this is bbc news. i'm vicki young. the headlines at four: labour leaderjeremy corbyn has said he would sanction operations in syria only if they had the un's approval. voices from inside the devastation in syria — the bbc hears from a mother and daughter who survived the suspected chemical attack in eastern ghouta a week ago we went back down to the basement and we saw how they were bringing the martyrs. instead of breathing the martyrs. instead of breathing the air, we breathed the smell of blood. hundreds of australian firefghters are tackling a large bushfire threatening homes in the suburbs of sydney. the chief executive of the world's largest advertising agency, martin sorrell, is stepping down. also coming up: jubilation at the commonwealth games. england beat australia in the netball, to secure the greatest result in their history and win their first commonwealth gold medal. and at 16:30, newsbeat speaks to people

who lose their hair at a young age. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has said he would only consider involvement in syria if it had the backing of the un. it follows yesterday's missile strikes by the us, france and the uk on suspected chemical weapons sites. meanwhile the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, said no further military action is planned, but that the government would "study the options" if syria used chemical weapons again. here's our political correspondent, iain watson. british forces in action. four tornado aircraft took part

in bombing raids on chemical production and storage facilities in syria yesterday. and today, the government was clear — this was about sending a signal that the use of chemical weapons, whether in salisbury or in syria, wouldn't be tolerated. it wasn't about changing the course of the conflict in the middle east. though the foreign secretary didn't absolutely rule out further action. there is no proposal on the table at the moment for further attacks because so far, thank heavens, the assad regime has not been so foolish as to launch another chemical weapons attack. if we say that we are limiting our action to chemical weapons, our particular desire to reinforce that prohibition, which is what this is all about, then yes, of course it follows that the rest of the syrian war must proceed as it will. his justification for the action was in part that chemical weapons had been used here in britain too, and he was dismissive of russian suggestions that the uk could be behind the salisbury poisoning or had faked the syrian attack. it is plainly an utterly preposterous and

deranged suggestion. the labour leader opposed the air strikes and has called for renewed diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire. i can only countenance involvement in syria if there is a un authority behind it. the russians vetoed un resolutions on this six times now. there is no reason to think they will stop. both sides have either vetoed, or threatened to veto. there obviously has not been agreement. so what would he do if he had incontrovertible evidence the assad regime had used chemical weapons? confront assad with that evidence, confront any other group that may be fingered because of that — maybe, i'm saying maybe, i don't know. and then say they must now come in and remove and destroy those weapons. political disagreements aren't limited to whether the syrian airstrikes should have taken place. even some mps who backed the military action are deeply unhappy that it took place without a prior vote in parliament. the prime minister will address mps

tomorrow, but there are now calls for the law to be changed so that any action in future would have to be approved not just by the cabinet, but by parliament. labour wants a new war powers act to give mps a say. the snp is calling for an emergency debate. if there is to be any further change to the role of uk forces in syria, any change to that, or further change to that should be sanctioned by a parliamentary vote. the prime minister will hope this action doesn't have to be repeated, but even some of her own mps will want greater scrutiny of her decisions. well, a little earlier, i spoke to our political correspondent, mark lobel, and asked him what the chances were of a parliamentary vote taking place. there's a lot of opposition parties calling for a vote. the snp calling for an emergency debate which would force a vote. that would be a protest

vote at the very least, it would not bind the government, but it would expose divisions between some of the mps and their leader. labour has also called for a vote and they are particularly unhappy, jeremy corbyn is unhappy about what he calls the dubious legal nature of the justification for these strikes that theresa may launched in western syria. particularly by choosing humanitarian grounds, he says that is still a legally dubious area. he said he'd only countenance involvement in syria if there was a un authority behind it and some conservatives have said, jeremy corbyn knows that russia would veto that, so he has ignored what is going on on the ground in syria, they say. lib dems leader vince cable seems less fussed about the legality, he wants more certainty about whether this was a one—off strike or part of a sustained campaign. theresa may is coming to the commons to make a statement and is likely to be on herfeet for two or three hours taking questions from mps,

that clearly won't be enough for some, but there is the issue here of who can make these very important decisions. some will say it's quite right that the prime minister, the cabinet, should have that flexibility to be able to make these decisions. that's right. there has been a convention, unenforceable, if you like, that the prime minister would bring these decisions to parliament. but in this case, she clearly has not done that, labour want to stop that and introduce what is called a war powers act. according to the press release at midday today, they want to enshrine in law that the government must get pa rliament‘s approval before committing to action. calls for a war powers act have been called after interventions

in afghanistan, libya and iraq. stronger than this unenforceable act. tentative plans were dropped two years ago by the then defence secretary michael fallon and prime minister david cameron. they said they did not want to be artificially constrained in action to keep this country safe, but if this were to go ahead, the shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry reassured people that the prime minister was to be kidnapped or the country was invaded, you could just get on and respond. on a practical note, could we have recalled parliament in this instance? i spoke to one labour and conservative mp this morning both in support of the strikes and they said no, because of where everybody was spread around the globe, the mps could not have got back in time to match french and american deadlines, leaving britain looking isolated and weak. and borisjohnson told cnn today the reason they did not get parliamentary approval was because they wanted to focus on the speed and efficiency of the operation. butjeremy corbyn is adamant theresa may should have recalled parliament and, if not, she should have held a vote before doing anything tomorrow when everybody returns. and he seems to think that that's the way the public mood is going. and some of the early

pulling supports his view. polling supports his view. well, the syrian government denies having used chemical weapons, and has insisted it is not breaking any international laws which prohibit their use. so just what do they say the us, french and british missions targeted? seth done, from cbs news, went to see one of the damaged sites, in damascus — and sent this report. one of the targets of those air strikes was still smouldering late this afternoon. the us military says the barza complex, in damascus, was a centre for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weapons. your office was there? yes, where you see the smoke, this scientist syed told us. he's been here for 38 years and said he cried when he saw this place today, his life's work destroyed. were chemical weapons being developed here? that's totally incorrect, he said. the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons visited here and did not report anything wrong with this place. syrians are adamant this

was not a place to develop chemical weapons but, rather, a place of learning — a research institution, where they developed things like pharmaceuticals. what's clear now is that it's gone. this is what you were producing there? syed told us these air strikes took his livelihood. this is a big institution. isn't it possible that there were things going on here that you didn't know about? no, never, he told us. last year's report from the opcw about the barza facility noted that the syrians delayed a scheduled visit due to security concerns. but ultimately, chemical weapons investigators did not find any red flags. but the pentagon says destroying that facility will set syria's chemical weapons programme back several years. the founder and head of the world's largest advertising agency — wpp — sir martin sorrell, has resigned,

less than a fortnight after the company announced he was being investigated for misconduct. he leaves wpp after 33 years in the job. sir martin denies any wrongdoing. joe lynam has more. you might not know the agencies behind them, but you will know many of the adverts that they come up with. wpp owns many of the large advertising and public relations groups in the world and this is the man who created the £15 billion behemoth. sir martin sorrell took a company called wire and plastic products, which made supermarket baskets, into a major entity in 112 countries. but now, a 33—year glittering career is coming to an end amid recent accusations that he may have misused wpp funds. although sir martin has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, he said it would be in the best interests of the business if he stepped down now. this resignation is a lot more than the use of company funds. many believe that wpp is simply not

growing like it used to. tech giants such as facebook and google are placing ads directly with consumers and bypassing the advertising agencies controlled by wpp, whose share price has fallen by a third over the past year, and many believe that sir martin has lost his midas touch. sirmartin said... "the current disruption we are experiencing is simply putting too much unnecessary pressure on the business. that is why i have decided that in the interests of our clients, shareholders and all other stakeholders, it is best for me to step aside." sir martin will be disappointed that having run wpp for a third of a century, he didn't really get to choose when to step down. joe lynam, bbc news. two teenagers have been arrested after five people were struck by a car in essex yesterday afternoon. three people remain in hospital, following the incident in canvey island. a 17—year—old boy and an 18—year—old man, both from the area, are being questioned by essex police this afternoon, on suspicion of causing serious injury

by dangerous driving. police have launched a murder investigation after a man was shot dead in birmingham. officers were called to a shooting in the bordesley area of the city at just after midnight. a 20—year—old man was pronounced dead at the scene. police are appealing for information from the public. a man has died, and a woman is in a critical condition, after the vehicle they were in collided with a car during a police pursuit on the outskirts of stoke—on—trent. the pair were being followed by officers on the a50, near longton, after their vehicle failed to stop. they collided with a car on the eastbound carriageway at around 6:15 this morning. staffordshire police have referred the incident to the independent office for police conduct, which is routine when somebody dies during an operation. a bushfire is burning out of control near sydney — with the flames now threatening some streets around 20 miles from the city centre.

hundreds of people have been forced to leave their homes, and australian police say they suspect the blaze may have been started deliberately. phil mercer reports. strong winds have pushed the flames towards suburban streets, about 35 kilometres from the centre of sydney. as the blaze approached, many residents left, while others stayed to join a huge firefighting effort. authorities said the fast—moving outbreak was aggressive and unpredictable. while 500 firefighters confronted the inferno on the ground, they were supported in the skies by more than a dozen aircraft. very warm autumn weather and a lack of rain have turned bushland on sydney's outer fringes into a tinderbox. we have to deal with the worst that mother nature can throw at us. and the worse australians are presented with by nature, the better it brings out the australian spirit.

conditions in the fire zone are reported to be easing. but crews will again be working through the night to try to contain the blaze. south—eastern australia is one of the world's most fire—prone regions. most outbreaks are sparked by lightning, or accidentally, by power lines. sometimes, more sinister hands are to blame. australian police believe this monstrous fire in south—western sydney may have been lit on purpose. experts say that australia's annual bushfire season is starting earlier and ending later. they believe that climate change is making the threat worse. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. hundreds of thousands of people have protested in barcelona to demand the release of politicians jailed over catalonia's bid for independence from spain.

tensions have been running high in catalonia since december‘s elections. the former catalan president, carles puigdemont, was recently freed on bail after being held in a german prison. spanish authorities wanted to extradite him to face charges of sedition and rebellion. the headlines on bbc news: labour leaderjeremy corbyn has said he would sanction operations in syria only if they had the un's approval. hundreds of australian firefghters are tackling a large bushfire threatening homes in the suburbs of sydney. the chief executive of the world's largest advertising agency, martin sorrell, is stepping down. sport now. and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here's hugh ferris. historic final day at the

commonwealth games with england's netball team pulling off a shocking win to take the title from australia. and their victory came in the most dramatic fashion. with more ona the most dramatic fashion. with more on a momentous morning on the gold coast. never before had england reached the commonwealth games netball final. never before have they won any more than a bronze. and yet, with another last—gasp goal, england's roses bloomed at the buzzer. commentator: england have done it! they have made history. they have snatched the gold medal from australia. quite simply, the greatest result in their history, and a win to rewrite the record books. it's my dream come true. the girls have worked so hard over the last international phase, they've put in there, they were against the world number one. they're renowned. we've not beaten them once in the whole cycle i've been here. to beat them at that time wasjust stupendous and i'm really proud of them, really, really proud. imagine, too, how proud

the adcocks are today. the husband and wife combination of chris and gabby, the reigning champions, defending their title in the mixed badminton by beating team—mates marcus ellis and lauren smith. but it hasn't been alljoy for the home nations down under. take this, for example. scotland's callum hawkins leading the marathon, with only a mile to go, only for exhaustion to cruelly rob him of victory in the 30—degree heat. the fact it took several minutes for medical help to arrive has led to criticism of the organisers. another scotsman, robbie simpson, was able to make the podium, though. he battled through to bronze in the searing temperatures. and that's it, the final day of the commonwealth games over. the gold coast may be more than 10,000 miles away, but it's been a home from home for the home nations. tim hague, bbc news. it looks like celtic will reach the

final of the scottish cup. with a couple minutes to go at hampden park, they are leading old firm rivals rangers by 4—0. a little over 20 minutes had passed before the holders were in front thanks to tom rock pitch. celtic continued to dominate and carroll mcgregor added toa dominate and carroll mcgregor added to a deserved and impressive second before half—time. latching onto a loose ball to fire into the back of the net. rangers‘s afternoon was made worse when ross mccrory was dismissed for bringing down mousa dembele inside the penalty area. a spot kick was awarded and dembele tucked him the third, past the goalkeeper, you can do it at 2—0 up! celtic were awarded a penalty when patrick roberts was fouled inside the penalty area come up with dembele deciding not to take it.

they will play motherwell in the final if there is not a crazy overturned in the next couple of minutes. they met in the league cup final this season, celtic winning that big 2—0. newcastle united gave rafa benitez a nice birthday present today. three points after beating arsenal eye 2—1 in the premier league, arsenal still yet to get a point away from home in 2018. they did take the lead at st james' parkj alexandre lacazette. this near post effort pulled newcastle level before matt ritchie took the magpies to the 41 point mark, so comfortably safe from relegation and they sit tenth in the table. this is the match that could decide the premier with title if manchester united lose to west bromwich this afternoon, manchester city will be champions. it is goalless afterjust under—20 minutes at old trafford. at guardiola has decided not to watch

this match, he is playing golf instead! daniel ricciardo won a chaotic chinese grand prix in his red bull after his team—mate crashed into a title contender for the second straight week. after an incident involving lewis hamilton last week in bahrain, max verstappen hit championship leader sebastian vettel who could only finish eighth. the dutchman was given a penalty which sought lewis hamilton claim fourth, reducing the leader vettel to nine points. ricciardo hold of stunning overtakes to move from six placed first and claim his first win of the season. and that is all the sport for now, more in the next hour. thanks very much. the air strikes in syria were prompted by last week's suspected chemical attack in eastern ghouta. a mother and daughter who were there have described the physical horror they experienced. om alnour and her daughter masa were sheltering in a basement in the town of douma when the alert of an apparent chemical attack sent everyone rushing up to the higher

floors of the house. they received medical treatment, but say many of their neighbours died. we can't independently verify their story, but this is what they told the bbc. suddenly, byron six p:m., we heard two rockets coming and making a sound like... without exploding. three men ran up from our basement and shouted, chemical gas, go upstairs! then they came up and they poured water on themselves. when i looked, i saw white smoke like fog. we started to lose the nerves in our legs. we had shortness of breath and burning in the nose and chest. there was no oxygen and you were fighting death to go upstairs and reach the high flats and shelling started on the same area attacked with chemicals. the last floor we reached, people started to cough and vomit. kids fainted and young men we re vomit. kids fainted and young men were vomiting. people were shouting,

"god, i'm notable were vomiting. people were shouting, "god, i'm not able to breathe! all the people were holding cloth and these young men started to pour water on the clock and help us brief. we were saying, please, some water, we need some water. they were pouring water and something was getting out of our mouths. and we we re getting out of our mouths. and we were able to breathe. peoplesoft to breathe better and the heartburn from the chemical started to disappear. —— people started. but still there was coughing, slow breathing and vomiting. i turned on my mobile phone and there was coverage. and i started to send m essa g es coverage. and i started to send messages saying, we appeal to the world to stop this destructive campaign. they threw chemicals on us. campaign. they threw chemicals on us. people are dying, people are suffocating, please do what you can. they were telling us, go up, go up,

go up. we went to the last floor and i fell on the ground. i could not stop it. my mum said to my uncle, my daughter, my daughter, my daughter! my uncle came and he took me up. he brought a wet cloth and carried me upstairs. the medical point was that the end of the tunnel. three doctors came. one carried me and the other carried my sister and ran. they took us carried my sister and ran. they took us to the first medical point, but was on the ground and they poured water on us. then they tell cousin, spray does and gave us an injection. —— then they took us in, sprayed us. when we cap —— came to sleep, the plane shelled and we were full of dust. we went back down to the basement and we saw how they were bringing martyrs. instead of breathing the air, we breathed the smell of blood. a mother and daughter in syria describing what they say they experienced in eastern ghouta last week. mps, celebrities and business leaders have launched a campaign

calling for a public vote on the final brexit deal between the uk and the european union. the people's vote drive aims to unite anti—brexit groups, with a rally being held in north london. earlier, i spoke to one of the politicians attending, the former labour cabinet minister lord adonis. he said people should be able to have a say on the terms of the brexit treaty. theresa may is in brussels negotiating the brexit terms. our argument is that those terms are going to be a lot worse than than what we have now. worse for trade, our economy, there is not the 350 million she promised for the nhs every week, on the country, it is an exit bill already of £39 billion. and there is a huge crowd here in north london campaigning for the people to have a say

on whether we do this brexit or whether we choose to stay — which is better for our economy, better for our society and instead, we can get on with the big problems facing the country, which is the state of the nhs, opportunities for young people, sorting out the housing crisis, but not scapegoating europeans and turning our back on our international trading alliances. it looks like there has been a big turnout in north london, in camden, that is probably not surprising. is there a wider shift in public opinion, that people are demanding this second vote? well, the evidence is that people want a say. let's be frank, it was a vote in the dark two years ago, nobody had any idea what the consequences of brexit were going to be because there was no deal, we didn't know what it would mean for trade, the economy, public finances. now people can see that there is a massive bill attached, none of the advantages for the nhs, our trade is going to be worse off and therefore jobs will suffer, i think people are starting to say, we should have a say on this. it's the biggest decision this country will

take in our generation, it shouldn'tjust be decided for us behind closed doors in westminster. that is why so many people are gathering here across parties. we've had the greens here, the tories, labour, the lib dems. across parties, people are saying, we want a say. and we want to look at this treaty and decide whether we are better off staying in the eu. you will have to persuade mps, presumably, to come onside with this campaign, because you will have to amend a bill in some way to get this to happen, is there any sign — given that the labour front bench and conservative front bench are not in favour — is there any hope this could be achieved for you? well, this is an extremely fluid situation. parliament will not decide on the treaty until october, november. and we don't know what the terms of that treaty are going to be. we know there are problems about trade, the border in ireland, the money and the £39 billion exit fee we now have to face. once we actually see

the terms of the in the terms of the deal in october and november and mps judge it, my prediction is, in massive movement of parliamentary opinion towards the people and they will vote for the final say. and it will be led by my party, the labour party, which is the people's party. we are all in favour of democracy. and i think we will be spearheading a move towards a popular referendum, which will be backed, i think, by public—spirited people from all the other parties as well. and there is still time to do it before we crash out of the european union in a mistaken way in a year's time and trash ourjobs and the future of our young people. chris fawkes has the weather. the warmest weather just around the corner. it will get warmer towards the middle to the end of the week

with temperatures hitting 25 degrees around london. widely, temperatures into the high teens to low 20s at the very least later this week. today, a fair bit of sunshine across scotland. snow on the hills, perhaps not lasting much longer given the temperature is rising. further south and west, we see rain working in. that was devon earlier today. radar picture picks up this rain and not just one area, it is coming along in bands working across england and wales and northern ireland and into scotland. that rain pushes north, likely to continue to be on and off with clear spells in between for time. late in the night, the weather should become drier and clearer across southern areas. temperatures overnight between five and 9 degrees. monday's weather forecast. some surge showing across in them and wales but still a bit of cloud. some of that card is high making the

sunshine hazy. clouding overfor northern ireland and west of scotland. the wind is packing up and northern ireland, outbreaks of rain work their way in. into monday night and tuesday, the rain is heavy at at times, particularly across the hills. getting gale force winds. washing the rain onto the mountains. places like argyll and into parts of dumfries and galloway and cumbria could see the two millimetres of rain and localised surface water issues. temperatures similar to today across many areas. but it is beginning to warm up across parts of eastern england and that is a sign of things to come because towards wednesday, high pressure builds. across the near continent. dragging in warm airfrom france. temperatures rising across england and wales. cloud to start the day further north for scotland and northern ireland, getting thinner, temperatures, highs of 23 in london and 17 in edinburgh, not feeling bad. thursday, more sunshine and

feeling warmer. temperatures expected to peak at 25 celsius, easily the warmest day of the year so far. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. jeremy corbyn has said he would sanction operations in syria, only if they had the un's approval. the conservatives say russia would inevitably veto such action. sir martin sorrell, the founder and head of the world's largest advertising group, wpp, has resigned, less than a fortnight after the company announced it was investigating an allegation of personal misconduct, which he denies. two teenagers have been arrested, following a serious road traffic collision in essex. three people remain in hospital, but none of the injuries are life threatening. more than 500 australian firefighters, with support