gales by a; ' a gales by the end of the severe gales by the end of the night. rain pushing into wales and western parts of england. temperatures shouldn't drop away too much. it will be a wet one for england and wales. two areas of low pressure linked to unseasonably strong winds. 50 mph across parts of southern britain. some heavy rain in the morning, as well. drier and brighter conditions in east anglia for a time. a wet start in northern england. for northern ireland, a better day, much drier. a lot of dry weather across scotland away from the hebrides and the north—west highlands where we could see winds gust to 50 miles an hour. turning cloud into southern and eastern scotland. england and wales, the rain turnsa scotland. england and wales, the rain turns a bit more showery with brighter skies in between. the best of the sunday weather, thankfully,

after today's storms will be in northern ireland. temperatures a feud increased down on where we should be at this time of year. into tomorrow evening, skies clear for a time, only a few showers around. another system will work its way in for monday. being occasional rain and cloud. temperatures starting to creep up a little bit in the south—westerly breeze. the breeze eases down and as it does, after fresh start to the week, gradually warming up. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. long delays on flights, ferries and cross—channel trains, as the recent extreme weather continues to cause problems. eurotunnel says it is now operating a full service on the folkestone—calais route, but has stopped selling tickets until next week. two firefighters die and tens of thousands flee their homes

in northern california, as wildfires sweep across the state. the main candidates in zimbabwe's presidential election have addressed huge crowds in harare, on the last day of campaigning before the country's historic vote. wales‘ geraint thomas is set to win as he maintains his lead on the penultimate day of the tour de france. now 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 deaf revolution in the us. and a nurse who witnessed the creation of britain's treasured national health service in 1948. 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 the witness spoke 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, i'm still in disbelief that it could have happened.

the mood in the gulf was very intense. the mood in the gulf was very tense. iran, iraq were in the middle of a war at the time. 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 it, 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, state—of—the—art at the time. as we were sailing back to bahrain, we got into battle with iranian speedboats. all hands man your battle stations.

during a gunboat battle, we thinking they're going to come at us with whatever they have now, and that would have been their 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. the 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 f—lll 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 at them, and the aircraft takes off. and i believe that one of the lieutenants, i went up and asked them, "what we are doing", he said "you're going to see some missile action." i went to the operation specialist who was watching the scope and he's 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 iranian airbus is presumed

crashed, please look for survivors or aircraft wreckage. 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's not supposed to happen, that's not what we are here to do. 290 civilians passed away on flight 655, and of those 290, 66 were children. felt so bad for the families that lost their loved ones and sometimes you're part of history and you love it and sometimes you're 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 head to australia and the story behind one of the most iconic buildings in the world. in the 1950s, the city of sydney

decided it wanted a new opera house. but this would be no ordinary construction. engineer sirjack zunz was the 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, other think it's dreadful. utzon dreamt up these extraordinary shapes for his competition entry, and they were free shapes. it is almost a state in the harbour, the whole town look upon it. and you sail around it. i like to be on the edge of the possible. he was great fun to work with, particularly in those early years, and we had some very good times together. i think he'd 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. arup‘s were appointed in about 1958, so i suppose that was 11 years that it really dominated my life. the first arup‘s did when they were asked to collaborate, they took these free 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 the roof stubborn roof would not stand up. ‘then, suddenly in september 1961, utzon had an idea. ‘he saw that if he started with a sphere, ‘he could take all the shapes needed for its regular surface.‘ he came back a week later and says, 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 arup‘s 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 plan, and the expenditure of a further ‘eiio million, ‘a finished building — the architectural extravaganza ‘of the century — has emerged.‘ you can‘t quanitfy to the extent to which the human

spirit has been lifted the extent to which the human by the sydney opera house or places like it. the remarkable sydney opera house. next we are 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 dr i king jordan, who became the first ever deaf president of gallaudet university in washington dc. it‘s important to know that i‘m 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 the university, but i also have a lot to learn from it and that process must start right away. the board of trustees voted 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 the 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. and 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 are making too much noise, i can‘t communicate if you make so much noise." using the word children to college students, ooh, that was not good. when dr zinser realised the intensity of the feelings and the sense on the campus, she decided to step down. the board discussed and decided to name their president. to name me president. there is one person i want to single out for very special thanks. my wife, linda. right now i‘m getting emotional. so i had 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 in jerusalem, which was the location of british headquarters. we hearfrom shoshana levy kampos,

who was a jewish secretary working in the building. newsreel: after a bomb explosion caused by terrorists on the british headquarters injerusalem, 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 onlybecause 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, shorthand 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 you want to do when you grow up? i‘d 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 do you know, when you think, you‘d got your uniform,

which was pink. if we passed, that was it. we could then carry on and become our ambition of nursing. and, you know, joy upon joy, this 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 book. onjuly 5, the new national health service starts. hospital and special services, medicines, drugs and appliances, care of the teeth and eyes, maternity 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 had 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‘ll 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. good even in death after their heat

of weeks, the weather must close at what it should be at this time of year. we have had some shine out there today but it has been much fresher with the cloud and for some there have been some very dusty downpours indeed. parts of northern ireland have had a month‘s worth of rain in the space of two hours which has lead to flooding. it is all due toa has lead to flooding. it is all due to a shift in the jet stream position, which has worked its way southwards across the uk, winning the fresher air but there will be another area of low pressure developing tonight. the big story tomorrow as well as further rain will be the wind. tonight‘s heavy rain pushing up across western scotland. severe gales by the end of the night. will force was goes towards the south as rain pushes into wales and the south—west of england. it will not be a cold start to sunday morning but it will be wet

for england and wales. you can see two areas of low pressure, both linked to some unseasonably strong winds, possibly up to 50mph across some parts of wales and southern england, together with some yeah. good. some drier and england, together with some yeah. good. some drierand brighter conditions towards east anglia to begin with. northern england not quite as windy as you will see further south. for northern ireland, a better day tomorrow, much drier. a lot of dry weather across scotland to begin with away from the hebrides and the north—west highlands, where we could see very strong gusts. turning cloudy into southern and used in scotland. england and wales the rain turning to turn more shortly in the afternoon, brighter skies in between. the best of the brighter weather thankfully after today‘s storms will be in northern ireland. temperatures, though, if anything a few degrees down on where we should be at this time of the year. into tomorrow evening, weaves

these guys clear for a time, only a few showers around. that links back into another weather system which will work its way in for monday. this one will only bring occasional rain. still blustery conditions. temperatures, though, starting to creep up a little bit in the south—westerly breeze, which will ease down this week. as it does so, things will warm up again. this is bbc world news today. our top stories... the former archbishop of washington becomes the first man to leave the college of cardinals in almost a century, as he faces allegations of sexual abuse. final campaign rallies have taken place in zimbabwe — ahead of the first election since robert mugabe was ousted as president. firefighters battle to control a huge wildfire in californa — at least two people have died. the wildfire aspect has intensified

over the last few years so we may experience more wildfires. welshman geraint thomas is set to win the 2018 tour de france, after retaining the yellowjersey at the end of today‘s time—trial.