�*welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines. three afghan cities fall to the taliban in just one day — including strategically important kunduz. farewell to one of the most controversial summer olympics ever — as tokyo hands over to the next host city — paris. residents and holidaymakers, try to escape. burn out of control. just a few miles from here there are bright blue skies, but here the air is full of smoke and ash. and is making it harder for people to breathe. lionel messi says goodbye to barcelona — we look at what his next move might be

it's seven in the morning in singapore, and 3:30 in the morning in afghanistan where the taliban are gaining ground at shocking speed. three northern afghan cities appear to have largely fallen to the islamist militants within hours of each other. the biggest is kunduz, a city of more than a quarter of a million. the provincial capitals sar—e—pul and talo—qan are also largely in militant hands; in the latter they've been freeing prisoners. this adds to zaranj and sheberghan captured on friday and saturday. government forces in kunduz appear only to hold their own base and the airport, though the interior ministry spokesman insists they're already retaking strategic

sites and will drive the insurgents out. our correspondent paul adams has more. fire and confusion in the centre of kunduz. taliban pictures appear to show yet another city falling under their control. this is their biggest prize so far — a large city, economically and strategically important, and it seems to have fallen easily. afraid of the fighting as much as the taliban, civilians are fleeing, some of them heading south for kabul. a government spokesman says the taliban will soon be ousted, but similar claims have been made elsewhere, apparently without result. to the west, taliban fighters inspect newly captured government buildings in sar—e—pul, another provincial capital.

one of three reportedly captured in just one day. if the taliban can make it to kunduz maybe they can make it to kabul, and that in itself is a big fear. the only good option would be if there is some kind of a political settlement, but that doesn't seem any more possible today than it did two or three years ago. and tens of thousands of afghans are being displaced. this is notjust a political and military disaster. decades of conflict in afghanistan have created whole generations of refugees. the west's military withdrawal is almost complete. afg ha ns fear they�* re being abandoned. the government can request american air strikes, but for how long and to what effect? paul adams, bbc news. i'm joined now by lieutenant colonel davis — former soldier who served in afghanisatan, now a, senior fellow and military expert at defence priorities in washington.

he told me how far the taliban advance can go. i doubt that kabul is going to be next because that is literally the capital and they are both figuratively and literally for the afghan government will do everything they can to protect that and they will marshal their resources if they need to. but the anguishing thing to me is that this is entirely predictable. i've been warned about this for many years as of several other people. this was entirely avoidable list of the degree we have seen here. and i'm concerned about what will happen next but this cannot surprise anyone that's been paying attention to the reports coming out. especially this past week equally as frustrated as i am right now about how and you would could have been surprised by this because of the really bad weight we have been doing business over the last ten or 15 years.

you said that this of been avoided but how could have been avoided? really if we had just taken the advice of the social inspector general and corrected the way we were training and got rid of the corruption by holding people accountable, but what we did a year after year was just kept giving all of these pronouncements that everything is going fine and not holding anyone accountable, but we have graphic evidence of gross misappropriation of funds and stealing all of that never held to account, of course there's going to continue on doing it and the people that pay the biggest price of the afghan soldiers who are often victimised by a lot of this, the afghan people while all of these people were making lots of money to the top and we just turn a blind eye to it. we cannot claim that we did not know this was going to happen, that it was happening and we bear the burden of the responsibility for what's taking place right now. are there any prospects for a cease—fire?

i think there is some prospects, i'm not hopeless yet. isis, when they took a wrote large portions of iraq did not expect to have the more success, did not realise that the security forces would collapse the way they did and the problem is that they can go and take terrain but they are not staffed or even capable of administering a large city like kunduz for example. they are not quite a bill to hold onto these instantly not going to be able to administer like they're going to take over territory so i think you will find some of these are transient. it's going to give the people a chance, but for the afghan soldiers fighting they have got to have some leadership that's going to stand up that they can trust. and so far we have not seen a lot of that.

still to come a bit later in the programme, we will have still to come a bit later in the programme, we will have the latest on the fires ravaging across greece, but first... to tokyo — where after two weeks of gruelling competition the olympics has come to an end. the us finished on top of the medal tally ahead of china and japan, the host nation having their best ever performance at an olympic games. and the closing ceremony was an upbeat celebration of all aspects of japanese culture. culminating in all the athletes thanking the people of japan for hosting the games in the midst of a pandemic. although there were no fans inside the olympic stadium, plenty turned up outside to try and catch a glimpse of events. now to reflect on the legacy of the games, here's our tokyo correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes. if you tried to get to the olympic stadium tonight, this is what you were met with. hundreds of police blocking alleyways ordering people to move along. even the closing fireworks

lasted just 15 seconds. but if the authorities were trying to prevent the large gathering spot took place during the opening ceremony, then they failed. out of the park, the sport loving family have spent much of the last two weeks glued to the television but even for them watching games on television has not been unmitigated joy. translation: iwanted to go and watch. - it is totally different to watch on television then actually been there. translation: it is almost | like the olympics was taking place in the mother country. you can only watch it on television. . we felt the distance very much. the last couple of weeks have been a tale of two cities. there is the one behind the fence where there has been this amazing sport and tremendous success forjapan and then moves to tokyo outside where most of the time would not even have

noticed that the olympics has been happening and the same contrast is true for the pandemic. inside the fence, daily testing meant things were kept under control but outside, the pandemic is now out of control. critics say the olympics has set up to other resources leaving the city without enough covid testing kits or vaccinations. it has left a scar- on the japanese society, meaning people are divided i and above all, the games left the economy attacked | if you look at numbers in tokyo, it isjust increasing. - there is no doubt that the record—breaking haul of medals forjapan has bought realjoy to the host nation, as the roadshow leaves town, the olympic host city has been left facing a medical crisis. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, tokyo. if you want to look back at any of the best moments

from the closing ceremony and the last two weeks then remember you can head to the bbc news website, bbc.com/news and follow the links through to our full coverage of the olympics and of course of the upcoming paralympics which starts on tuesday august 24. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. virtually the entire population of wuhan, the chinese city where the pandemic first started, is said to have been tested after the delta variant of coronavirus was detected there. the authorities say more than eleven million people have undergone testing since tuesday, after seven cases of the delta variant were found in the community. a huge wildfire in the north of california is now the second largest in the state's history. five people are missing after the dixie fire swept through two towns and forced the evacuation of thousands.

and over in peru, firefighters are struggling to put out fires burning in the south of the country. more than 500 firemen are trying to extinguish the blazes which began last thursday and have so far destroyed more than ten square kilometres. the authorities say there have been no fatalities or injuries so far. hundreds more people have been forced to leave their homes in parts of greece, as wildfires continue to blaze out of control. the country's most intense heatwave in 30 years has made woodland tinder dry, creating perfect conditions, for the fires to burn. the region north of athens, and evia, greece's second—largest island, are among the worst affected areas. ferries are helping evacuate residents and holidaymakers. our europe correspondent, bethany bell, has sent us this report from evia...

exodus from evia. there are long queues at the port. people are waiting to get on ferries to the mainland. holiday—makers and some locals are leaving, after villages and parts of the north of the island were evacuated. chris, who works on evia as a singer, says the wildfires are spreading and the authorities aren't doing enough. the most people see that we don't have any help until yesterday and they could save everybody and it wasn't true. the people don't know where to go. the big problem is that we feel that they let us burn. this is what they're fleeing from. wildfires have been blazing out of control for almost a week now. siren wails. houses and forests have been destroyed.

this village is being evacuated. as thick orange smoke fills the air, people wait nervously for the ferry to depart. it's like the scene of an apocalyptic movie definitely because there's no sky, the sun is red. it's quite scary. it's time to leave. the fires are getting closer and closer to this village. just a few miles from here there are bright blue skies but here, the air is full of smoke and ash and it's making it harder for people to breathe. no—one knows if this village will be spared. it's now up to the gods of the winds and the weather. bethany bell, bbc news, evia. surreal images in that report

there. if you want to get in touch you can find me on twitter. i'm looking forward to hearing from you. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme... capturing the pain and glory of the olympics one frame at a time. we hearfrom three photographers who were there. the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a huge job of crowd control. idi amin, uganda's brutal former dictator has died at the age of 80. he's been buried in saudi arabia where he lived in exile since being overthrown in 1979.

2 billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to take place in this millennium. it began itsjourney off the coast of canada ending three hours later when the sun set over the bay of bangor. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. our headlines. but taliban sees three more provincial capitals in afghanistan in the course of the day as they reject calls for a cease—fire. wildfires are continuing to burn on the greek island. dozens of villages have been evacuated and fairies are on standby to bring more people

to safety. the argentine footballer lionel messi has made a tearful farewell to barcelona, the spanish club hejoined at the age of 13. messi has been at barcelona for more than 20 years, helping them win 3a trophies — including ten spanish and four uefa champions league titles. barcelona said it was letting him go because it could not afford to pay his wages. the 34—year—old did not say what he planned to do next, but acknowledged that a move to paris saint—germain was a possibility. he also expressed his deep affection for the club where he'd spent so much of his life. translation: many beautiful things happened to me here, | bad too, but all this helped me to grow, improve and made me the person i am today. we've had very good moments, bad ones too, but the affection of the people has been constant

— i always felt it, the recognition, the love. i felt it towards them, too, and the club, and will do all my life, i hope. i'm joined now by kieran canning, football correspondent for afp. it's great to have you on the programme. it really looked there like messi is very emotional. have the club done everything they can do to keep him? . �* , , ., him? that's the question. in fact he himself _ him? that's the question. in fact he himself said - him? that's the question. in fact he himself said that - him? that's the question. in fact he himself said that he l fact he himself said that he did everything he could to stay. he admitted that as we all know you're ago he wanted to leave but wasn't allowed, but this year he wanted to stay. and has not been allowed. millions of fans

have been brought up with the special football of barcelona and messi. we thought he would end his career with barcelona. but financially it was impossible. ifeel that but financially it was impossible. i feel that they could have done better in terms of telling him. he came back from holiday thinking he was going to sign a new contract and instead he was told on the phone that it was impossible and they could not keep him. when you look back at the history of how all of this has happened the financial mismanagement that has been going on at barcelona, and how much of that is to blame for where we are right now? it’s where we are right now? it's the biggest _ where we are right now? it�*s the biggest reason, really. and even though of course some would like to blame the league and the president of barcelona, the pointing of the finger can be a little bit to the league because of the on flexible financial fairplay but that's rules that everybody knew. the main reason is that as we stand

110% of the money that was coming in went to wages. that means that technically they are bankrupt. and this isjust wages. this is a massive club with a lot of expenses. so basically they made the coalitions and realised that keeping messi even though he was going to lower his wages to 50% which is the maximum they could have reduced his wages. they say he should've played for free, they say he should've played forfree, but it's illegal to do that. they asked them to reduce his wages and he said yes. but it sadly was not enough. but the impression they will be left with is that perhaps he should have done more. ., ., , perhaps he should have done more, ., ., , ., perhaps he should have done more. ., ., , ., more. could to be a last-minute miraculous— more. could to be a last-minute miraculous twist _ more. could to be a last-minute miraculous twist of _ more. could to be a last-minute miraculous twist of fate - miraculous twist of fate scenario, you know, the goal at the 11th hour or whatever the phrase might be that everybody is waiting for where they come to some sort of an agreement and he stays? i

to some sort of an agreement and he stays?— and he stays? i think you are dreaming _ and he stays? i think you are dreaming but _ and he stays? i think you are dreaming but let's _ and he stays? i think you are dreaming but let's dream - and he stays? i think you are dreaming but let's dream forj and he stays? i think you are i dreaming but let's dream for a bed. ina dreaming but let's dream for a bed. in a perfect world he goes back to barcelona tomorrow and forget the financial fairplay and forget the debt and it's not going to happen. we would love to but it's not going to happen. love to but it's not going to ha en. ., , happen. there with the latest on that story _ happen. there with the latest on that story for _ happen. there with the latest on that story for us, - happen. there with the latest on that story for us, thank . happen. there with the latest | on that story for us, thank you so much forjoining us on newsday. moving to other stories and headlines today. the latest changes to the uk's covid travel restrictions have come into force. mexico is now on the "red" list, with arrivals to britain having to stay in a government—approved hotel for 10 days isolation at their own expense. seven countries including germany have been added to the "green" list, and there are now no restrictions for travellers who've been double jabbed, arriving from france. here's our business correspondent, katy austin. just off the eurostar from paris to london

and for passengers who've had both jabs, there's now no need to isolate. we were expecting to quarantine, so with having the kids it's a very nice surprise that we don't have to. the first time they've seen their grandparents in france for the last 18 months. we were able to come back today and not have to quarantine, that's pretty great, yeah. yeah, it makes. a huge difference. it definitely enables us - to travel a bit more, yeah. desperate for any boost after the crippling effect of more than a year of restrictions, travel and tourism businesses are hoping for a flurry of last—minute holiday bookings. this campsite in the west of france used to fill up with british visitors. it's still very quiet but the owners say wednesday's announcement has helped. we're starting to pick up a lot more bookings. there just seems to be a generalfeeling of a bit more confidence. and relief that they can actually come out. brittany ferries has seen

a surge in reservations but still only hopes to carry 500,000 passengers this year — less than a quarter of pre—pandemic levels. season �*21 will be worse than the season of �*20 for brittany ferries. so i guess it's more than welcome, this announcement, it's good news but it comes in a year where at the end of the day for us, everything is about �*22 and making �*22 a real normal year. the changes which have come in today are subject to a review in three weeks. the transport secretary has argued this provides some certainty for passengers. there are concerns, though, in the travel industry that covid testing requirements are still putting people off and some businesses think it's too late to save their summer. katy austin, bbc news. go back to tokyo. we are used to seeing spectacular pictures of world—class athletes at the

on the banks. i'm sure you have enjoyed them as i. what makes a great sports photograph? it's gotta be impactful, it could be in—your—face action shots, celebrations, emotion, dejection. subtleties, details. artistic compositions. the beauty about sports photography is it can take on so many different forms. my name's lawrence griffiths. i'm chief photographer in the uk of sport with getty images and this is my third summer games. i look at life as a photographer. you know, as soon as i'm walking into a place, i'm analysing what i've got, you know, i'm looking at the way the light is, i'm looking — you know, i walk into a venue and i'm assessing backgrounds, i'm assessing angles. obviously lady luck does play

a part, but if you want to get those perfect moments, you have to get the perfect spot and, laughs, you have to get there early. three hours, four hours before, to sit in that spot. you know, if you leave it, someone willjump in it. i think a lot of people think you just turn up, i had a brilliant position at opening ceremony — bang opposite the cauldron. i was able to take in all the fireworks and all the razzmatazz. but i was particularly pleased with this — as the cauldron opened and naomi osaka turned round, she's just got this, like, little cheeky look on her face and she's looking up at the torch and it was just a really, sort of, nice moment. i mean, simone biles is right up there with the greatest athletes of all time. you know, i've photographed her a lot through previous olympics and world championships and when she is in full flow, she is a sporting perfection, absolutely incredible

to photograph as well. perhaps these games have, you know, we're seeing a different side to her. she's holding the chalk, you know, the chalk for the rest of the team and she's pulling her mask off and looking a bit sad and vulnerable, and i think that picture really tells that story of that day for me. historically down the years when people look back on the tokyo games, that was in the middle of that pandemic and there were no spectators there. as sport photographers, we want to turn around and say look, you know, the picture that sits in history is something you've taken. amazing pictures. an image really is worth a thousand words. with the other pics in tokyo all wrapped up as we have been telling you it's time to look ahead to the next summer games in paris and just three years time. next host city has been celebrating with a

spectacularjet plane been celebrating with a spectacular jet plane flyover. while athletes and sports fans gathered near the eiffel tower. that's it for newsday, thank you for watching. hello. while the sum of you been able to stay dry the past few days for others dark clouds about around a months worth of rainfall. it has been like that for you there's some good news ahead and will be fewer showers around this beacon should turn around this beacon should turn a bit warmer commit to purchase turning to where the should be for the time of year. to get there we need to get rid of this area of low pressure been with us for days now and still with us for days now and still with us for days now and still with us today. we've got outbreaks of rain, some thunderstorms around from that and one weather system toward the southeast quarter with the heaviest of the rain. clear skies around first thing and what you do with each ofjust tropic and signal figures but most will have temperatures around the low teens to start the day. showers on monday morning across parts of southern scotland, northern ireland the brightening up through the day. heaviest of the showers across the northern

half of scotland and thundery particularly towards the east later on. brightest of the weather in north wales, and blustery showers to see it through the day elsewhere. temperatures a bit more the low 20s. showers continue to the evening for parts of scotland, for many will fade overnight. a sign of something improving its bars the weather is concerned, it's close to scandinavia and starts to become less a feature, little ridge of high pressure pushes ending put a cap on the atmosphere and stop at some of the showers from brewing. nearly half of scotland most likely to see them, still thundery in places but south of that isolated showers and more spending the day dry with fungus was a sunshine and temperatures climbing a little bit day by day. as we go into the middle part of the week this broad area of low pressure outwards the west will bring some welcome rain and the weather front towards the highlands and watch to come there. approaching social tracking southerly winds with warmer air

across the near continent. but she temperatures back to where we should be for the time of year with sunny spells, best of which will be in the morning across central and eastern areas. some of the sunshine turning hazy. shari conditions into the west later and heaviest and most persistent rain across parts of western scotland. temperatures will be above 20 degrees, 20 to 2a celsius weather should be for the time of the year. 25 or even higher. stays well enough to the south and east but for the rain at times in western scotland. see you again soon.

this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as news newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. in pakistan, journalists who ask awkward questions of people in power need to watch their backs. in the last year, there have been a string of attacks on reporters. the perpetrators remain unknown and unpunished. the government insists pakistan is a bastion of media freedom. well, my guest is hamid mir, a high profile columnist and tv presenter, survivor of several past assassination