this is bbc world news, the headlines. two mortar rounds [and near the us

embassy in baghdad — as huge crowds join funeral processions in iraq, for iran's top military commander, killed by a us drone strike. the queen sends her condolences to the people of australia, as fears grow that high winds and temperatures will push bushfires towards heavily populated areas. the shadow brexit secretary, keir starmer enters the race to become labour leader. he'll launch his campaign in stevenage tomorrow. play more on that including details of who the other contenders are without race expected to get under way next week. plenty more ahead on bbc news. your next news bulletin is at five to ten with martine croxall, but first it's time for our world.

lapland is europe's great last wilderness. it stretches across norway, sweden, finland and russia, north of the arctic circle. the far north of finland is the home of the sami, europe's only indigenous people, who still live off the land. but the life of the sami people is changing. climate change is affecting the arctic more than any other part of the earth. you can't rely on that you know how nature acts or how animals act because everything seems to be changing. the melting ice is opening up opportunities for shipping routes and there is talk of a new railway. it's the worst nightmare we are facing at the moment. which could threaten the sami

people's way of life. how can you put a price target for a culture? we have come to lapland to talk to sami women about the challenges they face. nature gives if we give back. we can't just take. anna comes from a family of sami reindeer herders who still make

a living off the land. it's the start of the calving season and anna is checking up on the reindeer with eero, a finnish relative. the reindeer are about to give birth. these are extra feed, pellets needed for the mother reindeer so that they are in good condition. eero is the herder of this fence here. he's the husband of my niece. female reindeer have antlers during the winter and during the spring

so that they can chase away the male ones from good food places, places where the reindeer moss is growing. these reindeer are female and they are about to give birth — some in a couple of days, some in a couple of weeks. they are so beautiful. reindeer herds roam free in lapland. but when it's calving time, anna's family fences them in to make sure the reindeer get enough food before the calves are born. over the centuries, sami people have made a living from reindeer herding. it's still a key part of their culture. but now, fewer than 10% of them are involved in it. calls reindeer reindeer herding

is getting much harder. normally, there would be a lot more snow on the ground in the forest at this time of the year. but the climate is changing and it's threatening the family's herd. usually, winter came in the end of october and now it can be in december. during the winter, there can be really warm periods that get the snow to melt. winter should be approximately nine months of the year and now it's maybe six months. temperatures in the winter fluctuate a lot more than they did in the past, which is making it more difficult for reindeer to find food. usually, reindeer can dig through any amount of snow. so whether it's 2m, it

can smell the reindeer moss and find itand dig it. but when the snow melts, then this food, the basic best food of reindeer, this reindeer moss, freezes, the reindeer can't dig it. they can't even smell it through the ice. that's starvation then. and starvation means that the reindeer herder has to take extra food. and, of course, then it affects the income of reindeer herder. the number of reindeer herders is decreasing in finland. over the last 20 years, it's declined by almost half. now there are fewer than 5,000. many find it difficult to cope with the huge amount of unpredictability in reindeer herding posed by the changing climate.

you can't rely on what you used to know about winter, how winters are. you can't rely on that you know how nature acts or how animals are, because everything seems to be changing. people that live from the nature, sami people over here, have adapted and adapted over decades, almost over centuries, i'd say. life here has always changed. but then we are reaching the point where these changes are not such things that you can add up to. people don't feel safe anymore and that starts to affect their mental health.

100km from anna's reindeer, in the far north—eastern corner of finland, close to the russian border, heini lives in a very remote house. the nearest supermarket is 90km away. most sami people in northern lapland live in places like this and they are very much connected to their natural environment. we built this house ourselves and i think log house itself is eco—friendly. we heat the house with wood, but we do have running water and electricity, like in any other house. we are no eco—warriors, we are just ordinary people who wants to do our best. in early spring, heini and herfamily drink birchjuice. she usually starts tapping the trees in may.

but this year, for the first time, the juice was ready in april. we get winter very late. it can be december that we get permanent snow. for instance, this february, spring comes very early so we have shorter winters. here are photos of my family. here are my grandmothers. and here is my great—grandfather. he is ice fishing here. he's doing traditional

ice fishing. heini is an artisan. she makes a living by teaching traditional sami handicrafts. what i'm making here is a saamcic. it's a married women's hat. when women get married, it gets... she will have this crown for herself. it is as a crown. the saamcic is the most difficult handicraft that i ever tried, and this is truly, truly very difficult handicraft. traditionally, every woman did handicrafts, but not this one, because this was special. only some handicraft masters were doing this. heini uses reindeer skin to make shoes. but more rain in the summer has affected her ability to produce them. here are my latest. ijust made this ready, these we were waiting for years

in our shed for me to make these ready. this, i made these for myself. they're a little more fancy. the reindeerfur shoes. and these are already too small for my children. here is how we do it. we just... we skin the reindeer legs, and then we just put them to dry like this. and this is how it should be. but here, we can see moulded ones. it tells us that the summers are more wet than those are used to be. five hours‘ drive to the west, close to the norwegian and swedish borders, ellen is a northern sami handicraft master. she is 84 years old and she's visiting her

niece to make traditional sami clothes with her.

climate change is damaging traditional sami livelihoods. but that's not the only threat. as temperatures rise and the sea ice melts, there's now the opportunity for a shipping route to open through the arctic. and plans are being developed for a railway to be built across lapland, threatening to cut through reindeer herding territory. finland's ministry of transport favours the route from rovaniemi, the capital of finnish lapland, along the shore of lake inari and terminating in kirkenes in norway. supporters say the railway will boost lapland's economy but the finnish government says no decision has been made on the construction

of the railway or its routeing. but the sami parliament is fiercely opposed to the plans. an arctic railway through rovaniemi to kirkenes, through our very heartlands of three different sami language groups in finland, would be such infrastructure which will be the end to the sami culture. we live from the nature and it will cut the reindeer grazing areas into two. there will be more forest logging, for example. it will be transporting oil and gas products from norway and russia. it will bring the mining industry to the sami homeland area in finland. it's the worst nightmare we are facing at the moment, a concrete one. of course, climate

change is another one. but it's not as concrete as the arctic railway. heini, the handicrafter, who lives close to the russian border, has found out that a proposal for the arctic railway has been included in the development plan for finnish lapland. those plans i have seen. so it seems like it would go straight through our house. and my opinion is that it will be a genocide. if the plans for the railway are approved, it's likely that heini would be forced to move. it's a painful reminder of the past. heini is a skolt sami. many of her people were forced leave their ancestral homes in russia and resettle in finland in 1944. all these kind of mining

plans are our big nightmare here. yeah, we are very afraid of those. that is why skolt samis had to move after the second world war. nazis did want to have this nickel mining in petsamo. we are only few. in finland, skolt samis are around 600. and everyone has kind of tried to work to maintain the culture, keep the language alive. and if we have to fight against this kind of international greed, it takes too much of our time and energy away. everything is only measured by money. but how can you put a price tag for our culture? back in inari, anna is getting ready to go ice fishing. we are trying to put the last hooks in.

back in inari, anna is getting ready to go ice fishing. we are trying to put the last hooks in. anna does fishing all year round. and she takes great pride in supplying her family and friends with fresh fish. now the bait is in the hook. so the weight takes the bait down there in a good depth and this is how it stays. the stick stays there because this

is holding however big pike there will be. and then, well, tomorrow morning i will come and check if there is movement in there. 20 years ago, the lake would freeze over by the end of october. last year, anna had to wait until the middle of december before she could go on the ice. and the ice starts melting earlier than it used to in the spring, making it increasingly dangerous to fish. the new conditions, of course, the people need to learn again, to get to know them. so some people drown when learning. and that's, of course, a tragedy every time when it happens. sami people are the people of winter. if the winter disappears,

it would be really strange, really hard to continue on the cycle of the year that doesn't have the real cycle. if the fishermen will adapt, then maybe the fish won't adapt to warming waters. so my biggest fear is that fish will disappear. one fall, one winter, the nets will start being empty. anna believes that reindeer herding and fishing wouldn't survive if the arctic railway is built and new mines open up in the area. what is the reason for these building plans? anna believes that reindeer herding and fishing wouldn't survive if the arctic railway is built and new mines open up in the area. what is the reason for these building plans? it is the greed of

people. big companies want to give more profits to their shareholders. we need to be and we have to be active in this fight to save our world, to save our reindeers, to save our clean drinking water and where the fish can live, and this... itisa... it's a trade of, like, both ways. nature gives if we give back. we can't just take. will climate change destroy the forests and the lakes in europe's last great wilderness?

willa new industrial railway wipe out sami culture or will it bring jobs and an economic boom to northern lapland ? we don't know. for now, the questions remain unanswered.

the running in general killed an american drone strike is mourned in iraq. huge crowds from the funeral procession for so the money and rockets have been fired in the capital. strong with the heights overtures because new bushfires in southeast australia as thousands are told to leave their homes. brother isa told to leave their homes. brother is a police officer and he said get the hell out. calls for tougher fines to curb the search and flight tipping. england fight back on day two of the second test in cape town.

thousands of people take on the streets in iraq for a funeral possession for around's most powerful military commander. general qasem soleimani was killed in american drone strike in baghdad on thursday. everyone is promised revenge for his death. teenage rock at the been fired and the iraqi capital including near the american embassy. no casualties have been reported. he is our middle east correspondent. and they called him a hero. to many more in iraq and beyond, he was the region's principal villain. familiar chants rang out, death to america, death to israel. he served his iranians masters well. its regime has cast him

as a proud shia martyr. in death, he has been elevated to the rank of lieutenant general. in iran there were more anti—western protests. president rouhani visited his family and again warned of harsh revenge for the assassination of the general. he said, the americans are not aware of the big mistake they made. they will face the consequences of their crime, not only today, but also in the coming years. president donald trump gave the assassination order. he is facing re—election. he was planning a very major attack and we got him. but already doubts are being cast over the reason for the strike and there are fears that the us will cast the middle east into another war. i don't believe for a moment that he does want a war and i am sure he has calculated what the response is likely to be, but i think if he is going to be

effective, there needs to be a more consistent long—term approach. thousands of american soldiers are pouring into the region. other americans have been told to leave. britain and france is advising against travel to most of iraq. the funeral continued. after iraq, qassem soleimani's body will be flown to tehran and then to his hometown for burial. he did more thanjust serve iran overseas, he was iran overseas. and in a rare honour, the country's supreme leader will preside over final prayers, mourning the death of his most influential general. quentin somerville, bbc news, beirut. our washington correspondent jane o'brienjoins us now. what's the reaction there? the white house in the last few

minutes has said that it will give formal notification of the drone strike to congress, which is required 48 hours after the president has authorised anything that could put american soldiers into harms way or lead to war. now, there will be a portion of that notification that is expected to detail some of the classified intelligence that led to that decision to kill qassem soleimani. it will also lay out the legal justification for that. here, the support for that action is pretty much split down party lines, republicans think that it was warranted, it was a very good idea and democrats on the other hand are saying that the president should have consulted them first and that they should have been asked to actually authorise this in advance. meanwhile, mike pompeo, has been trying to shore up support overseas,

he has been talking to his allies, us allies in the region including the israeli prime minister, but he said he has been very disappointed with the lack of support from the europeans. of course the big question is, what will iran do next? to that end, a lot of major cities here in the us have been beefing up their security, but they say there is no specific threat that they are yet aware of. jane, thank you very much. jane o'brien in washington. the queen has sent a message of condolence to australia, saying she is "deeply saddened" by the bushfires. a number of new fires have taken hold in the state of new south wales, and some residents have been warned it's too late to leave. since late september, 23 people have died. shaimaa khalil reports. it promised to be a day of danger and these bushfires have lived up to every emergency warning. the hellish combination of high temperatures, strong winds and dry conditions have made some of these blazes too fast to control.