right 0k welcome to bbc news — i'm rich preston. our top stories: the acclaimed author sir salman rushdie suffers serious injuries — after being stabbed on stage in the state of new york. his agent says he's on a ventilator and can't speak and is likely to lose an eye. in other news: it's been revealed the search warrant for donald trump's florida home was partly based on suspicion of violations of the us espionage act. ukraine and russia have again accused each other of risking catastrophe by shelling europe's largest nuclear power plant.

and the eurovision host contest — the shortlist is announced for the cities who may stage the famous celebration of song. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. the agent for the internationally acclaimed british author, salman rushdie, says the novelist has sustained serious injuries to an eye and his liver, during a knife attack in new york state. he was stabbed repeatedly by an assailant who pounced on him as he took the stage at an arts centre in new york. police named the attacker as hadi matar, a 24—year—old man from newjersey. our north america correspondent john sudworth reports. there was confusion and panic. the attack happened in full view of the audience. sir salman was left injured, lying on stage, and eyewitnesses in deep shock.

there was nothing audible from the attacker. we just saw him move on stage very quickly and, repeatedly and with vicious determination, stabbed salman rushdie. people were rising up out of their seats, gasping, crying and screaming and this unheard—of thing was happening on stage. salman rushdie was taken to hospital by helicopter. he had been due to speak at the chautauqua institution, a centre for arts and learning in western new york state which has long celebrated freedom of expression. a value, many observers pointed out, embodied by mr rushdie himself. here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power, someone who has been out there, unafraid despite the threats that have followed him his entire adult life, it seems. the motive for the attack is not yet known, but the threat of assassination that sir salman has long lived under will be a key focus of the investigation.

his book, the satanic verses, published in 1988, was condemned as blasphemous by the then supreme ruler of iran, ayatollah khomeini. the fatwa, or religious ruling, was accompanied by a bounty in exchange for his death. now a country that holds free speech in such high regard is contemplating the shocking sight of the author, wounded for his work, being wheeled into hospital. video footage shows a man taken into custody by police shortly after the attack. john sudworth, bbc news, washington. with me is our reporter azadeh moshiri. what more do we know? we have an u date what more do we know? we have an update from — what more do we know? we have an update from his _ what more do we know? we have an update from his condition, - an update from his condition, from his literary agent, andrew wylie, who released a statement before 7pm on friday new york time. it reads: also added that

salman rushdie, at 75 years old, is on a ventilator. the police have released the name of the suspect. while they did reiterate they do not know the motive of the attack and that nationality of the suspect right now, his name is hadi matar, he is 2a years old and he is from fairview, new jersey. he is from fairview, new jerse _ ., , he is from fairview, new jerse . ., , jersey. salman rushdie has received death _ jersey. salman rushdie has received death threats - jersey. salman rushdie has received death threats for l received death threats for years. tells a bit more about the to this.— the to this. that's right. it's hard to overstate _ the to this. that's right. it's hard to overstate what - the to this. that's right. it's hard to overstate what a - the to this. that's right. it's l hard to overstate what a huge figure salman rushdie is in the literary world. it was a second novel midnight's children which was a big success. he said a bestselling novel was not his big goal, he wanted to do serious mature, and it is what is fourth novel in 1989 was, the satanic verses, so much so that its impact caused him to go into hiding. the book was about many things but part of it was about the immigrant experience but it also had

portrayals of the prophet mohammed and questions around the nature of the koran. as well as a reference with the title to a controversial issue in islam that some muslims around the world found blasphemous and offensive. it caused protests around the world, even in countries that want predominantly muslim and was banned in several countries. and that is because afterwards, a year later, this was the big event that forced him to go into hiding. and that is because the supreme leader, the ayatollahs, mainly, issued a fatwa, a legal decree by a religious leader for the execution of salman rushdie. religious leaderfor the execution of salman rushdie. —— ayatollahs, they need. as well as anyone involved with the book and he also added a $3 million bounty on that execution.— million bounty on that execution. ~ ., t, , , execution. what that but why have on salman _ execution. what that but why have on salman rushdie? - execution. what that but why i have on salman rushdie? well, the fatwa itself _ have on salman rushdie? well, the fatwa itself ended _ have on salman rushdie? well, the fatwa itself ended up - the fatwa itself ended up forcing him to go into hiding. based 30 years of debt threats as a result of it. and it had serious consequences. even

though in the late 1990s, iranian governments tried to distance themselves from it, certainly the president did but the current leader, khamenei, tweeted about the fatwa and it led to serious consequences, notjust 12 salman rushdie, a norwegian publisher was attacked, shot in the late 19905, attacked, shot in the late 1990s, he survived. an italian translator was stabbed in his apartment in milan and a japanese translator was killed as a result of this from stabbing. and so while salman rushdie ended up coming out of hiding, continuing his works, becoming a huge advocate for freedom of speech, it did affect his life, in a serious way. 0ver affect his life, in a serious way. over the last few years, he said they felt safer and he didn't view the fatwa the same way. we do not know the motive right now. but it is very serious. right now. but it is very seriou—

right now. but it is very serious. we will leave it there, thank _ serious. we will leave it there, thank you. - earlier i spoke to writer, lecturer and broadcaster, kenan malik who gave me his reaction to the attack on salman rushdie. it is truly shocking. one can only hope that salman rushdie recovers as well as he can, and though that report you just run doesn't sound very hopeful in terms of injuries i think it's particularly shocking that having survived all those years in hiding after the fatwa, ten years almost in hiding, and being able to come out, move freely, give talks, write, relatively freely, that should happen now 33 years after the fatwa. it's a reminder of the price that many writers and artists and cartoonists have to play to break taboo, challenge blasphemy. it's what writers face daily in many islamic countries, in russia and china

and even india these days. you mentioned this fatwa, the years in hiding, and that goes back to the 1980s. many may have hoped that times would have changed. well, in many ways, the kinds of views that the protesters had back in the 1980s have become more mainstream, in this sense. in a sense, they lost the battle in that the satanic verses continues to be published but they won the war in the sense that the argument at the heart of their claim, that one should not give offence to other cultures or peoples or religions, is much more widely accepted now in the mainstream of many societies. when the fatwa was first issued, salman rushdie spent nearly a decade in hiding

but he did end up making light of the situation. he appeared in curb your enthusiam and bridget jones's diary. are you surprised that this has happened now? yes and now. yes, in that it is both surprising and shocking that at a time when salman rushdie felt that he was free enough, to be able to...he has been writing and talking freely for about 25 years now, that this should happen. at the same time, we know that there has been a rise in the sense of terror in the sense of people taking revenge for blasphemy, for people, in cases such as the charlie hebdo

killings, so these kinds of incidents are not new, they are not surprising, but there are quite a few of them, the past ten, 15, 20 years. this is brought up the whole question of freedom of speech. is it possible to go too far with freedom of speech? the point is, if you live in a plural society, you have many different groups with deeply held views, many of which conflict. if you were to live in a plural society then, you have to allow for certain people to be offended by other groups. there are many people who are offended by islam, for instance, who wants the koran band. we should not countenance that any more than we should countenance banning the satanic verses or not allow

salman rushdie to have his say. the warrant used to search donald trump's home in florida on monday has revealed he's being investigated for allegedly breaching us espionage laws. the warrant, which was unsealed by a judge a few hours ago, also shows fbi agents removed 11 sets of classified documents during the raid, including some marked �*top secret�*. the former president says he's the victim of a witch hunt by his democratic opponents. 0ur correspondent in washington, chi chi izundu, gave me this update on what we know. well, we have seven pages of information, not that much detail being released in the warrant between the fbi and the department ofjustice. what we do know is the fbi say they went to mar—a—lago, which is the primary residence of donald trump, and searched 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms,

across the 17—acre estate. what they said is they looked everywhere including the former president's private office, known as the 45th office, as well as other storage areas where documents could be kept and they took away a large number of different documents including ones that had the title of miscellaneous secret documents and interestingly, ts and sci documents. ts stands for top—secret and sci stands for sensitive compartmented information and it is that one that is causing concern because that is the type of documentation that is only read in sealed rooms and only very few people can see it and is really highly damaging, potentially if it gets in the wrong hands, to us security. chi chi, has there been any response from donald trump or his representatives? well, donald trump actually

agreed to the unsealing of these documents when the attorney—general yesterday, merrick garland, asked a court to unseal the documents, unusually, because this is an ongoing investigation. other than that, there has been no response, officially from donald trump. this is a really unusual step because it is an ongoing investigation. donald trump hasn't actually been charged with anything but it's interesting that the fbi have gone into his home and searched the home of the former us president which is unprecedented, never happened in us history before, and we've come to this point in history where now, we are finding out exactly what the fbi claim from donald trump's mar—a—lago home. ukraine and russia have again accused each other of risking catastrophe by shelling europe's largest nuclear power plant. conflict near the zaporizhzhia plant has intensified this week leading to western countries to call on moscow to withdraw troops from the facility. there's been no sign so far of russia agreeing to that with some analysts

occupied by russian forces in a region expected to become one of the next big front lines of the war. john spencer is a retired us army major and now chair of urban warfare studies at the madison policy forum. he gave me his analysis of the situation. so clearly the russians turned power plant into a military base. they have based a lot of their systems and shelling from within the basis so it's become a precarious position because ukrainians are having gains in kherson and other regions, and this is likely to be a very big front of conflict soon. so i agree with the un and hte us, that we have to get ahead of this and turn this power plant into a demilitarised zone get away from it. how does one turn this

into a demilitarised zone? so first step would be letting the iaea in there as they are asking to get in there, to determine and you get both parties to agree there are no forces and no munitions, you basically draw a circle around it and extend that a little ways. it's pretty simple and logical and common sense, but we know there is one party we know that doesn't act like that, and that is russia. elsewhere in the country, it's been a while since we've seen russian strikes in the north and the west. does that mean russia's content with what they have at the moment or should we avoid being lulled into a false sense of security? no, i think the donbas and the east are

still russia's main concern and it's where they applied most of their combat power. in kharkiv, we can't say it is safe, focusing on the south south, and having lots of advancements, russia thinks it can gain this big win in donbas but for weeks and weeks, they haven't moved barely kilometres, if at all. what do you see as being the next stage in this conflict? at this stage, it will be the liberation of kherson as ukraine continues to liberated and the possible avenues of reinforcement. we saw the strike into crimea which just put the black sea fleet at great risk because they lost a lot of russian air force cover, and it's important to the south so you will see a major battle in the south as there is a holding position

in the east and ukrainians are gaining ground and in military speak we see the initiative it could turn to the ukrainians even in the next couple of weeks. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: who will host next year's eurovision song contest? a shortlist of seven uk cities is announced. the big crowds became bigger as the time of the funeral approached. as the lines of fans became longer, the police prepared for a hugejob 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. two billion people around the world have seen the last total eclipse of the sun to

take place in this millennium. it began its journey off the coast of canada, ending three hours later, when the sun set over the bay of bengal. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the acclaimed author sir salman rushdie suffers serious injuries after being stabbed on stage in the state of new york. it's been revealed the search warrant for donald trump's florida home was partly based on suspicion of violations of the us espionage act. europe continues to bake under extreme temperatures. there have been huge wildfires in france and portugal. and severe drought conditions across nearly half of the continent. this has been the scene

in central portugal, where 16,000 firefighters are battling a wildfire that's been raging for a week. it's burned through more than 37,000 acres of land so far. in south—western france, firefighters are arriving from hungary and other european countries to help tackle fires around bordeaux. firefighters there have largely managed to contain this one. but more hot temperatures and worsening conditions could trigger more fires. meanwhile in the uk, a drought has been declared in many parts of england — conditions are so dry, the scorched land can be seen from space. in germany, the lack of water is starting to have significant economic impacts, asjenny hill reports now from the river rhine. this is the river bed of the mighty rhine. if you walked here in normal times you'd be underwater. it's a working river, one of europe's most important. barges fetch and carry

goods and materials through germany's industrial heartland. but the water is now so low that some of the larger vessels can't get through. translation: we are approaching levels where ships _ can't enter the upper rhine. many of the bigger ships already can't go there. it's likely the upper rhine will be closed to traffic completely. captain kimpel is used to troubled waters. the river level does drop most years, but these days, he tells us, it's more frequent. the climate changing the river before his eyes. translation: it's no joke, | we have 1.5 metres of water and our boat sits 1.2 metres deep. so we have 30 centimetres of water left beneath us. few here can now sail fully laden. that means less coal

for germany's power stations but the country is relying on them to get through the winter after russia reduced its gas supply. this couldn't happen at a worse time for germany. there's a looming energy crisis, high inflation, so it's no wonder analysts warned it could do significant economic damage. there is a novelty here for some — the low water exposed this old footbridge. but for so many here, this new and altered landscape represents nothing less than a warning. jenny hill, bbc news. the hollywood actress anne heche has died after her life support was turned off. she was 53. she had been in a coma and in a critical condition after being involved in a car crash a week ago. she will be remembered for her roles in films such as donnie brasco, volcano, i know what you did last summer, and six days, seven nights. lizo mzimbo looks back on her life — and i should warn you, it contains flash photography from the start. she's been a familiar face in tv and film for more

than three decades. but in the first week of august, her car crashed into a house in the west of los angeles. both the home and her car caught fire. anne heche had a succession of small parts before being cast opposite johnny depp in mob drama donnie brasco. since when does sherry have a boyfriend? i didn't ok this, maggie. you didn't 0k it? what do you think... shouting. i put food on that table! what do i get for christmas, huh? i'm here. that was quickly followed by her first big starring role, alongside harrison ford in the romantic comedy six days, seven nights. well, i want my $700 back. what? you heard me. my $700? i want it back. you said you were going to take me to tahiti. you didn't. give it back. at the same time, she was in a relationship with us tv presenter ellen degeneres. heche said that her openness about their relationship cost her her hollywood career.

over the next 20 years, she said she was only offered smaller film and tv roles. in 2020, she competed on america's version of strictly come dancing, dancing with the stars, her most high—profile appearance in years. she'll be remembered as a gifted actress who never quite achieved the success that her talent deserved. anne heche who has died at the age of 53. seven uk cities have been named to compete to host next year's eurovision song contest. it's coming to britain after we came second in this year's contest, and organisers decided it wouldn't be safe for the winning country, ukraine, to host. 0ur arts correspondent david sillito is in liverpool — one of the cities on the shortlist. fanfare. katie boyle, 1960. good evening, ladies

and gentlemen. on behalf of the bbc, i'd like to welcome you all to the fifth annual eurovision song contest. europe thinks the british are reserved! the uk has a long history of staging the eurovision song contest. london, edinburgh, brighton, harrogate and birmingham have all played host. all right, so we know there are seven cities... and on today's shortlist, announced on radio 2, birmingham was — alphabetically — top of the list. glasgow, which recently hosted the cop climate conference, is also there. it's very, very exciting for the city. it's fantastic news. glasgow from the early days had been down as one of the favourites, but you never know until that shortlist appears. so, too, leeds, manchester, newcastle, sheffield and liverpool — much to the joy of one eurovision star. i am over the moon. my fingers are so crossed that it comes to liverpool. i mean, we tick all the boxes. we've got the arena, we've got the beautiful city. everything's on the doorstep.

you know, we'rejust going to have the biggest party ever. and, of course, liverpool does have a little bit of a musical heritage. there is romance to their bid. but the winner will be determined much more by practicalities. eurovision is, these days, huge. the event is two or three times the size of what it used to be in the �*90s. a cash—strapped bbc will have to bear much of the cost, but there will also be conversations with the government, sponsors and potential host cities — none of whom have much in the way of spare cash, but this year's host, turin, is understood to have spent around £10 million, and feels with the payback in tourism and exposure, eurovision was a good investment. david sillito, bbc news. there is much more on those stories on the bbc news

website. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @richpreston. stay with us on bbc news. hello there. it's turning even hotter this weekend with temperatures perhaps reaching 35, maybe 36 degrees. so dry, sunny, hot for most this weekend but in northern and western areas you could start to see a few showers developing, particularly through the day on sunday. now it's southern parts of britain that really could do with the rainfall, for example 0diham in hampshire hasn't seen any measurable rain for 42 days — so the ground is parched here, we really do need some rainfall. of course the met office amber extreme heat warning remains in force for large parts of england and wales up until around sunday. again with those temperatures reaching 35, maybe 36 degrees in the hottest spots on saturday afternoon. widespread sunshine then throughout saturday, any low cloud and mist in scotland and north—east england

will burn back to the coast, maybe a slight chance of a shower across the scottish hills, maybe snowdonia, otherwise most places dry. high 20s in the north, 30 to 35—36 degrees across england and wales. through saturday night it will stay dry for most, a bit of low cloud, mist and murk rolling back across eastern scotland, north—east england. temperature wise, again the low to mid teens in the north, 17 to 20 degrees further south, really could be quite warm and uncomfortable across the south coast of england. sunday we do it all again. it's a sunny start, mist and low cloud burning back to the coast but then a greater chance of showers and thunderstorms developing across northern ireland, scotland into the afternoon, maybe one or two across western england and wales later in the day. the vast majority though will stay dry and sunny and very hot again, 30 to 35 or 36 england and wales, maybe a touch cooler, scotland and northern ireland around the mid 20s there. we start to see changes into next week, things turn a bit cooler and we will

start to see more in the way of showers and thunderstorms, that's because we've got low pressure pushing up from the south as we move out of sunday. that will introduce more humid air, so it could be quite uncomfortable for a while sunday into monday, but then you will see the shower and thunderstorm activity start to increase. initially northern and western areas, and then migrating towards the east. you will see temperatures very warm to start the week across the south—east and then showers, thunderstorms rattle their way through, things will be turning cooler, closer to the seasonal average, by the time we reach the end of the new week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the agent of the british writer sir salman rushdie has given details of his condition after he was stabbed on stage in the state of new york. the author is on a ventilator and can't speak. he also suffered injuries to his eye, his arm, and his liver. the search warrant executed on donald trump's florida home on monday has been unsealed by a judge after the former us president made no objection to the move. it shows the search by fbi agents was partly based on suspicions of violations of the us espionage act. ukraine and russia have again accused each other of risking catastrophe by shelling europe's largest nuclear power plant. conflict near the zaporizhzhia plant has intensified this week leading to western countries to call on moscow to withdraw troops from the facility.

so far russia has not agreed to do so.