hi from washington, this is bbc news. air strikes on ukraine's capital as the country's most senior security official says the military is ready to launch its long—expected counter—offensive against russian forces. turkey prepares to go polls in one of the country's most divisive presidential elections. president biden and republican leader kevin mccarthy speak by phone as negotiators continue to seek a deal on us debt talks. hello i'm carl nasman.

thanks forjoining us. we begin in ukraine where a fresh air attack on kyiv has left at least one dead and a further three injured. the city's mayor vitali klitschko says around 20 russian explosive drones had been eliminated — but that a fresh wave is heading towards the capital. russia has stepped up its attacks on kyiv over the past month, using barrages of drones and missiles in an attempt to overwhelm the city's defences. this latest attack comes as one of the country's most senior security officials says ukraine is ready to begin it's long—awaited counter—offensive. oleksiy danilov, the secretary of ukraine's national security and defence council, has been speaking exclusively to our diplomatic correspondent, james landale. this is what's left of bakhmut in eastern ukraine. images filmed by russian forces of the ruins they now largely control. mercenaries from the wagner group claim they're withdrawing, being replaced by regular russian troops.

but ukraine insists its forces are still engaged on the ground in the outskirts, as the country's most senior security official told us. translation: we control “ust a small part of the city, i and we admit that. but you have to keep in mind that bakhmut has played a big role in this war. are the wagner mercenary group withdrawing, as their leader, prigozhin, says? translation: yes, that is happening. l but it doesn't mean that they will stop fighting us. they're going to concentrate more on other fronts. our intelligence is following that. we understand where they will appear next. they are regrouping to other free locations and we're following that. voiceover in ukrainian and all the while, ukraine is preparing a counter—offensive. this propaganda video broadcast by military commanders

to raise morale and encourage what they called a decisive offensive. but when might it begin? translation: we will figure out when - that will start so that we can have the best result at that point of war. it could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week. it would be strange if i were to name dates or the start of that or another event. that cannot be done. but you're ready. translation: we're always ready. - the same as we were ready to defend our country at any time. and it is not a question of time. we have to understand that that historical opportunity that is given to us by god, to our country, we cannot lose. so we can truly become an independent, big european country. but until that happens, ukraine will remain vulnerable to attacks like this.

a hospital in dnipro destroyed by a russian missile that air defences this time failed to stop. james landale, bbc news, kyiv. let's stay in the region — a developing story from russia. the german foreign ministry says hundreds of germans working in education and cultural sectors in russia will be expelled next month. they include teachers at the german school in moscow, and staff at the goethe institute cultural association. the move comes amid increasingly strained relations between the two countries, in the wake of russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine. here's a look at some the tensions. last month, russia and germany each declared a0 employees of their respective embassies personae non gratae — or unwelcome — and expelled them. german newspaper

sueddeutsche zeitung reported that the latest move will affect a "low—to—mid—three—digit number" of employees, including diplomats. it quoted the german foreign ministry as saying "in view of this unilateral, unjustified and incomprehensible decision, the federal government is now concerned with ensuring a minimum presence of intermediaries in russia while also maintaining a diplomatic presence." now to turkery, where the first ever presidential election runoff is set to begin — polls now opening injust under five hours there. it's a two—way race between the current president recep tayyip erdogan, who has been in powerfor two decades, and his main rival, the secular opposition leader, kemal kilicdaroglu. in the first round of the election earlier this month, president erdogan won 49.5% of the vote — about 4% more than his rival. both candidates are now chasing support from nationalist voters. both of the content have squeeze every last drop out of their campaigning. the

kiwirrkurra georgiou is been in ankara. president erdogan here in istanbul. they both looking to which of the 50% mark, because that is key, no obvious treatment of the 22 candidates in the expectation is that we will this time find out who turki's mick slater will be. let's looking a little more detail and to the turkish people people are choosing between. resident toaded li, anne powerfor 20 years, first as prime minister, then as president. —— president richard tait turn —— present no—one. he has been accused of being totalitarian change in the laws protect themselves. also making this a deeply religious country. certainly in terms of civil society, the rule of law, that it was beforehand. he and his supporters say that he is a strong leadership candidate, that he is the sort of man that

turkey needs to really cement its position in the world and there was some of the problems in turkish society like the economic crisis, for example. he has been calling just today on his supporters not to be complacent, i think, on his supporters not to be complacent, ithink, not on his supporters not to be complacent, i think, not to look back at the fact that he was so close last time round to go out today and to keep voting. translation: fire go out today and to keep voting. translation: are we runnina voting. translation: are we running to _ voting. translation: are we running to the _ voting. translation: are we running to the polls _ voting. translation: are we| running to the polls tomorrow? we will cast our votes from the early hours of the morning. we will not lose anyone who voted in the first round. do we agree on that? and for whatever reason, if anyone can't go to vote, we will encourage them as well. . , . , well. that is what president erdo . an well. that is what president erdogan has _ well. that is what president erdogan has had _ well. that is what president erdogan has had to - well. that is what president erdogan has had to say. - well. that is what president| erdogan has had to say. the challenger, kemal kilicdaroglu, is a very different character. he is a quietly spoken former civil servant. he is a quietly spoken former civilservant. he he is a quietly spoken former civil servant. he spent a lot

of his campaign talking about his vision of a secular or a more secularfuture for his vision of a secular or a more secular future for turkey, talking about a more democratic country, saying he would improve things like free speech. but his critics said he would be strong enough of the world stage, that he doesn't have the leadership experience to really provide a contrast to president alone, pushing forward in the way that he would like to. ——mr erdogan. kemal kilicdaroglu says that he can sell some of the problems that turkey has been suffering. translation: the that turkey has been suffering. translation:— that turkey has been suffering. translation: the situation that our country _ translation: the situation that our country is _ translation: the situation that our country is in _ translation: the situation that our country is in right _ translation: the situation that our country is in right now - translation: the situation that our country is in right now is - our country is in right now is not good. turkey needs to get out of this. to be able to do that, we need to put up a fight together. no matter how we look at the conditions we are in. a pessimistic apathy has been created for everyone. today turkey has some serious economic problems. we will go to the polls and cast our votes and replace an authoritarian

government through democratic means. 50 government through democratic means. ., ., ., , ., means. so how do voters not 'ust means. so how do voters not just here _ means. so how do voters not just here in _ means. so how do voters not just here in istanbul - means. so how do voters not just here in istanbul but - just here in istanbul but across the country responded to that? what do they think about theissues that? what do they think about the issues that the contenders have been talking about? the economy is one of the biggest things that people have been considering. turkey's economic crisis has been long and deep. people have been really feeling it in their pockets. things leave the country public response, particularly the government public response to the devastating earthquake in february, a lot of people unhappy with that. they saw it as slow and lacking. that didn't seem to damage the support for president erdogan too much in those southern areas. another concern are refugees, mainly syrian refugees. there are around 3000 of them in his country. immigration has become a hot topic. both sides have been trying to add each other in terms of how many refugees they can move the country and how quickly. so when the turks wake up quickly. so when the turks wake up at about 8am, quickly. so when the turks wake up at about sam, the polls will

open and they will spend the day until 5pm because in their votes. unlike two weeks ago, this one is simple — one ballot paper, two candidates. when the polls close at five counting starts immediately. we expect as people here in turkey are starting to think about going to bed a lot of that counting will have been done and we will have a clear idea of who turkey�*s next president will be. let's get more on this big run—off election in turkey. live now to mustafa akyol, a seniorfellow at the cato institute and the author of why, as a muslim, i defend liberty. thank you so much forjoining us to talk about this election that should be coming up in just a couple of hours. we have had so many economic headlines recently coming out of turkey, rampant inflation, alleged corruption that led to buildings collapsing during those recent earthquakes. and yet here is erdogan on the verge of potentially winning the run—off election. how

successful has he been in steering the talk away from turkey's economy? in steering the talk away from turkey's economy?- steering the talk away from turkey's economy? in one sense erdouan turkey's economy? in one sense erdogan has — turkey's economy? in one sense erdogan has been _ turkey's economy? in one sense erdogan has been successful - turkey's economy? in one sense erdogan has been successful in i erdogan has been successful in creating a base that always votes for him, in a matter what, despite the economic despair in the country. but on the other hand, i mean, from my point of view, he hasn't been successful because i think he has made turkey a case and an extreme case of what political scientists call a liberal democracy. you have elections that are liberal and free in the sense of not being rigged, but the leader of those elections acted in a totalitarian way, suffocating the media, intimidating opponents, going after people as they see as enemies with win, and unfortunately that has been president erdogan�*s operational model at least the last ten years. there is still a large group of people that think that he is making turkey

great and was again. he incorporates nationalism and religious conservatism at the same time. he also appeals to the conservatives that before erdogan, were disseminated against because it has guards were banned, erdogan is saying i am your saver, stand with me. and the first round of the elections has shown that that message still appeals to a significant part of society. you said, this is an interesting statement, "make turkey muslim again". explain the role that religion is playing in this presidential election. it playing in this presidential election. ., , ~' , playing in this presidential election. ., , election. it does. turkey has very secular _ election. it does. turkey has very secular founding - election. it does. turkey has very secular founding sky - election. it does. turkey has i very secular founding sky right after the ottoman empire, after world war i, ataturk, turkey public founder, was staunchly secularist. and that secularism

had some good aspects late bring equality for women and equality under the law for all citizens, but it had a problem of not fully respecting religious freedom. and the most significant example of that is you couldn't wear a headscarf, which is and islamic obligation for many muslims, if you're female, as they believe it. and you couldn't get a publicjob or enter a campus. that was a big red. erdogan for the religious conservatives is the first leader in political history which finally entered the system, brought the religious conservatives to power. the thing is, in his earlier years, power. the thing is, in his earlieryears, he power. the thing is, in his earlier years, he was saying he would bring equality and freedom for everyone. things are going well, actually, in the early years, but it has gradually turned out that erdogan wanted in reverse. now he is saying i will make you the ruling class of turkey and

he is demonising secular figures, opposition, by propaganda, by legal intimidation, big—time cover and that unfortunately has been the game that he has been pursuing, and it has some appeal to his voters. i pursuing, and it has some appeal to his voters. appealto his voters. i 'ust want to i appealto his voters. i 'ust want to ask i appealto his voters. i 'ust want to ask you i appealto his voters. i 'ust want to ask you about i appealto his voters. ijust want to ask you about his| want to ask you about his challenger, kemal kilicdaroglu, he is also seemingly changing his tone, just in the last couple of weeks leading up to the run—off. what has he been talking about and why did he seemingly kind of switch modes here in this campaign? i seemingly kind of switch modes here in this campaign?- here in this campaign? i mean, ou are here in this campaign? i mean, you are right. _ here in this campaign? i mean, you are right, first _ here in this campaign? i mean, you are right, first of _ here in this campaign? i mean, you are right, first of all, - you are right, first of all, everybody in turkey knows that kemal kilicdaroglu is not as charismatic figure as erdogan is. a lot of people he is appealing because he is not erdogan, just an opposition candidate. he also comes across in many ways isjust candidate. he also comes across in many ways is just an alternative. erdogan is very powerful and divide and sometimes intimidating. kilicdaroglu is polite and gentle and speaking about reaching out to everybody in

society. and those are i think the good things about him. however in the past two weeks something else happened. kilicdaroglu, having realised that he is losing position, he put his eyes on this 5%, which was in the first round, remained as a third candidate, the thyroid candidate was there and his voters would go to either one of the directions. and one of his big themes was immigrants. ——in the far right candidate. setting those immigrants back, which sounds far right, has appealed to both sides, but kemal kilicdaroglu cannot he said more clearly and disturbingly if you asked me in the past two weeks. and it is one of the complexities in turkey. erdogan on the one hand is a populist and intimidating, but on refugees, actually, he is milder, partly because he identifies with refugees. these

are people, muslims, sunni muslims from syria, and countries like pakistan, afghanistan.— countries like pakistan, afghanistan. we'll have to leave it there _ afghanistan. we'll have to leave it there and - afghanistan. we'll have to leave it there and that - leave it there and that election was not voters soon going to a poll, thank you so much forjoining us, mustafa aykol from the cato institute. i want to show you some live pictures now. this is the capitol building. where negotiations on the us goverment�*s debt ceiling continue but no agreement yet. in the past hour president biden spoke by phone to republican speaker kevin mccarthy. there is no news of what was discussed in that call but there are reporters that republican leaders in the house will brief members on the talks at 21:30 eastern time — so that's in about an hours time. any more news on those talks we will bring them to you. now to some other news in the uk:

holly willoughby, co—host of this morning, has reacted to phillip schofield's admission about a relationship with a younger employee, saying she is hurt. on friday, mr schofield resigned from itv saying he had lied to cover up the relationship, which he described as "unwise, but not illegal". itv has said it investigated rumours of the relationship but both men repeatedly denied it. detectives investigating the attempted murder of dci john caldwell have tonight charged seven men with attempted murder. those charged are aged between 28 and 72. two of the men who have also been charged with being members of a terrorist group, namely the ira. three of them have also been charged with preparation of terrorist acts. all seven are due to appear before dungannon magistrates court via video link on monday. staying in the uk, the post office has apologised after revelations it categorised sub—postmasters by racial group, using highly offensive language. it happened during its own investigations into the computer scandal that saw

hundreds of sub—post masters wrongly prosecuted for false accounting. here's our business reporter peter ruddick. the post office, already dealing with the reputational damage of hundreds of wrongful prosecutions of sub—postmasters, now finds itself embroiled in a scandal over the use of racist language. post office branch managers have been fighting for justice for years. this weekend, they discovered they had also been logged according to their racial profile. between 2008 and 2011, investigators were asked to classify potential suspects according to their racial profile. the category terms included chinese/japanese types, dark—skinned european types, and an offensive colonial word used to describe people of african descent. that's no way to identify someone, is it, really? that's disgusting. ijust feel sometimes that there is too much labelling going around. just say black or white.

baljit sethi is of the post office victims who lost the business he ran with his wife. he now finds it too traumatic to discuss. his son said his family were not surprised to read the document. it was quite disturbing. and itjust goes to show that the post office has had a rotten culture at its core for a number of years. and this information was not made available by the post office, this information came about because of the campaigners and people who are fighting forjustice from the post office, so this is how it came to light. otherwise, it would have stayed buried for a very long time. a spokesperson for the post office said it did not tolerate racism, but that the abhorent language was historic. well, i think describing the document as historic is really utter nonsense. these documents were put together between 2008 and 2011, and i think we're not talking about a time in the 1970s or the 1980s, we're talking about only a decade ago.

so really, that's not a good enough excuse. many sub—postmasters have had their convictions overturned and have been promised compensation. but for victims like baljit, this document is a traumatic reminder of the way they were treated. peter reddick, bbc news. twitter has pulled out of the european union's voluntary code to fight disinformation, the eu's internal market commissioner, thierry breton, announced the news on the platform. breton tweeted: he added that fighting disinformation will remain a legal obligation under the digital services act, a law which obliges firms to do more to tackle illegal online content. dozens of tech firms are signed up to the eu's disinformation code, including meta, tiktok, google, microsoft and twitch. the code was launched last year to prevent profiteering from disinformation and fake news. it also seeks to increase transparency and curb the spread of bots and fake accounts. under elon musk�*s ownership,

moderation at twitter has reportedly been greatly reduced, and just last month, the bbc found hundreds of russian and chinese state propaganda accounts to be highly active on twitter. let's break this down. we want to bring in takara small, she is a technologyjournalist, joining us from toronto. first of all, elon musk has taken twitter out of what is a voluntary eu disinformation code. why would he do that? i think it plays along with a lot of things that elon has done in recent months and the reason he did that is because he does not really feel the need to implement some of the rules that will become essentially legal under the digital services act and he is allowed a lot of the things, such as misinformation, disinformation, to thrive, and he has played a key part in that as well, so, signing up to this voluntary legal framework wouldn't really aligned with what he himself is doing.

i want to play you a clip, the bbc spoke in this long—range interview with elon musk earlier in april and he talks about this information with our reporter james clayton. he was a bit of what he had to say. take a listen. do you accept that there is more misinformation on the platform if it is not being policed in the same way? i actually think that there is less these days because we have eliminated so many of the bots, which were pushing scams and spam. and previous management turned a blind eye to the bots because their bonuses were tied to user growth and if your computation is tied to user growth, well, you're not going to look too closely at some of the users. that is part of the problem. so i think we have less misinformation because we do not have the bot problem that we used and we also have given a lot of attention to community notes which corrects with the community itself, corrects misinformation and it has been very effective. takara small, what you make

of those statements from elon musk? well, firstly i would like for individuals who are not on twitter, i want to clarify what communication notes are, so that relies on other users to help explain, to help really clarify any information that is online. second of all, i think it is quite interesting that elon musk would have that opinion. of course he would, he owns twitter. it would not be in his best interest to to say that there is any scam or bulling or trolling or disinformation has increased — we have seen a rise in it, which we have, and lastly, i think it is interesting he is saying this while choosing not to participate in this voluntary framework that would really legitimise eradicating misinformation. i think this is again just another example of elon musk... how committed to you think? it is interesting exactly what you said, how committed do you think elon musk is to actually cracking down on disinformation on twitter? ithink... just we have seen he has laid off so many members of the staff, including the communications department. i do not see how he can be

fully committed to it while also not adhering to this voluntary framework and i must say, it would be interesting to see how long twitter can remain in the european market if he decides to act in this manner. do you think there is a chance then that twitter might actually have to pull out of the eu? that would take away a lot of the company's users. it would and i think it is a question that many people, manyjournalists like myself, are asking ourselves because they do see that happening. potentially. europe is a huge market but there are certain rules that exist there that do not exist in america. well, look, twitter is an american company, so is facebook, many of the other ones we have just mentioned, why does it seem then that the european union is leading the way in terms of these kinds of social media and tech regulations and not the united states? you know, so, iam in canada, as you mentioned earlier. i am based in toronto and both

canada and the us are not really leading in this space and i think it is because regulation comes with responsibility and the eu has taken on this responsibility in a space that is constantly changing. the technology sector — i am not even talking about al — social media is always adapting and because of that it requires a lot of money, financial support and a lot of oversight and that is a lot of responsibility for any government to take on. before i let you go, i wanted to ask about happened earlier. we saw florida governor ron desantis launching his presidential campaign on twitter spaces. it did not exactly go according to plan. there were all these glitches. but what do you think that kind of political announcement says about the way the company and musk himself might be getting into politics? twitter has always been a political space. we have seen, if you even look at barack 0bama, when he was the president, he used twitter is an incredibly important space for him to

communicate with constituents but i think the fact that there was a republican contender who decided to not only announce his candidacy on twitter but also do that in conversation with the owner, says a lot about twitter if it is a space for people of different ideologies and politics. i would say that many people are looking at twitter and thinking, if elon decided to do that with just one candidate, perhaps that reflects his own personal politics as well. interesting stuff. takara small, technology journalist joining us from toronto. thank you very much. thank you for having me. stay with us here on bbc news. more updates on the us debt ceiling negotiations coming up. hello there. it really was a gorgeous day today across england and wales, lots of sunshine around. temperatures in west yorkshire reached 24.3 celsius, making it the warmest day of the year so far. in northern ireland and scotland

we saw more cloud for a while, producing one of two spots of rain. that was mainly due to a very weak weather front — that's heading its way out into the north sea. following on from that, we've got some cooler air coming around our area of high pressure from the north, so temperatures for many of us will be a little bit lower on sunday. we start quite chilly where we've got the clearer skies across eastern areas of scotland. temperatures here could be close to freezing in one or two places. there is more cloud coming into the north—west mind you, and we've got that cloud affecting some eastern parts of england and into the north sea. there will be some sunshine at times in scotland and northern ireland. the cloud coming and going, particularly in the north—west, and with the north—easterly breeze across eastern england, it will push that cloud further west, although hanging on to the best of the sunshine in west wales, western england and along the south coast. but the highest temperatures are going to be pushed to the south—west this time. it will be cooler further north and east, and quite a significant drop in temperature on sunday for the north—east of england. but it's still dry. we've got high

pressure in charge. the position of the high means that there's some stronger winds on monday into shetland, blowing in more cloud, and there is also a stronger east to north—easterly wind affecting southern parts of england, which will make it feel a little bit cooler, probably. and we could blow in some cloud in the morning through the midlands and eastern england. that should break up in the afternoon. lots of sunshine around on bank holiday monday. there is cooler air in place across england and wales. highest temperatures will be further west. in northern ireland and scotland, it is turning a bit warmer on monday, temperatures back into the low 20s. high pressure remains in charge on monday and into tuesday. the position is not really changing very much. light winds for many, but still those stronger winds through the english channel and southern parts of england. with the wind coming in off the north sea, we could see more cloud through much of the day on tuesday for eastern areas of england. always going to be warmer towards the west and the north, temperatures getting into the low 20s. and in scotland, we could see highs of 2a degrees or so on tuesday. and really all week we are dominated by high pressure, it is still dry, sunshine most days, and those temperatures reaching the mid 20s for the middle part

of the week.

this is bbc news.