this is bbc news, the headlines. fighting in sudan rages on, as thousands flee the country. the leader of the rsf militia group tells the bbc he won't negotiate until the fighting ends. nurses in england go on strike on sunday night over pay — action that the health service says will cause significant disruption over the public holiday weekend. russian authorities say a massive blaze at an oil terminal in russian—occupied crimea was triggered by a drone attack. videos on social media show smoke and flames billowing from the facility in the port of sevastopol. it comes five days after a ukrainian drone attack in the same area. and a threatened strike by us

screenwriters demanding more pay could bring hollywood film and television studios to a standstill next week. a may 1st deadline has been set for an agreement. now on bbc news, behind the stories: the monarchy. i was at home when i got a phone call from the director of news at the bbc saying that's the queen was gravely ill.

he didn't stand on ceremony or offer any small talk — "clive, how are you?" he simply said "the queen is gravely ill and can you come in?" and i was preparing to fly to italy on a filming trip the next day and i thought... i should go in. i was in the newsnight office because we'd had wind, obviously with a note being passed through the house of commons, that something was happening. i know i speak on behalf of the entire house when i say that we send our best wishes to her majesty the queen and that she and the royal family are in our thoughts and prayers at this moment. and of course there's this big protocol, obviously, if the queen had passed away then newsnight wouldn't be going on. but simultaneously i was getting calls, as we were waiting to see if this event was going to unfold, i got a call from don macinnes who was running the events coverage and he said "look, would you be able to get

yourself to balmoral?" so as soon as we heard that the queen had in fact died, newsnight was obviously cancelled, so i got on the train and then rushed home, threw all the black clothes i could find in the car — because i didn't know how long i was going to be away — and put my foot down in the car and sped to balmoral. and it was extraordinary because i was going through the most rugged countryside to get there, i was thinking — this is extraordinary. what moment in history, i'm going through the long road at the spittal of glenshee thinking �*this is part of history'. not only for scotland and the uk but for the world. my colleague kirsty wark is at the queen's estate at balmoral. yes, i think what you see behind me is almost in marked contrast to what was happening at buckingham palace because hundreds of people have been coming forwards and backwards all day, laying flowers, making tributes, but there is an air of real peace and respect and dignity. when i got to balmoral it was just — i went to find the bbc point

and it was just going to get on—air, you're taking over for this period of time, and that started to unfold, where i was talking to people who are coming in, where they were coming from, a lot in europe because, you know, walking down the street in ballater where she walked regularly. a lot were local and a lot knew a lot about balmoral. everybody brought their dogs, that was a great thing, everybody had their dogs. and there were tiny children, and there were much older people, and there were people in wheelchairs, and this continued all through the day until i can remember i left at about 11:25... ..and there were still people coming with their iphone torches in wheelchairs, and walking, to deliver flowers orjust to stand and be there. so, all through the day i was really watching what people were doing and listening to them and there were hardly talking. and they literally wanted to come, i think — i thought it was so incredibly moving — they wanted to come to be near her. her relationship with scotland was one of family, certainly,

but it was also one of being at ease in the surroundings. being a girl that had been at balmoral since she was a baby, and in fact, i think there was a case that the queen had only ever taken two summer holidays anywhere other than scotland. her thread of ancestry goes all the way back to robert the bruce's and then through mary queen of scots and so forth. you know, she was a truly scottish monarch. she was elizabeth the first in scotland because of course, she wasn't the elizabeth ii of scotland, she was the first in scotland — but i think it was just about her sense of place and her sense of belonging and i think she felt that sense of belonging very strongly. people would come up and ask me, you know, if they were spanish or perhaps, you know, from another country, would come up and ask me,

what does this mean? you know, what happens next? and are the royal family going to come out? are they going to look at the flowers? i mean, i didn't know, i was keeping in close touch with the palace and i kind of knew that the younger members of the royal family were really desperately upset so i really didn't expect them to come out and look at the flowers and look at the tributes. so, the members of the royalfamily have completed their service of prayer at crathie kirk which of course is the kirk the family all knows so well. well sometimes when you're reporting on a grieving family, it's important that that grief be acknowledged. i think when you're in a time of grief as a commentator reporter, it's about choosing the moment to speak and not, as it were, blanketing the whole thing with your words.

it's about choosing the moment to speak and not, as it were, blanketing the whole thing with your words. so i think you've got to be able to take a pause sometimes... and let— really let what you're seeing in front of you or having described to you, unfold. silence. camera shutters. tonally, it's incredibly important not to be gushing. who wants gushing, you know? all i thought about was this was someone's mother and grandmother. and last year they lost their father and grandfather. and what we expect of them is to be so public. grief is grief, whether you're the richest person in the world or the poorest person in the world, it's grief. and i think everybody that watched those young royals at that gate that day was thinking that. i was very moved. yeah. i wouldn't like to have to do that. and then there was a moment where as we went back through the gates, the younger, the grandchildren, the children of the grandchildren, stood and turned and waved at the crowd and the crowd waved back. it was amazing. applause.

i'm also conscious when you're reporting on grief stricken times and events, you can reflect their grief, you can empathise with their grief because you've had your own grief with parental death, but it's not your grief. so i don't like emoting particularly. so i'm very conscious of taking a step back, not in any form of coolness or anything, but, you know, allowing the story to unfold itself. i think the thing that will always — i tear up now... laughs. ...always makes me cry, is the pipes. when the pipes came down from edinburgh castle, it was extraordinary. extraordinary. bagpipes skirl. what was really extraordinary

for me, and i do love the pipes, is that i went from the funeral of the queen to the wedding of my daughter... ..where there was a piper. you know, �*cause it's so much part of scottish culture. punctuating big moments. bagpipes skirl. you are there to do yourjob, and yourjob is you're on the whole time. you're thinking, you're writing things, you're thinking of phrases. you're checking facts all the time. there's still the producer in me that's trying to grab people and get people to come up to the microphone and tell their stories and do all that running around stuff, which i like. trying to find food — food was difficult. you know, going to the loo, finding a port—a—cabin, being there from morning until night. all of us were passing each

other bits of bananas. i think a lot of people came to scotland hoping they would be able to file past and see the queen here, thinking that actually the crowds wouldn't be so great. when the coffin was brought up the royal mile to st giles, that was an extraordinary time, with the children walking behind it. and i thought, you know, this place has witnessed john knox. it's seen so many things, and now it's seeing probably the royal moment of the century. and were you on air while that was happening? yes, we were on air, intermittently with london. we were doing the 6:00pm and 10:00pm news as well. you're scribbling on pieces of paper, because i'm afraid that's all we had.

the queen was a symbol of stability, continuity, a symbol of strength, and almost the last line of defence against the shattering of this country. and i saw an element of that shattering during covid, and i will never forget the queen's broadcast, where she said... we should take comfort that, while we may have more - still to endure, better days will return. - we will be with our friends again. we will be with our families again. we will meet again. in the moments of crisis, she kept us together, and i think it's important even for republicans to remember that. i was never introduced to her, but i was in the same room as her. she was — i don't know, maybe two metres, three metres away from me. it was in south africa. i was the africa correspondent, and she was there for

a commonwealth heads of government meeting in durban. but my mother, who was a school teacher in jamaica before i was born, she led out the school party to meet the queen. archive: the queen, who is the guest of the governor during her stay, - visits sabina park, where 35,000 . schoolchildren wait to welcome her. their eyes shine with excitement. the queen has come fromi a far—off land to see them. it's a moment they will cherish all their lives. i i spoke to my mum a couple of nights ago. she said that, you know, she was really sad that the queen had died. what did she say? she said the brightestjewel in the crownjewels is no more, and my dad told me that he cried when he heard that the queen had died. i said, "you felt that much emotion?" he said, "yes, because she never had a bad word to say about anyone." he never heard her say anything bad about anybody. and in an age where mouthing off is what you do to get attention on so many levels, the queen never

did that, and he respected that. there is no doubt in my mind that, if the queen could have chosen somewhere, it would have been balmoral. and in fact, obviously her health was failing, and she was always at balmoral for that period in the summer, so maybe... you don't know what happens when people are near death., and you don't know if it's just a letting go, and it is possible that that is where she wanted to let go. what did she mean to you? it's like my mum, who died a number of years ago at exactly the same age as her. she even looked slightly like her. so i think that idea

of generationally knowing where my mum was coming from and where the queen was coming from — i think she's been the most extraordinary negotiator for this country. the diplomat par excellence. so how do you wind down after this, especially given that personally there is a lot going on with your daughter's wedding? i drove back to glasgow, i put my black clothes away, i filled the car with all the flowers and candles and everything that we were taking to my daughter's wedding and drove up there. mad week in the office. mad week. while there is a lot of planning — obviously you plan as much as you can for most eventualities — i'm not sure it was clear the proclamation was

going to be televised. good morning to you, sophie. there's a little bit of a chill in the air here at st james's palace. the cloud of early morning has been shifting, moving above us, but thankfully the incessant rain over the last few days that greeted the passing of the queen is no more. when it became clear that it was going to be televised, then preparations had to be put in place in order to do that, because it's the public declaration that charles is king. obviously as soon as the queen passed away, charles did become king, but the public declaration of that came at the proclamation ceremony. it wasn't the day before. i was told, we're going to go to cover this. this moment has never

been televised. that has never been made public, what goes on inside that room. just do a bit of research and get it right. and on the balcony there, the trumpeters, the state trumpeters, of the household cavalry and the serjeant—at—arms will make the first and principal proclamation. you're talking about an ancient ceremony that goes back hundreds of years, but outside you had a load of people who wanted to see the spectacle, who had selfie sticks and iphones. so there was a sort of a weird sort of mix there between the ancient and the modern. at the end of the day, at the proclamation of a new king you're remembering, to a degree, the former monarch, the queen who has died. and indeed, it is also where prince charles first officially declares to the world that his mother has died.

my lords, ladies and gentlemen, it is my most sorrowful duty- to announce to you the death of my beloved mother, the queen. i know how deeply you, the entire nation, and i think i may say the whole world, sympathise with me in the irreparable loss we have all suffered. it is the greatest consolation to me to know of the sympathy expressed by so many to my sister and brothers, and that such overwhelming affection and support should be extended to our whole family. he fashioned it as a moment to be looking forward, and that tempered the way that i covered the story. it was slightly less sombre than if i was talking about the queen's death.

i mentioned that i brought my own phone up to take a picture, because no—one's ever photographed it. no—one's ever been present at this moment. and there's about 1,000 people here, and as soon as the trumpeters came out on the balcony, just before the proclamation, a huge "ooh" went right through the crowd, everyone ready for that proclamation of a new king. and i have to say, i got my phone out too. and i felt that tone was right for that moment, because you're looking forward. you then go back to the ceremony and the pageantry of the queen's death itself, the lying in state, the lying at rest in edinburgh, and the tone shifts back. aldermen and citizens of london and others do now hereby, - with one voice and consent of tongue and heart, - | publish and proclaim that the prince charles philip arthur george is now, by the death of our late -

sovereign of happy memory, become our only lawful and rightful liege lord, | charles iii. what did you take a picture of? trumpeters, and then the guy in all the regalia coming out and saying, proclaiming, that king charles iii is king charles iii. # god save the king... that's when all the selfie sticks went up, because someone publicly declaring "long live the king," when that hasn't been said since 1952 in this country, in the united kingdom, was quite a moment. three cheers for- his majesty the king! hip—hip... hooray!

one has got used to sort of having a ringside seat to various huge events, and i do take that responsibility pretty seriously — one has got used to sort of having a ringside seat to various huge events, and i do take that responsibility pretty seriously — that i am a viewer's eyes and ears on a particular story. tonight at 10:00pm, russia warns it will launch strikes on the capital, kyiv, telling residents to leave their homes... and it's important that there is someone doing that, so it might as well be me. lyse is here, our chief international correspondent. the latest information — explain why we're down here in the basement. life has gone increasingly underground in kyiv... . you try to find the objective truth, and it's not about my bias or my ideas on russia or ukraine or whatever. 0ne country has invaded another, and it shouldn't have done it,

and that's the story. and that is how you report it — you find the objective truth. is there anything you'd do with hindsight? uh...not that i can think of. damian grammaticas is standing nearby at buckingham palace. damian, the news a little bit earlier on today said the doctors in scotland were concerned about the queen's health, coming as liz truss was making a rather important statement concerning the future of energy bills. that, of course, insignificant now given the gravity of the situation we seem to be experiencing with her majesty. we saw that you tweeted about the line around the cost of living. is there anything that you would have said differently? no, no.

people see what they want to see and read what they want to read. if people don't think the best of you then they really do read what they read into it, because they're reading into it the way they want to. there's nothing you can do about that, and that's something that doesn't concern me in the slightest. everyone can have an opinion, anyone can have an opinion. opinions are two a penny. it's finding that truth that perhaps the majority of people can agree on. and that's vital, absolutely vital, because we're in this big debate about the role notjust of the monarchy now but the role of the bbc — you know, the licence fee and so on and so forth. but if we're not trying to find an objective truth, i'm not sure what the point of this is. who do you imagine is watching when you are thinking about how

you're delivering the news and the tone that you're using? me. you know, i am thinking about me at home watching. what is it that i would expect from an organisation like the bbc in covering a story like this? what would i expect? i think about how i would feel, actually, a lot of the time. and that has been, frankly, a lodestar throughout my career injudging — trying tojudge the mood when i cover a story.

hello there, we ended week on a drier and warmer notes, temperatures getting as high as year in england. 0ver getting as high as year in england. over the bank holiday, typicalfor this time of year, feeling warmer with higher temperatures for many with higher temperatures for many with a chance of thundery showers. into the weekend, more cloud across scotland in the north—east of england, the chance of rain, some sunshine elsewhere. if few showers across northern ireland, wales and west of england with the risk of one or two thunderstorms. temperatures continue to rise, it could make 20 degrees in the south of england. cooler under the cloud in scotland. cody are never far away from scotland. for many other parts of the uk, milderwinds scotland. for many other parts of the uk, milder winds coming scotland. for many other parts of the uk, milderwinds coming in, gentle winds bringing warmth from the south. sunday, a few more showers for northern and western uk

could turn out to be heavy, possibly thundery. for much of the midlands, east anglia and the south—east it will be dry with sunshine. highest temperatures, higher on saturday in scotland. never get that warm in scotland. never get that warm in scotland. we have those showers which will push east on sunday night. into bank holiday monday and this time the heavier showers are more likely across east anglia and the south—east. following that, cloud around, one or two later showers but many places will have a dry day, a northerly breeze in northern scotland so it will be chilly up here. temperatures struggling in double figures but struggling in double figures but struggling elsewhere, temperatures are 16—17 . weather will come down next week because high pressure will build which will dominate to keep things quiet. a weak weather will come down next week because high pressure will build which will

dominate to keep things quiet. a week weather front bringing cloud south, on the whole it will be a dry day on tuesday, fair cloud with some sunshine and the winds will be light. coolerair sunshine and the winds will be light. cooler air is heading our way so temperatures beginning to drop a bit. it could make 15 degrees in the central belt of scotland and 18 in the south—east of england. high pressure dominant into the middle of the week, more cloud trying to come in from the atlantic, threatening rain towards northern ireland and northern scotland otherwise it will be dry. difficult to know how much sunshine into the middle of next week but for the most part, it will be dry with sunshine at times. temperatures continue to slip away but evening out to 111—15 . we have cold airjust but evening out to 111—15 . we have cold air just sitting but evening out to 111—15 . we have cold airjust sitting towards the northern isles, heading into the northern isles, heading into the north sea, relatively mild air sitting over us for later next week. the high pressure in charge tends to drift away towards scandinavia,

pressure falls which means the wind starts to pick up, more of a south—easterly next week and there is the potential for rain to come in from the atlantic as well. on the whole, those temperatures will not change through the week ahead. next week we have a lot of dry weather around until we get to the weekend, coronation weekend of course and those clouds will be coming in on that stronger winds, threatening rain here and there but still a long way off.

live from london. this is bbc news. fighting in sudan rages on, as the militia group leader tells the bbc he won't negotiate until the violence ends. russian authorities say a massive blaze at an oil terminal in russian—occupied crimea was triggered by a drone attack. videos on social media show smoke and flames billowing from the facility in the port of sevastopol. all four teaching unions in england say they will co—ordinate strikes over pay, if their members vote for industrial action. with the eurovision song contest just weeks away — we report from liverpool on how the city is welcoming the lg bt+ community. hello, i'm lucy grey.

it's become increasingly clear the ceasefire