the most powerful non—nuclear bomb ever used by the united states, targets so—called islamic state in afghanistan. the us says it was the right weapon against the right target. 36 militants are thought to have been killed. we have afghan and us forces on the site and see no evidence of civilian casualties, nor have there been any reports of civilian casualties. schools in england facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years — a warning from teaching union conferences. gunfire. the mission to re—take mosulfrom so—called is. we report from the frontline. security improved at the online accommodation booking site airbnb, after a bbc investigation finds scammers burgling homes. the afghan government says 36 so—called islamic state militants

were killed when the united states dropped one of its biggest non—nuclear bombs in the eastern province of nangarhar on thursday. the commander of us forces in afghanistan, generaljohn nicholson, said the attack had been coordinated with the government in kabul, and that no civilians were harmed. our south asia editor jill mcgivering reports. this is american hard power in action. the moment the us dropped, for the first time, the biggest non—nuclear weapon it has. it was a moab, nicknamed the mother of all bombs and it targeted underground basesin bombs and it targeted underground bases in eastern afghanistan, a stronghold of the so—called is alex tate group. the us military insists afg ha n tate group. the us military insists afghan leaders gave full approval. this was the right weapon against

the right target. -- so-called islamic state group. we will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our comrades to eliminate the threat to the people of nanga haar, the entire region and indeed the world. local people confirm this remote and harsh terrain was used by the islamic state. translation: the bomb was dropped last night on is position. and caves. it was really powerful and has been used to destroy all the tunnels and caves. translation: there were daesh places over there. last night's bomb was really huge. when it dropped, everywhere was shaking. afghan leaders say the attack was justified and there are no civilian casualties. but former afg ha n no civilian casualties. but former afghan president hamid karzai took to social media to condemn it. back in the united states, president trump applauded the action and tried to score political points at his

predecessor's expense. if you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that to what's happened over the last eight yea rs, what's happened over the last eight years, you will see there's a tremendous. tremendous difference. we have incredible leaders in the middle terry and we have incredible military. we are very proud of them and this was another very successful mission. —— in the military. and this was another very successful mission. -- in the military. today the news still dominates us headlines as the world digests this latest insight into this new president. jill mcgivering, bbc news. with me is our security correspondent frank garner. clearly a dramatic event. frank, is this more style over su bsta nce 7 i think there is in a tactical military sense, this was a deep system of tunnels and caves where islamic state were reportedly building improvised traps, installing weapons and training fighters and it would cost a lot of

people's lives to go in and destroy it on the ground. in that sense, yes, they what we are doing here, in syria, in north korea and in afghanistan is sending a message that trompe means business. whether he can follow through on that is debatable. because all of these problem areas, that president obama chose to deal with incrementally and with the minimum amount of foresee could get away with, president trump is saying, i will go in guns blazing, but following it up will be very difficult. all three areas, north korea, syria and afghanistan require a lot of focus and commitment. these long wars, all of them. unions representing half a million teachers say schools in england

are facing the worst funding cuts, in real terms, for 20 years. gathering for their annual conferences, they're also highlighting a growing shortage of teachers for subjects such as maths and science. the government says £40 billion is being spent on schools this year — in cash terms, the highest figure ever. our education correspondent gillian hargreaves reports. st martin's school in essex is a good school. but even here, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit staff, particularly in specialist subjects. at one stage, they had a science teacher vacancy for more than a year. but there are also shortages in maths and modern languages. i look at the pool of people that are teaching in those areas and the number of people that are due to retire over the next ten years, and also the number of people that are coming in that aren't actually a specialist in the subject area that they're teaching, and i think that this is really the thin end of the wedge. teachers are gathering for their conferences at a time of unprecedented anger over cuts. there have been widespread protests

from parents and schools who say, without more money, class sizes will go up and teaching posts will be cut. the government points out £40 billion is being spent on schools this year, the highest cash figure ever. but teachers say that hasn't taken into account rising costs, like pay, pensions, and the running costs of schools. the funding pressure is also beginning to hit parents, something of a concern to the unions. half of parents are saying they're making at least one financial contribution to the school's funds, in order to "enhance resources", whatever that means, at school level. and many parents are finding that even the cost of school uniform is something which they can no longer afford. there is also much disquiet about government plans to introduce a new wave of grammar schools. teachers argue money set aside for them would be better spent on existing schools. however, the government says this new wave of grammars would benefit less—well—off families. gillian hargreaves, bbc news.

labour has accused the government of "rewarding failure", in response to new figures which suggest the government will have to pay millions of pounds more than planned to atos and capita, two private companies which assess people claiming disability benefits. our political correspondent chris mason is with me now. this is an extraordinary jump in the numbers. the department for work and pensions uses the department for work and pensions uses an awful lot of taxpayer money paying benefits and pensions. this is about the personal independence payment, first introduced four years ago, the idea it would help working age people with the additional costs associated with disability. at the heart of the project was assessing potential recipients to try to work out what day, if anything, should be paid. the department made an estimation in 2013 that the overall costs would be £500 million. now analysis by the press association

news agency suggests by the end of the contract for atos and capita, by the contract for atos and capita, by the end of the year, that figure will be £700 million stop well they say the reason there is this additional cost. far more people came forward for assessment than initially anticipated. a small amount of extra cost is people appealing against the assessment results and having the whole thing done again. labour say the system is in disarray. the department say they need effective assessments and that is vital for the potential recipients. for the occupier of the department's big chair, former secretary of state stephen crabb, says the department hasn't been very good at getting its forecast right. political correspondent chris mason, thank you very much. buses have begun evacuating hundreds of villagers and fighters from four rebel held villages in syria — two of them close to the capital damascus. it follows a deal struck between president assad's government and rebel forces. but the opposition says it amounts to deliberate displacement of the president's opponents

further from the capital. a clean—up is underway in new zealand after a powerful storm swept across the country. cyclone cook brought down power lines, and caused landslides and flooding. a state of emergency was declared in some parts of the north island with hundreds evacuated from their homes and many roads closed. heavy rain is still affecting south island. the world famous las vegas strip had to be closed last night after a fire broke out at one of the city's biggest casinos. huge flames were spotted near the roof of the bellagio hotel which is at the centre of las vegas boulevard. emergency teams say they were able to bring it under control, but the location made the operation difficult. no injuries were reported. the iraqi government has told people living in mosul to stay inside as security forces prepare for an assault aimed at dislodging so—called islamic state militants. thousands of civilians are still trapped in the city, which has been held by is since 2014. 0ur defence correspondentjonathan beale is embedded with troops. the prize is in their sight.

the old city of mosul and its most famous landmark, the leaning minaret of the al—nuri mosque. this is where abu bakr al—baghdadi first appeared as caliph of the so—called islamic state. they still control it and most of what you can see. but for how much longer? translation: the mosque is now very near and soon we will advance. we know the enemy is week and on its last legs. a visit to the front line, though, tells a different story. for the past few weeks, the iraqi advance has slowed to a crawl. resistance is still fierce. these federal police are surrounded on two sides by is

and they are firing on their positions from here. snipers, is snipers, just about 100 metres from this position. gunfire and you can see the rounds, the is rounds, coming in here, pretty regularly. tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped, caught in the crossfire. much of mosul has already been turned to rubble. even in these deserted streets, recently secured, there is nowjust the debris of war. here, discarded is military uniforms, and nearby, one of their many improvised bombs. but the enemy is not just hiding in the city. wejoined an iraqi intelligence unit hunting down is infiltrators and collaborators who have already escaped. now seeking shelter and avoiding capture in camps, living

alongside the innocents of this war, who fled the fighting. how often do you do this? do you do this often? always, every day, every night. you are finding isis fighters in these camps? in the camp or some in his house, in mosul. everywhere. the extremists may be losing their grip on mosul but even if they are defeated, is won't have gone away. jonathan beale, bbc news, mosul. former world champion jenson button says he's delighted to be making a one—off return to formula one. he's agreed to race for mclaren at next month's monaco grand prix. button will replace fernando alonso. he's been granted permission to compete in the indy 500. the online accommodation booking company airbnb says it

will improve its security, after a bbc investigation found that people's homes have been burgled by scammers using stolen accounts. they hijacked profiles with verified badges and changed some personal details to pull off the thefts. the company says it will now warn members if their profile information is changed. chris foxx reports. like millions of people, christian had let out his home on airbnb while he was out of town, as a convenient way to make some extra money. he had done so for years without a problem. but on his birthday, his home was burgled. i got that horrible text message saying someone is in the flat, and it is not me, because my account had been compromised. christian thought he had let out his home to a verified profile, somebody who had verified government identification, and had positive reviews from previous bookings. but the account had been stolen. the attacker changed the name, photograph and contact details on the profile, but kept airbnb's "verified" badge. and christian is not alone.

the bbc has spoken to two other people who were robbed this way, and three others who had their accounts stolen, and airbnb's facebook page has dozens of comments from people who had their accounts compromised. there are many ways attackers could have been hijacking airbnb accounts. they might be able to trick people into handing over their passwords. but there are ways airbnb could have defended against this. we put our security concerns to airbnb. those changes include two—step verification when somebody logs in from a new device, and text message alerts if somebody changes your profile information. but, for christian, the changes come too late. he says the whole experience has left him with a bad feeling, and he may not use airbnb again. chris foxx, bbc news. that's all from the

newsroom this lunchtime. so it's goodbye from me. 0n bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. you're watching bbc news with sean lay. let's bring you some breaking news coming out of israel this lunchtime. it is a report from the press association that a young british tourist has been stabbed to death injerusalem. british tourist has been stabbed to death in jerusalem. the british tourist has been stabbed to death injerusalem. the woman is thought to be in her early 20s and was attacked as she travelled on a light rail train near the old city, which is packed with christians are celebrating good friday and jewish people marking passover. she was rushed to a medical centre but died soon afterwards. police say she was attacked by a palestinian man. that is news coming out ofjerusalem this lunchtime, but a woman thought to be in her early 20s, believed to be a british national, has been stabbed to death in an attack which police say was by a palestinian man. facey he stabbed her repeatedly and although she was rushed to hospital for treatment she died soon after. we will bring you any more details as soon we will bring you any more details as soon as we have we will bring you any more details as soon as we have them.

a deal has been struck between the syrian government and rebel forces to evacuate 30,000 civilians from four besieged towns. residents of two government—held towns in a rebel—controlled area of aleppo province have already been pictured leaving on buses. the swap, brokered by iran and qatar, also sees people from two rebel—held towns in a regime—controlled area near damascus allowed to leave. in the last short while we have had the first pictures of the operation under way. these were sent to us by an evacuee of the rebel town madaya, near the capital. he also sent us his thoughts on having to leave his home. translation: in a few hours we will be leaving the blockade. we feel like migrants in our land. there are no words to describe it. you feel like you are leaving your land. we are leaving our lives, our hope, ourfuture, our memories, our past behind. 0ur correspondent ben james, who's

in beirut in neighbouring lebanon, has been following events in syria. this is not the first of these swa ps. this is not the first of these swaps. what is the thinking behind them? why swaps. what is the thinking behind them ? why both swaps. what is the thinking behind them? why both sides keen to do this? well, certainly the government of president assad has talked about these sorts of deals as, in their view, being key to promoting some kind of peace, to defusing some of these opposition enclaves that still exist in predominantly government—held areas. the last one we we re government—held areas. the last one we were talking about before this was in the area of homs, but only one position was remaining there. this is the largest of these deals so

this is the largest of these deals so farand this is the largest of these deals so far and involves a swap. although people are not going to each other‘s towns, the two towns on one side are being evacuated in return for two on the other. the sentiment you heard from the man whose clip we just played is partly because they feel their hand has been forced. starvation and siege has been used to force a deal like this which means they have to leave their homes despite such dire circumstances that they are leaving behind, humanitarian situation described by the un as catastrophic. in that particular town, you may remember the images the activists showed where people were eating grass and leaves of trees in order to survive. there has also been severe shortage of medicines that plays as well. up to 30,000 people we expect to take pa rt to 30,000 people we expect to take part ina to 30,000 people we expect to take part in a movement of people from these four towns, both civilians and some of the fighters involved from groups including some of the jihadist groups that are in control of these opposition areas. three out

of these opposition areas. three out of these opposition areas. three out of the four towns we've seen buses moving from so far, we expect that to happen either tonight or early tomorrow. we heard some opposition politicians expressing their scepticism about why the government is doing this and suggesting there was a motive in simply pushing potential opponents as far away as possible. there there is an argument that this leads to some kind of change. the two government... the other towns are the other way round, predominantly sunny in the shia area. what those critics say is that the map is being redrawn in syria to the map is being redrawn in syria to the benefit of government. president assad did refer to this in the incident he gave to the afp news agency earlier in the week. he said

that this would be temporary but it is difficult to work out how these people would go back and any scenario any time soon. a future labour government says it would bring in a law preventing banks closing high street branches. more than 1,000 local branches closed in the uk between 2016 and 2017. labour says lending to small businesses decreases in areas where banks close, but the government said its support for small businesses, including start—up loans, had helped 40,000 firms. a british man is being hunted by interpol over the attempted murder ofa interpol over the attempted murder of a colleague. he has not been seen since he went out drinking with his friend. 47—year—old gary ferguson had been

living and working in my are as an english teacher. he was originally from bungert in northern ireland but had been in myanmarfor some time and was employed at an international school. batters where 26—year—old harris binotti was working. mr ferguson's wife said she discovered he had gone and alerted police and neighbours said they had heard sounds of a row coming from harris binotti's flat that evening. it appears that harris binotti took a flight and that thailand the day after he had been drinking with mr ferguson and since that moment he seems to have disappeared. today interpol have issued a red alert for harris binotti from dumfries and galloway in southern scotland. that is not an arrest warrant but it does

mean that international police forces have to detain him if they come across him because he is needed to the country so that the investigation can continue. gary ferguson's brother martin has previously been critical of the priests —— police effort in myanmar. he said it was going too slow and not enough had been done to find harris binotti and he called on the foreign office to help in that case. today on facebook he said that his family were very relieved that harris binotti had been issued with a red notice by interpol and he said after such a long and hard fight, "i am in tears to announce that harris binotti has been put on interpol‘s list of wanted persons. he can now be arrested internationally". teachers claimed children as young as four are suffering from mental health problems such as panic attacks, anxiety and depression. research by the nasuwt union claims

pupils and teachers are both struggling to get enough support to deal with the issue. dr patrick roach from the teaching union told the bbc a lack of experts and counselling to help children with mental health needs is a major factor. what we are finding, teachers are reporting rising concerns about children's mental health and the lack of support for those children if their particular needs are identified. how are those mental health issues manifesting themselves in schools? they're manifesting themselves through pupils coming to school is anxious, pupils coming to school is anxious, pupils coming to school is anxious, pupils coming to school who have not slept properly the night before because of deep anxiety, children displaying depression, children self—harming. both in the school and indeed outside the school. the department of health says it is

strengthening the links between schools and the nhs. let's speaker andrew webster, the headteacher of a school in north london. thanks for being with us, especially when you are off on holiday. let me ask you, first of all, what sort of symptoms are you seeing among first of all, what sort of symptoms are you seeing among some first of all, what sort of symptoms are you seeing among some pupils in your school? i think sadly, in many schools, teachers are seeing children presenting with anxiety, which can lead to panic attacks and eating disorders seem to be on the increase. i think in some cases, we also do see self—harming in our children. where are these problems stemming from? view are presumably talking to the children about them, trying to get some understanding about what the source is. is it home life, pressures at school? peer pressure? there is a combination of factors. family problems are a key issue and i think where some of the social care budgets have now been cut that may have been able to offer support to families in the past, these are not there now. if you tie

that a social media, which is a pressure 24/7 for our children, they can never escape it, and that can lead to feelings of isolation and anxiety of fitting in. if you look at the increase in exam stress and academic pressures that young people are facing in a time of unprecedented flux in the education system, i think this really compounds what is a growing issue. do you and your colleagues feel equipped to cope with these kinds of problems? at my school we are fortu nate problems? at my school we are fortunate because our protected budget has enabled us to keep two councillors on the school site. we also won the nhsj innovation award. that is the health servicejournal? that is the health servicejournal? that is the health servicejournal? that is without which team and we train our young people in supporting each other as this —— as peer mentors if we spot psychological issues. batters a good resource for us issues. batters a good resource for us but with the school budgets as difficult they are, it is services

of this nature that are very likely to be cut. presumably it is a question of creating an environment where people feel there is nothing wrong with the feelings they have there is certainly nothing wrong with expressing them and asking people for help and presumably that can happen in lots of environments, not just can happen in lots of environments, notjust in school. are you surprised, given that you deal with the secondary school and of things, to hear that the unions are saying that children as young as four are presenting with these problems? that children as young as four are presenting with these problems7m is incredibly sad but perhaps not surprising that those issues are becoming younger and younger. family problems are a key issue, lots of families going through difficult times currently, and it is unsurprising that the children and families are suffering because of that. you mentioned the stigma attached to mental health issues and yes, we are really, really clear that one of our key priorities is breaking down that stigma around mental health issues and encouraging young people to talk about that but it is sad but not surprising that

perhaps younger children are presenting with these issues. andrew webster, headteacher of a school in north london, thank you for talking to us about a really important issue. we are grateful for your time. let's ta ke time. let's take a look at the weather prospects for this lovely long bank holiday weekend. sarah keith—lucas has the details. good afternoon. it isa has the details. good afternoon. it is a great, cloudy good friday for many of us but their of sunshine to be enjoyed. here is the scene in suffolk captured by a weather watcher a couple of hours ago. a few clear spells there. through the rest of the easter weekend, things stay rather cool with a bit of sunshine and some of us will see some rain but not everywhere. here is the satellite and radar picture showing rain that has order been pushing across parts of northern ireland, western scotland, a few showers for england and wales. this band of cloud edges southwards in the slips but if we start along the south

coast, it should be largely dry for the bulk of cornwall, devon and dorset. temperature is getting up to around 14 or 15 and in brighter spells in the south—east, it will feel pleasant. thicker cloud, cooler temperatures and patchy rain across north wales and northern ireland. most of the rainbow clear from northern ireland to leave bright as bars and a few showers and for scotland, blustery with further showers. a wintry flavour. it is looking pretty chilly with frequent showers, where it is further south, this weather front as it pushes on through the afternoon and evening will bring cloud and patchy outbreaks of rain. light showers passing across southern parts of england as we head through the overnight period. any rain pretty welcome for the dry gardens in the south and south—east. as we start saturday, and improving picture. cloud and showers clearing for the south. further showers across scotla nd south. further showers across scotland and northern ireland and it will be quite windy in the north, so blustery conditions. for much of the country, not a bad dated plenty of

sunshine on offer. just a few showers across northern england and northern ireland and scotland. toward the south and east, largely dry with temperatures around 14. still fresh fields of things compared to last weekend. heading through, we will see a weather front moving through. a week affair but uncertainty about the exact detail. drier and brighter to the north and to the south. temperatures around 15 or so. to the south. temperatures around 15 or so. most of the range of the way by easter monday. wanna two showers but the rest of us looking dry with temperatures at seven to 15.