hello, i'm philippa thomas. this is outside source. fierce fighting continues in afghanistan as the taliban continues to challenge for major cities. in the south, an intense battle for lashkar gah, with government soldiers telling civilians they must leave for their own safety. and in the west, the taliban is said to have been pushed back in the city of herat. thousands are evacuated from the outskirts of the greek capital, athens, as wildfires draw near. that's one of those situations where you say are in the capital of a major western metropolis, saying this can't be happening here, and yet it is. and barcelona football club says lionel messi, perhaps the greatest footballer on the planet, will leave the club

after failing to reach agremeent on a new contract. we start with the escalating fighting in afghanistan. for months now, the taliban have been gaining ground in rural and underpopulated areas. now there's fierce conflict in several provincial capitals, the afghan army fighting back in crowded neighbourhoods, and all this putting more civilians in more danger. this map shows you some of the key areas of the fighting — kandahar, herat and lashkar gah. lashkar gah is the capital of helmand province, which was the former headquarters of the british forces. there's fierce fighting there, with the taliban now in control of large parts of the city. these are members of the afghan army there, who've been warning residents to stay away or leave. locals have reported dead bodies in the streets and scarce supplies of food and water. bilal sarwary is an afghan journalist based in kabul.

here he is on the latest on the battle for lashkar gah. well, we know that the afghan special forces have tried their operations in lashkar gah, but we have to remember the fighting is in the centre of the city. it's a city of1 million people. the taliban have managed to take control of the local bazaar as well as shops. speaking to me, a member of parliament from helmand told me that people needed food and water, that there was no power and that the taliban were using civilian homes by digging walls going from home to home. he said the government was doing the same. so, it's an incredibly painful and difficult situation for women and children. we know about shelling, we know about air strikes, intense ones in the city. so, this will be not an easy operation for the afghan special forces. kabul has dispatched its most senior special forces general along with the elite forces. there have some successful defensive

actions by the afghan army. in the western city of herat, security forces helped by local warlords — such as this man, ismail khan — have thrown everything into repelling an offensive on the city. journalist charlie faulkner has recently been in herat. here's her account of what she saw there. i was on a front line there with ismail khan and the local fighters who are fighting, sort of answering to him, alongside the government troops. i mean, we could see that, you know, they are really sort of coming together and uniting in their attempts at trying to push back the taliban. you know, things have become very, very severe in herat, same as in kandahar and lashkar gah. the afghan army is also supported by the few remaining us troops in the country, ahead of the final withdrawal planned for later this month. the bbc�*s abdullah bakhtiar in kabul

explains how important the americans still are in the fight against the taliban. yeah, so, the us support- for the afghan forces is very vital. as you know, the us forces have recently bombed some taliban . positions in lashkar gah city, i which have apparently inflicted casualties on them, too. so, the support of the local forces, which are called - the people's uprising forces, are very important _ for the afghan forces. and they're actually helping - the afghan forces in many cities. for example, ismail khan, - who was a formerjihadi leader, leads the people's uprising forces in western herat province. - in the meantime, the presidentl at a session in parliament called on the mp5 to use their influence and you know in the provinces . and make the people stand against the taliban. - so, giving the people support

is very, very much importantl for the afghan security forces. well, the final withdrawal of us troops is due within the next five weeks. general david petraeus is former head of the cia and was commander of the us forces in afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. here are his worries about afghanistan's future without an american presence. i fear that we could see a full—on civil war of the type that followed the post—soviet period in afghanistan, when all the different warlords have their militias back on the streets. you have the taliban, you'll have khani, you'll have various extremist groups and other insurgent elements and government forces. and eventually, they may well converge on kabul in the same way that the forces converged on kabul in the mid—1990s, again in the wake of the collapse of the post—soviet afghan government.

let's take a closer look at that second claim mr haqqini made there. over the past month there has been a lot of international discussion over the role of pakistan in the conflict in afghanistan. afghanistan's government has long accused pakistan of harbouring taliban militants who direct attacks in afghanistan. injuly, its president, ashraf ghani, told a security conference there had been "an influx of over 10,000 jihadi fighters from pakistan and other places in the last month". to which the prime minister of pakistan, imran khan, responded that he was "disappointed that we have been blamed for what is going on in afghanistan". and then this week, pakistan's national security advisor said, "we are beginning to see a very conscious, deliberate effort the former canadian ambassador to afghanistan and former deputy un special envoy to afghanistan chris alexander explains what his view of the role of pakistan in afghanistan is. well, i think it's the missing piece of the puzzle when we look at why peace has not come to afghanistan. there has been a peace process under way for two years, direct talks by the taliban

by the us and the afghan government and over the longer term, contact with the tell a man for ten years. why is there no permanent ceasefire? in my view, the taliban are still proxies and still an armed forces sent by pakistan as part of its obsession with india, to turn afghanistan back into a virtual province under their authority which it was for five years up until 9/11. this is not a policy that pakistanipakistanis properly embrace or know about, but it is based on our strategic depth that there pakistani military embraced after they lost east pakistan in 1971 and have never really given up, so pakistan is in fact... has been at war with afghanistan for 43 years, ever since the general came into power and today, if we do not do something about that, the taliban will be back in the whole region will be destabilised a new after 20 years

of international investment in afghanistan and that would be a tragedy, and above, all a tragedy for the afghans. you are portraying the taliban almost as puppets of pakistan and i should say pakistan cosmic foreign ministry has described this a maliciously campaign. they have hit back directly at what you have had to say. and they make the point is that there has to be an inclusive political settlement. the taliban has to have a voice, has to have a powerful voice at the table, doesn't it? they do and they have had that voice for two years around the table into heart. virtually every concession imaginable has been made, 5000 of their members were released, us troops are leaving afghanistan and now they're escalating the fight, so they have shown a let's get more on that breaking news from the world of football. argentina striker lionel messi will leave barcelona despite both

parties having reached an agreement over a new contract. that's according to the club. they cite the �*economic and structural�* obstacles to renewing the deal. richard foster is a sports journalist. he explains the obstacles. well, i think barcelona are having a bit of brinkmanship here because what they are complaining about are the rules on wages. so obviously, messi is on massive wages, although his new contract was agreed a couple of weeks ago and actually reduced his wages, but they are still significant. so i think what barcelona are saying is that if you want to keep lionel messi in la liga, you need to allow us to release the wages, so i'm not absolutely convinced that this is messi leaning barfor loaner. it may well be brinkmanship and there are not many clubs who could afford the wages. he is available on a free transfer because his contract is basically going to be reneged, but who will be able to afford him?

there are really only two clubs currently, and that would be psg or manchester city. manchester city are just about to secure the signing of jack grealish and i'm not sure if they would add lionel messi, although, of course, there is a connection with pep guardiola. i still think that this has gone a little way to run and i just feel that barcelona are playing a strong hand here and may not actually expect messi to be leaving. i like the insight you are giving us which is do not necessarily i like the insight you're giving us which is don't necessarily take this at face value, we might be witnessing part of a negotiation. it's a bit of a tough argument to make in pr terms, isn't it, though? the caps on wages and got to go because footballers deserve even more?

yes, no, i can see how morally that's pretty difficult to support, but it is this conflict between the clubs and the leagues. the person i feel slightly sorry for with if this actually goes ahead is sergio aguero who left manchester city to join his compatriot at barcelona and if he leaves, sergio aguero is going to be a little bit upset because this was his big chance to play with his hero. stay with us here on outside source. we turn to hungary and this visit by fox news host, kirk carlson and the common ground he's found with prime minister viktor orban —— tucker carlson. he isn't ultraconservative and has been touted as a possible successor.

here's aidenjames. i ran�*s second largest city and home to the country's holiest shrine. as a student, he's took part in demonstrations against the shah. he joined thejudiciary and demonstrations against the shah. he joined the judiciary and was later trained by ayatollah, need, now iran's supreme leader. in this role, he served on secret tribunals with descendents thousands of prisoners to death. the un's investigator has called for an independent inquiry into the executions. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our top story. government troops are battling the taliban for control of major cities, in afghanistan.

let's turn to greece now and the prime minister says authorities are doing "whatever is humanly possible" to tackle wildfires approaching the capital, athens. days of scorching temperatures combined with strengthening winds have led the authorities to issue an "extreme fire warning". this was near athens, a little earlier on thursday. it's in east attica which is just to the north of the greek capital, really not far from the city limits. residents of athens are concerned for the coming days. the only worry is that so far despite this whole ordeal, the winds have been extremely low. the problem is that the weather reports indicated that as of late tonight, we're going to have stronger winds which are going to be building up throughout the weekend and that is, of course, of tremendous concern if the fires persist. anthee carassava is a journalist in athens, and she spoke to the bbc having just returned

from the city's outskirts. as i was there, police were going literally door—to—door, trying to evacuate people. we're already seeing three districts in this area being evacuated, which is about 2000 people. an additional community was being evacuated as i was leaving, more densely populated. people are really panicking right now. it's a situation where you see you are in the capital of a major western metropolis, kind of saying this can't be happening here, and yet it is. smoke from the fires is already making the air in athens unpleasant to breath. but even without the fires, the heat alone is making it hard for residents to cope. lenio myrivili is from the arsht and rockefeller resilience centre in athens. today, the highest temperature was 41 celsius and i think- the highest we have got- here in athens was two days ago when it was 43 degrees.

that is unprecedented. we have never had - temperatures like that. athens feels pretty empty right now. the necropolis is closed - in the middle of the day from 12 noon until five in the afternoon. —— metropolis. it's just too hot for- anybody to be out there. we're really worried _ about the health of the people, both residents and the people the city. it looks like the city, _ it feels like the city is abandoned because people are indoors, even the ones who - are here are hiding. meanhile in turkey, the wildfires are continuing for the ninth day. in total, eight people have died. the focus in the last 48 hours has been on the kemerkoy thermal power plant — these pictures show the fires approaching it. that caused considerable concern because of the coal stored there. this has all been happening in the southern part of turkey, around some of its most popular holiday resorts. the kermekoy power plant is just 15 kilometres from the beach at oren.

the authorities chose to evacuate holiday—makers from there by boat, as the fire approached. one couple from the netherlands spoke after reaching safety. absolutely no problem. we are on the boats in the harbour and we were sleeping outside. the only thing was the ash rain. we notice that only this morning, but we already decided to go this morning, to leave the harbour. the fire did reach the power plant complex — fortunately, the workers had been evacuated, and flammable materials removed from the area. as you can see from these pictures, the fire there has now been brought under control and no serious damage was done to the plant. let's get more on turkey's efforts to deal with the firest from esra yalcinalp from the bbc turkish service, who's been at a rescue centre, in antalya. we are here in the crisis and disaster coordination centre. it's very busy here and we just

interviewed the mayor and he said although the crisis centre is moving to its maximum, everyone is doing what they can, the firefighters are doing their best, but all they need is planes because turkey does not have its own planes. to put out the fire from above, new fires keep happening. the one that started nine days ago is still continuing, so the mayor called for planes once again. in the crisis centre here, the people are taking calls from the citizens that need help regarding supplies, extreme weather events are being becoming more common because of climate change. the european union's copernicus monitoring service says in europe, july was the joint—second warmest month on record. the was a heatwave recorded in the baltic, as well as the one now, in the eastern mediterranean. freja vamborg, is corpernicus�* senior scientist.

this is a global warming trend, - we will see record—breaking months and years as we move forward, l because of this underlying trend. but of course, there are slight variations on top of that, - so not every year will be warmer than the next, or every month. i you've probably heard of tucker carlson. he's a hugely popular anchor on fox news, who'd like to think of himself as second only to donald trump as the most influential right—wing voice in america. this is important context when you consider that this week, he's broadcasting his primetime show from hungary — whose leader, viktor orban, has been making waves within europe by pushing his own brand of populist conservatism. this is how tucker carlson opened his show on tuesday. if you care about western civilisation and democracy, and families and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions,

you should know what is happening here right now. oddly perhaps the trip wasn't announced beforehand by fox news. in fact, the first we heard of it was when prime minister orban posted this picture of the two men together and smiling on facebook. that was monday. that night, tucker carlson's primetime show aired from budapest. then on tuesday, the anchor posted this picture of the pair. this isn't as random as it looks. while viktor orban�*s many critics in europe condemn him as increasingly authoritarian, tucker carlson seems to be enthusiastic about hungary's direction of travel. why should the rest of us care? well, here's anthony zurcher in washington on carlson as something of a force in american media. tucker carlson has essentially become the keeper of the flame of right wing republican populism after the trump presidency. he talks to the millions of viewers on fox news every night, and his name has even been floated as a possible presidential contender for the republican nomination in 2024.

i mean, he has been instrumental in repositioning the republican party to be more of an anti—elite, anti—academic, a white working—class party — and that means opposing things like unfettered trade and immigration, and leaning very heavily into the culture war issues. every day on his show, you see stories about traditional white american families and their values being threatened by woke leftist, progressives in the schools and their workplace, and even in their homes. all of that is ironic because tucker carlson is the heir to a frozen food industry fortune. he was private school educated and became an intellectual in the conservative press. now he is essentially turning his back on that establishment that helped get his rise. viktor orban is one of the most

controversial leaders in europe — he's staunchly anti—immigrant, socially illiberal, an eu leader who is an ally of russia and also courting china. he often argues for tighter eu borders, and has described refugees as �*muslim invaders�*. he�*s spoken in favour of leading an �*illiberal�* democracy and says he wants to make education more �*patriotic�*, as he puts it. "we are the hungarians: with one thousand years of christian statehood, monumental cultural achievements". last month, his advocacy of a new anti—lgbt law, which critics said equated homosexuality to paedophilia, prompted many european leaders to argue for actions against hungary�*s government. here�*s nick thorpe on how this is being viewed in hungary. among prime minister orban, his government supporters — really, he's being seen as a star, as a leading american conservative, and very much on the same ideological page as they are. he had a visit, he was given a vip trip down to the hungarian—serbian

border to see the fence. he was comparing that to the chaos, for example, as he put it on the us—mexico border, and praising very lavishly prime minister orban and his government. interestingly, the media here, the pro—government media here haven't been mentioning that carlson's also, in the covid period, has been very sceptical of vaccines — when obviously that message would go very much against the message of the right—wing government in hungary. so they're picking and choosing. but on the whole, they're very pleased to have him here. while viktor orban�*s rhetoric alarms many in europe, it resonates with the populist right, including tucker carlson. washington post describes it as "one of the least surprising convergences on the planet." "carlson has frequently celebrated orban for defending his countrymen

and msnbc analysis: "carlson�*s agenda seems quite clear: that�*s one narrative. here�*s anthony zurcher on the other. after the trump presidency, i think there are a lot of big people in the conservative press — at least the conservative press here in the us, the way it�*s been reshaped during the trump presidency — who are looking for signs of hope, looking for some sort of a blueprint for how their conservative populist policies can be implemented on a national scale — and they think they�*ve found that in orban. sort of the same way that donald trump pointed to vladimir putin in 2016 as a defective leader for his country. orban�*s criticism of immigration and trade, his defence of so—called traditional family values and western civilisation — all that plays really well in the conservative press

here in the united states. and i think they see it as a framework for the return of trumpism, if not donald trump personally, to power here in the united states and upcoming elections. this story is also playing out in the european press — with a slightly different tone. there�*s been pick up for example on this moment from tucker carlson�*s show on monday. you�*ll notice fox news�* zooming out of budapest�*s liberty statue in the left hand corner of the screen. the statue commemorates the soviet army freeing hungary from nazi germany�*s occupation. politico reports: next, let�*s look at how the story is being picked up in social media. here�*s nick thorpe again. this has picked up on social media with a lot of, as one would expect, quarrels between right and left viewers and readers of social media and contributors to it.

i think it's quite important to explore here this moment, how useful it is for viktor orban as well. he's rather lonely in europe at the moment on an ideological level. at a recent eu summit, very few heads of government even wanted to shake hands with him, so this has come at a very good moment for mr orban. he's under a lot of criticism internationally, and to have this new us ally, a very prominent us ally at a time when he's hit by scandals — use of israeli spyware to listen to independent journalists and critics of the government — it's come as a welcome distraction. also with mr orban looking ahead to the autumn. he's very much trying to align right, some would say far right forces in europe, so he feels that this time, he's getting very strong backing in this form from the united states. finishing with some more breaking football news — manchester city

confirmed their signing ofjack confirmed their signing of jack grealish confirmed their signing ofjack grealish for £100 million. thanks for being here, much more on the bbc news website. i�*m philippa thomas. hello there. there�*s certainly no summery weather in this forecast. it�*s looking pretty unsettled for the time of year thanks to one area of low pressure which is going to park itself across the uk for the next few days, throughout the weekend and indeed even into the start of next week. and it�*s going to bring windier, wetter conditions, some torrential in places and it�*s generally going to feel on the cool side for the time of year. so, here it is, this new area of low pressure, which moves across many places for thursday. lots of isobars on the charts, so the winds have picked up across much of the country as well. and as we head through this evening and overnight, it stays unsettled. there�*ll be spells of heavy rains, some thundery showers, but also some clearer, quieter interludes as well. now, temperatures will be no lower than 14—15 degrees, so actually quite a mild night to come across the board. so, our area of low pressure, then,

very much with us for friday. this little feature will run in across the south of the country as we start the week, and that could bring some heavier downpours across southern areas. because it does look like on friday the focus of the showers or longer spells of rain will tend to be across more northern areas, and this is where we�*re likely to see some thundery downpours for scotland, northern ireland, northern england, in towards the midlands, north wales. there will be some showers across the south, but i think a greater chance of seeing prolonged sunny spells, so not too bad a day across the south. but it�*s going to be a breezy day. these are mean wind speeds. gusts will be higher than that, particularly around some irish sea coasts. now, temperatures, 21, maybe 22 degrees across the south east given some good sunny spells, but generally for most, i think the high teens celsius. and as we head through friday night, we hold onto the breezy conditions, further showers or longer spells of rain mainly across northern and western areas. again, there will be some lengthy clear spells, particularly through central, southern and eastern areas. and temperatures, 12—14 celsius,

so maybe not quite as mild as the previous night. and that little feature i was talking about runs across the south of the country. that can enhance the shower activity there on saturday. generally it�*s low pressure again both saturday and sunday slap—bang on top of the country, so it�*s going to be another one of sunshine and showers. so, some of those showers could be quite heavy across the south. in between, there will be some sunshine. it�*s a similar picture on sunday. even as we head on into monday, we�*ll see sunshine and showers. and these sorts of values a little below par for the time of year.

this is bbc world news,

the headlines... government forces in afghanistan claim to have pushed back a new taliban offensive on the city of herat. reports also suggest that dozens of taliban fighters have been killed in lashkar gah. the belarus sprinter who refused to return home because of fears about her safety says a phone call from her grandmother persuaded her not go back. she added that her criticism of officials was purely sporting, not political. barcelona football club have just announced that their star footballer, lionel messi, is to leave. in a statement, they say that despite having reached an agreement, it was impossible to come up with a deal which suited both the player and the club. and in the uk — fully vaccinated people returning to from france to england, scotland and northern ireland will no longer need to quarantine from sunday. this adds to a number of other changes announced by the government in recent days. the mental health of elite athletes has been thrown into sharp focus