like the nhs, they are acutely aware right now the country depends on it. and there it is, that smiling baby... and that means depending on carers like rejoice. she is gorgeous! she is. she's from malawi, but is in peterborough with a family on a work visa. this country needs people like me, someone that can put their heart out there and help someone from the heart. outside of this place, do you feel appreciated? not by the country, no, because they think we are numbers, but we're not numbers, we're human beings. but as migration numbers boosted the population here, research from the institute for fiscal studies shows peterborough receives less funding for policing, local governments and public health than it should do according to need. what impact has immigration had here? i think it's made the city grow very quickly. this is sarah's experience. the increase of population does not measure up to the increase of services for people. where are the pressure points? at the hospital. i work for the hospital myself, and we see it every day. accommodation, social housing. it is really difficult for people to get housing these days. this all looks amazing. everything that we sell here is brilliant... for some, there's a sense of unfairness. haji moved to the uk as a child. he's proud to be british, and of his family's contribution to the country. we've worked hard, we've paid our taxes, we've paid towards the hospital system, education system, everything was brilliant. but now... people don't contribute towards the system, then i think they don't have the right to live here. do you think immigration is too much now? i think it is too much, to be honest. we've got more than enough on our plate, and i don't think we can take any more. we have kurdish, we have afghanistani, we have iraqi... but not all migration is the same. fatima is a skilled one. she's from syria. last year, 67,000 people applied for asylum in the uk, 17% fewer than 2022. "went" would be present or past? past _ in peterborough, we spent time with two charities helping asylum seekers. sudan is... there's fighting everywhere. people are killed on the street. mohammed and adilfled sudan before their long journey to the uk. we travelled from libya, 300 people. we arrived to italy, 200. 100 people dead? 100 people died, children and women. why did you want to get to england? we chose england because the government help us here, but honestly, i don't get any help in france. it's the hope for a better life that also brought irina here. if you were the next prime minister, what would you do? jesus christ! she came here 15 years ago from latvia. i would close the borders. her worry is illegal immigration and the small boats from france. if people are not behaving, you know, so they also must be deported. britain is now herfamily�*s home, and she says she will vote in this election. do you think there's a bit of a conflict in what you're saying, when you're an economic migrant who came here 15 years ago? i'm working, i'm all the time working, i all the time have a job. i don't know. do you understand the concerns some people have? look, i live here too. i'm a resident in england. we all have difficulties, homelessness and housing, access to healthcare. it's a deeper problem than just blaming a few people that have kind of escaped torture. this election, immigration matters. the challenge for the two main parties is to convince voters that they can control illegal boat crossings from france, but also, after years of large—scale migration, they have a credible plan to make britain less reliant on workers from abroad. ed thomas, bbc news, peterborough. joining me now is our senior uk correspondent sima kotecha. that's the view from one city, peterborough. what do the party say? as we heard there, sophie, people coming here legally or illegally triggers passionate views, and we know that some polls suggest immigration and asylum are some of the most important issues for voters, partly because, as you heard there, a larger population means a greater impact on our public services. as for the parties, the tories say they want to reduce it by establishing a deterrent, the rwanda scheme they believe will turn people off making that boatjourney across the channel. they say they will crackdown on organised immigration crime by clamping down on people smugglers, and they will return people with no right to be here to there own country. labour says it will reduce reliance on overseas workers by boosting britain's skills, by tackling skills shortages. it says it wants to reform the points—based immigration system to bring down migration, and it says it wants to use new counterterrorism powers to tackle people smugglers. reform uk, nigel farage's party, he says he wants to freeze nonessential immigration. but i think the truth and immigration is, it is a tough nut to crack. balancing the country's economic needs with the need to police borders, and i think the question facing voters is, which party has the most credible plan to get that balance right? sima kotecha, thank you. and if you'd like to see what all the parties are saying ahead of the general election, this guide on the bbc news website gives a summary of where the parties stand on immigration and other key issues. we arejust we are just hearing to make that four men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass at the prime minister's constituency home. north yorkshire police say the men were detained at around 12:1i0pm this afternoon before being escorted off the property and arrested. they say the men included a 52—year—old from london, 43—year—old from bolton, 21—year—old from manchester and a 20—year—old from chichester. they remain in police custody. are ongoing. —— inquiries are ongoing. a former engineer at the technology firm fujitsu who helped design the horizon it system has told the inquiry into the post office scandal that he thought the software worked well most of the time. garethjenkins, seen here in the middle, was an expert witness for the post office in trials where branch managers were wrongly convicted. mrjenkins is under investigation for perjury and perverting the course of justice. around eli; billion worth of personal protective equipment has been destroyed or written off in what is understood to be the most wasteful public contract of the pandemic. information obtained by the bbc shows nearly all of the stock procured from full support healthcare, based in northamptonshire, will never be used in care settings despite being fully compliant when delivered. the government suggested some money had been recouped through recycling. labour has described the deal as a "staggering waste". here'sjon ironmonger. in the new forest last summer, this dump of ppe is part of a much larger consignment. supplied in good order by experienced nhs providers at a total cost to the british taxpayer of £1.8 billion. but we can reveal that around eli; billion worth will never be used. it is the most money wasted on any public covid deal. figures obtained by the bbc show that just over one tenth of the gowns, face masks and goggles procured from full support healthcare have been distributed to care settings. the rest, around 1.6 billion items, have been destroyed or stored pending disposal. today, the health secretary defended the government's actions to secure covid ppe. the whole country wanted us to get the ppe that our front line staff needed both in healthcare and in social care. and we managed to procure billions of pieces of ppe equipment. that was absolutely the right thing to do at the time. sarah stoute started full support healthcare in 2001. her husband became a director two years later. this is the fairly unremarkable head office of full support healthcare. in 2020, it had a workforce of 25 people and annual profits of £800,000. but any profits made since winning the public contract are a mystery because the stoutes registered their business in jersey a year later. the stoutes have told us the business offshored for privacy reasons and is still registered in the uk for tax, as are they. there is no suggestion they did anything wrong. four years since the first lockdown in england and wales, millions of pounds is spent every week storing and destroying excess ppe. jon ironmonger, bbc news. and you can read more on this story online. just head over to our bbc news website. and for viewers in the east, there will be more on this story on look east next. the emperor and empress ofjapan have been welcomed by king charles and camilla at the start of a state visit to the uk. princess anne, who was due to be at tonight's state banquet, remains in hospital in bristol recovering from concussion and a minor head injury. her husband sir tim lawrence said "she was doing fine slow but sure" after visiting her this afternoon. 0ur royal correspondent daniela relph reports. the spectacle of a state visit, the first of the king has hosted since his cancer diagnosis. these things are usually timed to perfection. that wasn't so today. navigating london traffic had held up the japanese emperor naruhito and empress masako. royal salute! this is a state visit during an election campaign. that is unusual, and changes have had to be made to ensure political neutrality. this state visit was planned well before the election was called, having already been delayed due to the covid lockdown. there was no appetite for a further postponement. instead, all the big political moments have been stripped away, so no trip to downing street and no formal meeting with the prime minister. the carriage journey included a masked empress. she has a chronic allergy to horsehair. the japanese royal couple are anglophiles. they both studied at oxford and maintain links to the uk. arriving at buckingham palace, the royal welcome has not included princess anne. she remains in hospital in bristol after suffering concussion in an accident at her estate in gloucestershire on sunday night. today, her daughter, zara tindall, went to see her mother, as did the princess's husband sir tim lawrence. how's she doing, sir? doing fine. slow, but sure. not all the family can be present, but this is a visit that unites two royal households, and will celebrate their shared experiences and friendship. daniela relph, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's darren bett. what a gorgeous sunny day. yes, hot as well across many parts of the country. not quite everywhere, as i will show you in a moment. we havejust had the everywhere, as i will show you in a moment. we have just had the hottest day of the year so far in wales today, where temperatures were higher than across england. in the sunshine, we reached 29 in east sussex, 30 in surrey. in scotland, yesterday saw 27 celsius, but with much more cloud and rain, it has been about 15 in the moray firth. you can see that if there were differences north and south, still with some cloud and bringing showers or longer spells of rain, particularly in scotland. it should be dry overnight, but will be cooler in north—west scotland and northern ireland. temperatures of 6—7. for england in way is, a warm night, probably some more sunshine for tomorrow. sunny skies, patchy cloud bubbling up. maybe some low clouds threatening the east coasts. more sunshine in northern england, the odd shower possible over the hills, and likewise in wales. showers that develop in scotland could turn heavier and thundery. diet until later in the day in northern ireland, so temperatures will get a bit of a boost with some sunshine. we could make 21—22 in scotland, and northern ireland. much hotterfor england and wales, again possibly 30 in the south—east. things start to change overnight, and into thursday, this low pressure comes in, pushing ahead of it this way the front. not much rain on that, but following it, cooler, fresher air coming in from the atlantic pushes away all that heat and humidity. let me show you where the weather front is. it is that stripe of cloud. little or no rain on it. sunshine ahead of it, sunshine behind, but a stronger wind will bring in showers and longer spells of rain into scotland and northern ireland, the odd one crossing the irish sea as well. input is low in the north—west of the uk, 17 for glasgow and belfast, and dropping in england and wales, but still very warm across some eastern parts of england. thanks, darren. and that's bbc news at six. you can keep up with all the latest developments on the bbc website. now it's time to join our colleagues for the news where you are. goodbye. hello, i'm kasia madera. welcome to bbc news. lots of euros 2024 news coming up. let's return to one of our main stories. julian assange, the founder of wikileaks, has flown out of the uk after spending five years in prison fighting extradition to the us on espionage charges. he's struck a deal with prosecutors and will stop in a us territory to plead guilty to a single charge before flying home to australia. mr assange uploaded classified military files to his website nearly 15 years ago. earlier today, julian assange's wife, stella assange, gave her reaction to the decision to bbc radio 4's today programme. it's a whirlwind of emotions. i mean, i'm just elated, frankly. it's just incredible. i don't know. it feels like it's not real. well, tell...tell us what the last day or perhaps even the days before that have been like. what are the conversations that led to the moment wherejulian assange was allowed to leave belmarsh? well, it's been so touch and go. we weren't really sure until the last 24 hours that it was actually happening. and while we were talking about, i don't know, what he needed to do when take from his cell. and i also had to pack things up and head out to australia 24 hours before he left. so it's just been nonstop for the past, i think, 72 hours. but touch and go because there was...there was something on paper on offer from the us authorities? what there is is an agreement in principle betweenjulian and the department ofjustice, and that has to be signed off by a judge in these northern mariana territories, island, sorry, which is in the pacific ocean, where he is going to be headed. he's currently in bangkok on a layover, and once the judge signs off on it, then it is formally real. so i'm also a little bit limited as to what i can say right now about the agreement in principle. but is it the case that it does involve him pleading guilty to one charge? yes. the charge concerns the espionage act and obtaining and disclosing national defence information. and was that difficult for your husband to agree that he was guilty of? again, i...i don't want to say too much until it's been signed off by a judge, but the important thing here is that the deal involved time served, that if he signed it, he would be able to walk free. so it's your understanding that once he's made that court appearance and this is essentially signed off by the judge, that he will be a free man? he will be a free man once it has been signed off by the judge. and that will happen sometime tomorrow. tell us about you and your children, your sons. have you, you've brought them to australia with you? yes. we took a flight on sunday morning and we flew into sydney. so have you told the children that their father is going to be free and is going to be part of the family? they still don't know. we've been very careful because obviously no—one can stop a five and a seven year old from shouting it from the rooftops at any given moment. and because of the sensitivity around the judge having to sign off the deal, we've been very careful, just gradually, incrementally telling them information. they're very excited to be in australia, though. but will you. . .will you tell them before they see him because they've never... yes. you will tell them because they have never seen him outside the prison, orfor the older one, the ecuadorean embassy. they've never seen him. no, they've never seen him inside, sorry, outside of belmarsh. all their interactions withjulian have been in a single visitor's room inside belmarsh prison. it's always been for a little more than an hour at a time. it's been very restrictive. the wife of julian the wife ofjulian assange speaking to my colleague michelle hussein on the programme this morning. let's turn to football now. england's path to the next round of the euros is assured as they prepare to face slovenia in theirfinal group game at 8pm tonight, but there is added pressure for the team to perform after some high—profile criticism of their performance so far. well, some good news for england fans. fc cologne's goat mascot, called hennes ix, has picked england to beat slovenia. this is a living mascot i'm reliably told. this goat was gifted about 70 years ago and this is the ninth version. hennes is the oracle of all games played in cologne, though he's been wrong about all three euros matches played there so far. his keeper at cologne zoo says he's "relatively sure" that hennes will get it right this time. i'm pleased he is confident but we will see what the result is. joining me now is our correspondent sarah rainsford in cologne, joe inwood in brixton and our midlands correspondent navtej johal in nottingham. welcome to you all. so hennes the living mascot and cologne, i cannot believe i have said that out loud that england was just pipped slovenia to the post. what is the move there in cologne itself? i did not meet the _ move there in cologne itself? i did not meet the go. _ move there in cologne itself? i did not meet the go. have _ move there in cologne itself? i c c not meet the go. have not heard of the got myself but people are quietly confident about this particular match. they think they are going to be ok against slovenia but they are not impressed with the weather england has playing. the mood is brilliant, happy, cheerful, it dropped. it has been 30 degrees all day today, 27 now and still human and a lot of english fans right here in the square in the centre of cologne all day long drinking in the sunshine. so a experience is pretty high generally. a few steps away from the main cathedral here in the city has been transformed because of the euros taking place here. most of the fans intent i would say are england fans there are slovenian fans and there has been plenty of good—natured drinking together and chat together. there is no tension that we can feel here as at least a mood is actually positive. when it comes to the game itself, i was to be more hopeful as a nugget are going through and fully confident in that sense. spoke to a couple of fans from birmingham who said the main thing for us as we don't end up playing germany in the next rounds and they do want to win tonight and they are relatively confident. but as i say, the main focus of until now has been here on the square, the drinking that has been taking place. pretty lively and i'll explain later tonight it has cleared out as everyone is in the stadium of the train was just a few metres away down the road that way, now few people in the bar ready to watch the match on the tv screens with a couple of massive fans owns here in town as well. but all the focus here in cologne right now is of the stadium down the road. find of the stadium down the road. and the mood brilliant there. so the mood brilliant in cologne so what is happening in the uk? joe, we know there has been one change to the england line—up. 50 there has been one change to the england line-unm— there has been one change to the england line-up. so connor gallagher has come in — england line-up. so connor gallagher has come in and _ england line-up. so connor gallagher has come in and place _ england line-up. so connor gallagher has come in and place of _ england line-up. so connor gallagher has come in and p