hello, i'm karin giannoni, this is outside source. the united states says it will impose sanctions on russia in response to the nerve agent attack on a russian former spy and his daughter in the uk. a key vote on abortion in argentina divides the nation. the senate is deciding whether to legalise terminations in the first 1a weeks of pregnancy. it will take years to truly achieve a legal abortion safe and free. we're not going to stop. we have a lot of patience. in the us, an election result in ohio could be an alarm bell for donald trump's republican party. we'll be live in washington to discuss its significance. political turmoil in zimbabwe continues, as the leader of the opposition party still refuses to accept defeat in last week's election. and the crackdown in venezuela — president maduro accuses the opposition of being behind saturday's alleged drone attack against him. let's start with some breaking news.

the united states says it intends to impose sanctions on russia in response to the nerve agent attack on a former russian double agent, sergei skripal, and his daughter in britain. that happened in martin salisbury. let's go to gary o'donoghue with the latest in washington. that happened in march in salisbury. the statement says it is determined russia breached international law when it used the chemical agent novichok, in the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter in salisbury. what that means is that certain american domestic laws are triggered by that and congress has

asked the administration to impose sanctions as a result of those laws on russia. they come into mag waves. the first wave deal with electronic components, in particular, and it will be a blanket ban on the export of sensitive technologies. there are what they call carve outs to that, in areas like foreign assistance that would help the russian people. any wholly owned us subsidiary in russia would be exempt. the key thing to note about this is that if russia doesn't take certain steps in the next three months, which could include things like un inspections of some sites in russia, if it doesn't comply with those, then a second wave of sanctions would be imposed in about three months‘ time and they could be much more draconian including further downgrading of diplomatic activity, possibly even banning flights,

domestic flights between russia and the us and other things, too, so this really does up the ante between the us and russia and it is something that congress has pushed for in particular, but the white house and state department have been forced to implement once this determination was made. gary, thank you very much. now to argentina, where senators are deciding whether to allow abortion in the first 1a weeks of pregnancy. abortion polarises opinion in argentina — a catholic country — and the birthplace of the current pope. the vote is anticipated to be tight in the conservative 72—member senate. and of course the issue is an emotive one outside of the senate too. amnesty international took out this full—page advert in the new york times — "adios" — goodbye — with a picture of a coat hanger, an image meant to evoke dangerous backstreet abortions. here‘s mariela bielski of amnesty argentina. the absolute protection of the

foetus which has its roots in moral and religious beliefs gives it the equivalent to that of the human who has protection in international human rights. the protection of the embryo and its ability to become a person does not make it a person with right to life. there is no consensus from science, or biology, about the beginning of human life. both sides are using provocative images to put across their point. this was displayed by the pro—life side of the debate. and here‘s one of its supporters. the bill imposes on public health to do three abortion on request even beyond. it not only increases rates

for pregnant women but disregards some medical contradictions. it is very controversial and jeopardises women's health, but let me just remark some points. first in argentina, abortion was proposed, at the beginning it was proposed as a measure of public health, to reduce immortality. it doesn't depend on legal status of abortion. katy watson has been following the story for us in buenos aires. we‘re expecting this debate to go on for quite a number of hours. the debate has been going on for about four mac and it got to take it to a vote. it looks that the majority of senators will vote against the bill so senators will vote against the bill so it won‘t be passing today and it would have to bring it back to congress and the earliest, the most likely scenario, is that they would bring it back from march next year when the new senate year begins so

thatis when the new senate year begins so that is the latest, things could change, people could vote the other way, nevertheless you can probably see and hear behind me what people in favour of the legalisation of abortion and those against, having a party at congress, both sides still animated. you speak to people who have been pushing for this law and they don‘t sound disheartened despite the fact the vote might not go their way. they say they have come to this point and sooner or later abortion will be legalised here in argentina. the senate, the more conservative house, remind us of the history of this bill. it was passed by the lower house. that's right, the national abortion campaign has been going for more than a decade and they have put a bill to congress and seven times and haven‘t got anywhere until this year. the president said, i might

not be pro—abortion but i think this issue needs to be discussed. the pace of change has been quite incredible here in argentina. back injune, the incredible here in argentina. back in june, the lower incredible here in argentina. back injune, the lower house voted narrowly in favour of legalising abortion. it took nearly 2a hours so it was touch and go but this is a much more conservative house and thatis much more conservative house and that is why it is much harder to push the vote through and that is why it is looking like it‘s not going in the favour of those who wa nt to going in the favour of those who want to legalise abortion. describe how remarkable it is for this bill to have got so far in the country thatis to have got so far in the country that is the birthplace of the pope is so closely the neighbours of argentina are all watching this. that‘s right, it‘s a strongly catholic country but in the last few yea rs, catholic country but in the last few years, there has been a prominent women‘s rights movement and that has pushed the issue of abortion of the political agenda. this region is very conservative when it comes to reproductive rights. in brazil, they

are looking closely at this. just last week, there was a supreme court hearing about whether or not to legalise abortions whatever happens here in argentina, if the law gets through eventually, it will be the biggest country in latin america to have legalised abortion so other countries such as brazil will be looking at this very closely. let‘s turn to american politics now. we‘re still waiting for the final results of a special congressional election in the state of ohio. the current count shows this man, republican troy balderson, is in the lead, but not by much, less than one percentage point. this is a state donald trump won by 11 percentage points in the 2016 presidential race. he has already congratulated balderson on a "great victory", but also saying "he was down in early voting 64 to 36. that was not good. after my speech on saturday night, there was a big turn for the better." this is a congressional seat they have held for 35 years.

our north america reporter anthony zurcher has written this piece on the bbc news website calling the ohio result "another warning bell for republicans." anthony‘s talking about the mid—term elections in november, when the republicans and democrats will fight for control of congress for the second half of president trump‘s term. here is republican ron bonjean. usually in off the elections when it is only the house and senate seats that are for grabs and not a presidential year, usually the party in control doesn‘t suffer losses and as you can see this as a much closer race than we would have liked —— does suffer losses. but it is likely we will win a seat and a win is a win. but this is a warning shot to republicans across the country that are tied in races. i‘m not talking about once they know that they have

about once they know that they have a tight race, the ones who know they have a candidate who is competitive and running against them. these guys need to wake up and understand that there could be a way of coming and they need to do everything they can from fundraising to showing up to town hall meetings and really being aggressive in order to try to prevent democrats from gaining house control. as i said, the results for the ohio special election have yet to be announced, earlier i asked rajini vaidyanathan how long it would be until we have an official announcement. i think they‘re counting absentee ballots now so we have been told not to expect a result for at least another day perhaps although it is unlikely we will know until they announced the result but i think what is really interesting about this particular race is how many people in that particular district saw this as a referendum on donald trump. this is a district that he won in the presidential race by

something like 11% and it is a safe republican seat so in the first place it is surprising that this has gone down to the wire but if you look at some of the people who were talking after they had voted, he left democrats saying that the reason they came out to vote was because of donald trump. they also had republicans saying the same and usually mid—term congressional elections which we are going to a november become a referendum on the party in power. the question is, will the overall results see donald trump asa will the overall results see donald trump as a liability of an asset? ohio wasn‘t the only vote taking place yesterday, the states of kansas, michigan, missouri and washington all held primary elections, nominating who from each party will contest the midterm elections. and with more primaries still to come, there are already a record number of women running for us congress in november. so far, 183 women will campaign for a seat in the house of representatives and at least 11 women will run for state governor. there will also be 42 women running for the us senate, 2a democrats and 18 republicans.

all those are new us records. susannah wellford is the founder of running start, an organisation that works to get more women into politics, she joins us now from washington. are you seeing those sorts of numbers reflected in the work you do? yes, we definitely are. we have seen huge numbers of young women coming to us wanting to figure out how to get into power, to make change ina how to get into power, to make change in a community and what it ta kes, change in a community and what it takes, so we‘re seeing that wave as well. i'm wondering what those women are saying about the reasons that they feeling like they want to go into politics at this particular moment in time. right, it is varied and weirder by protestant ——

bipartisan organisation for republicans and democrats, but women are feeling this is their moment, eve ryo ne are feeling this is their moment, everyone is waking up to realise this path to get women into equal numbers in power is not going to happen on its own. we have to stand up happen on its own. we have to stand up and not be complacent and actually see ourselves as those leaders so i think that is why they‘re coming to running start. stewart also getting women who want to be republican candidates coming to be republican candidates coming to for help. this is an something you could just describe as an anti—donald trump phenomenon. you could just describe as an anti—donald trump phenomenonlj don‘t anti—donald trump phenomenon.” don‘t think so, if you look at the metoo movement, there are plenty of republicans on that site, so i think it is an overall movement where women are angry, they have been left out of power for too long and it is research that if you get more diverse people in power, the results are good for everybody so this is not a partisan issue, it is an issue

of creating a better society. what sort of obstacles do you think there are facing women who want to go into politics and what other things you try to do to equip them with the right skills? that our external obstacles which make it harderfor women to run, but the obstacles i really concentrate on the interior once, the barriers that cause qualified, amazing women to say, i don‘t think i know enough to run for office. i don‘t think i‘m the person who is qualified for thatjob. and so running start has decided, if women in their 50s think they are not qualified to run for office, there is back and talk to women in their teens to try to encourage them to see themselves as more powerful people, to see themselves as qualified, and to really understand that nobody is born knowing how to run for office, there is no perfect qualifications. every single thing you need, you can be taught, and so we are hoping to not... notjust

talking, we are creating this army of young women notjust in the united states but around the world increasingly as well who see themselves as the next—generation‘s leaders. there might be many young men watching this saying, hang on, where does that leave me? i feel i need those skills, to! hill well, actually, we have plenty of programmes allow men to sit in, too, and those my favourite, men who sit on our programmes, because i and those my favourite, men who sit on our programmes, because i think many to be educated about her getting women into power is notjust about what is good or fair for women, it is about what is good for society as a member benefit as well. stay with us on outside source. still to come: kelloggs and gse have been forced to remove adverts after one was placed near a school on the other area during a cartoon —— the other was

broadcast during a cartoon. a nine—year—old girl has died after suffering a serious head injury following a rock slide at seaton garth in staithes. north yorkshire police were called just after 4:15 this afternoon. it's it‘s very upsetting news coming from north yorkshire this evening because what we understand from local people in the small village of staithes is that this was a family visiting with their nine—year—old daughter who was hit by falling rocks and received a fatal head injury. we also leading from local people that this was a very serious rock fall which probably explains the emergency response, the fire and rescue service, ambulance, air ambulance, coast guard, rnli, all rushing to that small village deceiving to help with this emergency incident. we are also hearing that that part of

seaton garth does have signs warning members of the public about falling rocks so it is known to be a potentially dangerous area. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is: says it will impose sanctions on russia in response to the nerve agent attack on a russian former spy and his daughter in the uk. other stories: the remains of a young boy have been found at a remote desert compound in the us state of new mexico. police made the announcement the day after rescuing ii malnourished children who were being held at the site. thailand has granted citizenship to the coach and three members of a football team dramatically rescued from a flooded cave last month. it emerged the boys and their coach were among around 480,000 stateless people living in the southeast asian country. and for many, the heatwave in europe

has proven difficult to sleep. so a supermarket in finland thought of a solution. many apartments there have no air conditioning so the k—supermarket opened its doors to 100 customers who brought sleeping bags and mattresses for the night. another day, another escalation in trade tensions between the world‘s two biggest economies. china says it will impose tariffs on $16 billion worth of us goods on the same day that america plans to begin new import taxes, also on $16 billion worth of chinese goods, that will be on august 23rd. on one another‘s goods. and american officials are examining a further $200 billion worth of products from china that could be slapped with duties.

kim gittleson is in new york. mind—boggling figures. neither side appears to be backing down right now. exactly and i want to see that these $16 billion worth of imports will be subject to tariffs come august 23. we have been talking about this for some time. the us said many weeks ago it was planning on imposing 25% import tariffs and $500 billion worth of chinese imports. the delay was trying to figure out the list of items in at $16 billion tariff that would be subject to these tariffs so the us published that earlier this week and now china has retaliated with a list of its own. when it comes to the chinese, the imports that the chinese, the imports that the chinese government is planning on taxing from the united states include things like cars, buses, and the us, things like steam turbine, so big, heavy machinery. consumer

goods might show. customers what ta riffs goods might show. customers what tariffs could do to their pockets, but there are billions of dollars of chinese imports the us is considering slapping tariffs on. we are expecting to hear about that later in august so they would go into effect until the end of september at the earliest. u nfortu nately, september at the earliest. unfortunately, i think will we be talking about this for a few more months to come. another important trade story, months to come. negotiating team is in washington. any chance of any progress? as a -- as if what we were talking about wasn‘t conjugated enough, donald trump has led the trade deal is bad for american industry so we have been seeing these negotiations go on for nearly a year and the mexican delegations in washington this week

following too early weeks of trade discussions and the main sticking points seem to be, as ever with president trump, cars, how much of the parts that go into cars are manufactured in mexico must originate from america. this seems to have been some progress there. the other main sticking point is whether or not the us, canada and mexico will have to renegotiate this new north american free trade agreement every five years. that‘s what the us leader presents live once, he wants a sunset clause that says every five years if the government ‘s get—together —— the three governments get—together. businesses say it is ridiculous because it does not allow for long—term planning decisions, so we will see what comes out of these discussions today. the technology sector is highly competitive and fast—moving. so samsung is hoping to spend money in order to make money — about $160 billion over three years on new technologies, like ai, auto electronics and cutting edge drugs. but is it the way forward?

mark newman from bernstein research and a former strategy expert at samsung gives his take. the rate from the chinese is growing, particularly in hardware, handsets and tvs and just this last quarter, it overtook apple to become the second biggest smartphone maker in the world. if you look at the details, it is $161 billion, that‘s a huge number that they‘re planning to invest in the next three years. a lot of this is not actually so much in handsets and more in things like semiconductors, display, and also softwa re semiconductors, display, and also software stuff for artificial intelligence. it is not quite so directly. part of it may be, the pa rt directly. part of it may be, the part about five g. there‘s more

business as usual. they have been spending huge amounts of money and they will continue to spend huge amount of money in the key areas. food giants kelloggs and kfc have been forced to remove adverts after one was placed near a school and the other aired during a cartoon. the advertising standards authority in the uk found they were promoting foods high in fat, salt and sugar to children which is against new advertising rules. chi chi izundu reports. these complaints involve some of the biggest names in the food industry. the watchdog upheld to complaints —— two complains, this cereal advert during a cartoon and this gse advert near a primary school. the advertising standards authority phoned the companies had broken rules over advertising food high in fat, sugar or salt to children under 16. they were two upheld rulings against kelloggs and gse and we are telling those companies they cannot

keep those ads —— kfc. they will be taken down and they will be a message to the media placement companies to remind them that they have got to take care when they are placing these sorts of ads. the advertising standards authority dismissed two complains against mcdonald‘s. in a statement, kfc apologised saying the advert outside the school was a total mistake. kelloggs can now advertise on tv because it has reduced the sugar by 40%. in because it has reduced the sugar by a0%. in coco pops original. because it has reduced the sugar by 4096. in coco pops original. the already know about those products.” don't think there should be a ban on it. as parents, we have the right to decide what we give our children or how much they take in. health campaigners say one in three children is now obese or overweight

by the age of 11 and the banning of junk food adverts is a start but much more needs to be done. let‘s start with some breaking news. the united states says it intends to impose sanctions on russia in response to the nerve agent attack on a former russian double agent, sergei skripal, and his daughter in britain. they were poisoned in salisbury on march the 4th and were found unconscious on a bench in salisbury. they were seriously ill but both made a full recovery after spending several weeks in hospital but the united states has said it will impose sanctions on russia for what it believes are actions against sergei skripal and yulia skripal. stay with us. now for a round—up of the weather

across the globe. in australia today, the whole of new south wales has now been declared in a drought. it isa has now been declared in a drought. it is a combination of poor rain for much of the last year and certainly a very dry couple of months just gone. the situation is that the weather fronts that they are the rain are going through to the south. further north, high pressure keeps things stubbornly dry. rain for melbourne for example on saturday, nothing as far north as sydney. for new zealand, after seeing weather fronts moving through in the week, welcome weather on sunday and monday. heading north towards japan, the typhoon is getting very close to honshu in the next few hours. it may praise the east coast, wet and windy weather to come before the moves to

the east. meanwhile, we need to watch the one in the south across open waters which might hit eastern china. another area of low pressure that could show signs of development and is bringing high rain at the moment and could bring more in the next few days. more heavy rain for thailand on the way where flooding is becoming increasingly widespread. hurricane hector remains close to hawaii, we also have dawn the coast of california. —— we also have a hurricane off california. hot across the whole of north america but intense rain in the west, and we could see temperatures pushing well above the mid—40s across parts of california on thursday, wildfires still a big story and that heat

stretches up into the canadian prairies. further east, the picture is more unsettled. it is in the west where we have that stubbornly dry weather. the temperatures will not drop significantly, humidity by bringing intense thunderstorms. this pushes into central europe for thursday, punchy and problematic, dramatic thunderstorms likely as we have hot—air from the west and this is the kind of result we see. eventually the temperatures will come down as the system sweeps further north and let the cooler air into the west as we look into the days ahead but some of those showers could be very lively, especially across switzerland, germany and austria. hello, i‘m karin giannone, this is outside source. the united states says it will impose sanctions on russia in response to the nerve agent attack on a russian former spy and his daughter in the uk.

a key vote on abortion in argentina divides the nation. the senate is deciding whether to legalise terminations in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. in the us, an election result in ohio could be a warning bell for donald trump‘s republican party. political turmoil in zimbabwe continues, as the leader of the opposition party still refuses to accept defeat in last week‘s election. and the crackdown in venezuela — president maduro accuses the opposition of being behind saturday‘s alleged drone attack against him. and now over to indonesia, where the death toll of an earthquake that hit the island of lombok on sunday continues to rise. more than 150 people are now known to have died in the quake,

and nearly ten times as many were severely injured. but local media reports suggest the death toll could be almost twice that. workers continue to search through the rubble of homes, schools and mosques on the island, but hopes of finding survivors are fading. tens of thousands of homes have been damaged, forcing people to live in tented communities. the bbc‘s correspondent has been speaking to some of them. more than 150,000 people have been forced into tents like this after their homes were flattened by a massive earthquake on sunday. it‘s not easy to live in these conditions. translation: i'm bored here but i'm also scared to leave. i hope the government tends to our needs and helps us to fix our homes.

staying here fits me. —— affects me. we need to move forward. if we lived like this, how can we make money? isn't portable —— impossible to make money here. the government cannot say when these people will be able to return to their homes but at least they have a plan. translation: now they are put into temporary shelters. while we are rebuilding the houses we will put them into barracks that are more convenient. once the houses are built, they can leave the barracks. they also need to rebuild the tourism industry which provides the likelihood for most people on the island. with the exodus of the 11s, local businesses are worried about how they will survive in the future. let‘s go to the developing story of venezuela. this man — the opposition lawmakerjuan requesens — has been arrested. he‘s accused of being involved in the alleged drone attack against president maduro.

this is the moment the drone exploded during the president‘s speech on saturday. maduro was unhurt when explosives—laden drones blew up near the podium. you can see the soldiers running in a different directions is the noise happens. mr requesens is a member of the justice first party and one of the most outspoken critics of president maduro. his party released this footage on twitter. it appears to be cctv footage showing him and his sister being pushed back by armed, masked men in uniform. his sister rafaela requesens was later released, butjuan requesens has still not been heard of. following mr requesens‘s arrest, president maduro also accused another justice first lawmaker, julio borges, of having plotted saturday‘s alleged drone attack on him. this was mr borges‘s response. "nicolas maduro has accused me

of the economic war, the cash crisis, the hyperinflation, the general shortage, trafficking, and now also of this farce of an attack? you can‘t fool anyone. the only one who is responsible for the tragedy in the country is you." and venezuela‘s supreme court has now ordered the arrest of mr borges. he is in exile in neighbouring colombia. some in the opposition, like mr borges, think the attack was staged by the government to justify a crackdown on the opposition. but this man says he helped organise the operation. salvatore lucchese is an ex—police chief and anti—government activist. this is what he said after the attack. translation: i want to declare publicly i belong to the venezuelan resistance. i am publicly i belong to the venezuelan resistance. iam not publicly i belong to the venezuelan resistance. i am not the leader nor the spokesman. we are all mere foot

soldiers. you never see a dictator leaving peacefully. i want to say publicly for the venezuelan resistance, nicholas maduro and his ilk are the objective for us. here‘s america‘s regional editor, candace piette. culio at two, who of the elected venezuelan congress —— culio borges. he is out of venezuela, he went on a business trip and he has not been heard of, but he has been tweeting, rejecting the accusations of a government that he was responsible in some way or involved in a plot at the weekend that was designed, a drone attack that was designed to kill president maduro. his colleague in the same party, juan ascends, he isa in the same party, juan ascends, he is a young firebrand, really big opposition voice in venezuela. —— juan requesens. he has disappeared,

reports from his party are saying that he and his sister were arrested and taken that he and his sister were arrested and ta ken away that he and his sister were arrested and taken away by secret police, nothing more has been heard of them since then. what do we know about the actual events, this attack, the military parade? there are accusations this was all staged to justify a subsequent crackdown. similar kind of accusations that we heard in turkey, where the theory is that the government has created an event which would justify a crackdown, would justify their theory which the venezuelan government has repeated many times that they are under attack, a series of plots have been caused by the us and columbia and that the opposition we re and columbia and that the opposition were involved. so the drone attack, the two drones we saw in this startling footage of the weekend,

which appeared, these drones appeared in the skies above president maduro during the military parade, the soldiers and the people on the stage scattered because of... after explosions were heard. this particular attack has been given various names, shall say. there is an open source website which has analysed these images from two different angles, two different films that were put out, and their argument, they say that it was an attack, there were explosions, that these drones did explode and that they were designed to kill president maduro. so we have two theories. to the political turmoil in zimbabwe now, where the leader of the opposition party is refusing to accept defeat in last week‘s election. this is the country‘s president—elect, emmerson mnangagwa. he took power after ousting robert mugabe late last year, and narrowly retained it in the election. this is the man who,

according to the polls, lost — nelson chamisa. he‘s the leader of the movement for democratic change — the mdc — and has called the electoral results fake. he‘s now announced his party will officially challenge the results. the results have not been announced. we are going through those results. those results reflect a total negation of the will of the people. they fail to tally. apart from that, we also have a secret weapon, which will be to unleash through this court challenge. so the legal challenge will devote the inauguration of emmerson mnangagwa, which exactly what the opposition wa nts. there‘s another twist to this story. this man is tendai biti. he‘s a senior member

of the opposition party. he tried to claim asylum over the border in zambia — but it‘s been denied. it follows this — days of violence in zimbabwe following the election — soldiers opening fire on protesters in the streets of the capital, harare, killing six people. a number of opposition members went into hiding. remember, this was the first presidential election since robert mugabe‘s 37—year rule ended last november, and there was great hope it could bring real change to zimbabwe. milton nkosi was there covering the election — he‘s been following the developments all day and he sent us this report. the information we have about the whereabouts of tendai biti, he is a senior member of the opposition mdc, which was contesting the elections in zimbabwe. the police in zimbabwe

are saying that they want him because he was inciting the violence we saw last week on the streets of zimbabwe, where six people were killed. but the zambian minister of foreign affairs has told the bbc that they have mr biti in custody, andi that they have mr biti in custody, and i quote here, but his grounds, this is for political asylum, are not meritorious. as it is, we are just keeping him for safe custody before he heads back to harare. that‘s what we know, and we know that back in harare, the mdc alliance has said they will use constitutional and legal means to challenge the elections. the electoral commission in zimbabwe of course announced the result saying that emmerson mnangagwa, who replaced robert mugabe, had won the election by 50.8%. that is what the

mdc alliance is challenging. the inauguration was expected to be held on sunday, it is now not clear weather that will go ahead. stay with us on outside source — still to come... the latest on the california wildfires that we have been covering all week. jurors have been shown footage from the camera a policewoman was wearing, when she attended the fight outside a nightclub where england cricketer ben stokes was arrested. stokes is one of three men accused of being involved in a violent confrontation in bristol last september. all three deny a charge of affray. our correspondentjon kay was at the court and sent us this update. mark speer was the first member of police staff on the scene that night in september last year. he was off—duty but described what he saw as a scuffle and he went to intervene. he describes the man in a green t—shirt, seemingly ben stokes,

that‘s what he was wearing, as the main aggressor. he said another man was trying to get away from the man in a green t—shirt, but the man in a green t—shirt was the main aggressor. but the jury has been shown a range of video angles, of cctv, of body camera footage as well that was gathered by another police officer who arrested ben stokes that night. she described him as completely compliant, as calm, and when she asked him what had been going on and ben stokes was involved, he said he had been trying to help out because his two gay friends were being insulted. a statement given to police at the time was read to the jury this afternoon, in which ben stokes said men were giving nasty remarks to a gay couple and he stepped in to stop it. he claimed the men had

bottles in their hand and so he acted in self—defence. he said he was afraid. ben stokes, 27, ryan hale, ryan ali, all deny the charge and it will be back here as the trial continues at bristol crown court tomorrow. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story: the united states says it will impose sanctions on russia in response to the nerve agent attack ona response to the nerve agent attack on a russian former spy and his daughter here in the uk. let me give you an update on the wildfires ravaging california. firefighters say the biggest one, the mendocino fire, will burn

into september, with barely a third of it under control. there are now 18 major blazes across the state. here are the main ones. the mendocino fire is so big, it‘s nearly the size of los angeles. the carr fire has killed at least seven people and destroyed more than 1,500 structures. firefighters have nearly contained half of it. and south of la is the so—called "holy fire", which has been spreading fast and is only 5% under control. let me show you how fierce it is. these aerials of the holy fire show the hot flames speading over dry bushland on the hillsides of the cleveland national forest — it‘s close to a residential development. the fire started on monday, and within an hour exploded from 75 to 700 acres. it‘s now burnt more than 4,000 acres. i also want to show you how bad the smoke is from the air. this thick, vast amount of smoke is throwing up another hazard,

with worries about air pollution for millions on the west coast. on monday, experts said the amount of particulate matter in the atmosphere, was as bad as it ever gets in beijing on a very polluted day. as well as the 14,000 firefighters and hundreds of army personnel, inmates have been brought in to help. more than 3,000 low risk inmates who don‘t have a history of arson have volunteered to boost numbers. they‘re doing jobs like clearing scrubland and creating fire breaks. yesterday we told you about donald trump‘s attack on the governor of california. he said... but that‘s inaccurate — he was confusing a long standing water issue between farmers and environmentalists. today, the president finally gave some praise to those fighting the flames. before we start, i‘d like to say a

few words about the tragic fires in california. i am few words about the tragic fires in california. iam monitoring few words about the tragic fires in california. i am monitoring the situation very closely. my administration is in constant contact with everything going on in the state. i declared a major disaster in the state on the 4th of august. it‘s a very tough situation taking place in california for a number of years. we have had some meetings about it because... we sent our love and support and prayers to the families of those who have lost loved ones. we are very grateful to our incredible firefighters. people have been watching them going into areas and several of them do not

come out alive. this is joseph kabila. he‘s been in power in the democratic republic of congo for 17 years. now he‘s said he won‘t be running in the next election, scheduled for december. his party today revealed who they want to run instead. his name is emmanuel ramazani shadary. he has been a vice—president and interior minister in joseph kabila‘s government. he‘s also under eu sanctions for alleged human rights abuses. this all matters because mr kabila has already overstayed his term in office. and some opposition figures — like this man, moise katumbi and this man, jean—pierre bemba, who returned to the country last week after being acquitted of war crimes — have been told they won‘t be able to run. as the journalist thomas fessy writes... anne soy has more from kinshasa. mass at dawn. this is how thousands

of congolese begin the day, drawing strength from here. notjust spiritual, but also political. the catholic church has been a major voice, sometimes at a price. here are bullet holes left on the walls of the church into a break when they held protests against a president who has overstayed in office. elections are now four months away but that hasn‘t reassured him. translation: the first experience was not credible. i don‘t want to ask about the third one. elections are to be held here in december 2016 but twice they have been postponed. but even now nearly two years later, you still get the sense there is so much uncertainty. one opinion poll

puts this man in the lead in popularity but the government has blocked him from returning. john pierre them but convicted of war crimes then released on appeal. but he is not eligible to run. the catholic church leaders say they must be allowed to participate. we have no other way. the elections on december three, or we are going through a chaos of the country. the un security council says there is no way the country can run the elections alone. they have directed the un mission here to prepare logistical support and provide $80 million. but then, the electoral commission says they are already walking —— wore —— working. translation: the government has said it has enough money. the electoral commission plans to distribute material using our own transport.

the government can take charge of that. but if the government feels it cannot do everything, we can still go back to ask for help. the people here are hungry for change, and they are demanding credible elections. the number of people displaced around the world is growing. according to the un, in 2017,16.2 million people were newly displaced. this map shows regions of the world with high number of refugees — you‘ll notice the middle east and east africa stand out. this is putting pressure on host countries in the region. for example, kenya‘s kakuma refugee camp has over 100,000 more refugees that it was designed for. but the camp is now slowly being transformed into an integrated settlement scheme aimed at reducing dependence on aid and increasing self—reliance. the bbc‘s ferdinand omondi reports. this is the market in kakuma. here,

refugees mingle freely, buying and selling from one another. it‘s a new settle m e nt selling from one another. it‘s a new settlement concept that allows refugees to live, work and trays outside camps, which was previously restricted. for the somali refugee, a chance to mingle with her host and be self reliant is liberating. translation: this settlement has really helped us a lot, particularly in business and integration among the host community and refugees. there is mutual understanding, job opportunities and business is booming. the somali community here wa nt booming. the somali community here want the integration to work well, and it seems to be successful. the settle m e nt and it seems to be successful. the settlement scheme measures many

script a lot. this structure is provided by the county, to help ease congestion in the main camp. already, 38,000 refugees have moved into their new homes. a one run and stone host with a kitchen at, the owner has chosen to put a veranda extension to shelter at the site, there is a kitchen garden for you can plant what you want. there is a tank to store rainwater. and to show you how comfortable they are getting, over there one such resident has already put up satellite tv. but some of the locals are not happy with the new development. the integrated settle m e nt development. the integrated settlement programme is also meant to help the host community, but some feel the benefits are skewed towards the refugees. translation: there are

several benefits we should be getting, they agreed that if a refugee gets a house, so should a local. but if you look at what they are building for us, it does not compare to theirs. there is a saying which goes, when visitor comes on, the host of benefits. but when these visitors game, how come it is the visitors game, how come it is the visitor enjoying while the host continues to suffer? the un the complaints but is asking people to be patient, as the project is only two old. we will not do the old humanitarian assistance to them, we wa nt humanitarian assistance to them, we want more of the government official to be present here, we want refugees and the hosts to run together their own markets, their own organisations. so this is a huge change. so it will take some time also, not only for the hosts work for the unhcr people also to change. the refugee settlement scheme is

meant to help conflict but finding the right balance for everybody may still take some time. i want to show you some pictures from florida, where a herd of cows has helped police catch a suspect. take a look. police in the city of sanford were chasing a stolen car when it crashed into a ditch and the female suspect ran into a field to try to escape. but her encounter with the cows was caught on the police helicopter camera as they chased her across the field, to a nearby road, where officers were waiting to arrest her. i will be back at the same time tomorrow. thanks for watching. hello. i was relieved at the dip in the temp ridgers and the release on

that intense heat we have had just recently. the week started above 30 celsius in southern and eastern areas. a big drop over the past 48 hours. much more comfortable, low 20s for many of us. back where the temperatures should be. still a little bit above in the south and east. the reason for the change is the change in wind direction. we are picking up more of an atlantic influence. it is quite warm still, temperatures into the mid—20s. thursday could bring some welcome rain across southern and eastern areas. there is uncertainty as to how far west it will drift but it could be quite intense borrowed time. elsewhere, good deal of sunny weather, despite only 21 or 22 celsius, but some showers in northern and western areas. it could be windy close to the coasts surrounding this area of low—pressure. it is expected to spin out of the way as we go through

thursday and into friday, then we would really will see the temperatures dipping away further serve as well as further north. as we move into friday, this ridge of high pressure trying to build in so it will tend to cut off the showers, but there could be quite a few big showers around on friday. but there will be some heavy ones with hail and thunder potentially, particularly across northern areas. i wouldn‘t like to rule them out elsewhere. but it still feels lovely and warm elsewhere, 22 or 23 celsius. the weekend, it is a tale of two halves. it looks like most of the weather system will be driven further north. so some usable rain for parts of scotland and northern ireland, western fringes of england and wales. further south and east we are not warm sector, temperatures will leap up if the cloud breaks, low to mid 20s. as the weather front comes through over the weekend, we will see a few sharp showers. then

we have low—pressure into the early pa rt we have low—pressure into the early part of next week. this is how sunday is shaping up. we could get towards the mid—or high 20s for a time. these will give some quite nasty downpours further west. it is warm and humid air once again. the heavy rain towards the north. it looks as if it will be a brief spell of heat across southern and eastern areas. as that moves, it brings the cooler, fresher atlantic air. a rash of showers. but not guaranteed for all but it looks like most of us will see some rain in the next two or three days. and still 21 to 24 celsius in the south, high teens in the role. the jet celsius in the south, high teens in the role. thejet stream has become more active and it will stay more active next week, so it will dry low— pressure across active next week, so it will dry low—pressure across our shores for a change, where it has been a lot further north of late. a spell of low pressure as we go through next

week, pushing its way eastwards. then gradually, high pressure will build towards the south. so later in the week, most of the unsettled weather is likely to be in the north and west. that is where the wettest and west. that is where the wettest and wendy weather will be. high pressure building towards the south so it should be drier and warmer, temperatures a little above average. tonight at ten: several senior conservatives pile more pressure on borisjohnson over his comments about muslim women and full face veils. he hasn‘t apologised for saying they look like "bank robbers," but one minister says he needs to acknowledge he‘s caused offence. what boris might want to do now is consider whether some of the language that he used was inappropriate, and if he chooses to apologise no doubt that will be welcomed. one former minister says he‘ll quit the conservatives if mrjohnson ever becomes leader. also tonight... millions of british gas customers face another price hike — the second this year. america will impose sanctions on russia for the novichok attack

on sergei and yulia skripal in salisbury. it‘s the worst dry spell in years — now the whole of new south wales in australia is experiencing drought.