this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at midday: after a massacre at a mosque kills more than 300, the egyptian military carries out air strikes on islamist militants. police say they want to speak to two men after an altercation on a tube platform sparked mass panic in central london. the actress emma thompson joins a demonstration in north—west london in support of nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british—iranian woman jailed in iran. this is our community and one of our community has been imprisoned without trial, has been separated from her child. the situation is desperate. and england reach the rugby league world cup final — but onlyjust. he has lost it and england have won it. they survived a late tongan fight back, almost blowing their 20—point lead in the last eight minutes of the match, to reach their first final in over 20 years.

and coming up, how two entrepreneurs are improving the emergency response in nairobi — that's in click at 12:30pm. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. egypt's military says it has carried out air strikes on those behind the deadliest islamist terror attack in the country's recent history. 305 people were killed — including 27 children — and more than 100 were injured, after gunmen detonated a bomb and stormed a packed mosque in a remote town in north sinai yesterday. within the last hour, the egyptian public prosecutor's office has said the attackers were carrying the flag of the so—called islamic state. egypt's air force says it has destroyed vehicles used by the militants, as well as weapons and ammunition

at what it described as "terrorist locations". 0rla guerin‘s report contains some distressing images. a rush to save those wounded when a place of worship became a place of carnage. the attackers struck during friday prayers. for egypt, this was a grim new first. the mosque was popular with sufi muslims, who revere saints and shrines, and are viewed as heretics by islamic extremists. within hours, a televised address to a nation in shock, president abdel fattah al—sisi telling egyptians their anguish would not be in vain and there would be decisive punishment. the sophisticated assault on the mosque was the latest attack by militants based in sinai. the state has been battling them for years. the most deadly previous attack

by is here was the downing of this russian aircraft in sinai in 2015, with the loss of 224 lives. in the past year, is have killed scores of christians in three attacks on churches, saying followers of the cross were their favourite prey. this time, militants in sinai have targeted their fellow muslims, showing no mercy. 0utside local hospitals, crowds waited to donate blood. after a day of horror, many egyptians now fearful about what might come next. 0ur correspondent sally nabil gave us the latest from cairo. there is a deep sense of shock and anger here, notjust in sinai but perhaps all over the country. first of all given the scale of the attack, this number of casualties is unprecedented,

and also the style of the attack. we have been used to militant attacks in sinai over the past three orfour years. militants have carried out frequent attacks against military and police forces and against christians, forcing many christian families to flee their homes but this is the first time they targeted worshippers in a mosque and this can be a change of tactics. we do not know exactly why this happened but there are different explanations. some people say this is a sufi mosque and sufis follow a strand of mystical islam and are considered by militants to be heretics. others say the mosque is in an area which supports the army and tribes here support the army and this is why they have been targeted. up to now nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.

there has been some reporting that the group that calls itself islamic state used one of its propaganda magazines to point out sufis as a target. they have been targeted in other parts of the region but is it a first in egypt? yes, the islamic militants or the sinai province group which is affiliated with the so—called islamic state have threatened to target sufis and have killed a sufi elderly leader last year. this is the first time, if they are the people who carried out this attack, this would be the first time they targeted sufis this way. the only incident we know of is the slaughtering of the sufi elderly leader last year but the fact they killed worshippers in a mosque at friday noon prayers,

this is appalling and unprecedented and tribes in sinai just issued a statement vowing revenge and say they will not hold any ceremonies for mourning or condolences until they retaliate for those killed yesterday. the australian government has expressed concern about some of the uk's ideas for future trade arrangements after brexit. the australians are worried that britain might agree to limit tariff—free imports of food and other goods as part of a deal with the eu. the australian trade minister steve ciobo fears that would damage them and other countries such as new zealand and america, as our political correspondent, jonathan blake explains. at the moment, there are tariffs, charges in place on anything coming into the eu from any other country. in some cases, those are lowered or set at a special rate.

for example, let's use the example of new zealand lamb. about 230,000 tonnes of that is imported into the eu each year. that is at a reduced rate. it's done so that if it's out of season in the uk and we fancy a joint of lamb for sunday lunch, we can go to the supermarket shelves and they will be there, imported from new zealand. after brexit, the uk and the eu have a plan to say those tariff rates will stay the same. so 60% of the lamb goes to the eu at the moment, 40% goes to the uk. after brexit, we carry on as normal and everyone is happy, except they're not. because new zealand, australia, canada and others are saying that plan will limit their access. if demand in the rest of europe for a particular goods falls, they would like to import more into the uk to make up for that, but this plan doesn't allow them to do that.

it's interesting, because these are countries that were part of the commonwealth and had a privileged trading relationship with the uk before the ukjoined the eu back in the early ‘70s. at the time, they said they felt they were being dumped by the uk in preference to the eu. now we've come back to saying, we want to rebuild these trade relationships outside the eu. is itjust a bit of lobbying by the australians and new zealanders? definitely. there's a certain amount of posturing going on here, and we're seeing the beginnings of negotiations between, although they're not formal yet, because we can't do that until we leave the eu, between other countries and the uk starting to emerge. this is definitely a negotiating position. australia and new zealand are setting out to make sure they get the best deal for their country and their government and industries with the uk after brexit. but australia being quite strong, and the trade minister

criticising this plan, saying it's a point of principle and they shouldn't be forced to accept it, in response, the uk is saying through the department of international trade that they want a smooth transition which minimises disruption to trading partners, and that they will be working with australia and others in an open, inclusive and transparent way. the dup leader arlene foster will address her party's annual conference in belfast later today; she's expected to focus on the party's influence in westminster, following her deal to support the conservatives after the general election. mrs foster will also reaffirm the dup's commitment to restore a power—sharing agreement at stormont. her words will be scrutinised for her stance on brexit and the question of the irish border, one of the main focuses of the negotiations between the uk and brussels. a heathrow security worker is among four people who have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in importing cocaine from colombia. the man was arrested,

along with a colombian man, in a toilet at the airport. two other men were also arrested. police have released cctv images of two men they want to speak to after panic broke out on the streets of london yesterday afternoon, injuring 16 people. armed officers were called following reports of gunfire at oxford circus tube station. investigators say there is no evidence weapons had been fired. they are appealing to these two men to contact them following the incident. one of the things that was most striking about yesterday's incident was the way the crowds in the oxford circus area reacted to what was going on. there was panic and fear. but what is the psychology of crowds in these kind of situations? all of us in those situations. well, someone who can explain is dr chris cocking — an expert in the social psychology of crowd behaviour from the university of brighton. with the benefit of hindsight,

people are being accused this morning of a rational behaviour, of panicking. what's your assessment when you have looked at how we behave in these unexpected situations when they are thrown at us situations when they are thrown at us without warning? our research on cloud behaviour has found panic is not a useful term to describe what happens in these situations because if you're in a threat and you have no outside information, to flee what could be a life—threatening danger is not panic but a political thing to do. in part shaped by the series of incidents people have experienced oi’ of incidents people have experienced or heard about or seen on tv, not just this year but now for a series of years in the cities. absolutely, and london has seen three major

terror incidents this year so it could be argued it is quite a credible threat to hear there was gunshots even though that has later seem not to be true, but that could bea seem not to be true, but that could be a credible threat and so the political response is to delete that source. we are adopting our behaviour based on other information, not just behaviour based on other information, notjust the immediate information, notjust the immediate information around us. what would be the added influence of social media? it create a new dynamic into which we are it create a new dynamic into which we a re interested it create a new dynamic into which we are interested and looking at in more detail, and i saw all the murders has been vilified for tweeting that he was in selfridge's and heard gunshots, but that information was available to him at hand and he didn't know any better cash back 0lly murs. the authorities

should be providing as much information as possible and u nfortu nately information as possible and unfortunately there is often a fear that if they provide information it will cause panic, and we say to get people to evacuate effectively they need as much information as possible about the situation and i understand an automatic tannoy announcement was generated, which is a bit impersonal. it's better to have people on the ground providing accurate information, for example there has been a fight here, move along, and in the absence of that, it is not surprising that rumours can circulate. i remember being on the cheap in 2005 at the time of the underground explosion. in the absence of information there were various announcements like that there was a power outage. it's a difficult information balance of what you tell people until you are certain what is going on. how should

those announcements be phrased and do we give them the same credence we once did now we have alternative sources of information like signals on mobile phones in places that would have been impossible before? the crucial thing is notjust information but the relationship the recipient has with the sender, so people need to believe the information but an improvement with the rather than automatically generated announcements, have named people introduced themselves on the tannoy, saying this is so—and—so and this is what you need to do. that would create a better relationship of trust between the public and the source of the announcement and make them more likely to follow up on that. do you think we as users of social media need to think more about how we use information we

have? a lot of this is about information being passed on second—hand or third hand. information being passed on second-hand or third hand. yes, and the media has a role to play in responsibly providing information. a bugbear that my colleagues and i haveis bugbear that my colleagues and i have is that the media should not use the words panic or stampede to describe these situations, first because they are not accurate and second, they provide a narrative that crowds cannot be trusted to behave in this situation and artwork research suggests that crowds can behave better in these situations than they are given credit for if they are given information to act appropriately to give themselves and theirfamily say. appropriately to give themselves and their family say. thank you, doctor chris cocking. we hope we will not give you too many experiments in the coming months about this. the actress emma thompson is the latest high—profile celebrity to back the campaign to free

the british iranian woman nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, who has been in prison in iran for nearly 19 months. the oscar—winning actress will lead a march of families from mrs ratcliffe's neighbourhood in north west london urging iran's leader to reunite nazanin with her husband and three—year—old daughter gabriella. 0ur correspondent alice hutton has been talking to supporters, including emma thompson, this morning. she's losing her mental health and physical health, quite quickly now, so this is a desperate and urgent situation, which is why i'm not supposed to be out at all but i said to my doctor, i cannot not come to speak because i'm free, i'm free, i've never appreciated my freedom more, imagination the situation of this woman. to be separated from your child when your

child is only three is a terrible thing, everyone can imagine that, but when you have had children, it's unspeakable, so we are appealing as a community, not as the apparatus of state for anything sinister, but as a community of feeling, empathic human beings, for clemency and mercy in this case. there is nothing to punish, she has done nothing, let her come home to herfamily punish, she has done nothing, let her come home to her family and punish, she has done nothing, let her come home to herfamily and let it be overfor her come home to herfamily and let it be over for her, her come home to herfamily and let it be overfor her, and i think borisjohnson should it be overfor her, and i think boris johnson should and it be overfor her, and i think borisjohnson should and absolutely could get on a plane to do what he's paid for. you said that the politicians were angry molecules in your speech to the crowd. what are your speech to the crowd. what are you hoping to push them into action? concern for human beings, it's high

in the lip of this government but not high on the agenda. at the moment there is no government because of the b word, i cannot even say it, so this is a very specific case that can help them to events a real feeling for the people of this country by caring very specifically for one person who has suffered untold, untold torture, and we don't know how deep the suffering has gone, when she comes back we will have to be able to offer her a raft of services and have been in this situation before with people who have been kidnapped, we know what it's like, it's a very bad situation. emma thompson talking to alice hutton. there's no clear link between the number of prison suicides and overcrowding, a new international study suggests.

packed prison cells have traditionally been thought of as a highly significant factor. however, the research published in the lancet psychiatryjournal did conclude that suicides could be cut by sending fewer people with mental illnesses to prison. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports. prisons can be harsh, depressing and brutal places at times. suicide is a regular occurrence. in england and wales, last year was the worst on record. 119 inmates took their own lives, two every week. staff shortages and population pressures may have played some part in the high suicide rate, but the conditions prisoners are held in are a less significant factor than traditionally thought according to a new study. the research looked at cases across the world. it examined more than 3900 prison suicides in 2a countries. the study found wide variation in prison suicide rates, but no link with prison

overcrowding, except in low income countries where extremely crowded cells might cause extra stress. there are no simple explanations for this prison suicide, so overcrowding, prisoner numbers, prison officer numbers, how much you spend on prison, that didn't seem to be an explanation for these differences in rates of suicide. the study found proportionately more self—inflicted deaths in jails in countries such as norway and sweden. there, custody was generally reserved for the most violent and dangerous offenders, including those with mental health problems. that led researchers to conclude that the best way to reduce prison suicides would be to cut dramatically the number of inmates with severe mental illness and improve access to psychiatric care and social welfare provision. they were called the dreadnoughts of the trenches that changed

the face of modern warfare. now, 100 years since the first tanks were deployed in the battle of cambrai in the first world war, members of the royal tank regiment have returned to the french town to mark the loss of life. robert halljoined the crowds paying their respects. 0n the terraced lawn of the cambrai memorial, today's tank crews look back to a week which cemented the bonds of a new military family. present arms! these men will tell you stories of the friendship and teamwork particular to this regiment, as true now as it was a century ago. in november 1917, the early tank men clambered into over 400 lumbering machines for the largest tank attack ever mounted. inside the metal hulls, crews were overcome by heat and exhaust fumes. many tanks broke down. but courage and determination took most to their objectives. major arthur griffiths was one of those honoured for his bravery. having seen some of

the pressures of conflict, it's particularly poignant. you understand what the pressures on him were at the time. i think the standout point for me was being told that when directing the tank you would make sure the bullet was hitting the front of the tank and then you would know you were going the right way towards the enemy. surviving tanks are now too fragile to run. this is a copy made for the film war horse. 0ne battle—scarred veteran has been adopted by the french village where it fought. tank d51, deborah to her crew, was abandoned and lost, until a local historian found her in 1998 and began the task of restoring her. today, deborah is the centrepiece of a new museum commemorating her part in the battle and the five crewmen she lost. when we are together and there are not many people, i'm always moved when i'm here.

it's part of myself and it is simply a love story. a love story which started 25 years ago when first i met an old lady who let me know that she knew a place where the tank was buried. for me it was exactly as if she had given me a map to find a treasure. when the five men who now lie together at this military cemetery climbed into tank d51 at the start of this battle, they knew they were part of something extraordinary. but the bravery of the crews and the sheer power of the tanks came to naught. the allies were once again driven back. cambrai, however, did mark the start of a change in the way wars were fought. the tank had proved its worth. a machine that is still evolving, still a terrifying presence. its birth came at a high cost. these ceremonies mark the passing of the tank men who still lie under

the rolling farmland they crossed. robert hall, bbc news, on the battlefield of cambrai. it's all square in tennis‘ davis cup final between france and belgium this weekend, but if you're more comfortable watching rather than playing, there is a way of improving your game, while burning more calories, than you would in a traditional match. mike bushell has been getting a taste of cardio tennis. i love tennis, but unless i find someone pretty much as bad as me, it can be a bit of a ball—watching experience, as you just chase thin air. hardly any rallies. so you're not getting much of a workout. but there is now a version of the sport which does give you a chance to combine both. a version which keeps you moving

on the court regardless of your abilities. cardio tennis combines a trip to the gym with games designed to improve your fitness and your confidence with the racket. i think some people are scared about playing tennis, either they had a bad experience at school or they think it's not the game for them, but cardio tennis is a great way into tennis. there are balls flying around your head at all times, because it is a sport that's non—stop. it's a mental challenge keeping up with what you're meant to be doing at first. my turn again. i think it'sjust great. it's running with a bit of tennis in the middle. how has it transformed your fitness and your life? i've probably lost a stone since september. it just adds another aspect to it. i like chasing after a ball. in tennis you have a stop and you stand still before you play the next game, you have breaks in between. and this is just on the go. youjust go, go, go. in the us in the last year,

this has seen the biggest growth of any participation sport. now there are hundreds of clubs involved in the uk as well. the lawn tennis association claims an hour of cardio tennis burns 25% more calories than an average singles match and twice that than a doubles contest. you don't need to be any good at tennis, you don't need to be particularly fit, it's for people of all tennis abilities and fitness abilities because often the outcome of the shot is irrelevant, it doesn't matter if you hit the ball in the net you hit the ball on the back fence, you just keep running around. it's an effective full body workout. unlike a spin class where you're just working the lower half of your body, you're up high, you're down low. there is a competitive element for this as well in that it's not singles or doubles but quadruples, four on each team and you keep swapping positions. it's crazy. you just feel like a child again. gets the heart rate up. always running around and getting good exercise regardless of what level you're at.

you meet so many more people and you're on the go all the time, you don't get the chance to stop, but you can stop if it gets too much. with four on each team we can now all enjoy long, long rallies. is it me? sorry! until someone makes a mistake. but of course in this version of the sport, there's no shame because our fitness is the only real winner. when he said it was all about cardio tennis, i thought it might be something to do on the sofa but that looks too energetic for me. let's looks too energetic for me. let's look at the weather prospects. hello there. autumn is doing a very good impression of winter this weekend. certainly as far as the weather that is concerned, because some of us started today looking like this, a blanket of snow for this weather watcher in the derbyshire peaks. still some wintry showers in western

areas for the rest of the day, hail and snow mostly in mountains for the rest of the afternoon. very windy in the far north and cold war you are. this evening and overnight there will be more of a breeze so temperatures may not drop as far as last night. 0n first glance, tomorrow is repeat performance. lots of crisp sunshine, largely dry in the east, some showers in the west. but then things start to change. cloud rolls and towards northern ireland and western fringes. and tomorrow will be another very chilly day. this is bbc news. the headlines... after a massacre at a mosque kills 300, the egyptian military carries out air strikes on islamist militants. police say they want to speak to two men after "an altercation" on a tube

platform sparked mass panic in central london. the actress emma thompson joins a demonstration in north—west london in support of nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british—iranian woman jailed in iran. sport now, and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here's holly hamilton. hello. good afternoon. it's been two decades since england last appeared in a rugby league world cup final but after a nerve—shredding showdown with tonga, wayne bennett's side will now face australia in next saturday's showpiece. but what a semifinal it was in auckland, asjoe lynskey reports. for england, some wins are worth waiting for. after three straight defeats in world cup semifinals, victory finally came, but with a scare. to get to brisbane, england had to cross the red sea. in auckland they were staring down at tonga's town.

this stadium can hold a quarter of the nation, but england found an early break. wing play in this sport is about timing and jermaine mcgillivray is rarely late. by half—time they had it under control. gareth widdop scoring. the team looked safe and sound and john bateman's third score looked to have sealed it. england's try. it's looking as if it will be england in the semifinal. but the drama was just beginning. tonga's fans sing hymns from the stands and now the team had found something almighty. the chorus inspired them to three tries in the last seven minutes and in the final seconds, they were on charge for the line.