live from london, this is bbc news. heavy fighting in khartoum — as the sudanese army tries to recapture areas held by the rival, rsf militia. warnings of disruption to emergency care as nurses in england prepare to strike later on sunday. with a just a week to go until the coronation, british subjects will be encouraged to swear allegiance to king charles. the first consignment of medical aid has reached sudan since fighting between government armed forces and the paramilitary, rapid support forces, broke out two weeks ago. the international committee

of the red cross says a plane landed at port sudan with eight tonnes of relief supplies, including health kits for hospitals. it hopes to get security guarantees to send humanitarian aid to the capital, khartoum and the darfur region. despite a ceasefire being in place, the past few hours have seen intense clashes in khartoum as the army tries to dislodge the rival rsf. residents are being urged to remain indoors and stay away from windows. tens of thousands of civilians have abandoned their homes and are fleeing sudan. what was supposed to be the uk's last evacuation flight left the country overnight, but in the last couple of hours, the uk government has announced there will be an extra flight leaving from port sudan tomorrow. the united states has completed its first evacuation

of citizens. countries like saudi arabia are evacuating people to the city ofjeddah, via port sudan on the red sea. let's hear from evacuees in port sudan. i was working in the sudan for the last 13 years, and due to the situation of peace and security here, due to this war, i left everything, my house, my car, my everything. all the savings of 13 years i'm leaving here. finally we are on board. and, yeah, it feels really good to be in really good company. very nice people here at the moment. you know, we got on board, they served us sweets and water and they have been looking after us all this time. and it was a little difficult getting on board, but i think the people here are very professional. they managed to get everyone

on board without any kind of mishap. some evacuees at ports are done waiting further evacuations on the next leg of their trip. —— port sudan. i'm nowjoined by our correspondent, andrew harding, who is injeddah for us. that is on the saudi arabian coast, is that right?— that is on the saudi arabian coast, is that right?_ is that right? that is right, on the red sea coast, _ is that right? that is right, on the red sea coast, about _ is that right? that is right, on the red sea coast, about 300 - is that right? that is right, on the i red sea coast, about 300 kilometres straight across from the port of port sudan, the main port of sudan. it is increasingly becoming the hub for people looking to escape the conflict that is the fighting intensifies in khartoum, people are fleeing to egypt, long journeys to get to the coast, to get to port

sudan and then hoping to get on these, range, flotilla of warships and other nationality ships, a lot of passenger ferries which have been coming over here tojeddah. we of passenger ferries which have been coming over here to jeddah. we have some pictures _ coming over here to jeddah. we have some pictures of _ coming over here to jeddah. we have some pictures of the _ coming over here to jeddah. we have some pictures of the evacuees - coming over here to jeddah. we have some pictures of the evacuees on - coming over here to jeddah. we havej some pictures of the evacuees on the passenger ferries, some pictures of the evacuees on the passengerferries, you can see some pictures of the evacuees on the passenger ferries, you can see the relief, they are waving as they are arriving or leaving. upon arrival at their final destination, where are they staying? how are they being looked after? the they staying? how are they being looked after?— they staying? how are they being looked after? ,,., , ., ., ~ looked after? the saudis are making a bi show looked after? the saudis are making a big show humanitarian _ looked after? the saudis are making a big show humanitarian effort, - looked after? the saudis are making a big show humanitarian effort, theyj a big show humanitarian effort, they are keen to show that are invested in the humanitarian operation in sudan and for those leaving, they are given at 30 davies on arrival here in saudi arabia. most countries -- 30 here in saudi arabia. most countries —— 30 day visas. we came back from a long trip across the sea to port

sudan, there are about 50 people, range of nationalities, there were representatives of those countries waiting there at the dark comedy dockside to take them through and most of the people we talked to said our governments are going to fly us home in the next three days and are looking after a study well. —— waiting that at the dockside. there were 2000 people that the other day. 5000 people and all have been evacuated on these saudi ships to jeddah and, again, by the dockside, a huge range of nationalities from british, australian, pakistani, russian and all these people been taken out of the country pretty quickly after that. this is a story, many of the international citizens who have been

safely evacuated. what about the african national squiz might have those evacuations gone smoothly? —— african nationals. we met some who arrived yesterday in shadow, we know that citizens from countries neighbouring sudan have led to chad, ethiopia, egypt, some across the board as well and to south sudan. other countries, south africans, ugandans have been making efforts to take their nationals out. many of them on bus convoys, also up to egypt ample —— port sudan. that includes a lot of conflict areas, former conflict areas, the fallout you have reported on widely, why is there so much concern about this particular conflict becoming one which is perhaps arab against

ethnic african and becoming a civilian war, why the concern? it is adversely, very rich, importantly located country. fundamentally, the battle we are seeing going on right now is arab against arab and different clans, different regions, the danger is that elsewhere across sudan, the legacy of a long wall against the south and the civil war that means there are all sorts of simmering ethnic disputes in the concern is that as communities try to protect themselves, we are releasing signs and are full, old conflicts, simmering conflicts are being reignited as communities turn on each other, militias turn on other communities.— each other, militias turn on other communities. �* ., ., ~ communities. andrew harding, thank ou ve communities. andrew harding, thank you very much _ communities. andrew harding, thank

you very much indeed. _ earlier i spoke to marti flacks — who spent four years working with the us special envoy for sudan on the peace agreement with south sudan. she started by telling me about the challenges in getting help to civilians. it's taken some time for humanitarian aid to start getting to the places it's desperately needed in sudan. and there's a few reasons for that. the international aid community has a long history of providing assistance in sudan, but the places where we're seeing active fighting like khartoum are places that they haven't historically had to have an active assistance presence. and remember, khartoum has never seen fighting on this scale before. and so it's taken some time for them to reposition their personnel and their assistance to places like khartoum. but also, as you mentioned, port sudan, the sudanese egyptian border, where we're seeing tens of thousands of people make the difficultjourney to try and leave the active fighting zone, but find themselves desperately in need of assistance when they get there. we're also seeing the places where humanitarian aid is very active, in places like darfur.

aid organisations are also being targeted. yesterday, msf reported that one of its hospitals was targeted by the warring parties and that limits their ability to provide assistance, even in places where they have the logistical infrastructure. marti, i wonder if i could just say that it's fair and well for the international community to be calling for aid to be entering sudan, south sudan, also the darfur region and west da rfur. but if the two men at the centre of this are not aiding that humanitarian help to get to the people that need it, what's the point? the fighting continues. well, that's right. ultimately, this conflict is the responsibility of the warring parties, and they have an obligation to allow their citizens to get the assistance they need and to not target either civilians or the aid organisations trying to help them. what we've seen in the last week or so is a series of very short term, 1—3 day ceasefires that have been intermittently adhered to by the parties, but have provided

a little bit of breathing room, as you said, for some people to leave khartoum, for some people to get out and get supplies. but what we really need in the immediate present term is a longer term cease fire that comes with an agreement by those warring parties to let aid come through and to let people who want to leave leave. you've worked with peace plans and negotiations concerning south sudan. like you said, we're dealing with two men. this is a power struggle, essentially. everybody knows that a cease fire is necessary and a working cease fire. what is it going to take for them to agree? can they agree? well, it's going to take a long term, sustained effort to engage at a high level by the international community. this isn't a conflict that's going to get resolved in a matter of days or even a matter of weeks, even if a cease fire is put into place with enough sticks and carrots and pressure from the international community to put down the guns temporarily

to get to any kind of sustainable political solution that doesn't just involve two armed men with armies, but actually involves the broader sudanese political class and civil society organisations to create a lasting peace. it's going to take a really sustained months and years long effort that the international community needs to be supporting. pope francis has finished his three day visit to hungary. these are the latest pictures as he departed from the airport. the pope was presented with a white rose and was cheered by the crowd until his plane took off. earlier, an estimated 100,000 people attended an open air mass in a central budapest square, on pope francis' third and final day in hungary. the pope urged hungarians not

to close the door on migrants and those who he said were �*foreign or unlike us.�* hungarian prime minister, viktor orban attended the service, he's repeatedly criticised migration and was responsible for constructing a wall to stop people crossing the border from neighbouring serbia and croatia. earier today i spoke to marc roscoe loustau in budapest, managing editor of the journal of global catholicism. well, i think many were actually quite surprised that pope francis did decide to come back to hungary since, as you said, he was here very recently in 2021. the pope, ithink, really has a special pastoral concern for hungary, because, as you mentioned, prime minister viktor orban has led the country and is currently leading the country, including its catholic church, in a very nationalist and xenophobic direction. orban frequently uses racist, some would even say fascist language to talk about hungary's racial and ethnic homogeneity. he claims also to be defending europe's christian values. the two men, pope francis and viktor orban, have

in the past clashed repeatedly over these claims. this visit has really been no different. and what do you make of the location of his final mass? well, certainly pope francis was seated right in front of hungary's parliament building, which is the seat of political power in hungary. and he spoke directly in his homily, in his address to hungarian politicians. he mentioned them specifically as a group. and he mentioned specifically to them that they should be like an open door. he addressed the political class explicitly and their beliefs and the way they have led the country towards in a racist and xenophobic direction. but then in a very dramatic moment, he actually departed from the official vatican text of his homily, and he repeated again that exhortation, be like an open door. and he even took his pages

and he thrust them up and down the pages that he was reading from for emphasis. so clearly, he wanted hungary's politicians and especially viktor orban, to hear that message clearly and directly. to the uk — nurses in half of england's hospitals, mental health and community services will go on strike later today, with nhs chiefs warning care is at risk. the royal college of nursing union has called on the government to return to pay talks. the health secretary, steve barclay, has expressed disappointment over the escalation. our health correspondent dominic hughes reports. once again, members of the royal college of nursing in england will be taking to the picket lines, having voted earlier this month to reject a government pay offer. what do we want? fair pay! when do we want it? now! senior nurse rhian wheater has stood with her colleagues in leeds during previous strikes,

but she says the decision to walk out again is a reflection of how low staff morale has sunk. 25 years i've worked in the nhs and i've never seen or felt anything like this, never. it's heartbreaking. absolutely heartbreaking. soul destroying. it's horrible. and none of us want this for patients. we can't keep delivering second class care. we're a first class health system, you know, we've been first in the world and we still should be. in a statement, steve barclay said it was disappointing some unions were escalating strike action this week, including the royal college of nursing, despite only a third of its members rejecting the government's offer on pay which other unions accepted. he added that these strikes would put more pressure on the nhs, and would be incredibly disruptive for patients. we have actually agreed a number of national exemptions,

including intensive care units, emergency departments, neo—natal units, paediatric intensive care and others, so let's not scare the public this morning by saying nursing is being reckless on this one day of strike. they most certainly are not. later this week, the main health care unions will decide on what the next steps are in this long running series of industrial disputes. some union members have accepted the pay offer, others have rejected it. it's not yet clear what that will mean for future strikes. dominic hughes, bbc news. a man has died and several other people have been stabbed in a brawl in bodmin in cornwall in the uk. police were called to the scene at around 3.15 this morning. the victim, who was in his 30s, died at the scene. at least seven other men and women were taken to hospital. a 24—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. the bbc�*s alex green sent this

report from the scene. now, behind me in victoria square is where police were called at about quarter past three this morning to reports of a serious altercation. now, superintendent rob youngman from devon and cornwall police, who i spoke to earlier today, confirmed that multiple people had been stabbed in the altercation. superintendent rob youngman confirmed a man in his 30s had been confirmed dead at the scene and that his next of kin had been informed. the information we have from police at the moment is that at least seven other people, both men and women, were injured in the altercation and were taken to hospital for treatment, although their injuries are not being treated as life—threatening. a 24—year—old man from bodmin has been arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. he remains in police custody. police tell me they are treating this as an isolated incident and say the cordon will remain in place here while evidence is gathered. lastly, police are asking for people

not to speculate on social media, but to report any information they might have, and that includes cctv footage, dash cam footage, mobile phone footage that they believe could help their investigation. alex greene in bodmin. the archbishop of canterbury — who's the head of the church of england , will ask millions of british subjects around the world to swear allegiance to king charles during his coronation next saturday. the public pledge — dubbed "a chorus of millions" — is one of several striking changes to the ancient ceremony. female clergy will play a prominent role for the first time, and the king himself will pray out loud. here's our religion editor, aleem maqbool. laying her hand upon the bible, she reaffirms her oath. we now know there is as much in the coronation service that will not change, not just from 1953, but from centuries of coronations before it.

so help me god. this is the bible queen elizabeth kissed during her coronation service. and this, the brand—new one on which the king will swear his oath. those oaths go unchanged, but before them, the archbishop of canterbury will explain the church wants to ensure people of all faiths and beliefs live freely. there is nothing that offends against christian worship, but we are very clear that our society today is very different from 1953 and that means there needs to be a clear recognition of all the elements of society. while those new details from lambeth palace show there will be hymns sung in welsh, irish gaelic and scottish gaelic, but also for the first time there will be significant involvement from people of non—christian backgrounds both during the service and also with faith leaders greeting

the king at the end of it. these elements are no surprise for a king who has long been known for his engagement with people of other faiths. he has formed a long association with holocaust survivors and this year met with martin stern, a man who survived the nazi concentration camps and came to britain as a 12—year—old. to be received by the head of state, of this fantastic country, it is beyond words. it means a terrific lot. we were treated as rubbish, you know, fit to be burnt, ground up and disposed of in landfill. and here i was having tea with the king and the queen. though there will be many who criticise how exclusive the monarchy is, that service here in westminster abbey will still be by far the most inclusive there has ever been.

aleem maqbool, bbc news. i spoke earlier to dr craig prescott from the bangor university. he is writing a book called �*modern monarchy.�* here is his take on the pledge of alleguance. it has to be viewed in the context of the service itself. and what it's doing is replacing the image of the peerage. and it goes with the general tenor of the service, which is to try and broaden out, you know, those who are involved in the service. and i think its primary effect will be in the abbey itself, where you will have presumably most, if not all of those attending paying homage at the same time. and i think televisually that will be quite an effective moment. what's interesting is, of course, is that there is an invitation for those outside the abbey to take part as well, you know, reflecting that the monarchy today

is really based on popular support more than anything. so it is an invitation for the public to get involved. do you think that's how the public have read it, though, the wider message? because it's a new aspect of the ceremony, and it is open. it's an invitation to all british subjects, the audience around the world, compared to those within the building, when the ceremony is taking place, it'll be very different. don't you think the message will be read slightly differently, interpreted differently as well? and it may well be. i think, you know, if we put ourselves forward to that saturday, there will be some people who have chosen to watch it on a large screen in a sort of communal setting. and it may be that some of those people will get involved, whereas those obviously who have

chosen not to watch the coronation at all, or anything, obviously won't do so. i think this is very much a matter of individual choice. and, you know, people will act according to the choices. it may, sort of, perhaps look quite odd, sort of, perhaps outside of the uk. but that is inevitable with an event like this, which is, you know, primarily a state event for the uk, but one attracting interest from around the world. this year's eurovision song contest is just two weeks away and will be followed particularly keenly by members of the lgbtq+ community inside ukraine — including soldiers who've been fighting on the front line against russia. jack lamport has been talking to some of them. these soldiers have been putting their lives on the line,

defending their country against russia. but away from the gruelling pressures of war, for some, there's much—needed light relief around the corner. we are looking forward to see ukraine perform in eurovision this year. alexander and antonina have been together for nine years. they were theater directors in kyiv, but signed up as soldiers soon after russia invaded. i hope that our commander and our fellow soldiers from our platoon will watch with us. we are going to try to spread eurovision spirit among our platoon. although in the army, they have experienced some name—calling, the soldiers have found that being out is easier than they expected. we were pleasantly surprised. pavlo and vladislav, another couple, joined the army two years ago. you're soldiers risking your

lives on the front line, defending your country, why does eurovision matter to you? translation: it's a message to the whole world that - despite the war, we can still show our creativity. and it's also a message to russia — no matter how the war is going, we still have a fighting spirit and it doesn't break us and we will never fall to our knees. so although ukraine can't host, its people in all their diversity... fanfare. ..are very much at the heart of what's unfolding in liverpool. jack lamport, bbc news. it is going to be a good night. you are watching bbc news. coming up at the top of the hour, the latest developments in our top stories. you can also keep up—to—date with our news on bbc news, head online and search for bbc news. i will be back shortly with your headlines.

hello. for the second month in a row, england is heading for a very wet month. some areas seeing nearly double the april average rainfall so far, but in contrast to england, on the far north of scotland just like last month it is turning out to be a dry month with much more sunshine with the temperature higher than average as well. today is another cloudy day with bursts of rain working from west to east across the uk, some heavy downpours are set to move into scotland and northern ireland with the risk of some thunderstorms and hail and hefty showers through the afternoon. at the same time, not many showers for east anglia and south east england and it should brighten up. highest temperatures around 18 or 19

which should not feel bad at all in the brighter moments. overnight, low pressure staying in charge with further showers moving slowly eastwards across the country. it stays quite cloudy, so not that cold with the temperature overnight between six and ten. for monday, low pressure starts to pull away into norway. a trailing cold front bringing cooler conditions across scotland through the day. quite a lot of cloud around for monday, still some showers and the heaviest showers across central and eastern areas of england with the risk of thunderstorms through the afternoon. temperatures about 14—18 but it will start to turn colder in scotland where through the afternoon the temperature in aberdeen will come down to around seven. quite chilly in northern areas. and with clear skies in place through monday night we see patches of frost developing in rural areas. tuesday looks like a better day weather wise in terms of dry weather and sunshine thanks to this ridge

of high pressure building its way in. there could be a few showers across the northern isles but light and fleeting showers and the cloud will tend to thicken up across western counties of northern ireland later in the day but for most a decent day but it will be a little on the cool side across northern and eastern areas where the temperature will be around 10—12. wednesday, the temperature comes up a little bit but more cloud around and that will be thick enough to bring a few patches of rain in the west. temperature about 14—15, coolest air in the east.

this is bbc news. the headlines... sudan's army launches a major attack on khartoum as it attempts to retake areas held by the rival rsf militia. tanks and heavy artillery have been deployed to the capital. residents are warned to stay indoors. nurses in half of england's hospitals are set to strike later at eight o'clock this evening. nhs chiefs warn that care is at risk. but unions call on the government to return to the negotiating table. the pope concludes a three—day visit to hungary. earlier, tens of thousands of people attended an open air mass in central budapest. the pontiff calls on hungarians to be "open" towards migrants coming from outside europe.

the british public will be invited to swear allegiance to king charles