hello, you're watching bbc world news. i'm adnan nawaz. our top story this hour: a serious blow to so—called islamic state in iraq. security forces say they've arrested over 1,000 suspected is members in eastern mosul. we have an exclusive report on the raids. welcome to the programme. our other main stories this hour: the trump administration revokes us government protection for transgender students, angering teachers and campaigners. the chief of staff for marine le pen, leader of france's national front, faces a formal investigation over the alleged misuse of eu funds. i'm sally bundock. in business, supercharged! tesla says it's on track to hit the mass market this year. but is its surging share price becoming unplugged from reality? plus, enabling talent —

the job—seeking challenge faced by south africa's 2.8 million disabled people. iraqi security services say they've arrested over 1,000 suspected islamic state members in eastern mosul since it was recaptured over a month ago. as militants attempt to fight off government forces for control of the western half of the city, the authorities say sleeper cells 0n the hunt for sleeper cells, these agents from the national security service are on their way to raid a addresses across eastern mosul, chasing those who fight for the

so—called islamic state. and it is not long before they track down their first suspect. after his arrest, he was questioned about other suspects. the agents learn there are more men in the house. three suspects are rounded up in

this raid. including a teenager. this man claims he is innocent. a warning shot. in this area, everyone is treated with suspicion. security is so important in mosul at the moment, and it is a big concern. raids on sleeper cells are continuing, and they are so vital for security, however it is not known how long this will take. of the nine suspects on the wanted list, only six were found. the security services say it took four months to gather enough evidence to conduct this raid, and the men will face terrorism charges in court. so far the security forces have rounded up well over 1000

suspects, which has made these men a target for islamic state. their commander, who doesn't want to reveal his identity, says they need to expand their search. translation: there are many uninhabited neighbourhoods. at the same time, we need a big security and intelligence effort so that we can cordoned off some areas and search them. restoring security in mosul is a delicate task. in the past, some iraqi security forces have been accused of abuse and sectarianism. the approach taken over the coming months will have a big impact on the future of this city. peace talks to try to end the fighting in syria are due to take place later on thursday in geneva. the un mediator says russia has asked the syrian government for a pause in its air attacks while the talks are taking place. a ceasefire is currently supposed to be in place between president assad's forces and the rebels, but it's been violated repeatedly.

the envoy, staffan de mistura, says he hopes the meeting will lead to further rounds of negotiations. the white house has put an end to government protection for transgender students. president trump has revoked rules from the obama administration which gave pupils in public schools the right to use toilets matching their chosen gender identity — the ones they felt most comfortable with. thejustice and education departments say the obama guidelines were confusing. advocates for tra nsgender rights argue they were needed to prevent discrimination. frankie mccamley reports. whether to turn left or right — a simple decision for many. but the issue of choosing between the door for women and for men is once again highlighting a political touchstone dividing social conservatives and those who support greater equality. last may the obama administration directed public schools to allow transgender access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity, not what was on their birth certificate. it warned if schools

were to discriminate, they could lose funding. republicans pushed back, 13 states sueing to challenge the directive. earlier this week the trump administration signalled it was reversing the policy. the president has maintained for a long time that this is a states rights issue, and not one for the federal government. so while there will be further guidance coming on this, i think all you have to do is look at what the president's view has been for a long time. but this is not something the federal government should be involved in, it is a states rights issue. in this draft letter, officials say they are withdrawing previous guidance, as many have struggled to understand and apply the statements of policy. however, it says it will not diminish the protections from bullying and harassment that are available to all students. schools must ensure the transgender

students, like all students, are able to learn in a safe environment. but advocates for lgbt students have already begun speaking out. the guidance has changed and saved lives, and has hurt nobody. withdrawing it will only create confusion now, and fear, for students who already face grave risks. legal experts now warn this change could impact some pending court cases. as for the impact on the wider lgbt community, that is yet to be seen. jess herbst is the mayor of new hope, texas, and the first the un secretary general has issued an urgent call for funding to avert famine infour an urgent call for funding to avert famine in four countries. the un has already said more than 20 million people face possible starvation in south sudan, nigeria, somalia and yemen. so far, governments have pledged only about 2% of the nearly $4.5 billion needed. police in north dakota have begun arresting protesters who have been trying to get an oil pipeline re—routed.

some protestors set fire to their tents to try to delay the clearance. two native american tribes have been trying to block the project. they say it risks pollution and endangers sites they consider sacred. president obama halted construction. president trump has re—authorised it. north korea has accused malaysia of an "unfriendly attitude" over its investigation into the apparent murder of kim jong—un‘s half—brother. an official statement from pyongyang says the malaysian authorities have "politicised" the case by carrying out an autopsy before handing over the body. police in kuala lumpur have named a north korean diplomat as a suspect. the sweet smell of mask. it is too early in the morning to say that, but sally, elon musk, he cannot do any wrong? well... go on, then. when it comes to the company and the car, tesla, it would seem he has huge emissions. we knew that anyway but

we're talking about the mass market 110w. “— we're talking about the mass market now. —— huge ambitions. tesla's share price has been soaring in recent months. it was up again on wednesday after reporting better—than—expected results. tesla is still losing money but less than expected, and it has a very big debts. more importantly, it has reassured investors it is on track to expand beyond the niche luxury car market and into the big league in car production. let's show you why. it is all about this. this is the model three. at $35,000 it is half the price of existing tesla models and is aimed at the mass market. in a letter to shareholders, tesla says it is on schedule to produce these, to begin production injuly. it produce these, to begin production in july. it will produce these, to begin production injuly. it will need to, because tesla has promised to be producing a total of 500,000 cars a year by next year. these are big ambitions. in

2016 it delivered this many. just over 76,000, that is less than the 80,000 - 90,000 it over 76,000, that is less than the 80,000 — 90,000 it promised, under its existing models. so it is still a small—scale operator, butjudging by the share price, investors have high hopes it could become the next ford or general motors. as you can see, the share price has soared about 50% since the beginning of december, giving it a stock market value of $41; billion. if you put that in context it is being valued almost as much as ford, which has been around for more than a century, of course, and sold over 6 million vehicles just last year. so we will have a full report on that in about 20 minutes. also, we will take you to south africa, where we continue oui’ to south africa, where we continue our week—long focus on disability and business. 2.8 million south africans are disabled. some 7.5% of the population. yet the unemployment

rate among disabled people is extremely high, partly because of inaccessible and unsupportive working environments. so we will be ata working environments. so we will be at a johannesburg company that specialises in helping disabled people find work. all that and the other business stories in about 20 minutes. see you then. the chief of staff for marine le pen, the right wing candidate in the french presidential election, has been put underformal investigation over the alleged misuse of eu funds. prosecutors are looking into allegations catherine griset drew an eu salary to help marine le pen in her work as a member of the european parliament when in fact she was working for the national front party in paris. marine le pen, who's denied wrongdoing, says she is the victim of a political conspiracy. as france heads towards its most unpredictable election in decades, politicians are preparing to visit the annual agricultural show in paris this weekend. it's a key event because the french countryside is still an influential part of the country's national identity. it's also an important election battleground,

as economic and international pressures take their toll on traditional ways of life. our correspondent lucy williamson reports. the auroral idyll is france's national brand. —— rural. governments like change, but the countryside, so the story goes, does not. and at election time every politician wants to be the friend of farmers. this small town sits in a corner of burgundy, with its grand heritage of food and wine. it has had a centre—right mayor for 22 yea rs had a centre—right mayor for 22 years now, but since 2010 the far right national front has doubled its share of the vote, both here and in the surrounding region, to almost 30%. the mayor puts that down to a lack of support for the rural economy, which he says is creating a two tier france, with jobs and

people moving to the cities. translation: there is a big feeling of disappointment. people feel abandoned. we have seen one government after another and none of them have reversed this trend. people do not feel they have a future in the countryside, and this impacts their vote, because they say they are fed up and they do not believe in the traditional parties. philippe has been a dairy farmerfor 25 years, and his parents before him. but with growing competition over milk prices, he has been running at a loss for years, and he says some here are quietly turning to the national front for answers. translation: if there is one idea that sparks interest it is the idea of turning inwards, the nationalist spirit. closing borders, protectionism, limiting the movement of people. you do not see many national front voters. it is a vote that appears at the ballot boxes,

but is not openly expressed. auroral boats are a key battleground in this election, especially in right—wing areas like this. —— rural votes. a crisis in french farming, dwindling public services, and now wait financial scandal in the centre—right republican party is pushing some voters to the national front. that is true even if you travel west from burgundy to some of france's left—wing areas. the town of toll, where president hollande was once netcom is so attached to the socialist leader they want him to run again. —— was once mayor. even so, the national front got 20% of the votes in the last regional election, and it is not hard to find people who understand why. translation: it would be good to regulate immigration, it would help. there is good and bad things with

marine le pen. with her, we would rediscover a france worthy of its name. but marine le pen scares people a little, so let's see. these days old french traditions do not stay in the villages. accordions made here find their way to china. globalisation is now the great dividing line in french politics, seen as dividing line in french politics, seen as stealing or delivering france's future. translation: we sell to china even though our accordions are taxed at 35%, because they want to protect their market. i say yes to globalisation, because we have to compensate for shrinking sales in france, and a fall in buying power and competency. farmers here say that politicians like their countryside traditional, but want the benefits of globalisation to. marine le pen's chance of victory is

still slim, but for some, the m essa g es still slim, but for some, the messages are lowering dash that europe is the problem, and france's model doesn't need to change. david balli is named the —— david —— mac david bowie is named the star of the year. prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. a climax in the night outside the gates of mr marcos's sanctuary, malacanang, the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of modern asia. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell from another sheep. citizens are trying to come to

grips with their new freedom. though there is joy and relief today, the scars are everywhere. not for 20 years have locusts been seen in such numbers in this part of africa. some of the swarms have been ten miles long. this is the last time the public will see this pope. very soon, for the sake of the credibility and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi will, in his own words, be hidden from the world for the rest of his life. iraqi security services say they've arrested over one thousand suspected is members in eastern mosul since it was recaptured over a month ago. the trump administration has put an end to government protection for transgender students in public schools — revoking the bathroom guidelines brought in last year by president obama. astronomers believe they may have made a "crucial step towards finding life outside earth.

a team of international scientists have found seven new planets with temperatures that should allow water to exist in liquid form which means life could have developed there. as our science editor, david shukman reports, the planets are orbiting a distant dwarf star known as trappist—one. an artist's impression of a startling discovery deep in space, around a faint and distant star, much weaker than our sun, is a collection of planets that are surprisingly similar to earth. in all, seven of these worlds have been spotted, and astronomers think it may change the way we look at the night sky. the discovery gives us a hint that finding a second earth is notjust a matter of if, but when. an array of telescopes kept watch on one point in space and what the scientists were looking for were tiny clues about the light of a particular star becoming dimmer, on a regular basis, as planets orbited in front of it. they can't see these new worlds, but they know they're there. well, we are extremely excited.

this is the biggest amount of planets that we've found in one go that look like the earth in composition, size and mass. all seven are close enough to the star and far enough to the star that they could host liquid water, and that's just incredible. this is the latest revelation in a wave of discoveries over the past 25 years of new worlds that exist in solar systems beyond our own. the total of these distant planets now stands at well over 3,000. what makes this discovery so unusual is the sheer number of new worlds spotted in one go, seven in all. and crucially, they'rejust the right temperature for liquid water to exist at the surface. three of them are in what's called the habitable zone, which raises the tantalising possibility that they

could conceivably host life. but we won't be getting there in a hurry, they're a0 light years away. to reach them, using the rockets we have now, would take something like 700,000 years. there's so much to find out about these worlds, whether the artist's impressions are right, whether it's possible that the conditions for life do exist, and astronomers say they'll be a huge effort to try to find out. the more we look, the more planets we find and the more earth—like planets we find, but this is especially exciting because this, sort of, ultra—cool star that we've discovered, they're quite populous throughout our galaxy, and it's the first time we've had planets going around a star like this and we've found seven of them. the best hope lies with huge new telescopes that'll come into service soon, improving the chances of getting a really close look at these alien worlds to see, for example, if they do have oceans and maybe, just maybe, discover if there are some hints about life. david shukman, bbc news. stephen kane is associate professor of astronomy at san francisco state university and director of the planetary research laboratory. for you, this must be heaven. what

is most exciting? a number of things which are exciting about this discovery. one of the things that have been learned from the nasa kepler mission is to small planets are much more common. there are lots of terrestrial planets. as is being said, these planets orbit a very small star, much smaller than our sun and if this style were any smaller, it would not be a star. it wouldn't be able to burn fuel in the centre and produce energy so it's at the very edge of what we can call a star and yet it has seven planets like the earth and these stars, the good news is that these kinds of stars are the most common stars in the universe and there is probably a lot more systems like this out there. our these scientists able to

recognise the composition and the temperatures. size and mass, i can understand how a telescope could measure that of the composition of these planets? how do they work that out? we don't know the composition is as yet. what we can tell from the radius and mass is the main density. when we compare it to terrestrial bodies and our own solar system, we can bodies and our own solar system, we ca n start bodies and our own solar system, we can start to get an idea of what the composition must be but that's about the limit of what we can do the moment without further observations, which will be done in the years ahead. once your question about temperatures, that is something we can calculate based on how far away the planet is from the start and how much energy it receives. what is the practical use of this information here on earth? it's really about placing ourselves in context because this is something which the

thousands of years has been relegated to the jurisdiction of armchair philosophers, talking about if there are other planets out there and other life out there, we are at and other life out there, we are at a unique place in history where we are able to answer those questions ina are able to answer those questions in a quantifiable way so it's very exciting to be on the threshold of being able to answer that ultimate question, are we alone?|j being able to answer that ultimate question, are we alone? i thought it was very question, are we alone? i thought it was very interesting that the nasa chief scientist said this discovery means it's a question of not but when we find another earth. silly question from me. how many stars are out there and do all stars have planets? there are billions of stars out there, even within our own galaxy. we have about 100 billion stars. as far as we can tell so far, seems like all stars have planets. i would go so far as to say the formation of planets is a natural consequence of star formation and so

the next following question from that years, is life a natural consequence of planet formation? that would mean that life is extremely common. thank you very much to educating me, i appreciated. you can find more on how astronomers may believe they have made a crucial step towards finding life outside earth and the seven planets around trappist i, the dwarf star, all bbc website. health experts have been advising us all to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day for some time but a new study says we should double that figure. researchers from imperial college london analysed data from nearly 100 studies and found that the greatest benefit came from eating 800 grammes a day — about 10 portions. leicester scored a goal in their

game against sevilla. it was 2—1 to the homesite. on the ropes at half—time and fortunate to be one down, leicester city bounced back with fighting spirit. still, they rode their luck. the crossbar was struck. leicester city were overrun in the first half. michael saved a penalty and made several important stops. leicester showed more anderson —— ambition and were awarded ford could be a turning point in their season. david bowie has won two awards at this year's brit awards in london making him the first posthumous winner in the event's history. just over a year after his death he was named best british male solo artist, while blackstar, released two days before he died, won album of the year. coming up injust a couple of minutes, sally has all the latest business news in

world business report. first a look at the weather where you are. stormy conditions. storm doris is on the scene. the deepening era of low pressure will be summer across northern england. light winds in the centre of that. the northern flank, snow, parts of central and southern scotla nd snow, parts of central and southern scotland over the hills. an amber be prepared warning with some disruption, up to 30 centimetres of snow. it could still cause disruption. other aspects of the story is the wind. strongest across england and wales. the met office, be prepared warning. enforced through parts of wales. we have highlighted those areas with the orange oramber highlighted those areas with the orange or amber glow on the map. stretching first thing in the morning from northwest wales or the

way through to east anglia. the strongest of the gusts, maybe 80 miles an hour in hills and coasts but damaging gusts potentially. a band of rain sweeping west. persistent crossed —— across northern england. some minor flooding at times. rain on the northern ireland. strongest, the wind, likely across england and wales. quite chilly afternoon as continue to drop. strong winds added to the evening rush—hour, particularly for east anglia. so much so, only a few wintry showers around, some clearing skies so we could see a touch of frost into the start of friday morning. a potentially icy start, one or two isolated showers which will bleed. many have a pleasant day before the rain arrives into northern ireland and western parts of scotland later

on. we will see some snow in the western highlands. temperatures slowly rising after the chilly start. another mild day to come into saturday. south—westerly winds but with it, winds will strengthen again. not at the same levels thursday but it will still be a gusty day. biased and brightest to the south and east. whatever your plans up the next few days, take care. this is bbc world news, the headlines. iraqi security services say they've arrested over 1,000 suspected is members in eastern mosul since it was recaptured over a month ago. they say sleeper cells are a serious threat to the city. the trump administration has revoked us government protection for transgender students, which gave them the right to use school bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity. the chief of staff for marine le pen, the anti—immigration candidate in the french presidential election, has been put underformal investigation over the alleged misuse of eu funds. marine le pen says catherine griset

is the victim of a political conspiracy. astronomers say they could be a step closer to finding extra—terrestrial life after the discovery of seven earth—sized planets nearly a0 light years away. three are within what's considered to be the habitable zone where surface water might exist.