we have been reporting exclusively from the front line of assad's forces in syria. the caliphate declared by the extremist group that calls itself islamic state is crumbling. on the battlefield, it is losing ground one town at a time, president assad's forces, backed by troops from russia and iran, are slowly re—taking more territory that's been ruled for years by is. dutch authorities have ordered the last minute cancellation of a rock concert in rotterdam. it follows a tip—off from anti—terror police in spain. the city's mayor said they'd been warned a terror attack was being planned on a concert by the american band allah—las. australia's deputy prime minister barnabyjoyce is among at least five senior government figures fighting a legal battle that's threatening to topple the country's conservative government. australia's top court has begun examining an obscure law that bar's dual citizens from sitting in parliament. now on bbc news, time for click. this week and next, a repeat of click‘s stellar trip to india, with bangla bangers...

smoggy sunsets... and angry angle grinders. get ready, your indian experience starts now. as soon as you step off the plane, india hits you like a big, hot wall of noise. it is everything you've ever imagined it to be.

it is life turned up to ii. the first thing you'll notice will be the traffic. it's always the traffic. is the tip just to kind of step out? oh, this looks like a gap. the sound is deafening! everyone‘s honking. for 70 years this country has been independent of british rule and the cities that have sprung up around the old colonial grandeur seem chaotic, but they do kinda work. kinda. and india has found a niche in the wider world. half of its 1.2 billion people are aged 35 or under. maybe that's why it's known for its it know—how, its outsourcing. and the bosses of some of the biggest tech companies in the world are indian. but it hasn't had as much luck in taking over the world of consumer technology.

after all, how many indian tech brands can you name? the truth is that although there is a middle class of consumers here willing to buy brands, it's not actually that big or that rich. we're here to find out how india is preparing for its future and, let me tell you, it is reaching for the stars. in 2013, india became the fourth spacefaring nation to launch a probe into orbit around mars and, unlike those who came before them, they did it on their first attempt. the indian space research organisation, isro, has been gaining a reputation for doing tons of successful space stuff on a shoestring budget. their mars mission came in atjust $74 million,

that's less than it cost to make the film gravity. and, in february this year, they made history again by launching a record 104 satellites on a single rocket. it could just be that india has created the perfect combination of big brains with big space experience, but a mentality for doing things on the cheap. just the sort of place you might go if you wanted to, say, land a robot on the moon for the space equivalent of small change. how confident are you that this will work? laughs welcome to the earthbound hq of team indus, one of a handful of start—ups competing for the google lunar xprize, that's $20 million for the first commercial company to land a rover on the moon. december, 2017, blast off. the team indus space craft goes into two days of earth orbit and then, boom, 11.5 days to the moon. 12 days of spiralling down

to the surface and then if all goes well, out comes the rover, travels half a kilometre, sends back hd video and wins the prize. what could possibly go wrong? rahul narayan is the co—founder of team indus and has been here since the very start of the project, way back in 2010. at that point you had no idea how you would acheive it? yes, i googled it and figured out what wikipedia had to say about landing on the moon. you did an internet search on how to land on the moon? absolutely. laughs did it have any useful information? yes. it said there had been 85 attempts and i think every second

attempt failed to the moon. six years later, there are around 100 people working very hard here, and it certainly looks like they know their space stuff. star wars in particular. even the toilets are appropriately labelled. and they've built themselves all the things that a serious space company should have, like a mission control room, a model lander that makes smoke, and a simulated lunar surface complete with a rover to go in it. so what do you use to simulate moon dust? you could go to an expensive lab and try to buy lunar simulant, we just went to a stone quarry and asked them to give us the milling output. that's what this is — about 150 microns. it has electrostatic properties, which we're not able to replicate. it's supposed to be very, very electrostatic. so that means it's going to stick to the rover? that's correct. that's one part of the analysis. it's going to get into all thejoints? it will get into every perforation, the lens of the camera, everywhere. just like national space agencies, testing every component and simulating every stage of the mission is a huge part of what they're doing here. we're making sure we do everything right. we're just not making it fancy. we are going to make it frugal, specific to the mission, but there's absolutely no corners

that we're cutting. and, to look at it from a more philosophical way, we have one shot to win this. we don't have a flight spare, so if one blows up we can go and fly the other, we have to get this right. team indus is one of five start—ups from around the world who have secured launch contracts for their rovers. while they can't say for sure, they think they'll launch before any other team, and so perhaps be the first team to land and win! that's except for the fact that to save costs they have had to sell some of their spare launch weight to a competitor rover. japan's team hakuto will be onboard too. you're both going to get to the moon at the same time. yes. how is that going to work? it's whoever touches down first and whoever has the fastest rover? it's going to be crazy! in a manner of speaking, yes. so what do you expect to happen? so it's a race, it's going to be a very interesting race, and once we touch down and both the rovers are deployed, let's see which one makes 500m first.

i would so put a laser gun on yours. i would so... imitates laser all of that assumes of course that the rovers make it to the moon in the first place. space exploration is a risky business and when it goes wrong, it tends to go really wrong. six years, hundreds of thousands of hours of effort and millions spent, and there's certainly a lot riding on getting things right. you mitigate the big pieces and then you start mitigating the smaller risks and at the end of the day, absolutely, one small wrong piece of code that somehow made it through could kill the entire mission. there is a word here in india that i think describes team indus's low—cost, make do approach. jugaad. i've come to the centre of mumbai, to dharavi — asia's second largest slum. here, in its tiny alleyways, "jugaad" is all around, as a desperately poor population reuses as much as is physically possible. built by workers who flocked to the city over hundreds of years, some of the houses here date back to the 1840s. it is an intense experience in the middle of an intense city.

you really do get a sense of the scale of the place from up here, and it's a weird scale as well, because it's actually quite small. it's only two square kilometres, but around 1 million people live here. it's phenomenally densely packed, and it's notjust people living here and doing nothing, either, this place has a working infrastructure and a working economy. this place really does work. 10,000 dharavi businesses generate 30 billion rupees for mumbai every year. they make things and they recycle things.

like all those plastic bottles drying on the roof, which are shredded into reusable plastic pellets. the whole production line is itself a work of "jugaad". this is where they make the machines that recycle the plastic, so i guess this is a factory. brace yourself. 0nce finished, these machines will chew up the plastic, which is then washed, sorted and dried. the work is heavy and hard, and for a wage that affords the meagrest of existences. it's incredible to think that 55% of mumbai's population lives in slums like this one. up ahead, there is a pile of shredded denim which they use for fuel. they burn it to fuel the kilns, just like they burn a lot

of stuff for fuel here. and there is smoke everywhere here. you can really tell the air quality is very poor. you just have to take a few lungfuls and it starts to burn the back of your throat, it makes your eyes sting. the smoke is a necessary evil for the people of dharavi. like most of the developing world, pollution has been the price india is paying for a booming economy. the smog that gives mumbai its spectacular sunsets has also made it the fifth most polluted mega city in the world. and when the sun disappears before it hits the horizon, you can well believe it. in november, 2016, the indian

government declared the air pollution in delhi a national emergency, with harmful pollutants more than 16 times the safe limit. and it's notjust caused by all that traffic. so, where does it come from? i was surprised to find out a lot of it comes from diesel generators. see, the electricity in india isn't very reliable, but there are plenty of businesses that need guaranteed power, so they have their own individual generators that fire up whenever the electricity goes down and that means there are loads of exhaust pipes like this all over the city, which regularly belch out all kinds of unpleasant stuff. when you start looking for them, they're everywhere. even the mobile masts have backup generators. hello. here in bangalore, we've come across a small project to capture the soot and turn it into art. so what we have built is a retrofit device that attaches to the exhaust pipe of the chimneys. this device can be attached to practically any exhaust pipe,

irrespective of what is the age or type of engine you are running, and it captures practically whatever particle matter comes out of it. once you capture particle matter that is substantially carbon, which is like the basis of everything that exists in the world, at present we recycle it into inks, which we believe is something used by practically everyone on the planet. the headquarters of graviky labs is a mix of art studio and mad laboratory — the perfect combination, if you ask me! their so—called "air ink" does have a few restrictions. it will only ever come in black, and at the moment it's not good enough quality to be used in printers.

graviky is giving it to artists, who are finding their own uses for it. painting and screenprinting, for example, for use on clothes and bags. and while the ink may only have limited uses at present, nikhil insists it is still better to put the carbon to good use rather than just collect it and dump it. there are many technologies that have captured pollution in one way or the other, they are all so supposed to do that, but if you don't recycle it you are actually leaving it

for the future generations. love is in the air in india. it's reckoned there are 10 million weddings here every year. and as in many aspects of indian life, religion often directs the dating game. the country's online matchmakers have traditionally put faith at the forefront as well. but now there's a new crop of dating tech and it's, well, agnostic. tinder has reported rapid growth here. it matches people based on proximity and doesn't ask about belief. it's not the only dating service where faith is slipping down the priority list either. a single mingle in one of delhi's most romantic spots. these love seekers have been handpicked based

on a range of factors. they're open—minded about religion, but it's still clearly a biggie. i do not see religion as a barrier. when i talk about any kind of connection, be it friendship, be it professional connection, be it even marriage for that matter, but i'm sure that's not what everybody in india would agree to. even though we don't necessarily mind liking someone from another religion, we don't want to hassle ourselves and hassle our parents, because it's going to be a big thing. some dating entrepreneurs believe that tech inevitably challenges religion. we know so much about people that we're actually able to serve you profiles of people that we believe will be compatible with you, and that does not include necessarily religion or caste, but it actually includes a much more foundational human level. i think that's the beauty of technology. some areas of india have reported big rises in interfaith marriages. so how are the country's religious communities responding? catholics make up a tiny minority

here and church leaders are worried, particularly about young women who convert to their husbands religion and abandon catholicism. but the church has developed a secret weapon: their own dating website. the unique selling point? well, honesty. there'll be no massaging your dating profile here because you'll have to go to church to register and get your picture taken. the verification times of the education qualifications is got, so we put that all together and once that's in place, the website will probably go live and you would have opportunities for young people to find an alliance online. but what about the majority religious group? one of hinduism's most high—profile branches says they have got no problem with interfaith dating, it's the technology they‘ re concerned about. they've got some blunt advice for love hungry teens, and it might not prove popular.

try to avoid mobiles. everyone has to remember, you know, how he wants to lead his life. are you going to talk romantically to half a dozen people and then try to fish out which is better? that is not good, you know? whatever time is available for you, for your conversation and entertainment and understanding, education, you have to make the list of priorities. ifi if i want to get someone to live with my mother and father, it should match that of my mother and father. they will have my differences, although if she cooks meat every day my parents won't like it at all because they eat meat and they will fight on who is going to be in the kitchen the whole time and that will become a headache for me. religion, technology and romance.

three forces that aren't going away any time soon. question is, can they alljust learn to get along? living in the developing world means living with the possibility of developing particular health problems. but there are many diseases that can affect everyone, rich and poor. this is your hospital? i'm the head of this breast cancer awareness with our breast scanning. this is our outpatient department. wow. this is the ecg cardiography room. this is our x—ray department. breast cancer is now the most fatal cancer among women worldwide, and it's the same here. the problem in india is it's often not spotted early enough, with more than 60% of the women

diagnosed here at stages three or four. i've come to the cama and albless women's and children's hospital in mumbai to find out why, and also to see something new. a low—cost device that could aid early breast cancer detection. mammogram devices are, of course expensive, and taking one, plus a skilled operator to remote areas is impractical. doctor katkiss hospital is one

of those using ibreastexam, which works in a very different way. instead of using x—rays like mammograms do, it has 16 sensors which vibrate and collect pressure data as it's moved around the breast. any tumours, which are stiffer than normal tissue, will register on the accompanying app, and any areas of concern can then be referred for further examination. it's this portability that grabbed the attention of the minister for medical education, who's helped to fund the ibreast exam programme. translation: on the government level, we have installed these machines in all the medical colleges for women to come and get checked for breast cancer from various parts of the state. we also plan to send this machine to other places like civil hospitals and medical colleges. with this machine, we have been carrying out screenings in villages, townships and cities and plan to cover the whole of the state of maharashtra.

the ones who are affected are to be brought to mumbai and pune, thus saving many lives. so this is the device. what surprised me is how gentle it feels. so these are tiny vibrations that it's giving out. that gentle vibration is all that's needed to detect lesions as small as three millimetres, and that's far better than the three centimetre lesions present in late— stage breast cancer. and achieving that level of accuracy has been the real innovation here. it's a tiny sensor that when given a little bit of power can create these micropalpations on the breast and inherently that's why it's different to mammograms, which uses x—rays. but is this better than mammography? i think we have a long way to prove that it is better than mammography. we are not there yet.

it is already creating access where mammography is not able to reach, so in that sense there is no competition between the two modalities. ibreastexam helps provide prescreening and identifies women that are at risk, and mammography can provide a diagnostic affirmative answer as to whether that woman needs to be moved upwards or not. our goal is really to help provide this as a standard of care solution to all the developing countries that are struggling in the same way. that's it for click in india, for the moment at least. we've had an absolutely fascinating time here and you can see plenty more photos we've taken around and about the place on twitter at @bbcclick. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon. hello there.

as we head towards the bank holiday weekend, there is some much quieter weather on the way, which is just as well, after all the heavy rain and flooding that we had in northern ireland, and here in north yorkshire, too. that rain, on the last of the muggy air that swept across the uk. behind it, fresher conditions followed, and we saw the cloud breaking, and some sunshine. and over the next few days there'll be some more sunshine. there'll be a few showers around, more particularly towards the north—west of the uk. now, the wet weather came on that weather front there. that has long gone out into the north sea. still dawdling, perhaps, towards the northern isles for a while. lower pressure towards the north—west, this is where we'll see most of the showers. higher pressures towards the south. not a big high pressure, but higher pressure. hence the drier weather here. a sunny start across much of the midlands, east anglia and the south—east of england, and some sunshine further west,

as well, across the south—west of england and wales. just the chance of a little bit more cloud, and maybe one or two light showers. the odd shower coming into the north—west of england, as well. much of north—east england, and indeed eastern scotland, starting dry and sunny. still some rain up towards shetland, and a few showers arriving towards the highlands. most of northern ireland starting the day dry. but i think we will see some showers, or even longer spells of rain, pushing in closer to that area of low pressure in the north—west, and turning wetter again in western fringes of scotland. a few sharp showers for the north—east of scotland, and possibly towards the north—east of england. most of england and wales in the afternoon, though, will be fine and dry, with some sunshine. pleasant enough, with light winds for the most part, and temperatures near normal for this time of the year. it'll turn chilly quickly, though, in the evening, especially across much of england and wales, where we'll have clearer skies. up towards the north—west, a bit more of a breeze, perhaps, and still the chance of more cloud and some rain, but temperatures will be a bit lower than they have been recently. into friday, lots of sunshine, probably more sunshine on friday

for southern england, midlands, east anglia and lincolnshire. bit more cloud bubbling up further north, a few showers again for scotland. some of these could be rather heavy, and perhaps some longer spells of rain arriving into northern ireland, too. so temperatures here a little bit lower, but warming up towards the south—east, with more sunshine, probably getting into the mid—20s. towards the north—west, though, we've got that area of low pressure as we head into the weekend, threatening to bring some more showery rain here. this area of low pressure in biscay could bring the risk of a shower across southern and eastern england, particularly saturday night. but on the whole, it looks like it's going to be dry again across much of england and wales. some sunshine, and feeling pleasantly warm in the sunshine, with light winds, too. further north, some showers, most of the showers again for scotland, and also across northern ireland. goodbye. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: fighting the so—called islamic state in syria

— we have an exclusive report as president assad's forces take us to the frontline. i am hellbent on victory. we are not scared of death. i am a commander on the ground and i've been wounded three times. on terror alert in rotterdam — a rock show is cancelled at the last minute after a tip off from police in spain. australia's deputy prime minister barnaby joyce and other government figures battle in court to save their seats in parliament. there's growing concern that an online auction of rhino horns in south africa will trigger an increase in poaching.