i'm mark lowen, live injerusalem, where an embattled benjamin netanyahu has spoken to president biden by phone amid soaring tensions between both governments. rishi sunak dismisses reports of a new plot to oust him, saying he's concentrating on delivering his government's priorities. yeah, i'm not interested in all westminster politics. it doesn't matter. what matters is the future of our country, and that's what i'm squarely focused on. and wanted, someone who is a self motivator, empathetic and fine with showering once every two weeks — the job spec for antarctica's penguin post office. hello and welcome to the day's

verified live. we start in russia. vladimir putin has addressed thousands of people in moscow's red square, after claiming a landslide election win. the rally is to mark the tenth anniversary of russia's illegal annexation of crimea. standing alongside three loyalist candidates who were allowed to run against him, president putin said that hand—in—hand russians will move forward. western countries have condemned the election is neither free nor fair. condemned the election is neither free norfair. the us hasjust called it incredibly undemocratic. president putin described the donbas and other parts of ukraine occupied by russian forces, as part of a "new russia". take a listen. translation: as for don bass, the --eole translation: as for don bass, the peeple living — translation: as for don bass, the people living there, _ translation: as for don bass, the people living there, in _ translation: as for don bass, the people living there, in those - translation: as for don bass, the people living there, in those days i people living there, in those days of the russian spring, declared their desire to return to their native family —— as per donbas. their path back to homeland was much

more difficult. but we did it. and that too was a great event in the history of our state. now, we are developing, we are marching together, we feel the fellowship. just this morning, i was told that the railway from rostov to donetsk and variable and has been restored. we will ensure real carriages will move all the weight to sevastopol, offering an alternative to the crimean bridge, so together, arm in arm, we will go forward and this, this action of an outwards, is what makes us really stronger —— and mariupol. that was vladimir putin in the last hour. ben noble is an associate fellow

for the russia and eurasia programme at chatham house. he told me why the election is important for mr putin. the kremlin will definitely point to the official result as proof that putin is actively and enthusiastically supported by the vast majority of the population. but the picture is much more complex than that. yes, there are some people who are ardent supporters of putin, but there are also those that detest him and more importantly, there is a large group in the middle with ambivalent feelings towards putin. and the kremlin has made sure that it presents to that large middle group, "putin is the leader "without alternative," so many people will have gone to the polls because of that — "if not putin, then who else?" but also we shouldn't forget the extraordinary propaganda in the country, and as i say, the kremlin will demonstrate that putin is still at the centre of politics and therefore is going to be around for many more years to come. so what do you expect over the next six years? i think we are going to see an even more emboldened putin. this is a man who will now have six

more years in power, and then because of changes he introduced to the constitution in 2020, he can run again in 2030 to stay in power until 2036, at which stage he will be 83. i think we are likely to see more domestic repression, more use of coercion, the kremlin taking unpopular decisions that it didn't want to in the lead up to the election, where it wanted to present a russia that was confident and rosy and the state providing support to people. so it is going to be an even uglier russia domestically, but also emboldened when it comes to the ongoing war against ukraine. you talk about making unpopular decisions. i mean, there have been huge losses in this war for russia — upwards of 300,000 people. given he has said what he has said about the war and what lies ahead, does it give him scope also to implement full mobilisation there in russia? that is certainly the question that many people are grappling with, but i think it is not certain that putin will, now that he has been

re—elected, call a full mobilisation and the reason is because when they called a partial mobilisation in september 2022, it was so deeply unpopular, putin's own approval ratings took a hit that the kremlin just probably won't want to do that. of course, it is difficult to predict at this stage, but it is more likely the kremlin will take steps in order to find new manpower to feed the voracious appetite of the war machine in russia, through things that go under the radar. so, recruiting people in different ways without the big policy announcement that could be deeply unpopular of a full mobilisation. that was bendable talking to me. just a pointer, you can follow this story likem you can read analysis and reaction from the bbc possible team ofjournalists right around the world, but so much analysis on this set of elections. you can do that by just heading to the bbc news website and also the app, so plenty of background and updated information

with vladimir putin just talking in the last hour or so. let's turn to the middle east now. the israeli army says it has killed the head of operations in hamas's internal security force during a raid on gaza's biggest hospital. the military also made dozens of arrests in al shifa hospital in gaza city. a short while ago the white house said the president has spoken to benjamin netanyahu neta nyahu about the netanyahu about the latest developments in gaza, including getting aid to the gaza strip. the un warns a feminist eminence without immediate action. —— a famine is imminent. here's anna foster. gunfire gunfire rings out in a street near gaza's biggest hospital. inside it, medics are still working and patients are still being treated. for months, hundreds of displaced palestinians have used the compound for shelter. israel called its operation

a targeted mission, saying it used caution and care. hamas accused israel of acting against all international laws. the idf is conducting a high—precision operation in limited areas of al—shifa hospital, following concrete intelligence that demanded immediate action. we know that senior hamas terrorists have regrouped inside the al—shifa hospital and are using it to command attacks against israel. the israel defence forces released these pictures, saying they show its troops under fire. it's a short clip which doesn't confirm the time or sequence of events. international medics who have worked in gaza say their colleagues need to be protected. i do not believe the idf have provided any credible evidence since october 7th, and indeed, before then, that these hospitals were being used as hamas command centres. i have been in al—shifa hospital

on many occasions. i have spoken to people i have known for many years who work there and i do not believe there is any evidence to suggest that. this morning, people have been told to evacuate the area around al—shifa to ensure their safety. moving isn't easy after more than five months of war. there still isn't anywhere near enough aid getting into gaza. the un has warned of a looming famine. when the leaders of israel and germany met yesterday, the need to help starving civilians in gaza was high on the agenda. much more humanitarian aid is needed, continuously and reliably. i shared my concerns with the prime minister that the provision of aid from israel into gaza and the conditions for distribution must be urgently and massively improved. talks on a humanitarian ceasefire in gaza are due to resume today. in qatar, mediators will again try to negotiate a deal that both israel and hamas can agree to, but against that backdrop,

a military ground offensive in gaza's southern city of rafah is still looming. half the population has been displaced to there, and there is strong pressure on israel to protect them. our goal in eliminating the remaining terrorist battalions in rafah goes hand—in—hand with enabling the civilian population to leave rafah. it's not something that we will do while keeping the population locked in place. in fact, we will do the very opposite. it's hard to predict which will come first — a new ground attack or a ceasefire deal. another overwhelming uncertainty for gaza's desperate population. that was in a foster speaking in that while ago. —— that was anna foster. speaking a short time ago, the un secretary—general antonio guterres warned that gaza is on the brink of famine. the latest report on food insecurity

in gaza is an appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians. the world's leading experts on food insecurity clearly document that famine in the northern part of gaza is imminent. more than half of all palestinians in gaza — 1.1 million people — have completely exhausted their food supplies and are facing catastrophic hunger, according to the report. palestinians in gaza are enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering. this is the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by the integrated food security classification system anywhere, anytime. this is an entirely man—made disaster, and the report makes clear

that it can be halted. that was the un secretary—general. let's get the latest from our correspondent mark lowen, who's injerusalem. we know this call has happened between the american president and israel's prime minister. do we know what was actually said in the phone call that's likely to have been extremely tense?— call that's likely to have been extremely tense? yeah, pretty acrimonious, _ extremely tense? yeah, pretty acrimonious, i— extremely tense? yeah, pretty acrimonious, i think, _ extremely tense? yeah, pretty| acrimonious, ithink, matthew, extremely tense? yeah, pretty - acrimonious, ithink, matthew, given effective relationship between the two governments is really extremely fractious. you will remember those comments a few days ago by the us senate majority leader chuck schumer who in effect called for benjamin netanyahu to be replaced and then president biden appear to support those comments couple of days later, extraordinarily open criticism of the is really governed by the us. very little has come out of this call in terms of the readout of the statement from both sides. all we have had is a line saying, benjamin netanyahu says he spoke with president biden about achieving goals in the gaza war while providing needed humanitarian aid

they are likely to have discussed rafah in the south of gaza, where 1.4 million gazans are now sheltering and where israel's government says that it will launch a military offensive, despite all the warnings against doing so by the international community. they are likely to discuss also the need to bring in more aid and that is linked to these dire warnings today about famine. just to give you an idea, the world food programme which is a branch of the un, he said that in order to avert fame in northern gaza, that area which has stood about 300,000 people sheltering would need 300 trucks of food aid per day. at the moment, the whole of northern gaza has had about nine convoys, which is a few trucks, since the start of the year. the needs are absolutely dire, the eu foreign policy chief today said israel was using starvation as a weapon of war, and the blunt message, matthew, is that gazans are

starving to death. fir message, matthew, is that gazans are starving to death.— starving to death. or cologne in jerusalem. _ starving to death. or cologne in jerusalem, thank _ starving to death. or cologne in jerusalem, thank you _ starving to death. or cologne in jerusalem, thank you very - starving to death. or cologne in l jerusalem, thank you very much, thank you. —— mark lowen. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

you are live with bbc news. as the world looks to move away from using fossil fuels, demand for deep sea mining permits is increasing. there are tens of billions of pounds worth of metals and minerals lying on the ocean's sea bed, which could be used in renewable technologies. but what impact could mining have on marine life and coastal communities? 0ur climate editor justin rowlatt reports. november last year — a research vessel chartered by a mining company is assessing the impact of mining on the abyssal plain, the sea bed of the deep ocean. protesters from greenpeace board the vessel, hampering the research, according to the mining company.

you might think this is the usual conflict between industry and activists, except that in this case the miners, like the greens, claim to be acting in the best interests of the planet. why? they claim the potato—sized metallic nodules they are after are crucial to the green transition, and that hoovering them up from the sea floor is far less damaging than mining on land. this is what the miners are after. this is a polymetallic nodule. they take millions of years to form and they contain cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese, all metals used in renewable technologies. the problem is getting hold of these destroys the creatures that live among them. for years, it was assumed there was little life in the cold, dark depths of the ocean. it's true — there aren't many animals per square metre,

but what scientists are learning is that what is there is far more diverse than was expected. but the abyssal plain is vast. it covers 40% of the entire surface of the earth. land makes up just 29%. mining companies say the area they plan to work is a tiny proportion of the total. i understand why the greens are cautious, but on this occasion, they've got it wrong. and let's go back to first principles. we should be carrying out extractive industries in parts of the planet where there is the least life, not the most life. mr barron says greenpeace's approach is anti—science. as the world is saying, "give me more scientific evidence," here we were going back to an area that we had been harvesting these very same rocks from a year earlier. greenpeace, unfortunately, do not sit into that group that want more scientific evidence. what they wanted to do

was to disrupt us. greenpeace says its protest wasjustified because the metals company plans to press ahead with mining before regulations have been agreed. there is so much science out there already which is urging extreme caution. 800 scientists, more than, have said we should not be transitioning right now to actually mining. we don't want to see licences coming forward... but they're not transitioning to mining, they're collecting evidence, right? with the intention to put that into application... you've said we need more science and then greenpeace is blocking the effort to get that science done, aren't you? i think there's a big difference between tick box science by a company that has a clear commercial interest in the outcomes of that research, and independent scientific research, which is helping us understand the complexity and the fragility of deep ocean environments. a decision about greenpeace's future with the international seabed authority will be made at the meeting injamaica. in the meantime, scientists continue to gather more information about the ocean depths. it's a new industry and we should be

concerned and we should ask difficult questions. essentially, there's always a risk with these things. and collecting data, collecting evidence is the way to reduce that risk, to understand what it is, and then ultimately to make a decision. and i suspect that decision will be difficult. the really good news, says dr glover, is that decisions about regulating the collection of these nodules are being made before the industry begins. and that, he says, is very rare indeed. justin rowlatt, bbc news. the british prime minister, rishi sunak, has brushed away questions about his leadership of the conservative party, saying he's not interested in westminster politics. it comes after the business secretary kemi badenoch admitted that a "small minority" of tory mps are keen on ousting him. how bad is it for rishi sunak? well, this is the bbc poll tracker, updated last week. rishi sunak�*s conservatives on 23% and the opposition labour party

led by sir keir starmer a long way ahead on 44%. rishi sunak was asked about the speculation — here's what he had to say. look, i'm not interested in all westminster politics, it doesn't matter. what matters is the future of our country. and that's what i'm squarely focused on, that's why i get up every morning, working as hard as i can to deliver whether it's cutting people's taxes, increasing the state pension. today, increasing the number of apprenticeships and talking to small businesses. those are the things that matter to people. and as we've seen over the last few weeks, our plan is working. inflation is coming down, wages are growing, the economy is back to growing again. and if we stick to this plan, i can deliver a brighterfuture for everyone in our country. that's what i'm doing. that was rishi sunak. i asked our political correspondent helen catt... lee anderson defected, we had the

race... i asked lee anderson defected, we had the race... iasked her lee anderson defected, we had the race... i asked her how much concern there is among conservative mps. frankly, there is a lot of unease and unhappiness among conservative mps, for all the reasons you just listed. they are looking at those polls, the same as everyone else is, and seeing them not starting to narrow or not starting to shift, as perhaps they might have expected or hoped that they would start to see them do, despite a lot of those big moments — like the budget, for example — didn't seem to move things forward, despite putting in that cut for national insurance. they see there is a bit of frustration from some about the way that things came out last week about lee anderson and his defection to reform, about how that was handled in the run—up to that, which led to him doing that, there has been unease about the way the frank hester situation was dealt with. and so, when you speak to conservative mps, they are certainly frustrated and certainly very down at the moment — a lot of them, i'm not going to say all, but certainly there is a real sense that it is not a happy place

currently because of that election on the horizon. and then you have had on top of that, over the weekend, a lot of reports and speculation in the newspapers that there were some who are considering trying to remove mr sunak, even before an election, and one of the names that was touted as someone they could perhaps rally behind and put in his place was penny mordaunt, the leader of the house of commons. she hasn't responded publicly to that. her supporters believe that she isn't doing that because that would really just make things worse. you know, it wouldn't improve things and they think that it would really dignify the rumours and the plotting with more credit than it deserves. helen, briefly, i heard you earlier saying the government's hope is that they can focus on real issues, for example, the rwanda vote coming up this week. the trouble is, even a vote like that, you have major splits in the party with those who think it goes too far and those who think it doesn't go far enough.

yeah, we have certainly seen that in the development of the rwanda policy. interestingly, speaking to a government insider earlier, they felt that at this point it has become a uniting feature, it is a core policy that, if they can get to do through the commons today, with all those amendments removed from the lords, and then send it back to the lords and potentially get it through the lords in a couple of days' time, then having one of those major bits of policy in place will be unifying. but as you have pointed out, we have seen splits over this issue before when it has come before mps, so it'll be interesting to see whether or not that actually does do that — and if it does, how long does that last? helen catt, talking to me from downing street a little earlier. 0ne downing street a little earlier. one more story. it's a lovely story too. if you've got the monday blues today, then this next story might interest you. applications are now open to work in antarctica's famous "penguin post office". located in port lockroy, it's the southern most post office in the world.

thejob add said the job add said people would need to be self—motivated, empathetic and fine with showering twice a week. nice! camilla johns is head of development at the uk antarctic heritage trust. she was at port lockroy last year. we've had a brilliant response so far. we've had hundreds of applications, but there is still time. applications close tonight at midnight, so you're not too late if you're interested. go ahead. tell me more about the job. well, it's a once—in—a—lifetime opportunity. you're working in one of the most amazing remote regions of our planet, down in antarctica, forfive months. and your main role is to be at the heritage sites that we care for at the uk antarctic heritage trust, these amazing buildings with amazing histories of climate science. and you're really there to monitor the penguins, raise funds for the charity, welcome people to this amazing place and be as part

of a small team in a really, really unique, beautiful environment. i read that you have to get used to the smell of penguin poo. in terms of the numbers, i mean, how do you even go about trying to count them? that must be extraordinarily difficult. well, there are over 1,000 penguins, and they do have a very distinct smell. but we have very strict protocols on how we monitor the penguins, and we have to keep our distance. so we have a set of criteria that we work with, with scientists, and the team are fully briefed to do that study. and we've been counting penguins for over 25 years. i read that one applicant wants to go so much, she's tattooed a map of antarctica on one leg and a portrait of ernest shackleton on the other. i mean, is that true? i mean, that can't be true, can it? well, we've heard as much as everybody else. we know that it's a very popular role. so i guess everyone has different responses to applying,

but we're really looking forward to reading all the applications and seeing everyone's applications coming in. i've only got 30 seconds left, so you're going to have to be quick. how do you decide and when will you decide? well, we'll be looking as soon as applications close tonight. we'll be reading through them as a team. we look through every single one, and we'll be making our decisions and selections in the next few weeks. great story. that was camilla johns speaking to me a little earlier. i am back with the day's headlines in am back with the day's headlines in a few minutes. hello there. it's felt quite warm out there for many of us today, particularly where we've had the blue skies and the sunshine, but the weather is changing again and changes are happening out to the west because this cloud is coming in from the atlantic. the winds are picking up. we're going to see some rain arriving as well. ahead of that, we've got some mild air. it could make 15 degrees around the moray firth and 16 is quite

likely in the south—east of england. we do see that rain coming in, together with stronger winds into northern ireland and we'll see one band of rain pushing eastwards overnight, followed by a second band of rain that's developing. that one could be quite heavy rain with gusty winds, gales likely in the far north of scotland. it will be a pretty mild night out there, milder than it was last night. temperatures no lower than 9 or 10 degrees. those two bands of rain that we start with in england and wales willjust tend to fade away and it will brighten up in many places, leaving just a few showers. a few showers will continue in northern ireland, but the earlier, heavier showers in scotland will move away, sunshine will come out and the winds will ease as well. temperatures still reaching 12 or 13 degrees in scotland and northern ireland, but again peaking at 16 in the south—east of england. we could see a bit of rain developing in the south—west of england by the end of the day. that weather front is going to move back northwards again overnight and into wednesday, taking rain northwards too.

some of that rain for a while affecting northern ireland, perhaps some southern and eastern parts of scotland. most of the rain more likely from the south—west into wales, through the midlands and across northern england. scotland and northern ireland turning drier and brighter through the day. across the south—east of england it may stay dry, as well. here it is still quite mild — 16 or 17 degrees — but behind the rain, to the north, things are cooling off a little bit now. we're all going to see some rain over this week ahead, but there may not be too much rain across the north—east of scotland and we're probably going to miss most of the rain in the south—east of england. it's going to be wetter in the west, particularly across western parts of scotland. as we head into thursday, we will see the winds picking up across northern areas and these weather fronts bringing more rain into scotland and northern ireland in particular. as we move into the end of the week and into the weekend, it's staying windy, but the wind direction is changing, eventually coming to the north—west or the north. that will bring colder weather and lots of showers.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the un says gaza is on the brink of famine its chief says there is still time to halt the crisis. as talks on a possible ceasefire resume in qatar,

speaking ceasefire resume in qatar, on a cease—fire into a hostage speaking on a cease—fire into a hostage deal. anonymous street artist, banksy, has confirmed a painting that appeared on a residential building in north london overnight is his. in the next few minutes we have a special report because a bbc five live investigation has found only a fifth of nhs mental health trusts contacted by the bbc see the provide specialist in tic disorders such as tourette's syringe rooms —— syndrome. a special report coming up. first let's catch up with the sport of the day. following him for say they're disappointed with the decision of the independent commission to section 44 points for reaching the sustainability rules. the fight for premier league survival has taken another twist today as nottingham forest have dropped into the relegation zone without kicking a ball.