welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: the us announces new sanctions on russia over the poisoning of former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter in the uk. will argentina vote to legalise abortion? the result of an historic vote in the senate is due within hours. a bbc investigation reveals new details about those behind the barcelona attacks last year, and what else they were planning. evacuations are ordered in portugal as wildfires spread through one of the country's most popular tourist regions. hello. the united states is to impose new sanctions on russia in response to the nerve

agent attack in salisbury on the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia. the state department and the cia have concluded that the russian government used chemical or biological weapons, in violation of american and international law. moscow denies any involvement in the attack. let's get more from our correspondent in washington, chris buckler. congress has been pushing for some months now to get a determination from the state department that russia had effectively breached international law by using biological and chemical weapons. and there was a two—month deadline on that, it's actually a month later that we've got that information, and they've decided that yes, they have breached the law, and the sanctions have been put in place. they will take about 1k days to come into effect, that's because there needs to be a notice period.

but they specifically will target things of national security, things like electronics and sensitive technologies. but here's the big thing, if russia doesn't give assurances to the us about its future, an assurance that it won't use chemical weapons, and if it doesn't open up sites for independent inspectors, perhaps un inspectors, there is the danger of further sanctions in 90 days‘ time. and those could be even harsher sanctions than this first wave. it's unlikely that russia will fall into line with those demands. could this derail mr trump's aims to have a warmer relationship with russia? or is the feeling there that this is this the kind of fallout that the kremlin expected when news broke about sergei skripal and his daughter. there is a divide between the administration and donald trump. donald trump continues to reach out to that putin. we saw in the helsinki summit how far he was ready to go to say that he was vladimir putin's friend,

that they have a relationship and they will could work together. we've seen this week american senator rand paul go to meet with vladimir putin, along with a letter from donald trump. but there remain concerns inside the administration. not just about the poisoning of the skripals, but also about continued russian involvement in cyber attacks and attempts to interfere in elections going forward, notjust in the past, and you have a strange divide. so fundamentally what donald trump wants to reach out, there are many in his administration who will be urging caution and who will be saying that you need to be seen as tough on russia. of course, donald trump has in the past said that no one is tougher than him. but that is not necessarily the case. let's go live to buenos aires in

argentina, these are the live pictures we are seeing right now. the senate is about to declare the result on voting about whether to legalise abortion in the first 1a weeks of pregnancy. it would make argentina the third latin american country to broadly legalise abortion, cuba and uruguay have already done so. from buenos aires, here's our correspondent, katy watson. the majority of senators, 38 of the 72 senators, have said that they intend to vote against the bill. but they are still talking about it. that could change at the moment of voting. as it stands, it looks like the bill won't pass, certainly in this session. katy, argentina has been seen as something of a leader on human rights issues in the region, and this law, this attempt at a law, has come back many times already, hasn't it? that's right. in the last ten or so years since

the national campaign for abortion has been active, they've presented seven bills to congress and not one of them has moved, apart from this year when president macri said wright, now‘s the time to discuss this. he himself is not in favour of legalising abortion, but is very open to the idea of debate. in the last two months, the scenario has changed dramatically here in argentina. campaigners never thought they would see this moment. i've been down talking to people about this. i think as we do people behind me, people who are pro—legalisation, people who are against it, and the feeling is that the quick pace of change, people were not expecting anything like this that we are seeing today. so there are tens of thousands of people outside, waiting for the senators to start voting, and to see whether or not they will be legalising abortion. so whatever happens, really, today, this will come back?

that seems to be the case, yes. i mean, you speak to people here and this is a feeling that it might not pass today but they will bring a new bill, and they can bring that next march and they can start debating it again. in the last three years, the women's rights movement has pushed this up the agenda. they said the moment has come to legalise abortion, sooner rather than later, as opposed to not at all. katy watson for us in buenos aires. more on that as soon as we have more. let's get some of the day's other news. the palestinian authorities say a woman and her 18—month—old child have been killed in a series of israeli airstrikes on the gaza strip. the israeli army said it was targeting what it called terror sites in the palestinian territory in response to rockets being fired into israel. two rockets struck the town of sderot, injuring 16 people. prosecutors in new mexico say a man arrested over the abuse of 11 children was training some of them to carry out school shootings. siraj wahhaj was among five people arrested after children aged between one and 15 years old were found malnourished in a remote desert compound.

the property had no running water with living conditions described as third world by police. in venezuela, opposition lawmaker juan requesens has been arrested after president nicol s maduro accused him of being involved in saturday's alleged drone attack against him. the arrest came as a government official revealed plans to strip two other mps of their immunity. seven people have been detained so far in connection with the alleged assassination attempt. wildfires have been burning forfive days in the southern portuguese region of the algarve, popular among european holiday makers. near record temperatures of around 45 degrees last week have made putting out the fires difficult. olivia crellin reports. carrying their loved ones to safety — children, pets, the elderly, the sick. police evacuated residents of the historic portuguese town silves, as fires but for the fifth

day in the region of the algarve. authorities make sure that even those reluctant to leave got out as the clouds of smoke towered overhead, the line of fire steadily advancing over the hillside. more than 1,400 firefighters and soldiers battled the fire by land and by air as it encroached on the mountain spartan of monchique. most tourists have already been evacuated. remaining residents can only watch on. while no—one has died yet, the fire has injured more than 30 people and forced hundreds from their homes. they're becoming an increasingly common and sometimes deadly feature of the portuguese summer landscape. last year, 114 people died. the government had taken extra precautions after last year,

but with near—record temperatures in the region, the difficulty in putting out these fires has raised doubts over their effectiveness. translation: see all the planes flying? and yet it continues and it gets worse every time. in 2003, we already experienced the same thing, and it's happening again. as you see, it's a disaster. it's really miserable, don't you think? it's really sad, very sad to see our country as it is. prime minister antonio costa has warned that it could burn for days before being brought under control. already, the fire has charred thousands of acres, turning portuguese countryside to dust. olivia crellin, bbc news. let's bring you the latest on a special congressional race in ohio, which is still too close to call. republicans have declared themselves the winners already but the party spent millions on what should have been a safe seat but as it stands, democrats have closed the gap to less than i%, which they say is an ominous sign for republicans

in november's midterm elections. separately, a republican member of congress who was one of president trump's earliest supporters has been charged with insider trading. rajini vadyinathan reports. he's a really hard worker. troy balderson, come on up. just a few days ago, president trump was on the campaign trailfor this man. it was meant to be an easy win for republicans but tuesday's vote is still too close to call in this ohio congressional district, which backed mr trump in the presidential race. can you believe how close this is? cheering we are in a tied ball game. democratic candidate danny o'connor‘s strategy was to get republicans to switch sides. in some cases, that task was easier. reporter: how are you doing it? you know, we'll go anywhere, we'll talk to anyone about issues that matter. to many, the issue that mattered

was the presidency of donald trump. i voted for troy balderson. i think that he'll support the president's agenda, which i support. that's basically the reason. danny o'connor. reporter: and why'd you do that? he is going to bring the change that we need, and he's ready to put some checks and balances on the current president that i think we desperately need. as ballots were still being counted, the president and troy balderson were already claiming victory. i'd like to thank president trump! cheering the fact democrats have gained ground in ohio is a worrying sign for republicans ahead of november's midterm elections, which are the first electoral test of the trump presidency. both parties are continuing to select their candidates for those crucial races. in kansas, votes are still being counted to see if trump ally kris kobach or incumbentjeff colyer will be the republican candidate for governor.

and in michigan, gretchen whitmer one her primary to become the democratic candidate for governor there. i'm the eldest 01:14... and rashida tlaib won her race in the same state to represent democrats, and looks set to become the first muslim woman in congress in a year which has seen a record number of female candidates. thank you, my fellow new yorkers... but for some of those who already serve, the road to november looks unpredictable. chris collins was the first member of congress to back candidate trump in 2016. he's now been charged with insider trading. prosecutors say he called his son during the annual congressional picnic, telling him to sell shares in a pharmaceutical company. he denies the charges and says he'll still fight in the midterms. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, washington. will let you know what happens with

all that. —— we'll let you know what happens with all that. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: commemorations are held to remember those who took part in the campaign that helped bring about the end of the first world war. the question was whether we want to save our people, and japanese as well, and win the war or whether we want to take a chance to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at 2am 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 news. the latest headlines: the us plans to slap new sanctions on russia after deciding moscow was behind the nerve agent attack on ex—spy sergei skripal and his daughter. will abortion be legalised in argentina? the result of a deciding vote over an issue that has split the country is expected soon. local authorities in indonesia say 3117 people are confirmed dead in sunday's earthquake. tens of thousand of people have been forced from their homes. mehulika sitepu is there. more than 150,000 people have been forced into tents like this after their homes were flattened

by a massive earthquake on sunday. and it's not easy to live in these conditions. translation: staying here affects me. i need to earn my living. how can i do that if i keep staying here? we need to move forward. if we live in tents like these how can we make money? the government cannot say when these people will be able to return to their homes, but at least they have a plan. translation: while we are building their houses we will put them into barracks that are more convenient. once the houses are built they can leave the barracks. rebuilding lombok also means rebuilding the tourist industry. with the exodus of the tourists local businesses are worried about how they will survive in the future. mehulika sitepu, bbc news, lombok. a bbc investigation has discovered, that a group of men responsible for last year's attacks in and around barcelona, included militants who'd showed signs of radicalisation a year before. 16 people died and more

than 100 were injured, in the two—vehicle attack, which police believe may have been directed from abroad. here's our security correspondent gordon corera. preparing for an attack. wiring up explosives and suicide vests. this group would end up striking barcelona. the man seen here on the left and drove a van which barrelled half a kilometre down a road packed with tourists, killing 1a. hours later, five men from the same cell drive a car into pedestrians in nearby cambrils, killing one woman. all five were shot dead by police. authorities only then realised that an accidental explosion a day earlier had blown apart a house the cell had been using for over a year in the town of alcanar. this is where they were preparing bombs for a much larger intended attack. we have been told other men were also seen there.

the entire cell had come from this small town, ripoll, close to the pyrenees. a year on, people who knew the men are still scared to talk but one person who knew them well agreed to talk to us anonymously. more and more pictures of the kids started to come out and then we felt like we were sinking. the kids are from ripoll. we are from ripoll. this is like a family. the cell behind the attack was made up of a group of friends. it included four sets of brothers. all of this seemed to point to a tight—knit cell, according to a police intelligence officer, who also spoke anonymously. translation: the fact that there were four pairs of brothers, this had never happened before and in a town like ripoll, a small town, this had never happened before either. also part of the group was a key figure, an imam, abdelbaki es satty. the imam, es satty, was killed here in the blast in alcanar.

he was older than the others and had a long track record of links to extremists going back more than a decade. so the question is, what did the authorities know about him? abdelbaki es satty first came to the attention of the authorities soon after he came from morocco in 2002. he was connected to one person investigated in relation to the madrid train bombings in 200a. he lived in the same flat as a man who went on to be a suicide bomber in iraq. the bbc has learned es satty was also on a database of those connected to terrorism. in 2010 he was jailed for transporting drugs between morocco and spain. in 2014 he was released from jail. we have established that, at this point, his phone was tapped by spanish intelligence. he would later claim he had become an informer for the police. an order to expel him from spain was overturned and, a month after that, he moved to the town of ripoll. but he then went to brussels where he tried to become an imam at a mosque.

some people who are frequenting that mosque were very surprised by the way he was preaching. i think he was very offensive, he was very unusual. in march 2016, brussels was hit by bomb blasts and, a few weeks later, es satty left belgium. after es satty left brussels he came back here to ripoll, rented a number of apartments in this building and soon after that in the first signs of radicalisation among the other men as the cell began to form. i detected this about a year before it happened. also a lot of people said it too. they closed up among themselves. after the attack in barcelona, this apartment, rented by es satty, was raided. at first most thought he was the key figure in explaining what drove a group of apparently well integrated young men towards violence. i think they were missing something. they had a void, a spiritual void, a religious void let's say.

they didn't know enough about their religion. maybe they had some kind of rage or maybe someone created that rage in them. but the investigation has spread much further afield than ripoll. senior police officers have told the bbc they now believe there are links across europe and perhaps to figures directing this group. translation: our main concern right now is basically the international connections. in some ways we think there is some brain outside of spain, maybe in europe or maybe in a conflict zone, someone who made them carry out this attack. this was more than just a group of friends led by a known extremist, tight—knit and hard to detect. we have found evidence they were part of something much larger, connected to a wider jihadist networks which threat europe. gordon corera, bbc news, ripoll. the entire state of new south wales,

which produces about a quarter of australia's agricultural output, is experiencing drought, and it's one of the worst dry spells for many years, in parts of the country. in the last month, officials say less than ten millimetres of rain have been recorded in some areas. phil mercer reports now from sydney. australia is a land well used to nature's extremes. it is the world's driest inhabited continent, but the resilience of its farming communities is being severely tested. official figures show that australia's most populous state, new south wales, is now entirely in drought. two years ago, there were floods on gary sunderland's farm near the town of condobolin. how quickly things can change. now, it's just the opposite story. lambs are going dry, no feed, stock are dying. some farmers have been carting up

to 100,000 litres of water to their livestock since january. this video taken earlier this year shows cattle swarming around a water tanker. farmers in the small towns across new south wales are helping each other out with donations. many here say it is the worst they've ever known. all the climate gurus, that know all about the weather, still can't tell us when it's going to break. they've got no idea. we just — we're blind. you know, we'vejust got to plan and hope and pray that it rains. government aid will ease the financial burdens, and the prime minister is promising more help. i do understand these water challenges, and clearly we will work with state and local governments to ensure that water is provided. the fear is that a dry spring will be followed by another hot and punishing summer for australia's farmers. 3,000 people have attended

commemorations at amiens cathedral in north—eastern france, marking the centenary of the battle, that turned the tide of the first world war. the battle of amiens lasted just four days, but it was one of the most successful for the allies. robert hall reports. this is a landscape where the course of a terrible conflict was changed. in amiens cathedral, music and personal accounts combined to tell that story. the attack at amiens was a total surprise. at dawn, a huge allied bombardment systemically destroyed german guns. the smoke barely clearing before 500 tanks led men from six countries in an advance which took some of them eight miles into enemy territory. amiens was symbolic of the entente cordiale...

a battle whose significance was underlined by the duke of cambridge. today, we return to learn more about the experience of those involved during the historic summer of 1918. to honour the fallen of all nations. the amiens attacks were planned to the last detail. as the clock ticked down, commanders penned their final messages. "every man will carry on to the utmost of his powers until his goal is won." "to those who fall, i say will you not die, but step into immortality." by lunchtime on the first day, men could hardly believe the contrast with the chaos of previous offensives. "the americans swept everything before them and the german resistance colla psed." "the sun broke through, we began to see the countryside that we hadn't seen for quite some time. it was unscarred. all sorts of cultivated land.

we began to feel, byjove, the war's coming to an end." at least 30,000 german lives were lost, thousands more surrendered, convincing commanders that that the time had come to consider a ceasefire. age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. today's ceremony remembered the fallen, but also served to highlight a crucial moment in a long and costly conflict. robert hall, bbc news, amiens. that is it for now. thank you for watching. hello there.

things are looking cooler and fresher now for the rest of this week, particularly across northern and western areas, with a mixture of sunshine and showers. some of the showers will continue to be quite heavy as well, maybe with the risk of thunder. the reason for the cooler air, area of low pressure has driven out the heat into the near continent, introducing something cooler and fresher off the atlantic, and we'll maintain a west or south—westerly airflow. early on thursday, we will see further showers returning to western scotland and northern ireland, some of them could be quite heavy, and across central and southern and eastern parts of england, thickening cloud from the south will bring a few showers or even some patchy rain. across scotland and northern ireland, it's going to be a chilly start to this morning, temperatures in low single figures in some areas. for thursday itself, it's looking bright with plenty of sunshine around. there'll continue to be some blustery showers across the north and west of scotland, into northern ireland. then across the south—east, an area of rain moving up across the near continent could just graze south—east england and also east anglia.

now, the winds will generally be light, i think, across england and wales. blustery across scotland and northern ireland. there's a chance as this area of low pressure deepens here it could turn windier for a time across the very far south—east, so it could be quite a soggy end to the day here. pretty nasty evening commute i think for some. bit of uncertainty into the west with the extent of the rain, looks like the heaviest of the stuff will be across into the near continent. that area of low pressure pushes on in towards the north sea as we head on in towards friday. a ridge of high pressure tries to build in, and an area of low pressure looms out into the atlantic and will arrive just in time for the weekend. for friday's picture then, we're in between the weather systems. it's going to be a day of sunshine and showers, and some could be the heavy side

with a rumble of thunder. but hit and miss, some areas staying dry altogether, and in the sunshine, not too bad, temperatures from 17 to 22, cooler than what we've been used to, particularly in the south—east. this area of low pressure hurtles in from the atlantic, arrives across northern and western areas on saturday. meanwhile, area of high pressure establishes itself across the south—east. there's still some uncertainty to this weekend as to where the rain will be. we're thinking at the moment it will be wet in the north and west of the uk. the further south and east you are, the better chance of staying dry. it could be much of scotland and northern ireland quite windy with outbreaks of rain, some of it could be quite heavy. for central, southern and eastern parts of england in particular, you could get away with seeing good spells on sunshine and feeling quite warm. this is bbc news, the headlines: the us is imposing fresh sanctions on russia over the nerve agent attack on the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter in the english town of salisbury. the state department and the cia have concluded that moscow used lethal chemical or biological weapons, violating american and international law. senators in argentina are debating whether to pass a bill

allowing abortion during the first 1a weeks of pregnancy, an issue that has divided the predominantly catholic country. the law currently allows the procedure only in the case of rape or if the woman's life is endangered. evacuations continue in one of portugal's most popular tourist regions as wildfires blaze out of control. the fires have been burning for five days in the southern algarve region, more than 1,000 firefighters and soldiers have been called in to try and stop the flames from spreading further. now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week: do computers dream of electric puppies?