over the war in ukraine. a winter storm brings snow and rain to southern california, the likes of which hasn t been seen there in decades. election officials in nigeria have insisted that nobody will be disenfranchised despite delays and technical problems as millions of people vote in the country s most competitive election since military rule ended there more than two decades ago. the race is between two major established parties, and a third candidate, peter obi, who has galvanised the support of young people. nigeria is africa s most populous country and a record number of people nearly 90 million have been eligible to vote. polls were due to close earlier in the day but people who are in queues at polling stations nationwide can still cast their ballot. and in some places, especially in the south of the country, voting has not even started due to severe delays and violent disruptions. here s the chair of the nigerian election commission. we are determined that
hello and welcome to bbc news. we begin here in england where thousands ofjunior doctors in england have started a four day strike that threatens to bring the worst disruption in the history of the health service. it runs all the way through to saturday morning and could mean the cancellation of 350,000 appointments and operations. the doctors union is in a row with the government over pay forjunior doctors, with the british medical association sticking to its demand of a 35% pay rise and the government refusing to negotiate until what it sees as a more reasonable pay demand is met. catherine burns reports. what do we want? pay rise! how do we get it? strike! this winter, we ve got used to seeing nhs staff waving banners on picket lines. we re now into the fifth month of industrial action, but this walk out byjunior doctors in england is bigger in scale than anything that s come before. the bma is being accused of picking dates to maximise disruption. their view is indu
welcome to belfast and the lyric theatre where tonight, the play agreement will mark a moment 25 years ago that changed every aspect of life here in northern ireland forever the signing of the good friday or belfast agreement. it brought peace to northern ireland, but it has been an imperfect peace. the agreement guaranteed power sharing in government between nationalist and unionist communities. but for more than a third of its lifetime, there hasn t been a sitting government at stormont. these halls at the lyric have captured huge moments of symbolism both big and small. ten years ago, martin mcguinness, northern ireland s former deputy first minister, a former ira commander, shook hands with queen elizabeth here, a moment that would have once been unimaginable. and it is moments like that that people will be looking out for this evening when president biden arrives. here in northern ireland, words matter, and people will be looking to president biden s speech to see ho
another day of strikes more than 1,000 ambulance staff in wales walk out in a dispute over pay and conditions. meanwhile in england, nurses continue their strike action for a second day in a row. new zealand s prime minister jacinda ardern makes a surprise announcement saying she ll stand down in less than three weeks time. a day of national strikes begins in france over plans to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64. king charles asks for millions of pounds in profits from the crown estate to be used for the wider public good rather than for the royal family. the government has released details of projects which will benefit from its levelling up fund, which is intended to spread economic growth more widely across the uk. in all, £2.1 billion will be spent on regeneration projects. they span more than a hundred areas across the country. some of the biggest winners include a new eden project at morecambe bay which gets £50 million. there s 50 million pounds for