you're watching bbc news. i'm rich preston. our latest headlines: gunfire. fierce fighting in afghanistan — three cities are battling the taliban. with the taliban emboldened, peace talks stalled, everyone�*s worried that in the coming weeks, the violence is going to get even worse. as day nine of the tokyo olympics gets underway, we'll discover the heir to usain bolt�*s crown. 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 position as a world leader in space tech?

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 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 past 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 the western city of herat 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 over the last few weeks. and the international military mission here is going to 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. let's stick with this story for the time being. husain haqqani is former ambassador of pakistan to the united states, now with the hudson institute. he joins us from washington. thank you very much for being with us. how do you assess

these gains by the taliban? they prove three things, first that there was no peace process, it was an illusion, and the taliban are not amenable to peace, basically knew that they had one with an american withdrawal and they wanted to establish their order again and second, the taliban are notjust a small insurgent force, they are a force that is capable of fighting like a commercial army which means —— conventional army which means that somebody is behind them and supporting them and showing them the way to behave like a conventional army. and thirdly, that the afghan military has been left without air power by the sudden withdrawal of the western forces, all through the 20 years that the americans and brits and everybody else were there, they all did not build a strong enough afghan air force and maybe afghan air force totally dependent on

contractors who have not been withdrawn. the taliban also killed afghan pilots while off duty in a very methodical manner, to make sure there is no airpower on the side of the government. so if anybody wants the taliban do not take over afghanistan by force, they have to abandon the so—called peace process and actually get round to supporting the afghan military. g to supporting the afghan milita . �* , to supporting the afghan milita , ., , military. a couple of points ou military. a couple of points you made. _ military. a couple of points you made, the _ military. a couple of points you made, the taliban - military. a couple of points you made, the taliban not| military. a couple of points | you made, the taliban not a small fighting force and they struggle to cope without— the afghan government forces struggle to cope without international support. can they hold back the taliban? i hold back the taliban? i think that the afghan _ hold back the taliban? i think that the afghan people - hold back the taliban? i think that the afghan people will. hold back the taliban? i think. that the afghan people will not accept the taliban easily. they will be resistant. we are headed toward the civil war. the assumption that the taliban just by being invited to the conversation in dough hard to agree to end war has proven wrong. if i was one of the negotiators of that agreement,

i would by now have resigned out of shame ——in doha but i think the afghan people will eventually resist the taliban that they will not have it as easy as they seem to be having it right now. even if they establish control in parts of the country, the people will definitely resist them over the long—term, so what we will have is a prolonged ceasefire — a prolonged civil war instead of a ceasefire.— prolonged civil war instead of a ceasefire. there were always concerns about _ a ceasefire. there were always concerns about what _ a ceasefire. there were always concerns about what would - concerns about what would happen when international forces withdrew from the country. lashkar gah is a case in point, once home to tissue trips, they left and the tallaganda made advances on the area. does the international community bear some responsibility for almost enabling this? responsibility for almost enablin: this? ~ , enabling this? absolutely. the two governments _ enabling this? absolutely. the two governments in _ enabling this? absolutely. the i two governments in washington, dc and london both actually are responsible for this. they withdrew very suddenly. they did not give the afghan government the respect that should be given to an ally. the

withdrawal should have been negotiated with the ally, not with the attacker or with the insurgent. instead, idealwas signed with the insurgents on the assumption that they will quote, unquote, reduced peace, which was an absurd term invented by a diplomat who have no respect for human life in afghanistan, obviously, because what does reduction in peace, reduction in war mean, or reduction in war mean, or reduction in war mean, or reduction in conflict mean? reduction in violence would be, what, we will kill 20 people instead of 40? it was an absurd notion. so the peace deal that was signed, the very—ip still image the taliban had virtually no obligations and the americans made a commitment to withdraw, the signers of the deal definitely bear the responsibility for the terrorism that awaits the afghan people, as the taliban march on. afghan people, as the taliban march om— march on. and how does this affect the — march on. and how does this affect the future _ march on. and how does this affect the future of _ march on. and how does this affect the future of potential| affect the future of potential

peace talks between the taliban and afghan government? first of all, there are _ and afghan government? first of all, there are no _ and afghan government? first of all, there are no peace _ and afghan government? first of all, there are no peace talks. - all, there are no peace talks. there is an illusion of peace talks. the taliban have been consistently saying, if you just read the taliban media gusts and there is a taliban media— they say the americans have lost, we have given them a face saver, in return for which we hope they will give us something, by means of economic or other assistance later, and these people, we are prepared to have a broader shoring language means a conservative body in which they will accommodate non— taliban but basically it is rhetoric, but is never the basis of peace talks. these peace talks have just been a figleaf, for a withdrawal. which was dictated by domestic politics in the us and uk and i understood —— and understandably so but it could have been done in a more honourable way, way in which the afghan people were not let down and unfortunately, they have. husain haqqani.

thank you very much for being with us. 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 in tokyo for us. marinko. —— mariko. the number of new covid—i9 cases here in tokyo surpassed 4000 for the very first time yesterday which is quite concerning because usually we expect these numbers to be quite low over the weekend because of the number of tests that can be carried out. but even more alarming is the proportion of those tests coming back positive, hitting almost 20%, according to the tokyo government. across japan as well we saw yet another record, way above 12,000 mother

i have to say that's not the top news headline on this newspaper. this is the article about those numbers, while the silver medal won by the team judo is getting a lot more prominence. meanwhile, all of the sport newspapers are very excited about japan's men's football team getting closer to winning a medal. but as we heard, those new infection numbers, we also learned that two athletes from georgia have been stripped of their 0lympic accreditation because they broke the rules and went out sightseeing and now they have gone home and i guess the organising committee have to take a tough approach because they are aware that the public sentiment has been quite negative towards the games. i don't think anyone here blamed those foreign athletes or officials for this surge that we are seeing in the city at the same time the very fact that these games are taking place in this city, sending the wrong message. there is no sense of urgency for people to stay at home, even though the state of emergency has been

declared for the japanese capital for the past few weeks. but aside from the pandemic, another issue has been this intense heat. we heard from novak djokovic of tennis complaining about it so earlier, i spoke to professor 0llie jay. earlier, i spoke to professor 0lliejay. he has worked with many sporting associations, including the australian open. what is the impact of this heat on athletes? so the human body is always striving to maintain am internal body temperature of around about 37 degrees celsius, and we have around about a 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 types of conditions so their conditioning will really help them be quite resilient to these particular conditions. with that said, we might see heat—related reductions in performance — for particularly for long endurance activities — and we also might see instances of heat illness occurring in some athletes. you talked about those athletes training to get used to this

kind of heat. what kind of things do they do in preparation? well, most athletes will expose themselves to the conditions that they're going to be playing in in advance of a particular tournament, so i would imagine that most of the competitors in tokyo, for example, would have sought places to train for at least a couple of weeks in advance of coming to the games in an area that is hot and humid and then that would induce the physiological adaptations that will help them better cope with extreme heat. sojust to give you a quick idea of what those adaptations are, you'd have a lower resting body core temperature so you have a bit more of a buffer before you get to those really dangerous levels of core temperature, there's an increase in the blood volume, so that lowers the amount of strain on the heart for a given exercise intensity, and also it increases the maximum amount that an athlete can sweat as well, so those types of adaptations will really put them in pretty good shape in advance of these particular conditions, which are quite harsh.

that was professor 0llie jay from the sydney school of health sciences speaking to me a little earlier. ican i can tell you, this heat is brutal, standing here it is very hot so i cannot imagine what kind of conditions those athletes are having to play in. it must be really difficult for them. . ~ i. it must be really difficult for them. ., ~' ,, , it must be really difficult for them. . ~ i. , . them. thank you very much, mariko them. thank you very much, marika 0i- — them. thank you very much, mariko oi. we _ them. thank you very much, mariko oi. we will _ them. thank you very much, mariko oi. we will come - them. thank you very much, | mariko oi. we will come back them. thank you very much, - mariko oi. we will come back to mariko 0i. we will come back to you later on. with me is our reporter, tanya dendrinos. we will take a look at the sport now. tanya, there's plenty to look forward to — including the final day of action in the pool. exactly right, a big finale for swimming tokyo 2020, the action of course getting under way in a few minutes' time but who do we look out for? us hotshot caeleb dressel backed a world record yesterday in the 100m butterfly event, looking to add another two medals to his start, already he has one three

gold at tokyo, but can he make it five? we will have to wait duncan scott is searching for success in the man's relay. 0ne success in the man's relay. one of the main events, the men's 100 metres sprint. it of the main events, the men's 100 metres sprint.— 100 metres sprint. it is the blue ribbon _ 100 metres sprint. it is the blue ribbon event, - 100 metres sprint. it is the blue ribbon event, we - 100 metres sprint. it is the blue ribbon event, we all l 100 metres sprint. it is the - blue ribbon event, we all think of athletics and we think of week two, and for the first time since 2004 the 100 metres sprint will take place without usain bolt. i'm not sure what we will do without him what we will look for in terms of the drama, it could open up a clean slate, canada �*s andre degrass,

he finished third, and from team usa, treyvon is the favourite, tipped by usain bolt himself, we will have to see how he shakes up, but certainly it would be a remarkable race to watch. blood sweat and tears to get where they are and certainly it was the case for triathlete georgia taylor brown. a touching tribute from her family who posted an image of a presentation that she gave at school when she was just ten years old, reading "0ne school when she was just ten years old, reading "one day i would like to be a triathlete and go to the commonwealth games or even the olympics and win a medal by group one she has donejust that. win a medal by group one she has done just that. ———— taylor—brown.. she claims silver in the individual event and capped it off in the games

with the gold in the inaugural mixed relay yesterday and i do not think it gets much better than that as far as dreams coming true, reg.- than that as far as dreams coming true, reg. good stuff. tan a, coming true, reg. good stuff. tanya. thank _ coming true, reg. good stuff. tanya, thank you _ coming true, reg. good stuff. tanya, thank you very - coming true, reg. good stuff. tanya, thank you very much. l tanya, thank you very much. more from you later. 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 intense heat injapan continues to trouble olympic athletes. 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. rachel seigel is economics reporter for the washington post. 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 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 an enormously open question about what follows from here. rachel seigel. let's get some of the day's other news clothing factories in bangladesh are due to re—open 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 has warned employers that rules requiring workers to be fully vaccinated must not be disproportionate or discriminatory. in the us, walt disney has become the latest company, after facebook and google, to tell employees they'll have to have been 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 says it's working with the motorsport uk group and local police. in southern turkey, president odour one has been inspecting efforts to fight dozens of wildfires that have killed dozens of people. security

forces are investigating rumours that the fires were lit deliberately. 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 occurred off 0man'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. 0ur correspondent in jerusalem, tom bateman, gave us this analysis. the foreign minister yair lapid, who has quite firmly put this at the feet of the iranians and said that he had spoken to the uk foreign secretary, dominic raab, 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.

now, mr lapid 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 mr raab on friday night, and in terms of the details we have now about this attack, as you say, 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 a so—called attack drone. now, these 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. so, there is an investigation going on. the ship is continuing north past muscat at the moment under its own power, officials say, 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 war 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. tom bateman in jerusalem. the british prime minister's wife, carrie johnson, has announced she is pregnant. this will be the couple's second child together. announcing the news on instagram, carriejohnson also revealed that she had a miscarriage at the start of the year. she said: �*i feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again but i've also felt like a bag of nerves.�* here's our political correspondent, nick eardley. carrie johnson's posted on instagram that she's expecting around christmas. remember, she and borisjohnson were married in may in that fairly small and secret ceremony at westminster cathedral. now they're expecting their second child in downing street around christmas time.

it is pretty rare for prime ministers to have children while they're in office — i think there's only been four in the last 150 years or so, so it is quite a rare thing. but in this post that carriejohnson has put up on her instagram page, she's also revealed that she had a miscarriage at the start of this year. i just want to read you a particular point of it which she's put up, saying "i feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again, "but i've also felt like a bag of nerves. "fertility issues can be really hard for many people, "particularly when on platforms like instagram it can look like "everything is only ever going well." she goes on to say, "i found it a real comfort to hear from people "who'd also experienced loss, so i hope that in some very small way "sharing this might help others too." so, happy news for the prime minister and his wife, but also some sadness in that post as well. and mrsjohnson saying that she hopes that by sharing her own experience, it might be

able to help others. more than 100 drivers in the united states 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 apart through the mud and debris to reach them. remarkably there were no injuries, and officials a heavy rain sent a torrent of mud and rocks cascading down slopes which had been stripped bare by a wildfire last year. 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. something rather out of this world is taking place in shanghai, where a futuristic new planetarium has opened. the facility, which is the size of around five football fields, showcases the nation's extra—terrestrial exploits. in recent months, china has landed a spacecraft on mars and sent the first astronauts to a chinese space station. the planetarium also features working telescopes and a range of interactive exhibits. a reminder of our top story. afghanistan is going behaviours fighting yet between government forces and the taliban. they are trying to seize major cities in the south—west of the country and have made rapid

gains in less populated because of the country after the announcement of withdrawal of all foreign troops you can reach me on twitter. from me and the team, 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. 0ur 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 0lympics, 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. now on bbc news, dateline london.