tonight at ten — eight candidates have made it onto the ballot for leader of the conservative party and next prime minister. the successful contenders will go through to a vote tomorrow with the final two candidates selected next week. we need a return to traditional conservative economic values. and that means honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales. some might say this is no time for novices. i think this is no time for "steady as it goes sinking into decline." we'll have the latest on the state of the debate among the candidates. also on the programme... sir mo farah is called an "inspiration" after disclosing he was trafficked into the uk as a child. a bbc investigation finds evidence that british sas soldiers

executed detainees and murdered unarmed people in afghanistan. the heatwave is expected to hit a peak on monday as temperatures rise towards 35 degrees in parts of the uk. in sri lanka, the president flees the countryjust days after protesters storm his palace. and the extraordinary impact of the deepest, most detailed view of the universe — ever seen. and coming up on the bbc news channel... england are bowled out for 110 as they slumped to a miserable io—wicket defeat against india in the first one—day international at the oval. welcome to the bbc news at 10:00pm.

the first round of voting for the new leader of the conservative party will involve eight conservative mps, with the final two candidates selected before the end of next week. so the next prime minister will be one of these. from left to right — nadhim zahawi, rishi sunak, suella braverman, tom tugendhat, penny mordaunt, kemi badenoch, jeremy hunt, and liz truss. any candidate attracting fewer than 30 votes tomorrow in the first ballot will be eliminated. voting will continue in rounds. candidates with the fewest votes will be eliminated until only two contenders remain, with the deadline on thursday 21st july when parliament breaks up for the summer recess. then candidates make their pitch to the conservative party membership, with the winnner

announced by the 5th of september, as our political editor chris mason reports. while waiting from the early front runner rishi sunak, look who's loitering in the corner — the deputy prime minister. and the transport secretary, himself a candidate until now, is here too. please welcome rishi sunak. the early skirmishes in this contest have felt like all the other candidates against mr sunak. he pointedly repeated his critique today of what he sees as their wild promises to cut taxes now. we need a return to traditional conservative economic values. and that means honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales. once we've gripped inflation i will get the tax burden down. it's a question of when not if. so many of your colleagues have sought to demolish your

record as chancellor. do you have the stomach for what's to come? chuckles. i'm standing here today surrounded by friends and colleagues... cheering. chris, that's what gives me the optimism, the confidence, to do this. thank you all very much. here's one of the reasons mr sunak sounds chipper — tempting a fellow candidate to give up and back him instead. grant shapps, i didn't have you down as a quitter. you've packed in before it starts. i was delighted with the support i got but i also recognise that what we need more than anything else is somebody who can step straight into the role of prime minister in serious times. while two senior ministers dashed out of the meeting to here to endorse rishi sunak, another two cabinet ministers left downing street and straight away endorsed liz truss. i've sat with liz in cabinet for some long time. very aware that she's probably a stronger brexiteer than both of us.

she's consistently argued for low tax policies. liz was always opposed to rishi's higher taxes. that again is proper conservatism. from barbs in downing street from backers of the foreign secretary to cheers down the road from those supporting the former minister, kemi badenoch. i tell the truth, i fight for change, i stand up for people and i stand up for the causes and the country i love. some might say this is no time for novices. i think this is no time for steady as it goes sinking into decline. it's time for change. kemi is bright, brilliant and brave. it's only very rarely in politics you come across talents like that. kemi is undoubtedly, ithink, a phenomenon. she's got the right stuff. what do you say to our viewer who looks in on all of this at westminster and thinks, what a carry on? we knew that the political climate was such that boris had to stand down. this is the most diverse group of talent that i think any

political party in the world would be putting forward. to another lectern, more applause and another cabinet endorsement, this time for tom tugendhat. it's time for tom. we've retreated into the pettiness of politics that is more about personality than principle. when our nation needed our party to function we retreated into faction. when the moment demanded service we delivered scandal. also on the ballot paper tomorrow, the new chancellor, nadhim zahawi. suella braverman, the attorney generalfor suella braverman, the attorney general for england and wales. and former cabinet minister penny mordaunt, event is in the morning. live to chris mason in westminster. to underline again, the next prime minister when elected will be one of this group. we can go live to

westminster and speak to political editor chris mason. what's your sense of where the race is now after what you have heard today? it is really heating — what you have heard today? it is really heating up _ what you have heard today? it 3 really heating up now. this evening there were two rounds of hustings where the eight candidates went in front of conservative mps. i was loitering in the corridor over there this evening trying to get a sense of what was going on inside the hustings but they are private. you might think, this all feels insular for the selection of the next prime minister. the truth is right now it is because the electorate is 358 strong conservative mps all in parliament. that's where the focus of the candidates is right now. there will be another hustings tomorrow morning. we will then hear from penny mordaunt, the minister being increasingly talked up actually as a potential candidate to reach the final two. she has a launch event in the morning. then the first round of voting takes place between 1:30pm and 3:30pm tomorrow afternoon and we will get

the result at 5pm. at least one candidate will be eliminated, potentially more. they have to get 30 votes to make it to the second round. we will now get a crunch sound of the number of candidates and allegiances will switch as those who are knocked out back others and those who backed those who are knocked out back others. two final thoughts tonight, one is that it is not obvious who the next prime minister is going to be, to put it gently. and secondly, pretty much all the candidates, arguably all of them, could get on a bus right now, pretty much anywhere in the uk may be other than their own patch, and not be recognised by very many people. and one of them in eight weeks' time will be our prime minister. , ~., ,., ., minister. chris mason at westminster, _ minister. chris mason at westminster, thank - minister. chris mason at| westminster, thank you. the 0ympic champion sir mo farah has revealed he was trafficked into the uk as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant.

the four—time champion told the bbc he was born hussein abdi kahin but was given the name mohamed farah by those who flew him from eastern africa with fake documents when he was nine years old. until now he had always told people that he came with his parents to the uk from somalia as a refugee. he's been speaking to amol rajan. welcome, welcome. oh, thank you. sit there. sir mo farah is not the man millions think they know. now i've come to terms with it, with talking about it, let alone to tell the public — i didn't even have the courage to talk to members of my own family. it was only tanya really that knew because i didn't feel comfortable. i felt vulnerable, at times, ifelt lonely, and if i can't share it with myself, how can i share it with the whole world? he shot to national and internationalfame by winning two olympic gold medals

at london 2012. he is one of britain's most decorated 0lympians. he was knighted in 2017 for services to athletics and has become a regular on tv screens and newspaperfront pages. this is the visa to come to the uk. but in a tv documentary, airing tomorrow night on bbc one, farah reveals his real name is hussein abdi kahin, and that he was illegally trafficked to the uk as a child, for the purposes of domestic servitude. from day one, the lady, what she did wasn't right. i wasn't treated as part of the family. i was always that kid who did everything. i don't know, more someone who works for you, that is your space, this is our space, this is what you do. if i wanted food in my mouth, myjob was to look after those kids. showerthem, cook for

them, clean for them. and she said, "if you ever want to see your family again, don't say anything. if you say anything, they will take it away." he eventually confided in a teacher who helped him alert social services, move to a new family and become a british citizen as mo farah. it was then that he discovered running. what was it like for you living this kind of double life and becoming globally famous? there is a lot i couldn't say, in my mind, as a kid, often i would try and think about, and the moment when i made a decision for myself, i used to lock myself in the bathroom, you cry every day, you cry every day, saying, "please, someone, get me out of here." no one comes to you, so you learn to lock that up, so i told myself, i'm not going to get emotional, i'm going to lock that up inside. just carry on.

it was hard for me to admit what has happened. the bbc has spoken to the home office today and they said, told us, "no action whatsoever will be taken against sir mo and to suggest otherwise is wrong." how does that make you feel? just... it makes me relieved. you know, for me, this is my country. amol rajan, bbc news. you can watch the full documentary — the real mo farah — on the bbc iplayerfrom 6am tomorrow morning. it'll also be shown on bbc one at 9pm. an independent inquiry has found that more than a thousand children were sexually exploited over at least 30 years in the shropshire town of telford amid "shocking" failings by the police and the local authority. the report found that unnecessary suffering and even deaths of children might have been avoided

had west mercia police "done its most basicjob". it says that child sexual exploitation went unchecked because of failures to investigate offenders, amid fears that investigations would "inflame racial tensions". from telford our correspondent phil mackie reports. a town where more than 1,000 children have been sexually exploited since the late 1970s. young girls were groomed, often by gangs, and subjected to some of the most appalling abuse. after three years the findings of an independent inquiry are damning. countless children were sexually assaulted and raped. they were deliberately humiliated and degraded. they were shared, and trafficked, they were subjected to violence, and their families were threatened. they lived in fear. their lives were forever changed. they've asked over the years how

was this allowed to happen. the answer, he believes, is that the authorities had ignored obvious signs of child exploitation, had blamed the children not the perpetrators, and in many cases wouldn't investigate because of nervousness about race. the problems came to light during operation chalice when seven men of south asian descent were convicted of offences against teenage girls but the inquiry has spoken to victims of exploitation from many more communities. this afternoon i spoke to one. she was raped and trafficked. instead of getting helped, she got a criminal record. her words have been re—voiced to protect her identity. victims were being identified as child prostitutes. once you have been convicted that label will never leave you. prosecutions are damaging to your life. some children went to prison for not paying the fines. convictions should be completely expunged. there are 47 recommendations which are made in the report, including that the borough council

and police should set up a joint task force which should report back annually, that counselling should be provided for victims, and that money for specialist teams should be ringfenced. i do hope it's going to bring closure for a lot of people. but i also really hope it's going to open a lot of doors for other people. anothersurvivor, known as holly archer, has set up the holly project in telford to help other victims of child sexual exploitation. for the likes of myself and other survivors who have gone quite far on theirjourney now, for us that is a form of closure but also a form of fight for what happens next. tonight, west mercia police and telford and wrekin borough council apologised to all of the victims. phil mackie, bbc news, telford. the former head of britain's armed forces has said he expects a thorough investigation — after the bbc found evidence that the sas had executed detainees and murdered unarmed people in afghanistan.

lord richards — the chief of defence staff at the time — said the allegations were "worrying" and he had "no doubt" his successor would want to investigate them. the bbc�*s panorama discovered that one unit killed 5a people in suspicious circumstances. the ministry of defence says it will always hold uk troops to the highest standards and that they served with courage and professionalism in afghanistan — as richard bilton reports. the kill or capture raids happened most nights. the sas were hunting for bomb makers, but something went wrong. what we have found suggests a pattern of deliberate killings. we've spoken to eyewitnesses who were on some of these night raids. now, they don't want to be identified, but they say they saw unarmed afghans being shot dead by british special forces.

panorama obtained military reports that show people were repeatedly shot dead after surrendering to the sas in 2010 and 2011. we looked at one sas tour and identified 5a suspicious killings injust six months. this isn'tjust rogue troops on the ground. 0ur evidence shows that those at the very top of special forces were warned. one of my team, an officer, has been told that there is in effect an unofficial policy to kill, wherever possible, fighting age males on target. what is extraordinary is senior officers did not report the allegations to the royal military police but kept evidence in a secret classified file. there was another opportunity for special forces to come clean.

general sir mark carleton—smith, who stepped down as head of the army last month, became head of special forces in 2012. 0ur evidence suggests he, too, failed to disclose the information about war crimes. he did not respond to our questions and the ministry of defence said it can't comment for legal reasons. today, the mod said... but military investigators, who worked on the main investigation into war crimes in afghanistan, have told us that they were stopped from getting to the truth. it became increasingly clear to me that it didn't matter what evidence we were able to gather. these cases were never going to be allowed to go to court. we showed our evidence to general sir david richards, who was

head of the entire armed forces during the time we investigated. in a statement, he said... the ministry of defence says military police will consider any allegations should new evidence come to light. but some believe it is time to look again at the behaviour of sas death squads that arrived in the night. richard bilton — bbc news. it's getting hotter and hotter across many parts of the uk this week. the met office has issued a weather warning — these areas here in orange for extreme heat this weekend in england and wales.

next monday is set to be the hottest and records could be broken. 0ur correspondentjon donnison has been finding out how people are coping. on another scorcher, what better way to try and cool off than a pint and a punt? temperatures in cambridge once again up around 30 degrees and forecast to go hotter still. it was here in the botanic garden in cambridge where the hottest temperature ever recorded in the uk was taken in 2019, 38.7 degrees, but the forecasters think that could be broken later this week, and the truth is that such temperatures are really not that unusual any more. every year for the past ten years we have seen temperatures above 32 degrees. scientists like professor emily shuckburgh at the university of cambridge say climate change in the uk is already literally costing lives.

in 2020, more than 2,500 people died in heat—related deaths in one of the severe heat waves we saw that summer, so it really is something that is starting to impact us, notjust in terms of the financial cost, but the human cost as well. it's especially worrying times for farmers. here in norfolk, they grow potatoes, carrots and onions for supermarkets but the heat means they're going through 50,000 litres of water an hour to irrigate their crops. and reservoirs that would normally be half full at this time of year are at only 15% capacity. i think we're near record—breaking temperatures. we're certainly near record—breaking evapotranspiration rates which means the water is absolutely pouring through the crops. that's fuelled by the wind and high temperatures and high levels of sunlight at the moment, so the real challenge is to get enough water on these crops to sustain them. wheat is a particular worry.

there are fears that if the heatwave continues it could affect the autumn harvest, putting even further pressure on food prices which are already surging. jon donnison, bbc news. now a look at some other stories making the news today... heathrow airport has told airlines to stop selling summer tickets — as the uk's biggest airport struggles to cope with the upsurge in air travel. the airport is limiting the number of passengers who can depart each day over the peak summer months to 100,000 — 4,000 fewer than currently scheduled. all ambulance services in england have moved to their highest level of alert — with officials warning that a combination of factors has placed trusts under extreme pressure. they say covid absences among staff, increased demand caused by the hot weather, and ongoing delays in handing over patients to hospitals, have left them struggling to cope. the queen has presented

the highest civilian honour — the george cross — to the nhs for its courage, compassion and dedication during the pandemic. health leaders from the four home nations were each awarded a medal. frontline workers also attended the ceremony including the nurse who gave the world's first covid vaccine to a patient. sri lanka's president — gotabaya rajapaksa — has fled the country along with other members of his family, following mass protests there. he had been in hiding since crowds stormed his palace on saturday. sri lankans are struggling with power cuts and fuel and food shortages, and blame political leaders for their worst economic crisis in decades. 0ur south asia correspondent rajini vaidyanathan sent this report from colombo. many sri lankans feel that leaving is their only option and in a crisis defined by endless weights, hundreds

queue for passports. a chance to leave their troubled homeland, in search of something better. many trying to make it to the middle east. like this woman who is hoping to find work as a cleaner to support her six—year—old. how do you feel about wanting to leave sri lanka? your heart is in sri lanka? she says she is going because she is struggling to even get food and that is one of the reasons why she is trying to find work in kuwait. i’m trying to find work in kuwait. i'm ”lannin trying to find work in kuwait. i'm planning to _ trying to find work in kuwait. in planning to go to the uk, we don't see any future so we want to move out of this country for our kids, not for us. a, out of this country for our kids, not for na— not for us. a lot of pressure for gotabaya _ not for us. a lot of pressure for gotabaya rajapaksa to - not for us. a lot of pressure for gotabaya rajapaksa to step - not for us. a lot of pressure for. gotabaya rajapaksa to step down, not for us. a lot of pressure for- gotabaya rajapaksa to step down, did you vote for him?— you vote for him? yes, but we did not exnect —

you vote for him? yes, but we did not expect this. _ you vote for him? yes, but we did not expect this. and _ you vote for him? yes, but we did not expect this. and it _ you vote for him? yes, but we did not expect this. and it is - you vote for him? yes, but we did not expect this. and it is not just l not expect this. and it is notjust not expect this. and it is not 'ust these crowds fl not expect this. and it is not 'ust these crowds who are i not expect this. and it is not 'ust these crowds who are trying h not expect this. and it is notjust these crowds who are trying to l not expect this. and it is not just - these crowds who are trying to leave these crowds who are trying to leave the country, the very people who are blamed for creating this economic crisis, president gotabaya rajapaksa and his family members, are also trying to flee the island. this video is believed to have been recorded at the airport as former finance minister basil rajapaksa was stopped at immigration. tonight, he finally left, said to be heading to america. his brother, president gotabaya rajapaksa, has now also fled. a ruthless politician, accused of brutality and corruption, part of a family dynasty which has ruled sri lanka for decades. 0nce popular, now parodied, gotabaya rajapaksa is blamed for the country's economic woes. he has brought this country to its knees.

we have no food to eat, we have no fuel, the basic human necessities are missing, and that is thanks to these people and this one family which has been basically draining all the sources of income that we have. lining up for a peek inside the presidential palace. days after gota baya rajapa ksa fled his home, he's now left the country. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, colombo. these are some of the first images released by nasa, and the european and canadian space agencies from the world's most advanced telescope — the james webb space telescope — which was launched into space last year. the extraordinary images are the deepest and most detailed view of the universe ever seen. they contain light from galaxies that has taken billions of years to reach ours — as our science editor rebecca morelle explains.

the beauty of our universe as never seen before, captured by the james webb space telescope. these are the cosmic cliffs of the carina nebula. amidst the dust, stars are being born. this is a new view of stephan's quintet, 300 million light years away where vast galaxies are caught in a celestial dance. and the deepest ever view of space. it's teeming with galaxies. some from just a few hundred million years after the dawn of the universe. to have worked on a mission for this long. to be able to finally see it come to fruition, to do what it's supposed to do, is just absolutely incredible. the images are amazing, themselves, just as images, but the hint of the detailed science we're going to be able to do and what we can learn from these images is what makes me so excited. the telescope blasted off last

year on christmas day, and over the last six months it's been getting ready for its mission. the james webb space telescope is an engineering marvel. at its core is a six and a half metre wide mirror made up of 18 hexagonal segments, each perfectly aligned to act as a single surface. it also has a sun shield the size of a tennis court to protect it from the heat and light of the sun. the telescope will look back further in time than ever before, showing us the light from the very first stars to shine. we'll also be able to see how they came together to form the earliest galaxies. and it will study other planetary systems, revealing whether life could exist beyond our world. it's almost like a time machine. you're looking back into the far distant past and so we can begin to answer those questions about how did the first galaxies and stars form. the hope with this telescope is that we see almost in real time, as it were, a history

of the universe playing out. the telescope also captured this. 2,000 light years away, it is a star going through its death throes. in some strange way it is a pretty view of something decaying and dying but we're able again to look at the material as it flows away from the star and understand something about the evolution of the star, so going from star birth in the star—forming regions, all the way through to star death. but this is just the start for the telescope. over the coming days and months, more and more images will be captured. our knowledge of the universe and our place in it is about to be transformed. rebecca morelle, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's darren bett. 32 degrees today, and many other places in the country had a much cooler day, with a few spots of rain here and there, cooler air trying to

move down from the north behind this cloud, that continues to run south overnight but if we had all the way down to spain and portugal, temperatures are in the mid—40s and we have an early and prolonged heatwave and it is this weekend and early next week where we tap into that heat and it will be hotter than it has been over the last couple of days. still uncomfortably warm up tonight in the south—east, especially london, but cooler elsewhere. we start tomorrow with cloud over southern parts of england and may be a few spots of rain overnight but that moves through, a few showers for scotland and sunny spells, as well, and much more sunshine for england and wales but the temperatures continue to drop away a little bit, except in the south—east and east anglia, another very warm day and temperatures could reach 30 again in london. moving onto thursday, a west to north westerly breeze which will bring more showers to northern ireland and scotland and may be some for northern england but elsewhere it is

dry and sunny and again it is very warm, but not