, so then you had branches falling on the transformers, falling on the lines, and the power went out for pretty much everybody. haw for pretty much everybody. how have peeple _ for pretty much everybody. how have people been _ for pretty much everybody. how have people been hoping? you mentioned that there are many people without power. however getting through? it is people without power. however getting through?— getting through? it is not good because it _ getting through? it is not good because it is _ getting through? it is not good because it is quite _ getting through? it is not good because it is quite cold - because it is quite cold outside in montreal right now, it is around 0 degrees, maybe a little higher than 0 degrees, so we don't have a lecture city, you don't have heating, so the temperature in the house and apartments are getting quite low and you are losing food, so they had to open emergency shelters so people could go there and have a little feed, they could shower, they could recharge their electric devices, but the morale is low because he sees some streets getting their power back but then you don't get your power back, so people are asking why and then you

have many debates around should we put the lanes in the grounds instead of having them on electric poles outside the ground, and many stuff like that, so we can prevent events like that in the future because the authorities are saying that episodes like that of freezing rain causing massive power outage are going to be more frequent in the future because of global warming. irate frequent in the future because of global warming.— frequent in the future because of global warming. we had the rime of global warming. we had the prime minister _ of global warming. we had the prime minister there _ of global warming. we had the prime minister there speaking| prime minister there speaking back on thursday, it is now nearly sunday. how has the response been received from residents and is that patients may be wearing for now days into this?— into this? people are saying that peeple _ into this? people are saying that people in _ into this? people are saying that people in quebec- into this? people are saying that people in quebec are i that people in quebec are underground in the trucks, working around the clocks, so it is good for morale when you see people working on your street trying to resolve the issue, but then there are still 130,000 people without power

right now and it is the easter holidays, so people were expecting to receive family going to restaurants or stuff like that, but now you don't have to reorganise your whole life and restaurants had to throw food, shops had to throw food, grocery stores as well, so people are feeling more and more exhausted because now, 0k, more exhausted because now, ok, the power went back to many people, and it is going slower and slower because now it is the most difficult cases that are in charge right now, so many people will be without power or something like that. anne—marie provost from the le devoir newspaper were power is slowly returning. thank you for taking time to speak with us. sure, you are welcome. to the us, where a district judge in amarillo, texas

suspended fda approval of mifepristone and that same day, a federaljudge in eastern washington state judge ordered to keep that same pill legal in a preliminary injuction. but what exactly is mifepristone? let's take a closer look. mifepristone is a medicinal pill that can be taken at home. it's used in more than half of us pregnancy terminations, and was first approved for use more than 20 years ago in 2000. earlier, we spoke with amy o'donnell, the director of communications with texas alliance for life, an anti—abortion organisation committed to protecting the fundamental right to life for all. in all honesty, my initial reaction was a bit of surprise. at the time the news came out, we had been waiting for these rulings to be released for several weeks now. we heard thejudge in amarillo might release it fairly quickly, but of course that is not always true, so on good friday, a day that many of us are off, we got the news and began to catch up on all the information, and from there

we have to say that we applaud thejudge in amarillo for protecting women in the united states against the fast—tracking the fda did by not fully vetting chemical abortion drugs to determine their safety and the complication rates with accurate tracking before releasing them for distribution. we alo spoke with drjamila perritt, president and ceo of physicians for reproductive health. she denounced the texas ruling, saying it is an assault on women. it's not the beginning. this is the middle. it's a full—on assault. it did not begin with this medication, removal or attempts to remove this medication from the market, it actually began with organising from folks who were against abortion access after roe was passed in 1973. so we are seeing the fruition, the fruits of their organising to eliminate access to our human rights, our reproductive health

and well—being, the decisions that we get to make about ourselves and our families. what i meant by that comment, though, specifically, is that we have long road ahead of us. this is not the end. the assault on our autonomy, our agency is not going to end with removing this fda—approved medication from the market, but we will continue to see full—on assaults for all of us, not just those seeking abortion, but anyone who wants, who dares to control their own bodies, their own lives. this is a manifestation of that. now in the uk, police in manchester have launched an investigation into a disturbance during last night's performance of the bodyguard at the palace theatre. officers were called to the theatre, after staff reported a number of people in the audience causing the disruption. two people were removed by security staff were spoken to by police. if you listen to closely this, you can hear members of the audience trying

to sing over the cast. crowd sings: # and i will always love you. ..# . - i'm not sure the crowd we went many 0livier awards for that performance. thank you for watching. hello there. i hope you've been making the most of the easter sunshine because on sunday the weather starts to change with some wetter weather in time for easter monday. at the moment, we're in between high pressure and low pressure. that gives us a southerly wind. it's that weather front coming in from the atlantic that will signal the change. still dry overnight. and these are the temperatures by sunday morning. so not as cold as it has been of late. there may well be more cloud around for easter sunday, but we will see the sunshine coming through at times. it's in northern ireland, though, that through the afternoon the cloud will tend to thicken. some patchy rain coming in here over the irish sea by the end of the day as well. and ahead of that advancing rain, we'll have a stronger southerly wind.

now that's going to bring us a bit of warmth. temperatures could reach 17 degrees around the murray firth, north wales, merseyside, perhaps london and the home counties, but a few degrees cooler than that in northern ireland with the rain arriving here and that band of rain will push its way into western parts of britain during the evening, continue eastwards overnight. heaviest rain over the hills in the west and followed by some bands of showers sweeping across northern ireland into southwest scotland. so with all that cloud and rain around, sunday night should be pretty mild into monday morning. easter monday though, we still have that rain to clear away from eastern parts of england. it could linger throughout the morning in east anglia and the south east. following on from that, some sunshine. but these bands of showers could be heavy with some hail and thunder and there'll be some frequent showers across northern and western parts of scotland. we'll have a chillier breeze and temperatures are going to be lower. we're back down to around 10—14 degrees in the afternoon. we're into that showery air stream as we head into tuesday. but this developing area of low pressure is going to be heading our way as well.

whilst many places could start the day dry with some sunshine, we've got showers in northern scotland. we'll see the cloud increasing, the wind picking up from the south—west, and rain moving its way northwards and eastwards through the day. and tuesday could turn out to be quite chilly, actually. temperatures typically 10—13 degrees. a lot of uncertainty overnight and into wednesday. the models are differing with the depth of that area of low pressure and the position. but for a while, actually, it could be quite windy across some parts of the country and that signals this change to more unsettled weather over the week ahead. showers or longer spells of rain and temperatures by day on the low side for this time of the year.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. this week we've plenty of stomach to wet your appetite. we are in singapore to taste

the future, with the starter of pink gold, followed by your main course.