more attempts are being made to rescue civilians trapped at a steelworks in the beseiged ukrainian city of mariupol. 50 people were taken out of the city yesterday. chelsea get their new owners terms have been agreed, with the consortium led by american todd bowly. good morning and welcome to bbc news. sinn fein is on track to win the most seats in the northern ireland assembly for the first time ever signalling a historic shift in the political landscape. let s cross live to belfast and get all the latest thank you very muchjoanna. yes, good morning. day two of the counting in northern ireland here in belfast under two centres and after a really long day yesterday the energy is back in building this morning. i mjust energy is back in building this morning. i m just trying to listen as i talk to you and i m not sure if this is a declaration or if one of the returning officers is telling us about the latest stage in the counting because of course this is a type of proporti
labour was the biggest winner in wales, where the conservatives lost more than 80 seats. ukraine says it has recaptured five villages north east of kharkiv, as it continues a counter offensive against russian forces. the taliban continues to roll back on women s freedoms in afghanistan, ordering them to wear the face veil. chelsea get their new owners terms have been agreed, with the consortium led by american todd boehly. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. sinn fein is on track to win the most seats in the northern ireland assembly for the first time ever signalling a historic shift in the political landscape. it comes as the democratic unionist party leaderjeffrey donaldson, has said his party will decide next week whether to consider entering a power sharing government. let s cross live to belfast and get all the latest from annita mcveigh. hello and thank you very much. yes, welcome back to belfast, one of three count centres in northern ireland going through the
Choosing a date for that. let s go to magherafelt and listen to the declaration there. john to magherafelt and listen to the declaration there. , ., ,, declaration there. john o dowd, sinn fein. applause fein. applause jonathan - fein. applause | jonathan buckley, fein. applause jonathan buckley, democratic unionist jonathan buckley, democratic unionist party. jonathan buckley, democratic unionist party. jonathan buckley, democratic unionist party. cheering and applause diane dodds, democratic unionist party party. doug i party. - doug beattie, party. doug beattie, ulster unionist party. dou- beattie, ulster unionist party. doug beattie, ulster unionist party. and owen doug beattie, ulster unionist party. and owen tennyson, doug beattie, ulster unionist party. and owen tennyson, alliance. - doug beattie, ulster unionist party. i and owen tennyson, alliance. thank you. thank you. firstly, i would like to thank the returning officer and or the counter staff for the work
Cheering and applause. another major sign of change is the success of the party, which is neither unionist nor nationalist. alliance is set to move up from fifth place to third. its leaders say voters had sent a firm message. they actually want to see government that works for them. instead of being divided, instead of being fragile, constantly falling over, constantly held to ransom by one party or another, what they want to see is continuity of government and focus on delivery. but the democratic unionist party has lost a fifth of its support. a strong focus of the campaign was opposition to the brexit trade border with the rest of the uk. the dup says it will block the formation of a devolved government until checks on goods arriving in northern ireland are scrapped. but it s shed voters to a more hardline party, the traditional unionist voice, which says the dup has been too weak on the issue.
Belfast it was selected at the expense of the green party candidate clare bailey so another win for that centre ground party at the alliance party. let s discuss this a little bit more and look at what the papers are making of this this morning. i m joined now by freya mcclements, northern editor at the irish times. great to have you with us. let s start with your paper in your reaction to the election so far. in common with many of the pages here this morning the focus is about sinn fein leader mary lou mcdonald whose significance of sinn fein leader in the north election and that is because we are talking about a historic victory here and talking about a shift in leadership and government in northern ireland. sinn fein poised to be the tender is the largest party in northern ireland with the largest number of seats and this is the first time this has happened in the history of northern ireland in more than 100 years and this also means sinn fein will be entitled to take up the positi