live from washington, this is bbc news. fighting intensifies in sudan's capital — as another ceasefire fails. a story fit for hollywood — wrexham fc secures a return to the english football league. and the australian comedian barry humphries — creator of the character dame edna everage — dies age 89. hello, i'm carl nasman, thanks forjoining us. we start in sudan, where the capital city, khartoum, has seen some of the most intense fighting since violence broke out a week ago, as yet another ceasefire fails. sudan's army planned to evacuate foreign nationals,

but that hasn't been possible because of the latest escalation. here's a reminder of why this is happening. sudan's army general abdel fattah al—burhan is fighting the leader of a paramilitary group, the rsf, led by general mohamed hamdan dagalo. they had been sharing power since they led a coup in 2021. now though, they disagree on how sudan should be governed. let's go live now to our correspondent kalkidan yibetal in addis ababa, who is closely monitoring the situation. first of all, the sudanese army saying there are plans in place to begin evacuating foreign nationals. what more do we know about those plans right now?— plans right now? yes, we have already seen — plans right now? yes, we have already seen the _ plans right now? yes, we have already seen the first - plans right now? yes, we have already seen the first rescue . already seen the first rescue operations in which more than 150 foreign nationals have arrived in

jeddah. there was a statement released by the foreign ministry giving us some details. they said that about 90 of these nationals were saudi citizens while others were saudi citizens while others were from countries as diverse as pakistan, canada and the united arab error mitts. we are expecting more evacuations. there will be willing to coordinate and facilitate for foreign nationals to be evacuated but the intensification of the fighting right now, that could be very difficult. but we are hearing more and more efforts, plans to evacuate nationals as soon as possible. since the main international airport in khartoum has been in the middle of the fighting, in the middle of this violence, carrying out civilians,

foreign nationals by air has not been possible. driving out these foreign nationals from khartoum to the port of sudan and transferring them to saudi arabia. any evacuation plan could take similar roots and on sunday, we are expecting more developments in this regard with the us, the uk and turkey announcing they have plans to evacuate at least diplomats if not other nationals. what about sudanese civilians? are there any plans in place or international agencies working to get anybody out of the country? the situation get anybody out of the country? tue: situation for get anybody out of the country? tte: situation for ordinary get anybody out of the country? tt2 situation for ordinary sudanese people has been dire and everyday things are worsening. we are seeing all these reports showing us the deterioration of the health sector

in which many of the hospitals are not functioning properly, they are not functioning properly, they are not operating with their full capacity and also, aid agencies have been unable to operate as well so some of them are suspending their operations entirely. 0thers some of them are suspending their operations entirely. others are working with minimal capacity and the residents do not have access to basic supplies like water, electricity and their food stocks are depleting. in addition to these, fighting is happening in urban centres, in crowded residential areas and there are fears the casualties could grow. with that, things look bleak for the ordinary sudanese people. the things look bleak for the ordinary sudanese people.— sudanese people. the situation bleak, sudanese people. the situation bleak. are _ sudanese people. the situation bleak, are their _ sudanese people. the situation bleak, are their fears _ sudanese people. the situation bleak, are their fears this - sudanese people. the situation bleak, are their fears this could even be leading to some sort of refugee crisis in the region? that is the fear- _ refugee crisis in the region? that is the fear. this _ refugee crisis in the region? that is the fear. this is _ refugee crisis in the region? that is the fear. this is a _ refugee crisis in the region? tngt is the fear. this is a volatile area, it is prone to conflicts.

where i am now, there was a really brutal civil war that lasted two years until it was concluded last years until it was concluded last yearin years until it was concluded last year in a peace treaty. now another conflict in sudan could trigger a massive refugee crisis. neighbouring countries are already experiencing an influx. for example, chad has seen an increase in the number of people crossing its borders, fleeing violence. 0ther people crossing its borders, fleeing violence. other countries could see similar increases as well.— violence. other countries could see similar increases as well. thank you so much for— similar increases as well. thank you so much for your _ similar increases as well. thank you so much for your reporting. - wrexham football club are celebrating their return to the english football league. their takeover by hollywood actors ryan reynolds and rob mcelhenney have made the tiny team world—reknowned and now they've won the national league title. champions! champions!

here they are celebrating after beating boreham wood 3—1. the bbc caught up with some elated wrexham fans just after the match. let's hear from a few. what a win! boom! how proud are you? very proud. absolutely amazing. i lost my husband just before christmas. - i've got a picture of him. this is for him. love you, jeff. love you. the whole town has wanted this for 15 years, you know what i mean? and for ryan and rob to come in and buy the club and give us what we wanted, can't thank them enough. it makes you want to cry. i might cry now. this is the future generation and theyjust want to be here and experience it. it's mega. i don't even like football but we're just here, it's brilliant. amazing, isn't it? it means the absolute world. my dad has been a wrexham fan for his entire life. _ he was coming to games since there were about 500 fans left side. - now 10,000 tonight. it is absolutely fantastic.

i'm so happy. the australian comedian barry humphries has died at the age of 89. barry humphries was best known for his character dame edna everage and was a leading figure on the british comedy scene, with his many satirical characters. his family said he never lost his brilliant mind and unique wit. he'd been receiving treatment at a hospital in sydney following hip surgery. 0ur arts correspondent, david silitto, looks back at his life. dame edna everage! hello, possums! dame edna always said she was born with a priceless gift — the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others. i am weightless and you could do with losing a little. success has gone to your jowls, russell harty! oh, you're being very, very cruel! for more than 50 years, she took pleasure in saying the unsayable.

i've had a little work done, but... have you? ..not quite as much as some of us here! laughter and applause no... no, but the thing is, you are still recognisable, that's what i like. laughter she was so familiar it was easy to forget that behind the glasses and frocks was a man called barry humphries. he was, offstage, a cultured, art loving collector of rare books. that's me standing outside... oh, one of the big clocks they've got out there! edna was a character from his student days in australia. when he moved to britain, he began to develop the character on shows such as late night line—up, with joan bakewell. he came on to television on late night line—up, and we didn't know what to make of him. we thought he was a very dear man, a very brilliant man, quite clearly. we knew that if you give him

a chance, he would make it. it was the beginning of a long friendship. edna became ever more brash and outrageous, but the man behind the wig was urbane, cultured and loyal. it's joan ba kewell. hello, darling! what the dickens are you doing here? the world in which i don't have the friendship of barry humphries is really painful. he was so resilient and energetic and loving. and direct, there was a huge personality. once you're exposed to it and enveloped by it, it was wonderful. so, that is a great absence in my life now. barry humphries was the absolute opposite of another of his characters, the profoundly uncouth sir les patterson. but sir les and dame edna were both a testament to an extraordinary comic brain... what is it, a little choker, darling? to the brash housewife superstar.

gorgeous, darling. did it all come off the one chandelier? laughter and applause #it�*s my niceness # i pride myself on my niceness #. for many, edna was so real, so engaging, it was easy to forget that the wit, the charm, the sheer audacity was all down to the brilliant comic mind of a man called barry humphries. i've been draped! # my wonderful, wonderful niceness # # with you.# the comedian barry humphries who has died at the age of 89. to kenya now, where there's an investigation into a christian cult which allegedly told its followers to starve themselves to death, in the hope of getting to heaven quickly. this was friday — police found 21 bodies by searching dozens of suspected graves. the group is called the good news international church — and its leader, paul mackenzie,

who has been detained, denies wrongdoing. the investigation is happening in kenya's coastal town of malindi. 0ur africa editor grant ferrett has more. paul mackenzie was first detained last month, when two children were found to have starved to death. he then appeared in court two weeks ago after four bodies were found. he said at the time that he had done nothing wrong, and the church had been shut down several years ago. since then, about a dozen people have been taken to hospital, some of them severely emaciated, and what police are doing now is checking land owned by mr mackenzie, the leader of the church, where they have so far uncovered 21 bodies. they have been exhumed. it is not clear in what circumstances they have died, and that is what police will continue to investigate. the police called off their search today because of bad weather. there was heavy rain. they do say they expect to continue, and they expect to find more bodies.

as i say, mr mackenzie himself, he has not been asked to enter a plea, but has said he has done nothing wrong, and his church was closed down some time ago. to ukraine now, where fighting continues in the east of the country. these are the latest pictures from the city of bakhmut. russia says it's taken more territory there — those are claims we can't yet verify. meanwhile, the us says it will would start training ukrainian troops to use its abrams tanks. my colleague, sumi somaskanda, spoke to the us national security council'sjohn kirby about the us position in ukraine. i want to start with an announcement we saw from the defence department saying the abrams tanks that the us has promised to deliver to ukraine, they will get to the battlefield by this fall. that is earlier than expected. that's right. do you think that these tanks getting there earlier, by the fall, will still be enough to counter offensives from russia? we're also providing hundreds

of other armoured vehicles and we're providing what we call combined arms training for ukrainian battalions outside the country to get them ready for the fighting that we expect and that they expect they will be doing in the weeks and months ahead. it is notjust abrams tanks, yes they will get there towards the end of the year, but they're also already taking possession, the ukrainians are, of leopard tanks that are produced by germany and other nations are providing their leopard tanks as well as many different types of armoured vehicles, notjust from the united states but from around the world. it's a concerted effort to get into ukrainian hands the full scope of capabilities we think they will need in the weeks and months ahead. armoured capabilities, tanks and armoured vehicle is just one of them. air defence is another, artillery and of course ammunition is a key need for ukrainian forces. secretary of defense lloyd austin was speaking in germany earlier today where he was meeting with international defense chiefs, as you know, and discussed the leaked pentagon documents that exposed some important information about ukraine.

as i've discussed this issue with our allies and partners i've been struck by your solidarity and your commitment to reject efforts to divide us. and we will not let anything fracture our learning. hearing from the defence secretary there, it doesn't sound like this issue has divided our allies, but from what you see, it is this going to be an issue of trust among allies, especially with ukraine? well, we are certainly going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't become an issue of trust with our allies and partners, and as secretary austin noted, it hasn't. we have been working hard to keep relevant allies and partners informed as we learned about disclosures, to let them know what we're seeing, provide our perspective, listen to their concerns, and make sure that they know we're going to keep them informed all along the way. we've seen no breach of any of the confidence that we have in our many relationships, whether bilateral or multilateral.

we certainly haven't seen any diminution of supports and resolve by so many allies and partners when it comes to supporting ukraine. one of the items disclosed in those leaks is that ammunition provided for ukraine in some key defence system could be depleted in the coming weeks. what are allies doing to address the problem? i'm not in a position where i can confirm the validity of these documents and i won't speak to intelligence matters here on television. these documents that have been disclosed are still classified and we're not at liberty to talk about them. that said, i think it's important to remember that there has been quite a bit of time since the date of some of these documents and where we're today. events have moved beyond some of these documents and what they said and certainly not only events have moved on but our ability to try to address these concerns has also continued at pace. you just saw this week we announced yet another package, $325 million worth of support

for ukraine, that includes a lot of air defence, artillery ammunition and other logistical capabilities that we think ukraine will need in the spring. nato secretary general jens stoltenberg said, "ukraine's place is in nato. ukraine says it is ready". is it the right time for ukraine tojoin nato? the united states supports the open doorfor membership in nato. we believe wholeheartedly that there should be an open door for membership in nato. we also believe that the discussion that an individual nation that wants to aspire to membership and the alliance has to have, that conversation needs to occur for them. i won't speak to the secretary—general on that we're an avid supporter of nato and a key ally for the nato is bigger and more relevant than it's ever been before with the acession of finland and soon hopefully the ascension of sweden. two modern militaries that will clearly make the alliance more capable than it already is. would the administration support it then?

i'm not going to get into hypotheticals. we believe in an open door policy. we believe that is a conversation that has start between the nation in question and the alliance. we certainly would not get in the way of any of those conversations. i also want to ask you something about sudan because you've been speaking about this as well. the us, as you've said, is putting additional forces in place for potential evacuation of us embassy personnel. so, government personnel. when would the white house determined that it is the right point to evacuate that personal? our focus right now is twofold. one is making sure we've got and can maintain full accountability of our government personnel in khartoum. and we have that all consolidated and accounted for. two is working closely with people on the ground, particularly having conversations with both sides of the rapid securities forces and the armed forces commander to try to get meaningful, sustainable cease—fires in place, thus so far we have been able to do that and the violence continues.

it's a very dangerous place. in the meantime, the military is repositioning some additional capabilities nearby in the region, not in sudan, should there be a need to move in and evacuate our government personnel. that's what the focus is right now. as you said, the violence has continued. does the biden administration need to do more to ensure there is a lasting cease—fire on the ground? were doing everything we can, including conversations that the secretary of state anthony blinken, had with leaders on both side to get them to put their arms down, quit fighting, let's get the tensions reduced, make sure we have avenues for humanitarian aid and assistance to get into khartoum for the food, water, medicine which are now beginning to grow short for the people that live there. that can be the focus right now so we can get to a transition of civilian authority in khartoum, which is what the sudanese armed forces say they want. we want to see that happen too, so we're working closely with leaders on both sides.

john kirby, coordinations communicator or the white house. good to have you on bbc news. thank you. in other news... in israel, people have been protesting — for the sixteenth week in a row — against plans to overhaul the judicial system. the demonstrations have continued despite prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, putting the proposals on hold to try to reach a compromise. protesters say the plans are a threat to democracy. and bbc persian has received confidential documents showing the iranian government formed a committee to punish celebrities who took part in recent anti—government protests. around 140 actors, athletes and other public figures were targeted with economic sanctions, travel bans, or imprisonment. to washington, the us supreme court ruled in favour of maintaining access to an abortion pill, while a legal appeal against its use is still considered.

the decision temporarily blocks a lower court's ruling — in texas — that restricted the use of drug. the drug, mifepristone, is used in more than half of all abortions in the us. this decision is a victory supporters of abortion rights — as it defends broad acces to this pill — and for the biden administration. sumi somaskanda spoke with washington post supreme court reporter robert barnes about the decision shortly after the ruling came down. this is a court, as we know, that had a majority to overturn roe v wade. so how should we read into the fact that there wasn't a majority to let this ban go into effect? well, the important thing to remember is that this was not a decision on the merits. this was something that, as your correspondent said, lower courts had approved. it was a pretty bold move. courts have not said that the fda is wrong to have passed on the safety of a drug before and overturn such a thing.

so it was a pretty bold move and all the supreme court did tonight was leave things in place while these legal fights continue. we also saw a dissent from samuel alito and clarence thomas that was published as well. what do you think we can take away glean from that dissent? well, i think those are the two members of the court that are probably the most conservative. they have expressed concerns about this drug before. and so while they said they weren't making a decision on the merits, you know, these were the two justices you would think would be most likely. the rest of the court didn't really explain its reasoning for this. but, you know, it's a very busy time for the supreme court, a controversial time for the supreme court. it has a lot on its plate right now. and i think in something this big, the court may have been saying, we're going to hold off a little

bit, let this play out, and we don't need to be forced into a decision here until we have to make one. what do you think the chief justicejohn roberts role was in this ruling? well, hard to say because the majority didn't explain its reasoning, didn't say why it was leaving things as they are and letting the fight continue in the lower courts. so we would be speculating. but as i say, you know, this is something that the court doesn't need to take on right now or to decide right now. and i think that that has a lot to do with it. you might remember that the chief justice was not among the conservatives who thought the court should overturn roe v wade. he thought that it would be that there was another path to uphold more abortion restrictions without turning over what had been a constitutional right for a half century.

what do you think is what makes this case so unprecedented, the fact that this lower court has challenged the fda's authority essentially for deeming this pill safe to use? yeah, it was a very bold legal battle that these anti abortion doctors waged. and there were lots of questions about whether they had the proper legal standing to bring this challenge. and the way the challenge was filed in a district in which only one judge who was known to have anti—abortion sentiments would be thejudge to rule on it. so there were a lot of questions about the legal theory as this case advanced. and it's another reason for the court to sort of take things slowly, because it is something that has not been done before. it's unprecedented for a court to say that the fda was just wrong when it approved the safety of a drug. as we heard, this is going to get kicked back down now

to the lower courts. what do you think we're going to see there? well, it goes back to a very conservative court, the us court of appeals for the fifth circuit, that it that a panel of that court didn't go as far asjudge cass merrick did about the fda, but it did roll down, roll back some of the restrictions that the fda had lifted in recent years. and so it's probably the most conservative appeals court in the country. it wouldn't be surprise, surprising to see a win for the anti—abortion forces there and then it would come back to the supreme court. do you think the supreme court down the road will ultimately ban this pill? tough to know. it's a tough one for the court. remember when it overturned roe v wade, it said, you know, judges and courts need to get out of this business, return it to the states, return it to the people's elected representatives.

and so, you know, the first case that comes back to them is not a case about that, but it is one that would affect people nationwide, women all across the country who want to take this drug to ease early pregnancy abortions. and so it was an unusual case for the court and one that you could see the court might be a little reluctant about. and one that a lot of people have been watching very closely. do you have a sense of how long this entire process could take before it ends up again at the supreme court? no, it would be a matter of months, i would think. and the court when it stayed, the lower court's decisions said this stay stays into effect. in effect, the status quo will remain in effect until this case comes back to us and we decide whether to take it and then when we decide it.

and so that could be quite a while. i'm carl nasman in washington. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. i think it's fair to say the weekend started on a very mixed note. now, there were some areas of rain across the uk, but other places it stayed entirely dry and sunny. look at this band of rain in southern scotland. underneath that drumalbin in lanark only got to eight degrees. while, it's not that far away, in stirlingshire, basking in the sunshine, tyndrum, had a high of 17 celsius, so a massively different feel to the weather on saturday over a relatively short distance. sunday's chart still has low pressure firmly in charge. there will be more rain around that low moves eastwards. and then early next week, we'll get northerly winds. and look where those winds come from, pretty much the north pole. so needless to say, the weather will be getting quite a bit cooler over the next few days. now, over the next few hours, we've still got a bit of rain

in northern ireland that's turning lighter and patchier in nature. northern scotland turning wetter with some stronger northeasterly winds developing. and we've got some heavier rain just skirting along the south of england. so there are some areas of rain, other areas stay dry, but a lot of cloud around. temperatures, 4 to ten degrees as we start off sunday. now we've got that fairly persistent rain that's going to be with us most of the day for northern scotland. it will feel chilly here on account of those gusty northerly winds, heavy rain across southern england extending into east anglia and then into the afternoon we see showers break out. and i think the showers, particularly across england and wales, will turn heavy with some hail and thunder. temperatures across the board below average for the time of year, and it's set to get colder. those northerly winds really start to arrive through monday and on into tuesday as well. now we're looking at some rain across england and wales. further north, it's a day of sunshine and showers. there'll be some hail mixed in with some of these showers, a little bit of sleet across the far north of scotland and over the highest scottish mountains, yes, you could even see a little bit

of snow, but you have to go pretty high up for that above 400 or 500 metres elevation temperatures dropping highs of seven to 11 degrees, feeling chilly, particularly for northern scotland. then monday night we see a widespread frost develop and it's something that gardeners will certainly want to take note of. this is not a good news situation really for those tender plants. you might need to bring them back inside. tuesday, still cold, still a few wintry showers across northern scotland. showers with us for much of the week head, with temperatures for the most part staying well below average. bye for now.

this is bbc news, we'll have to headlines and all of the main news stories are you at the top of the hours straight after this programme. in august 2021, the taliban shocked the world as they swept to power in afghanistan. it wasn't long before they began to crack down on the rights of women. last year, i met with activist tamana paryani, who'd been involved in a protest in kabul. after daring to raise her voice, the taliban came in the middle of the night to arrest her.