we help straighten that record a little bit. now it's time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. they were turned blustery day for much of the country, strong winds, vertically southern and western coast —— a wet and blustery day. becoming more showery this afternoon, bright and sunny spells further west. the costs will be even higher, 40—15 miles an hour, especially for southern and western coast —— the gusts will be even higher, 40—50 miles an hour. showers will ease off overnight. another speu will ease off overnight. another spell of rain arriving in south—west and south—east england later. cool night for northern ireland and scotland. some rain first thing tomorrow morning for parts of

south—east england, clearing, and generally a day of sunny spells and showers. that is all from me. that is all from me, goodbye. watching bbc news, the headlines: emergencies have been declared in northern california as wildfires continue their rampage through the state, killing five people, destroying hundreds of homes, and causing 40,000 to flee. a powerful earthquake has killed at least thirteen people on the central indonesian island of lombok and officials say hundreds of people have been injured. 0nline trolls who intimidate election candidates or campaigners could be barred from public office. the government's considering the move after a parliamentary report found social media abuse was rife in last year's general election. qatar denies accusations of running a secret campaign to undermine rival countries during the bidding process which led to it being awarded the world cup in 2022 now on bbc news,

its time for witness. 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 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 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're thinking, "they're going to come at us with whatever they have now."

and that would have been their airforce. 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—14 tomcat, but the plane in reality was flight 655, an airbus. newsreel: 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 were here to do. two hundred and ninety 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—bornjorn 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 thing 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. newsreel: 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 £40 million, a finished building, the architectural extravaganza of the century — has emerged. you can't quantify the extent to which the human spirit has been 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 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 1847. 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. 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 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 1946, 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, 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. only because it is his job 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 1948, 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 0live 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 1945. 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. 0njuly 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. 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. 0live 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. not many people on the beach in

swanage at the moment, we have gone from the warmth and the sunshine to the wind and the rain. rain will very slowly clear its way north and east, so, why the change in the weather, all down to the jet stream, the north of the uk, further south, coming across the atlantic, fresher conditions and also areas of low pressure. not one but two areas of low pressure, you can pressure. not one but two areas of low pressure, you can see pressure. not one but two areas of low pressure, you can see the squeeze in the isobars is giving an indication of how strong the wind is. earlier rainfall has been piling m, is. earlier rainfall has been piling in, pushing north and east into north—west england. across eastern parts of northern ireland, it is now clearing, and it will push up across the eastern coast of scotland. where we have sunshine, parts of aberdeenshire, that rain settling in. strong wind and heavy rain across the western isles is falling away. we will be left with a fair amount of cloud, also some blustery showers, and these are the strengths of the wind gust. dirty, 40 mph,

particularly along the coast, much drier day for northern ireland. dry conditions across central parts of scotland, that rain will settle in the afternoon and strong wind, street feel for much of the country through the afternoon. some sunshine following on behind the rain, where we see it, temperatures up to 20 through, 23. even the cloud, rain and strength of wind. very slowly, wind will ease down, showers will clear away, later in the night, another spell of rain arriving into parts of wales, south—west england, and south—east england. cooler night for scotland and northern ireland, nine to 11 celsius. further south. as we go into the new working week. fairly showery airflow, further showers particularly north and west, just bringing outbreaks of rain to parts of south—west england through the morning, that will clear, and

generally, it is a day of sunshine and showers. further north and west you are, further south and east, the better it appears, highest temperatures here, climbing again, 23 to 25, always clear and north and west. that is the theme tuesday and wednesday, still showers. best of the sunshine, england and wales. this is bbc news, i'm ben brown, the headlines at 11. wildfires rage in northern california, killing five people, destroying hundreds of buildings and causing thousands to flee their homes we were not told we were in danger. this was like you see in the movies with tornadoes. one minute, it's fine. the next minute, everybody‘s screaming. trolls who go online to intimidate election candidates and campaigners could be barred from public office under new government proposals. a powerful earthquake on an indonesian tourist island kills at least 13 people, injures hundreds and damages thousands of homes. qatar has denied claims

it ran a secret campaign to sabotage other countries' bids for the 2022 world cup. also this hour, on the brink of victory for cycling's greatest prize.