live from washington, this is bbc news. vigils are held for the four people killed in a shooting at a teenage birthday party in alabama. more fighting in sudan, with dozens killed and hundreds injured in battles this weekend. and spacex prepares to launch its mammoth rocket starship. we start here in the us, where vigils have been taking place to remember the four people killed and 28 injured in a mass shooting at a birthday party in dadeville in the state of alabama. as of right now, there's no

official confirmation of what led to the shooting, but president biden has described it as outrageous and unacceptable. one of the four killed has been identified as philstavious dowdell by local media. he was a standout high school athlete and was planning to attend jacksonville state university on an american football scholarship. earlier, alabama police gave this update on the victims. some of those injuries are critical. they are in critical condition. and that's why it's so important we absolutely need everyone to continue to pray for those individuals to allow them to recover from what they're enduring, as well as their families. earlier, i spoke to our correspondent, jessica parker, who is in dadeville, alabama. i understand you havejust arrived there. can you give us arrived there. can you give us a sense of how the community is

react in? we arrived just as a vigil had been taking place just up the road from here in a kind of parking area and dozens and dozens of people from the local community were there. and you could really tell what a tightknit community this is. it is a small town here in rural alabama and lots of people were talking to each other, hugging each other. we did see young people very visibly upset. obviously a lot of people will have known the victims of last night's shooting. and that is the dance studio we understand the shooting took i don't know quite how much you can see behind me, but there is actually no police tape up there now, the door is sealed off and you can see some bullet holes in the glass there,

but actually looking pretty low—key tonight after last night's terrible events where four people have lost their lives and their 28 people injured, the authorities earlier when they were saying with regard to those injured, some are any critical conditions, others they suggested have much more minor injuries. what has also been quite striking is really the lack of detail we have been getting from the authorities about what happened here last night, how the shooting came to an end or where any suspects may be. certainly a community grieving tonight. this is not the first shooting we have seen this year, there have been a string of mass shootings in can you put this tragedy in alabama into context for us? yes, sir, there have been an increasing number of mass shootings in the united date in recent years. well over 140 taking place in 2023 alone across america. and it has led to, again, that kind of soul—searching debate among some as to whether more should be done

in terms of gun control. as you were just reflecting, presidentjoe biden, of course a democrat, has again voiced his frustration stop he hass wanted to push for more restrictions on arms but then of course there are people who are quite resistant to that idea. they believe in the right to bear arms as per the second amendment and a very against further gun control. it is of course a way we have talked about before, discussed before, it is something that is talked about after these types of mass shootings. i think this community here tonight, from what they can gather talking to people earlier, that is not something they are particularly talking about right as of right now because they are still very much in the process of grief. our correspondentjessica parker in dadeville for us tonight. thank you very much. well, the governor of alabama, kay ivey, is a strong supporter of second amendment rights and last year signed a law ending the requirement

to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public. as part of her campaign to be re—elected as governor four years ago, she released this video. man, i'm sick of those dc politicians. me too. that's why i like governor ivey. she is honest. tough as nails. nothing dc about her. she sure cleaned up that bentley mess. protected our monuments. she's breaking records ofjobs creation. president trump said kay ivey is a great governor. the woman knows how to get a bang for her bark. —— the woman knows how to get a bang for her buck. straight shooter, that kay ivey. yeah, puts your aim to shame. yeah, look who's talking. earlier, i spoke with faith in action alabama community organiser, muaath al—khattab, who shed some light on how the shooting has impacted the state. your thoughts when you first heard about what took place at this birthday party in your home state. thanks for having me and ijust want to say on behalf of faith in action alabama our

sincere condolences to those who are grieving and those affected in dadeville. our prayers are with them and we pray they are consoled and they find closure. my first thought was, i mean, this is a horrible tragedy of course, i really felt for the victims and those people who were traumatised from the shooting in dadeville and i just felt really sad that this keeps happening and that they had to experience this is a time it was supposed to be a celebration. we heard from our correspondent there, just talking a little bit about how the community has been coming together. this is a small town, 3000 people living there, in your experience as a community organiser these sorts of shootings do, how do they affect a small city like dadeville? i would think that people are definitely shocked

and traumatised and i think people are probably in a state of disbelief. it also is possibly something that will bring the community together, the bonds together and try to lean on one another in this tragic time. you are an antiviolence organiser, you are an however, where the governor, as we just heard, is an outspoken proponent of gun rights. what is the discussion like in alabama when it comes to gun rights versus gun—control? well, i will say from our perspective, for faith in action alabama, we concentrate on violence intervention and so different people have their views on gun rights, you know, on both sides of the aisle. we concentrate on community violence intervention specifically, so anti gun violence. from your perspective, is there anything that can be done to try to reduce these

types of shootings or also the day—to—day gun violence that is often seen in communities across the country? absolutely. i believe that really what needs to happen as people need to come together, relationships needed to be built and strengthened. there needs to be implementation of actual proven ways to reduce gun violence by intervening and interrupting that violence. we have heard many republicans recently, including former president donald trump who was speaking at the national rifle association conference of the weekend, and they have been framing, many republicans framing this as not necessarily a problem with guns, but a problem with violent behaviour itself. what is your response to that? my response is our aim is really to reach the people. there are ways in which people who are either at risk

of committing gun violence or at risk of being affected by gun violence can be redirect to. there may be some cases where there are some behavioural issues, some mental issues, so i think that is really what should be concentrated on in a way to reduce the shootings across the state and the nation. recently the republican governor in tennessee approved stricter background checks on guns after a mass shooting in his state a few days ago. is there any chance of similar action happening in alabama, do you think? your guess is as good as mine. it's possible. imean... i will say anything is possible. what's probable is another story. so probably have to reach out to the lawmakers and see what are their thoughts

on this issue. muaath al—khattab as an anti—violence organiser in alabama. where we are following the story of that mass shooting in dadeville. thank you forjoining us. thank you for having me. there's been more fighting in sudan, with dozens killed and hundreds injured in battles this weekend. these two men are at the heart of it all. the head of the sudanese army and the leader of the country's biggest paramilitary group, known as the rapid support forces, or rsf. they're both now vying for dominance after leading the two main factions in the ruling military regime. but caught in the middle is sudan's population of around 50 million people. many are displaced and millions need humanitarian help. 0ur senior africa correspondent anne soy has the full story. a clash of forces. the sudanese army using its military might to crush a rival paramilitary unit.

the fighting was sparked by political fallout among the generals running the two units and governing the country. they've battled over the control of the presidential palace, airports, and key security installations over the last two days. locals and foreigners were caught unaware. katharina von schroeder from save the children had gone to school to pick up her child. the strongest explosions were this morning, when we also saw some air force being deployed, forfighterjets, and we decided to go to the basement for around an hour. in total, we're now nine adults and kids. persistent street protests helped to topple the long serving leader, 0mar al—bashir, in 2019. generals he had been working with, including those implicated in war crimes committed in the western darfur region two decades ago, entered an uneasy governing arrangement with

civilian leaders. the deal was to transfer power to civilians after two years, but instead the generals staged a coup. the man they ousted has called for peace. translation: we need - to at least reach a truce that will lead to establishing a humanitarian corridor that will allow civilians to have access to medicine, treatment, and food. amid the uncertainty about sudan's future, global powers are calling for the de—escalation of tensions and a return to dialogue. the path to democracy from decades of military rule was never going to be easy. a once thriving economy is in dire straits — and it is the sudanese who continue to bear the brunt of this bumpy process. anne soy, bbc news. let us get more on this now.

hamid khalafallah is a fellow at the tahrir institute for the middle east policy. he is based in khartoum, and sent us this video earlier, describing what life is like for him and his fellow residents. as the fighting between the sudanese armed forces and the bill —— paramilitary continues, these people continue to live in very dire and difficult situations with, you know, tension and stress reaching very high levels, citizens are staying in their houses, for those who have access to that, and seeking safety and sheltering from all the bombing and all the gunfire taking place out in the streets, even in residential streets. but those are facing other difficult situations in terms of blackout, electricity has been out in most neighbourhoods for the past 30 hours or so,

water is also even out in most neighbourhoods, and food supplies are running low as different houses because it is difficult to go out and get food supplies, given the violent clashes taking place everywhere. this situation continues to be very difficult for the second day and the news about international remediation is on the way, it's very important and very needed for these initiatives to be well co—ordinated and also very urgent. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. why are capybaras taking over the internet again?

videos of these friendly rodents have had millions of views world—wide on tiktok. but did you know there's a group of capybaras who call westland their home? music plays. they're kind of, like, toddlers, they really like brightly coloured foods and sweet foods. their favourite would be sweet potato and carrot. at hobbledown heath at hounslow, you can see the internet sensations for yourself. so we've got andre, this one, then we got corey here. and then this one is sunny. so sunny is really easy to tell the difference of because he's the lightest colour and the smallest. corey is the biggest. they are so sweet. everyone loves it. that's one thing that all ages have in common — they come away loving capybaras. you're live with bbc news. to events in moscow —

where china's defence minister has met vladimir putin. li shangfu told the russian president china is willing to strengthen multilateral co—ordination between the two countries — and that both countries will work together to help the �*maintenance of world and regional security. let's go live now to our correspondent katie silver, who is monitoring this for us from singapore. since the war in ukraine began, chinese leaders have met with vladimir putin several times but have yet to meet with ukraine's president, volodymr zelensky. what should we make of that? certainly not going to be welcomed from the international community as you can imagine. this is exactly what they haven't wanted to hear and we've talked a lot about oil but this does seem to be an escalation when it comes to literary partnership. i have heard that it is going to be no limits to this and they are going to engage militarily when it comes to sharing information as well as completing joint

exercises. they say this is already happening, the kremlin does, in europe as well as far asia and that this is occurring when it comes to naval exercises on the ground as well as an area. vladimir putin for his part has lauded the relationship. we heard for example yesterday from russia that they are now collaborating when it comes to the economy, social issues, even education, social issues, even education, so this is really a stepping up in this relationship which has been so feared by an international community. it is a very interesting visit, it is the first that li shangfu has made since he was appointed defence ministerjust last month and it's the fact it's the first foreign trip he's made is really quite symbolic and won't be welcome news to the international community. it wasn't clear as he was going to go as high up as vladimir putin on this trip but we heard as well from kyiv on friday saying they are finding evidence of chinese shrapnel in welfare that they have found there, we

have heard china has repeatedly denied supplying any weaponry to russia's effort but we have also heard as well from nato in the us that they have no evidence of this. so we are going to have to wait and see exactly what the extent of this military partnership is going to look like.— to look like. you mentioned that this — to look like. you mentioned that this was _ to look like. you mentioned that this was actually - to look like. you mentioned that this was actually the i that this was actually the first trip by the chinese defence minister, just additionally since the war in ukraine began chinese leaders have met personally with vladimir putin several times. they have yet, however, to meet with volodymyr zelensky. what should we make of that? yes. should we make of that? yes, and volodymyr _ should we make of that? yes, and volodymyr zelensky - should we make of that? yes, and volodymyr zelensky are l and volodymyr zelensky are remember called on china's leader as well saying he would like to meet xi jinping. it does seem that china is marking where it stands quite clearly. we saw for example last month a three day visit to moscow by xi jinping and there they inked more than a dozen agreements across everything from trade to propaganda, and they called each other, indeed, dear friends and talk about the

importance of this relationship for both. this comes at a bad time really when it comes to the international community's pressure on china. just last night and here in asia we had the meeting of the foreign ministers for the g7. that is a three day meeting. we heard from the eu's top foreign—policy executive joseph borel. he called on china, really, to mark its place in the sand saying that china can chooseif the sand saying that china can choose if it wants to be friends with the us and international if it wants to pursue partnership or instead take a more aggressive route when it comes to aspects such as taiwan and it seems this provocative announcement that comes at such a fraught time does seem indeed that china is perhaps choosing its path. katie silva, thank you so much. let's ta ke let's take a look now at some other stories making headlines.

the start of a usd$i.6 billion defamation trial between rupert murdoch's media empire, and a company which supplied voting machines for the 2020 us presidential election, has been delayed until tuesday. dominion voting systems alleges fox news and its parent company damaged its reputation by repeatedly airing lies about its machines. the trial was initally due to begin on monday in delaware. it appears that the two sides could be close to a settlement. the chief minister of the indian state of uttar pradesh has appealed for calm after a former politician was shot dead while under police escort. atiq ahmed — who had been convicted of kidnapping — was shot dead live on tv along with his brother. they were answering questions from journalists when they were killed in prayagraj. 16 people have been killed and nine others injured after a fire at a residential building in dubai. the blaze began on the fourth floor of the five—storey building in the al—ras neighbourhood in the old part of the city. all those so far confirmed

to have died are from overseas. elon musk and his spacex team are preparing to launch what is described as a mammoth rocket named starship into space on monday. the stainless steel machine is 394 feet tall — more than twice the height of a nasa space shuttle. the rocket and spacecraft combination can hold more than 100 people and is said to play a major role in nasa's artemis programme, which aims to establish a long—term human presence on the moon. earlier, i spoke with former nasa astronaut and chemical engineer leroy chiao to get a sense of what to expect during tomorrow's launch. first of all, spacex have launched rockets before. what makes this one in particular so exciting? well, this is by far the biggest rocket that will ever attempt to fly. it actually generates much more thrust, more than twice the thrust of the saturn moon

rockets from the apollo programme long ago and it is going to carry as its payload the first starship prototype to fly and it's going to make it almost all the way around one orbit but then it is going to come back down and splashdown near hawaii so this will be the first all up test of the starship system including the falcon super heavy booster so it is really exciting, 33 clustered engines in the first stage. this is going to be pretty historic. so this is historic, it's a powerful rocket, it is a large, enormous rocket. what is it designed to do? why does it have to be so big and so powerful? spacex has designed the starship to be fully reusable, that is really an important point and also elon musk of course, he says he started spacex all those years ago because he himself wants to travel to mars and wants to establish human colonies on mars, therefore that is

what starship is designed for. it is being designed so that a version of it in the future would be undertake about 100 people at a time to mars. so this is the first launch of this vehicle, nothing else like it has ever been attempted before so a very exciting thing to be happening hopefuilly tomorrow. this particular rocket, this starship, there have been a few different versions, i think as many as 15 different prototype. some have had more success than others, how would you rate the chances of success for this particular launch? i feel pretty confident that they are going to get this vehicle into orbit or into space and it will complete almost one full orbit before splashing down, so i think there is a pretty good chance it is going to work out. in any development programme, especially the first launch of a new vehicle, there is much higher risk of having

an incident, something wrong that you hadn't anticipated or had checked out thoroughly. but they have gone through this methodically, you are right, there have been several prototypes before of both the starship itself, which is the payload in this case, as well as the test firings of the falcon super heavy booster. 33 clustered engine, not a small deal, that is a huge deal, you can imaginejust the plumbing alone is kind of a nightmare but all that has to work for it to successfully launch so this is certainly not a sure thing by any means but i will be watching very excitedly. if this launch is a success, what would that mean more broadly for the future of space exploration? well, if this launch goes successfully then that means this programme will continue forward, of course, even if it doesn't launch successfully the programme will likely continue forward since elon musk has personally got his

mars mission in mind and it will take this rocket to get there but it is really a huge deal because this is the first all reusable spacecraft system ever. that means the booster comes back, the starship itself will come back. at tomorrow's launch, neither one of these things are coming back but it is really the first follow—up system test of the entire rocket and payload, or the spacecraft i should say. but in the future, that means both will be recovered, fully recovered and that brings the economics of launching large things into space way down and it really is more revolutionary than i think most people realise. fascinating stuff and we will be watching as this starship rocket is preparing for this launch. we have plenty more on that

story on our website as well. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. it was a drier weekend for many. still quite a bit of cloud around, but in the sunshine we saw temperatures reached just about 19 degrees celsius in northern ireland. that's the warmest day of the year so far. and we could see the high teens again during the day on monday, the start of the week, certainly a little warmer with some sunshine. and on the whole, it's a drier week ahead, but there will be some showers around. and as this high pressurejust drifts a little bit further northwards, we introduce more isobars, tightly packed lines here, stronger winds and one or two showers as well. and that keen easterly wind coming off the chilly north sea will be noticeable, particularly across the eastern half of the country. but as we go through the remainder of the night, its low cloud, mist and fog

with generally light winds and a few showers here and there. so largely frost free, just a little bit chilly where we keep the clear skies and they could, as i say, could well be some fog around first thing on monday morning with some fog over the hills as well as that. so generally quite leaden skies, but brightening — the april sunshine strong now, pushing the showers away, breaking the cloud up, butjust enough still for the odd shower here and there. but where we see the lengthy spells of sunshine, 17 or 18 on the cards, again, perhaps central and eastern areas up towards northern scotland, northern ireland once again. but as we go through the evening and overnight, we start to pick up a bit more of an easterly breeze, as you can see, coming off the north sea, just ushering in some lower clouds, some sea air and fret on the east coast and foggy conditions around first thing on tuesday morning under this slack ridge of high pressure in the north. and it's the north, scotland, northern ireland, where we keep that high pressure for longest. in the south, we've got this little weather front starting

to make its way across from the low countries to increase the risk of cloud on tuesday showers on wednesday, but it's that keen north wind, sorry, that keen east wind coming off the north sea that we are going to notice because at this time of year our sea temperatures are about as low as they get. so while inland, we'll see temperatures getting up into the mid possibly high teens, you can seejust on the coast, they'll be pegged back because of those cold waters of the north sea. into wednesday, we've still got these tightly packed bars, brisk winds pushing in, a few showers as well. and that risk continues, particularly across the southern half of england, wales through the rest of the week. so after warmish start, still a lot of dry weather, but temperatures just tapering off a little. more online.

voice-over: 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. a warm welcome. i'm kim chakanetsa. i've come to hollywood, to the women in film