this is bbc news. i'm david eades. our top stories: president biden has confirmed that the leader of al-qaeda ayman al—zawahri has been killed in a drone strike in kabul. he made videos, including in recent weeks, calling for his followers to attack the united states and our allies. now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more. al—zawahiri had previously been osama bin laden�*s number two, and was deeply involved in the 9/11 attacks on the united states in 2001 one of america's most senior politicians, nancy pelosi is now expected to visit taiwan on tuesday, putting further strains on relations with china. and beyonce will re—record

one of her new songs, replacing a word, after disability campaigners raised concerns about the lyrics. and how virtual reality surgery has enabled doctors to separate conjoined twins with shared fused brains. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe president biden says an american drone strike has killed the al-qaeda leader, ayman al—zawahiri. he said the operation, which he authorised, took place in the afghan capital kabul on saturday. mr biden said ayman al—zawahiri was had been deeply involved in the september the 11th attacks as well as earlier attacks on us embassies in africa

and the uss cole in the late nineties. zawahiri, who succeeded osama bin laden as al-qaeda chief, was on the fbi's most wanted terrorist list. this is what president biden announced a short time ago on saturday at my direction, the united states successfully concluded an airstrike in kabul, afghanistan, that killed the emir of al-qaeda, ayman al—zawahiri. ayman al—zawahiri was bin laden�*s leader, he was with him all the whole time, he was his number two man and deputy at the time of the terrorist attack on 9/11. he was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11. one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on american soil. for decades, he was the mastermind behind attacks against americans, including the bombing of the uss cole in 2000, which killed 17 american sailors, and wounded dozens more. he played a key role in the bombing of us embassies in kenya and tanzania,

killing 224 and wounding over 11,500 others. he carved a trail of murder and violence against american citizens, american service members, american diplomats and american interests. and since the united states delivered justice to bin laden 11 years ago, zawahiri has been a leader of al-qaeda, the leader. from hiding, he co—ordinated al-qaeda's branches and all around the world, including setting priorities for provided operational guidance that called for and inspired attacks against us targets. he made videos, including in recent weeks, calling for followers to attack the united states and our allies. now, justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more. a definitive statement from resident biden live on tv.

mark lobel is here with me. you have detail on what happened unlike the knows about it. �* ., happened unlike the knows about it. ~ . ., , . happened unlike the knows about it. ~ . . , . it. after a hard, 'ustice was delivered h it. after a hard, 'ustice was delivered to _ it. after a hard, justice was delivered to president - it. after a hard, justice was | delivered to president biden it. after a hard, justice was . delivered to president biden in the form of two hellfire missiles, we are told by us officials, that hit the al-qaeda leader as he was standing on his balcony in a safe house in kabul, in a residential area. extraordinary details. if true, it was a precision missile, and to surface missile that costs a lot of money and it did not, according to reports so far that have not been contested, anyone else, his family members that was staying in the house, or civilians in the area. it is that kind of meticulous approach that the us officials have been stressing to place throughout the last month where president biden was sat down with the cia director and

national intelligence and counterterrorism directors, basically shown a model of this house and even asking questions about the constructions to find out himself exactly how the operation would work to make sure there was no collateral damage. it seems like this has been a successful operation from the america's point of view that they took their time on. ., ~' view that they took their time on. ., ~ , ., y view that they took their time on. ., ~' , ., , . on. thank you very much indeed, the detail of— on. thank you very much indeed, the detail of what _ on. thank you very much indeed, the detail of what happened. - earlier i spoke to retired lieutenant general david deptula. he is dean of the mitchell institute of aerospace studies. he was in charge of the desert storm campaign in 1991 he was in charge of the desert storm campaign in 1991 and commander of the air operations over afghanistan and iraq after 9/11. i asked if this was personalfor him. yes, in retrospect, having been in the pentagon when it was hit by bin laden, and zawahiri's plans, it is pretty personal and termination of al—zawahiri is a very

significant event, from my perspective, is it highlights the fact that terrorist leaders will ultimately be held accountable for their actions. it is not the first time that there has been an attempt to remove him, if i can use that sort of language. are you surprised it has come now, the timing? not really. it highlights a couple of things that generally get assumed or taken for granted. the first one, it demonstrated the value of airpower with its global reach, global power and precision, as well as the excellent intelligence in precise targeting that went into this event, because his whereabouts had long been a mystery, so, you know, iam sure he and his followers took lessons from bin laden�*s hiding but, once again, it kinda demonstrates the long reach of a determined

and dedicated intelligence analysts and the follow—up with an airpower instrument. president biden described it as a moment that can be closure also for the families of victims of 9/11. i just wonder how familiar a name and a figure ayman al—zawahiri is in the us? he is pretty well known in the us, as he was indicted for the bombings of the us embassies in kenya and tanzania in 1988, which by the way, kind of highlighted the growing threat from al-qaeda and then, as you mentioned earlier, he participated in the attack against uss cole and the planning of 9/11, and having taken overfrom bin laden as the leader of al-qaeda, he is a pretty well—known name, at least to folks who had been

around that adult lives since that time frame. i was interested that in a recent un report, the taliban were given at least some credit for restraining al-qaeda and whatever its plans might be for further incitement to violence, not least against the united states, and i wonder from that point of view, to what extent this is in your view in any way a risky tactic to take them on at this point? no, personally i do not believe it is risky per se. i think that his location in kabul also demonstrates the untrustworthiness, the continual lying and deception that is perpetuated by the taliban, because if you recall, in discussions with the taliban,

the taliban, that led ultimately to the us withdrawal from afghanistan, included a taliban promise not to allow terrorist groups to operate within their territory. however, it is pretty evident that al-qaeda retains a strong relationship with the taliban government and it is of interest to note that al—zawahiri's increased signature coincided with last year's taliban takeover of afghanistan, so, you know, i don't know if that completely addresses your question but it does underline, as i mentioned, the untrustworthiness of the taliban, or at least their voice. and david, just in a word, literally in a word, the us intelligence line is "high confidence" that they have removed al—zawahiri, that is good enough for you presumably? yeah, it is. having worked very closely as a member of the intelligence community here in the united states in my last tour, they go

to extraordinary lengths to validate their actions. clearly, as long as humans are around, mistakes will be made, but the vast majority of the time they are spot on. retired lieutenant general david deptula. commander of m operations over of gunnison after 9/11. a short time ago, secunder kermani — our correspondent in kabul — outlined the regional reaction to zawahiri's death. earlier on tonight, taliban officials announced that the drone strike that had been carried out over the weekend in kabul, they initially said it was a rocket attack that landed in an empty house. they said their investigation had determined it was carried out by a us drone strike. they made no mention of any victim, certainly no mention of ayman al—zawahiri or al-qaeda at all. we will have to wait

and see how the taliban respond to this. this killing of ayman al—zawahiri really does get to the crux of the tense relationship, the very, very antagonistic relationship that there has always been between the taliban and the united states. and that is because if you cast your mind back to 2001, the reason why the taliban were overthrown by the us was because al-qaeda had its haven here in afghanistan. they used afghanistan as a base from which to plot the 9/11 attacks. before american troops were withdrawn from afghanistan last year, the taliban and america signed a deal paving the way for that withdrawal and as part of that deal, the taliban committed to not allowing foreign militant groups to plot attacks abroad or on the west.

it was never clear what they were going to do with al-qaeda because the taliban and al-qaeda have always been close allies. it never seemed likely that they were going to turn against their old former allies. but certainly, it did seem as if they did not want groups like al-qaeda to be plotting attacks from afghanistan against the west. it was very surprising, i think for many people in afghanistan to learn that ayman al—zawahiri was here in kabul. i mean, he has long been believed to be in the border regions between afghanistan and pakistan. the fact he was here in kabul according to a number of credible reports, either in a house belonging to senior member of the taliban or next to a house belonging to a senior member of the taliban, that really suggests complicity by at least elements of the taliban with ayman al—zawahiri and presumably, other members of al-anda, being here in kabul. it would appear to be completely possible for him to have been here without their

knowledge and acceptance. earlier i spoke to mark fallon is the interim executive director of the center for ethics and rule of law at the university of pennsylvania. he was the us government's former chief investigator responsible for bringing suspected terrorist to justice before the military commmissions at guantanamo bay cuba. i asked him for his reaction to the news. i think this is a wonderful symbolic victory for the united states, picking up the emir of al-qaeda, but i don't think it is due to do a victory lap just yet. al-qaeda has grown from numbers of around 500 at the time of 9/11 to tens of thousands that it is today and so i think what this reflects is really the challenges we have had in our counterterrorism policies where zawahiri has been able to survive for two decades, outlasted

the afghanistan war in safety, prior to us being able to eliminate him. and so while it is a great success and i hope it certainly offers some solace to the 9/11victims, the uss cole victims and families, and the east african embassy bombing victims�* families. i don't think it really cause for some great elation about how long it has taken for us to get zawahiri. right, you out it as a no—victory lap yet. what would constitute the moment at which you could have a victory lap? is it the erasure of al-qaeda? that is unlikely. it is unlikely but al-qaeda has proliferated to franchises and what we are going to have to see is what is the aftermath of our attack of a taliban haqqani household in kabul and what we're going to analyse,

and what we're going to have to analyse, if the taliban government has violated the doha agreement and they will be challenging whether we have violated the doha agreement with our attack on what they consider their sovereign country. i think also, as you mentioned there, the treatment of detainees, whether it was in guantanamo bay or extraordinary rendition in various parts of the world, you feel served the us so perhaps the allies very badly indeed in terms of bringing to justice people like al—zawahiri? if you look at the history of al—zawahiri, he was in egypt, he was picked up after the assassination of sadat, he was brutally tortured in the citadel prison, along with sheik omar rahman, rahman came to the united states, sanctioned the first world trade center bombings. ayman al—zawahiri went and merged with osama bin laden to form al-qaeda and so if you look at this history of torture,

if you want to create violent extremists, if you want violent extremists to proliferate, to do is abuse a populous as we did in afghanistan and iraq to create more enemies and that is why al-qaeda has grown from 500 to tens of thousands of franchises and that is what we have to be wary. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: beyonce will rerecord one of her new songs after disability campaigners raised concerns about the lyrics. the question was whether we wanted to save our people and japanese as well and win the war, or whether we want to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at two o'clock this morning.

mr bush, like most other people, was clearly- caught by surprise. we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigor, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she's achieved this landmark anniversary. this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: president biden has confirmed that a us drone strike has killed the al-qaeda leader ayman al zawahiri. mr biden said he authorised

the operation which took place on saturday. he said the mission was successful and there were no civilian casualties. tensions are mounting ahead of an expected visit to taiwan by the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi. according to the reuters news agency, several chinese warplanes have flown close to what's known as the median line which separates taiwan from continental asia. china has warned of serious consequences if the trip to the self—ruled island goes ahead. earlier i spoke to zack cooper a seniorfellow with the american enterprise institute and a former senior pentagon and white house official. i asked him if he thought the visit will go ahead. it looks like it will happen probably in the next 2a hours.

so i think we're going to have a very tense week ahead of us. why is nancy pelosi deciding to push this? it's a great question. she has a long history of pushing the chinese on a variety of issues. she famously went to tiananmen square in 1989. this isn't her first time being embroiled with beijing. it's a legacy issue for her, something she wanted to do before leaving office. maybe a bit of a political issue — everyone in congress in washington is trying to be tough on china and she certainly has a long history of doing so herself and i think that may be part of the logic here. that's quite worrying in the sense that it is essentially a personal issue that she is pursuing here with a bit of a political side element. clearly it is antagonistic at a time when tensions are pretty high. that's right.

we cannot take the pressure off of beijing on this. if china escalates and uses military action against nancy pelosi's plane, that'd be a huge escalation. if they do other things to demonstrate how unhappy china is, with military tools, that's still the burden of escalation that will be on beijing. i think you are right that this is a visit that doesn't have a huge amount of upside and it has a fair amount of downside, which is why some of us have been a bit critical of it. i presume there is a sense from nancy pelosi's office or the white house that if we should choose to go to taipei, for example, we mustn't let beijing tell us not to. absolutely. and look, i believe that as well. i think it's important that if us leaders decide that they are going to do something, that they not be deterred simply because china doesn't want them to.

i think we also have to take a step back and see, if you are thinking about this from the chinese point of view, you've had a string of actions that have really begun to question the us one china policy. you had two recent secretary of defences and secretary of state from the republican side go to taipei and say the us shouldn't embrace, not just the strategic ambiguity policy on taiwan, but also the one china policy. you've had joe biden make several statements on taiwan policy, you've got something called the taiwan policy act going through congress just this week and now nancy pelosi's visit. it's not really just about this visit but about a fear in china that actually the one china arrangement that we made back in the 1970s is eroding and that's why they are pushing back so hard. is there an element from the us perspective that it's an opportunity to build those alliances within the region at a time when, let's be honest, fairly heavy—handed beijing approach to many of the neighbouring countries, has alienated it from a good number of them too? i completely agree.

china has been remarkably heavy—handed in a number of cases. you could think about australia, south korea, you could go on and on. look at what's happened with europe in the last few years. many people expected the china and europe relationship to be in pretty good shape right now and actually it's worse than it has been in decades. it's another case where china may overplay its hand but it's still — we're still entering quite a risky few days. the next 48—72 hours, there is maybe a 20% risk that we see a major crisis emerge. zack cooper. let's get some of the day's other news. an international study says that the risks of a climate change catastrophe, including human extinction, are not being taken seriously by scientists. the authors say that the consequences of warming beyond three degrees celsius have been "dangerously underexplored" and the world needs to start preparing for the possibility of what they term the "climate

endgame." a member of a militia group from texas who was convicted of storming the us capitol has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. his sentence is the longest so far, for anyone involved in the riot. guy reffitt also threatened to shoot his own children if they informed on him. at least 37 people have now died in the us state of kentucky, as the region braces for more rainfall. the sta?te's governor said the death toll would continue to rise as "hundreds" remained unaccounted for.overnight curfews have been declared in two devastated counties. british airways has halted sales of tickets on short—haul flights from london's heathrow airport until next monday as disruption to air travel continues. the airline said the move was in response to the cap on daily passenger numbers that the uk's largest airport has imposed over the summer. beyonce has agreed to re—record one of the songs

on her latest album to remove a word that can been used to demean people with disabilities. the term appears twice in the son heated, which was released on friday as part of her album renaissance. some fans had defended beyonce, pointing out that the term she used can have a different meaning in the us. our music correspondent mark savage said it was hard to know what had gone wrong to allow the offensive lyric to be recorded. they have teams of lawyers who listen to songs to see whether they sound like previous songs. there is another track on the beyonce album that gives a credit to right said fred song, i'm too sexy, because she sings a line that sounds vaguely similar to that. i do think that in beyonce's case, in particular, her albums are usually shrouded in secrecy, there are efforts to make sure it doesn't leak, although this album did 48—hour was before the release. maybe that meant fewer people heard it than should have

to prevent a situation like this. we don't know. the good thing is she has recognised what people have said to her, very quickly, in fact, people only really started making noise about this this morning in europe and by the time america woke up, there was a statement saying that beyonce is going to re—record the song and replace those lyrics. surgeons have used virtual reality headsets to help successfully separate brazilian twins born with fused brains. doctors in brazil and britain wore the technology to test techniques, before operating on the 3—year—olds. the final procedure was carried out in rio dejaneiro. it took more than 27 hours to complete and almost a—hundred medical staff were involved. the twins are recovering in hospital and will be supported with six months of rehabilitation. a reminder of our top story this hour. the al-qaeda leader, ayman al—zawahiri has been killed in an american counter—terrorism operation.

al—zawahiri — one of the architects of the 9/11 attacks — was killed in a drone strike carried out by the cia in the afghan capital kabul on sunday. this is bbc news. hello, then. of course, july 2022 will be remembered for the first time the uk saw temperatures widely in excess of a0 celsius. however, it's also been a very dry month — and in southern england, it's been the driestjuly on record — those records date back to 1836 by the met office. now, anywhere in the brown has seen below—average rainfall, but the darker brown�*s way below the average rainfall totals for this time of year, and 1—2 stations along the south coast have not seen any measurable rain. now, if you can see over the next few days, we won't see any rainfall either across the far south and east. the heaviest of the rain will be out to the north and west — that's because you're closest

to an area of low pressure that's moving in at the moment. the isobars squeezing together, it'll turn pretty windy, and it will be quite wet as well. so that means it could be a pretty damp start for the commonwealth games in birmingham, but quickly brightening up by lunchtime, so an improving story. and that will be the story generally across the country. some heavy bursts of rain across northwest england and wales drifting their way steadily eastwards. the rain never getting as far south, really, as the south midlands, and then behind it, brightening up with 1—2 showers. a strong south—westerly wind as we go through the day — so blustery, but from a very warm source. it'll feel once again quite humid across the country — 2a celsius in eastern scotland, highs of 30 celsius perhaps in southeast england — that's the mid—80s fahrenheit. now, as we go through the evening and overnight, there's another frontal system that will sink its way south, just really a band of cloud and a few scattered showers, can you see, stretching from hull down to the bristol channel. again, it stays very warm, so a humid start to wednesday morning. that frontal system — a weak affair, a band of cloud, a few isolated showers — continues to sink south. but behind, it's

introducing fresher air as the winds here come round to a northwesterly. so more showers being driven in by that northwesterly wind, and temperatures down a few degrees. not so in the far southeast, as that fresher air hasn't quite yet arrived, but it will do so. the northwesterly wind direction continues to dominate for a few days. high pressure then builds in from the west, quietens things down. so, over the next few days, it's dry, settled, and sunny, but just that little bit fresher.

this is bbc news. the headlines — president biden has confirmed, in a live televised address, that the al-qaeda leader, ayman al—zawahiri, has been killed in a us drone strike in kabul. mr biden said al—zawahiri was one of the organisers of the 9/11 attacks on the us, and that his death would bring closure to families of the victims. the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi, is expected to visit taiwan, as part of her tour of asia. that's according to several american and taiwanese media reports, although there is no official confirmation on this yet. china has warned of serious consequences if the trip to the self—ruled island goes ahead. an international study says that the risks of a climate

change catastrophe, including human extinction, are not being taken seriously by scientists.