the pentagon says it will �*rush' air defence missiles to ukraine. british troops could be used to help deliver aid to gaza via a new sea route. the scottish government is on the edge after a week of turmoil. first minister humza yousaf is looking to shore up his position, seeking talks with other party leaders. south africa celebrates freedom day — thirty years since the end of apartheid and its first democratic elections. a great heaviness lifted from our shoulders. our shackles had been cast off. hello, i'm lewis vaughanjones. ukraine's president zelensky has renewed his appealfor allies to provide his country with more air defences, after another night

of russian bombardment caused serious damage to energy infrastructure. in kharkiv — ukraine's second city — officials said a missile narrowly missed a hospital with a — thousand people inside, leaving a huge crater in the grounds, there were also attacks in the dnipro region in central ukraine — and in the western areas of lviv and ivano—frankivsk. ukrainian officials say equipment was damaged and at least one energy worker injured. russia has repeatedly targeted ukrainian energy infrastructure over recent months. mr zelensky called for decisive action, saying the world could shoot down every missile and drone launched by — what he called — �*russian terrorists�*. let's speak to dr marina miron who is a post—doctoral researcher at the war studies department at the king's college university of london. thank you for coming on the programme. talk to me a little bit about the air defence system that will give your zelensky is

prioritising here. what is the situation as far as know right now in ukraine? what defences do they have? , ., ., ~ ., , have? the situation in ukraine is very dire- _ have? the situation in ukraine is very dire- it _ have? the situation in ukraine is very dire- it is — have? the situation in ukraine is very dire. it is not _ have? the situation in ukraine is very dire. it is not only _ have? the situation in ukraine is very dire. it is not only about. have? the situation in ukraine isi very dire. it is not only about the systems, let's talk about the systems, let's talk about the systems they have. they have the us patriot systems, and they have the old soviet is 300 systems. and the most advanced arguably is the us made patriot. however, is also the most expensive system, costing about $1 billion. and the missiles for the system are also very expensive and are inch in shortage in ukraine. evenif are inch in shortage in ukraine. even if ukraine has the systems, it needs to have enough interception missiles to fend off russian attacks. president zelensky has been stressing quite frequently that ukraine would need at least 50 patriot systems in order to cover the area that the russians are attacking.

the area that the russians are attackina. , . ., , the area that the russians are attacking-— attacking. only areas that the russian troops _ attacking. only areas that the russian troops are _ attacking. only areas that the russian troops are attacking, | attacking. only areas that the - russian troops are attacking, what is the strategy with energy and infrastructure being hit? the russians want _ infrastructure being hit? the russians want to _ infrastructure being hit? tie: russians want to destroy every single capability that ukrainian armed forces have. so they are destroying the energy infrastructure, they are targeting military facilities such as storage facilities, drone factories, ammunition storage is. so the idea is to weaken the ukrainian armed forces and of course, without electricity, you cannot maintain equipment, you cannot produce ammunition or groans. that is the idea and that is preparing the ground for an expected russian offensive which should be happening any time soon, end of may, perhaps june. any time soon, end of may, perhaps june. . ~' ,, , . any time soon, end of may, perhaps june. . ~ ,, , . ., any time soon, end of may, perhaps june. . ~ , . ., june. thank you very much for coming on the programme. _ there've been developments in ceasefire negotiations between israel and hamas — with both sides continuing to review proposals. egyptian mediators have

arrived in israel — and local media are reporting there's been "notable progress" in finding common ground. in gaza itself, the hamas—run health agency says at least 50 people have been killed in israeli attacks over the past 2a hours. on saturday, people searched through the rubble of rafah, trying to recover what they could, after two houses were struck in the southern gaza city. the bbc has learnt that british troops could be deployed on the ground in gaza to help deliver aid via a new sea route. aid would be delivered from cyprus on large ships before being transferred onto trucks and smaller landing craft. the floating causeway is expected to be "several hundred metres long" and anchored firmly into the sand. the united states has decided not to put american boots on the ground. 0ur diplomatic correspondentjames landale has more from jerusalem. some aid is getting into gaza by land. trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies. some aid is being dropped by air, but the united nations says it is nowhere near enough to help

the people of gaza who, it says, are facing famine. so there are plans for aid to come by sea. the us army is building floating platforms like this off the coast, where aid will be taken off ships and put into trucks. us military vessels to include the usns benavidez have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea. that floating causeway is expected to be anchored on the beach somewhere near here, where israeli forces will secure a distribution area. the us says there will be no american boots on the ground. so the uk is considering whether british forces should drive the trucks along the causeway that may look something like this. but that would mean british forces being put in harm's way on the beaches of gaza, so—called wet boots on the ground, potentially at risk from hamas fighters. the trouble with these sorts of operations is you always enter

spaces that are unpredictable. you go to places you wouldn't want to go and things happen. so you have to be prepared for the worst case, so you've got to secure the area. british forces could be deployed from this uk air base in cyprus, but, as of now, it is just an option. there has been no decision and it is yet to pass the prime minister's desk. the mod refused to comment. chris parry is a former senior officer in the royal navy and nato. he explained how this might work... what we have to imagine is the coastline at gaza doesn't have any port facilities, and so, if anybody can remember what d—day was like we had piers pontoons that lead from deep water into the shallow zone and also the shore. what this is called by the americans is called joint logistics over the shore, jlots. it is essentially a floating pier and it enables you to put heavy trucks and other loads ashore

from ships that can only go into deep water. during the construction of this pontoon pier people are going to stay in rfa cardigan bay, which is a 15,000 tonne auxiliary ship that works for the royal navy. i think we have heard already that a third party is going to be driving these trucks, and i suspect the interface would best be served by an arab country rather than any british troops going ashore. i suspect we are going to be limited to doing what is offshore and the truck driving and all the other things are best placed amongst those who are understand the local culture and can deal with it. earlier i spoke to retired us army lieutenant general, mark schwartz about the operation to get the aid in gaza. i think the level of coalition coordination to this point has been superb, obviously, the uk, france and the united states, to build this floating pier to have

another major avenue of aid coming into the country, into the gaza strip is great. the challenge is going to be as chris pointed out, getting it from the pier to the point of need. i agree, ideally, you will see, whether it is palestinian or the kingdom ofjordan or egypt providing those transport drivers to help enable the aid to the point of need. let's look at the wider military state of play, specifically at rafah. what is your assessment of where we are? last week, with the activation of two reserve brigades that i believe the intent of those two brigades are going to be backfilling two of the more capable active duty brigades that are currently in gaza, to free them up to start rafah operations. i think, i don't know if it is days, but certainly weeks, as you mentioned, the fact

that there have been some concerted dialogue on negotiations as recently as yesterday, and with the egyptian delegation in israel, we had seen that before, but that's positive, and that will potentially delay if any type of agreement is made. clearly, both conventional and special operations forces within the israeli defence forces are preparing and doing theirfinal planning and preparations for an eventual invasion of rafah. what is your understanding of the need to do this? is there intelligence that the final resting command of hamas is definitely there? i think the consensus we have seen being reported is that there is certainly a pretty significant number of militants, i think the estimate i've seen, at least reported in the press, is anywhere from four or five battalions. certainly, whatever is remaining of the senior leadership, to include the senior leadership

of the hamas militant wing are believed to be hiding among the population there as well. i certainly understand the operational necessity to go in, and, you know, i am glad to see finally you are seeing these temporary camps being stood up in and around rafah and khan younis as well to try and move as many of the population that is feasible before operations commence. in an attempt to save his political career, scotland's first minister, humza yousaf, has invited the leaders of other parties to talks in an attempt to find �*common ground�*. he reportedly wrote to the leaders on friday night. mr yousaf is insisting he will not resign despite the tumultuous week. here�*s a quick recap of what�*s happened. the crisis began when humza yousaf — who leads the scottish national party ended its governing coalition with the scottish greens. both parties are pro scottish independence. there�*d

been trouble in the coalition about the decision to scrap climate targets — and gender policy issues. theoretically, mr yousaf could lead a minority government but he faces a confidence vote in his leadership — and all the main scottish parties say they will vote against him. there is also expected to be a confidence vote in his government. there�*s the possibility that a former snp member ash regan — who defected to another nationalist party — could save mr yousaf. but that�*s highly uncertain. the big picture in all of this is that the position of the scottish national party is weakening with uk elections due. and that also has implications for the likelihood of scottish independence. for our uk viewers, we will have more on this story later this hour. this all started when humza yousaf ended the power—sharing agreement with the greens on thursday. a lot has happened since then. without the scottish greens in government, humza yousaf leads a minority government and now he potentially faces these

two faults of no confidence next week. that is one on himself and one in his government. the arithmetic is very tight. he will need the support of at least one opposition msp if he is to survive and that of course means he needs all of his own msps in the snp as well. he has written to all of the party leaders asking them for talks on where they can find common ground. in the letter, he called for constructive contributions while acknowledging strong feelings remain in the lead up strong feelings remain in the lead up to next week�*s votes. and the responses are starting to come in. first, let�*s look at the prounion parties who it is very unlikely that the snp would be able to get a deal with. douglas rose who is the leader of the scottish conservatives tabled in the motion of no confidence in humza yousaf and he has written back to him. at night, he said that humza yousaf has prioritised his campaign for independence above the real concerns of the scottish public. and

that he should accept his time in office is over. and should resign as first minister. definitely no deal there. scottish labour tabled the no—confidence motion in the scottish government. today, they have said that this letter they have received from humza yousaf is an act of desperation and the government is chaotic and incompetent and a case of not if, when humza yousaf goes, but wayne and they want a general election at holyrood. the lib dems said they will set out their position tomorrow. 0f said they will set out their position tomorrow. of the pro—independence parties, somewhat ironically, he is reaching out to the green party who he dumped, but they are sore and said they cannot trust him and their position has not changed since receiving the letter. humza yousaf said yesterday he did not mean to upset our anger the scottish green party and there are a lot of issues where they share common ground. his only other potential lifeline is the msp ash rating, that is the party led by the

former first minister, that is led by the former first minister alex salmon. she stood for a leader of the snp against humza yousaf before leaving. she set out a number of conditions. but if humza yousaf makes concessions to her? at that rock the boat elsewhere? if he loses the vote in himself, he is not legally bound to reside but you can imagine the political pressure he will be under. we heard from an msp in his own party today saying he would have to step down if he lost the vote. he is trying to reclaim the vote. he is trying to reclaim the narrative, we expect a raft of policy announcement this week to try and shore up some support ahead of those votes. a quick update for you — a british man seriously injured in a shark attack in the caribbean has been named. 64—year—old peter smith from hertfordshire was attacked off the north coast

of tobago, close to the shore in courland bay. he suffered multiple injuries and has had surgery to reattach some of his fingers. officials on the island say the man is stable and expected to recover. seven beaches were closed to allow the coast guard to investigate. now it�*s time for a look at today�*s sport hello from the bbc sport centre liverpool�*s hopes of staying in the premier league title race have suffered another blow after being held to a two—all draw with west ham united. jarred bowen put the hammers ahead just before half time. liverpool roared back in the second half, left back andy robertson equalising soon after the interval an own goalfrom hammers keeper alphonse areola saw the visitors take the lead. but they couldn�*t hold on to it. player of the match bowen picked out michail antonio to earn west ham a point. but it was a result that wasn�*t of much help to either team�*s ambitions. it�*s not a great day for liverpool fc. oh, my god, we were unlucky, obviously, unlucky too often most of the time, maybe we know it�*s not right to claim anything else.

again, let�*s recover and then we go again. there�*s plenty more action taking place on saturday. we�*re into the second half of the 3pm local time games. fulham host in—form crystal palace... the art one goal up. sheffield united will be relegated if they lost at newcastle. 2—1 there. man united, 0—0 burnley wolves, 1—0 luton. wolves, 2—0 luton. a win would take luton out of the bottom three... there�*s a huge night ahead, in the women�*s champions league at a sold out stamford bridge. chelsea hold a 1—0 lead over barcelona going into the second leg of their semi—final. although emma hayes will leave at the end of the season — to take charge of the us national team, she says her players would give 100 per cent whether that was the case or not. i think our players play for our badge.

0ur players play for their family. 0ur players play for each other. i am part of that. i am in a team, it�*s not me, it�*s us, it�*s we. and these player play at this football club to play in every game for chelsea. former world champion judd trump says he has rejected an approach to join a potential breakaway snooker tour, there�*s been speculation the sport�*s biggest names could be tempted to leave the existing world snooker tour and play in lucrative events elsewhere. but world number two, trump, said he instantly refused, and there was no chance he would quit. 0n the table in sheffield, the 2019 winner trump progressed into the quarter—finals by beating fellow englishman tom ford by 13 frames to 7. in saturday morning�*s other second round match, stephen maguire led shaun murphy by ten frames to six at the end of the session. i have absolutely no doubt that i

will be playing on this tour for the foreseeable future. i think for me playing and exhibitions, series or whatever it is, is not right for me at this moment in time. i have got so much life to achieve in the game and money me at this moment in time is not the priority. i need to hopefully put some question marks to bait and stuff like that. at the madrid 0pen where last year�*s finalist iga swiatek eased past romania�*s sorana cirstea in straight sets to reach the last 16. play started with the roof closed but that had no effect on swiatek who rushed to a 4—love lead inside 22 minutes.... the second set followed a similar pattern, as the world number one swiatek wrapped up the win .. 6-1 6-1. in rugby union, france against england will decide the women�*s six nations championship... with around half an hour to kick off. (full frame gfx) ireland currently are in action against scotland — with third place and a world cup

place at stake 15—12 there. earlier, wales came bottom, despite a slender win over italy.... but attention very much in bordeaux for france—england. the red roses aiming for a sixth successive title — and haven�*t lost in the competition for 28 games, but their last defeat was away against france in 2018. the girls are really looking forward to just putting the performance out on the pitch, and the players that have not played in a hostile environment like this, it�*s for the senior players to put their arm around, checking on them, and, you know, just remember to enjoy the moment however the moment is, because you don�*t know when it�*s your last. and that�*s all the sport for now. we will be back with more later on. we will be back with more later on. we will be back with more later on. we will see you then. it was a disturbing development on the channel this week — the deaths of five migrants aboard a dinghy bound for the uk. the bbc�*s andrew harding has returned to the beach in wimereux where he saw that group take off on tuesday. we�*re just running to catch

up with some migrants. it was just before six in the morning on tuesday, still pretty much pitch dark— we were sitting on these rocks, waiting quietly for something to happen. suddenly, there was shouts and within seconds, scenes of total chaos. we knew there were migrants nearby because a bbc colleague was actually in a french surveillance plane with the police, and their thermal imaging cameras had recorded several groups of migrants in the dunes. what�*s striking now is quite how quickly it all happened. there was a big group of migrants who�*d come from those dunes and they were running as fast as they could with their inflatable boat towards the open sea, police chasing them. there�*s another group here. the french police were here. they could see them. they were chasing them. but there simply wasn�*t enough time for them to get between the land and the sea and block the boat to get to the water. they�*re letting off firecrackers to try and keep the police away from them.

as we got closer to the water and to the migrants, it became clear another group was also joining them and they were converging on the same spot and on the same inflatable boat. and that�*s where the trouble really started. we now know that there were at least 110 people trying to fit on board that one inflatable boat. normally, the smugglers have put maybe 50 or 60 people on one boat, so it was totally overcrowded. the tactics used by the smugglers are clearly evolving to cope with increasingly effective measures being taken by the french police, who have recently been using knives a lot to slash the inflatables to make them simply unseaworthy. now, because of that, the smugglers are using much more violence. you are going to leave them to go out? the french police

have come in for a lot of criticism for not stopping this boat and others for standing by, essentially. what they say is given the dark, given the dangers, given the violence from the smugglers, the fact that this is happening at sea, if they did intervene more aggressively, there�*s every risk they could put more people in danger. clearly, though, it is a balancing act between protecting lives and stopping the boats, and sometimes they don�*t get that balance quite right. after all, five people did die here. i think this one incident shows us the determination not just of the smugglers, but of the migrants, many of whom stayed in the boat and carried on theirjourney across the channel. we�*re in, probably, for a very difficult few months. after all, we know there are many, many more migrants building up on the coast here than last year. we know that already more people have died this year than in the whole of last year. the likelihood is that there are going to be many more crossings as the weather improves and presumably many more deaths.

south africa is marking thirty years since the end of apartheid and the country�*s first democratic elections. president cyril ramaphosa — who is leading the main ceremony in pretoria — has said freedom day will unite the country in celebrating its democraticjourney. on this day in 1994 nelson mandela cast his ballot in south africa�*s first all—race elections at a high school near durban. for more on this i spoke to our correspondentjenny hill, who is in johannesburg. this is a moment when south africans think back, they commemorate the heroes of the struggle against apartheid. many of them recall too the joy and the hope which accompanied the election of nelson mandela and his african national congress party. the anc has been in power ever since. a lot has changed in this country since then, the current president, cyril ramaphosa, laid the commemorations today in pretoria. he said 30 years ago, the bell of freedom rang

across our great country. he also went on to say the weight of centuries of oppression was cast off on that day. this is a big moment for south africa, an entire generation has grown up in post apartheid. cyril ramaphosa knows there are a lot of challenges facing his country, he acknowledged as much in his very stirring speech. he also knows he and his party are likely to face a bruising election in a month�*s time. many voters are frankly fed up with failing infrastructure, electricity, power outages, water supply is often interrupted too. there are huge problems with unemployment, the youth unemployment rate is more than 60%. record levels of violent crime are also affecting people and making them very angry. most opinion polls reveal as though that will certainly be

reflected on election day. as it appears some voters are turning away from the anc with some predictions suggesting that it could lose its majority for the very first time. the olympic flame for this year�*s games has begun itsjourney to france. a short while ago, the torch, onboard the belem set sail from the port of piraeus in greece. its arrival in marseille next month will signal the start of a torch relay across france, and french territories, which will end at the 0lympics�* opening ceremony on the 26th ofjuly. stay with us here on bbc news. i'll i�*ll be back with the headlines in a couple of minutes.

hello there. there�*s certainly going to be winners and losers with the weather story for the rest of the day. the best of the sunshine so far has been in the far north and west, but most of us under this influence of low pressure, and this weather front ahead of the main low, well, that has brought some outbreaks of rain. it�*s weakening all the time as it drift its way steadily northwards, a band of cloud and drizzle. so the best of the sunshine certainly has been in north—west scotland, just take a look at the western isles early on this morning. for scotland, for northern ireland and northern england as we go through the afternoon, it�*s a case of sunny spells and scattered showers, but we keep that cloud and drizzle across the midlands and into north wales. slowly brightening up south of the m4 corridor, but that in turn could trigger off one or two sharp, thundery downpours. temperatures today generally across the country a little below par for the time of year, so still that disappointing feel 9—11; degrees. but it will turn a little milder at the weekend continues. but it will also turn wetter through the evening and overnight as we see more rain spilling its way up from the channel and spreading across eastern england.

here we�*ll see temperatures holding up, but to the far north and west under those clearing skies, low enough once again for a touch of frost. but it�*s this low pressure that will bring some wet and increasingly windy weather, but it�*s also bringing some milder weather with it as well as the wind direction changes to more of a southerly or south—easterly. so a spell of heavy rain which will linger across north—east england and eastern scotland. west will be best through the afternoon. it�*ll be windy with the cloud and rain, and as a consequence, the temperatures really disappointing once again, 7—10 degrees, highest values of 13, possibly 1a. now, as we move into monday, not a bad start, and with that wind direction still coming from the south, some sunshine and some warmth. yes, it will turn cloudier and wetter from the west as we go through the day, but in that sunshine we could see temperatures peaking at 16, and it should feel quite pleasant, particularly in comparison to of late. warmer still as we go to the middle part of the week. this area of low pressure

will bring outbreaks of rain at times, but we�*re tapping into a south—easterly wind direction, and that will continue to drive in some warmer air, so temperatures just a little above where they should be for this time of year, but don�*t expect anything too dry, settled or sunny.

live from london. this is bbc news. as a russian missile narrowly misses a kharkiv hospital, the pentagon says it will �*rush�* air defence missiles to ukraine. british troops could be used to help deliver aid to gaza via a new sea route. it is understood that the force will be tasked to do this when the aid corridor opens up next month. first minister humza yousaf is looking to shore up his position, seeking talks with other party leaders. humza yousaf insists he won�*t resign despite a week of political turmoil. wildlife in antarctica is being exposed to potentially dangerous levels of ultraviolet light exposed by australian bushfires in part.