hello, i'm tom donkin. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: fears for up to 150,000 civilians trapped in the last part of mosul under islamic state control. iraq says the remaining is fighters will be defeated within days. this is the old city area, it's the heart of the battle, and if you look around here you get a real sense of how fierce the fighting has been. the world's worst cholera outbreak. a un warning about yemen as the number of cases passes 200,000. the desperate search for survivors after a massive landslide in china's sichuan province. more than 100 people are missing. 3a high rise buildings around england have failed fire safety tests following the grenfell tower disaster, with hundreds more still to be assessed. thank you forjoining us.

the united nations fears for the safety of up to 150,000 civilians trapped in the last enclave of mosul. it's still held by the so—called islamic state but the iraqi army is closing in. the country's prime minister says mosul will be liberated within days. 0ur correspondent 0rla guerin reports from the front line in mosul‘s old city. she's with cameraman nicholas hameon and producer firle davies. and a warning — their report contains some distressing images. a journey to the front line. 0ur windscreen, a reminder of the dangers ahead. 0ur escort from iraq's elite counterterrorism force. snaking forwards towards an enemy that's still inflicting casualties. like this wounded soldier, being rushed away as we arrived.

and families fleeing too on foot. escaping hunger and fear, and a beloved city robbed of life. no food, no water. mosul is dead. this is the old city area. it's really the heart of the battle. and when you look around here you get a real sense of how fierce the fighting has been. the damage is immense in every direction. the narrow streets, a tight squeeze as troops close in on the last pockets of is resistance. we were told the militants were just 300 metres away. some on the receiving end of an iraqi missile strike. our history is here, says major riyadh rahma,

and we have to get it back. we have been fighting house—to—house and room to room against snipers and foreign fighters, including chechens. nearby, troops relax within sight of the bodies of is militants. they lie where they fell, in the streets they ruled with terror. the extremists are now facing defeat here, but it has taken three years to get this far. and immense damage has been done to the fabric of mosul and the unity of iraq. 0rla guerin, bbc news, in the old city of mosul. we heard from some civilians who had escaped in 0rla's report. but what about those still trapped? lisa grande — the un humanitarian co—ordinator in iraq — explained what they face. i think it's very clear that the 100—150 , 000 civilians who are still trapped in the old city of mosul

are facing extreme risk. that includes being used as human shields by isil. we know that families that are trying to escape from the old city to safety are being directly targeted. we estimate that at least 30% of all the people who are fleeing and are being shot are women and children. we also know that the families who are trapped inside of mosul are suffering from food deprivation. it's very hot right now in mosul and we know water supplies have been cut for a long time. that means families don't have the safe drinking water they need. we have been worried throughout the mosul operation that the civilians who are inside the city are in very grave danger. the iraqi security forces, during the entire military operation which started last october, have been working to protect civilians. they've been doing what they can to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law. this means they have done what they can to prevent retaliation,

to prevent massacres, to help families cross the line to safety. that being said, we know that even with all of the steps that have been taken to protect civilians, they are still at very grave danger and this is why the united nations now, in the final stages of the fighting which is very intense, what we are saying to all the parties to the conflict is, you have got to do everything you can to make sure civilians come out of this conflict alive. the united nations says the number of suspected cholera cases in yemen has now passed 200,000. a statement from the world health organisation and the children's agency, unicef, said the country is now facing the worst cholera outbreak on the planet. steve jackson reports the two un agencies say they're doing everything they can to stop yemen's cholera outbreak from accelerating. they're tracking the spread of the disease and have deployed rapid response teams to go from house to house, telling people how to protect themselves by cleaning and storing drinking water, but they're facing

impossible circumstances. it's a highly infectious disease but at the same time, this is the not the first time we've faced cases of cholera in yemen. it's actually endemic in yemen but the fact we have reached such a high number in the history of this conflict. we're talking about half of the 200,000 people you mentioned are children. a quarter of the fatalities are children, so children are seriously impacted by this outbreak and it is important and crucial that we get to them with the help and assistance they need so we can beat back this disease. two years of civil war have destroyed health services and sanitation systems. severe food shortages have led to widespread malnutrition, making yemenis, especially children, even more vulnerable to disease. more than 1,300 people have already died of cholera. steve jackson reporting there and for more information.. on the ongoing war in yemen

and the humanitarian crisis there — head to bbc.com or you can download the bbc news app. more than 100 people are still missing — after a massive landslide engulfed a village in china's sichuan province. at least sixty homes in maoxian were buried in mud and debris — when the side of a mountain collapsed following days of heavy rain. fifteen bodies have been pulled from the rubble so far, as well as three survivors. andy beatt reports. rescuers in china have been working through the night in a well co—ordinated but increasingly desperate search for survivors. more than 2,000 police, soldiers and civilians are involved in the operation, sifting through mud and rubble, a task made more difficult by the darkness. earlier, the impact of the landslide was plain to see. an entire village buried under tons of rock. the disaster triggered, it's thought, by recent heavy downpours. also blocking roads and rivers.

hospitals are standing by to receive survivors, but so far there have been few. this month—old baby and its parents lucky to be alive. translation: at around 5am in the morning, the baby started crying so i changed the nappies and then i heard a loud noise. i went to the front door but was hit by wind and water and stones came flying that pinned me down to the ground. my wife and i slowly got up, held the baby and escaped. the emergency response has been swift in an area used to deadly landslides and earthquakes. 0nce roads were cleared, heavy digging equipment could be brought in. but it's also been a case of using much more basic methods, sometimes even bare hands to try to clear the debris. teams on the ground are being aided by life detection equipment and sniffer dogs, and helicopters

deployed to bring in people and provisions. it's the biggest disaster to hit the area since a devastating earthquake in 2008 that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. local officials say that quake had weakened the mountain, making landslides more likely. president xi jinping has called for rescuers to spare no effort in their search but as time passes and with more heavy rain forecast, prospects are increasingly bleak. andy beatt, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. colombian authorities say they've arrested eight members of a small left—wing guerrilla group, allegedly involved in the detonation of an explosive device at a shopping centre in bogota. memorial services were held at the mall, after three women were killed and 11 people sustained injuries, when the small bomb exploded in a ladies bathroom last week. ajudge in guatemala has charged five more people over the deaths

of 41 teenage girls in the fire at a government—run shelter in march. the five, who include two police officers and three government officials, are facing various charges, including manslaughter, child abuse and negligence. they were arrested earlier this month. the united arab emirates has warned qatar that it will be cut off by its neighbours if it doesn't accept their demands. it's been three weeks since the gulf diplomatic crisis erupted. the uae, saudi arabia, bahrain and egypt have accused the qataris of supporting terrorism by maintaining close links with iran. uae‘s foreign minister, anwar gargash, issued the ultimatum. the alternative is not escalation, the alternative is parting of ways, because it's very difficult for us to maintain a collective grouping with one of the partners in this collective grouping through this platform or, you know...

is actively promoting what is an extremist and terrorist agenda. 0ur arab affairs editor, sebastian usher says this diplomatic spat is much more serious than previous disputes. the starting point in a sense was so extreme — i mean, to start immediately by cutting ties, by putting that kind of pressure on qatar meant there was little little wriggle room. they severed links immediately, so they pushed as hard as they could right at the start. now, these demands are clearly pushing very, very hard again, so the game plan looks like it's to push qatar as forcibly as possible into a corner to try and get them to submit to some extent, perhaps not all those demands, but enough for it to satisfy, for now the saudis,

particularly that they will no longer be leading their international strategy in such an independent way. all that the uae foreign minister offered really was essentially that what is the situation at the moment, the severing of links, will become permanent, which means the gulf cooperation council will lose a member. that is destabilising for the region, and of course if this becomes permanent, the pressure that qatar at the moment has been able to deal with, it will become very difficult. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: some very important pandas get the red carpet treatment as they arrive to take up residency in berlin. members of the neo—nazi resistance movement stormed the world trade center armed with pistols and shotguns.

we believe that, according to international law, that we have a right to claim certain parts of this country as ourland. i take pride in the words "ich bin ein berliner." cheering and applause chapman, prison pale and slightly chubby, said not a single word in open court. it was left to his lawyer to explain his decision to plead guilty to murdering john lennon. he believes that onjune 8th, god told him to plead guilty, and that was the end of it. the medical research council have now advised the government that the great increase in lung cancer is due mainly to smoking tobacco. it was closing time for checkpoint charlie which, for 29 years, has stood on the border as a mark of allied determination to defend the city. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: the un says it fears for up to 150,000 civilians trapped in the last part of mosul under islamic state control. iraq says the remaining is fighters will be defeated within days. the un issues a warning about yemen, calling the current cholera outbreak the worst in the world. the number of cases has now passed 200,000. 3a high—rise buildings in england have failed fire safety tests on their exterior cladding, according to the government. the buildings are the first to undergo urgent checks following the grenfell tower disaster. a further 600 buildings are due to undergo the tests with local authorities working to identify the buildings at risk. duncan kennedy reports. in the subdued streets of west london today, one more silent, reflective assembly of mourners and neighbours. as these people paused, elsewhere, the now relentless checking of hundreds of tower blocks was continuing. the government asked councils

to send in samples of cladding from buildings they were most concerned about, but it's become clear tonight that only 3a tests on cladding have so far been carried out, involving 17 councils, and that every one had failed. the councils include manchester, camden, plymouth, hounslow, barnet and brent, with many of them saying the government must help pay for any changes they make, like sprinklers. retrofitting of sprinklers should be one of our responses here. and when your chief fire officer of your region tells you that, clearly, as a leader of a city, you've got to start listening to that, so we started to look at the figures, and it comes out at around about £31 million. as well as the cladding, the fire authorities are having to examine exposed pipes, cable ducts, escape routes, dry rises and fire doors. it's a huge undertaking, and it's notjust residential blocks — inspections are also taking place in scores of nhs buildings,

like hull royal infirmary. so, is the government saying it will pay for every safety defect that's found 7 if they need financial support — and not all of them will need it — but if they need financial support, we will work with them to make sure they have the resources they need to do this necessary work, absolutely. that will not be put at risk. at glastonbury today, the music also gave way to talk of safety in tower blocks, with jeremy corbyn demanding the government, in his words, "get a grip." the prime minister needs to come to parliament again and describe what is going on, and it needs an emergency approach by government, including the use of cobra, if necessary, to put the resources together now. back at the scene of the disaster, there was no dwindling of the numbers coming to absorb the scale of the horror and pay their respects. and what all this means is that, in the ten days since grenfell,

the lives of literally thousands and thousands of people have been affected. and with more testing on cladding, fire doors, pipes and other buildings still to come, those numbers will almost certainly increase. tonight, as the government called for more cladding samples to be submitted, it seems even now no—one knows just how big the consequences of grenfell will be. duncan kennedy, bbc news. hundreds of people who were evacuated from four tower blocks in camden in north london on friday are spending a second night away from home. some spoke of panic and confusion as they were ordered to leave the chalcots estate when the council decided it was too risky to stay. 0ur correspondent, richard lister, has spent the day with residents. the chalcots estate tower blocks seemed to offer a safe home to thousands of people for many years, until last night. why was we all ordered to be evacuated at 8:30pm at night?

tempers were running high today. the leader of camden council took the brunt of the frustration from people evacuated overnight. i'm being told they can't rehouse me because i got a dog. a hotel place was found for this woman and her dog, but there are thousands of others, people and pets, facing weeks of uncertainty. the four blocks affected have cladding similar to that on grenfell tower, but the residents were told other issues like gas pipes made the buildings unsafe. 0ur gas pipes are hidden behind this old metal doorway so we can't have access to them, so i'm not sure what the issue really is. fire exits, they all seem in place, the doors are there. but that's one of the other issues 01’ reasons we were given for making us evacuate. peter bertram, who's 94, had to leave the flat he's had for almost 50 years. i felt sorry for people who are a lot worse than me, especially with children too.

you've just got to carry on. but there are at least 80 flats where residents are refusing to leave. i really cried last night. the council officials came to the door, banging on the door, "get out, get out," but the chap round the hallway said, "no, she's not going, she's getting on for 80. she can't go anywhere — she's got a cat." this has been a stressful process, and many residents have been asking why they had to leave in the middle of the night. the council said the fire service gave them no choice. they said there was nothing we could do to guarantee residents‘ safety that night. and in that situation, you know, given the circumstances we're in, i thought we had to act swiftly. work is under way to fix the faults but it will take weeks to complete. the residents of this tower block feel themselves to be in limbo, unsure ofjust how dangerous this building is and how long they might

be excluded from their homes. and as they're finding out, there are thousands of people across the country facing exactly the same questions. for some in camden, another night on air beds in the leisure centre. most have accepted they won't be home for a while, but the council is warning those who refuse to leave, they may have to force them out for their own safety. richard lister, bbc news. in albania, voting gets underway on sunday for the parliamentary elections. the country is hoping for a peaceful and fair election — unlike previous years, which have seen voter fraud and violence. more than 300 international election monitors will be on hand to keep an eye on proceedings. nimesh thaker reports. it's the ninth national vote since communism collapsed in 1990. there are two main parties in contention. prime minister edi rama's socialist party is tipped to have a slight advantage over the lulzim basha's centre—right democratic party. both have been campaigning on the economy.

and while albania was put forward tojoin the european union, there are many problems to resolve before that can happen. huge rallies have been held by voters eager for change. translation: to those who never stopped crying to misery and have never wanted to hear it, i tell them and say again there are today 117,000 more companies in albania than there were four years ago. back in 2009, the then opposition leader edi rama complained of voting fraud and albanians took to the streets for months of violence. the centre—right accepted defeat in 2013, but parliament has been largely paralysed ever since. the centre—right leader, lulzim basha, is an admirer of donald trump, and his party had threatened to boycott the election up until a month ago. translation: with my economic plan, with the blessing of angela merkel, and with the support of donald trump, we are going

to lower taxes and vat. with my economic plan, and this new republic that we will put in place, we will strengthen the economy and create a secure future for all albanians. for many, though, there are ongoing concerns about corruption. albania is one of the poorest countries in europe. 2.9 million people live in the country but almost 1.2 million citizens live abroad. translation: many young people want to leave the country. me too, because we have to find work, and it is very difficult to find work here. there are a large number of students who've finished their studies but there are not a lot ofjob offers. i expect from these elections to be fair and to be quiet. after 27 years, we deserve to have at least one election that's fair and quiet, and let's hope that albania after that will change the face, and we will have more possibilities tojoin,

or to progress, let's say, in eu integration process. in its most recent report on the country, the eu said that corruption remained prevalent, with low conviction rates for organised crime. there are also concerns about the drug trade. both sides say they want to improve the judiciary and many in the country hope that a fair and peaceful election will be a turning point. two pandas from a top breeding centre in china have arrived in berlin to start their new life in the city's zoo. they are the latest envoys sent from china — something which is now known as ‘panda diplomacy‘. like otherjet—setting black and white bears before them, they are set to become a big hit, as andrew bryson reports. meng meng andjiao qing got acquainted at a breeding centre in china before becoming the latest envoys sent off to win foreign hearts.

as arrivals go, it was tightly choreographed. a special lufthansa plane touched down in berlin with the precious cargo and a tonne of bamboo. clearly groggy after the 12—hour flight from chengdu, the pandas were mostly placid during the welcome ceremony. the chinese ambassador to berlin, on the left, provoking the only drama. growls. the male panda giving the diplomat a lesson in the dangers of getting too close. translation: panda bears are sacred in china. panda bears are also ambassadors of friendliness and solidarity. i hope meng meng andjiao qing feel at home here in berlin, that you fall in love with them, and that soon we see the fruits of their love. germanyjoins a select list of only about a dozen countries which china sees as important enough to receive pandas. the zoo gave daily updates in the lead up to their arrival, helping to stoke the panda mania that tends to accompany them. translation: they eatjust bamboo.

they're black and white. they have the fuzziest ears you can imagine. and fortunately, they are very humble and don't know they are the stars — that's the best part. this pair will have a week to acclimatise before being unveiled by chancellor merkel and chinese president xi jinping ahead of the g20 summit in germany. the two countries have found common cause recently on issues such as climate change and free trade — where they agree with each other, not the us. whether the pairing of these two pandas will prove equally fruitful, only time will tell. i'm sure they will be very popular! plenty more on that story online at oui’ plenty more on that story online at our website. you can find me online on twitter. for now, goodbye and we will see you soon. hello there, good morning.

things are pretty much back to normal across the uk. we've got low pressure in charge of the weather. we've got that curl of cloud to the north of the uk. that is that centre of the area of low pressure and the closer you are to it, the stronger the winds are and the heavier the showers are. so there are some showers to be had in scotland overnight. quite blustery and by the end of the night, we will see an area of rain moving into western england and wales. 13, 1a, 15 in southern parts of the uk. 10 or 11 in the north. quite a lot of isobars in the charts for sunday as our area of low pressure drifts towards scandinavia. the winds coming down from the north or north—west around that area of low pressure. never a particularly warm direction for us. it's still quite blustery into the morning across scotland. some showers for the north and west in particular. some eastern areas will get off to a decent start, bright and breezy, as it will be in northern ireland and much of northern england, too. however, from manchester across towards hull, an area of cloud and a little bit of of rain first thing.

there will be some wet weather for wales and the midlands. east anglia and the south—east starting largely dry, if rather cloudy and breezy, but relatively warm — 17 degrees in a few places. further west, we are likely to see some rain and some of that may affect glastonbury for the morning. it's not overly heavy, but some rain nevertheless. through the day, it's a north—south split with the southern half of the uk fairly cloudy with some rain. certainly not a washout but some wet weather in wales, the midlands and east anglia by the afternoon with a fair bit of cloud either side of that. further north — sunny spells, scattered showers, 15 degrees in glasgow, 22 or 23 in the london area. of course, it's the last day of glastonbury already. a little bit of rain early on but that should clear away and it gradually dries up, brightens up into the afternoon and evening. 17 or 18 degrees but also that noticeable breeze, and a breeze, too, at queen's club for the finals, but it should be fine and dry, if on the cloudy side. top temperature, 21 degrees. by monday, a lot of dry weather for the eastern side of the uk, some sunshine and warmth

for the south—east. an area of rain pushing its way into the north and west. question marks about the timing of this so keep an area on the forecast but at the moment, it looks like heavy rain across northern england, southern scotland monday night into tuesday, and tuesday looks quite wet for the western side of the uk, the north as well. a bit drier the further east you go. quite warm as well. but under that rain, it's not going to feel all that great. it's looking fairly unsettled on tuesday, and i think for much of this coming week, it will be quite unsettled with spells of rain which could be heavy at times, and to go with that, there will be a noticeable breeze and not much sunshine in the forecast. this is bbc news, the headlines. the united nations says it fears for up to 150,000 civilians, trapped in the last part of mosul under islamic state control. the collapse of a mountainside.