it isa it is a bit like star wars.” it is a bit like star wars. i guess so, very dramatic in the last 2a hours, and we will still have very cool blustery weather for the rest of the day and into tomorrow and for some it is more thanjust of the day and into tomorrow and for some it is more than just call macro and blustery, in northern ireland there is an amber warning —— cool. northern ireland, check your local weather, it might impact your plans. that is valid for the rest of the afternoon, that warning. showers elsewhere and then we have another weather system approaching southwest and parts of the uk by the early hours of sunday morning, with the heavy rain around the brecon beacons and down into south—western england and down into south—western england and very strong winds, around 15 mph, not great for holiday— makers, and tomorrow there will be raised sweeping over the uk, and tomorrow there will be raised sweeping overthe uk, but and tomorrow there will be raised sweeping over the uk, but a few pockets with sunshine —— there will be rain. where ever you are tomorrow a blustery unfairly corday with a

good chance of catching some rain —— fairly cool day. hello, this is bbc news, with chris rogers. the headlines: travel disruption at airports, on the roads and at the channel tunnel, as the recent heatwave continues to cause problems. some ryanair flights from stansted have been cancelled. mps have warned british democracy is in crisis because of targeted campaigns of hate and misinformation on social media. the chief constable of the west midlands admits his police force is, at times, providing a poor service — and apologises he says it is budget cuts. an international arrest warrant has been issued for a man who killed a woman in a speedboat accident on the river thames in london in 2015. and australian sailor wendy tuck has become the first female skipper to ever win the clipper round the world yacht race. more on those stories at three p:m..

now on bbc news, it's time for witness. hello. welcome to witness, with me, razia iqbal. i'm here at the british library to guide you through five more extraordinary moments from recent history. we'll meet a woman who was caught up in the violent struggle for a jewish state in british—controlled palestine. we'll hear how the iconic sydney opera house was built. we'll meet the man behind a death revolution in the us. and a nurse who witnessed the creation of britain's treasured national health service in 19118. but we begin with an event which still haunts iranian/us relations. in 1988, a us warship —

the vincennes — shot down an iranian passengerjet over the persian gulf, killing all 290 people on board. first—hand accounts of the incident are rare, but witness spoke to rudy pahoyo, a us navy combat cameraman who happened to be filming on the vincennes that day. it was a tragedy. we did shoot down an airliner. one of those things, you just... i'm still in disbelief that it could have happened. the mood in the gulf was very intense. iran, iraq were in the middle of a war at the time. and us navy was protecting the oil tankers that came out of kuwait to make sure the flow of oil kept coming to the united states, and the iranians were harassing those ships. the boghammer speedboats that the iranians were using,

they would round robin the ships while they are shooting, trying to catch it on fire. so ourjob was kind of like a police force, if you will. the team i was with was combat camera group. i'm videotaping the whole time. and i caught a ride with the uss vincennes, a cruiser, a billion—dollar boat, a state—of—the—art at the time. as we were sailing back to bahrain, we got into battle with iranian speedboats. all men, man your the battle stations. during a gunboat battle, we were thinking they are going to come at us with whatever they have now, and that would have been the air force. the year before, 1987, the uss stark got hit by an exocet missile that was launched by iraq.

we were always reminded, remember the stark, remember the stark. about five minutes went by and they said there was a target that had left bandar abbas, the iranian airfield. their military and civilian airport, to my knowledge, is the same place. so the aircraft, when it took off, was identified as air hostile. they thought it was the iranian air force, tomcat, but the plane in reality was flight 655 — an airbus. five times a week, there is a scheduled service from bandar abbas across the strait to dubai. but here the crew is, waiting for another target to come out. and i believe that one of the lieutenants, i went up and asked them, "what are we doing?"

he said, "you are going to see some missile action." i went to the operation specialist who was watching the scope and he is watching the missiles because he can track it on the radar and he sees it hit the target. dead on! but they found out, like 15, 20 minutes later that there was an airliner missing. an iranians airbus is presumed crashed, please look for all survivors. and so that was when it was like, what? airliner missing? we didn't shoot an airliner, we shot a tomcat, i thought. there was a lot of soul—searching, disbelief, that is not supposed

to happen, that is not what we are here to do. 290 civilians passed away on flight 655, and of those 290, 66 of those were children. i felt so bad for the families that lost their loved ones. and sometimes, you are part of history and you love it and sometimes, you are part of history and you hate it — and this is just one of those things where ijust wish it didn't happen. but i was there. rudy pohoyo, on the terrible story of flight 655. now we had to australia, and the story behind one of the most iconic holdings in the world. in the 1950s, the city of sydney decided it wanted a new opera house. this would be no ordinary construction. engineer sirjack zunz was structural designer on the project. the first prize of £5,000 was won by danish—born jorn utzon, a storm of controversy follows. some say it's wonderful, others think it's dreadful. utzon dreamt up these wonderful shapes for his competition entry

and they were three shapes. it's almost a stage in the harbour, the whole town look upon it. and you sail around it. i like to be on the edge of the possible. great fun to work with, particularly in those early years, and we had some very good times together. i think he won one or two minor competitions for housing and so on, but as far as building anything of any scale, he hadn't really done very much. this much was clear from the start, the structural engineers appointed would face a monumental task. utzon himself suggested a british—based international firm. appointed in 1958, so i suppose that was 11 years that really dominated my life.

the first thing they did when they were asked to collaborate, they took these three shapes and developed a series of mathematical models, which as near as possible matched utzon‘s competition design. none of these shapes appeared buildable. the roof itself — known as stage 2 — went through so many design changes, there were rumours gleefully spread about that it could never be built. personally, i wasn't sure whether to admit to working on it at the time. if you got into a taxi, you got an earful of all the money that was being wasted. they fed hundreds of thousands of forumulas into computers, but still, the stubborn roof would not stand up. then suddenly, in september 1961, utzon had an idea. he saw that if he started

with sphere, he could take all the shapes he needed for its regular surface. he came back a week later and said, i've solved it. and he made the scheme out of a sphere. but in so doing, he had changed the architecture quite radically. so gradually, the whole situation was going downhill, utzon couldn't, wouldn't, didn't produce the documents which his client desired. terrible shock. utzon — i'm not sure that he saw himself able to complete the job. it took the firm seven years, 350,000 man hours and at different times, 200 engineers to do all the work before the final structure emerged. the building was actually constructed around the capacity of the largest 12 cranes

which could be found. seven years after utzon resigned, after endless discussions, arguments, changes in plans, and the expenditure of a further of £40 million, a finished building — the architectural extravaganza of the century — has emerged. you can't quanitfy the extent to which the human spirit was lifted by the sydney opera house or places like it. the remarkable sydney opera house. next, we're off to the united states. in 1988, students at the world's only university for the deaf, occupied their campus in protest at the board's decision to promote a hearing person as president.

witness has spoken to i. king jordan, who became the first ever deaf president of gallaudet university in washington dc. it's important to know that i am totally deaf, i can't hear a jet engine, i can't hear anything. right now, i'm working with a sign language interpreter — sarah, who's sitting in front of me, next to the camera. so, instead of hearing your questions, i'm seeing sarah sign. gallaudet college has been the centre of deaf education in america since 18117. in 1987, the president at that time stepped down. right away, there was a push for the board to recognise that the next president should be a deaf individual. so they narrowed it down to three finalists. two of us were deaf and one was hearing. i have a lot to bring to the university, but i also have a lot to learn from it, and that process must start right away.

the board of trustees decided to name elisabeth spencer the seventh president of gallaudet. dr spencer had a lot of experience, but she didn't know anything about deafness, and i guess that's when i guess you could say the protests started. someone had the bright idea to bring buses to block the gate. the rallying cry was, "we want a deaf president now." one of the posters out front said, "honk if you support a deaf prez." and of course, everybody who drove past saw that sign and honked. then the press started to come. and for a week, it was front page

of the washington post. it was a big, big story. journalist: are the students prepared to continue blocking the entrance as long as the board refuses to meet their demands? student: we would give up our soul in order to get a deaf president. the chair of the board was jane bassett—spilman. she came to campus and called a meeting. she wanted to talk, and explain her decision. student: are you going to resign? she used the word "children". she said, "children, you're making too much noise, i can't communicate if you make so much noise." using the word ‘children‘ to college—age students — ooh, that was not good. when dr zinser realised

the intensity of the feelings and the sense of the campus, she decided to step down. the board discussed and decided to name me president. there's one person i want to single out for very special thanks. my wife, linda. right now, i'm getting emotional. so i have to stop. people who are deaf must have unlimited educational and professional opportunities. the pioneering dr i king jordan. remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel, or catch up on all our films

and more than a thousand radio programmes in our online archive. just go to the bbc website. now we head tojerusalem, in 19116, when british forces controlled what was then palestine. at the time, the british faced an insurgency by armed jewish groups fighting for the creation of a jewish homeland, israel. one of the most devastating attacks was the bombing of the king david hotel, injerusalem, which was the location of british headquarters. we hearfrom shoshana levy kampos, a jewish secretary working in the building. newsreel: after a bomb explosion caused by terrorists on the british headquarters at jerusalem, one entire corner of the king david hotel, a building of seven storeys, was razed to the ground. suddenly, everything was black.

what happened ? i couldn't understand. you only think, how do i get out? newsreel: while arab and jew have a cause to battle for, the british soldier is there only because it is hisjob to keep the peace. in a quarrel which is none of his making, he doesjust that — and precious few thanks he gets for it. my family was a jewish family from germany, came to palestine because we were in danger in germany. i was 21 years old when i worked for the british in the king david hotel, typing. it wasn't a happy time. it was always tense. because they didn't know how to stop all these attacks. always, troops on the street.

british police, or soldiers. we worked for them, we had to have a salary. there wasn't so much work. there was a warning. a telephone call, that bombs were laid in the cellar of the king david hotel, that the people, the workers, should all go out immediately. i was just getting up from my place and, suddenly, i heard an explosion. and, black. i don't see anything. after some time, i heard somebody was coughing. isaid, oh, there's

another one living. newsreel: men of the army and the police were working with cranes, bulldozers, drills and shovels, to reach the unfortunate victims still buried in the wreckage. i knew there would be many, many, many dead. victims, terrible, terrible. i started to cry. the latest casualty lists included 65 killed, 47 injured and 58 missing. my boss, he was a very nice man, and he was killed in the attack. of course, i was angry at who did it. i didn't know, until they told me it was the etzel. the etzel was one of thejewish groups who were against the british. they wanted the british to go out, but that wasn't

the right way to do it. no, i can't agree. i worked for the british till they left. three months, they gave me salary. i got compensation, and that was all. so, i had to say thank you. shoshana levy kampos. now we move to britain two years later, in 19118, and the creation after the second world war of one of britain's most cherished institutions, the national health service. for the first time, all would be able to access free universal healthcare. witness has been speaking to olive bellfield, who was a nurse when it began. i had always... it was a great thing that i wanted, was to be a nurse.

anyone asked me, you know, what do you want to do when you grow up? i always said, i want to be a nurse. i started nursing when i was 18, in 19115. you were then accepted for 12 weeks. you lived within the nurses‘ home. and of course, it was so exciting. it sounds a bit ludicrous now but, you know, when you think, you got your uniform, which was pink. if we passed, that was it. we could then carry on and realise our ambition of nursing. and you know, joy upon joy, it happened. newsreel: britain's doctors, hospitals and health centres come under state control in the £152 million a year national health service bill, soon to come on the statute books.

from july 5th, the new national health service starts. providing hospital and special services, medicines, drugs and appliances, care of the teeth and eyes, paternity services. nevertheless, the task that lays ahead of us is far greater than what we have already accomplished. aneurin bevan, his main ambition in life was to get the nhs, from his early political career. he just wanted that. and of course, so did everybody else. the people who were helped initially would be the poor people. my first ward was a male medical ward. one of the worst instances was a young man, and this young man died. i'd never seen anyone die.

i stood and cried. and of course, i think i had most of the patients crying. but i can still remember to this day that the ward sister immediately got me out of the ward. and she said, the parents have come, make the parents a cup of tea. and of course, they could see i'd been crying. the mother started. and there was i, crying, and she got hold of me and she said, "you've made me feel better than anyone else. " she realised that we were human. olive bellfield, on the birth of the nhs.

that's all from witness this month, here at the british library. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. but for now, from me and the rest of the witness team, goodbye. many of us have been longing for some cooler, pressure weather, and thatis some cooler, pressure weather, and that is exactly what we have got right now across the country. the biggest change across the south east and east anglia. yesterday was in the mid—30s, today, a 10 degrees drop. blustery across the uk with

showers, some of them heavy and also prolonged rain in northern ireland. there is an amber warning from the met office which we will look at the second. this is cloud heading our way tomorrow, because of this kicking the jet stream and you can see the cooler colour, the blue, pressure airfrom see the cooler colour, the blue, pressure air from the north atlantic, linked to this pattern in the jet stream. it has put the warm weather to the east. the amber warning from the met office ballad for the afternoon, it check your local weather, there could be flooding, a lot of rainfall in the last couple of hours and more to come this afternoon. elsewhere, hit and miss showers, some could be heavy. i will in the weather before the winds pick up and we see more heavy rain sweeping into south—western parts of england, wales, the northwest of england. staying just about dry in the early hours of sunday around eastern coasts, the lowlands and northern

ireland, but heavy rain towards the south—west. this is the troublemaker, a lot of isobars so it will be windy. another low of the west coast of scotland brings rain and gales. bad weather in the western isles were we are more used to strong winds and rain, but this time of year, very blustery and there could be branches down and not great news for holiday—makers in the west cou ntry great news for holiday—makers in the west country and wales. the rain sweeps to the north west. on sunday, very wet and windy for a time and then improving. so not a wash—out, but certainly not looking great across the south—west, especially in the morning. and a cool day. monday, to see if this unsettled weather lasts, big pressure from the side of the atlantic to scandinavia and you can see the oceanic winds blowing down across the low pressure. staying cool with temperatures in the teens, around 20. there are signs things will warm up a little

bit in the south. this is the outlook for the weekend. we have got a fresh start including the weekend with showers, but things turning warmer, the high 20s and maybe hitting 30 again in the south towards the end of the week. but for now, we have that fresh weather in place for the rest of the weekend and a lot of heavy rain for some as well. this is bbc news. i'm chris rogers. the headlines at 3pm. travel disruption at airports, on the roads and in the eurotunnel, as the recent weather continues to cause problems — some ryanair flights from stansted have been cancelled. mps warn british democracy is in crisis because of targeted campaigns of hate and misinformation on social media. the chief constable of the west midlands admits his police force is occasionally providing a poor service — and apologises. also coming up —

australian sailor wendy tuck has become the first female skipper to ever win the clipper round the world yacht race. thousands watched her team return to liverpool, nearly a year after 12 yachts set out from the city. i feel a bit of everything at the moment. can't wait to see my mum and my brother!