live from washington, this is bbc news. after days of deadly exchanges, a ceasefire between israel and islamichhad militants in the gaza strip appears to be holding. turkey's president faces his biggest challenge yet, ahead of sunday's presidential election. 215 points, we have winner! a historic end to eurovision with sweden's loreen becoming the first woman to win the contest twice.

welcome. a ceasefire between israel and palestinians in the gaza strip appears to be holding, despite some reports of fighting. the agreement was brokered by egypt. it follows five days of violent exchanges which have killed at least 33 palestinians in gaza and two people in israel. the truce which, as you see here, prompted celebration in the streets, includes a commitment by israel to stop so—called targeted assassinations. in return, israel reportedly demanded a complete halt to rocket fire by palestinian militants at its civilians. however, just hours after islamichhad militants confirmed a ceasefire was in effect, a rocket was fired from the gaza strip, prompting rocket warnings across a region of southern israel. it's not yet clear who fired the rocket, but its worth noting that several smaller militant palestinian groups are opposed to the truce brokered earlier in the day. a reminder though that for now the ceasefire does appear to be holding.

the white house also welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire. in a statement, press secretary karinejean—pierre said: for more on this, i spoke earlier to khaled elgindy, senior fellow at the middle east institute and the director of its program on palestine and palestinian—israeli affairs. it would seem the ceasefire is being welcomed. what's your sense? there's no doubt, particularly in gaza, which has been under bombardment for five days. i mean, gazans have been all over social media talking about the terror that they've felt over the past five days. and so there's no question that there is a huge sigh of relief there in gaza,

in particular since, you know, obviously in terms of firepower, what israel possesses and can unleash is far greater than any single or group of palestinian actors could ever inflict on israel. how fragile of a truce is this likely to be? i think it's very fragile. i think we have to remember the way things began five days ago. eight days before that we had a ceasefire agreement, and then this week israel unilaterally broke that ceasefire agreement because it — apparently for a combination of reasons, but a lot of it had to do with domestic pressure from the more extreme wing of israel's already very extreme government. there are people in the israeli government who were not satisfied with the ceasefire the week before and wanted basically israel to resume

its policy of assassination, and that's how this ceasefire broke. and then, of course, islamichhad responded with various barrages of rockets. so neither of these two sides have a particular good record in terms of keeping their commitments to ceasefires. we've seen a number of outbreaks in the past couple yea rs. and all of this kind of speaks to the absence of... you know, at the end of the day, there is no military solution to whatever the problems are. israel can't impose a quiet simply by bombing gaza, and certainly palestinian rockets aren't going to achieve anything other than more death

and destruction brought on by israel's military. but all of this kind of points to the fact that there is no political process, there's no diplomatic process, and there aren't really even any responsible third—party actors beyond the egyptians, let's say, who clearly have a direct stake in stability in gaza because they have a border with gaza. but one glaring absence is the role of the united states. i think this outbreak has been met with sort of a collective shrug, and besides kind of boilerplate statements. should the us be doing more? is there a political will in the united states to step in? we're seeing egypt actually getting involved. yeah, i don't think there is any political will in washington or, frankly, from the european side. there's a lot of fatigue about the issue.

i think the biden administration in particular has downgraded the whole issue of the palestinians. the two—state solution, many people feel, is no longer possible, and the administration pays lip service to two states but isn't really interested in pushing the issue, in large part because to do that would require seriously confronting an israeli government that is very, very extreme that has already abandoned the idea of two states and is in fact much more aggressive in his dealings with the palestinians on a whole range of issues. so the us administration does not want to pick a fight with the israeli government, and frankly doesn't want to spend political capital on the palestinians. you mentioned at the beginning that this is a truce that could be fragile. what is the key to at least extended, if not permanent, peace in the region? how can they get a ceasefire

to finally stick? well, the key would be to connect the ceasefire to a bigger political process that addresses the core issues of the conflict, and they are many, and they are actually increasing. i mean, there is a ioo—year dispute between israelis and palestinians. you have two national groups with competing national claims, but only one of them has a state, and quite a powerful state. and the other half or so, about 5 million palestinians, are stateless and living under israeli rule. so if there was a way to address that, to end 56 years of israeli occupation, you know, then there would be hope. but like i said, there's no political will to deal with these very difficult issues. there's no way to address the core issues of the conflict

without putting pressure on israel, and that's something that the united states in particular does not want to do. never an easy solution in that region. khaled elgindy, seniorfellow at the middle east institute and director of the programme on palestine and israeli palestine affairs, thank you so much. the ukrainian president, volodymyr zelensky, is in berlin as part of a diplomatic tour — his first trip to germany since the war began. on saturday, germany pledged its largest weapons package for kyiv, totalling nearly $3 billion. it follows a trip to italy, where he met the pope and other political leaders in the country. sofa bettiza reports from rome. fanfare a grand welcome in rome. this is the first time that president zelensky has visited italy since russia invaded ukraine. on his arrival, he tweeted it was an important visit for the approaching

victory against russia. and it was a packed agenda. first, a private meeting with his counterpart, the italian president, sergio mattarella. translation: first of all, i'm here to thank all- of italian society. unfortunately, i do not have time to shake hands with everyone, to hug them, for the great support italy has provided to ukraine. then, a working lunch with prime minister giorgia meloni. translation: we guarantee our support for peace, - as long it as it's a just peace. we're not so hypocritical as to pretend that anything that resembles an invasion is peace. this is important because peace can't be achieved through any kind of surrender on ukraine's side. but italy is a country that historically has strong ties with russia, and some members of meloni's government are not so keen on sending weapons to kyiv.

after several political meetings, a private audience with the head of the catholic church. this is the first time that president zelensky and pope francis meet since russia invaded ukraine last year. the pope has called for peace in ukraine time and again, and even though he does not take political sides, this meeting is very symbolic. they spoke for a0 minutes, and both agreed on the need to continue humanitarian efforts towards the victims of the conflict. the pope told mr zelensky he constantly prays for peace in ukraine. he cannot enforce peace, but he had can be an influentialfigure. sofia bettiza, bbc news, rome. in turkey, it's nowjust hours until the polls open in their presidential election. president recep tayyip erdogan held a rally in istanbul earlier, a city where he built his 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. from ankara, our international correspondent, orla 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. now, we saw today that president erdogan was campaigning up to the last minute with that rally

in istanbul, which you mentioned. he has 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. so, that's an accusation he makes pretty regularly during the campaign. mr kilicdaroglu is very different in style and tone. he has been emphasising his desire to bring people together and appealing particularly to young turks — and there are five million voters here who will go to the polls tomorrow for the very first time. ahead of the election, twitter announced it was restricting some content in turkey. the social media company said: it added the content

would still be available to the rest of the world. twitter�*s owner, elon musk, didn't mince his words when responding to criticism from a bloomberg columnist calling out the censorship. he said: around half a million people are being evacuated to safer areas in south east bangladesh, ahead of a cyclone forecasters say could be extremely dangerous. said to be the strongest cyclone for years, cyclone mocha is predicted to make landfall on sunday, with speeds of up to i70kph, and storm surges of to 12 feet. 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 important to note is 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. to the us state of north carolina, where democratic governor roy cooper used his power of veto to prevent state legislation from banning almost all abortions beyond the first trimester

of pregnancy. cooper vetoed the bill in front of a large crowd of pro—choice activists in the state capital of raleigh. it was a show of defiance to the states republican—dominated state legislature. north carolina's general assembly will now need to attempt an override vote to force through the measure. republicans in north carolina gained a veto—proof supermajority last month, after a democratic state represenative switched parties. this means the bill could still become law with a majority vote in both state chambers. switching gears now. and the disco lights on are on in the studio here in washington because the wait is now over for eurovision fans. earlier tonight in liverpool, the winner of this year's eurovision song contest has been announced, with sweden taking the crown for the 7th time, with loreen�*s song tattoo. this was the moment her victory was announced. now, loreen was already

the bookies�* favourite but she now becomes the first woman to ever win the contest twice, after her victory in 2012 with the track euphoria. the bbc�*s david sillito was following all the action. cheering and applause. live from liverpool, this is the grand final of the eurovision song contest 2023. it began with last year's winners, the kalush orchestra and stefania. there was, as promised, a strong ukrainian flavour to this liverpool eurovision. # sieben, sieben, ai lyu—lyu. # sieben, sieben, eins, zwei! the opening an artful blend of ukrainian eurovision tunes and some very british elements, including the piano skills of the princess of wales. plays tune from the kalush orchestra's stefania. all: let the eurovision i song contest 2023 begin! and then, it was down to the songs with the familiar eurovision spread of style.

# i don't care about the pain. it got epic from sweden's loreen, the hot favourite. # ..to get closer to you. # you're stuck on me like a tattoo. # cha, cha, cha—cha, cha cha! finland brought manic energy. # en mieti huomista ku tartun tuopista niinku. i # cha, cha, cha—cha, cha cha! # mali, podli psihopat. croatia brought bombs and underpants. # mama, idem u rat! # sc! # instead i wrote a song. and the last of the 26 songs, the uk's own mae muller. # instead, i wrote a song # i feel much better now. # me and my girls are out. # and we all sing along. # instead, i wrote a song. cheering and applause. and the cheer at the end — they'd better check the rivets on the arena roof after that.

cheering and applause. well, it is going wild. # walk on... and the interval act — a celebration of liverpool. # ..with hope in your heart. # and you'll never walk alone. # you'll never walk alone. it's not often the show has to have a pause to wipe away the tears. cheering and applause. a tear in my silly old eye — you don't see that every day! sweden took an early lead...

2a3 points! we have a winner! ..and stayed there. mae came a disappointing 25th. but the uk definitely did have one winner on the night — liverpool. david sillito, bbc news. we did promise her disco lights and we have been getting in the mood here in the us. while it's called �*euro'—vision, the song contest has plenty of fans here in the us as well. and this year, for the first time ever, americans and fans from anywhere in the world could actually vote, even if their own country didn't compete. alesia michelle is one of those superfans. i caught up with her after a large watch party here in washington and asked her why she thought sweden's loreen was a two—time winner. i mean, it's amazing, and of course i'm right here in dc. you can hear dc sounds around me, ithink.

but i will tell you i think that eurovision, if you look at eurovision pre—2oi2, if you look at the eurovision song contest before she won and look at it after, it looks different. when euphoria won, that was a song that really changed the way that the song contest was, i think, even taken in just by europe. so the fact that she is now our second—time second winner of eurovision — it actually doesn't feel that crazy, because she really was someone who marked a moment in the eurovision song contest. now we're seeing it i think graduate again to another chapter, potentially. that is really interesting. what was it about euphoria that changed eurovision? i think the fact that it was something that was radio friendly. i think it was something that felt current. i think it was something that didn't feel like just eurovision. it felt like something that felt like, "oh, this isjust what people would be listening to in 2012." and i think a fair critique of the eurovision song contest is that maybe it was just a touch behind.

maybe it was just three years behind, maybe it was just five years behind, what the actual charts were. but if you look at 2012 and if you look at her win in 2012, it felt like something that — "oh, no, we can hear this on the radio now." interesting. now, i did an informal poll of my friends on whatsapp on whether or not they were watching eurovision this year. no—one said yes. it is a bit of a struggle to get americans to pay attention, isn't it? how do you rate the amount of attention and fans that you're seeing with eurovision here in the united states? i mean, look, i'm here in washington, dc, and maybe where i am i have a kind of skewed perspective, because we have such a big international community here in dc. and i have to say, i'm from dc, so maybe that's why i might be partial to eurovision. but we had over 600 people rsvp between the semi—final events and the grand final. so if eurovision was something that wasn't happening in the united states before, i think it's harder to make

that announcement now. getting bigger and bigger, and alesia, this was the first year, of course, that americans could vote. just briefly, did you vote, and who did you vote for? look, i voted, but i'm a strategic voter. i wasn't throwing all my weight behind sweden and england. ——i wasn't throwing all my weight behind sweden and finland. i was wanting to support some of the countries that europe wouldn't give many points to. but i can't lie, i gave some points to finland, i gave some points to sweden. well, loreen collecting all the points tonight, doing very well. and alesia michelle, american eurovision fan and host of a big—time watch party there in washington, dc, thank you very much forjoining us. thank you. despite not being able to host due the the war, many ukrainians were still keen to follow along from home, but this is a bar in kyiv where fans still enjoyed the competition all the same,

and our correspondent hugo bachega has been speaking to some of them. frustrated, but because of the war, because of lots of people dying and lots of people losing their homes, businesses, relatives. it's hurtful in any case, but not in case of eurovision. yeah, eurovision is continuing, and we have our representative. we have lots of countries that still participate, so we're all good. and we participate as well. i feel ok, because you guys as britain did a very good job, and we're really grateful that it's truly a ukrainian—british eurovision this year. so we watched with my friends, and we can feel so much ukrainian history and culture and energy on the stage, and it is amazing. maybe we did not even do such

a good job in as we dud maybe we did not even do such a good job in as we did collaboration with the guys in britain. really huge support and i feel it here. i i don't expect some support from here right now, - eurovision, because we've already talked to this - we cannot show that. not a political show and that. but now i see that half of the songs are kind i of about us and support us, j and this is really important. stay with us here on bbc news. we want to leave you with a little more of one lovely moment from the eurovision 2023 final that that you've seen. # and you'll never walk alone.

# you'll never walk alone. hello. for the vast majority of places, saturday turned into a mostly sunny and very warm day. many parts of western england, wales, northern ireland and scotland saw temperatures up to 21 degrees. however, in eastern england underneath this stubborn area of cloud, some places only got to ten degrees. now, that stubborn area of cloud still with us for sunday morning but it should break up a little more effectively through the day ahead to allow more sunshine and warmth.

at the same time, this cold front pushing in from the north—west will bring rain into parts of scotland and northern ireland first thing and as that front pushes south—eastwards through the day, it will introduce something a little bit cooler to the north and the west of the uk. so, through sunday morning, this cloud to start off across central and eastern england should break up a little more effectively, rolling back out into the north sea but this frontal system pushing south—eastwards out of scotland and northern ireland into northern england and west wales by the mid afternoon and behind that, things certainly will be a good deal cooler. 14 for aberdeen, for glasgow, for belfast, but a warmer day in eastern england — 20 or 21 degrees. now, as we head through sunday night, this weather front will push a little further south—eastwards and we'll also see this little clump of showers drifting across eastern scotland and down into north—eastern england. actually quite chilly for monday morning across northern and western parts of the uk — four degrees there in glasgow, for example —

because as we head into monday and this frontal system clears through, we will be left in some cooler air — in fact, in quite a chilly north—westerly wind around the top of an area of high pressure. that wind will be noticeable through the day. it'll certainly make it feel chillier. we will see some showers running down the east coast of england and, more generally, some scattered showers breaking up, particularly across central and northern parts of the uk. not as many down towards the south but lower temperatures — 12—15 degrees. actually, a little disappointing — or at least below the norm for this time of year. now, into tuesday, there will still be some showers around. not as windy, so it won't feel quite as chilly. 11 degrees there for aberdeen but 17 the high in cardiff. there will be some spells of sunshine. and as we head deeper into the week, well, a fair amount of dry weather. high pressure never too far away, but there will be some weather systems bringing a bit of rain at times. it is set to turn a little warmer.

voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme.