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. geraint thomas will ride into paris later today, all but assured of being crowned tour de france champion.

more on that and the rest of the sport shortly. and at 11.30 we'll hear what correspondents in london make of the week's news in dateline. five people have died and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes as huge wildfires continue to rage across the us state of california. firefighters say they are struggling to contain about 130 separate blazes. the governor of california has requested federal aid and declared a state of emergency in three more counties. almost 40,000 people have already left their homes in the city of redding. those remaining have been urged to leave immediately.

thousands of firefighters are dealing with what have been described as tornados of fire. at least 500 buildings have been destroyed so far, with thousands of homes still under threat. lebo diseko reports. they call them tornadoes of flames, spinning whorls of fire powered by gale—force winds so powerful they suck in cars, trees, homes, people — anything in their path. in its wake, families are left devastated. ed bledsoe was looking for his great—grandchildren, james and emily, aged four and five, along with his wife, melody. they have since been found dead. residents say they should have been given more warning to evacuate. we weren't told we were in danger. this was like you see in movies with tornadoes. one minute, it's fine. the next minute, everybody‘s screaming. firefighters have battled to contain the blaze since it began on monday, apparently after

a car malfunctioned. it has since destroyed an area larger than the city of san francisco, and tens of thousands of people have had to leave their homes. firefighters say it's unlike anything they have seen before. every single person that i have talked to so far has made the mention that, "i don't know why it is doing what it's doing." "it's burning differently." "it's burning more aggressive than it has in years past." and i know we say that every year, but it's unprecedented. in california alone, more than 9000 firefighters are battling seven big blazes. but it seems that nature may be against them. more hot, dry weather is forecast for the coming days, which could well make the fire even worse. lebo diseko, bbc news. 0nline trolls who intimidate election candidates or campaigners could be barred from public office. the government's considering the move after a report found social media abuse was rife in last

year's general election. extreme intimidation cases are already punishable with a jail sentence. dr claire hardaker, an expert in online aggression, deception and manipulation from lancaster university, told me trolling is having a major impact on democray in the uk and the rest of the world. in politics, in particular, an increasing problem. we are seeing a lot of prominent figures, particularly from certain demographics, for instance, women, ethnic minorities, religious groups, they are receiving a huge amount of abuse, and it's particularly intimidating that you go online, cultivate a persona, you create this identity, and people spend enormous amounts of time attacking it, trying to drag it down, find any detail they can use about you to destroy and damage your reputation. would proposals to stop online trolls holding public office, do you think that would deter them or most of them? i am not sure

how effective it would be. for those who are attempting to become a public personality by themselves, using trolling as a method to get into that, it might deter them, but for the average person, say you have an individual feeling disenfranchised with the political system, they feel like their benefits have been cut, housing is inadequate, job prospects not very good, those kinds of people using trolling as a method to get their message across, it is not appropriate, but they may feel it is their only way, they have no interest in standing for public office. the individuals who may want to stand for public office, they may use methods that do not cross the threshold into trolling. those who do not wish to stand for public office, this will not affect them. one of the effects of the trolling is it puts people off going into politics in the first place, especially women,

when there is pretty vile abuse out there online. absolutely. research has shown for a while that if you are a woman online and have any kind of platform, for instance, mary beard, they have tried to effectively put their head above the parapet, put forward any kind of position, whether it is a position lots of people agree with, they've become a target almost immediately for abuse and there is a qualitative difference in the abuse. a man may express a position, and the individuals will attract the position, a woman may espouse the very same position, and the threats will be rape, death threats, it attacks the person, very intimidating, especially if you can imagine you walk down the street the next day, you do not know if some of the people who sent the message walking right past you, pretty scary world.

you think it had quite a large role in the last election, and if it isn't tackled, it could grow and grow on social media? i think it played its role, not just uk, worldwide, a global effect of trolls very broadly defined now, in the us election, an awful lot about the trump campaign being supported by russian trolls, problems in china with certain types of trolling, this is having a major impact on how democracy is played out, alongside fake news, quite closely intertwined with trolling. democracy is effectively being eroded by the very loud few voices, very strident, tearing down people who might have forward—thinking ideas, ideas the trolls do not agree with, bringing to an end debates on topics that are really important. a six—year—old girl has died after getting into difficulty

in the sea in margate. kent police say they were called to the harbour yesterday afternoon after concerns were raised about a child in the sea. the girl, who was from erith in south east london, was taken to hospital where she later died. her next of kin have been informed. at least 13 people have died and dozens have been injured after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck a popular tourist destination in central indonesia. residents and tourists poured onto the streets and into open fields to escape damaged buildings on the island of lombok, with the tremour felt up to 60 miles away in the bustling holiday island of bali. 0ur correspondent katharine da costa has this. buildings and lives shaken to the core. this was the scene dozens woke up to in northern lombok. the distress was cleared to hear. the quake, measuring 6.4 on the richter scale, was quickly followed by more than 60 smaller earthquakes.

the jolt was felt 60 miles away on the holiday island of bali. many buildings have been damaged. it is thought at least 40 people are injured, many are still being treated after being hit by falling debris. a malaysian tourist on a hiking trip is reportedly among those killed. the epicentre of the earthquake struck 30 miles north—east of the city of mataram in the north of the island. indonesia is prone to earthquakes. it lies on what is called the ring of fire, the line of quakes and volcanic eruptions that circle virtually the entire pacific rim. the region is on alert for tremors that might trigger tsunamis. this time no alert was issued. the country's disaster agency says the main focus now is evacuation and rescue. at least ten people are known

to have lost their lives. authorities believe that number could rise. i spoke earlier to rizwan sobrin from the indonesian red cross emergency division. he is injakarta, where he has been co—ordinating relief efforts for lombok. he told me what the situation is like on the island now. currently, 133 aftershocks have happened, so this means people around the lombok area, they are still afraid to go back home, so that is why they are staying in the field, in the backyards. there are some people who climbed a mountain who need to be evacuated down to a safe place. just how powerful was it? yeah, the condition,

there is approximately 600 people, from foreigners and local people there, who need to be evacuated going down, and we hope that this process can be smoothly, because as we try to get them to not panic with the situation. our team, volunteers on the ground, still working on that. how difficult is it for you to coordinate rescue efforts? yeah, because it is like a joint team so from the local disaster agency, red cross, and from the other community also working hand together with us. qatar has been accused of running

a secret campaign to undermine rival countries during the bidding process which led to it being awarded the world cup in 2022. the sunday time claims pr firms and former cia agents were used to generate fake propaganda in breach of rules drawn up by football's governing body, fifa. qatar says it rejects each and every allegation. the chair of digital, culture, media and sport committee damian collins has called for a full investigation into the allegations. well, these are really serious allegations, a whistle—blower has said he was involved in a kind of black ox communications campaign seeking to undermine support in other countries bidding against qatar to host the world cup, to

undermine support for their bids. that is a breach of fifa's rules, very specifically, and if the qatari bid team were involved in a campaign like that, it means they have broken the rules of the bidding process. it isa the rules of the bidding process. it is a really serious matter that requires a proper investigation and fifa to be involved in investigating that as well. i think fifa need to make clear that there will be sanctions applied with the rules we re sanctions applied with the rules were broken in the bidding process. 0bviously, were broken in the bidding process. obviously, the most severe sanction is taking the world cup away from qatar if they feel they are in breach of the terms of the bidding process , breach of the terms of the bidding process, but i think fifa have to have a proper investigation into this now. the headlines on bbc news. wildfires in northern california kill five people, destroy hundreds of buildings and cause thousands to flee their homes and under new government proposals, trolls who go online to intimidate election candidates and campaigners could be barred from public office. a powerful earthquake

on an indonesian tourist island kills at least 13 people, injures hundreds and damages thousands of homes. sport and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here's kat downes. good morning. geraint thomas is set to become the first welshman to win the tour de france. he'll ride down the champs—elysees later today, with his teammate chris froome set to join him on the podium after over 2,000 miles of racing. jo currie is there for us. wales have never had a male winner of the tour de france until now. geraint thomas will later lead the cyclists down the champs—elysees in paris for what is the final day of this year's tour. tradition dictates no—one attacks the yellowjersey on the final day, a celebration of what the riders have achieved over the last three gruelling weeks.

they have covered 3500 kilometres, culminating in yesterday's time trial. thomas finished in third, more than good enough to hand him the title overall. the first welshman to win the tour and the third briton after sir bradley wiggins and chris froome. might be a bit of a mixed reaction in paris, team sky have been booed along the route, unable to shake off the rumours of doping, despite nothing being proved over recent years. back in wales tonight, there will be at least one or two champagne corks popping. geraint thomas is a former pupil of whitchurch high school in cardiff. fellow alumni include gareth bale and sam warburton. theirformer pe teacher is steve williams. tremendous achievement. we are so proud of him down here. his commitment over the years and the hard work he has put in, cardiff is buzzing, we are looking forward to once for going back to school so we can

celebrate all together. after yesterday's deluge, it looks to be hot and sunny in budapest this afternoon for the hungarian grand prix, and that may not help lewis hamilton. the world champion will start on pole for the race after excelling in the wet conditions at the hungaroring. teammate valtteri bottas will be alongside him, with the ferraris on the second row. the race starts just after two o'clock. there's less than two weeks of the summer transfer window remaining. jose mourinho says he hopes one of his five targets will arrive at the club. 0n last night's evidence, they might need the help after losing to liverpool in the international champions cup. liverpool ran away with it in the second half for a 4—1win. new signing xherdan shaqiri marked his first goal for the club with this overhead kick. and with united still missing many of their normal first team after the world cup, jose mourinho wasn't too impressed. if i was them, i wouldn't come.

i wouldn't come, i wouldn't spend my money to see these teams. i wouldn't spend my money. for example, i was watching something on the television today, was chelsea against inter. the people in nice decided the beach was better than this, and they went to the beach, they didn't go to that game, the stadium was empty. tottenham came from two goals down against barcelona, thanks to goals from son heung min and georges—kevin n'koudou. but they lost to the spanish giants on penalties 5—3. their new signing malcom scored the winner. elsehwere in the international champions cup, manchester city came from two goals down to beat bayern munich 3—2 in miami — although there are concerns about an ankle injury suffered by new signing riyad mahrez. despite this, pep guardiola was impressed by his young side. for these guys, a huge experienced

to realise, 0k, we can do it, were able to play in our way against good teams. the result, of course, now we have five or six days for the first title, and i don't know which players will be able to play, but we come back to manchester in the best way. british heavyweight dillian whyte says he's ready to take on anthonyjoshua again, after beating former world champion joseph parker at london's o2 arena. parker fell to the canvas in the second and ninth rounds, but ended the fight strongly. whyte though took the fight on a points decision. it's his eighth win in a row since losing to anthonyjoshua in 2015. that's all the sport for now. let's get more now on the tour de france, and as we've been hearing in sport, geraint thomas is on the brink of becoming the first welshman, and the third british cyclist, to win the event.

sir dave brailsford, the man in charge of geraint thomas and team sky, says their plan was to have him ready to perform strongly this month. we decided with him for the first time that his entire season should be built around peaking injuly. previously, he'd done the tour of italy in may, he'd hit the racing peak sooner and dropped off and come back up forjuly, but this season was all about july and building for july. with me now is the cycling journalist nick bull. first of all, what has geraint thomas got that has won him the tour de france this year? everyone talks about chris froome, but this year he couldn't make it. if you will write a textbook on how to do it, geraint thomas' three weeks have been perfect, he has stayed out of trouble and been so strong. any time he has had to but i'm into his

opponents, he has taken advantage, and while chris froome has not looked as imperious as in recent yea rs, looked as imperious as in recent years, geraint thomas has gone from strength to strength and he deserves to be champion. the two say they are friends, but they have been rivals as well in france. yes, and sky have managed it pretty well, chris froome turned up expecting to be number one, and while geraint thomas was probably toeing the party line that he was number two, secretly he was harbouring ambitions of being team leader. sometimes the tactics play out in on the road, and the nature of the tour de france, riders have incidents, mechanical problems, crashes, all of that affected chris froome, so it was more of a natural selection. team sky didn't have to strike a deal, geraint was the natural leader in the best position. tea m natural leader in the best position. team sky have had so much success, they have been mired in controversy, it is fairto they have been mired in controversy, it is fair to say, and also fair to say they are not popular with the french public. indeed! the french

cycling public typically like the plucky underdogs, not the winners, not a team like team sky who have been so dominant over the past few yea rs. been so dominant over the past few years. since bradley wiggins won in 2012, only 2014 they did not win the tour de france. the budget, i think, ra nkles tour de france. the budget, i think, rankles with the french cycling public, their sports newspaper said that sky winning tour de france is like celebrating paris saint—germain beating a team of amateurs 8—0, it doesn't sit comfortably with the french public. team sky and dave b ra ilsfo rd french public. team sky and dave bra ilsford have always french public. team sky and dave brailsford have always made much of their marginal gains, that is how they win races, but presumably it is harder and harder to make those marginal gains over their competitors. yes, but with their big budget they can try that all the time. a couple of years back they spent thousands of pounds working out if the way that a cyclist shave their legs, up or down the stroke, contributes to the aerodynamic

effect. it turns out it didn't, but they always pushing the envelope, just trying to get that secret is tenth of a second here and there. does that mean that team sky is going to continue to dominate the tour de france, that british riders will continue to win it in the coming years? quite possibly. while chris froome fell short this year, he is still one win away from a record equalling fifth victory, so he will come back next year fully determined to get that if the win. and geraint thomas, as defending champion, he won't want to play second fiddle to chris froome again, he will want to be leader, so an intriguing 12 months to see how that plays out. finally, big money for these cyclists, they end millions. indeed, chris froome and geraint thomas are an about 3 million a year, and on top of that there are performance bonuses and a lot of sponsorship. if you win the tour de france, you are an extremely marketable athlete, and i wouldn't be surprised to see his face plastered on billboards and adverts.

iam sure plastered on billboards and adverts. i am sure we will, thank you for being with us, thank you. let's cross to harare, where robert mugabe is holding a news conference ahead of elections in zimbabwe tomorrow. you may remember that last year, in november, he was forced out of power. we haven't heard him speak very much, forced out of power after the army took over in zimbabwe, and his own zanu—pf movement turned against them. let's just listen for against them. let's just listen for a moment to robert mugabe. which she was far from a moment to robert mugabe. which she was farfrom being a moment to robert mugabe. which she was far from being free, even politically. later on... that is robert mugabe, aged 94, giving what

it is fairto robert mugabe, aged 94, giving what it is fair to say is a surprise news conference in harare, we have not seen conference in harare, we have not seen 01’ conference in harare, we have not seen or heard much from him since he was forced to resign from power a few months ago. a palestinian teenager has been freed from an israeli prison, after serving an eight—month sentence for slapping and kicking an israeli soldier. ahed tamimi was 16 at the time of the incident, and the footage of it happening went viral around the world. her sentence was widely condemned, as children are protected by international law from imprisonment. i've been speaking to bbc arabic‘s nida ibrahim, who saw the teenager being released. children are not allowed to be tried under international law, however, children living under the israeli occupation, palestinian children, they are facing trials under military courts in israel. this has caused an outcry. many human rights organisations have criticised the sentence by israel, and many say that this case is shedding light

on the case of many palestinian minors. amnesty international says 300 children remain in israeli custody in israeli jails, and of course many go back and forth inside and out of prison, but at this moment, we're talking about more than 300 palestinian children is children in israeli jails. you witnessed the release — tell us about that. an emotional moment. the parents did not know until the last minute when she was going to be released, and they move from ramala, the de facto capital of the palestinian authority, to a northern west bank city two hours away from ramala, back and forth, trying to figure out where she would be released. eventually a militaryjeep brought us to the village, not something very usual to happen in such cases of release. an emotional moment of release, her father helped her, her mother,

chanting slogans with her. she was chanting slogans remembering her late cousin, who is a palestinian from the village, and he was killed injune while they were in jail. for palestinians, she has become a symbol of resistance, but israelis have accused her family of using the teenager in a kind of propaganda war. we have asked the father about that. we said, what do you say to the accusation the israelis are saying you are actually promoting an act of terror? they said he was promoting some sort of... he said he is not in a position of defence, and even if he was, he says, we are even entitled to tell our story to the world, in so many forms, even if propaganda was part of it.

storms and flooding have continued to disrupt road travel and cause flight cancellations, as the uk heatwave came to an end. some air passengers experienced delays of up to 20 hours, and travellers queued for miles on the m20 to board eurotunnel trains after the air conditioning failed. the met office has issued a yellow weather warning for parts of england and wales today. now it's time for a look at the weather. we have gone from sizzling too soggy in the space of 48 hours, more heavy rain to come today, strong winds across a large swathe of their country. the heaviest rain pushing north and eastwards to be replaced by some brighter, sunny spells, but further blustery showers, do not under estimate the strength of the wind, these are mean speeds, gusts

will be higher, up to 50 mph for western and southern coasts, a cool appeal given the wind, rain and cloud, temperatures of 17—22dc. much of the rain will ease away through this evening, leaving many places dry for this evening, leaving many places dryfora time this evening, leaving many places dry for a time of night, showery rain returning to south—west england, the south—east possibly later. cooler in the north of the country. today is a day of sunshine and showers, more persistent rain for south—east england at first, frequent showers across western scotland, northern ireland, north—west england. further south and east, the best of the sunshine, the highest of the temperatures. hello, this is bbc news with ben brown. 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 45,000 people to flee. 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. a powerful earthquake has killed at least 13 people on the central indonesian island of lombok, and officials say hundreds of people have been injured. 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 dateline london.