live from london — this is bbc news. palestinians take to the streets of gaza city — as a ceasefire between israel and the militant islamichhad comes into effect. a president, a prime minister and a pope — volodymyr zelensky gets a warm welcome as he visits italy. and it's merry across the mersey — the final of the eurovision song contest is taking place in liverpool. hello, i'm lukwesa burak.

palestinians took to the streets in gaza city this evening, as a ceasefire between israel and the militant islamichhad went into effect. crowds celebrated in the streets accompanied by emergency services and civil defence vehicles with sirens blaring and lights flashing. the truce came into effect just over two hours ago, signalling an end to the worst episode of cross—border fire in the last few years. these are recent pictures from gaza. we are hoping to bring you some live pictures. this is actually the live shot across gaza city. the agreement — brokered by egypt — follows five days of violent exchanges which have killed at least 35 people — all but one of them palestinians. there has been no comment from the israeli prime minister or other officials since news

of the truce emerged. a palestinian source told the bbc that the new agreement included a commitment by israel to stop so—called targeted assassinations. israel has been demanding a complete halt to rocket fire by islamichhad of its civilians. our reporter in gaza, rushdi abualouf, has the latest on the ceasefire. ten minutes before the ceasefire went into effect, islamichhad fired a barrage of rockets towards the israeli southern city. and some of the rockets were quite close to the southern city of tel aviv. the ceasefire agreement has gone into effect ten minutes ago, brokered by egypt. according to islamichhad, it was a very difficult discussion for about two or three days. egypt offered first a proposal that was rejected by islamichhad and israel. they kept a delegation in egypt, talking and pushing for it until they brokered

this deal tonight. as we speak, another explosion happened. probably another rocket was fired. so we fear that this ceasefire is fragile from the very beginning. but it's still early to judge whether the ceasefire will hold or not. people are hoping the ceasefire could end five days of fighting, where 35 people were killed. half of them are civilians. and several injuries. over 1,200 rockets at least were fired from gaza and israel, according to the israeli army they have targeted up to 400 for islamichhad within five days of fighting. egypt will announce officially the details of that deal, according to the senior official of islamichhad. he said that they managed to get a guarantee by israel to stop

the so—called killing, the targeting, which israel started this wave of escalation by killing three islamichhad leaders. what islamichhad want is a guarantee by israel not to keep killing their leaders, and also they want israel to stop targeting the houses of the islamichhad activists. which we have seen intensified in the last two days or so. they have completely destroyed four or five houses. rushdi, i wonder if you could just remind us why is this spate of violence kicked off? we've had five days of it. what kicked it off? well, as they have traded rockets, both sides traded accusations about who started this. but what has happened is last thursday at two o'clock in the morning, israel killed three senior islamichhad commanders.

they are members of their military council. islamichhad next day started to fire rockets, they fired hundreds of rockets towards israel. they said in retaliation for the killing of their leaders. and then escalation was mounting for a couple of days until we reach today a ceasefire. egypt was there from the beginning, pushing for the ceasefire, trying to de—escalate the situation. they offered three drafts. the first one was rejected by israel, the second one was rejected by islamichhad and the third one tonight egypt succeeded to hopefully end this round of fighting. until now, we can hear still the fighting is going on. but we have seen it in the past many times. this is the fifth major escalation in the last 15 years so always the first few hours is difficult, but egypt will do, through a team that will come to gaza maybe tomorrow,

to try to put an end to the fighting and to make the ceasefire hold. and finally, rushdi, this was between islamichhad and israeli authorities — if i understood this correctly. and yet, gaza is controlled by hamas. yes, hamas, the militancy group, was controlling gaza, was saying all the time that they are... but in fact, hamas did not claim responsibility throughout the fight for firing any of the rockets. so islamichhad was firing the rockets, as they said, in retaliation or revenge for the killing of their leaders. hamas seems to have their own calculation. because they're the authority running 2.3 million people and they have more duties to do. they were a bit cautious about being in this fighting.

hamas was repeating, "we support islamichhad" in their response to the escalation and the killing of their leaders, but they are not willing to be part of this. to rome, where ukrainian president, volodymyrzelensky, has been on a one day visit. he's been meeting italy's prime minister, giorgia meloni — who said italy would remain a solid ally, and provide kyiv with all the assistance it needed. prime minister meloni also stressed that the conflict would only end when russia stopped its aggression and withdrew from all ukrainian territory, adding that any other outcome would jeopardise peace in all of europe. president zelensky then had a private audience with pope francis. it's the first meeting between the two men since russia invaded ukraine. president zelensky said he thanked the pope

for focusing "on the tragedy of millions of ukrainians". 0ur europe regional editor paul moss has been telling us about the significance of this visit to the vatican. let me set the context for you. pope francis has talked a lot in the past about the suffering of the ukrainian people. he's also condemned certain specific war crimes committed in ukraine. however, critics suggest that the pope has not been strong enough in making very clear that it's russia that's in the wrong and ukraine that's been invaded. they say he should come down on one side or the other. in fact, the pope has never criticised vladimir putin personally. he once described him as a "cultu red fellow". when he was asked to visit ukraine, he made it clear he would visit ukraine if he could also visit russia as well. for some people, again, suggesting some kind of moral equivalence. so, volodymyr zelensky went to see him today. what was he hoping for? 0ne presumes he might have been hoping to get the pope a bit more clearly on side. if that was his hope, i think he'll be disappointed. the vatican's now issued a statement. and it's really rather

remarkable that, bear in mind we have a president from ukraine going to see the pope to talk about how his country was invaded by russia. and this statement does not mention russia once — it speaks in rather elliptic language. it says, and i'm reading here, when the vatican describing the meeting says they "discussed issues relating to the humanitarian and political situation in ukraine caused by the ongoing war. together, they agreed on the need to continue humanitarian efforts to support the population." no mention of why that population is suffering. in other words, because russia invaded. what the pope offered instead — he said he would give mr zelensky his prayers. well, i think mr zelensky may well have been hoping for more than prayers, a little more condemnation of russia, in which case he will be disappointed. i should say, though, that mr zelensky has expressed his gratitude. he said on telegram, "i'm very grateful to the pope for his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of ukrainians." there was something else, though, that was missing from the vatican statement. the pope has said before he has a secret mission under way to bring peace to ukraine,

but no details of that. what does it mean? well, perhaps we were hoping for a little idea of what the pope meant. if so, again, disappointment. no mention of that secret mission today. well, president zelensky�*s next stop is berlin. but today he also spoke to south african leader, cyril ramaphosa, and urged him to help implement kyiv�*s peace plan to end the war with russia. it happened a day after ramaphosa spoke to russian president vladimir putin. just to remind you — south africa has positioned itself as neutral in the conflict. now, because of the russian invasion, ukraine has been unable

to host the eurovision song contest — despite winning the competition last year. the uk is holding the contest on ukraine's behalf. maryam moshiri has been following the events in liverpool all week — here she was as the opening ceremony was kicking off. we saw an amazing introduction with the princess of wales playing the piano, andrew lloyd webber amongst other performers. it was really inspirational. it sent shivers down my spine, to be honest with you. this is the culmination of months and months of preparation, lukwesa. the city of liverpool has been preparing for this for so long. the eurovision song contest is 26 countries battling it out, if you like, in terms of music. who has produced the best song? after all of those 26 countries sing their hearts out, there will be a vote, a public vote, and of course those points in the public vote will be added to the jury vote. and together we will then discover a new winner. now, ukraine is very much in focus for this competition. of course it is. because last year, the kalush 0rchestra, who i can hear behind me now, won the competition. and the winner

normally gets to host. but this year, because of the war in ukraine, it means that the uk has stepped forward and stepped up and liverpool is hosting the event. in the fan zone, the fan village which you can see there in the shot as well, there are 15,000 people gathered to watch the ceremony on special screens. there are eurovision parties going on i'm sure around the world. it's the first year, actually, that countries outside of europe and australia — countries like india, countries like the united states — are going to be able to vote in this competition. so, really, is it the eurovision song competition? it's a global song competition. 160 million people around the world are tuning in now as we speak to watch. and the whole thing will be kicked off by the austrians. their song will be the first one to play. and the last one, just before the public vote opens, will of course be the uk's very own mae muller with i wrote a song.

so, lukwesa, nothing more to say, really, other than this is such an exciting culmination of so many months of preparation. i've been here all week. and i cannot wait to go sit down with my popcorn and watch what's going on. well, just to let you know that we are about to, or the uk's entrant, is about to take to the stage there in liverpool. this is the scene outside. and there are crowds in the fan zone enjoying the event over the night. so it has been a glorious day in liverpool, a fantastic night of entertainment. the uk's entrant is about to take to the stage. we have just had croatia on the stage performing. just to let you know, there were lots of underpants. lots of hot as well. there had been some amazing costumes here at the

eurovision song contest. the winners last year were ukraine. they have already performed. it was two singers in the band itself. finland and sweden are currently the favourites, however i have to say that germany have done rather well with a bit of a head—banger song. but 26 countries are competing. the biggest competition, song competition, in the world is the way it is described. many countries want to get in the on the act, including australia, who have been involved for a number of years. this is their last time competing this year in eurovision. they are kind of guest performers for eurovision, simply because there was such huge fans of

eurovision. reports of australians waking up in the early hours of the morning just to make sure that they could follow the competition taking place. so mae muller is performing at the moment, and her track is i wrote a song, the last entry performed before the public vote opens. and earlier, she was speaking to the bbc and she said, "when i walk on stage i will have to take a second to really centre myself because those two minutes go really fast." they really do. i am watching her from the corner of my eye and, yeah, enjoying her. but it has been a very funny night. we have had the return of one of the polish milkmaids, just the one. if you are a fan of eurovision, you will remember powell and's song from 2014, and the milkmaids that appeared on the stage. this year,

one milkmaid, her name was mel get ryck, and she was fantastic. —— mel giedroyc. and tributes to ukraine. hosted in the uk, in the north of england, in liverpool. let's get some of the day's other news now. there have been a number of missiles fired over ukrainian territory. most of the regions were on high alert because of missiles

and what has been described as kamikaze drones are launched from russia. people are advised to stay in bomb shelters. local media report that explosions were heard in the city of ternopil in the west of ukraine. in central somalia, thousands have been forced to abandon their homes after the shabelle river burst its banks. the united nations says it is a "perfect storm" of overlapping crises for the country. and us regulators have demanded that a parts supplier recall 67 million car air bag inflators. they're concerned they might explode and even project shrapnel. the supplier, arc automotive, has refused, paving the way for a court battle. the presidential candidates in turkey have finished their final day of campaigning — before sunday's crucial election. president erdogan held a rally in istanbul earlier, a city where he built his popular support as mayor more

than 20 years ago. and his secular challenger, kemal kilicdaroglu, has also been campaigning — pledging to restore democracy and improve relations with the west. 0rla guerin has more on what's at stake in this election. turkey is facing a binary choice in effect after 20 years of rule by president recep tayyip erdogan. an increasingly authoritarian rule. there is now an alternative on offer, and that is the opposition candidate kemal kilicdaroglu. he is the leader of the main opposition party here, but in this election he is standing on behalf of a coalition of six opposition parties. which really is a very broad church. every kind of party — islamists, nationalists, even former allies of president erdogan are in this coalition.

and they have come together with one aim only, really, which is to unseat him. we saw today that president erdogan was campaigning up to the last minute with that rally in istanbul, which you mentioned. he's been hitting hard against his opponent, once again today claiming without any proof that kemal kilicdaroglu and his party are linked to the banned pkk, the kurdistan workers�* party, which is classed here and indeed by the us and europe as a terrorist group. that's an accusation he makes pretty regularly during the campaign. mr kilicdaroglu is very different in style and tone. has has been emphasising his desire to bring people together and appealing particularly to young turks. and there are five millions voters here who will go to the polls tomorrow for the very first time. pakistan's former prime minister, imran khan, has called for supporters to hold nationwide protests, following days of clashes between his followers and security forces. mr khan repeated his call for immediate elections and told

supporters they would have to make "sacrifices" for their freedom. the violence was sparked by his arrest on corruption charges — at least ten people were killed in the unrest. mr khan was freed on friday after the supreme court ruled that his detention on tuesday was unlawful. bbc urdu's saher baloch has been analyzing imran khan's speech. he spoke about three things. first of all, he spoke about how the only strand... second, he spoke about how he is still in disbelief over the fact that his supporters are being accused of perpetrating violence and damaging public property and everything. so this is something very new from him because he spoke about it in a roundabout way as you may be aware on may 9th after his arrest. his supporters allegedly went out and damaged public property and went into installations, military houses as well. a core commander's house

in lahore as well. so now he was just addressing his supporters and saying how he's still in disbelief over the fact that his supporters chose violence. he didn't apologise for it, he did not condemn it, but he did say that his supporters cannot do this. some of his address was still a repetition of what he has been saying so far, but in this case it was a huge thing that he still spoke about the fact that military is misunderstanding his intentions so far. well, since imran khan is now back in his lahore residents in zaman park, since then there is a lot of quiet. last night, i came from lahore to islamabad and i was seeing how most of the containers which were used to block the roads were removed from the area, especially after pti supporters were dispersed by the police. there is already a section 144 imposed on islamabad, which means there is a ban on public gatherings. so former prime minister imran khan could not address his supporters at that point of time.

so there was lots of clarity, it's still thought he is still again going to ask his supporters to come out tomorrow, apparently. so it will be seen how they go about it, but so far, it's far more peaceful than it was two days before. coastal areas of bangladesh and myanmar are bracing for cyclone mocha, which is dumping rain before it's expected to make landfall in the coming hours. it's the strongest cyclone for years. around half a million people have been told to move to safer areas. there are concerns the cyclone could impact the world's largest refugee camp, where close to a million people live in makeshift homes. from cox's bazar, our south asia correspondent rajini vaidya nathan reports. well, this school has now become a cyclone shelter. and throughout the afternoon, we've seen families arrive with young children,

carrying bags full of whatever they want to get them through the next few days of this terrible weather, even some people turning up with their livestock as well — with chickens and with cattle. now, the government has been telling people that they should come to one of these shelters to seek sanctuary. although away from here, we've seen a lot of people who are carrying on with their normal lives, unaware of what might actually happen. now, as you can see here, this is one of the classrooms. lots of families here. the government in bangladesh is hoping that around half a million people will eventually be moved to the shelters to stay safe during cyclone mocha, which some forecasters say could be the worst such storm to hit this area in more than a decade. one thing is important to note — that while people here do have a safe place to see this storm

out, there are close to a million rohingya refugees not too far from where we are who are living in the world's largest refugee camp in very flimsy, makeshift shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin. and the bangladesh government doesn't allow them to leave those refugee camps. and there are real concerns in the camps about how safe people will be. and here and in the camps, another concern isn'tjust that the storm may pass through this area, but it's also the aftermath — flash flooding and also landslides. and many aid agencies have already been preparing for what they fear could be a humanitarian crisis as well in the aftermath. and that was rajini vaidyanathan. let's return to our top story this hour — islamichhad militants have confirmed a ceasefire is now in effect in gaza. these are live pictures from gaza.

egypt, who brokered the agreement, said the deal included an end to targeting civilians and house demolitions. the truce follows five days of violent exchanges which have killed at least 35 people — all but one of them palestinians. a series of air strikes by the israeli airforce aimed at islamichhad fighters in gaza began on tuesday. palestinian militants have since launched more than 1,000 rockets from there aimed at israel. we have had some reaction, with israel thanking egypt for their role in mediating the trace, and part of that statement it says "quite will be met with quiet". that is the latest coming to us from gaza. a

truth has come into effect. hopefully it will stay that way. if it changes, we will bring you an update. stay with us. hello there. although parts of east and south—east england remain grey and quite cool all day, much of the country had a very fine and sunny start to the weekend. part two of the weekend looks quite mixed. there will be some sunshine around, particularly in wales and england. but scotland and northern ireland will start to see this weather front moving in off the atlantic, bringing outbreaks of cloud and rain, and a drop in temperature. but high pressure will bring us a fine evening and night. largely clear skies for many, but that low grey cloud across the east will start to roll back westwards again for much of eastern england and the midlands. western scotland and northern ireland will be turning wetter and breezy as that weather front pushes in. so quite a mixture of temperatures.

quite cool under clear skies. but generally, for most, 6 to 8 degrees. sunday then, we start off with some sunshine around. that grey weather across the east of england should tend to improve. the clouds burning back to the coast. one or two showers in the afternoon through the midlands. this weather front will start to move out of scotland and northern ireland. it brightens up later in the day with a few showers that will feel much cooler for scotland and northern ireland. low to mid—teens. sunny spells across parts of england and wales. again, we could be up to 20—21 degrees. sunday night, that weather front weakens — it continues to push eastward, bringing cloud, some patchy rain, clearer skies, one or two blustery showers across the north and west of scotland but under those clear skies, with this cool air mass, it's going to be a chilly night to come here. for south—eastern areas where we have the weather front, the cloud and rain generally seven to 10 degrees. that weather front clears away eventually and we see some further showers around the edge of this area of high pressure which will bring us north, north—westerly winds.

showers for northern scotland, northern and eastern england, some of these running down to east anglia and south—east into the afternoon. the best of the sunshine towards the south and west. we could be up to 15 degrees here, but you'll see it's a much cooler day across the board. ranging between ten and 13 celsius. that is below par for this time in may. the cool air hangs around through tuesday and again into wednesday, particularly towards northern and eastern areas but very slowly we'll start to see those yellow—orange colours returning. so it will start quite chilly through the week with some showers around but temperatures will recover towards the end of the week and because it's higher pressure nearby, we should stay mostly dry.

this is bbc news — the headlines. islamichhad militants have confirmed a ceasefire is in effect in the gaza strip. it was brokered by egypt. egypt said the deal included an end to targeting civilians and house demolitions. the truce follows five days of violent exchanges which have killed at least 35 people. pope francis and president zelensky have held talks at the vatican — with both men agreeing on the need for continuing humanitarian efforts to support ukraine's population. while failing to directly condemn russia — the pope stressed the urgent need for "human gestures" towards the most fragile people. the eurovision song contest grand final has got underway in the english city of liverpool.