this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: a year on from the taliban retaking control of afghanistan, a special report on the women and girls who've been denied education, employment, and their childhoods. if i finish this school, i start university, but i can't go to university because i'm not graduated from the school. sir salman rushdie�*s family say he's on the road to recovery but has life—changing injuries, as more details emerge about the man charged over his attack. more than a0 worshippers die at a church in egypt after a fire rips through the building during mass. and, queen of the mountains. the norwegian climber who's on the verge of setting a very special record.

it's now monday in afghanistan, and a year since the taliban swept back into the afghan capital kabul, marking their takeover of the country and sparking scenes like these at the airport — thousands trying to leave in fear of what could lie ahead. one year on, life for women and girls, in particular, is very different — with harsh rules including restrictions on education and employment. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet, who was in kabul during the taliban takeover, has returned and sent this special report. it's a man's world.

afghanistan is a conservative country, but the rules are now set by the ultraconservative taliban. spaces which had opened up for women have now been slammed shut. we met three generations of women whose lives speak loudly about their world. many are afraid. they don't want to be identified. this woman used to be a senior official in the finance ministry. last year the taliban told her, stay at home. a man would take herjob. translation: i worked for more than 17 years l in the finance ministry. it was difficult with juggling family and work, but i went to university and got my masters degree. we spent so much time to get here. now we are back to zero. everything is finished. more than 60 female civil servants have banded together.

they shared some of the exchanges on their messaging group: women haven't completely disappeared from the streets or ministries, like health, education, security. there are spaces only for women. this market has just reopened in the western city of herat. this was the first day. women, a bit nervous. shops, still empty. this is it? yes. this is your shop? today it's closed. oh, look at your sewing machines. 18—year—old suhaila is excited. she's reopening this dress shop with her big sister.

but she should be in her last year of school. suhaila was the top student in her class. but the taliban shut most high schools. really, i am very sad. if i finish this school, i start university but i can't go to university because i'm not graduated from school. was it hard for you? no school, no shop. how hard was it? i think it's not for me, and for all of the girls of afghanistan, it's a sad memory... i did miss school. sorry. it's ok. sorry. it's hard here, too, far away in the central highlands. this is one of afghanistan's poorest provinces.

since the taliban took over, even poorer. and there's still no aid to their government. for the destitute and desperate, agonising choices. this woman gave her daughter in marriage for about £1000. she's only 6 years old. so is her husband to be. translation: she's too young. but i give her away because we have no food. so my other children don't die of hunger. it's still very hard but now she can eat with her in—laws. i had no other option but to give her away. child marriage is prohibited but pervasive in afghanistan, but not this young. we've hidden the identity of mother, daughter and son. translation: her in—laws told me they will take care of her like their own child because she's so young. they told me, don't worry.

child weeps what mother wouldn't worry? what child wouldn't weep? a new generation takes shape in a new afghanistan. the taliban say the rights of boys and girls within islam will be respected. but one year on, there is growing fear that girls who were learning to lead, will be left far behind. lyse doucet, bbc news, kabul. the son of sir salman rushdie says his father suffered life—changing injuries in a knife attack on friday — but that his "feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact". the author had been taken off a ventilator after being stabbed at an event

in new york state. the governor of new york says they will always stand up for freedom of thought. our correspondent nomia iqbal has the latest. inside the hospital, salman rushdie remains in a critical condition. but a glimmer of hope for his family, as he is taken off a ventilator and is breathing unaided. in a statement, his son, zafar rushdie, said: zafar also praised the audience members at the literary event on friday where his father was stabbed. he said they bravely leapt to his defence to help him. salman rushdie�*s agent told us he is on the long road to recovery. the writer suffered very serious injuries. he faces losing an eye and his liver is badly damaged. 24—year—old american suspect hadi matar has already appeared in court and pleaded not guilty

to the charges of attempted murder and attempted assault. prosecutors allege he travelled by bus from newjersey to the event here in chautauqua, in western new york. they say he bought a ticket, like everybody else, allowing him to attend the talk mr rushdie was due to give. for decades, salman rushdie went into hiding after his book, the satanic verses, led to iran issuing a fatwa in 1989. many muslims considered his writing blasphemous. it is reported that police think hadi matar may have had sympathies for the iranian regime, but an official motive has not been established. earlier, new york's state governor spoke outside the institution where the stabbing happened. new york state will always stand up to protect freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and we condemn the cowardly

attack on salman rushdie. and we condemn any individual or any group that dares violate the sanctity of a place like chautauqua. questions are being asked about why there were not tougher checks at the literary event, given the huge amount of threats salman rushdie had faced for decades. nomia iqbal, bbc news, pennsylvania. the government in egypt says at least a0 people have died, many of them children, in a fire at a church where thousands of people had gathered for sunday worship. dozens of others were injured. it's reported an electrical fire broke out at the coptic church in giza on the outskirts of the capital cairo. our correspondent sally nabil sent this report from the scene. a sunday church service that ended in tragedy. behind these windows, egyptian christian worshippers died. the abu sifin church was in a packed busy neighbourhood in giza.

the fire killed dozens, including many children. people rushed into the building trying to save as many lives as possible. this woman lost her sister—in—law. translation: she had five children. three daughters, who are three, five and seven years old, and two boys. my heart is on fire for all these victims. the people i've spoken to here are clearly very angry. they want to know exactly how and why their loved ones died. there will be questions too for the church itself and for the emergency services. initial reports suggest the fire was caused by an electrical fault. people here told us there was a power cut and the church was on a generator. when the electricity was turned on again, there was an overload. translation: fire was coming out of the air—conditioning and then spread to the rest of the church. it was on the third and fourth floors.

many worshippers fainted and could hardly breathe. a major investigation is now under way. inspectors from the public prosecutors�*s office already checked the scene. there was nothing to suggest there are any criminal motives behind this incident, so far. but the christian community here say they've had enough. many of their churches have been targeted by militant attacks in recent years. sally nabil, bbc news, cairo. let's get some of the day's other news. syrian state media say israel has carried out an air attack on targets in tartus, on syria's west coast. reports say three soldiers were killed. the syrian observatory for human rights says several missiles hit the vicinity of a village where iranian militias allied with the assad regime are located. the saudi state—owned oil giant aramco has announced record profits of more than $48 billion for the second quarter of this year.

the world's biggest oil producer's net income has almost doubled year—on—year. oil prices are up in the wake of russia's attack on ukraine and increasing demand after the pandemic. at least one person has died after an explosion rocked a shopping centre and caused a fireworks warehouse to catch fire in armenia's capital, yerevan. videos on social media show large clouds of black smoke in the sky and people running away as a building collapsed. to north korea now, where state media is reporting that the country's leader has received a letterfrom russian president vladimir putin seeking to establish closer ties between the two countries. scott snyder, who's a senior fellow for korea studies at the council on foreign relations, said president putin could be seeking to use north korean labour in areas of ukraine that russian forces have seized. i think it represents a possible convergence of interests between russia and north korea.

last week, the russian ambassador to north korea suggested that north korean overseas labour could be useful in doing reconstruction work in the breakaway provinces in the ukraine, and north korea had earlier made a point of recognising these breakaway provinces. and so, what it looks like is the possibility that there could be some kind of some kind of support by north korea in the form of labour in these areas, probably in return for substantial cash contributions to the flailing north korean economy. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: putting the cat out, or not — the german town where cats have been on curfew.

washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last 10 days, 500 have died. crowd chant: czechoslovakia must be free! man: czechoslovakia must be free! crowd chant: czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we are all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope, "so, you want me to desert rome?"

this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: a year on from the taliban retaking control of afghanistan, its women and girls are still being denied education and employment. the son of author sir salman rushdie says his injuries are life changing, but that his defiant sense of humour remains intact, after he was stabbed. many of us have been through lockdowns in recent years, but in the german town walldorf it's cats who've been on a curfew. but they have, in the last few hours, legally been allowed to leave their homes for the first time in three months. authorities there introduced a cat—lockdown in may, banning them from leaving the house without a lead, to stop them injuring or killing an endangered bird species. but the lockdowns will occur regularly and if owners don't

follow the rules, they'll face fines in the hundreds of even thousands of euros. jessi morgan is the ceo of predator free new zealand trust, she gave me her reaction to the radical measures in germany. it's a very interesting move by the government there. cats are highly skilled hunters and great predators around the country, around the world, sorry and depending on where they are located, they could do severe damage to native wildlife. do you have a problem with cats where you are in new zealand? yes, in new zealand we have a lot of flightless birds and birds that nest on the ground and so that evolved in new zealand without any introduced mammalian predators, so cats are a huge problem here for our native species who are basically defenceless against cat. so cats are not native to where you are in new zealand but devil's advocate, they are native across europe.

surely this is just wildlife doing its thing? yeah, well these birds, by my understanding, these crested larks are highly endangered and down to a few last breeding pairs, so i'm guessing the local government is trying to do anything they can to protect these birds and reducing the roaming of domestic cats is really important but they also need a strategy around stray cats and feral cats to ensure they are not being predated on by other cats. i think it's interesting if the cats are native to the area, because what is predating on those cats? and obviously there is a high density of cats with cats being introduced and owned and looked after at home and potentially protected from those predators so their numbers

are probably out of whack from what they would be naturally occurring in that area. there is a bit of a carrot and stick approach of fines and threats of lockdowns, arguably much more the stick side of it but what does a good cat owner look like? responsible cat ownership is really important and not letting your cats roam is actually an important part of keeping your cat safe and preventing them from getting run over or harmed by other things in the environment. the other things we recommend in new zealand are desexing your cat so it doesn't add to the unwanted population of kittens and microchipping your cat so that if it is found wandering it can be returned safely to its owners. as owners when you take a cat into your home as an important companion it is really important that you have the means to keep your cats home as much as possible and i think that is

a change for many parts of the world where we have let our cats roam in the past because we were unaware of the damage that they did to the native wildlife. from cats to alligators, probably not something you would want as a pet. in the state of florida in the us, there are 1.3 million of them and every year ten,000 people apply for licences to cull the animals. 7,000 of them are given out but hunting has always been restricted to nighttime, that is, until this year. but not everyone is happy at the prospect of hunting taking place during the day. pete corradino is a wildlife biologist and owner of everglades day safari. hunting is something that has been going on for quite a long time but what has changed now is they are going to allow 24—hour hunting and what my opposition to is the changes that are going to happen is right where we take our tourists.

so everglades day safari takes guests out on a air boat ride and that is specifically on a place called lake trafford where there are thousands of alligators and by opening up the hunting season to daylight hours, it is going to put hunters and tourists in conflict with each other and potentially putting people in harms way, so that is the situation we are looking at starting tomorrow. but the fish and wildlife commission says 1.3 million alligators is simply too many, something has to be done. if that is their take on it, that is not really what is going on. we got 1.3 million alligators, maybe even more. historically we had probably 4 million alligators but over the course of the 20th century, alligators were hunted nearly to extinction. they were put on the endangered species list and their population numbers have come back very well, but what their basis

is for safety issues, i'm not exactly sure. there have been 30 fatalities in the last 75 years caused by wild alligators. there's been an average of seven, actually, probably about 12—15 alligator attacks and this ranges from alligators biting people when they are swimming to people picking up alligators and getting bitten. so that is each year and that is not a lot, so i'm not exactly sure why they think doing this is going to make anything safer. in fact by putting people out there with guns hunting while you've got tourists on air boats is probably the most unsafe thing you can do. but officials also argue that applying for these licenses means people paying for these licenses is bringing money into the state. yeah, that is really what it is about. it is not to manage the population, it is simply for recreational purposes and to make money for the state. i want to tell you now about the the world's1li

highest mountains — also known as the �*super peaks�* — all of them in asia. each one has a summit of more than 8,000 metres — more than 26,000 feet. climbing all 1a is a badge of honour in the mountaineering community — and doing so in record time is the biggest honour of them all. now a norwegian climber is on the verge of doing just that — as the bbc�*s tim allman reports. kristin harila carries a heavy burden. she has just finished scaling the 11th highest mountain in the world, but she can barely pause for a moment. these things don't climb themselves. we had like, a couple of rock falls, that was very dangerous. the rest have been logistical problems and waiting times. but climbing a mountain has not been so, not so much problems. kristin only took up mountain climbing seven years ago, but she is clearly

a quick study. she is now on course to complete one of the sport's most impressive achievements. as everyone knows, mount everest is the world's tallest peak at 8849 metres. there are 13 other mountains that come in at a height above 8000 metres, and kristin has climbed 11 of them. now she only has three more to complete the set and she wants to do it as quickly as possible. at the moment, nepal's nirmal purja holds the record, doing so in six months and six days. if kristin beats his time she hopes it will send quite a message. i think that's just, like, people believe men are more strong. but in reality, the women are just as strong as the men are in the mountain and there is no difference between us. kristin has until november to set a new record. after a quick trip home to norway, she will head to nepal and tibet for the final phase. the last super peaks

in her super sights. now let's take you to mexico city where families gathered at one of mexico's fastest growing artistics parades since the pandemic. ikaba koyi has this report. welcome to the alebrijes parade, where mythical animals coated in dazzling bright colours dance the day away. they are inspired by mexican folklore. circus artists show off their skills on stilts with gymnastics and music, and it's a summer favourite among young people. but the event got interrupted because of the pandemic. translation: during | the pandemic we locked ourselves in. children did not go outside at all. we adults did because we had to earn a living but the children needed to get out. now that iztapalapa is giving us this, we came to enjoy it.

the children can enjoy themselves and learn more about our culture. each sculpture represents elements from different animals and none are alike. they call them the alebrijes. translation: it is interesting to create and bring to life - those monsters that we might have in our dreams. everyone can build a creature but it does take up a lot of time. at the end of the parade the alebrijes are placed on display and prizes are awarded for the best one. it has become so popular in mexico city, entire families can't resist taking part. ikaba koyi, bbc news. much more on those stories on the bbc news website or on the bbc news app. do stay with bbc

world news. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @richpreston. thanks for watching, see you next time. hello. after a week where, somewhere in the uk, we've recorded a daytime high of 30 celsius or above every single day, we're finally seeing the heat come to an end. moving into the new week. could see 30 celsius somewhere in eastern england today, but it will be cooler than it has been through the weekend. thunderstorms becoming more of a talking point for us, as we look into the days ahead. we could see some just about anywhere across england and wales today — but by no means everywhere, so some areas will remain stubbornly dry, while others get some quite intense downpours. eastern scotland perhaps getting some thundery showers.

further north, it's the more persistent rain for central and eastern scotland and for northern ireland. it's cooler here, but still, as you saw, 30 possible somewhere in eastern england. overnight monday into tuesday, showers pushing up from the south — could be heavy and thundery, particularly for southern counties of england, persistent rain sits across eastern scotland. it's certainly fresher for scotland and northern ireland, but still very warm and humid across much of england and wales as we start off on tuesday. through the day on tuesday, though, low pressure really does come to take hold across the uk. it's a messy weather picture. what does that mean? well, it means it's quite hard for us to pin down the exact details of where the rain will sit through the day. but basically, it's a chance of showers just about anywhere across england and wales, and they're likely to be thundery. for scotland and northern ireland, more cloud around and some outbreaks of rain and quite a cool northerly breeze — quite a difference to recent days, and we've lost that 30 celsius in eastern england. by wednesday, well, low pressure still close by, but it's focused very much to the south of the uk — high pressure, in fact, tries to sneak back in across scotland and northern ireland.

wednesday looks dry for scotland and northern ireland, if cloudy at times, and it looks like any early showers will clear from northern england and wales. but a real focus perhaps on southern england for some more intense downpours on wednesday — so that could be the day when we see the return of some well—needed rainfall here. just 23 celsius — down ten degrees on the figures through the weekend. and then, for the end of the week, we very much pick up an atlantic influence — westerly winds, some weather fronts passing through, but actually, not bringing, i think, that much in the way of rainfall. we will see more in the way of sunshine again towards the end of the week, but not a return to the highs of recent days.

this is bbc news. the headlines: it's one year since the taliban swept into kabul and retook control of afghanistan, prompting scenes of chaos as people tried to flee. one year on, life for women and girls in particular is very different, with harsh rules including restrictions on education and employment. the agent of the author sir salman rushdie, who is in a us hospital following a stabbing attack, has said he is on the road to recovery, but it will be long. the author's son said that his feisty and defiant sense of humour remained intact. dozens of people have died at a church in the egyptian city of giza after a fire broke out, causing a stampede. the authorities say at least

41 people were killed, many of them children.