you're watching bbc news. i'm rich preston. our latest headlines: gunfire. fierce fighting in afghanistan — three cities are battling the taliban. the taliban with the peace talks stalled, everyone is worried the violence will get worse in the coming weeks. —— with the taliban emboldened and the peace talks stalled. as day nine of the tokyo olympics gets underway, today's the day we discover the heir to usain bolt�*s crown. i mariko imariko oi i mariko oi live in tokyo where we will be talking about this intense heat and the covid state of emergency. the first in a convoy of humanitarian aid trucks reaches the capital of ethiopia's war—torn tigray region. and as the uk's latest satellite goes into orbit, can it maintain its world—beating leadership in the sector?

hello and welcome to bbc news. afghanistan is seeing the heaviest fighting yet between government forces and the taliban. the militants are trying to seize three major cities in the south and west of the country. they've made rapid gains in less populated parts since it was announced almost all foreign troops withdraw by september. taliban fighters have now entered parts of herat, kandahar, and lashkar gah — the capital of helmand province, once the home to british troops in the country. the fate of these key cities could be crucial amid fears of a humanitarian crisis and there are concerns about how long government forces will be able to hold out. this update from our correspondent in kabul, secunder kermani.

well, this is now the most serious fighting we've seen since this latest taliban offensive began. the militants had already had captured vast swathes of rural territory, now they're trying to take their first city and earlier this evening, they made their way to the very centre of lashkar gah before being pushed back by afghan special forces. in the last few hours, a number of air strikes have been launched against taliban positions there, too. but fighting has been taking place elsewhere, as well. around herat in the west of afghanistan and kandahar in the south. caught in the middle of this, of course, ordinary afghan families. tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes in recent weeks. and the international military mission here will formally come to an end by september with the taliban emboldened, peace talks stalled, everyone's worried that in the coming weeks, the violence is going to get even worse. kemal kirisci is a senior fellow at the brookings institute and has written about the mass exodus that's happening as the taliban's

control expands. he told me more about the displacement of people there. when the biden administration, back in april, announced that they were going to pull out the us military troops, followed by the nato ones, for me, it was very obvious that this is what was going to happen and, as your reporting suggests, taliban control is expanding in the country, there is a lot of violence, and the instability that is going to follow. and afghans traditionally, during the time of the soviet occupation, had fled mostly to pakistan and, to some extent, iran — the two countries were in the world the countries that hosted the largest number of refugees — but this time, it is clear that the movement will be westward. and iran, for the last couple of years, has been encouraging very much the afghans who sought refuge in iran

to move on to turkey, and this is why there are more than 500,000 afghans right now in turkey. i suspect that in no time, in no time, if especially the capital in afghanistan falls into taliban hands, the numbers will increase and some of them will make their way to the greek—turkish border. turning to the olympics now, and we've now reached day nine of the games. here's the medal table as it stands at the moment. china is on top with 21 gold medals, followed by host nation japan with 17. we'll talk about the sport itself in a moment and what we can expect in the coming hours, but first let's cross live to our reporter mariko 0i, who's outside the olympic stadium in tokyo for us. thank you. here in tokyo, we've

seen a number of new infections surpassing 4000 for the very first time yesterday which is quite concerning because usually we expect the numbers to be a lot lower during the weekend because of the number of test that can be carried out. but even more alarming is the proportion of the results coming back positive, hitting almost 20%. across japan as well we saw yet another record, way over 12,000 as well, but if you look at the newspapers, it's not getting the top headline at the moment. this is the headline about it, thejudo team winning a silver medal getting more prominent coverage here. but all the sport newspapers meanwhile are very excited about men's football getting closer to winning a medal. but of course, as we heard, these new infection numbers, we also learned that two athletes from georgia, they had been stripped of their 0lympic accreditation because they brought —— broke the rules

and went out sightseeing and i guess the organising committee taking a very tough approach because they are aware that public sentiment has been quite negative about this 0lympics. i don't think anyone here now blame those foreign athletes or officials for the surge that we are seeing in covid—19 cases but the fact that the tokyo 0lympics but the fact that the tokyo olympics are taking place in the city, that is sending them the city, that is sending them the wrong message. there is no urgency about having to stay at home, even though the state of emergency has been declared for the city, for the past few weeks. but of course aside from the pandemic, another concern has been this intense heat. we heard from novo cribbage, for example, of tennis, complaining about it and other athletes even saying they could actually die in the heat. so let's bring in professor 0llie jay. die in the heat. so let's bring in professor 0lliejay. he has worked with many sporting organisations, including the australian open. could you

explain in as claimants terms as possible about the impact of the heat on gozali —— lehman's terms as possible. the the heat on gozali -- lehman's terms as possible.— terms as possible. the human body strives — terms as possible. the human body strives to _ terms as possible. the human body strives to maintain - terms as possible. the human body strives to maintain a - body strives to maintain a temperature and we have about three _ temperature and we have about three celsius buffer away from getting — three celsius buffer away from getting levels of heat stress that can be quite dangerous to the average person but these athletes are very well prepared for these — athletes are very well prepared for these types of conditions so the — for these types of conditions so the air—conditioning will really— so the air—conditioning will really help them be quite resilient to these particular conditions but with that said, we may— conditions but with that said, we may see heat —related reductions in performance, especially for long endurance activities, and we also might see instances of heat illness occurring _ see instances of heat illness occurring in some athletes. you s - oke occurring in some athletes. you spoke about _ occurring in some athletes. you spoke about the _ occurring in some athletes. gm, spoke about the athletes training to get used to this kind of heat. what kind of things do they do in preparation?- things do they do in re aration? ~.,, ., , preparation? most athletes will exose

preparation? most athletes will expose themselves _ preparation? most athletes will expose themselves to - preparation? most athletes will expose themselves to the - expose themselves to the conditions that they are going to be — conditions that they are going to be playing in in advance of a particular tournament sol would — a particular tournament sol would imagine that most of the competitors in tokyo, for example, would have thought places— example, would have thought places to train for at least a couple _ places to train for at least a couple of— places to train for at least a couple of weeks in advance of coming — couple of weeks in advance of coming to— couple of weeks in advance of coming to the games in an area that is— coming to the games in an area that is hot— coming to the games in an area that is hot and humid and it would — that is hot and humid and it would induce the physiological adaptations that will help them better— adaptations that will help them better cope with extreme heat. to give — better cope with extreme heat. to give you an idea of those adaptations, you have a lower restihg — adaptations, you have a lower resting body core temperature so you — resting body core temperature so you have a bit more of a butter— so you have a bit more of a buffer before you get to the dangerous levels of core temperature, an increase in the blood _ temperature, an increase in the blood volume, so it lowers the amount — blood volume, so it lowers the amount of— blood volume, so it lowers the amount of strain on the heart for a — amount of strain on the heart for a given— amount of strain on the heart for a given exercise intensity, and _ for a given exercise intensity, and increases the maximum amouht_ and increases the maximum amount that an athlete can sweat _ amount that an athlete can sweat as _ amount that an athlete can sweat as well, so those types of adaptations will really put them — of adaptations will really put them in _ of adaptations will really put them in pretty good shape in advance _ them in pretty good shape in advance of these particular conditions, which are quite harsh _ conditions, which are quite harsh |_ conditions, which are quite harsh. , ., , ., conditions, which are quite harsh. , ., ., harsh. i understand you have invented the _ harsh. i understand you have invented the algorithm - harsh. i understand you have invented the algorithm to - invented the algorithm to measure the heat policy for the australian open, which is

different to what the tokyo 0lympics organising committee is using. can you talk us through the difference and why you felt the need to update the system for australia?— system for australia? sure, so for the australian _ system for australia? sure, so for the australian open, - system for australia? sure, so for the australian open, i've i for the australian open, i've also — for the australian open, i've also worked with cricket australia and the national rughv_ australia and the national rugby league as well, and developed individualised heat policies for these particular spots. _ policies for these particular spots, so it was important for us to— spots, so it was important for us to understand how we can best— us to understand how we can best protect the athletes that are competing in a particular sport — are competing in a particular sport so _ are competing in a particular sport. so my advice to those organisations was to move away from _ organisations was to move away from the — organisations was to move away from the wet ball globe temperature index which is the one used — temperature index which is the one used in the olympics, it's used — one used in the olympics, it's used widely and quite popular but what we found is it would be nice — but what we found is it would be nice to _ but what we found is it would be nice to make a heat policy on a — be nice to make a heat policy on a specific sport. it's important to keep in mind it isn't — important to keep in mind it isn'tjust_ important to keep in mind it isn'tjust the important to keep in mind it isn't just the temperature that influences heat stress risk but the humidity and wind and amount— the humidity and wind and amount of solar radiation and also — amount of solar radiation and also what _ amount of solar radiation and also what the athlete is doing and what the athlete is wearing and what the athlete is wearing and all — and what the athlete is wearing and all of — and what the athlete is wearing and all of these things can differ— and all of these things can differ 20 different sports was quite — differ 20 different sports was quite difficult to justify a

particular threshold of that index — particular threshold of that index for introducing certain restrictions or interruptions to play— restrictions or interruptions to play so what we did for these _ to play so what we did for these sports, for example the australian open, we develop something called the australian open _ something called the australian open heat stress scale which rates — open heat stress scale which rates the _ open heat stress scale which rates the heat stress risk on a scale — rates the heat stress risk on a scale of— rates the heat stress risk on a scale of i- _ rates the heat stress risk on a scale of 1— five and then as the — scale of 1— five and then as the risk— scale of 1— five and then as the risk escalates as it gets progressively hotter, or more humid, — progressively hotter, or more humid, we increased the threshold number and then that would _ threshold number and then that would then advise players to adopt— would then advise players to adopt certain strategies that nright— adopt certain strategies that might be quite — that have been demonstrated in scientific settings to mitigate the heat stress — settings to mitigate the heat stress risk of those plays, particularly in a tennis —related setting, as we go from two to— —related setting, as we go from two to three, is where we recommend that players start implementing certain calling strategies that have been demonstrated in scientific studies _ demonstrated in scientific studies to be effective and reducing the rise in core temperature of tennis players, when _ temperature of tennis players, when we — temperature of tennis players, when we reach four the advice is then— when we reach four the advice is then interruption to play with—

is then interruption to play with extended breaks in between particular— with extended breaks in between particular sets and then on it reaches _ particular sets and then on it reaches five, that is where play — reaches five, that is where play on _ reaches five, that is where play on the outer courts are suspended and then play that is taking _ suspended and then play that is taking place on stadium courts, the roof— taking place on stadium courts, the roof is— taking place on stadium courts, the roof is shut and air—conditioning insiders courts— air—conditioning insiders courts turned on so that is the recommendations put forth using that particular heat stress scale _ that particular heat stress scale for that particular tournament. i scale for that particular tournament.— scale for that particular tournament. .. , ., tournament. i can tell you the humidity here _ tournament. i can tell you the humidity here is _ tournament. i can tell you the humidity here is a _ tournament. i can tell you the humidity here is a real - tournament. i can tell you the humidity here is a real killer! | humidity here is a real killer! professor ollie jay from the sydney school of health sciences, thank you so much for joining us on the programme. rich, i think you might actually hide in the shade until we speak to you in the next hour. it is brutally hot, even just talking here, next hour. it is brutally hot, evenjust talking here, you cannot imagine how those elite athletes are going through this. , ., ., athletes are going through this. , , ' this. yes, good stuff. definitely _ this. yes, good stuff. definitely find - this. yes, good stuff. - definitely find somewhere this. yes, good stuff. _ definitely find somewhere cool, mariko. let's look at the sport itself. with me is our reporter, tanya dendrinos. just after 9am. tanya, there's plenty to look forward to, including the final day of action in the pool? that's right, the grand finale for swimming for tokyo 2020,

final medals up for grabs in the pool and it will get under way in one hour. in terms of who to keep an eye out for, us superstar kaleb dressel, he bagged a world record yesterday and 100m butterfly event and is looking to add another two levels —— minister his tally to make it five —— caeleb. he is already run —— won three gold in his first race with a 50 metres freestyle. in the women's, we will look for australia's emma mckeon. looking to add another two today. as far as team gb, duncan scott, adam peaty, they are hunting success in the men's four x 100 medley relay. also looking out for gymnastics medals. and of course that all important men's100m sprint. so much action to look forward to, i will have to have multiple screens going! in the finals of the artistic gymnastics we know

unfortunately that women's vault and uneven bars are not going to be contested by simone biles. a statement from usa gymnastics yesterday did, however, say she will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether she will compete in the finals for the floor exercise and balance beam so hoping that she might sneak in a return here at tokyo after all of the work to get her there and yes, as you mentioned, the blue ribbon event, the men's100m sprint, and for the first time since 2004, it will not take place with usain bolt. what are we going to do without him? we know that canada's entree to grasp finished third in

let's get some of the day's other news. clothing factories in bangladesh are due to reopen on sunday, following a government decision to allow export factories to operate, despite a surge in the pandemic. the country is under a strict lockdown until thursday, but the new order has sparked fears of another wave of the virus. bangladesh has so far reported 1.2 million cases with more than 20,000 deaths. here in the uk, the equality and human rights commission

in the uk has warned employers that rules requiring workers to be fully vaccinated must not be disproportionate or discriminatory. in america, walt disney has become the latest company, after facebook and google, to tell employees they'll have to have vaccinated before returning to work. some businesses in the uk are following suit. a volunteer marshal has died following an accident at a race meeting at the brands hatch circuit in kent, in south—east england. the british automobile racing club confirmed the death on saturday afternoon and said it's working with the motorsport uk group and local police. this is bbc news. the headlines: heavy fighting is taking place in the centre of the strategically important southern afghan city of lashkar gah. the united nations food agency says more than a dozen trucks carrying emergency aid to tigray in northern ethiopia have reached the regional capital mekelle. they were part of a 170 vehicle convoy stuck for weeks in the neighbouring afar region

because of insecurity. some of the other trucks are also making their way to tigray. about 5 million people in the region rely on emergency assistance, with 400,000 living in famine conditions. vanessa tahayaa is from amnesty international. she described the situation on the ground. the situation's absolutely catastrophic. it's been like this since the conflict started, but as the conflict is entering its ninth month, it's just becoming worse and worse. and it has hundreds of trucks, but right now, they need 100 trucks a day to meet the need on the ground, which is not happening due to the restrictions to the region. we have access to the region and there are problems with bureaucracy, restrictions, security reasons. and then, there's problems within the region of attacks on staff, attacks on bridges that are making it difficult to reach certain areas, and again, fighting that is making it harder to reach certain areas and refugee camps, for example, where they have not been able to access them

for several weeks now. i mean, at this point, it's everyone. today, 90% of tigray�*s population is in need of food emergency assistance. over 100,000 children are estimated to die of starvation if the situation doesn't change, and of course, the refugees who are living in the area who already have to flee destroyed refugee camps — and some of them are still left — have not been able to receive any assistance as well in the past months and weeks. so, at this point, it's everyone living in tigray who are in desperate need of aid. there needs to be much more pressure of all actors of the conflict to allow full and unhindered access to the region. in the beginning, there was a complete blocked access by the federal government. we had more and more restrictions from the federal government, and right now, there are different factors creating this disaster that's happening. and so, pressure needs to be put on all actors of the conflict from a security perspective, but also from bureaucracy and other kind of restrictions, to ensure that access is actually allowed. yeah, everybody needs to be putting pressure on all actors.

millions of americans who rent their homes face possible eviction because a federal moratorium banning the practice ends today. the us house of representatives failed to renew the eviction ban on friday. it was introduced last year to prevent homelessness increasing during the pandemic, as huge job losses left people unable to pay their rent. the census bureau says that many millions of renters are behind with payments, and about half fear eviction in the coming weeks. there are so many people who have not been able to catch up on the rental payments at this point in the economic recovery, and what they are fearing is that starting on monday, that the moratorium itself ends today, but practically speaking on monday there are so many people who are fearing eviction notices that will basically force them from their homes. this is a protection that had beenin

this is a protection that had been in place since last year, but there are many people who are saying that given the continued amount of needy, the lack of rental assistance able to reach tenants and landlords as well as rising delta variant cases, the agency is still so severe, even as the eviction moratorium was allowed to expire today. it was only on thursday that the white house essentially said they were not going to press for further eviction moratoriums on their own, and really kicked the can to congress which was totally unprepared to pass a new bill before this weekend, so what we have been really struggling with and what renters and landlords have been struggling with, is this is not news, this has been going on since the beginning of the pandemic, and yet when the deadline actually arrived there was no plan to basically meet people in need. there are at landlords, especially small landlords who have not been able to collect rent, who rely on men for their own income, and are supposed to be made whole by the billion dollars that congress approved,

but it's unclear what will happen starting monday in the weeks and months that followed. there has been focused on trying to do work that slow tracks eviction cases, trying to intervene so the process of being somewhat evicted in court is slowed down, but i think it is slowed down, but i think it is an enormously open question about what follows from here. more than 100 motorists have had to be rescued from a mountain canyon in colorado after a landslide swept across an interstate highway. around 75 people had to spend the night in their vehicles as emergency crews cut a path through the mud and debris to reach them. remarkably there were no injuries. officials say heavy rain sent a torrent of mud and rocks cascading down slopes stripped bare by a wildfire last year. us military forces have boarded an israeli—operated oil tanker after two crew members, a british national and a romanian citizen,

were killed in a reported drone strike. the us navy said experts boarded the tanker to "ensure there is no additional danger to the crew", and say they're prepared to support an investigation into the attack. israel has accused iran of being behind the attack, which occured off oman's coast in the arabian sea on thursday. iran has not yet responded to the allegations, but it's being considered a serious escalation in tensions in the region. our correspondent tom bateman is injerusalem. he explained more from there. the foreign minister who is quite verbally for this — put this firmly at the feet of the iranians and said that he has spoken to the uk foreign secretary dominic raabe about this because one of the two people killed on board was a british security guard on the ship, the other was a senior member of the crew, a romanian national. the foreign minister said that he expected the need for what he described as a severe response following that

attack, that was in a phone call to that uk official to dominic raabe on friday night, and in terms of the details we have now about the attack, the us navy fifth fleet explosive experts have been on board, and the maritime security industry is saying that they understand this to be a drone attack by so—called attack drones, these are explosive laden drones that are explosive laden drones that are flown by remote control into objects and it's believed this was flown directly into the bridge of this ship, and that's when the fatalities occurred. there is an investigation going on, the ship is continuing north past muscat at the moment under its own power, but it is under us naval escort, but what this does is to really ramp up tensions into what is often seen as a shadow wall between the iranians and the israelis across parts of the middle east, but this, in terms of

what happens at sea as far as those confrontations are concerned, marks a serious escalation. let's take a quick look at some updates on coronavirus around the world now. germany says it'll impose mandatory coronavirus testing for all unvaccinated travellers entering the country, regardless of where they're coming from. the new rule is expected to be enforced from sunday. until now, mandatory testing has only been imposed on air passengers. dancing will be allowed at music venues and clubs in the czech republic, in a further relaxtion of covid rules by the government. the number of people allowed to attend sporting and cultural events will also increase from sunday. to 7,000 outside and 3,000 indoors. a state of emergency in malaysia is to be lifted on sunday, despite a new daily record of almost 18,000 covid cases. after months of failed lockdowns, protesters have been gathering in kuala lumpur to demand the prime minister's resignation, over the government's mishandling of the pandemic.

deliveries of vaccines have arrived in cambodia from the uk and china. to date over 70%, of cambodia's 10 million targeted adult population have received at least one dose, and those aged 12 to 17 are expected to be vaccinated from next week. the uk tele communications industry hopes a satellite that has gone into orbit will help maintain its global leadership in the sector. a quarter of the world's big telecoms spacecraft are manufactured in britain, and a new platform, called quantum, is billed as the market's next—generation product. quantum was launched on a rocket from french guiana. here's our science correspondentjonathan amos. another rocket climbs skyward to bolster a sector that europe, and the uk in particular, has come to dominate — the business of telecommunications satellites. there are hundreds of these spacecraft overhead,

bouncing tv, phone calls, broadband and other data services around the planet. but the new satellite going into orbit, called quantum, represents a big step forward in technology. while traditional telecom spacecraft are configured before launch to do very specific tasks, quantum has been built for flexibility. it is the sector's first fully reprogrammable spacecraft. it's able to rapidly change the coverage, bandwidth, powerand frequency of its signals. one of its uses will be for disaster response, providing emergency communications to the teams that are sent in to help people in places hit by catastrophic floods or earthquakes. quantum's manufacturers in the uk — that's airbus and surrey satellite technology ltd — will incorporate the prototype's technology into their future spacecraft, hoping to maintain their world—leading status in what has become a highly competitive field. jonathan amos, bbc news.

that's it from us, you can reach me on twitter, i am rich preston, by now, goodbye. hello. between the showers on saturday, we reached 23 celsius in suffolk. we had nine hours of sunshine in parts of cornwall. that is often the case when we have sunny spells and showers. the north york moors saw about 17 mm of rain from the showers during saturday as well and they haven't altogether died out through the night because we've got the complication of a weather front. what it is is cooler in the north. temperatures into a single figures in rural parts of scotland and northern ireland. that's because we're behind this cold weather front. as i say, that's complicating our sunny spells and scattered showers scenario because we've actually got rather more cloud to start across parts of northern england, showers following on that brisk wind into the north and east of scotland but fewer showers further west across scotland, very few showers for northern ireland generally speaking and further west, but they will break out both on our weather front

and further south. it looks like the most potent showers during the day on sunday are likely across southern and eastern parts of the uk, slow—moving with hail and thunder and lightning. once again torrential downpours, we need to keep an eye on those. and temperatures generally will be a degree or so down on those of saturday because of that northerly breeze although a fairly light breeze in southern areas, as i say. and those showers will rumble on and through this evening and for a start tonight, but then they do fade away. we lose that weather front away from southern and eastern areas and it'll be a fresher night for all, i think. we'll notice that difference by the time we get to monday morning. but some brightness and sunshine and a relatively quiet start to the week. our weather front�*s not too far away in the south, so that's going to provide the focal point again for a few showers and perhaps developing over the cumbrian mountains and up into snowdonia in wales, one or two not far away from northern ireland, and western scotland should be fine and dry but still cool in the north and east with that gentle northerly drift which gets cut off by our slight ridge of high pressure for a time late monday into tuesday. but then, we're looking

at the atlantic influence coming in from midweek on which is going to be difficult to pinpoint the detail at this stage. so, don't take this as read but it does look more unsettled again as we go through the midweek and beyond period. that, as you can see, illustrated here on our weather charts with more showers and longer spells of rain appearing, and even some showers to start the week as i say in southern areas and across wales in particular. so, yes, fewer showers, a little bit quieter to start the week, still quite cool and it stays cool with more wind and rain later.

this is bbc news. the headlines: fighting is raging around three major cities in afghanistan as the taliban try to seize them from government forces. militants have made rapid gains since it was announced almost all foreign troops would leave by september. thousands of people have been fleeing their homes to escape the violence. the un food agency says several trucks carrying emergency aid to tigray in northern ethiopia have reached the regional capital mekelle. they were part of a convoy that got stuck for several weeks. around 5 million people in the region rely on emergency assistance, with 400,000 living in famine conditions. on day eight of the tokyo olympics, it was a clean sweep forjamaica in the women's 100m final with elaine thompson—herah taking the title. it's her second successive olympic gold in the event. and belinda bencic became the first swiss woman to win an olympic tennis gold medal. nhs england and the body that

regulates healthcare products are issuing new guidance on pulse oxygen meters,