hello and welcome to bbc news. sinn fein has says it's a new era in northern ireland after the nationalist party secured an historic victory in the elections for the stormont assembly. for the first time, sinn fein claimed the most seats and pushed the democratic unionist party into second place. the us and uk governments say both parties now need to co—operate under power—sharing rules. our ireland correspondent, chris page, has this report — which contains flashing images. smiles, flashes and cheers were the sure—fire signs of sinn fein�*s success. the party retained its 27 seats. that was enough to top the table. the sinn fein vice president, michelle o'neill, is in line to become the first irish nationalist to be northern ireland's first minister. my commitment is to work through partnership, not division. we will work with those who serve all other political perspectives. we will work together. we will show respect, and we expect to be shown respect. another major indication of change was the advance of the party which is neither unionist nor nationalist. alliance has more than doubled its number of seats, moving from fifth place to third in the assembly. but the democratic unionists have lost their position as the leading party, which they've had for almost 20 years. the dup lost significant votes to a more hardline unionist group. a stronger unionism is a stronger partner for others in government. and we cannot continue with the divisions that are there. and the unionist voters do not want those divisions. and therefore, i want to see a more united, stronger unionist voice. now that the counting has finished up, the question is whether the politicians who have been elected will get to actually govern northern ireland. very few, if any, people are expecting a power—sharing coalition to be formed any time soon. under the unique rules at stormont, unionists and nationalists have to agree to run northern ireland jointly before ministers can take up their positions. the dup says it won't go back into government unless the brexit trade border with the rest of the uk is scrapped. there's likely to be weeks, even months, of negotiations between the local parties. after the disappointment and delight of the election results, the future is an unclear picture. chris page, bbc news. our correspondent danjohnson is at stormont and he sent this update about what's expected to happen next the parties have to get and discuss whether they will actually share power and whether there will be a devolved executive at stormont. they may have to look at the westminster government. the blockage each year even before the election was the northern ireland protocol, the trade rules that no mean checks on goods coming into northern ireland from great britain. that is what the dup objected to and why it pulled out from power—sharing in february and why it is refusing to commit to going back into power sharing now. reform of the northern ireland protocol needs to be negotiated with the uk westminster government and the european union so it may be parties are now looking to the uk government and for those negotiations to progress before we can move to power—sharing here but it means we are looking at political paralysis, blockage at least for the next few days, weeks or maybe even months. implementation of the northern ireland protocol has been tricky and we have not seen much progress but we will now maybe see a renewed effort. although it is talked about with sinn fein being the biggest party and eligible to have first minister it will be hard to get anything done until that is progress. what will it mean if power—sharing doesn't resume for some considerable time? it will essentially mean decision—making here is impossible and day—to—day things will carry on on a caretaker basis as they have done since february but appointing new ministers, making major decisions can't happen until the two biggest parties agreed to work together. you can't have power here with just one party in office, it has to be shared. the first minister and deputy first minister are in effect joint roles and although they switch around now with sinn fein being the bigger party as opposed to the dup, of coming together and agreeing to do anything will be impossible unless the dup relent on the northern ireland protocol get the sort of changes they want so even although this is being talked of as a landmark moment and perhaps the constitution of northern ireland with sinn fein favouring a united ireland and talk of a potential border poll referendum on that coming down the line, even getting the day—to—day nitty—gritty business of politics done here will be impossible until power—sharing resumes so we're looking at a period of political paralysis which could go on as long as six months and then if there is still no agreement and government maybe to order a new election. i don't think there is any ambition for that so maybe that will help the parties come together and may put pressure on the uk government to try to deliver those changes on the northern line the so things can come back here and there is some progress and power—sharing can resume. on the talk around a referendum for a united ireland, does that move now very much the mainstream of discussion and how realistic is that? it is certainly not an imminent prospect because of the blockages that are going to hold things up in the immediate future. sinn fein has been playing down its ambitions and that prospect and it did not make a united ireland much of this campaign at all. it said its priority has been the priority and cost of living and people's everyday lives and the health service. no doubt it is significant sinn fein are now for the first time the biggest party here but it is still not clear that as a —— there is a majority in northern ireland supporting the island of ireland being united and even ordering that sort of referendum, getting a gauge of opinion, that is something that would have to be approved by the uk government so that is another political blockage they are, it does not look like anything the current government would be minded to allow and the is all lots of practical problems to encounter to overcome in terms of actually bringing the two states together again so it is not something that will happen in the immediate future and sinn fein isn't even talking about it, it wants to get on with the everydayjob of governing here that will be impossible until they can get the dup to work with them. ukraine and russia say a humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians from the besieged azovstal steelworks in the southern port city of mariupol has been completed. impossible until they can get the dup to work with them. ukraine and russia say a humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians from the besieged azovstal steelworks in the southern port city of mariupol has been completed. ukraine said that all elderly people, women and children had been taken to safety — a total of more than 300 people. it's the longest seige of the war. bombed for weeks, azovstal steel plant has been the target for russia as it takes aim at the azov battalion holding out there. but according to both ukraine and russia there is finally a glimmer of hope. all women, children and elderly taking shelter in its dark bunkers and tunnels have finally been evacuated. this adds to the thousands of other residents who have already fled. translation: we were | surviving all of this time. for two weeks we have been living in a basement. then russians came and helped us leave. then we heard about an evacuation to zaporizhzhia and we came to the mall in the mariupol and got on this bus. eight children were sitting in a basement for two weeks without water, bread, nothing. it's a milestone for the united nations and the red cross, given how many evacuations have failed in recent weeks. mariupol will still be a prime battleground for the war as capturing it is one of russia's main goals. more than 90% of the port city has been pummelled by rockets, missiles and other artillery. translation: without doubt we work on getting out our military. _ all the heroes who defend mariupol. it is very difficult but important. i'm sure everybody understands the reason for the difficulty and where this reason resides but we don't give up hope, we don't stop. every day we keep looking for such a diplomatic solution which could work. with about 2000 ukrainian fighters thought to still be in the plant, vowing to defend the city, the challenge for the ukraine's government is how to help them. 0ur correspondent in kyiv, james waterhouse, says ukraine is seeing more intense fighting across the country in the east of the country the governor of luhansk says 60 people are feared dead after a strike on a school. two people have been confirmed dead already. also there are reports of ukrainian forces mounting a counterattack in the kharkiv region. mariupol seems to be hanging on by its fingertips. those fighters are in soviet era steel plant which according can withstand a direct nuclear blast but it looks pretty grim as the russians try to move in, pretty grim for the soldiers. with the russians have pulled back after the field full scale invasion, people have been learning what has happened. we have been to one town trying to rebuild. this is more than a journey. it's a capital city trying to reconnect with communities the russians tried to take. we are now crossing on the bridge. this crossing was damaged in the invasion, leaving people trapped by the irpin river and exposed to invading troops and their mortars. so this is the new route connecting kyiv with the town of irpin and if we look over here, you can see the old damaged bridge. it's significant for the communities that live here that this connection is once again restored and people can try and get on with their lives. it's only been a month since the russians pulled back, but the authorities here have almost been fixated on restoring structure, normality, even with the country still very much under attack. it's very important because it's a very strong signal that the normal life back to our city, our region which was destroyed by this terrible war. and there's no better reminder of that threat than borodyanka. not many humans live here now. there are reminders of day—to—day life and happier times. previous lives suspended. it's hoped this restored train line will inject some of the colour borodyanka has lost. translation: it is really important to repair the connection and give . people the opportunity to use our transport and to restore what we lost in the past two months. with railways increasingly being targeted by the russians. this isn'tjust a move to recovery, but an act of defiance. tomorrow, made the ninth is victory day for russia and there is a lot of discussion about how russia might frame this. what is your perspective on that? i think the authorities are nervous. we have had a number of announcements from the mayor of kyiv and president zelensky yesterday saying if you hear the air raid sirens do not ignore them, underground because they are concerned that while vladimir putin lays on this display of his military might he will try to form a justification for what he is doing in ukraine and that could mean increased missile strikes and every ukrainian city is within the range of russia and we have seen them launch hypersonic missiles from the black sea but there are other potential scenarios. will he really claim victory and consolidate what he has already taken like we saw with the annexation of crimea 2014 and when they backed separatists in the east of the country in the same year. or is he going to escalate things further? his advance, this full scale invasion, has been frustrated in the body that is what he is willing to do next in order to get things back on track for him. a pro—beijing committee in hong kong has overwhelmingly endorsed the only candidate vetted to be the territory s new chief executive. the former security secretary, john lee, received all but eight votes out of more than 1,400 cast. lee succeeds carrie lam who oversaw the implementation of a security law that led to big protests in 2019. the bbc�*s danny vincent has been monitoring all the developments and has more now on the man who is set to lead hong kong for the next five years. john lee has a background in the police force. and in 2019 became known for cracking down on the protest movement and overseeing the crackdown and implementation of the national security law which are seen widely at least by activists as essentially a weapon against people that choose to speak out against beijing and against the authorities here and we —— a staunch supporter of beijing, a person backed by beijing has been selected to the city for the next five years. many people, especially activists and demonstrators, will say thatjohn lee's association with the police and his background suggest hong kong is becoming a police state. the authorities would criticise that, they call this a closed circle election, but many critics and activists say this was simply a selection process. was there any sign of opposition to the selection? around one hour before the votes were cast in the exhibition centre, a very small group, in factjust three people, decided to protest outside and marched along streets of hong kong close to the exhibition centre and held a banner. there were much morejournalists than protesters and more police than even the journalists so there was a small sign of opposition. it is very rare to see anything like that today in hong kong but it is nothing compared to thousands of people you see come to the streets every week for almost a year in 2019 so it is an indication of how much the city has changed. pressure is growing on the labour leader, sir keir starmer, as police continue to investigate whether he broke covid rules a year ago — when he was filmed drinking a beer with colleagues in an mp s office in durham. a sunday newspaper has published an internal labour document showing time was set aside in advance for those there to have a takeaway curry. sir keir maintains no rules were broken. here's our political correspondent chris mason this is what this row is about — sir keir starmer having a beer. his deputy, angela rayner, was also there in an mp�*s office in durham a year ago and a takeaway curry was ordered. the latest revelation in the mail on sunday is a memo circulated within the labour party which shows the curry was planned rather than spontaneous. it's for durham police to decide if this matters. what we do know is the force had already decided there was enough new evidence to look again at what happened, having cleared sir keir of wrongdoing in february. but the real reason all this matters is not what happened a year ago, but what sir keir starmer has said since. he has repeatedly expressed his outrage, shared by millions, about the covid lawbreaking within government, including from borisjohnson. and he's repeatedly called for the prime minister to resign. but his critics now say if you climb aboard a moral high horse, it will turn into a bucking bronco if it turns out that you have also broken the rules. after the prime minister was fined, sir keir said this... this is the first time in the history of our country that a prime minister has been found to be in breach of the law. and then he lied repeatedly to the public about it. britain deserves better. they have to go. since durham police announced they were re—examining what happened last year, it's questions about it that have followed sir keir starmer from cumbria to loch lomond. and he insists... as i've explained a number of times, i was working in the office, we stopped for something to eat. there was no party, there was no breach of the rules. i'm confident about that. police have obviously got to do theirjob. this is a perilous moment for keir starmer. he may not be fined, but if he is, his time as labour leader might be up. well, in the past hour, the shadow communities secretary, lisa nandy was asked about keir starmer�*s position on the bbc�*s sunday morning programme. if keir starmer is found to have broken the law does he have to resign? i broken the law does he have to resin? ., �* ., ., ., resign? i don't want to get into an hinu resign? i don't want to get into anything hypothetical- resign? i don't want to get into anything hypothetical and - resign? i don't want to get into anything hypothetical and i - resign? i don't want to get into anything hypothetical and i dol resign? i don't want to get into i anything hypothetical and i do not believe he has broken the rules and it is absurd to equate the two things between the prime minister partying and lying and laughter about what is happening to people in this country and a work event where people broke to eat so i will not get into hypothetical situations. angela rayner has said he should resign if he broke the law, why don't you believe that? because i don't you believe that? because i don't think— don't you believe that? because i don't think he _ don't you believe that? because i don't think he did _ don't you believe that? because i don't think he did break - don't you believe that? because i don't think he did break the - don't you believe that? because i don't think he did break the law. don't you believe that? because i i don't think he did break the law and he was investigated on this after the conservative party flung mild at him the last time and he was investigated by the police force. i do not think there are many people in this country believe for one moment that keir starmer is the sort of around tearing up the rule book. he was director of public prosecutions, he makes rules, he does not break them. there are more than 50,000 new breast cancer cases in the uk every year — but research shows that women from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to attend screening. after nagina kaleem was diagnosed, she said some people in the south asian community blamed her for getting the disease. sophia seth went to meet her. i was feeling like i'm untouchable person, and very worthless. nagina kaleem started getting breast—cancer symptoms in 2013. this very discomfort in this arm, and a lot of pain and myjoint. the pain worsened. unable to move her arm, she visited the gp, and a lump in her armpit was found. big shock. i don't have any cancer history in my family. nagina struggled to come to terms with her diagnosis, but what made it worse was that some people from parts of south asian communities blamed her for getting breast cancer. they don't take it as a disease. they think that this is the result of that person's sins, or that this is punishment from god. or sometimes they think that this person is cursed. some friends just said that, "you should go and repent." one of my friends, she just stopped talking with me, and for eight years she couldn't talk with me on this topic. some people even refused to get close to her, because they thought they could catch cancer. one of my friends just avoided having tea or water or anything from our home. nagina is keen to stress it was not everyone in her community who treated her like this — but it was enough to make her believe she had done something wrong. i was feeling, why me? why i'm going through this? especially in our communities. people want to be perfect — they don't want to tell about their weaknesses. she had to undergo chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and radiotherapy. she had around nine months of treatment. what got her through it was the support from her immediate family — especially when one of her sons signed up for race for life in 2014. he ran for me because he thought that, with that step, he could save his mum's life. so that was my strength. nagina is now cancer—free, and is on a mission to break down the stigma surrounding the disease. i really want to educate people. i want to tell them that this is a disease, not a curse — don't feel embarrassed. this is not punishment from their past life of their. . .their actions or their things. this poor lady, she had to deal with a diagnosis of cancer... a breast—cancer surgeon in southampton says he's also heard that some asian and middle eastern communities will refuse to take the gene test for breast cancer, because they believe it may lower their status if they have it. part of it might be the fear of being labelled as a person or a family with a cancer gene. this might have a social impact in terms of community interaction with them, and it might have an effect on their marriage prospects in the future, as well. it's not very common, but it's been reported before. how important is it to have an early diagnosis? generally speaking, an earlier diagnosis of a smaller tumour that— hasn't progressed into the lymph nodes is commonly treated by a lumpectomy. if the disease progressed to a certain extent and we don't have means to try and downsize it or down—stage it, patients might end up having a mastectomy and a full axillary clearance, for instance. nagina has now started a not—for—profit organisation... i will go through... ..and holds workshops every month to encourage people to talk about cancer. if we make it so common that people don't feel embarrassed, or don't feel any fear from cancer — and if they feel anything different in their body, just go and see their gps. that was sophia seth reporting. don't delay that, because early treatment can save many lives. that was sophia seth reporting. hello there. it continues to be a decent weekend in across much of the country. early in the new week we will find some changes with this thickening front we've got in the atlantic tending to bring in rain from the north—west but ahead of that a lot of the cloud we saw earlier on has been thin and high cloud with plenty sunshine coming through — after a foggy start in some parts of northern ireland it looks like we have the sunshine today. it looks very different, though, for tomorrow. sunshine across much of the country, really, just some patchy fairweather cloud developing through the afternoon, could squeeze out a light shower across north wales, northern england and scotland and if you catch one of those you're very unlucky. a warm day in the sunshine with temperatures typically 18 or 19 degrees. a little bit cooler perhaps around some of those north sea coasts. the cloud that does develop this afternoon tending to melt away this evening, a lovely end to the day. then we start to see the cloud coming in from the atlantic into scotland and northern ireland, some rain waiting in the wings. quite a range of temperatures tonight. very much milder in the north—west compared the clearer skies that we've got in england and wales. it could be quite chilly first thing tomorrow with temperatures in east anglia and the north—east three orfour degrees, perhaps. high pressure has been keeping it generally quiet and dry this weekend. that's getting moved away out towards the east. these weather fronts are coming in from the atlantic, starting to bring in this change. more noticeable across scotland and northern ireland where we have a stronger southerly wind tomorrow and a lot more cloud and that rain developing more widely. it will take a while to push into england and wales. we will see cloud increasing from the north—west and we �*l hang on —— we will see cloud increasing from the to sunshine for longer in the south—east of england and here it will be a warm day, 23 degrees, and could be the highest temperature over the week ahead. much cooler, though, underneath the cloud and rain in scotland and northern ireland. and those weather fronts then tumble down into england and wales on monday night into tuesday, weakening all the while, so there will not be much rain for england and wales on tuesday. some places may stay dry. we do have more cloud which will push down towards the south—east and following on from that we will get some sunshine. showers as well, which could be frequent, heavy and possibly thundery in western scotland and northern ireland. still 14 degrees in glasgow and back down to around 20 in the south—east of england. we'll keep those sort of temperatures through the rest of the week. into wednesday but then it becomes drier and it will feel again like today it will feel will feel again like today pleasantly warm in some sunshine. this is bbc news. the headlines: an historic win as sinn fein becomes the largest party in the northern ireland assembly for the first time. the governments in london, dublin and washington have called on political parties in northern ireland to re—establish the devolved administration. president zelensky says diplomatic efforts are continuing to try and rescue wounded soldiers from the besieged azovstal steelworks in mariupol. more questions for the uk opposition leader sir keir starmer over whether he broke lockdown rules. a leaked memo suggests a meal he attended was planned, despite covid restrictions. the official who oversaw the crackdown on pro—democracy protests in hong kong in 2019 has become the territory's new leader. john lee was the only candidate to replace carrie lam. now on bbc news. families ripped apart, and lives that will never be the same again. bbc wales investigates reports on a mother and her three children hiding out amongst the ruins of mariupol. we've all witnessed the horrors of war and fold in ukraine. of war unfold in ukraine.