a very warm welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's 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 1000 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's been carrying her dead calf on her back. we learn more about the threat to the species. hello to you. 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 this 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, three—quarters of the population needs 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'd 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's 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. and there is more background and analysis about the conflict in yemen on our website, including this short video explaining why the conflict began. all that on bbc.com/news. let's get some of the day's other main news. the zimbabwean opposition politician tendai biti has been released by a court in harare, he'd been facing charges of inciting violence and falsely declaring that the opposition paty,

the mdc, had won last week's election. the zimbabwean president, emmerson mnangagwa, said he was freed following his intervention. writing on twitter, the zimbabwean leader called for peace and unity, but he added that the legal process would continue. unconfirmed reports say that 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 had fired scores of rockets into israel, injuring several people. taiwan's government has dismissed a chinese plan to link the two with what would be the world's longest undersea rail tunnel, connecting northern taiwan with fujian province. it would be 135 kilometres long. it's reported chinese scientists are close to agreeing a design, but taiwanese officials say they will not even discuss the scheme. the lawyer for melania trump's parents has confirmed that they've become american citizens. the first lady's parents, born in slovenia, took part in a naturalisation ceremony in new york on thursday. viktor and amalija knavs obtained

citizenship through chain migration, which allows american citizens to sponsor relatives for permanent residency. it is a process that president trump has heavily criticised. he called it 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'll be asking congress for about $8 billion to fund the programme. 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. i spoke earlier to a 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 at 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 ita big 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 a 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're 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, or to respond to russian and chinese and thai satellite tests, although the unit has done this itself in the past. as you said, there were reports that the pentagon and the air force were very 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. i think part of it is

certainly bureaucratic. the us air force wants to defend its turf. but at the end of the day, the military service members who are closest to space operations also understand what it would take for them to be centrally operated to deter threats. there are many who understand this and just 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'll happen, or it won't, eventually? we'll see, we'll see. it could be a bargaining chip for a future congress. but the thing to look at is a bipartisan statement perhaps released today by key lawmakers who have been behind this idea, both democrats and republicans. so if there has been an agreement in congress that it is a good idea, it's possible that the 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're 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 these sanctions. it knows he's 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, and 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 70s is still missing and a few people, although rescued, have been taken to hospital. 0livia crellin has the story. roads turned to rivers. rivers have become rapids. this is what it looks like now in some parts of france, after a weeks—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 are without power. firefighters in the ardeche and drome regions evacuated 1,600 people when campsites like this one turned into mud baths in the wake of the storms. 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 were clinging to trees. there were adults and children, in particular. and with teams working in pairs, we first secured people to the trees, and little by little we evacuated them. over 100 german children visiting for summer camp were among the rescued. police and divers continue to search for an elderly german man who was supervising them.

he's missing after the nearby river burst its banks, and the caravan he sought shelter in was swept away in the torrents. it was later found, empty and in pieces. of those rescued, some by helicopter, ten were taken to hospital. translation: when we reached them, firstly they were hypothermic, and secondly they were in a state of shock, of course, because when you experience a situation like that, it's not pleasant. and they were especially frightened, because when you're surrounded by water and when you're hypothermic, you're 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 this summer. ryanair 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. much more to come 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 world 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 a 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. this was my reaction, after my hotel was hit. 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. i spoke just now to ken balcomb. he's a senior scientist

at the center for whale research which studies the southern resident whale population. we believe that this has been a tour of grief. she has carried this little baby now for about 1,000 miles, 17 days, and she is back again. she was in front of victoria, vancouver, a couple of weeks ago and now she's coming back. it is just amazing that she is still carrying this carcass. how do you think this calf died? i believe it was perinatal trauma. these whales have not had a successful birth in the past three years, and we know from prior necropsies that even the females are dying as the result of the fetus dying within them, and it is all believed to be due to nutritional stress, there are just not enough chinook salmon left in this system to feed them. clearly, killer whales, i know are very clever.

is there anything to be done about this? can they be in some way redirected towards a different food source? well, there are attempts tomorrow, trying to feed her live fish. the local indigenous peoples have gathered up a number of live salmon and are keeping them in tanks, and hope to go out in front, and feed them now. you and your colleagues have seen something like this grief ritual before, have you, but not for this long? yes, we have seen on a number of occasions where a mother is carrying a dead baby, but usually it only lasts for a part of a day or maybe two days. this has now gone on 17 days, and 1000 miles. it is almost unbelievable that she is that tenacious. ultimately, what will happen, she'lljust let it go?

it is decomposing now. when she surfaces, we see fluids and organs coming out of the body of the carcass so i think it will not be too long before it is just skin and bone. wildfires are still burning in southern california. authorities say holy fire in the cleveland national forest area has now burned more than 9,600 acres and forced about 20 thousand people from their homes. more than 600 firefighters are battling it, but it'sjust one of many raging across the state. a man was arrested on tuesday on suspicion of arson. 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 united states government, they are not making sound policy because they are not using science to make policy. i feel very much lonely and overloaded, 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 do i believe in gravity, right? it is something that is observable, it is there. pretending it is not happening

or pretending that it's a chinese hoax, is not solving the problem. do scientists find it harder to get elected? scientists are not natural politicians, i would say. there are things that politicians use that scientists are trained to do — solve problems, defend prionciples — but reaching out to people in general, scientists are not good at that. i often say there is a long list of neurons that have to deaden to convert 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 it makes 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 those 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 for future jobs

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 or how the solar system works and things like that, so we understand complicated topics. i tink scientists are also very pragmatic. i'm not really here to worry about party politics, we are here to solve problems, whatever those might be. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. 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 2a 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. the latest 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

of funding from congress. after weeks of hot weather in france, torrential downpours have brought floods and forced the evacuation of more than 1000 people — most of them campers — in the south. a 70—year—old german man, who was helping to supervise children at a summer camp, is missing. thousands without power. —— are.