welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: an airstrike by the saudi—led coalition in yemen hits a school bus, killing and injuring dozens of children. vice president pence unveils plans for a new space force, a sixth branch of the us military. heavy floods force the evacuation of more than 1,000 people in southern france. one man is missing after being swept away. a killer whale captures the world's attention in a terrible way. for 16 days she has been carrying her dead calf on her back. we learn more about the threat to the species. the red cross says one of its hospitals has received the bodies of 29 children killed in an airstrike on a school bus

in a rebel—held area of northern yemen. 30 other children are among scores of people injured. the saudi—led coalition has defended the attack in saada, saying it was a legitimate military action aimed at a missile launcher. for more than three years yemen has been divided by a ferocious civil war, but it is also a proxy war. on one side is the internationally recognised government led by president mansour hadi, backed by a saudi—led arab coalition, supported by the us, the uk and france. 0n the other side, houthi rebels, allied with iran. united nations officials say this conflict has caused terrible suffering. 8 million yemenis face famine and three quarters of the population need humanitarian aid. the new un special envoy, in his first interview, has told the bbc yemen faces collapse unless a political solution is found. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet has this report. you are likely to find much of it distressing. school bags on their backs, shock in their eyes.

children who had been heading for a day out. a yemeni child's day ends like this all too often. many in hospital beds. today, three to a bed, and many more dead. this man says an air strike in the market targeted the children's bus. "0ur shops were open", he says, "shoppers were just walking around." this was the school bus in saada, a rebel—controlled town. but the saudi—led coalition says it targeted missile launchers, taking aim at saudi cities, accusing the houthis

of using children as human shields. an ugly proxy war, in a country teetering on the brink of collapse. i asked the un's envoy, what if this war doesn't stop? collapse, and massive, massive humanitarian suffering in yemen. and the effect of that on the region — a possible increase in terrorist activities in yemen. al-qaeda, islamic state? so a failed state in yemen has extraordinary consequences for the region, and the wider region and beyond. for that reason, we need to act now. yemen is already the world's worst humanitarian crisis. more of its people rely on food aid like this than anywhere else in the world. millions on the verge of starving. a people desperate for peace, but many doubtful.

translation: the warring sides don't want stability for yemenis, or for the yemeni people to be masters of their own fate. translation: we have had countless rounds of talks. they all failed. but the situation in yemen is now so bad, maybe there is a glimmer of hope that this conflict can be resolved. mr griffiths believes all sides are now ready for a political solution. the attacks are continuing, and the saudi—led coalition is backed by the united states, by britain, by france, providing weapons, providing support. that's something we will be discussing in geneva. myjob is to provide the opportunity for the people of yemen to sit down and talk peace. that's what we're here for, and we're here to do that in a way that is consistent

with security council resolutions, which include the requirement for disarmament and withdrawal of forces. and that's the best answer, in my view, to the question about armaments on either side. houthi rebels trained and armed by iran are still fighting, too. both sides say they're ready to attend talks in geneva next month, the first in two years, after two failed rounds. if they keep failing, yemen itself will fail. lyse doucet, bbc news. there is more background and analysis about the conflict in yemen on our website, including this short video explaining why the conflict began. that is on bbc.com/news. let's get some of the day's other news: unconfirmed reports say israel and hamas have agreed a ceasefire after another 2a hours of violence. israeli aircraft hit more than 150 targets in gaza, killing a pregnant woman and her 18—month—old child. palestinian militants fired scores of rockets into israel, injuring several people.

taiwan's government has dismissed a plan to link northern taiwan with china, there would be a 145 metre tunnel. taiwanese officials say they will not discuss the scheme. puerto rico has sharply revised the death toll from last september's hurricane maria. authorities have now raised the official number of victims from 64 to more than 1,400. the us territory is asking congress for $139 billion in aid. the lawyer for the slovenian—born parents of the us first lady, melania trump, has confirmed that they have become us citizens. they took part in a naturalisation ceremony in new york on thursday. viktor and amalija knavs had attained their citizenship through chain migration. that is the process by which us citizens can sponsor relatives for permanent residency. that is also something that

president trump has criticised as a pathway for terrorists to enter the country. the us vice president has laid out plans to create a sixth branch of the military, a so—called space force. mike pence suggested russian and chinese threats justify the military expansion, and he promised a space force department will be ready by 2020. there is already a logo, and he will be asking congress for about $8 billion to fund it. now, the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield, where america's best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people, to our nation. the time has come to establish the united states space force. earlier i spoke to senior reporter with quartz tim fernholz, and i started by asking him if there is a threat to the us from other countries in space. yes, there is.

there's a lot going on behind the space force. but the reality is that space is very important to the us military. it hasn't always been great in doing itsjob in recent years, especially according to some lawmakers in congress, and so they want a new branch to focus on this. president trump has seized on this idea, and made it to be part of his national security strategy. and it's been controversial for a while. originally the military establishment was not in favour of this, especially the us air force, which handles all military space operations right now. but it seems that the president has had his way. the big question, as you say, is whether or not congress is going to pay for this new service, especially at the time when us forces are deployed in a number of conflicts around the world.

and presumably that vote in congress would have to be after the november mid—terms. that could potentially be tricky. yes, indeed. a democratic congress is not going to be giving in to the president's priorities without extracting a price he may not want to pay. but we are going to have to see how the election plays out before we do a forecast of that. there are good national security arguments to do this, that it would make us fighting more effective and away to watch out for, say, the north korea weapons programme more effectively, 01’ to respond to russian and chinese and thai satellite tests, although the unit has done this itself in the past. there were reports that the pentagon and the air force were against this. do you know what swung them behind it? it's hard to say. i think politics had a place in the decision,

they don't want to be going against the president. part of it is certainly bureaucratic. the us air force wants to defend its turf. but, at the end of the day, the us military members that are closest to space operations understand what it would be take for them to be centrally operated to deter threats. there are many who understand this and worry about it being implemented correctly, and with real follow—through by the administration and by congress. tim, briefly, what is your betting? do you think it will happen, or it won't, eventually? we'll see, we'll see. it could be a bargaining chip for future congress. but the thing to look at is a bipartisan statement released today by key lawmakers who have been behind this idea, both democrats and republicans. there has been an agreement in congress that it is a idea, it's possible that president will make it a priority and see it enacted.

with the announcement of new american sanctions sending the rouble tumbling in value, the russian leadership has condemned them as absolutely unfriendly, and illegal under international law. kremlin officials say they are now working on retaliation. the sanctions from the us state department are punishment for the nerve agent attack on the skripals in the uk. the white house and president trump have yet to comment. steve rosenberg reports from moscow. in russia, there is one word that you hear and you see with increasing frequency. state television announces that america has launched yet another round of sanctions against moscow. this time, washington is limiting exports to russia of sensitive technologies, some electronics, oil and gas production equipment. a response to the nerve agent attack on sergei and yulia skripal, an attack america says violated international law. today, moscow dismissed the allegations. down at the russian foreign ministry, they denounced

the sanctions, and threatened retaliation. translation: whatever sanctions are taken against russia, the reprisal measures will be identical. and this less than a month after the helsinki summit, when donald trump told vladimir putin america and russia were destined for an extraordinary relationship. the kremlin doesn't blame donald trump personally for the sanctions. it knows he is under pressure back home. it knows, too, that russia has few friends right now in washington, but there was a deep sense of disappointment here that the us president who says he wants better relations with russia simply hasn't delivered. russians are nervous. america is already threatening more sanctions in three months' time. the rouble has tumbled. people are starting to feel economic pain. in general, the quality of life becomes lower and lower,

and this of course is worrying. russians seem resigned to more sanctions. they are expecting a very bumpy journey. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. after weeks of hot weather in france, torrential downpours have caused flash—flooding and flood alerts across the country. thousands of homes are without power. several hundred people have been evacuated from three campsites in the ardeche and drome regions, just north of marseille. 0ne german man in his seventies is still missing and a few people, although rescued, have been hospitalised. 0livia crellin reports. roads turned to rivers. rivers have become wrappers. this is what it looks like now in some parts of france after a week—long heatwave finally gave way to storms. intense

rain over the last 48 hours has put central and southern areas of the country on flood alert, while around 17,000 homes without power. firefighters in the ardeche and drome regent evacuated 1600 people when campsites this one turned into mud baths in the wake of the storms —— regions. the conditions made the rescue operation particularly difficult. translation: the first thing i did was put in place a plan to quickly identify where people we re to quickly identify where people were clinging to trees. they were adults and children in particular. and with teams working in pairs we first security but the trees, and little by little we evacuated them. 0ver little by little we evacuated them. over 100 little by little we evacuated them. 0ver100 german children visiting for some account were among the rescued. police and divers continue to search for an elderly german man who was supervising them. he is missing after the nearby river burst its banks in the caravan he sought shelter in was swept away in the

torrents. it was later found, shelter in was swept away in the torrents. it was laterfound, empty and in pieces. of those rescued, some by helicopter, ten were taken to hospital. translation: when we reach them, firstly, they were hypothermic, and secondly they were ina hypothermic, and secondly they were in a state of shock. of course, because when you experience a situation like that it is not pleasant, and they were especially frightened, because when you are surrounded by water and you are hypothermic, you are shaking. they we re hypothermic, you are shaking. they were almost drowning. after heatwaves and forest fires, these floods are the latest in a series of intense weather conditions to challenge europe summer. rya nair is cancelling about one in six of its flights on friday because of a strike by pilots in several european countries. the industrial action is part of a row about pay and conditions. 400 flights are affected, including more than 200 between germany and the uk. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: as america's mid—term elections draw closer, we look at why more scientists than ever are putting their hats in the political ring.

the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a hugejob of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutal former dictator, has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia, where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada, ending three hours later,

when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: dozens of children have been killed in yemen, after a saudi—led coalition airstrike hit a school bus. america's vice—president sets a goal of 2020 for creating a new space force as the sixth branch of the military. the number of people confirmed dead in the past week's earthquakes on the indonesian island of lombok, has more than doubled. officials say they now know at least 250 people were killed. since the most powerful quake, magnitude 6.9, at least 150,000 people have been homeless. mehulika sitepu reports from lombok. more than 350 aftershocks have been struck since the quake on sunday, but this one was different.

i'm saying i'm still shaking because i had to run from my hotel room on the third floor. the ceiling was collapsing, glasses shattered, walls cracked, but all guests were safe. their fear was clearly visible. sturdy buildings like my hotel, 13 kilometres away from the epicentre in the north of lombok, can withstand the shock. but ricketty houses where most islanders live cannot. that is why tens of thousands of people are now left homeless. these tents are now their homes. many are concerned of what will now become of them and their families. translation: i'm scared to leave. the only way is to stay. i hope the government tends

to our needs, and helps us to fix our homes. officials say creating temporary shelter has been a priority, as has the continuing search for survivors. promises have been made to rebuild esuring the future of every islander. mehulika sitepu, bbc news, lombok. a killer whale has captured the world's attention with a single desperate image. for 17 days she has been carrying her dead calf on her back. the mother whale was first spotted injuly, off vancouver island. killer whales have been known to carry dead calves for as long as a week, but scientists believe this mother has set a new and horrible kind of record. earlier i spoke to o kenneth balcomb who is a senior scientist at the center for whale research which studies the southern resident whale population. of this has been a tour of grief.

she has been caring this dead baby for 17 days and she is back again. it is just amazing that she is still carrying these carcass. how do you think this calf died?” carrying these carcass. how do you think this calf died? i believe it was perinatal trauma. they have not had a successful birth in the past three years and we know that even the females are dying as the result of the fetus dying within them and it is all due to nutritional stress, there is not enough chinook sammon left. —— fish. there are tens of

tomorrow to feed her live fish. indigenous people have been keeping live salmon and are going to try and feed her. we have seen on a number of occasions a mother carrying her dead baby but usually it lasts for a pa rt dead baby but usually it lasts for a part of the day or maybe two days. this has gone to 17 days and 1000 miles. it is almost unbelievable that she is about tenacious. what will ultimately happen? it is a decomposing now. when she services

we see fluid coming out of the carcass so we see fluid coming out of the carcass so it will not be too long before it is just skin and bone. wildfires are continuing to burn in southern california. authorities say holy fire in the cleveland national forest area has burned more than 9,600 acres over 600 firefighters and displaced 20,000 people. are battling the holy fire, which is just one of many wildfires raging across the state. a was arrested on tuesday on suspicion of setting holy fire. scientists are a rare breed in the us congress. in fact, there's only one phd physicist in the house of representatives. but that might change come november's midterm elections. enraged by what they see as the trump administration's lack of respect for science and denial of climate change, more scientists are running for elected office than ever before. laura trevelyan reports. the administration, it is broken. just like when we wound skin, i have an interest in healing both

tissues and our nation. the us government, they are not making sound policy because they are not using science to make policy. i feel very much lonely and overloaded, as many scientists do nowadays. as the only scientist in congress. very few of our elected leaders are scientists, but this year, more scientists are running for office than ever before. truth is lacking in the national politics and at the state level, but also i think there is a concern about the support for science in our nation. i believe in climate change. that's like asking me if i believe in gravity. it is something that is observable, it is there. pretending it is not happening is not solving the problem. do scientists find it hard to get elected?

scientists are not natural politicians, i would say. there are things that scientists are trained to do, solve problems. reaching out to people in general, scientists are not good at that. i often say there is a long list of things that have to be done to turn a scientist's brain into a politician's. probably one of the hardest things is to simply repeat your basic message again and again until you want to spit. it is tough but it makes scientific sense. you're lucky if the people who are thinking about voting for you hear you for 15 seconds, and in that 15 seconds, it had better be your basic message. if there were more scientists in politics, what would change? using science and technology as a basis forfuturejobs is really where we need to go. we have seen how successful silicon valley is, and i think bringing that to connecticut and throughout our nation is really how we are going to build a strong economy. we are used to thinking about how

cells work and how the solar system works and things like that, so we understand complicated ideas. we're not here to worry about party politics, we are here to solve problems, whatever those might be. laura trevelyan, bbc news. we will see what happens in november. much more on that and all the news any time for you on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbc mike embley. thank you for watching. good morning.

well, yesterday brought quite a change across the country. we had some welcome rain. nowhere near enough i know, but nevertheless i'm sure gardeners and growers out there are very happy. in fact, we had over an inch of rain in suffolk throughout the day, there also some thundery downpours as well towards the end of the afternoon and into the evening. that area of low pressure which was responsible is drifting off into scandinavia, but something also that's interesting is behind that frontal system, it's introducing slightly fresher air in comparison to of late. and so that's allowing for a much more comfortable start to the day, chilly in some places with low single figures. so a bit of a change to the story. we've not lost summer completely, some of that warmth is set to return, but for today, it's a fairly straightforward day of sunny spells and scattered showers. now, some of the showers will really start to gather and become longer spells of rain, particularly in the south—east as we go through the afternoon.

looking at the afternoon, into the far north of scotland, showers should remain well scattered, a fresher feel to the afternoon though, with highest values around 15—17 degrees. that's the low 60s. a scattering of showers for northern ireland and for northern england, some of those will become fairly frequent to the east of the pennines through the afternoon, and showers and longer spells of rain into the south—east. by the end of friday, most of those will have cleared away and then tempertaures are set to dip again, potentially into low single figures to start our weekend. but we will start the weekend on a positive note with a good deal of dry weather in the story, but a little more cloud starts to gather into the far south—west. and you can see the first signs of this frontal system, which will bring some rain as we go into the weekend. but really, that rain just pushing into cornwall, eventually it will move into the dorset coast as we go through the afternoon, but for most of us it will be a dry, settled story. perhaps clouding over into the afternoon, with temperatures up to around 16—22 degrees. with the sunshine in the south—east, that's going to feel reasonably pleasant. now, by sunday, it looks as though

we will see some wetter weather, particularly across western areas. if anywhere is likely to stay dry, perhaps to the east of scotland and the far south—east corner through the day, and here it will be quite a humid feel with highs of around 24 or 25 degrees. that's the mid—70s fahrenheit. early part of next week to the northern half of the country continues with this fresher feel, but something a little bit brighter from tuesday onwards. further south, just that little bit warmer i suspect, it looks as though that's where we're likely to see a little more in the way of sunshine, with highs of 25 degrees. this is bbc news. the headlines: at least 29 children have been killed in yemen, where an airstrike by the saudi—led arab coalition has hit a school bus stopped at a market. 30 other children are among scores of people injured. the coalition, backed by the us, the uk and france, says it was a legitimate military action aimed at a missile launcher. the us vice president has unveiled plans for a new space force that could become the sixth branch of the us military. mike pence says the force will be up

and running by 2020. but the plan still needs approval, and $8 billion funding, from congress. heavy floods have forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 people, most of them campers, in southern france. a 70—year—old german man who was helping to supervise children at a summer camp is missing. now on bbc news, panorama. tonight, the online doctor sites selling prescription only drugs. for me this is a form of legal drug dealing. these are drugs that are potentially dangerous. and the celebrity tv doctor who promotes one of them. if you need a stronger pain medication, online doctor service at uk meds may be able to help you. we go undercover to meet a doctor struck off for cavalier prescribing

who's still cashing in online. go in, click, filla form in, doctor comes and reviews the form, accepts, declines, generates a prescription, that's the big money, okay? we hearfrom the mother of a patient who died after buying prescription drugs online.