lot of support for the opposition, a lot of support for the opposition, for an alternative russia. and also a friend of mine in russia says for everyone who attended those funerals, and another thousand who would love to do that but were afraid. ., ., , afraid. you referred to president putin as being — afraid. you referred to president putin as being tsar _ afraid. you referred to president putin as being tsar like - afraid. you referred to president putin as being tsar like in - afraid. you referred to president putin as being tsar like in his - putin as being tsar like in his behaviour, i write one characterisation comparing him or to stalin, saying putinism is an incarnation of stalinism in the way his power is personalised and the political repression he oversees. would you agree? of course, it reminds everybody of stalin's time. in terms of course, it reminds everybody of stalin's time. in terms of proportion and scale, he has not quite reached the pinnacle of the late 30s, when mass protests were happening. but there is a fear in

russia that it will come to that, too. that mr putin will not stop there, that now there are dynamics that the repressive machine has acquired and it will not stop. stalin was also sought of a tsar, in russian monarchist tradition, so both terms are correct when applied to what mr putin, and how he is seen inside russia. find to what mr putin, and how he is seen inside russia-— inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine, inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine. is — inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine, is that _ inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine, is that it _ inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine, is that it drags _ inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine, is that it drags on - inside russia. and russia. a war on ukraine, is that it drags on with - ukraine, is that it drags on with more and more deaths, russian soldiers, ukrainians, innocents ukrainian civilians as well as soldiers, when the warfare started and they first invaded ukraine more than two years ago, there were lots of questions about how this will end, is there anyone within his inner circle who wants him gone, who doesn't want to see this kind of war inflicted, the number of deaths that has led to, within russia. i know it is very difficult to get a sense of what happens within the inner

circle, because it is so tightly controlled, but what do you think about any internal opposition, close to him? i about any internal opposition, close to him? ., , ., about any internal opposition, close to him? . , ., ., about any internal opposition, close tohim? . , ., ., ., to him? i have seen a lot of indications _ to him? i have seen a lot of indications that _ to him? i have seen a lot of indications that many - to him? i have seen a lot of| indications that many people to him? i have seen a lot of- indications that many people around putin are not terribly happy with this war, especially at the beginning. influential people, including some high ranking officials in his administration, were terrified. that is the term i heard. they were terrified that russia will come to a war with the west and it will become totally isolated at best, that the economy will crumble. now it is a bit different. people are adapting to the reality. they see that the economy is sustained and in pretty good form. the isolation under sanctions are not always working.

they can still preserve their way of life, i am talking about officials in russia. and the only thing required of them is their absolute loyalty to their leader. and that will allow them to go on. at the moment, i don't think there is appetite for change. those high—ranking officials are also afraid, they don't dare to say what they really think.— they really think. thank you so much for bein: they really think. thank you so much for being with _ they really think. thank you so much for being with us _ they really think. thank you so much for being with us throughout - they really think. thank you so much for being with us throughout the - for being with us throughout the ceremony, the swearing in for another six years of vladimir putin at the opulent kremlin ceremony, formally extending his quarter of a century rule over russia, following his election in march, which was extremely controversial. there was no opposition and washington and many other european countries condemned the unfair elections and

boycotted today puzzle go ceremony. vladimir putin has said in the past half hour or so in his inaugural speech, we will be open with a corporation with all countries who are in russia as an honest partner. we will not refuse or reject any kind of dialogue with the western world. he said, we are determined to parry aggression and to particularly counter those who are aggressive towards our country. lets move on to the other top stories. the israeli military says its forces have taken control of the palestinian side of the rafah crossing which borders egypt and southern gaza. these are the latest pictures that show the view at the crossing, from on—board an israeli military vehicle. aid organisations operating there say the flow of aid into the territory through the crossing has stopped. israel continued to bombard rafah overnight, after rejecting a ceasefire proposal which was put

forward by international mediators, and agreed by hamas. israel says the plan doesn't meet its core demands. israel is though sending a delegation to indirect talks in cairo. for more on israel's position i spoke with our correspondent injerusalem yolande knell. is the israeli army has put up footage showing israeli tanks rolling into the rafah crossing between gaza and egypt. it says it has taken operational control there and it is dealing, it says, with hamas terrorist infrastructure, to use its language, in that area. it says it has killed 20 hamas terrorists overnight and that it has also found three tunnel shafts. it is linking operations around this part of rafah to the rocket fire that it says came from this area, fired by hamas on sunday, which killed former israeli soldiers close

to the crossing leading to the closure of the important crossing in the south of the gaza strip as well. at the moment, when we are taking briefings from the israeli military, they are stressing it is a very precise unlimited operation. they are not putting a timeframe on it. they said they are working to reopen the crossing as security allows. tell us more about the potential ceasefire deal which hamas said it supports, and israel says it goes a long way from meeting its demands. we understand that unofficial talks are still going to take place today in cairo. what more do we know about that? rest in cairo. what more do we know about that? �* ., , . ., , that? at the moment, this ceasefire deal is hanging _ that? at the moment, this ceasefire deal is hanging in _ that? at the moment, this ceasefire deal is hanging in the _ that? at the moment, this ceasefire deal is hanging in the balance - deal is hanging in the balance because of the different positions we had. you know, the declaration from hamas that was quite dramatic, saying it agreed to what the mediators had proposed, israel coming out quickly and denying that this was the proposal that it had signed up to, saying that there were

differences from its core demands. we have also had, confusingly, some officials coming out and saying that this is very similar to the proposal that was put forward by israel itself at the end of last month. it does seem, really, that the fundamental difficulty for israel is signing up to any kind of phased deal of a ceasefire and hostage release that would ultimately lead to an end to hostilities, an end to this war, before, in the eyes of the israeli government, it has achieved its war aim of dismantling hamas in gaza. it said that is necessary to have a victory in this war. i spoke earlier with louise wateridge from the united nations relief and works agency for palestine refugees who is in rafah. she described the mood on the ground as ceasefire talks continue. things are very tense here in rafah. the last 2a hours have been a complete roller—coaster of emotion. even the last few days, there was so much hope for ceasefire. anybody you speak to here,

the last week, the last few months, every day all they want to know is when there is a ceasefire coming, and it is what everybody has been hoping for. so to wake up yesterday morning to the devastating news that leaflets had been dropped and an evacuation order was in place, it really spread a lot of fear across the community. i'm currently in western rafah, but across eastern rafah people started to move. even outside my window i could see people starting to take down their makeshift shelters, starting to pack up and leave rafah. there is a sense of fear and chaos now. obviously this is a minute by minute, hour by hour situation developing. but clearly people are hearing of the situation of the rafah border crossing and now deciding to leave once again. tell us what the aid situation is like. more aid had been getting in past few weeks, what is the aid situation there now?

there is no aid entering the gaza strip, the rafah crossing is the biggest and the only entry that unrwa, the largest humanitarian agency here in gaza, has been using, so now no aid can get in, and there is also now fuel. fuel is what the agencies need to run this massive humanitarian operation across the gaza strip. it is needed to run the trucks to get the aid to the people who need it, it is needed in the generators to run the hospitals and health clinics that are remaining and not damaged or destroyed. so without fuel and these aid supplies, the aid operation will grind to a halt. what is the aid operation like at the moment? we continue to do everything we can. 0ur colleagues of providing services, unrwa runs health centres across the gaza strip, even in north gaza we had some very heroic colleagues who have maintained running these health services throughout the war, so we do our best to provide these services and provide what aid we have, but it's very concerning to know that this border crossing is closed

and that there is no foreseeable aid entering any time soon. personal information about serving members of the uk armed forces has been accessed from a system used by the ministry of defence. government officials told the bbc that china was most likely responsible. chinese foreign ministry spokesman, linjian, dismissed the accusation: translation: the remarks of the uk politicians are absurd. _ china firmly opposes and fights all forms of cyber attacks. we also firmly reject using the cyber security issue politically to smear and vilify other countries. earlier we spoke to our chief political correspondent henry zeffman. what happened was that some third party actor got hold of the armed forces payroll system.

that is information on the names of everyone serving in the armed forces and some veterans too, also things like their bank details and in some limited cases their personal addresses too. grant shapps, the defence secretary, will be updating mps about this later today. he won't identify a culprit but i am told that at top of government faces back the chinese state of being behind this and that of course opens up all sorts of questions about the uk's relationship both diplomatic and economic with china. how are they going to potentially deal with that, do you think? i think they will come under a lot of pressure from some conservative mps who have long been calling for a tougher approach to china. we have already had a bit of that this morning. sir iain duncan smith, a former conservative party leader and cabinet minister, has posted this on x, "yet another example of why the uk government must admit that china poses a systemic threat to the uk." he identified china plus russia,

iran and north korea as part of and axis of totalitarianism which he says the uk government must tackle. i think a lot of conservative mps will agree with that. worth noting that the government's position on china has moved a long way in recent years. it is only a decade or so ago under the prime ministership of david cameron, now the foreign minister here, the uk was talking of a golden age of relations with china. that has moved a long way. the uk is now much more sceptical about cooperation with china but nevertheless still important economic ties. this case could throw that into some jeopardy. earlier we spoke to ciaran martin the former head of the uk's national cyber security centre. from the information currently available it is a significant incident probably at the lower end of serious. in terms of losing the data of military and government personnel it is not on a par,

for example, with the incident nine years ago where the chinese state is believed to have walked off with the security clearance details of 20 million us federal government employees — this seems to be a broad data breach but in terms of the actual information disclosed, relatively shallow. it is not good news, it is damaging for the uk, it is not a cause for panic but i think serious questions will need to be asked about the data security by government, particularly defence personnel. what are those questions? this is notjust embarrassing, it is potentially very damaging? this is why the details matter. if it is the names and bank account details, names of military personnel being obtained by various means and you would expect hostile states to have tried that by other means, it is not great they managed to get lots of them in one place but we should not kid ourselves that that is the sort of thing that is not happening all the time. if accessed, bank details can identify people at risk who are vulnerable to blackmail because of financial circumstances and so forth.

addresses, again, can be generally available in many cases but it is not the crown jewels dataset that, for example, the united states lost some years ago. the sort of questions i think need to be answered firstly are the really, really serious datasets better protected ? secondly, this is a private company, one assumes, so the relief is it does not give a gateway to a wider mod systems. but what sort of controls are being exercised by the mod over people they are paying to handle sensitive data? that's really important. then there is the question of who is responsible. as we heard, the government suspects china, we will hear more from the defence secretary later but as henry said, it is not expected he will directly point the finger.

is it possible to know for certain? there is an issue of the timetable, under british data protection law you must tell people as soon as reasonably possible, it's meant to be very quick, that data has been compromised. it is understood this data breach only emerged last week, that is why it is being discussed right now. a government statement about who they think is responsible is not subject to those laws and it is right the government takes time until it is absolutely certain. the government has been accusing china, russia and all the states sir iain duncan smith mentioned of all sorts of cyber operations — never alone, always with partners and always with a high degree of confidence. you do not cast these accusations around. i think some will be frustrated that the government does not say anything today, it is right government takes time to do this right. china has form in this area but so do lots of countries. defence and foreign ministries

are the two most targeted organisations on earth and digital espionage is rife throughout the world. i think we have to expect cyber operations against those types of institutions well into the future. south african emergency services are working to rescue around 50 construction workers who are trapped after an apartment building collapsed. at least five people are known to have died in the accident in the coastal city of george. heavy lifting equipment and specialist dogs have been brought in to help with the rescue operation. 0ur correspondent shingai nyoka is at the scene and had this update. as you can see, the rescue effort is well and truly under way. and it has been since yesterday, monday afternoon, when this accident happened. and the rescue workers have been working through the night. you might be able to see behind me that we have diggers that are pulling up some

of the scaffolding, because this was very much a construction site. we also have diggers that are trying to bore through the rubble. this was a five story apartment building that was being constructed, and they are still trying to dig through this to recover some of those workers that are still trapped under there. 50 people, so far, are unaccounted for. there were 75 people in total that were on the site here. and we heard from sources that rescuers had managed to make contact with some of those people under the debris. so it's not clear how many are still alive and how many have passed away. but really frantic efforts, over 100 rescue workers and emergency services, some from as far away as cape town, about 400 kilometres away from here, have all come here to try to find these workers. this area has been cordoned off and so are the people are standing quite far away. the families of the workers are at a municipal building which is just a short distance away from here. they are still hopeful that this

rescue mission will yield results and that there will be survivors coming out of here. but there are still a lot of questions about what happened, how an accident like this could happen, building collapses are very rare in south africa and those investigations will continue to find out how this could have happened. an australian woman has formally pleaded not guilty to the murder of three relatives who allegedly died over mushroom poisoning at a family lunch last year. erin patterson is facing three murder charges and five counts of attempted murder. police allege she tried to kill her ex—husband on three other occasions. ms patterson has always maintained her innocence. 0ur correspondent katy watson is following the trial. is erin patterson has always maintained her innocence, but this was the first time that her legal team said she would be pleading not guilty to all charges against her. now, the charges relate

to a lunch that she put on at her home in leongatha, which is a town a few hours drive from here in melbourne. at that lunch she served a beef wellington with mushrooms, and attending that lunch were her in—laws, as well as her mother—in—law�*s sister and her husband too. now, after that lunch, all of the guests fell ill and three of them subsequently died. the fourth guest, ian wilkinson, he was in a coma before recovering, but the police said that it was alleged that she fed them death cap mushrooms. now, also invited to that lunch was her former husband, simon patterson. he did not attend. now, the charges against her are three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder, and they also include previous alleged attempts against simon patterson's life. now, also decided at the hearing was that the case will be fast tracked to the supreme court. that means that a trial will come sooner rather than later, and the next hearing is expected in this court here in a few weeks' time.

more trouble for boeing, because the company's first crewed space flight was postponed just two hours before launch for a safety check. astronauts butch wilmore and suni williams were already in position inside the starliner when the decision to halt was made because of a potential issue with an oxygen relief valve. the spacecraft had been expected to blast off from cape canaveral and make its way to the international space station. this is the moment the launch was halted. yeah, roger. so, the engineering team has evaluated that the vehicle is not in a configuration where we can proceed with the flight today. so, we are going to initiate our scrub and recycle operation. but all i want to say first is that good things are worth waiting for and we'll get a chance to see that rocket and spacecraft lift off the pad here soon. it was really impressive to watch the launch team

as the issue popped up. the count had been going very smoothly, and they spotted the issue. they followed their flight rules and made the decision to scrub so that they could do some more troubleshooting and decide what we were going to do next. we still have to gather more data. we don't have a definitive plan for you yet. that will come as soon as we can provide it. but the team will be working through that really soon. to new york now, where the biggest night of the fashion year has come to a close. guests at the met gala put on a show reflective of this year's theme — the garden of time. flowers in every colour and shape, have appeared on the red carpert for this year's event. a—list celebrities, like zendaya, jennifer lopez, bad bunny and chris hemsworth, have joined vogue's anna wintour as hosts of the gala. paige skinner, associate reporter for the huffington post, told us more about who stood out. yeah, this was full of a—list celebrities and really great fashion. but, for me, who stood out was tyla. she was wearing a beautiful balmain

gown, completely made out of sand. and it fit her so perfectly she actually couldn't walk up the steps, she had to be lifted for each step. she was a real standout for me. and, of course, kendalljenner, who was wearing givenchy, she always looks great at every red carpet event. yeah, it was a spectacular night forfashion. the dress code was garden of time. so, of course, a lot of celebrities and designers were going to take that and probably wear some florals. yeah, that clip from the devil wears prada has definitely going around tonight on social media. but, you know, i think it was a cool theme and designers could take a lot of leeway with it. and we saw that with the balmain dress that tyla wore. she kind of nodded more to the "time" aspect of it. if that wasn't enough for you, you

can get more of your fashion fix on the website, including this article, detailing no less than 17 of the most eye—catching looks of the night. some stars took the garden theme quite literally, taking inspiration from flowers, gardens and leaves. let's leave that across london, where the newly elected sadik khan has been elected as mayor over the past few days for his third term. he is giving his acceptance speech, and his inaugural speech outlining what is going to be doing for the next four years. let's listen in. applause my my name is sadiq khan and i am the mayor of london. cheering and applause thanks for that introduction. i may

have just been introduced thanks for that introduction. i may havejust been introduced by thanks for that introduction. i may have just been introduced by a future mayor of london. let's please show our appreciation, come on. it would be nice to be able to take a moment to celebrate becoming the first person in british political history to win successive victories over count binface. believe me, he made me work hard for it. by the way, if you need another reason to love london, count binface easily beat britain first. cheering and applause the london mayor, sadiq khan, kicking off his third term. he will

pledge to use the next former couriers to make london the best city in the world to grow up. he won an historic third term of office on saturday, becoming the first london mayor to do so, with a majority of 275,000 over his conservative rival, susan hall. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. a long last a little bit of welcome news in the forecast for the rest of this week, after what has been a particularly wet spell for some southern and eastern areas. at the isle of portland in dorset, we've already exceeded our main rainfall in the first seven days. contrast that with kinloss on the moray coast where, we've not seen a drop of rain recorded yet. we'll switch things round a little bit through this week and when we need a bit of rain, the north and west of scotland, the will be some at times. still some dry weather here and warm with the sunshine out later. but where we've seen the wettest conditions, a largely dry picture, only isolated showers and feeling warm as the sunshine

develops more widely. and even today, an improving picture. the weather front which brought the rain in the southeast has cleared through. 0ne weather front, though, still tangled in across parts of scotland, producing lots of cloud and a few spots of light rain or drizzle. a few light showers possible across western england and wales, but nowhere near as many or as widespread as yesterday, or indeed as heavy. and it does mean that more of you will spend the bulk of the day dry, if not the complete day dry. and temperatures responding — into the high teens, if not low 20s. always cooler where that thicker cloud is in parts of scotland. that'll be there tonight. fairly cloudy in northern ireland too, for a while. a few mist and fog patches possible, but low cloud and sea fog will lap into eastern parts of england, and around western coast of wales, north coast of devon and cornwall too, to make for a murky start tomorrow. but temperatures fairly similar to this morning. now, as we go into wednesday, the middle part of the week, that high pressure, which is going to bring the dry conditions, becomes more established to the south and east. weatherfronts, though, scooting around thatjust to the north and west, which is going to bring some rain later on across the western isles, northern and western scotland and, into the evening, maybe across some parts of northern ireland. only the odd isolated shower

across some western areas. most places though, having a dry day on wednesday, and with a little bit more sunshine around after that murky start, temperatures will be more widely high teens and low 20s. as you go through into thursdaym overnight patchy rain or drizzle in northern ireland clears. still a bit damp in the far north of scotland. many, though, will have a dry day. very few, if any, showers around at all for most of you. and a lot more sunshinem so we could see temperatures, by this stage, 22 or 23, and creeping into the low 20s in parts of scotland and northern ireland too. and they will climb further as we go through towards the end of the week and into the start of the weekendm with most dry until we see some showers develop on sunday. take care.

live from london. this is bbc news. vladimir putin is sworn—in as russia's president for a fifth time, extending his quarter—of—a—century rule over russia by a further six years. israel claims control of the gazan side of the rafah crossing, as ceasefire talks are set to resume in cairo. personal information of serving uk military personnel has been compromised in a hack — china is suspected to be behind the attack. and floral extravagance on the red carpet, as stars attend the met gala

in new york. president vladimir putin has been sworn in for a new six—year term at a ceremony at the kremlin. putin, who's been in power as president or prime minister since 1999, now begins his new mandate, more than two years after he sent tens of thousands of troops into ukraine. in march, vladimir putin won a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election from which two anti—war candidates were barred on technical grounds. britain, canada and most european union nations decided to boycott the swearing—in, but france said it would send its ambassador. in his address, putin was unapologetic about invading ukraine and pledged to continue to uphold russia's interests. translator: we will overcome this very difficult period, _

this turning—point period, and we will pursue our long—term plans and priorities.