i'm alpa patel, in london. the headlines: terror on the streets of barcelona as the band ploughs into a crowd killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. i immediately sensed it was a nice—like event and people around were running away, fled away, in panic. a massive security operation is underway and two men have been arrested. police are still hunting for the van‘s driver. i'm rico hizon, in singapore. also in the programme: the grim toll of the philippines‘ war on drugs. 50 suspects are killed by police in just three days. as hong kong jails three

pro—democracy activists, britain says the move must not discourage legitimate protests. live from studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. it's1am here in london, 8am in singapore and 2am in barcelona, where three days of mourning have been declared after another terror attack on a major european city. 13 people have been killed and more than 100 injured after a van ploughed into a crowd of people. it happened on the city's most famous thoroughfare, las ramblas. from barcelona, here's gavin lee. screaming terror on the streets of europe, again. and, again, a vehicle used as a weapon. come on, come on, just come on.

las ramblas, in barcelona, a packed sunny evening on spain's most famous boulevard, in panic. screaming this white van mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians. bodies were left lying on the street. those who were nearby rushed to help the injured. emergency services arrived quickly, as the hunt for those responsible began. the city's metro and train stations were closed down. the nearby streets quickly deserted, as people were told to stay inside. i saw a white van with the side door open. we heard gunshots. whether it was the police or from the van, i don't know.

i didn't hang around for that. we ran into the burger king to get shelter. reporter: what was going through your mind when it was going on? are we going to survive? yeah, we were just scared they were going to get in there. they pulled all the shutters down. just kept us safe and that was it. i saw people falling to the ground, and that struck my eyes, rather than the car. i immediately sensed that it was a nice—like event. and people around it ran away, fled away in panic. authorities say the vehicle was driven half a kilometre down las ramblas boulevard, reportedly at up to 80 kilometres an hour. police have released a photo of this man, driss 0ubakir, said to have rented the van. he's understood to have been known to police. a former prisoner, released five years ago. police say two people have been arrested tonight,

but investigators are still working to get to the bottom of how this happened and who was behind it. right now, people are being told to stay well away from the city. but this attack has happened in the middle of summer. there are locals, there are tourists, there are thousands of people here unsure of where to go and whether it is safe, and whether there are more people out there planning another attack. you know, you can't be sure to go anywhere else, anything can happen. wherever we go, we will still be exposed to something. tonight, as people start to comprehend the brutality of what's happened, they are being told to stay away and indoors, as police try to co—ordinate who carried out the attack and if any threat remains. in the last few minutes we have had breaking news. reuters quotes cata la n breaking news. reuters quotes catalan police who are reporting that four people, described as terrorists, have been killed in a

shootout, about 100 kilometres south of barcelona. more on that when we have it. earlier, i spoke to gavin a short while ago from the police cordon. he gave us this update. there's been another spanish police press c0 nfe re nce there's been another spanish police press conference and they say the attackers appear to have been quite co—ordinated. there are several people involved. five o'clock, las ramblas, the busiest and most famous street in spain, is about a kilometre along. everybody inside in the hotels have been hiding forfive hours and in the past hour police have been going from bar to bar, two restau ra nts, have been going from bar to bar, two restaurants, cafes, questioning everybody. we know that a car went for about half a kilometre, possibly at up to 80 mph, down the road. it ploughed through a packed group of people, hundreds of people, on las ramblas at the time. police say 13 people have been killed, 15 people

ina people have been killed, 15 people in a critical condition in hospital, more than 100 people injured. the belgian consulate say they have one belgian consulate say they have one belgian national concerns as among the dead here, a tourist. the car came toa the dead here, a tourist. the car came to a stop. two men were thought to have at one point gone into a bar, so there was concerned were amongst the tourists. that's why the checks were being done. we know now that two men were hiding in a separate are and they have been arrested. a third man was caught in arrested. a third man was caught in a car chase about 500 metres from here and passed three checkpoints. he has been shot dead. we don't know if he's part of the same investigation but police are saying there is one prime suspect, where they retrieved a passport from the car. a man called driss 0ukabir, a moroccan national who was released from prison in 2012. there is little information about whether they had him in custody. believe police still wa nt to him in custody. believe police still want to speak to him. five hours later and people are just leaving

the barricade, their hotels. let us briefly show you. a lot of people are waiting over here. they have their suitcases because they are staying in the city. they have been told to hide but they do and nowhere told to hide but they do and nowhere to go because they can't get in. a lot of people are worried that there will be another attack. and later in the programme we'll have more on this from our security correspondent gordon corer, so do stay with us for that. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. as the debate over race relations intensifies in the united states, president trump has said the country's history is being "ripped apart" by the removal of statues, including those which commemorate supporters of slavery. his comments follow deadly violence at a rally in charlottesville, organised by far—right groups. 0ur north america editor jon sopel reports. bell tolls does this statute represent heritage or hate? dignity or division? last night, this monument

to a confederate soldier, the army from the south in the us civil war that fought to maintain slavery, was vandalised. today, as we filmed in leesburg, virginia, the local authorities decided it was time to install closed—circuit tv to keep a watchful eye on the monument. and this famous landmark of this pretty town was dividing opinion, just as it is across the country. do you believe the statue should come down? no, i don't. why not? like i say, its history. it's not good history, but it's a reminder of what not to repeat in the past. it's a shame. it's a darn shame. you know, that they have to nit—pick stuff like this. should these statues stay or go? i think they should go. i believe the statues should go. it's a representation of past actions that have shackled and chained people both mentally and physically. but it's not only this vietnam vet saluting these monuments. today, donald trump entered the fray, tweeting. .. it was plans to dismantle the statue

of general lee that sparked these hate—drenched scenes in charlottesville at the weekend which left one person dead. no doubt these people will be cheering the president to the rafters for his comments today. but in durham, north carolina, those people who believe these statues are symbols of america's dark past are taking matters into their own hands. cheering there are statues like this all across the southern states of america. yes, they represent history and heritage. but that's only part of the story. they are also about the toxic state of race relations in america today, and the continuing search of african—americans to find equality and respect.

an old soldier who now seems to represent an america uncomfortable about its past, divided about its present, uncertain about the future. jon sopel, bbc news, leesburg, virginia. also making news today: a ten—year—old rape victim in india has given birth to a baby girl, weeks after a plea for an abortion was rejected by the country's highest court. the victim was allegedly raped by her uncle, who has been arrested. the supreme court court turned down the request after a medical panel said her pregnancy was too far advanced. police have put a red alert on south africa's borders to prevent the zimbabwean first lady from fleeing the country. grace mugabe is accused of beating a 20—year—old model in a hotel room nearjohannesburg with an extension cord. police expected mrs mugabe to turn herself in on tuesday, but she failed to show up.

the nobel prize winning activist malala yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the taliban for advocating education for girls in pakistan, has confirmed she's been accepted into oxford university. she'll read philosphy, politics and economics, starting this october. around a dozen sailors from the united states navy are facing punishment over a deadly collision with a philippine cargo ship injune. the commanding officer, executive officer and master chief of the uss fitzgerald are all being relieved of duty. the navy‘s deputy chief says he's lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead following the incident. a 12—year—old yazidi boy has been reunited with his mother in canada three years after being captured by the so—called islamic state. his name is emad tamo and he was reunited after a relative

alerted his mother to his photo posted online after his rescue. the family were held captive by is in 2014, after their town was captured. emad's mother escaped with some of her children, arriving in canada as a refugee. the war on drugs in the philippines continues to take a deadly toll. police say they've killed another 26 suspected drug dealers and arrested hundreds more. the operations were ordered by president rodrigo duterte. the latest deaths mean at least 58 people have been killed in the past three days alone. jonathan head sent this report and, a warning, you may find some of the images distressing. one night, 26 dead. president duterte's war on drugs is back with a vengeance. as so often before, the police say they fired in self defence. "as we are right here in san pedro," explained this officer,

"two men shot at officers, that's why they were killed." the police are calling this a one—time big—time anti—drugs and crime operation. another like it the night before killed 32 people. as before, these killings occurred in poor neighbourhoods, the focus of the drug war from its start. president duterte was forced to suspend the campaign back in february after police officers were found to have murdered a korean businessmen. but he offered no apology for restarting it. "the 32 who died in bulacan, that's good," he told this group of anticorru ption volunteers. when he launched his drug war last year, the president promised to end

the problem within three to six months. he now says he was overoptimistic. that deadline has long since passed, and still the killing goes on. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: after barcelona and a series of so—called ‘low tech‘ terror attacks across europe, we assess what can be done to prevent them. also on the programme: will the jail sentences handed down to pro—democracy activists in hong kong stifle legitimate protest? washington, the world's most political city is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with miss lewinsky that

was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be freed! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we're all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people, in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope, "so you want me to desert rome?" this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm alpa patel in london.

our top stories: three days of mourning have been declared in barcelona, after a van deliberately ploughed into a crowd in the centre of barcelona, killing 13 people as the security operation gathers pace, four people described as terrorists are reported to have been killed in a town south of barcelona. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. let's start with the straits times, on the reaction to donald trump's remarks on charlottesville. it says president donald trump is increasingly isolated after being abandoned by business executives, contradicted by military leaders, and shunned by republicans. china daily takes up the meeting between by chairman of the us joint chiefs of staff, generaljoseph dunford, to china's president. it quotes xijinping, who described the ups and downs of china—us ties as a rainbow

appears after winds and tides, and called for mutual sincerity and kindness. finally, we have the south china morning post, from hong kong, on the news that three pro—democracy student leaders have beenjailed for storming government headquarters in 2014. its writes that the ruling againstjoshua wong, nathan law and alex chow has effectively halted their budding political careers, as a criminal record means they also face a five—year ban from public office. let's get more on out top story, the attack in barcelona, which used a vehicle as a weapon to kill or injure pedestrians. it is one of at least seven to have been carried out in europe injust over a year. the problem for the authorities is that such attacks are extremely difficult to prevent.

so what more can the authorities do, if anything? with his analysis, here is our security correspondent gordon corera. barcelona is just the latest in a series of vehicle attacks, leaving a terrible, but tragically now almost a familiar, scene on the streets of europe. the first major incident was in nice, when a lorry ploughed into a crowd celebrating bastille day, just over a year ago. it was a target and moment to maximise the casualties and the impact. then there was a lorry attack on a christmas market in berlin, then van driven into the city centre in stockholm. and britain has not immune from what has been dubbed low—tech terrorism. in march, a man ploughed into a westminster bridge. injune, three men drove down london bridge, before attacking

people in borough market with knives. and then at finsbury park mosque, people were struck by a car. stopping these attacks is hard. here at westminster bridge they have installed these barriers to stop vehicles ramming into pedestrians on the bridge. but an attacker could just pick a different crowded place. the authorities are also looking at things like more checks on people making short—notice rentals of vans. but the problem is these attacks require just everyday items. just a car — no guns or explosives and, with so little planning required, it can be hard to spot them and stop them. new shock—absorbing barriers, like this one shown in a test, may offer some protection but counter—terrorism experts caution they cannot stop all attacks happening. it's an almost impossible thing to prevent completely. but you can try to make it a little bit more difficult for terrorists.

and that, to some extent, is all we can do. the way we stop this from happening is by preventing people from becoming radicalised, or by people willing to come forward and saying, "i know someone who might be going to do this." this is how we stop it. this is one of the men authorities believe it is responsible, and tonight, islamic state said it was responsible. but this does not always mean there was a direct link with the group, and one major concern for security forces around the world is that these kind of attacks can be carried out with little or no training, direction or co—ordination. in hong kong, three pro—democracy protesters have been sent to prison. joshua wong, alex chow and nathan law were all linked to protests in 2014 known as the umbrella movement. the trio were jailed on an appeal from the hong kong government, which said their previous sentence of community service was too lenient. juliana liu is in hong kong. hong kong's still reeling

from the news that the three leaders of the umbrella movement have been jailed, this after they had already been tried, convicted, and sentenced last year. they have served out their sentences. but the government of hong kong decided the sentences were too lenient. they took their appeal to the high court, where a panel of three judges agreed with them. now, the hong kong government has been saying all along this is not politically motivated, but certainly human rights groups say that it's meant to send out a message of deterrence to other young protesters. let me just share with you how the story is being reported in newspapers here. this is the south china morning post. i think you had a quick look at the front page earlier on, but let me review how it is being covered. here is a large splash photo ofjustin wong,

one of the three activists. he is being taken from a police car to start his life in prison for the next three years. he was very defiant until the very end. he was still punching the air and asking hong kong to not give up as he was being led from the courtroom by bailiffs. below that headline, political careers halted forjailed student leaders. this is significant because according to hong kong rules, anyone sentenced to three months in prison is banned from elected politics for the next five years. two of the three activists intended to be entering or re—entering politics. so these sentences mean all three have been effectively barred from running in any kind of election for the next five years. let me show you the 0riental daily news, this is a a chinese—language daily broadsheet. the story takes up the entire front

page, from top to bottom, as you see here. at the top, photos of all three activists in police vans as they're all being taken to prison. their ages, previous sentences and current sentences. the headline — three boys going to prison. a summary down here. a boxed summary of the judges, and how they came to their decision. this is how it's being reported in the newspapers. in breaking news, police have been warned to stay off the streets in cambrils. before we go, we leave you

with these eyewitness accounts of those attacks. i was walking up to the catalunya metro station, and ijust heard screams, first of all, and a couple of crashes, where i'm guessing it was the moment the van mounted the pavement and knocked over all kinds of stalls, and that kind of thing. and then that's when i saw the crowds parting, because it was a massive croud of people on las ramblas itself. and that's when i saw the van going at full speed down the middle of las ramblas. and when i saw in fact that it wasn't slowing down, that's when i realised that there was something — something obviously very, very wrong. i saw a white van with its front looking like it was broken out, and it was going... at first i thought it must be somebodyjust working, and driving — a service vehicle. then i realised it was going too fast. it looked to me as if it was

going left to right, hitting people at the little stands, where people were shopping, basically. all of a sudden people were just screaming and running. my taxi stopped. we knew immediately what it was, you know, naturally, what happened, or what was going on at that moment. and we waited for a second and my taxi driverjust started saying, "oh, my god, oh, my god," and i was in shock. we ran into the bakery, and ran up the stairs to hide. and, as we looked out the window, people were still running through the market. it was 100, 200 people running through the markets, just as we were coming down. and then that's the point when we just sort of hid under the table upstairs in the bakery and we just waited. we were there for about 40 minutes, i think, hiding, and then we were told it was safe to come out, but we must move away from the area.

hello there. friday is looking a bit cooler across the board, and there'll plenty of showers around, too, some of them merging together to bring longer spells of rain in the north and the west of the uk. we start the morning off with sunshine and dry in the south and eastern areas. there will be plenty of showers in scotland. some merging together to bring longer spells of rain in the north—west and eastern areas as well. a little bit of sunshine to the south. some sunshine and one or two showers for northern ireland. england and wales, most of the showers in northern and western areas. whereas for the midlands eastwards, it should be a largely dry start. temperatures around 15—17 degrees, but quite breezy, especially close to the irish sea. in fact, that coast around the irish sea will be windy through the day.

wet in the northern half of scotland. and this feature across ireland will push towards wales and western parts of england later in the day, bringing prolonged rain. the south—east, plenty of dry weather. top temperatures — 21 or 22 degrees, so cooler than what we saw on thursday. certainly in northern and western areas. during friday night, it stays blustery, further pulses of rain, showers moving through. tending to turn more dry by the end of the night. and a few cooler spots, as well, in rural places, central and northern parts. saturday, fine and dry. in fact, we're in between weather systems. looking good through the country. still quite a windy day, but far fewer showers, and they'll be much lighter, as well. staying dry, especially in northern and western areas. 20—22 is the high. this area of low pressure hurtling across the atlantic towards our shores will contain the remnants of what was hurricane gert.

so it's going to bring a surge of rain, strengthening winds to south—western areas on sunday. starting of dry with sunshine in northern and eastern areas. a bit of uncertainty as to how far and heavy this rain will spread north and east. what it will do is introduce a brief surge of warmer and more humid air to southern parts of britain as we head towards the start of next week. but, again, uncertainty with how much sunshine there will be. we could be looking at temperatures reaching the mid—20s. a cool air alert behind that weather front where we could see rain as it slowly starts to go southwards. i'm alpa patel, with bbc news. our top story: 13 people have been killed in the spanish city of barcelona, after a van deliberately drove at speed into a crowd of pedestrians. so—called islamic state says it was behind the attack. the catalan authorities have declared three days

of mourning. we say they stop a second attempted attack in cambrial, south of barcelona. and this video is trending on bbc.com. donald trump has denounced the removal of "beautiful" confederate statues from public spaces in the us. he's tweeted that us history and culture are being "ripped apart". his comments come after violent protests in charlottesville over the weekend. that's all from me for now. and the top story here in the uk: numbers of a—level students receiving the highest grades has