this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at four. the most powerful non—nuclear bomb ever used by the united states targets so—called islamic state in afghanistan — 36 militants are thought to have been killed. this was the right weapon against the right target, we will not relent our mission to fight alongside our afghan comrades to destroy isis k in 2017. a british tourist, thought to be aged in her 20s, has been stabbed to death on a tram injerusalem. schools in england are facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years — a warning from teaching unions. the mission to re—take mosulfrom so—called is, we report from the frontline. also in the next hour, paying the price for unwelcome guests. security's to be improved at the online booking site airbnb after a bbc investigation finds scammers burgling homes. and in half an hour and join the us

for whether world, near belfast international airport we will go behind the scenes to see what it ta kes to behind the scenes to see what it takes to keep planes flying whatever the weather. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. 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. but there has also been criticism,

former afghan president ahmed cars i condemned the bombing as inhuman. 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 was targeting underground bases in eastern afghanistan, a stronghold of the so—called islamic state group. the us military insists afghan leaders gave full approval. this was the right weapon against the right target. we will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our afghan comrades to eliminate this threat to the afghan people, especially the people of nangarhar, to the people of the entire region, and indeed, the people around the world. local people confirm this remote, 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 their tunnels and caves. translation: there were daesh bases 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 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, really, to what's happened over the last eight years, you will see there's a tremendous difference. tremendous difference. we have incredible leaders in the military and we have incredible military. we are very proud of them and this was another very, very successful mission.

newsreader: us drops the mother of all bombs. today, the news still dominates us headlines, as the world digests this latest insight into this new president. jill mcgivering, bbc news. a little earlier we were joined by our security correspondent frank gardner. he said the bombing was intended as a warning to the enemies of the united states. this was a very deep system of tunnels and caves where so—called islamic state were reportedly building improvising devices, booby—traps, ammunition and fighters, and it would have cost a lot of people's lives to go in and destroy that on the ground, so in that sense they can justify it. but there is a certain amount of substance which will be controversial. general hr mcmaster, the national security adviser to the trump administration said sometimes military action is not aboutjust suppressing the enemy, it is about communicating with them. and what they are doing in syria, north korea

and afghanistan is sending a message that trump means business. whether you can follow that is debatable because in these three problem areas that president obama chose to deal with incrementally and with the minimum amount of force you could get away with, president trump says, i will go in guns blazing — but following it up will be difficult. all three areas, north korea, syria and afghanistan require a lot of focus and commitment. these are long wars, all of them. frank gardner, security correspondent. a young british woman has been stabbed to death on a tram injerusalem. the woman, in her early 20s, was rushed to a hospital but died soon after. police say two other people were also injured during the attack. a 57—year—old palestinian man has been arrested. earlier i spoke to our respondent in jerusalem, tom bateman. he gave me the latest. police and security agency shin bet say this is a man of 57 who lived in a palestinian neighbours of eastjerusalem. they said he had been recently released

from a psychiatric hospital and suggested he had previous criminal convictions so that may shed some light at the early stage of this investigation into what went on. in terms of the attack we know that this woman was attacked on the city's light rail, the tram network, just outside the old city of jerusalem when this woman was repeatedly stabbed this morning. she was taken to hospital, there was an attempt to resuscitate her that was not successful and she died. two others were not seriously hurt, a 30—year—old woman was pregnant and older man, all in a panic everyone hurrying to get away when the tram stopped. more details emerging but it comes at a time when has been heightened security at this time of injerusalem, with authorities aware of the fact of course that many more thousands of people are here, it's the jewish passover week which

thousands of people are here, it's thejewish passover week which means that many more people in the old city and christian pilgrims heading for easter festivities as well. there have been a series of attacks in which people have apparently been stabbed at random, jewish people by palestinians, that's the big story, it seems, not just stabbing incidents, is this a similar incidents, is this a similar incident or is it entirely unconnected? since the latter part of 2015 the israeli authorities say about dozens of people have been killed in gun, knife and car ramming attacks. meanwhile 250 palestinians, the israelis say our attackers have also lost their lives in this period. the question is whether or not this case this morning can be attributed to that wave of attacks. the israeli president has said today

that he passes an this respect, that he is extremely sad about what happened and has called it a attack, shin bet say that this is another case of a palestinian person who has carried out a terror attack as a result of that. it could be some time before we get the full details of that. tom bateman, thank you. a lorry carrying compressed gas has caught fire on the m4 causing long delays during the easter bank holiday. the road was closed both ways for an hour between junction 17 and 18 near chippenham but the westbound carriageway has now opened, according to highways england. wiltshire police said it is likely the road will be evacuated and has warned drivers to use alternative routes if possible. 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. benjames ben james reports. ready to move after a series of delays. ambulances and buses are taking civilians and fighters from besieged towns in syria. these areas are held by the government. this is an opposition town, another is also pa rt an opposition town, another is also part of the deal. it is thought people they will be moved as late as saturday. all four had been under siege for more than two years yet many people didn't want to leave their homes. translation: they call as migrants from our land, we don't know what to say at this time, your

feel you are leaving your land, we are leaving our lives, hubs, feature, memories, passed. the united nations has described the humanitarian situation as catastrophic in these places. activists showed footage last year that appeared to show people eating grass and leaves from trees to survive. people from government towns were ta ken to survive. people from government towns were taken to this opposition held area near aleppo ahead of their onward journey. critics say starvation is being used as a tactic to force deals like this and redraw the sectarian map of syria in the government's favour. president assad insists that he sees the movement is temporarily. it is expected that 30,000 people will be moved in this latest deal, the largest of its kind so latest deal, the largest of its kind so far. ben james, latest deal, the largest of its kind so far. benjames, bbc news, beirut. unions representing half a million teachers say schools in england are facing the worst funding cuts, in real terms, for twenty years. gathering for their annual

conferences over the easter weekend, 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. 0ur 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. the labour party 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. earlier i asked our political correspondent emma vardy if this was an error or a miscalculation of how much the service was going to cost. well, these personal independence payments are made to people of working age to help them with costs they met in and disability. —— they may incur. what seems to what happened is the department for work and pensions vastly underestimated the numbers of people and will be making these claims. the costs are much higher than originally forecast. it also partly to do with the fact that some people may have their claims turned down, they may appeal and that gets overturned so that contributes as well but the press association has been crunching the numbers, the cost of making these assessments was meant to be around £500 million by the end of the year and now it could be up to 7

million, significantly more. former work and pensions secretary stephen crabb has said of his old department that they are just not good at making these forecasts. it's difficult for casting, we talked earlier about the weather forecast! in terms of predicting numbers, often the treasury is way out, yet this has consequences, are we clear that this will mean because of the others bent year the department for work and pensions has to do find many elsewhere and cut something else? good question, how will you plug the gap. we asked the dwp that but they haven't been able to give an answer yet. these contracts are running out in december, the these two companies, labour says the costs are spiralling out of control and these are extortionate payments to private companies. the dwp argues that people need to be assessed properly. they are having to pay the private companies more because there's more work to do. the way these assessments are carried out

has been subject to a lot of criticism. some say they are done very insensitively, that they get too many decisions wrong, the difficult position that the dwp is thenis difficult position that the dwp is then is that it needs to strike that balance between protecting vulnerable people and getting a good dealfor the vulnerable people and getting a good deal for the taxpayer. our political correspondent tanker. the headlines at 15 minutes past four. 36 militants from so—called islamic state are thought to have been killed after a us military strike with a weaon known as the "mother of all bombs". a british woman in her 20s has been stabbed to death on a tram injerusalem. schools in england are facing their worst funding cuts in 20 years, a warning from teaching unions. sport now, a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. hugh has gone off for an early bath, he is lazy. jenson button will be

backin he is lazy. jenson button will be back in formula 1 next month, she's replacing fernando alonso. fernando alonso, and the right of your picture, has been allowed to miss the race in may to participate in the race in may to participate in the indy 500. jenson button, still a mclaren reserve driver, has agreed to replace his team—mate at the grand prix. at the bahrain grand prix this weekend party healy bottas has been the quickest in the first 15 minutes of the session. sebastian vettel and thoroughly topped the time sheets in first practice earlier this afternoon. a busy programme in the championship in football, but brighton and newcastle could take a big step towards premier league football next season, seven games in the championship kicked off this afternoon, brentford, bristol city and fulham all in front, third placed huddersfield drawing with preston, a defeat by huddersfield could mean that brighton will all but seal a return to the top flight for the birth to egg first time in 33 years with a victory at wolves. manchester

united will be without mata for the rest of the season, he had an operation on a groin problem last month, hoped to come back playing but his managerjose mourinho has confirmed that his absence will continue leading to problems of the defenders. katie archibald has won a great britain's first gold in the world track cycling championships in the women's omnium. it is decided by the women's omnium. it is decided by the number of points you score in four different events, she was second going into the points race and did enough to beat her australian rival to take gold. katie archibald's second world title and first individual gold, she was part of the victorious team pursuit squad of the victorious team pursuit squad of three years ago in colombia. of the victorious team pursuit squad of three years ago in colombialj feel in pain primarily but really privileged to pull it off. that was an unbelievably grippy race. i thought i had lost it in the middle attacked, chasing, being

attacked, got back on in the end. pulled it out of the bag. in rugby league super league castleford look like they will stay top of the table this afternoon, they are heading for a convincing win over wakefield. the castleford tigers have scored seven tries so far including this one from winger greg eden, they are leading 42-22 with winger greg eden, they are leading 42—22 with just minutes to go. st helens began without the recently dismissed head coach queued in coming badly as the prop forward was red carded for a high tackle in the 13th minute, lee marshall and wing partnerjoe burgess both scored twice as wigan took advantage in the closing stages to run out the winners, 29—18 in the traditional good friday derby. let's look at those scores. hull fc are losing to leeds rhinos and salford 6—6 with leigh centurions. a cricket story,

west indian samuel badree got his first hat—trick of this year's ipl on his debut yet still finished on the losing side. he plays the royal challengers bangalore. he took 4—9 infour challengers bangalore. he took 4—9 in four others against the mumbai indians, rohit sharma was his hat—trick wicked. mumbai chased the target of 143, carting england scene tymal mills for six to win the game. more sport field in the next hour, joined us them. thank you, lizzie. 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. the iraqi government fears that locals in the town are being used as human shields. 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 weak 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. and you can see the rounds, the is rounds, coming in here, fairly 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. a future labour government says it would bring in a law preventing banks from closing their high street branches. more than a thousand local branches closed in the uk between 2016 and 2017. labour says lending to small businesses decreases in areas where banks close. the government says its support for small businesses, including start—up loans, has helped 40,000 firms. 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 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 showed airbnb government identification, and had positive reviews from previous bookings. but the account had been stolen. the attacker had 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 have had their accounts compromised. there are many ways attackers could have been hijacking airbnb accounts. they might simply have tricked people into handing over their passwords. but there are ways airbnb could have defended against this. we put our security concerns to airbnb. the company said this. 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. if you're a dog owner, you'll know that one of the hardest things to do is leave them alone all day when you head off for work. now some are asking whether it's time for people to be allowed to bring their canine companions into the office. around 1 in 10 businesses already have a dog—friendly policy. our own susannah streeter‘s been finding out more, with a little help from a friend. brooke, reggie, max and peggy are office buddies at nestle in gatwick. the pets at work scheme proved so popular that by the end of the year around 100 dogs passed an assessment to gain their own staff pass. i think some people did wonder how many dogs would actually come

into the office and whether we would have large numbers or packs of dogs roaming the office. the reality is on any given day we probably have between 20—25 dogs in an office of 1,000 people. and in fact it is very rare to even hear a dog bark in the office. but they are here if you want to find one to pet. dogs don't just relieve stress, they also help build office camaraderie. it has made me make friends. people come and talk to me. i don't think they know my name, but they know my dog. and it opens doors. what about the time when she needs to go to the loo? she starts to get up and paces around and looks at me. we have had the odd accident. dog daycare is {so—£40 per day. i have three of them. for me it is a big saving. have there been fallouts with other dogs? not that i have seen. they love chasing each other around the park. you hear the odd bark, that is it. so, just how easy it is it taking your pet into the workplace? come on, this way!

i've borrowed mama to find out. this is the bbc. come on. this is the business unit. i am going for an editorial meeting. the dowjones on last night from the slide. off we go. here we are. claire, if you hear some noises it is because we have a dog in this morning's meeting. 0k. different. i am going to the studio now, down to make up. i am going to give you a little bit too. i might need to brush off a few hairs. marna remained calmly inquisitive until she saw the cleaning trolley. we have a little guest in today. marna's following me around. she is scared. next, the bbc world studio, we meet debra connolly, a dog behaviourist.

you are gorgeous indeed. every office is different. some are quiet, some have the public in and out. you need to be sure your dog has the right temperament and recognise the signs your dog might be struggling. and make sure the other people in the office have checked out to be sure they are not afraid or allergic and take a bag of goodies for your dog to be entertained. interview over, it is lunchtime, and marna can spend it with me. and after her performance in the editorial meeting, i think she deserves a treat, don't you, marna? come on. it is the bank holiday weekend, these two weekend so of course we need to know about the weather. gets cross to tomasz schafernaker. i have you with the lurcher, i wonder if it would be much use with the forecasting? —— let's go across to thomas. we'll find out if it will be raining cats or dogs, then! somewhere in between, some rain around but no cats or dogs falling from the sky. let's start on a

positive note, beautiful scenes sent in from positive note, beautiful scenes sent infrom our positive note, beautiful scenes sent in from our weather watchers, pretty overcast the many areas today, some glimmers of sunshine, for the most pa rt pretty glimmers of sunshine, for the most part pretty cloudy, here's the rain, it is patchy, most of their heavy stuff for fall across wales, for the rest of us spits and spots through the evening and overnight, northern parts of the country, pretty chilly, tebbit is between three and four on the south coast, around ten for plymouth, a bright day, could be silly in the morning but the clouds develop more in the afternoon. i think a nippy day. the breeze will be strong and in the far north of scotla nd be strong and in the far north of scotland we could have wintry showers. the summary, it will stay cool with sunshine and a bit of rain on and off.