and a nail—biter in elections in england — labour win the mayoral contest in the west midlands, capping a bleak set of local election results for the conservative party. hello, i'm carl nasman. efforts are intensifying to secure a deal for the release of hostages and a ceasefire in gaza as the israel—hamas war approaches the seven—month mark. a delegation of hamas negotiators arrived in cairo. cia director william burns is also in the egyptian capital to mediate. the talks are reported to have ended for the day, with a senior hamas official telling the afp news agency there have been "no developments" but talks are expected to continue sunday. let's take a look at where things stand. the main sticking point is whether a ceasefire deal will be permanent or temporary. a hamas official says the group will not agree to a truce that does not fully end the gaza war. israel is reluctant to agree to this. israeli forces remain

active in gaza. mediators have been waiting for hamas to respond to an israeli proposal to halt the fighting for a0 days and to exchange hostages for palestinian prisoners. but even if a deal is reached, israeli prme minister benjamin netanyahu insists there will be a fresh military offensive in rafah. there has been widespread international concern that an israeli ground operation could endanger more than one million palestinians sheltering there. our correspondent, anna foster, in jerusalem, has more on where negotiations stand as of saturday. i've been watching in the regional media, various briefings, everything from saying we're on the verge of an agreement — the framework of an agreement — everything through to israel saying no, they won't agree to a ceasefire to end the war permanently. the key thing at this point in time

is this is the moment where we hear these briefings and hear different things from different sides but until we get some sort of official word, potentially from the egyptian mediators, in charge of the talks in cairo, really all of that is background noise. what we do know is that one key sticking point is the idea of a permanent ceasefire. now, we know that is a key part of what hamas is asking for out of this deal, the idea that there would be eventual end to this war, rather than just a temporary ceasefire, while the exchange goes on. we know israel, equally, say that without a ground offensive in rafah, which benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, has been talking about for months, they say they can't deliver on the aim of fully removing hamas from gaza. they have been saying at the last few days even if there is a deal that military operation will go ahead. for more on this, i spoke to frank lowenstein, former us special envoy for israeli—palestinian negotiations and former senior advisor to the secretary of state. we're hearing these efforts towards a ceasefire are intensifying. of course, these have been

going on for several weeks. some mixed messages. the hamas delegation saying it was in positive spirits, but then today hearing that there haven't been any significant steps forward. how optimistic are you that we could see a ceasefire deal agreed in the coming days or weeks? well, i certainly think we have seen some encouraging signs in the last day or two from hamas. previously they rejected the proposal outright, and now they are saying that they are looking at with positivity. but there are core issues to be resolved, particularly whether this will be permanent or not. on the one hand, you have netanyahu making comments that they will do rafah, no matter what, and hamas saying that they need it to be permanent. hamas could be posturing, and the israelis as well. how much do you think the ground invasion of rafah,

the one likely to go ahead — at least according to prime minister netanyahu — how much is that hanging over negotiations? how much of a sticking point is it? it's absolutely it is the elephant in the room. from the united states perspective, this would result in far more civilian casualties, which we have been trying to avoid. it also domestic problems for biden as well. bernie sanders said this could become another vietnam for him. so the biden administration has a lot of incentive to reach a ceasefire. that's why we have really been pressing israel as much as we have. and pressuring hamas as well. we told the qataris we want them to throw the hamas political leadership out if they don't reach a ceasefire. whether we will succeed or not is certainly an open question. how much urgency is there on the part of both hamas and israel — and there is domestic pressure at home for prime minister netanyahu to get the hostages home — but this has dragged on for many months. is there enough for either side to really push for a deal, to really make some sort of concession? that's a good question.

what i'm concerned about is that we care about this more than either of the parties do. in 2014, when secretary kerry was negotiating a ceasefire between hamas and israel, we really pushed the parties hard to get the parties to agree to something they didn't want to agree to, and the ceasefire fell apart very quickly. if both sides feel really forced into something that they didn't otherwise want to do, it might not last. and that is the concern for the biden administration — if the sides aren't in a place where they want to get the result for their own domestic political reasons. hamas think they are winning the war. they don't mind having thousands of palestinian civilians slaughtered to advance their aims. and i think netanyahu has concerns of his own. it isn't clear that either side really wants this. this took about what is going on in the us. we have seen massive protests arriving at us universities, coast—to—coast, really. there's a lot of pressure right now on president biden. is there more that the white

house could be doing to try to get these two sides to agree on a ceasefire deal? i think we will see biden do everything he can to tamp the underlying cause of the protest movement, which is concern about what is going on in the ground in gaza. i think the only way we'll get the momentum out of these protests is a ceasefire, here, which would allow a lot of humanitarian assistance to get in, prevent a war with hezbollah, allow hostages to be released. there are a lot of things that would be positive for the president, politically, if we could get the fighting to stop. also, it is important to remember that biden would still like to do this grand bargain of saudi normalisation of relations with israel. and he would like to make a speech, jake sullivan said today, either a two state solution, or continue to get the dark pather we're on right now. he can't do that is the war is raging. i think you will see biden do everything again to get this

over the line. we have just one last question. we're getting some details about what might be in the ceasefire deal. we haven't seen the actual document but but there are discussions about an exchange of hostages for palestinian prisoners, conversations about allowing people to return to areas of the north of gaza. do you think that the rumour details here would be enough to lay a foundation for a more lasting peace in the region? i think if they reached agreement on the core issue of whether this will be permanent and to the war or not — and i think the united states hopes it would be — that i think the other issues can be resolved. it is important to understand there is a devil in all of those details. everyone of those is a core negotiating point as far as israel and hamas is concerned. if what they're looking for is a reason to buy the other side

forfailure, the points can provide ample opportunity for either side to bail out and blame the other. we'll see if either side is really interested in the ceasefire in the days ahead. 0k, frank lowenstein, former us special envoy for israeli—palestinian negotiations. thank you very much. thanks for having me. anti—war protests at us colleges continued on saturday, some conflicting with graduation ceremonies. ro—palestinian demonstrators interrupted a graduation ceremony at the university of michigan. some graduates held palestinian flags while chanting slogans in the packed stadium. amid growing demonstrations over the war in gaza, more universities are bracing for disruptions at graduation ceremonies. meanwhile, police at the university of virginia tore down tents and cleared out protesters after declaring the encampment was an unlawful assembly and columbia university in new york is rethinking its commencement plans. more than a0 us college campuses have seen student protests or encampments over the past two weeks. earlier i spoke to neal mccluskey, director of the kato institute�*s centre for educational freedom.

disruptions at the university of michigan during the graduation ceremony. what do you make of it overall? we have seen dozens of universities with these protests. how do you think they're balancing the rights of freedom of speech on campus, freedoms of expression, with concerns about safety? yeah, well, i think every campus is different, every state where a lot of these things is happening is different. and it's a difficult line to draw. different institutions draw on different places. generally, though, i don't think we have seen a lot of colleges that have had really over—the—top police responses. i think they've tried to let the protesters speak. they often allow them to have their encampments. but they do say you can't interrupt something really important — you can't interrupt education, you can't interrupt graduation, especially considering a lot of people graduate now missed a lot of college because of covid, and would at least like to end with normalcy.

so they're trying hard to make this balance of continuing to operate as an institution while allowing you to speak. and then there is the bigger question of some states, where there are public college universities, governors, sometimes legislatures, will say, well, we need to be stricter with police coming in and breaking these things up, and then gets a bit more dicey. we saw the governor of texas bringing in troopers very quickly to demonstrations there. universities have always, of course, been thought to be places of open discussion, of scholarly classes, of really digging in on some difficult topics — like the war, currently, in the middle east. do you think the universities are struggling to do that right now? are they not able to engage with this topic in a way that relates more towards — towards — towards classes or studies? yeah, i mean, clearly, with the protests and the encampments, there are difficulties. ucla had a clash of protesters that got really ugly. and that's the worst case scenario.

i think what we have seen is protesters saying what they want to say, making statements, making, you know, a big production out of what they want. i haven't seen a whole lot of it lead to constructive dialogue. but i think probably if you go into universities and you go into the domitories, you go into the classes, you are probably seeing kids more engaged with this on a one—on—one free exchange of ideas. protests aren't always about let's get together with people we disagree with. local election results in england came in thick and fast satuday and the news was grim for uk prime minister rishi sunak and his conservative party. the most shocking result was in the west midlands, centred on the uk's second—largest city, birmingham, where two—term conservative mayor andy street lost to richard parker from the opposition labour party. the bbc�*s political editor chris mason reports. how are you feeling, andy? we will see. out of his hands. the conservative

andy street arrived here at lunchtime, awaiting the verdict of voters. it was to be a long wait for mr street and his labour rival, richard parker. votes rechecked, a recount in coventry, and this result in the last hour or so. the number of votes recorded for each... we've waited all day for this moment. it's happening now. the result. and i do hereby declare that richard parker... cheering this is the most important thing i will ever do. this week, people here voted for the person and the party. they recognise that a labour mayor can make a positive difference in this region. so where do i go? a winner and a loser and the finest of margins. mr street, commiserations. what do you put your loss down to? very straightforward, chris, isn't it? we didn't persuade enough people

across the west midlands of our record and our plans for the future to give them confidence to go and vote on thursday. i've always said it was my campaign and we didn't get over the line. very straightforward. bluntly, is rishi sunakto blame? no, this was my campaign. idid it. the famous words. i did it my way, and it was always going to be like that. and in the end it wasn't quite enough. but i'll tell you what, it was bloody close excuse my language and no—one would have expected that. to be clear, do you want rishi sunak to lead the conservatives into the general election? yes, there is... it would be complete madness to have another moment of introspection. khan, sadiq labour party... elsewhere, labour's sadiq khan has won again in london. thank you from the bottom of my heart. thank you, london. it's the honour of my life to serve the city that i love. therefore, i declare that andy burnham is duly elected as the mayor of the greater manchester combined authority. there was another labour victory in greater manchester. it has been hard to keep greater manchester moving

forward when the country has been going backwards, but we have managed it, and our economy is growing faster than the uk's. labour also won in liverpool, salford, south yorkshire and west yorkshire. but the eye—catching result today is in the west midlands. chris mason, bbc news in birmingham. well, let's now take a closer look at all the results — almost all of them are now in — and find out what they tell us about the state of the parties' fortunes as we approach a general election. here's nick eardley. as you can see, it's a real knife edge. just 1500 votes between the labour victor and andy street for the conservatives, despite the fact that more than half a million votes were cast. in terms of percentages, this is how it shakes out, 37.8 and 37.5. note the i2%, that was an independent candidate,

critical of labour's policy on the war in gaza, and despite that labour did manage to just make it through. let me show you on the next slide how things have changed. the labour vote is actually down a wee bit. the conservative vote is down so much, ii%, that has allowed labour to take the west midlands, and finally let me just quickly show you the swing that we got there, 4.6 from the conservatives to labour, enough to get them over the line. it wasn't just the west midlands, though. as we were just hearing from chris, london today as well. sadiq khan being returned for a third term, the margin there was a lot bigger, 275,000 votes in it in the end, and this is why. let me show you the swing quickly. it's a big one, 3.2% conservative to labour, and that matters because the conservatives were hoping to close the gap with labour in london, but the opposite has happened. as you can see there. across the country, across england, we have now got a pretty good picture. 106 of 107 councils have declared, and here is how it looks.

labour up 185, a good result for them. the conservatives down 473, they've lost almost half of all the seats they were defending on thursday. that's a really bad result. as you can see, the lib dems on thursday's results have just overtaken them. it is worth pointing out down here as well the greens are up 7a. and finally this, this is what they will study in the party headquarters and what it might mean for a general election. look at that. conservative vote right down, 12%. the lib dem up 2%, the greens up too, but they will be quenching where the 3% is. they sound confident that it is in the right places, the places they need to win if they are going to win

the white house will reportedly send $60 million worth of military aid to haiti, to help its new government re—assert control over gangs. the report — from the news outlet politico — has not been independently verified by the bbc. it says the us will send most of the aid to haiti's national police, and is likely to include vehicles, firearms, ammunition and surveillance drones.haiti's transitional council appointed the former senate leader, edgard leblanc fils as its president on tuesday. the transitional council replaces ariel henry, who resigned as prime minister amid spiralling violence. hundreds of thousands of haitians have been displaced as gangs control an estimated 80 percent of the capital port—au—prince. the transitional council has a mandate from the caribbean community to run haiti until elections are held in 2026. for more, i spoke to jacqueline charles, who covers haiti for the miami herald newspaper. i want to talk firstly about the transitional council,

which has only been in effect for a matter of days. how effective is it in governing so far? well, it's already had a crisis. after its installation, they called a public vote. they invited the media to see them vote on who would be the president of this council. that president, i mean, basically a co—ordinator. they don't have any more power than the other six voting members. but after two hours, they came out and announced there wouldn't be a vote and a decision had been made on who the president would be, edgard leblanc fils, and they also announced there was a new majority bloc that decided on the prime minister. they didn't expect their engagement about the public vote or how they would select a prime minister to replace henry. now, the three minority individuals on that council who were not part of the majority bloc, they are saying, crying foul, basically. we are waiting to see whether or not they can work this out or whether this council is going to implode before it gets to work.

what does that say about the state of governance in haiti? how much confidence do haitians themselves have in this transitional council? haitians themselves have not had much confidence in any governance. that's part of the problem that we see. this political instability, this paralysis in haiti didn't occur because of the assasinatio or ariel henry's reign. haitians have been challenged to rise to the occasion given the gang violence, the spread of gangs targeting key infrastructure, and the airport is still shut down two months into this crisis. so can you imagine, nothing is getting in or out of the capital. we mentioned the reports from politico that the biden administration approved a $60 million aid package,

military equipment for police and security forces in haiti. how big of a role is the us playing right now in the country? we at the miami herald reported this story two weeks ago, through the announcement of the council, that the biden administration decided to use his draw—down, presidential authority, to get $60 million, and it had already drawn down $10 million. so its $70 million, which will assist them to get a deployment later this month and to help. right now the us is not playing a role, but are letting the haitians to figure this out but they are doing everything they can to get that multi national security support force on the ground as quickly as possible. ariel henri was in kenya when most of the violence erupted. he was trying to finalise a deal that would bring over 1,000 police officers from kenya, for an international peacekeeping force. where does that plan stand now? is that continuing to go forward? yes.

he did finalise that deal. the state department this week was in miami and basically told us that that deal stands, its legal, its binding. president ruto is supposed to be in washington on the 23rd. yesterday the miami herald wrote the story where we spoke to the head of inl who confirmed that they are working to have a force, there will be kenyan police officers in haiti that will coincide with the presidential visit from kenya and his wife. what about the future outlook? we heard the overall goal is for elections in 2026. this is a country that has not had elections in several years. are we closer? is there hope we could see elections on the horizon? haiti has not had a general election since 2016. by the look of this council now there's a lot of doubt in whether or not they will be able to work things out. we're basically hoping that these seven voting members

of the council can start to build confidence and trust and transparency among them and then they can select a prime minister, put together a government to replace prime minister ariel henri's outgoing cabinet and they can start to ready the country to receive the kenyans and work on putting security back, so haitians feel confident they can go to the polls without being killed. briefly, we have 20 seconds left, but in terms of the gangs, what's the latest we heard from them? they still control large parts of the capital city? yes, more than 80% of the capital, they are continuing to target. there was a fresh round of attacks this week. they are current currently not at the table. some are demanding but there are 300 gangs in the country. putting them now at the table is not something being entertained within haiti. we will have to see what goes on. thank you. thank you as always for your fantastic reporting with the miami herald. thank you. in the democratic republic of congo, a deadly bombing of a displacement camp in the eastern city of goma

on friday killed at least nine people, including children. the congolese army and the m23 rebel group blame each other for the attack. the attack has been internationally condemned. the us says it is �*gravely concerned' about the expansion of m23 fighters and army forces from neigbouring rwanda in eastern drc. french president emmanuel macron has also urged rwanda to end its alleged backing of m23. rwanda rejects claims that it is involved. congolese president felix tshisekedi cut short his visit to europe following the attacks. government officials are urging people in goma to remain calm until it carries out a proportionate response. the humanitarian situation is deepening amid violence between the congolese army and various militia groups that are trying to take control of mineral—rich land. more than 6.5 million people are internally displaced overall. let's turn to some

important news around the world. flooding and landslides triggered by days of heavy rain in brazil's southernmost state, rio grande do sul, have killed at least 57 people. officials say another 67 people are missing. nearly 70,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes since the storms began last saturday. at least half a million people are without power and clean water. in mexico, three bodies have been found during a search for two australians and an american who went missing last week during a surfing trip. the three were on vacation near the coastal city of ensenada, in the northwestern state of baja, california, when they failed to turn up at their planned accommodation. the bodies have not yet been identified. a huge diplomatic row has erupted after spain's transport minister suggested argentina's president had used drugs. 0scar puente said javier milei had ingested �*substances' during his election campaign last year. mr milei hit back condemning the "slander and insults" and attacked the policies of spain's socialist prime minister pedro sanchez.

and before we go, check this out — in a photo—finish, mystik dan won the 150th kentucky derby in louisville on saturday. you can see mystik dan here edging out two other horses, forever young and sierra leone, in his upset victory. the derby is the first leg of horse racing's triple crown, which continues with the preakness stakes in baltimore later this month. hello there. although temperatures in northwest scotland reached 19 degrees on saturday, other parts of scotland were not as lucky. in argyll and bute, it was a lot chillier. here, we had temperatures of 23 degrees on friday but it was back down to 15 at best on saturday. further south, though, it felt a lot warmer because the sun was out — bedford one of the warmest parts of the country. we've got a bit of cloud and a little rain heading into the southwest of england

by the morning, pushing into wales, eventually towards the south east of england but ahead of that, plenty of sunshine, mist and fog patches clearing, cloud will bubble up, the odd shower perhaps. we have more cloud, though, and more showers coming into scotland and the far north of england. should be a bit drier and maybe brighter across northern ireland. but the highest temperatures are going to be across northern england and into the midlands — 18 or 19 degrees here with some sunny spells. could be a bit of a sneezy day, mind you. we're moving into the grass pollen season and pollen levels are going to be high across the midlands and southern england, even though in the south, we're going to find a bit more cloud just dampening down the temperatures. and most of that rain that we see here will fade away during the evening but we will import some rain from the continent later on in the night and we've still got those heavy showers pushing down across scotland and into the far north of england. and for the bank holiday monday morning, temperatures are going to start at around eight or nine degrees. fly in the ointment on bank holiday monday is that weather front there. it's not really moving very far at all and around it, we are pushing in more cloud and probably more rain, actually, for south—eastern parts of england into central

southern england and in towards the midlands. still got cloud and heavy showers in scotland, the far north of england. maybe staying dry but maybe cloudy in northern ireland and across other parts of northern england, wales, the midlands, towards the south—west, there'll be some heavy and thundery, slow—moving showers in the afternoon. 0n the whole, more showers around for bank holiday monday. temperatures not quite so high. almost anywhere could catch a shower. tuesday, though, looks a little bit drier. we have still got the odd shower around across scotland, into northern england, the midlands, perhaps into wales, but not as many showers, not as heavy showers. the south and southeast are looking dry and warm. it may well be dry in northern ireland once again. and the theme as we head further into next week is for high pressure to build, and that means things for many of us will turn dry. there will be some sunshine and those temperatures will be climbing as well.

v0|ce—0ver: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. a new type of drug is causing deaths across the uk. synthetic opioids made in labs, smuggled from china. this is so unbelievably dangerous. they're drugs causing devastation. but the new day was never going to see him in it. and he was never going to be here any other day. it was, arm, the hardest thing i've ever had to deal with. - we expose how these drugs, nitazenes, are being openly advertised on major social media sites. x — formerly twitter — and soundcloud. do you have many customers from soundcloud? she laughs

he discovered the way in which criminals are hiding advertisements for illegal drug content. i mean, it...it�*s horrifying. we just need to do more. these deaths are preventable. dylan used to rehearse here. muffled guitar plays # where i've been before... we're at rehearsals for a music festival held every year in memory of claire's son, dylan rocha. # take me down...# this is one of dylan's songs, erm, that he wrote, but no—one actually found it until after he'd died. he was special, obviously, from the minute he was born.

as soon as he could talk, the first thing he asked for was a drum kit. always very, very musical. # before you take me... # this is jonas - that's my son. . this is paddy — that's dylan's best friend. and this is carlos — that's dylan's dad. guitar feedback he was, er, unique. charismatic, funny. leather trouser—wearing, black hair — box dye, obviously. hard to describe, butjust brilliant. he loved performing. he'd get really nervous, but you wouldn't be able to tell when he was up there. # your black hair... i think most of his music's probably on soundcloud. he'd upload onto there, in the hope that people would listen and enjoy. i do think he was a musical genius. what would he have made of all of you getting together today, and playing this music, do you think? he laughs it could've gone one -

of two ways, couldn't it? he would've hated it. yeah, either he - would've hated it...