out friday's mass stabbing attack in the city of zohlingen in the city of solingen in western germany. the 26—year—old is reported to be a syrian asylum seeker, who's being investigated for links to the islamic state group. and the owner of x, elon musk, has criticised the arrest of telegram founder pavel durov saying it's a sign that freedom of speech in europe is under attack. telegram has been accused of not cooperating with authorities and failing to curb criminal use of the platform. now on bbc news — afghanistan: for the sake of my sisters. gunfire. woman gasps. gunfire continues. breaking news now — and taliban fighters have

reached the afghan capital, kabul. all flights have stopped. thousands of people continue to try and get into the airport and onto a flight. women have been completelyi marginalised since the taliban have come back to power. girls after primary—school age cannot go to school. women are not able to work. female university students are being told to go back home. the taliban have been trying to stop women in the afghan capital, kabul, from protesting against the restriction of women's rights. human rights groups criticised an all—male gathering of more than 4,000 taliban leaders. girls�* education and women's rights barely rated a mention. hours after girls started arriving, the de facto authorities announced they needed to go back home. how do you erase 20 years of women's rights? they've now been left devastated by news that we've just received that secondary schools for girls will not be reopening. i've seen girls crying.

indistinct chatter.

you will be teaching a girl in afghanistan a bit of education, a bit of maths, a bit of information. what are the things we need to be aware of when we're presenting...? confidence. mm—hm. confidence. those girls need to feel safe with you. and that will come through your attributes and through these skills, and they will look forward to it. what if you're not happy at all? should we fake it? i mean, what if we are feeling pressured mentally? what if... 7 yeah. in your personal life? yes. 0k. for that moment, just cut out...

yeah. ..my real life. i have worked as a journalist for years, and i have written stories of victims of war, which is totally different. this is a, erm, positive, happy project. if you're happy to give it a go, that's great. 0k. yeah. in three, two, one. action. speaking in pashto. i have two sisters back in afghanistan. they cannot go to school and university, and... not only them. each girl in afghanistan. i know what they are going through. continues in pashto.

applause. how do you feel that went? i felt good. if you had to think of a criticism, what would it be? my speed. it was fast, i think. i couldn't tell when you were taking a breath or when a sentence was coming to an end. so, if you felt that it was slightly fast, then maybe it was just slightly fast. ok, so think about that. it was a good day. i was so excited about it. this project is something i am...in love with. i was about to cry many times today, but i controlled myself. i really hope we can do something for the teenagers in afghanistan, especially girls. they have suffered a lot.

we received 170 calls for help in the two days after school and universities were shut for girls. now, we get roughly seven to ten new calls every day. i was not in a good place myself. i didn't leave home for 90 days when my friends were arrested. assalaamu alaikum. each time i leave home, i'm afraid. if i say i'm not, it's not true.

i don't tell anyone what i do. only my mum knows. i started going to home schools. as a psychosocial counsellor, i teach girls how to be the best version of themselves, even at the worst time. i tell them to write about their experiences. i tell my students, "do not say the word �*taliban�*. "instead refer to them as �*the government�* "for your own sanity." i said, "the government are afraid of you. "that's why they might never open schools. "but you have to study. "you have to fight. "are you ready for that?" today, we had a meeting, and we talked about a project to cover the second anniversary of taliban coming to kabul,

but i wasn't able to talk. it triggered me a lot, that i was shaking all day long. tearfully: it's been a long time. it still feels like. . .today. gunfire on phone. this was the day taliban came to kabul. i was literally shocked. i filmed this outside my window. gunshot. ah! one week after taliban came to kabul, suddenly it was midnight. everybody was sleeping. my family and i was sleeping. i got a call from the uk government — they told me to leave to airport in minutes. because i was working with the bbc,

i was a journalist. i had the opportunity to leave the country. i didn't have any suitcase. i didn't have my backpack packed. i had nothing. my family, they were not ready for this. my dad... my dad was crying. and this was the first time i saw my dad crying. indistinct chatter. car horns honk. i left to the airport. there was gun—shooting sound and... gunfire. she gasps. gunfire continues. just being a journalist, i tried to record things on my way to the airport. people, they were just literally sleeping on roads,

and kids and women. it was just so scary. i cannot forget that night. i was waiting to enter the airport for 48 hours. night and day, i wasjust standing. no food, no water. i couldn't even come back to home, because everybody was pushing each other to be able to enter the airport. and i don't know if i was lucky or not, because i don't believe leaving my country, leaving my family behind was luck. but... but i had to.

well, i haven't seen any pictures of the new flat i'm moving to. i really hope that i can make it a home, because it's been months that i'm living in hotels.

she sighs heavily.

she sobs quietly. call to prayer. on 15th of august, as much as i was preparing myself and my students, we felt utterly helpless. we had a simple conversation. schools were supposed to open. i told them, "they may not open schools any time soon. "will we stop studying? "will we stop fighting ? " i said, "i know that this will turn you into women "who would never raise a talib". girls don't have anywhere

to go to socialise. so, they say, "here is where they can at least have fun". women and girls are at home all the time, like during corona. for many, life is getting up every morning, praying, preparing breakfast, cleaning the house, helping prepare lunch, cleaning again. still, the day is too long. they spend six to seven hours a day just thinking what to do. their lives are financially hard, too. one day, one of my students came to me for counselling. i saw blood dripping on her clothes. she had cut her veins. i said, "god help me". she said it's the second day. they don't have anything to eat at home. she said it's easier to die than to see her nieces and nephews suffer like this.

she is better now. she comes to my classes, writes stories. for me, it's like i have won the nobel prize. ijust told simon. well, he was very calm about it. like she is... hello! hi. ok, erm, sojust... there's some technical issues, so they've asked us to delay by a week, which is obviously a shame, but it gives us a bit more time to get things ready. mm—hm. one more thing. because we already know. who is doing which episode, the episode that you are doing, you'll say, "ok, this— "was for me this week.

"next week, you will have alia, and we'll have much more - "exciting stuff for you. " yeah. so, that they get to know you guys as, like, people that they recognise. mm. yeah. yeah, you can say, "next week, we'll be learning english and maths, "and also hearing about women's — the women's suffrage movement". so that... inspirational stories. yeah. cos we want them to come back. yeah.

salaam. tomorrow, i never imagined this world could bring me so muchjoy. tomorrow is exactly two years since i started my work with these girls, and it has transformed me from the dark, fearful, and pessimistic person i was into a courageous and creative woman. these girls have helped me more than i have helped them. we are like a family. we support each other during hard times. quiet applause.

laughter. excited chatter. ok. yeah.

yeah, yeah. erm, i think so. dari, take one. wait. she speaks in dari. dari, take two. dari, take five.

they clap. nailed it. yeah. well done, everyone. good job. we've got some good stuff. so, this is exciting. it's really exciting. it is, it is. sahar: when the programme first started, my sisters and other afghan girls, they were all so happy. i received many comments on social media, and they were telling me how helpful this programme is for them. it's also nice that we've been invited to the uk's schools to talk about the dars programme in person. all right. hello, everybody! so, i'll let sahar tell you a bit about afghanistan, because that's where sahar is from. i don't know if you guys know anything about afghanistan,

or anybody else is from afghanistan here? what's your name? sara. so, i don't know if sara knows anything about afghanistan. i don't know if she has been there. you have been there? well, living, studying, and working in afghanistan is totally different from uk. it's so challenging. you have to fight for your rights. because basically now, in afghanistan, girls don't have the right to go to school. i have two little sisters back in afghanistan. they cannot go to school, which is so heartbreaking for me. and that's why i'm working with this project is so exciting. what happens if girls were able to be taught at home? it's not enough. even our programme, it cannot fill the empty place of school. but we try to, you know, keep their hopes and dreams alive by this show.

it's been more than two—and—a—half years since the taliban took over. sadly, schools are still closed. ..teach people, erm... but we, the bbc, decided to go ahead with the second series, which is very great news for us and for afghan girls. bye, guys! thank you! bye— bye! have a good day! so nice to meet you. and things are slowly getting better for me, as well. i found a permanent place, and i've moved in. we're like a family. we support each other during hard times. the other day, they surprised me with cake. their kindness leaves me speechless. all: # happy birthday to you # happy birthday to you...#

and i feel powerful with them. i hope for the day that we can live as free and equal humans under these skies. hello.

when it comes to rainfall, hardly any rainfall in comparison to what we should be saying for this month. further north and west we've had double the amount of rainfall, over 200% in the far north—west of scotland and across the lake district as well. and in fact that's where we're likely to see further rain to add to these totals to close out the month of august, potentially another 18 mm in the extreme northwest where there's hardly any trace of usable rain once again across eastern england in south—east england. from monday, we are going to see a relatively dry, quiet day. this week, weather front, to see a relatively dry, quiet day. this week, weatherfront, a band of cloud, few showers close to scottish borders. to the north and south cannot, sunny spells, breezy but the wind is not as strong as over the weekend. it will feel a little warmer which is good news for many because of the bank holiday weekend. highs likely of 23 degrees. as we

move into tuesday, central and southern areas under this influence of high pressure into the near continent, but a toppling around the high is another low moving and bringing wet and windy weather. at the same time the wind direction swings around to a south—westerly, and taps into some pretty warm air coming from the near continent. the rain, still heavy as it moves out of the scottish borders into north wales, but ahead of it, with that sunshine and then increasing warmth, we should see temperatures at 25 degrees, that's 77 degreesf. we're looking at mid to high across scotland. that weather front is not moving very far at all on wednesday as it continues to bump into this area of high pressure, so we could see this conveyor belt of rain just sitting across southwest england, wales, and northern england for a time, and that means we'll see some increasing warmth. still a level of uncertainty where the front is going to be sitting but potentially from hole down to the isle of wight, anywhere south and east of that

could see temperatures peaking at 27 or 28 degrees. we keep some sunshine and warmth that although not quite as warm through thursday and friday are crossed england and wales, staying unsettled for the northwest. live from london. this is bbc news. explosion. israel launches what it calls pre—emptive air strikes against hezbollah targets in lebanon. while hezbollah says it launched a wave of rockets and drones in retaliation for the recent assassination of a top commander. translation: we wanted to target israel's military intelligence -

or their air force because these two forces were involved in the assassination. we also wanted this target to be deep inside israel, closer to tel aviv. these are live pictures fom inside israel where sirens have sounded as hamas says it's fired a rocket at tel aviv. the prime minister sir keir starmer is set to warn that "things will get worse" in the uk before they get better. and the owner of x, elon musk, has criticised the arrest of telegram founder pavel durov saying it's a sign that freedom of speech in europe is under attack. hello, i'm samantha simmonds. sirens have sounded south of tel aviv as the armed wing of hamas says it has fired an m90 rocket at the city.

these are live pictures of tel aviv.