welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines.. thailand's opposition parties agree a coalition — but will the military and its allies block their route to power? britain pledges hundreds more weapons to ukraine as president zelensky makes a surprise stop in the uk. cyclone mocha damages thousands of shelters at the refugee camp housing rohingya in bangladesh. and the bbc reveals an immigration scam where british men are paid to claim they're the fathers of children born to migrant women.

welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in thailand where there's huge uncertainty about the country's future direction. the two main opposition parties have agreed to form a ruling coalition. that's after they defeated their military—backed rivals in a general election. but thailand's upper house — the senate — is dominated by the military — and they could yet block a reformist prime minister. from bangkok, jonathan head reports. stunned by their success, thailand's youngest and most progressive party came to celebrate at the place they call democracy monument, built to commemorate a democracy that many thais say they have never had.

today we have politics driven by hope in this country. they were told by an mp who, like so many in the party, has spent time in jail for his political views. this caught the public�*s imagination with the boldness and clarity of its manifesto. yes, the new era. you look very happy. yeah. i'm starting to cry when i see him. like all night, watching all the election. this is a moment of elation for supporters of a party that probably never expected to get this close to being at the heart of government. but some very tough days lie ahead. it's not even clear that despite the mandate this party's got that they will be allowed to take office. party leader was quick to claim victory and to reach out to like minded parties for what he hopes

will be a reformist coalition government. the sentiment of the era has changed. and it's right. it was the right timing that people have been through enough of last decade. today is a new day, and hopefully it's full of bright sunshine of hope. but his path to power could yet be blocked by conservative opposition in the unelected senate or by the election commission or the courts, which in the past have been used to depose elected governments. in other countries, when you have the largest two parties like this, combined with more than half of the lower chamber, you should be able to form a government. but in thailand, it's up to the referee agencies, and the referee agencies have shown themselves not to be impartial. so i'm sure that they will concoct something. it will be surprising if it becomes straightforward. there will be many days of uncertainty ahead in thailand as its people wait

to see whether they get the government that so many voted for, or whether they end up with something else. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. scot marciel is a former senior official in the us department of state, with responsibility for relations with southeast asia. he's also a former ambassador to indonesia and myanmar and a fellow at stanford university in california. he told me that it's unclear where things will go next it's very hard to predict what's going to happen. voters clearly voted for change after nine years of military and military backed rule. but the establishment elite, including the military, views the two largest opposition parties, which did really well as threats. so as you just heard,

it will be surprising if it's straightforward. indeed, for viewers who may not be so familiar with the situation in thailand, can you explain why the military is so powerful there? well, the military has been powerful ever since 1932 when a coup led to a constitutional monarchy. military and the bureaucracy, the monarchy together have always wielded a lot of power and have staged the military staged more than 30 coups, including most recently in 2014. the two opposition parties that did really well, the move forward party and the political party are both seen as threats not only to the military but to the broader establishment elite. and so it's certainly possible that that establishment elite, which controls the 250 vote senate, will either use the votes in the senate or its control over the constitutional court to make it difficult, if not to prevent

the reform minded parties from establishing a government. as you said, the new parties are seen by the military as a threat. but what do we know about them? as you said, they've done really well in this election, but they are untested as a government, aren't they? well, yes and no. i mean, the move forward party, which won the most seats and is a quite new party, is untested in government. it also did quite well — its predecessor, i should say, did quite well in the previous elections. and its challenge is that it's calling for institutional reform, including of the military and potentially the highly sensitive issue of reform of the monarchy. the other party is a more established party that actually has been in government before. it's associated with thaksin shinawatra, who won a couple of elections and was overthrown in a coup. so it does have governance experience.

britain's prime minister rishi sunak has told the visiting ukrainian leader his armed forces will be supplied with hundreds of british air defence missiles, and armed drones. this new supply is in addition to the cruise missiles announced last week. president zelensky met and held talks with rishi sunak at the prime minister's country residence, chequers, as part of his tour of ukraine's allies in europe. so what exactly will ukraine get from britain? hundreds more air defence missiles have been promised to protect ukrainian cities. also pledged — long— range attack drones to help target the invading russian forces britain has already promised or given arms to ukraine, worth five billion pounds. all that was welcome but vlodymyr zelensky clearly hasn't got everything

he wanted. today we spoke about the jets. very important topic for us because we can't control the sky. it is not a straightforward thing, as vladimirand i have been discussing, to make build up that fighter combat aircraft capability. our correspondent in ukraine says the issue of attackjets is an important one for kyiv. the uk was the latest stop in president zelensky�*s tour of european countries. he was in italy, in germany and in france and he heard that more help is on the way. but there's one thing that ukraine says it needs and western nations have been reluctant to provide fighterjets. president zelensky said he discussed this issue with prime minister rishi sunak and said more work needed to be done. rishi sunak said this wasn't going to be a straightforward decision. it's more than just sending jets. it's about training and logistics. now here in kyiv, the authorities are

grateful for the help they have received. but i think there's also some level of frustration with how western countries have responded. there was a long debate before a decision was made about sending battle tanks to ukraine, then a long debate about air defence systems, and now a long debate about fighter jets. ukraine says those delays are costing lives not only on the front lines, but all across the country. now, the timing of president zelensky�*s visit is very significant. ukraine is preparing a counter—offensive against russian forces. it knows it needs to achieve major gains. it wants to show western countries that all the assistance it has received can result in major victories on the battlefield. president zelensky says his country still doesn't have everything it needs to launch what is likely to be a crucial phase in the war. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.... a chinese court has sentenced a 78—year—old us citizen to life in prison

on spying charges. john shing—wan leung was arrested in hong kong two years ago by the chinese counterintelligence agency. he has now been found guilty of espionage and is now deprived of political rights for life. mr leung was heavily involved with a number of chinese groups in the us. the united states has strongly criticised the fbi over the way it investigated allegations of collusion and donald trump presidential campaign in 2016 and russia. a presidential campaign in 2016 and russia-— and russia. a report said the fbi denied — and russia. a report said the fbi denied flimsy _ and russia. a report said the fbi denied flimsy and - fbi denied flimsy and unverified evidence. another invention led by special counsel robert miller led to the convictions of six members of the trump campaign. the company behind the digital news site, vice, has filed for bankruptcy. its youth—focused content was once seen as a major challenge to traditional media brands but the group,

which was once valued at nearly six billion dollars, struggled to make a profit in recent years. microsoft's 69 billion dollar takeover of call of duty publisher, activision blizzard, is the most valuable deal in gaming history. now, it's gained the approval of eu regulators, despite being blocked last month by the uk, who claimed it would harm competitors. it would also need approval from us regulators. to turkey now, where the electoral authority has confirmed that the presidential election will go to a second round. the announcement comes after the incumbent recep tayyip erdo an felljust short of the 50% vote share required for a first round victory. it will be the first time a challenger has taken mr erdo an to a head—to—head second round in a presidential contest. he earlier told supporters

in the capital ankara he was confident he'd win the run off in two week's time. his opposition rival, kemal k l cdaro lu, who has big support from secular turks and young people, says mr erdogan has failed to get a vote of confidence from the people. 0ur correspondent 0rla guerin has the latest from ankara. i think it'll be very tough. in effect, president erdogan confounded most of the opinion polls, confounded most of the analysts. they had been predicting that we would be in the territory of a second round for the presidency, but they expected that the lead would be the opposition candidate, kamel kilicdaroglu. well, what we saw yesterday was the reverse of that. the president came out ahead. he's ahead by about 2.5 million votes. and in addition to being in the lead for the presidency, his allies and his party have retained control of parliament. so in two weeks' time when turks go back to vote, he will be

the incumbent controlling parliament, controlling all of the levers of power here, controlling the media as he has for this round. so many advantages there. and there was a third candidate, an ultranationalist who got 5%. many of those votes may now go to the president. and i have to say, opposition officials we spoke to today were pretty deflated, pretty shellshocked. it's hard to see how they can make up this ground. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. some run for competition, some for charity. some forfun. of course, for so many, it is all about raising money for good causes. well over £1 million is raised to year, but everyone runs for their own individual charities, fundraising for loved ones, hospice, children's charities, everything you can think of.

is this your first one? yes. we are just over the moon. how are you feeling? really got it, really tired. my first one ever. it is pretty tough out there. i have been recovering from an illness. i am happy with that. the crowd is fantastic. but it is also a competitive race. for the women's winner, a huge vindication. i haven't done a half marathon in five years, because ijust came back from injury, so, this is good, it is a good step in the right direction after injury. whatever the reason for taking part, the force was with them. you're live with bbc news. thousands of refugees in bangladesh have seen their homes destroyed

or damaged by a powerful cyclone. the weather system hit land on sunday, narrowly avoiding a direct hit on the world's largest refugee camp in cox's bazar. the refugees were forced to see out the storm, in their flimsy shelters. aid agencies say a nightmare situation was just averted, but that serves as a reminder of the vulnerability of almost a million rohingya refugees. earlier we went live to bangkok where anthea webb, deputy regional director of the world food programme in asia, briefed us on the latest situation. we had a very close shave in the cox's bazar refugee camps in bangladesh. they have been spared the worst of the situation, but we were quite well prepared and those who were taking shelter have been assisted. our main concern, though, is in myanmar, where about nine million people were living in the path of the cyclone. at the moment, the very, very preliminary estimates tell us that about 800,000 people might need our assistance. and with each day,

we're getting access to other information that will tell us what the situation was. i was there a couple of weeks ago, and i was already worried about the conditions that people are living in there. it's a place where there have been decades of conflict. many of the people in bangladesh refugee camps have fled from that part of myanmar. and we are extraordinarily concerned that those people who were already displaced and who have been displaced by the cyclone will need additional help. indeed. can you talk us through the logistics of delivering food and other supplies? because this part of the world, transport options are rather limited, aren't they? it's a real concern for us. we have had some damage from the cyclone to our warehouses, but we do have enough food in place in myanmar for about 400,000 people. we're going to need

a lot more, both in myanmarand on the bangladeshi side, where funding cuts had required us to cut the amount of money that each refugee receives per month tojust $10 in the last couple of months. that sounds ok, but when you calculate it out per meal, it's less than $0.10 per person. per meal. even before the storm, the need for food and shelter was growing, wasn't there? so can you talk us through the situation now briefly before we let you go? it's a real challenge. this is a part of the world that has been subject to decades of conflict. getting each bag of food into the hands of people who require it means a journey by truck, by boat, and if necessary, we will bring materiel in by plane. but the real urgency at the moment

is for additionalfunding so that we can get the food moving right away. the uk home secretary, suella braverman, has said it is "not racist" to want to control britain's borders. she told a right wing conference in london that rapid migration was "unsustainable". and she said numbers had to be brought down. i voted and campaigned for brexit. indeed, i'm a proud spartan because i wanted britain to control migration so that we all have a say on what works for our country. high—skilled workers support economic growth, and where the labour market has acute or structural shortages. as with the nhs, it is of course right that we should have an immigration system agile enough to plug those shortages. but we need to get overall

immigration numbers down. a bbc investigation has uncovered a complex scam where british men are paid to claim that they are the fathers of children born to migrant women. the fraud involves british men claiming paternity so the child can get uk citizenship, and the migrant mother also has a route to stay in the country. the investigation found some men are being offered up to 10,000 pounds in cash, with the illegal practice advertised rather openly on social media. 0ur correspondent divya talwar has the story. this woman is going undercover. she's posing as a pregnant vietnamese woman in the uk illegally. the men she's meeting are planning a brazen immigration scam.

the man on the right is in charge and tells our researcher that the british man on the left will pose as her baby's father. the man in the middle is translating. the scam means the child can get automatic uk citizenship and the mother also has a route to stay in the country. the researcher is told those selfies will help create a fake back story. this immigration scam is rife on social media. we found dozens of posts about it on facebook groups. almost all of these posts mentioned red book. the red book is basically a british passport. meta, which owns facebook,

says it doesn't allow the solicitation of birth certificate fraud on its platforms and will continue to remove content that violates its policies. we've spoken to women who've paid fake fathers to try and cheat the authorities. one of their stories is being portrayed by an actor. someone i knew introduced me to a man who agreed to be my baby father. he was 30 years older than me. it cost £9,000 during the whole process. i:..i didn't have much contact with the man. these are real. immigration lawyer haja bungle says he's seen this happening in different communities. this scam has a potential to be widespread, potentially in the thousands. it's not a one off, and it's been going on for years. but the home office hasjust not picked up on this. and there's a scandal waiting to be exposed. the ringleader called us more than 20 times after the meeting.

we've been told he's provided a fake father service for multiple women. this time, i got in touch with him. my name is divya talwar. i'm a journalist for bbc news. we've got evidence of you running an illegal immigration scam. what are you talking about? i don't know anything. i'm not involved in anything like that. he's just put the phone down. the other men didn't respond to our requests for comment. the home office told us it has measures in place to prevent and detect immigration fraud and said it could request additional evidence to establish paternity. while the government continues to clamp down on illegal immigration, this scam appears to be happening under the radar of the authorities. divya talwar, bbc news. harrison ford, johnny depp and natalie portman. just a few of the famous names

set to hit the red carpet at the world famous cannes film festival. it begins later on tuesday. but there are concerns that protesters angry at french pension reforms may target the event. nicky schiller is in the newsroom with more. yes, it is that time of year when the usually laid back french riviera city of cannes turns into this, the world famous film festival, and hollywood's a—listers head for the famous red carpet. now, this year, 35,000 people are expected at the 76th festival. now, take a look. some people are already trying to bag a seat, even with a stepladder and some locks on those stepladders. now, we can expect some big premieres. back in 2008, harrison ford was there for the premiere of indiana jones: kingdom of the crystal skull. 15 years later, he is back for the premiere of yes, indiana jones and the dial of destiny.

leonardo dicaprio is another cannes regular, and he is there this year for the premiere of killers of the flower moon. indeed, industry insiders say it is a big year at cannes. we have indiana jones. we've got martin scorsese's new film with leonardo dicaprio. we've got a wes anderson film packed with every single star you could name, and sort of a who's who of great auteur arthouse directors. and so this combination is really, i mean, it's all killer, no filler. i mean, it's an impressive, incredible line—up. johnny depp has been going to cannes for years. here he is in 1995 and again in 2011. he's set to make headlines this year. the opening film is his new movie, jean dewberry. it's a french language movie and is being billed as his comeback. it's his first since that high profile court case with amber heard. it's worth remembering that cannes is a competition. the top prize is this, the palme d'0r.

now, this year, 21 films are competing for it, including a record number of women directors — seven. now, security is tight in the city. there are around 1000 police and security staff on duty. you can see them here rehearsing on the red carpet. there are fears there may be protests this year by french unions over those controversial pension reforms. now, talking of the red carpet, it is 60 metres long, but that's actually shorter this year. they're trying to be a little more eco conscious and in the process, saving 11100 kilos of carpet. a nigerian chef hopes she has set a new world record for the longest cooking marathon after preparing meals continuously for more than 96 hours. crowds in lagos watched hilda baci at work since thursday afternoon. the current record holder,

lata tondon from india, cooked forjust under 88 hours. i can't believe that. that's it for the programme. thank you so much for watching. hello there. for the rest of this week, the weather's looking pretty quiet. that's because we've got high pressure dominating the scene. so a lot of dry weather around with some sunshine, too. a few showers around mainly to the north of the uk. and after a bit of a cool start to this week, temperatures will begin to climb slightly by the end of the week and into next weekend. now, the early part of tuesday looks largely dry. clearskies, quite a chilly start to the day. we'll see thicker clouds of a breeze, some rainjust getting into the north and west of scotland. temperatures recovering here, nine degrees in stornoway, but a chilly start to tuesday for many areas. now, high pressure sitting almost on top of the uk. we have this weak weather front bringing more clouds and showers to scotland.

and you'll notice that blue tinge on the air mass chart indicating there's still some fairly cool around for tuesday. so, it's a chilly start. dry, bright, lots of sunshine around. showers from the word go across northwest scotland. these become more widespread across scotland into the afternoon. some showers for northern ireland, a few for northern and eastern england. probably the dry, sunniest weather will be across wales, midlands down into the south west and here we could make 16 or 17 degrees. but again for most, it's the low to mid—teens. that is below par for the time of year. through tuesday night, many of those showers fade away. most places once again will be dry to start a wednesday variable cloud, but widespread clear skies certainly in the north and the west. and again, temperatures taking a bit of a tumble and single digits for most. high pressure, almost slap bang on top of the uk for wednesday. lighter winds. this feature, though, will start to bring more cloud, breeze, outbreaks of rain to the northwest of scotland, but that is about it. plenty of sunshine around, could just see a few isolated showers across the midlands and eastern england.

but many places will stay dry and the temperature is creeping up a little bit. we could be up to 18, maybe 19 degrees in the warmest spots. 0therwise, again, for most it's the mid—teens, particularly towards the north. as we move through thursday, friday, high pressure still holds on. a few weather fronts flirt with the north of the uk and you'll notice we start to import some slightly warmer air from the west, the orange and yellow colours taking over. so apart from a few showers across the north of the uk, thanks to those weather fronts, you can see because of high pressure, it's mostly dry and it'll be feeling warmer with temperatures hitting the low 20s.

the deadline approaches for the us to get the debt ceiling, treasury secretary issuing yet another warning. treasury secretary issuing yet anotherwarning. in treasury secretary issuing yet another warning. in the heat wave across china with fears of soaring temperatures where it might mean for the countries economy recovery. hi there, welcome to the business report. let's start in the us or markets have managed to hire hopeful that washington will agree on the debt ceiling. janet has a instant a letter to

congress warning that