welcome to the programme. we start this hour with the latest on the uk general election. the leader of the scottish national party, john swinney, has launched his party's campaign ahead of the vote onjuly the 4th. at an election rally in glasgow, mr swinney pushed for independence, celebrated his party's record on fighting the cost of living as well as attacking both the conservatives and labour. he said people in scotland wanted rid of a "disastrous" tory government, and he accused labour of "giving an awfully good impression" of them. let's take a listen to some of what the snp leader said. look, there are some people telling me to forget about independence at this election. but you know what? after looking at sir keir starmer�*s serial u—turns in the pursuit of power, i think people are crying out for political leadership that sticks to its principles... applause ..for leaders who argue for what they believe in. and i passionately believe independence is the best opportunity we have to build a more prosperous and a fairer country. john swinney launching the snp's general election campaign and staying with the election, labour says it is committed to reducing levels of net migration if they perform the next government. but speaking earlier, the shadow home secretary yvette cooper refused to set a target or any date by which a reduction would be achieved. net migration, the difference between the number of people arriving in the uk and leaving, stood at 685,000 last year. labour's plans include more apprenticeships in jobs that are currently reliant on a significant level of migrant workers. -- if —— if they form the next government. here's our political correspondent, ione wells. immigration is a sticky issue in this election campaign. the two major parties say they want to control it without leaving the economy short of key skilled workers like this, from construction to care work. labour says it would train more uk workers to fill skills shortages and it says firms that pay exploitative wages would be banned from hiring foreign workers. but labour have not put a figure on how much they would reduce it by, or a timeframe for when. i know that you're effectively trying to suggest i set a target or a broad target — i'm not going to do that. we are going to be clear — net migration must come down, we believe it's really important and what keir has set out is commitments that we will bring net migration down. the conservatives and the liberal democrats have announced their own separate policies. now, with this announcement today, it seems that they are copying - and pasting policies that - are already in place, so we have tried through the introduction - of salary thresholds and increasing the salary thresholds, we have seen already| a real impact on legal migration because we understand that there is a balancing act - between attracting the brightest. and the best to the united kingdom but doing so in a way- that we are able to deal with. net migration is forecast to fall anyway in the next coming years — what is critically important from the liberal democrats' point of view is that we actually start to pay our care workers properly and that is why we are pledging to give them an increased minimum wage, £2 higher than the minimum wage for other sectors, and only by doing that, by investing in our care workers here in our domestic workforce, can we reduce the demand for foreign workers to come and fill those vacancies. the snp have accused labour and the conservatives of blaming migrants rather than the westminster government for the country's problems. and reform uk have proposed a tax on businesses employing overseas workers. labour intend this announcement to firmly park their tanks on the conservatives' lawn. with legal migration numbers sky—high, it is set to be a key issue in this campaign. ione wells, bbc news. the conservatives have said they want to build 100 new gp surgeries and 50 community diagnostic centres in an effort to increase appointments and reduce the pressure on a&e services. the health secretary, victoria atkins, said it would be funded by cutting the number of nhs managers. she outlined the policy on this morning's laura kuenssberg programme. i want and am reforming our national health service to be faster, simpler and fairer, and one of the ways we are doing this, you are right, is to build new gp practices. we also want to ensure that we bring health care closer into our communities. if we can have the most basic conditions treated in pharmacies, then of course that frees up gp appointment times. since the conservatives have been in charge there have been many closures of gp surgeries, there have been many closures of pharmacies. of course there will be churn around england with a population of 55 million. a50 is a bit more than churn. but what we are doing with this is building, as i say, new gp practices so that we can offer even more appointments than we already are doing. the liberal democrats are also focusing on health today as our political correspondent tony bonsignore explained to me earlier. the lib dems promising to spend an extra £1 billion a year on what is known as the public health grant. this is money given to local councils to spend on public health. they say this will reverse real terms cuts to that grant over the past decade and it will be spent on things like health checks for a0 to 74—year—olds, health visits for infants and their mothers, and also wider access to blood pressure tests. the lib dems say it will be funded by a clampdown on tax avoidance and it would reduce pressure on the nhs by preventing people becoming ill in the first place. now, on the conservatives' policy proposal which you have just heard from victoria atkins, the lib dems accuse the government of already failing on promises to train more doctors, to build more hospitals. they also point out that hundreds of community pharmacies have already closed in recent years. labour, meanwhile, is calling it the latest empty promise from the conservatives. let's get more on the scottish first minister launching the snp's election campaign and speak to katie hunter who listen to his speech and it was a tax on both labour and the conservatives and the independence' message as well.— message as well. yes, there were some key themes _ message as well. yes, there were some key themes to _ message as well. yes, there were some key themes to john - message as well. yes, there were i some key themes to john swinney's some key themes tojohn swinney's speech this afternoon, firstly talking about the snp's record in government and the snp has in been in power in holyrood for 17 years and he wants to talk up their achievements in holyrood but attacks there on the conservatives' records in westminster and he at once point described them as a disastrous and chaotic tory government but he also took a swipe at labour and said that labour weren't the same as the conservatives but were doing an awfully good impression of the tories and independence was a key theme running through this speech and john swinney said he passionately believes in independence and every time independence and every time independence was mentioned in that room which was full of candidates and activists, there were huge cheers, but i thinkjohn swinney was also attempting to speak to people beyond that room, two voters he will have to attract if he wants to win this general election in scotland. katie hunter live in glasgow, thank you. and remember you can keep across the latest from the campaign trail on our live page on the bbc news website — we've got updates and analysis from our correspondents across the country. you can also find it on the bbc news app. and you can also find it on the bbc website. to south africa next, where the ruling anc says it's willing to talk to all political parties to create a coalition government — after it lost its parliamentary majority in the elections for the first time in 30 years. but it says president cyril rampaphosa will not step down as part of any deal. let's cross live to my colleague catherine byaruhanga who is at the counting centre injohannesburg. i want to show you some of the pictures of the scene in south africa and you can see, your democracy, own it, and this is where the election result will be officially announced a bit later and as we said, we know that the anc vote has collapsed in south africa and is means that for the first time since apartheid in 1994, they won't have a majority in parliament. letters cross live to catherine the arrow hangar who has at the boat counting centre where it will be announced injohannesburg so we are now heading for cover lycian talks. yes, the pictures they were showing there was the playing and singing of there was the playing and singing of the national anthem at the operation centre and now the announcement is under way and the event to announce the full results from wednesday's elections should happen any moment now. —— catherine of byaruhanga. we had president cyril ramaphosa walk—through into the hall and is the first time many people would have seen them after wednesday, when he went to cast his vote when the elections were happening. what we expect now is that the african national congress party will lose its majority with this announcement and it is expected to get around 40% of the votes. there are some opposition parties which are challenging these results and they have raised objections, but the independent electoral commission still insists these are free and fair elections and the government of cyril ramaphosa agrees with the electoral commission and so this will go ahead and we will of course be bringing you much more of that as it unfolds here just outside of johannesburg. it unfolds here “ust outside of johannesburg.— it unfolds here “ust outside of johannesburg. it unfolds here “ust outside of johannesburu. . , ., johannesburg. catherine, “ust on the timescale, johannesburg. catherine, “ust on the timescale. newt johannesburg. catherine, “ust on the timescale, how quickly _ johannesburg. catherine, just on the timescale, how quickly does - johannesburg. catherine, just on the timescale, how quickly does a - timescale, how quickly does a government have to be formed in south africa?— south africa? while, once these announcements _ south africa? while, once these announcements are _ south africa? while, once these announcements are declared - south africa? while, once these announcements are declared as| south africa? while, once these i announcements are declared as we expect them to be any moment now, it sets off a timeframe. there has to be the first sitting of parliament within 14 days, and at first sitting, the president of south africa will be elected by members of parliament, so what we will have here today is also the allocation of seats to different parties which will give us a sense of who will constitute the parliament and unfortunately the anc will not have enough mps in parliament to elect presidents cyril ramaphosa once again as president of south africa so that means we are now going through a process over the next two weeks of horse trading negotiations between different parties for the anc to make up those numbers crucially and parliament in order to not only elect the president but also to carry out government business. also to carry out government business-— also to carry out government business. , ., . ~ ., . business. the democratic alliance came second _ business. the democratic alliance came second and _ business. the democratic alliance came second and i _ business. the democratic alliance came second and i know- business. the democratic alliance came second and i know their - business. the democratic alliance i came second and i know their leader has been making a pitch to work with the anc. how crucial will be democratic alliance be? it the anc. how crucial will be democratic alliance be? it all comes down to the — democratic alliance be? it all comes down to the maths _ democratic alliance be? it all comes down to the maths and _ democratic alliance be? it all comes down to the maths and the - democratic alliance be? it all comes| down to the maths and the numbers. what the anc and the democratic alliance say is that they want a stable government, and so we are expecting the democratic alliance to get around 21% of the seats so if you add that up with the anc�*s 40%, they would have a stable form of government but the challenge for both parties is that they have been at loggerheads between each other for many years and they come from different political spectrums, so aligning their policies is not going to be easy, but you also have other opposition parties who are interested in forming a coalition with the anc. you have dubious minima's eff, and julius mel emma spoke yesterday and said he was open to negotiations with the ruling party so that shows that even though the democratic alliance and a anc good form a stable government, there announcement and the fact they look at each other as enemies and have done so for many years will make that difficult. —— julius malema. and the new mk party led by former presidentjacob zuma looks like it will be in first place but he has said he refuses to rule where presidents cyril ramaphosa about the anc is saying that president cyril ramaphosa is going nowhere. —— but the anc. ramaphosa is going nowhere. -- but the anc. , ., , ramaphosa is going nowhere. -- but theanc. , i, , , c, the anc. this really points to the ersonal the anc. this really points to the personal feud _ the anc. this really points to the personal feud between _ the anc. this really points to the personal feud between the - the anc. this really points to the | personal feud between the former presidentjacob zuma and cyril ramaphosa and you will remember jacob zuma was president of south africa from 2009 to 2018 but during that time he was dogged by numerous corruption scandals and there was a process called state capture in which journalists here in process called state capture in whichjournalists here in south africa uncovered rampant corruption in the country and he has been blamed by the commission of overseeing that so—called states capture and he was then removed from office and he believes that cyril ramaphosa was behind those efforts that succeeded in removing him from office and remember he also served a short prison sentence for failing to testify in front of the commission that was looking at all those corruption allegations and so that is a better history between the two men which sits at the heart of the politics we are looking at today and the former president says he is willing to negotiate with the anc as long as it removes cyril ramaphosa as its head but we have heard from the powerful secretary general of the powerful secretary general of the anc saying that is not a fought negotiation with any of the opposition parties. catherine byaruhanga _ opposition parties. catherine byaruhanga live _ opposition parties. catherine byaruhanga live in _ opposition parties. catherine - byaruhanga live in johannesburg, thank byaruhanga live injohannesburg, thank you for the moment and we are expecting the result in the next half an hour or so and we will go back tojohannesburg when we get that official announcement from the electoral officials there. voting is taking place in mexico in an election which is almost certain to result in the country's first female president. the frontrunner, claudia sheinbaum, and her main rival, xochitl galvez, are well ahead of the only male candidate in opinion polls. ms sheinbaum, who is a former mayor of mexico city, has the backing of the outgoing president. this campaign has been the most violent the country's seen in recent times. 0ur mexico correspondent, will grant has been telling us more. there have been candidates killed right up to voting day itself, one killed in the city of matamoros just a couple of days ago, just a day ago. 0n the day of closing the campaign, as one candidate was taking the stage to close his campaign, to address his supporters, in a final plea for votes, he was murdered, shot in the back of the head by a gunman in the state of guerrero. so yes, it has just been a very, very bloody, bloodstained election and i think illustrative of the size of the task that faces the next president, expected to be one of those two women that you mentioned, claudia sheinbaum or xochitl galvez. the key thing i think for most people is the idea that security is tackled to some degree, improvements seen in the fight against the drug cartels. you mentioned how bloody it has been. does that mean people are concerned about actually going to vote? i assume security is quite tight. there is one tactic that is used by the cartels, which is sort of posting gunmen and thugs outside polling stations. that happens in some of the hinterlands and the small villages where they are really fully under cartel control. so there's constant intimidation. it is notjust the murder of candidates which is obviously the most sort of visceral version of what is going on, but it is the constant sort of intimidation, threats, fear, the sowing of fear among the electorate. will grant reporting from mexico city. let's turn to the middle east now, where two key right—wing members of israel's coalition government have threatened to bring it down if the prime minister agrees to the latest peace deal offer. earlier we spoke to our middle east correspondent, hugo bachega, and i started by asking how serious this threat was from these right wing—ministers. it's no surprise that these two far—right ministers have expressed their opposition to this deal. so the national security minister, itamar ben—gvir, called this proposal that was announced by president biden on friday as reckless and he said it would be a victory for terrorism. the finance minister said the war must continue. again, he said he would not accept any kind of deal before hamas is completely destroyed. and now they are threatening to quit the coalition government and this could lead to the collapse of the netanyahu government. now, what is interesting is that yesterday, and i think knowing that these two ministers would oppose this deal, the head of the opposition in parliament said that if these ministers do go ahead with these resignations, his party would be giving support to the government of prime minister neta nyahu in parliament. it was an important intervention there, but it is interesting that this is something that prime minister netanyahu is trying to avoid because yair lapid, the head of the main opposition party in particular, is somebody who has been extremely critical of the prime minister, of his leadership in the war, so i'm sure the prime minister is trying to avoid having to rely on the opposition. it is interesting that we haven't heard from the prime minister yet since the reaction from these two ministers. and so far since the proposal was announced by president biden on friday we have had only two very short statements from the prime minister's office, vague statements. he hasn't embraced the deal, he hasn't explicitly said that he supports the deal, but he also hasn't expressed his denial or rejection of the deal. so we are still waiting to hear what the prime minister has to say and hear a clear position from binyamin netanyahu, but obviously he is under a lot of political pressure, not only from these far—right ministers who support his government, but also from other members of his government. we arejust we are just hearing that relatives of hostages being held in gaza are gathering outside thejerusalem office of benjamin netanyahu, urging him to achieve a peace deal. we will have more on that later. the ukrainian president