welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: deadly gunfire from soldiers in zimbabwe, as opposition supporters protest, claiming monday's elections were rigged. it's changed dramatically, the atmosphere, in the last 2a hours — really volatile now. we've had tear gas fired, shots fired. i think we've got to go. the us sanctions two government ministers in turkey over the imprisonment of an american pastor on terrorism charges. cocaine production is surging again in colombia. we are there as police raid a drugs lab in thejungle. and a spectacular robbery in sweden. and in paris, a new booking system causes long queues, a strike and the closure of the eiffel tower. hello.

violence has erupted in zimbabwe's capital, harare. the ruling party, zanu—pf, won the parliamentary vote in monday's general election. but the opposition party the mdc is claiming that vote was rigged. police have been on the streets using water cannon and live ammunition. three people are reported killed. our africa editor fergal keane is in harare. from early, there was something different in the air. reports emerged on state media that a presidential winner would be declared by the afternoon, and at opposition headquarters, supporters were gathering in anticipation. it is about an hour to go before the declaration of the result. we've got police water cannon now stationed right outside opposition headquarters, and compared to the celebratory mood yesterday, it really does feel more tense here. in the absence of an official result, the crowds believe the claims of their leader,

however premature. chanting: chamisa! chamisa! chamisa is the winner! chamisa has got victory in his hands. but over at the results centre, hopes of an announcement faded, as the declaration of parliamentary results dragged on. and it appeared that not all the legal representatives of the 23 presidential candidates had turned up. for now, this is all we have for you. we will start announcing the results for the presidential as soon as that legal process has been taken care of. the delay convinces the opposition that there is a fix, and as the day wore on, foreign observers appealed for a swift declaration. the results of the presidential election were counted first in the polling stations. and therefore i have still to learn why it will be published last. but, just outside, the riot police had locked the gates against hundreds of protesting opposition supporters. they burned posters of the president and ruling party.

we heard shots and tear gas, and then the afternoon descended into chaos. at the other end of the city, police came under attack. a ruling—party office was targeted. gunshots gunfire echoed around the city. there was injury and death. a bbc colleague struggled to help this man as his life ebbed away. shouting close by, a policeman pointed his gun towards the camera. there are soldiers just beyond this group of running people. it has changed dramatically, the atmosphere, in the last 2a hours — really volatile now. we've had tear gas fired, shots fired. i think we've got to go.

we saw a bayonet—wielding soldier strike at a protester. opposition supporters tried to blockade a large swathe of the city centre. at the headquarters of zanu—pf, party officials watched the angry crowd's approach. and tonight, the president and party leader blamed the opposition. we hold the opposition mdc alliance, and its whole leadership, responsible for this disturbancy of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process. armoured vehicles on the streets — scenes more reminiscent of a warzone than a nation in the middle of a democratic election, or a city where thousands cheered the armyjust eight months ago. today, we saw the deployment

of military tanks and firing of live ammunition on civilians, for no apparent reason. civilians are allowed to demand the respect of their rights in a lawful manner. any disorder may be dealt with by the police, who are best trained for public order. in a few hours this afternoon, the great hope that there was for this country was battered. it will take a real will for calm on all sides for it to be restored. fergal keane, bbc news, harare. the united states has announced sanctions aginst two members of the turkish government it is holding responsible for unfairly detaining an american pastor. andrew brunson was arrested in 2016, accused of links to political groups and helping organise a failed coup against the turkish president. donald trump has demanded the pastor be released. andrew plant reports. he has spent 21 months in a turkish prison,

this was a week ago, when american pastor andrew brunson was moved to house arrest. his case has caused a war of words between president trump and turkey's president, recep tayyip erdogan, with threats of us sanctions. on wednesday, the white house finally followed through on that threat. in turkey involving pastor andrew brunson. we've seen no evidence that pastor andrew brunson has done anything wrong, and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the government of turkey. andrew bru nson lives with his family in turkey, leading a small protestant church in the aegean city of izmir. his arrest came after a failed attempt to overthrow turkey's president two years ago, accused of links to the groups

behind the attempted coup, one of 20 americans arrested in its wake. turkey saw some 50,000 arrests overall. on wednesday, president erdogan says the us should rethink its decision. translation: these remarks against us will not benefit anyone. such a threat against turkey is not fitting for them, and excuse mem but we do not give them credit for using such threatening language. the us sanctions apply to turkey's justice minister and the interior minister too, as leaders, says the us, of turkish government organisations responsible for serious human rights abuses. meanwhile, mr brunson remains under arrest. he denies charges of espionage, but faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty. andrew plant, bbc news. president trump has ramped up his invective against the inquiry into russian interference in the 2016 election. for the first time, he has called on his attorney general to end it, and called the man heading it, robert mueller, a disgrace to the usa.

president trump has long been a vocal critic of the mueller inquiry, which is also investigating possible obstruction ofjustice. i asked our north america correspondent peter bowes if it is a risky move for a president to put out a tweet that could be interpreted as obstructing justice. it is, and it's as close as he has come to calling for an end to this investigation. and here we are once again with a tweet from the president that is ambiguous in its meaning, at least to some people, and his close aids have been scrambling to try to explain what he means by the word "should", saying that the attorney general should end the robert mueller investigation, or the rigged witch—hunt, as he puts it. with sarah sanders saying that this wasn't an order from the president, it was simply him expressing his opinion. and of course, jeff sessions

has excused himself from the mueller investigation, he has nothing to do with it, so it isn't in his power to end it. there has been some repositioning by the white house. they have moved from there is no collusion to collusion isn't illegal, isn't a crime, anyway. yes, this is a phrase we have heard a lot of the last few days. the president's lawyer rudy guiliani has been on television saying this, and the president has seemed to pick it up and has been saying it as well, saying collusion isn't a crime. it does seem to be, as you imply, a shifting of strategy, perhaps suggesting well, if that line sticks, that there was collusion, then the defence can be that it isn't a crime anyway. it's an interesting response to these tweets over the last 2a hours. one democratic congressmen has called the president's words "an attempt to obstructjustice, hiding in plain sight." there's an immense amount of debate

over the strength of those tweets that have been sent out, and whether in a court of law they would stand up and perhaps could be proven to be trying and obstruct justice. does this indicate there is something quite serious coming down the pipe quite soon from the mueller investigation? that is what a lot of people are speculating. we are almost three months to the day to the mid—term elections, a cruical time. and public opinion at that time — there's speculation that the mueller investigation could publish its reportjust before that election, and that could have a huge impact on people's view of the president. let's get some of the day's other news: relief teams in myanmar are trying to help victims of the flood which has devastated farmland and forced thousands from their homes. at least a dozen people have been killed in the floods, and there are fears embankments could burst underfresh rains in the south—east of the country.

germany is among north european countries suffering serious crop damage in this summer's heatwave. german crops have wilted under the highest may temperatures since 1881 and exceptionally dry weather in june and july. the weather service has predicted more days of very high temperatures. many vessels on the rhine have been forced to carry lighter loads because of shallow water, and shipping on the elbe river has ground to a halt. the governor of california, jerry brown, says climate change is behind a dangerous and accelerating increase in devastating wildfires. 93 large fires are currently burning in the united states, along with more than a0 in canada. in california alone, eight people have died and fourare missing. our correspondent james cook is there and sent this report. this is all that remains of this week, a little mountain community in northern california. it was evacuated in time, but police say

one man did not heed the order. he was found dead amid the ashes. the fires in the battle to stop them rage on. so far this year, nearly 5 million acres have been scorched in the us,1 million acres have been scorched in the us, 1 million acres above the recent average. the governor of california says climate change is a major factor. nature is very powerful, and we are not on the side of nature. we are fighting nature, with the amount of material we are putting in the environment, and that material traps heat, and the heat fosters fires, and the fires keep burning. the worst blaze swept into the city of reading last thursday, with towering tornadoes of flame, leaving death and destruction behind. more than 1000 homes are in ruins. two young children and their great—grandmother are among the dead, and fire season is far from over. we're only at the beginning of

august. we have been seen extreme fire conditions early in the year. these kinds of conditions... you know, in past decades we may have seen a know, in past decades we may have seen a fire like we are seeing now in august or september. we are routinely, now, seeing fires reach 100,000 acres several times in one month, and it is injuly. 100,000 acres several times in one month, and it is in july. this state is bracing itself for many more months of misery. this is what happens when the force of a wildfire comes head—to—head with human habitation, and more than a century after the american west was settled, it shows the continuing danger of establishing a community on the edge of the wilderness. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: an eiffel situation in paris. a new booking system causes long queues, a strike, and the closure of the tower. the question was whether we wanted to save our people, and japanese as well, and win the war, or whether we wanted to take

a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at 2:00am this morning. mr bush, like most other people, was clearly caught by surprise. we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigor, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she's achieved this landmark anniversary. this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. this is bbc world news.

the latest headlines: there have been calls for calm in zimbabwe, after soldiers opened fire on opposition supporters alleging fraud in monday's elections. the united states has imposed sanctions on turkey's justice and interior ministers because of the continued detention of an american pastor on terrorism charges. more now on the situation in zimbabwe. i spoke to charles ray who was us ambassador to zimbabwe from 2009 to 2012. he met the opposition leader many times and the current president. i asked him where he thinks this might be heading now. that is a good question, and one that is really hard to answer. looking at what was happening up until yesterday, i would have said things would go smoothly, and there was a chance for a peaceful transfer of power. today's events, though,

caused me to take a step back and wonder if it could really go very badly. how do you think the opposition have played this? unfortunately, not very well. from the start, the factions within the opposition fighting over who had ownership of party names really, i think, weakened the opposition. there seemed to be a bit of a comeback over the last few weeks, and i have been following the voting on facebook. i have about 6,000 zimbabweans who dump information on to my facebook account by the minute. and it was looking like it was a very close election, but maybe just at a slight edge to the opposition. it was really hard to tell. you are clearly very well informed still.

do you have a sense of why the presidential result might be so delayed, and how it might end up, who will be president? that is a good question. i think the opposition was a bit premature to declare victory before the official results were announced. as to why it is delayed, that is also a good question. i honestly don't know. i do not know why the zimbabwe electoral commission, which has been announcing the results of the parliamentary elections, couldn't put a priority on the presidential elections. of course, it's their call, so that's just looking at it from the outside. but, given the sensitivity of the issue, one would have thought

that they would have made that a priority. more information coming in, i guess. in your experience, who do you think might be president? i learned a good lesson last year. i had been predicting that the army were so legalistic that it wouldn't engage in a coup, and of course they did, even though they were very quick to announce on tv that this is not a coup. so i am not making predictions. the vote counts that i was seeing showed the two leading contenders, mr chamisa and mr mnangagwa, to be really quite close, in fact, too close to call without seeing the entire voting results. however, given what the military did in november, and the unfortunate public endorsement of mr chamisa

by robert mugabe, i would think that the military is probably trying to figure a way to declare mr mnangagwa the winner. colombia has long been regarded as the cocaine capital of the world, but production there is now reaching unprecedented levels — and much of it heads to europe. in london the metropolitan police blame the drug for rising gang violence and senior officers have urged middle class buyers to think about where their money goes. production in colombia jumped almost 20% in a year — with more than 900 tonnes of cocaine made in 2017 — that's despite a peace accord with farc rebels who had been the main producers. our security correspondent frank gardner has just travelled around the country to bring us this special report on how colombia is trying to fight back against the drugs gangs. colombia, post—peace deal,

and the war on drugs continues. a surprise raid by counter—narcotics police on an illegal coca crop. i went with them. from remote areas like these, cocaine production is now at an all—time high, over 900 tons last year, much of it heading to europe, including the uk. the troops destroy the jungle labs wherever they can. colombia seized over 400 tons last year, but it's not winning the war against the traffickers. well, we've just landed by helicopter a short distance away, right in the middle of a coca field. and this here is the laboratory, a fully—operational jungle laboratory. you can smell it in the air. they're going to now destroy it,

but they're very worried about a counterattack from the people operating this. they think they're going to come and try and hit them. colombia's 52—year—long insurgency by farc rebels may be over, but the government is struggling to reassert control in many parts. often, where former rebels have disarmed, the cocaine industry is fuelling criminality and pulling in the ruthless mexican cartels. narco—trafficking, illegal mining, contra band, extortion. so our fight against especially narco—trafficking, which is the source for those groups, is really our main effort. as long as there is coca and cocaine, those groups will have support, to continue their fight against democracy and to continue theirfight against civilian population. offshore in the caribbean, just off cartagena, the coastguard told me the traffickers pay locals from this island to approach the big container ships, then sling the drugs on board. they use informers inside the port

to get the information about the location of the containers and the destination of it. down on the pacific coast, tumaco is the epicentre of the cocaine trade. poverty—stricken and underinvested, its people suffer most. mothers told me their biggest fear is their sons growing up to join the violent drug gangs. at sunday mass, we found father arnulfo mina. he believes the government's recent boost in security presence here won't last. translation: military action is only temporary. it stops, and then the murders return. as soon as the military drop their guard a little, the people start to fight again. it's a temporary solution. we need social investment here. night—time in tumaco is dangerous.

the murder rate here has shot up since the farc rebels disarmed, as rival drug gangs compete for turf. on patrol with the police, i could see the heavily reinforced security presence — a uniform every 100 metres. but that won't be enough to stifle the cocaine trade, nor the massive demand from britain, the us and elsewhere. colombia's war on drugs is very far from over. frank gardner, bbc news, colombia. if you happen to be visiting the eiffel tower on thursday — you may be in for a disappointment. the tourist attraction has been closed by industrial action. workers are unhappy about a new booking system that's produced what some call ‘monstrous' queues. the bbc‘s tim allman has the story. the eiffel tower is iconic, a symbol of france, and millions come to visit every year. but this is the welcome you'd currently receive. the tower is shut, the staff are on strike. translation: i've waited 28 years

to come and it's closed. it's unfair for the tourists who have come from so far. i've come from venezuela to see the eiffel tower. it's unfair for visitors, you know? we may or may not come again because we spend so much money. so it's not nice on the part of... for whatever reason they have this strike for, but it's an injustice to visitors. and this is the reason staff say they walked out — a huge queue snaking around the base of the tower. a new system's been introduced where people can pre—book a ticket online and choose a specific timeslot to go up the tower. separate lifts have been set aside for different users, and those who turn up on the day may have to wait several hours to get in. translation: we're asking to adapt measures to allow access from the two pillars to pre—sale

holders with two separate queues, with priority access to clients holding an online ticket. this would avoid having disproportionate lines between one lift and the other. the company that runs the tower says the summer months are always busy, and waiting times have not increased. but, unless an agreement is reached, visitors to paris may face either a long queue or no entry at all. tim allman, bbc news. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. hello there.

temperatures over the last few days have been topping out around the middle—20s celsius. warm enough, you might think. but for some over the next few days, we'll have values up into the 30s. increasingly warm and humid through the day ahead. some sunshine, but also a fair amount of cloud in places, because, as you can see from the earlier satellite picture, we've got this pipeline of cloud just ploughing its way in across the british isles. and western areas particularly, where you're exposed to that moist south—westerly flow, seeing a lot of cloud to start off thursday. some rather misty, murky conditions for some coasts and hills. bit drizzly in places, the odd shower here and there. but for north—east scotland, and certainly for a good part of england and the south—east of wales, we start the day with some sunshine, and these areas will keep sunshine through the day. and, in some other spots, the cloud will tend to break up. the most favoured spots for sunny skies, though, in shelter to the north—east of high ground. so the north—east of scotland doing quite nicely for sunshine.

2a degrees there in aberdeen, but with some extra cloud in glasgow more like 21, and we could well see some showery rain just drifting across northern ireland. some extra cloud into coastal parts of england and wales, certainly in the west. but further east, more in the way of sunshine, and those temperatures in london up to 29, maybe somewhere in the south—east getting up to 30 degrees. now, as we go through thursday night, still quite a humid feel. still a lot of cloud as well ploughing its way in from the south—west. some outbreaks of showery rain starting to develop across parts of northern england and southern scotland as the night wears on, temperatures not dropping far at all, 15 to 18 degrees in many places. so starting friday on a muggy note for most places. what we have is this cold frontjust trying to drift its way southwards. not a lot of progress, though, and along the front, a little bit of rain. but what the front mainly does is it divides northern areas, where there'll be some relatively cool air, from southern areas, where we'll be tapping into this increasingly hot air from the near continent. so quite a split in temperatures emerging as we go through friday. here's our frontal system only very slowly moving southwards. rain particularly across northern

england, much of it light and patchy, the odd heavy burst. to the north, across scotland and northern ireland, a mixture of sunshine and showers, and temperatures around the low 20s. down towards the south—east, lots of sunshine, and temperatures up to 32 or 33 degrees. and we keep that split in fortunes as we go through the weekend. low 20s likely in northern and western areas, with a fair amount of cloud. bit of rain at times, but not all the time. further south and east holding onto lots of sunshine. 30 degrees on saturday, maybe a little bit cooler on sunday, but not by much. this is bbc news. the headlines: there have been international calls for calm in zimbabwe, after soldiers opened fire on opposition supporters alleging fraud in monday's elections. three people were killed during protests in the capital, harare, after the electoral commission said the governing zanu—pf party had attained a two—thirds majority in parliament. the united states government's

decision to impose sanctions on turkey's justice and interior ministers over the continued detention of an american pastor on terrorism charges has been strongly condemned by ankara. the foreign ministry said turkey would retaliate against what it called washington's hostile stance. police in sweden are searching for two men who stole some of the country's crown jewels from a cathedral near the capital, stockholm. witnesses the thieves jumped into a small speedboat and sped across a lake. two jewel—encrusted crowns and an orb dating from the 17—century were reportedly taken. now on bbc news, hardtalk.