hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. twenty people have been killed in a gun attack on a shopping centre in city of el paso. another 26 people have been injured — some are in a critical condition in hospital. police have arrested the suspected gunman — he is a 21—year—old white male named patrick crusius, a resident of the dallas area. the massacre happened at a walmart store near the cielo vista mall in el paso, texas, a few miles from the us—mexican border.

families were out shopping on a saturday morning when they were advised to run. inside the mall in el paso, officers moved in, responding to another report of an active shooter in america. the gunmen walked into the pack walmart supermarket, firing indiscriminately, 20 people were killed and more than two dozen were injured. the shoppers of the walmart we re injured. the shoppers of the walmart were between one and 2000, with employees present, it is back to school and walmart was at capacity when the shootings occurred. el paso said that america's border with mexico. it has a large hispanic population, and many people cross over into the us to visit friends and go shopping. police say the suspect taken into custody is white,

he has been identified by local media is 21—year—old patrick crusius. at a news conference the authorities that it was a murder investigation, that officers were examining the possibility that the attack was a hate crime and looking attack was a hate crime and looking at possible links with a white nationalist manifesto that claimed the attack was targeted at the hispanic community. it was published anonymously online. it has the nexus at this point in time to a hate crime, the fbi will be looking into that with all the federal authorities, right now we're looking at potential capital murder. in just days ago, two members of staff were killed in a separate shooting at a walmart store in mississippi. and days before that, people were shot dead at a food festival in northern california. now it is the turn of another state to mourn. we, as a state, unite in support of these

victims and their family members. we are going to do all we can to help them to assist them. in a post on twitter, president trump described the shootings as "terrible", and pledged the support of his government. but some americans will be left wondering about the more electric —— regular rhetoric used by politicians, and asking if some of this country's deaths could be avoided if there were tighter and —— restrictions on guns. there's been more violence in hong kong after a day of rival protests between pro—democracy and pro—beijing supporters. riot police fired tear gas to disperse the pro—democracy crowd. it's the ninth consecutive weekend the territory has seen protests despite increasingly stern warnings from china's central government about the unrest. demonstrators used laser pointers to try to avoid identification by facial recognition technology. nick beake has filed this report. hong kong erupted again tonight. a summer of violence is getting worse. another clash between protesters

wanting more freedom in this former british colony and a police force supported by china. they're firing tear gas once again, they're driving the protesters along this street. for the past two hours, this police headquarters has been surrounded. police have had enough. chanting. how do you deal with this sort of public anger? these officers couldn't. when the first protesters fled to a residential area, locals — with no gas masks or protection — came out to vent their fury. at a police department accused of using too much force during two long months of protest. this was the response. what was a political crisis over a despised proposed new law now threatens to fracture hong kong's society. the beijing—backed police were forced into a rare, embarrassing retreat.

but china has soldiers in this city waiting in the barracks. how much longer will they stay there? more homes have had to be evacuated tonight in a town close to a dam in derbyshire that's in danger of collapse. with the forecast for more wet weather tomorrow, the emergency services have been working round the clock, trying to pump water out of the toddbrook reservoir, close to the town of whaley bridge. there are fears rising waters and damage to the dam, could cause serious flooding, endangering life. charlotte gallagher reports. an raf chinook helicopter picks up bags of aggregate. this is the third day of operations to save a dam and the town of whaley bridge. here, a crew member leans out to make sure the sandbags are dropped in exactly

the right place. the chinook still a strange sight in this small town. these fire crews and pumps are working 2a hours a day to divert the 300 million gallons of water in the reservoir. we were here early hours on friday from west yorkshire. and if you pan across, you can see the brick level, all these stones. that was underwater when we arrived. so, as you can see, it's quite visibly come down. it's a major incident, make no mistake. whaley bridge would normally be packed on a summer holiday saturday, but today, it's a ghost town. people who were forced to leave their homes are being allowed to return forjust 15 minutes to collect valuables, medication and even their grandchildren‘s toys. we were advised by the police we are going in at our own risk.

and, yes, all right, it's a calculated risk, really. we knew we needed to get things, we knew we had to do things, and as long as you moved quickly, and i would say listen all the time. because they told us if we hear three blasts on a horn, we were to just run. i did have to walk up the road last night and just scream because i did face what i could lose. this family had to leave their home and the guesthouse they run, an adventure for the children, less so for their parents. i had some builders staying with me that had to get out quick when they started the evacuation. so they're obviously losing as well. and yeah, just not really knowing when i can open back up and take bookings. i've had to advise people that we are closed for the foreseeable future and i don't know when we'll be open. engineers are constantly checking the dam and the repair work so far. to try and stengthen it further, they are pouring concrete onto the damaged section. police are using patrols and a drone to monitor the evacuation zone, and the secretary of state for the environment visited today to give more reassurances.

i want to thank the residents. it is imperative that we keep them safe. that's the only reason why they're out of their homes. and i would also reassure them that i know the police are taking very seriously the need to keep their homes secure. after two long days of flying chinook helicopters, raf crews inspect the work they've done so far. this problem won't be fixed quickly but teams here are working around the clock until it is. talks will resume on sunday, to try to avert strike action by thousands of workers at heathrow airport, in a dispute over pay. discussions between management and unions ended today without agreement. more than 150 flights scheduled for monday and tuesday have already been cancelled. here's our business correspondent, katy austin.

at heathrow, it's peak holiday getaway season but a possible strike by airport staff, such as security guards and engineers, has left some people's plans up in the air. this is really stressful. it's a lot of money. things like the taxi to the airport is costing me money. and i don't — it'sjust the stress of the unknown. i don't know what's going on and no—one's giving me the answers. it's my first real holiday with my boyfriend. and what's meant to be a relaxing endeavour is becoming more and more stressful. if a strike does happen, passengers are being warned to expect long queues to get through security and are being told to allow extra time. but not everyone will be able to fly as planned. heathrow has already taken the decision to cancel dozens of flights departing here on both monday and tuesday. heathrow has said it can run the airport safely if the strikes go ahead, and that those affected by cancellations will be booked onto other services or get refunds from their airlines. analysts say passengers are unlikely to get any other compensation.

if there are delays that changes the game somewhat and they will be entitled to some compensation, like if they were stuck at the airport overnight they should get hotel compensation. but airlines are not liable for a circumstance beyond their control like this. strikes early next week and later this month could be prevented if airport managers and unite can agree a pay deal. union members have rejected heathrow‘s latest offer. with time running out, there's no sign side is ready to back down. a 70—year—old man has died after a stolen car hit a group of people outside a cemetery in belfast. seamus conlon had been attending a funeral when he was hit by the vauxhall vectra. 2 other men are being treated in hospitalfor serious injuries. a 32—year—old man has been arrested.

russian authorities say they've succeeded in slowing the wildfires raging in siberia, and plan to extend their efforts into more remote regions today. almost 40,000 square kilometres of forest land have been affected, and smoke from the blazes has drifted to alaska and parts of canada. brian brettschneider is a climate researcher for the international arctic research centre. he says fires, by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, risk exacerbating climate change. the forests sequester carbon. so as trees grow throughout the course of their life, they pull carbon out of the atmosphere. so when we burn the trees, it releases most of the carbon back into the atmosphere in one fell swoop. so what we're seeing now and over the last few years and decades is an increase in

the number of acres, square kilometres, burned by fires and seeing this intense increase in carbon dioxide being released back into the atmosphere all at once. so would you describe these fires as an ecological catastrophe, as we've heard others describe it? well, the trend is certainly very troubling. you know, fires in the forest, they are natural. but they are increasing, and were at a point in the earth's climate system, where perhaps small incremental increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may send us over a tipping point. so every ton of carbon that's released by these forest fires puts us that much closer to a point of no return. so does that mean because of these fires we might see an increase in warming in the globe? exactly. we call this a positive

feedback cycle. when you release carbon into the atmosphere it warms things up, and that makes forest fires more likely because it drives things out, and they also release sort, ——soot and black carbon that absorb heat on the surrounding snow and ice. also the burned and scarred area as well is blackened and absorbs more heat. 0ver short time periods, short to medium time periods, the burning of these forests really has the potential to accelerate global warming. the american documentary filmmaker da pennebaker, who chronicled the 60s counterculture, has died at the age of 94. he was best known for his films about rock music — including the classic "don't look back", which followed bob dylan on tour in england. da pennebaker also made documentaries about politics. in 2013 he was given an academy honorary award — or lifetime 0scar — in recognition of his work.

police in western france have fired tear gas at protesters after a vigil for a man who drowned when police raided a concertinjune. steve maia canico was among 14 people who fell into the river loire in nantes after police broke up a techno party. it took 38 days for his body to be recovered. the demonstrators accuse the police of a cover—up over what happened on the night, and say they were heavy—handed. 12 more people in the democratic republic of the congo have been ordered to undergo testing for possible ebola infectionjust days after three people in goma tested positive for the disease. it comes as the man co—ordinating official efforts to tackle the spread of the disease says the current outbreak could continue for another two or three years.

this is bbc news. our main headline: at least 20 people have been killed after a shooting at a shopping centre in the texas city of el paso. one man is in custody. more on that now. earlier i spoke with ed scruggs who is president of anti—gun violence organisation texas gun sense. i asked for his reaction to the events in el paso. yes, i would say devastating, is more accurate. this is our third mass shooting in about two years. we had the church in sutherland springs, with 26 killed, we had santa fe high school near houston last year, with ten killed. and now this. and this is just particularly heinous and violent and as the details come out in the coming hours, i think it will be even more so. this is a heartbreaking, but truthfully, i think

for many of us in texas right now, the reaction is, been there, done that, too many times. it is inexcusable and like being in an echo chamber, you just hear the same complaints over and over, and nothing ever happens. it's very disheartening. it's obviously a very upsetting time for a lot of people, and as you say, we're still getting details, it is still relatively early on in the investigation. but one of the points that the governor made at that news conference that we just saw, was about gun—control. he talked about legislation and debates that he's had, and he felt that there ought to be more done with mental health issues. what do you say to that? well, if your viewers saw the news conference, with our governor, i hope they realise that he was not really being on the level with people. i was in those discussions he talked about, that happened after the santa fe shooting. we didn't talk about any gun—control, really meaningful gun—control.

they talked about putting more guns in schools and arming more teachers. and that is primarily the major legislation that passed this last session. it's putting more armed teachers in schools. they did increase mental health services which was great, but if you notice at when the governor talks, gun violence has nothing to do with guns. it's pretty amazing, it's all to do with mental health. it has nothing to do with guns, nothing to do with ammunition. and frankly, that is just something they refused to discuss. but what's really disheartening to me is that in that meeting, with me, and i sat right next to him, he voiced support for some very commonsense, very minor gun—control measures, that he brought to the table, that he said would help reduce gun violence and whether session came, he abandoned every single one of them. and never mentioned them again. so i don't know how he can show his face today and say that because he had an opportunity to take a stand against gun violence and he failed.

he outright failed! again, it's obviously the very early hours, of this investigation and this incident, but on the other side of the debate, i'm sure you are aware, many gun advocates will say that the right thing in this situation, in the context of the united states, is for other people to have guns in order to stop these sorts of shooters. and you hear that argument time and again. yes, and we will hear it again if we are not already hearing it again. but the issue with that is, you really couldn't do more to further gun rights in texas. these three mass shootings have now happened in the state that has open carry of firearms that has concealed carry of firearms, that you can take firearms into restaurants, in your car without a license, you can carry them practically everywhere. so they can't say that the shooting that took place today was a gun—free zone, i don't believe, because i believe it started out

in the parking lot. you know, at some point you have to look at the connection between guns and gun violence. and i know there's a lot of political pressure on the other side and they have difficulty doing that, but we have tried the same thing now for 20 years, and it's not working. i would implore people to look at something different and to think out—of—the—box, out—of—the—box that they are in. and try to enact some very commonsense measures that can respect individual gun rights but also help perhaps keep guns out of the wrong hands and that is what we're all trying to do here. but you have to come to the field and you have to play on the whole field. you just can't play on half the field — the half that you agree with. i'm hoping this discussion could be open from this but we willjust have to see.

the former presidential hopeful has in speaking in the last few minutes, told reporters he been visiting survivors in hospital and expressed his feelings. i can only imagine what she is feeling right now and she has told me her name, she said this has got to change. she says that this keeps happening in this country, why is this happening? why do we allow this to happen? this has to change. her husband and other members of the family and of little children were all at a table selling merchandise to raise funds for the soccer team that he coaches. doing something great for the community, never expecting something like this to happen, add now pulling for her husband to make it through right now and her kids witness the entire thing. so many families, so many extraordinary people, so much hope and that waiting right now, so much strength in the individual icy rooms

that we got to be in, again, it makes mejust that we got to be in, again, it makes me just incredibly proud for el paso and of these people, these survivors, but they're also asking us survivors, but they're also asking us to do something about this. and yes, it is the gunnels, yes is the universal background checks yes, we should stop selling weapons of war to our communities, but i inc also had to confront this hatred that i've never seen in my lifetime. and we certainly have not seen in alpaca. some years in the city of almost 700,000, we had five murders. the entire year. over the last ten yea rs the entire year. over the last ten years is 18. we exceeded the average just on one day. this is not normal, it is not acceptable. we cannotjust move on from this. and the folks that i just met move on from this. and the folks that ijust met do not want us just to move on from this. there's more on this story and the investigation as it develops on our website. you can log onto bbc.com/news or download our news app.

president recep tayyip erdogan has laid the foundation stone for the first new church to be built in turkey since it became a modern republic in 1923. the church will serve the seventeen thousand strong syriac christian community of the country. president erdogan says he hopes the building will be completed in two years. ramzan karmali has the details. president erdogan arriving for a ground breaking ceremony. he was here in an istanbul suburb to lay the foundation stone for the first ever church to be built in turkey in almost a century. translation: like with all other issues, it is the turkish republic's duty to meet the need for space to worship for the syriac community, who are the ancient children of this geography. syriac christians are part of the eastern christian tradition and pray in aramaic. leaders from their community welcomed the building of the syriac 0rthodox

mor efrem church. translation: our syriac orthodox church dates back to 2,000 years. during its history, we the syriac 0rthodox have never faced such a gesture. it is the first time the president of a country has laid the foundation stone of church. christians make up just 0.2% of the population. but some have complained about the treatment they receive in muslim majority country. and despite the recent restoration and re—opening of churches, the islamic—rooted government has often been criticised for trying to turn what is officially a secular country into a religious one. ramzan karmali, bbc news. the french inventor, franky zapata, is hoping to cross the english channel on sunday using a jet—powered hoverboa rd. the former jet—skiing champion was unsuccessful in his first attempt late last month.

he aims to fly from sangatte in france to dover in england. tim allman reports. if at first you don't succeed... ..try, try, and try again. franky zapata testing his hoverboard before his second attempt to cross the english channel. his first go ended when he failed to land on a refuelling platform and he fell into the sea. but that was then, this is now. translation: i feel confidence, just like the first time. i want to cross. let's say that, oddly enough, i'm not stressed out, not really. i'm more worried about the machine. it won't have any issues, especially for the take off. and like last time you have to be a little bit fatalistic. we did our work to the fullest and what happens in the air

will or won't happen. that's the way it is. crossing the channel, however you do it, has always captured the imagination. matthew webb was the first recorded person to swim between france and britain in 1875. louis bleriot was the first to fly the channel in 1909. franky zapata had hoped to match that feat by hoverboard exactly 110 years later, until his little accident midway. translation: we didn't really see it as a failure. it was half a victory, because we made it halfway. we messed up the landing on the platform, so we worked on the landing. it wasn't really a failure. zapata had already caught the imagination of many with his appearance at this year's bastille day celebrations in paris. but if he succeeds in crossing the channel he will make a little bit of hoverboard history. tim allman, bbc news.

the weather now with ben rich. hello. there are more heavy downpours in the forecast, not only for the day ahead but actually for the next few days. not good news for those parts of the uk already so badly affected by flooding. you can see on the satellite picture this area of cloud rotating. this is an area of low pressure. ahead of it stripes of cloud bringing showery rain. here's one for sunday morning for scotland. still fringing into the eastern side of northern ireland for a time, down into wales in the south—west. and we take that band of cloud and moisture, some showery rain, and we push it eastwards as the day wears on. and as that moisture works into northern england and scotland it will kick off some hit and miss heavy downpours and thunderstorms. could be the odd sharp shower for wales and the south—west, particularly over high ground. many spots here will be dry. east anglia and the south—east staying predominantly dry through the day.

and although it will be fairly cloudy, temperatures will get up to 25 or 26 with a few glimmers of brightness. but for northern england, southern and central scotland, there is a met office yellow warning that's been issued. it covers the potential for some of those hit and miss thunderstorms which could dump 30—110 millimetres of rain in some places in the space ofjust a couple of hours. that could cause further travel disruption. maybe some localised flash flooding. but as is the nature with showers, some places will fall between them and stay completely dry. then through sunday night into monday another band of showery rain edges into western scotland, north—west england, wales, and the south—west. you can see these showers just keep on coming, rotating around that area of low pressure. which, as we go into monday morning, will be sitting just about here, just to the north—west of the british isles. those various frontal systems rotating around it, taking showery rain across the country. so we start off monday with a band of cloud and some pretty heavy downpours edging eastwards. now, much of that weather will clear away to the east through the day. so we'll be left with some dry conditions, some spells of sunshine. but those sunny conditions could spawn one or two further downpours and thunderstorms,

it's likely to stay quite wet across northern scotland. a breezy day on monday, a fresher today as well. we keep that fresher feel on tuesday and again there will be some showers and thunderstorms, particularly across the northern half of the uk, northern england, northern ireland, scotland. some of these could be pretty slow—moving. so some places could see a lot of rain, not as many showers further the south. highs of 18—22 degrees. the north of the uk bears the brunt of the showers through the middle of the week. signs that it might dry up a little bit by thursday and friday. a similar story further south, not as many showers, but there will be some. top temperatures of around 2a degrees.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the governor the us state of texas has confirmed that 20 people

were killed when a gunman opened fire on a shopping centre in the city of el paso. greg abbott said it was one of the deadliest days in the history of the state. 26 other people were wounded. there's been more violence in hong kong after a day of rival protests between pro—democracy and pro—beijing supporters. riot police fired tear gas to disperse the pro—democracy crowd. it's the ninth consecutive weekend the territory has seen protests despite increasingly stern warnings from china's central government about the unrest. here in the uk thunderstorms are forecast for the area of derbyshire where frantic efforts have been made to reduce the level of a reservoir which it's feared could burst through a dam and onto the town of whaley bridge. 1,500 people were told to leave their homes. three leading telecoms bosses have written to the british prime minister, questioning his ability to deliver