to flee their homes and hotels, as wildfires continue to spread. uk ariline jet2 cancels five flights to the islands scheduled for sunday. polls have opened in a snap election in spain, where prime minister, pedro sanchez, is hoping to fend off an attack from right wing parties. and it's day 4 of the women's world cup where the netherlands are leading 1—0 against portugal. hello. firefighters on the greek island of rhodes, say they expect wildfires to become more intense today, as temperatures rise. thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and hotels on the island. three hotels have reportedly burnt down, and many others are in the danger zone.

private boats have joined the coastguard, picking people up from beaches on the east of the island. the fires have been burning for five days now. the country's deputy fire chief says the blazes in rhodes are the most difficult greece is facing. jet2 airlines have cancelled fiveflights from the uk to rhodes schedulled for sunday. they are flying the empty planes to the island in order to bring customers schedulled to leave today back to the uk as planned. azadeh moshiri has more from athens. they came for blue skies but met orange haze. tourists have fled their resorts as fires engulfed parts of rhodes. we were told by the police that we had to evacuate the building because the, erm, the air was just unbreathable. it had turned bright orange and black above our heads from the hotel. so we were evacuating immediately. so we're one of the very lucky ones.

we managed to get on the authority boat and this is what we're leaving behind. that's the beach. thousands were evacuated by land and by sea as buildings were consumed by flames in the south. some hotels burnt down altogether. and yet a number of tourists decided to shelter in place. we had a national alert saying| the area was being evacuated, but we were being told at that time that our hotel wasn't. _ we locked ourselves up in our room. we had people sort of running past on the road, hundreds of people i filing down to the beach, - asking for water, wet towels. the fire service has told the bbc it apologises for what it called "a mess", but insisted they are trying their best in difficult conditions. rhodes�* abundance of trees makes it a popular destination for tourists. however, that is exactly what makes wildfires so likely and just so difficult for firefighters to respond to. people are living very different

realities across greece. there are those who are battling wildfires. forced to evacuate. but then there are people like the locals behind me who are coming here for the golden hour of the beach to escape the heat. but this is high season in greece and some tourists are finding that they're not getting everything they were expecting. temperatures are set to break records. forecasters say this could become the hottestjuly in 50 years. these extreme weather conditions mean the threat of wildfires is not over. firefighters are on high alert. when asked by the bbc whether sunday would bring better news for the island and the country, the fire service had a simple answer — no, it will be worse. azadeh moshiri, bbc news. and a little earlier, azadeh in athens gave me this update that that she'd received from the greek fire service.

they've told me that because of the winds the fire has spread, and that is why they expect to evacuate 1200 people today from three villages including the popular tourist destination, lindos, and they said even that around 60 to 75 fires burn every day in greece, rhodes is where they are focusing their efforts. the green pines make it difficult to respond to and i spoke to a volunteer with the hellenic red cross who was part of the team helping people on rhodes last night and they said that they worked throughout the night and they were all taking it in shifts and said it was simply devastating. everywhere you looked you saw fires and they said that they were

essentially providing lots of food and water to tourists, locals and firefighters themselves who were battling the fires and also providing psychological support for those who are suddenly on holiday and find they are being evacuated and running away from flames. it is difficult because greece's tourism industry is important to the economy and it was getting back on its feet after years of covid difficulties. absolutely. tourists are very important to greece. they are a priority. the economy needs them and that is why closing archaeological sites from noon to 530 during these potentially record breaking temperatures is a really big decision and even the acropolis behind me a shot between noon and 530 but it doesn't stop torres from flocking here. we saw this morning more buses full of tourists travelling and we saw queue up on queue of people literally all the way into the city, on their streets trying to get up the acropolis in the morning before it shut and that is why the hellenic red cross is still distributing water bottles

in front of the acropolis at the ticket office to keep people safe and hydrated. ve now to andrea, a british tourist from cheshire who has been evacuated overnight when did you know you would have to leave your hotel in what happened from there. leave your hotel in what happened from there-— leave your hotel in what happened from there. , ., ., from there. yesterday during the day we were over — from there. yesterday during the day we were over at _ from there. yesterday during the day we were over at the _ from there. yesterday during the day we were over at the beach. _ from there. yesterday during the day we were over at the beach. and - from there. yesterday during the day we were over at the beach. and we i we were over at the beach. and we were on a boat and it brought us and there were hotels on fire and then we would going onto the beach and the minute we got off on the beach

was a dead end. i the minute we got off on the beach was a dead end.— was a dead end. i will tell the audience _ was a dead end. i will tell the audience as _ was a dead end. i will tell the audience as we _ was a dead end. i will tell the audience as we are _ was a dead end. i will tell the audience as we are looking i was a dead end. i will tell the | audience as we are looking up was a dead end. i will tell the - audience as we are looking up video you sent in on the video we can see is from you. carry on with your story, sorry. is from you. carry on with your story. sorry-— is from you. carry on with your sto , sor . ~ ., story, sorry. we were running down the beach and _ story, sorry. we were running down the beach and people _ story, sorry. we were running down the beach and people had _ story, sorry. we were running down the beach and people had suitcases| the beach and people had suitcases on the boat arrived we thought was from the authorities and they were only taking an people are having severe breathing difficulties and i was trying to get this woman on the boat for them to take her and i crawled under her legs, which i did more for her than anything because she needed me to be with her and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people on the beach and

it was like armageddon and we could see the fire was chasing us to there took us to one beach, and they left us there. there was no taxi or phone signals and again i was very lucky that the guy at the apartment there knew somebody who worked at mike. they then sent somebody from their staff, and the greek people have been unbelievable. . the british embassy and the holiday companies have been appalling. the amount of families... h0 have been appalling. the amount of families... ., _, ., families... no communication in terms of what _ families... no communication in terms of what you _ families... no communication in terms of what you should - families... no communication in terms of what you should do. i terms of what you should do. nothing. not one text, nobody is answering the phones, and we have sent a messenger message and you can't get through to anybody and

there are coaches driving round and people are trying to scramble on them, banging on the coaches, it was like the end of the world. it was horrific. we met one family who had to abandon all of their luggage, they had their babies with them, they had their babies with them, they had their babies with them, they had no nappies orfood they had their babies with them, they had no nappies or food for the baby and everything was abandoned when they got on the boat, so we got back to our hotel last night and we were very lucky that they send staff in their own cars to pick them up, myself and my friend. and we were in bed and at iam they came banging on the doors and i opened the curtains and we could see the fire coming over the hill, basically, coming at us. they put us on a minibus. this was the hotel, i travelled with a company called tui, and all they've sent is a generic message to say follow government guidelines but there are no government guidelines.

they put us on a minibus and we were driving schools, gymnasiums, all full of people, hundreds and hundreds of people with just water. there were bathrooms, no toilet paper, no facilities nothing at all and i don't know if you seen photographs of people lying on the floor. we photographs of people lying on the floor. ~ .., photographs of people lying on the floor. ~ .. ., ., ., floor. we can imagine we have heard re orts but floor. we can imagine we have heard reports but you _ floor. we can imagine we have heard reports but you were _ floor. we can imagine we have heard reports but you were talking - floor. we can imagine we have heard reports but you were talking about i reports but you were talking about your friend reports but you were talking about yourfriend having breathing difficulties, but can you describe what the conditions are like? what is the air and temperature like? it's horrific. i've had severe breathing difficulties and i have a lung condition and it's been very scary. there is no visibility, it's very humid and hot and there are no answers because you do what you think is right for you but no one is giving you any advice and no one is helping us. we

giving you any advice and no one is helping ue— giving you any advice and no one is helping ne— helping us. we will have to leave ou in a helping us. we will have to leave you in a moment _ helping us. we will have to leave you in a moment but _ helping us. we will have to leave you in a moment but briefly, - helping us. we will have to leave | you in a moment but briefly, what helping us. we will have to leave i you in a moment but briefly, what is your plan. are you safe where you are for the moment? i your plan. are you safe where you are for the moment?— are for the moment? i still can't aet hold are for the moment? i still can't get hold of— are for the moment? i still can't get hold of the _ are for the moment? i still can't get hold of the travel— are for the moment? i still can't get hold of the travel company | are for the moment? i still can't i get hold of the travel company and they are still flying people in from they are still flying people in from the uk. our government needs to stop flights leaving the uk and any other country into rhodes, no more flights should be coming in. were in a hotel and we've been very lucky. we got the last hotel in rhodes and we've just got here this minute.- just got here this minute. andrea, thank ou just got here this minute. andrea, thank you so _ just got here this minute. andrea, thank you so much _ just got here this minute. andrea, thank you so much for— just got here this minute. andrea, thank you so much for taking - just got here this minute. andrea, thank you so much for taking us i thank you so much for taking us through that. and i hope you will get back safely. thank you very much. . . get back safely. thank you very much. ., ., ., .,~ get back safely. thank you very much. ., ., ., much. thanks a lot. take care. thanks for— much. thanks a lot. take care. thanks for your _ much. thanks a lot. take care. thanks for your time. - much. thanks a lot. take care. thanks for your time. we - much. thanks a lot. take care. i thanks for your time. we should much. thanks a lot. take care. - thanks for your time. we should add what we have — thanks for your time. we should add what we have information _ thanks for your time. we should add what we have information that - thanks for your time. we should add what we have information that some | what we have information that some fright —— flights from the uk to rhodes have been cancelled and planes are flying with the plans. we will keep tracking that for you. polls have opened in

spain's snap election, which could see the far right winning a place in government, for the first time since democracy was restored, after the death of general franco almost 50 years ago. voters face a choice between a centre—left government supported by the far—left and a conservative led government, backed by the far—right �*vox party'. this was the prime minister, pedro sanchez, casting his vote — as his party seeks to fend off the challenge from the far right. 0ur correspondent in madrid, guy hedgecoe, told us more about the mood in spain going ahead to the vote today. people are aware this is an unusual election, an election that has been called in the middle of summer which has never happened before in spain and there could be some consequences of that, for example it could affect turnout, because of the heat we are seeing, that will be up in the mid—30s today. in madrid, hotter than that and some

other areas of the country and many people have gone on holiday so those issues create all sorts of uncertainties surrounding the election but what we do know is what you mention is that it's been an acrimonious campaign and spanish politics is extremely polarised between the left and right and reflected in a campaign with a political left warning against a victory for the conservative people's party because they say that it full short of a majority and it looks likely they will rely on the far right vox, which would bring the far right into a coalition government potentially. that has been the tone of the campaign and certainly a lot of uncertainty around today's vote. can you tell us more about the vox party? what is on their platform? they are a nationalist, populist far—right party but they are unusual in the european context and that their initial popularity came about six or seven years ago, not because of the classic issues

you tend to associate with the far right, in particular, immigration, but they took a very fiercely unionist stance on the catalan issue and that paid off for them. in terms of votes, certainly back in 2019 and that has made them the third biggest party in spain which i'm standing outside right now. the lady talk about some of the other issues that far right they do talk about some of the other issues that far right parties talk about they want to set up a naval blockade around the coastline to stop migrants arriving from north africa and they have been battling issues like the gender reforms introduced, the gender equality reforms introduced by this government, reforms on equality in terms of the lgbtq community,

so these are the interests to them and it looks like they will be battling by the dash for the third or fourth place in this election. polls have closed in cambodia's general election. with the main opposition party banned, prime minister, hun sen, is almost certain to extend his 38 years in office. he cast his vote earlier — and recently said he was ready for a transfer of power — signalling that his successor could be his eldest son, hun manet. live now to our south east asia correspondent jonathan head who's outside a polling station in kandal province near the capital phnom penh. you feeling a bit more like a coronation with some people thinking it's more like a coronation than an election. what is the mood on the ground there? i election. what is the mood on the ground there?— ground there? i should tell you actually not — ground there? i should tell you actually not outside _ ground there? i should tell you actually not outside a - ground there? i should tell you actually not outside a station, l ground there? i should tell you i actually not outside a station, i'm backin actually not outside a station, i'm back in phnom penh as the polls are closed and they will start counting

the votes in an hour or two and everybody knows more or less what the result will be. that has suppressed the mood here and people do vote as a matter of civic duty in cambodia but there's been no sense of excitement at all. there are plenty of people who support the ruling cambodian people's party and its message of delivering peace and growth and the fact it's the only real source of development fund for the country gives it a strong base but have had the opposition candlelight been able to run it would have got about a quarter of the vote and local elections last year, and the party nearly ousted the ruling party ten years ago and thatis the ruling party ten years ago and that is something the prime minister was not willing to risk but he does have factional rivals in his own party and he wants to cement this dynastic handover to his son in the smoothest way possible so he's hoping for a resounding turn out and thatis hoping for a resounding turn out and that is what will be interesting,

given that people have no real choice and all of the other parties are very small and might not win any seats in the assembly, will people choose instead to spoil their ballots or choose not to turn up and vote. these are things we don't know and we don't know how transparent the vote count will be given that most international respected international observers have chosen not to monitor the election, dismissing it as a sham. jonathan head speaking — dismissing it as a sham. jonathan head speaking to _ dismissing it as a sham. jonathan head speaking to us _ dismissing it as a sham. jonathan head speaking to us from - dismissing it as a sham. jonathan head speaking to us from phnom| dismissing it as a sham. jonathan - head speaking to us from phnom penh. let s get some of the day s other news now in ukraine — extensive damage has been reported after russian air strikes on the port city of 0desa. authorities there say at least two person has been killed and 22 wounded. 0desa has been bombed multiple times since the start of the invasion — and has been attacked repeatedly since moscow pulled out of a grain export deal last week. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said he was fitted with a pacemaker on saturday night.

in a video on social media, mr netanyahu said he'd been living with a heart monitor for the past week — and when the device had beeped on saturday, it had been decided to implant a pacemaker. he expects to be released from hospital on monday — in time to vote on his controversialjudicial reforms. a decline in childminders in the uk could lead to a shortage of places, early years providers are warning. a fifth of carers have quit in the last three years ? many because of low pay and a lack of appreciation. 0verall, childcare places have fallen by 2% this year, but the government says the population of pre—school children is also decreasing and the picture is broadly positive. ? i'm joined by meganjarvie, head of coram family and childcare. just to focus on the importance of

early years care, what difference does it make for children to have really excited, committed to child carers. what difference does it make for them in the long term? it will make a huge _ for them in the long term? it will make a huge difference - for them in the long term? it will make a huge difference for- for them in the long term? it ll make a huge difference for children and we often think about childcare as enabling parents to work, and it does and that's a fantastic thing childcare does but it also boosts children's outcomes in the long term and you can see the difference from children who have high quality childcare to the point where they are taking gcses, and the most exciting thing about it is that the children who are most likely to start school behind disadvantaged children see the biggest benefit, so it's a really powerful tool in narrowing the achievement gap that opens up before children start school. �* , ., ,., ., ., opens up before children start school. �* , ., ., school. it's a powerfultool, and very important _ school. it's a powerfultool, and very important for _ school. it's a powerfultool, and very important for children's - very important for children's outcomes throughout their early years. so why are childminders choosing to leave the profession and why are they not feeling valued? {jut

why are they not feeling valued? our own why are they not feeling valued? oi" own research shows why are they not feeling valued? ij' own research shows it's a sector own research shows its a sector under pressure at the moment and a lot of nurseries and childminders are struggling to balance the books and the income they get from government funding from parents is not enough to make it worthwhile in they're struggling to stay afloat. the parents find have enough childcare for the families that need it and they are not able to find the childcare they need with outcomes and to enable them to work as well. what is the government saying about this? they are painting a positive picture saying the number of total children in care is declining anywhere in the government has also, the ruling conservative party has been promising as paid childcare for younger children, so how does it balance out. it’s

younger children, so how does it balance out-— younger children, so how does it balance out. it's the gap with not enou:h balance out. it's the gap with not enough childcare _ balance out. it's the gap with not enough childcare is _ balance out. it's the gap with not enough childcare is worrying - balance out. it's the gap with not enough childcare is worrying and | enough childcare is worrying and thatis enough childcare is worrying and that is concerning for us, the bigger shortages around the country and it's fantastic to see the announcement of extra funding for child care and the expansion of free childcare but we are concerned about whether there's enough places out there and the most crucial bays for there and the most crucial bays for the government to get the funding rate for the childcare right, so it enables childcare providers notjust to balance the books but to provide that really high quality care that we know makes a difference for children and that's something we are watching at the moment, the details the expansion which are still coming out and that will be the key point we need to see.— we need to see. very briefly, caettin we need to see. very briefly, getting the — we need to see. very briefly, getting the funding _ we need to see. very briefly, getting the funding ride, - we need to see. very briefly, | getting the funding ride, what we need to see. very briefly, - getting the funding ride, what else needs to happen? do we need more training of childcare providers? would it help? it training of childcare providers? would it help?— training of childcare providers? would it help? it would be helpful but we want _ would it help? it would be helpful but we want to _ would it help? it would be helpful but we want to see _ would it help? it would be helpful but we want to see high _ but we want to see high qualifications across the workforce but we need to value the people who

are educating and caring for our youngest children. this is an amazingly important profession and sector and often gets overlooked so we'd like to see better value put on the professionals like we did with school staff and teachers and that's the kind ofjob they're doing, highly skilled and valuable to us as a society. highly skilled and valuable to us as a socie . ~ ., ., ~ highly skilled and valuable to us as a socie . ~ ., ., ,, i. highly skilled and valuable to us as a socie . ~ ., ., ~' i., ., a society. megan, thank you for talkin: to a society. megan, thank you for talking to us — a society. megan, thank you for talking to us about _ a society. megan, thank you for talking to us about this. - twitter�*s logo might change as early as later today — that's if we are to belive the platform's current owner, elon musk. mr musk says that �*soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds' — adding that, �*if a good enough x logo is posted tonight, we'll make go live worldwide tomorrow'. the billionaire tech entrepreneur did not provide any further details. to the women's world cup now, and sweden scored a last—minute goal to win 2—1 against south africa.

sweden reached the semi—finals in 2019 — and are ranked third in the world. the netherlands are now in action against portugal and a little later, france open their campaign againstjamaica. earlier i spoke to laytabo kganyago, a footballjournalist and expert in women s football at idiski times who gave her reaction to the game and south africa's performance. there is a legendary saying by a former coach from the men's premier division in south africa who said once upon a time that football can kill you a real death, and i think that is how most of us south africans are feeling this morning after they took the lead and it looks hopeful and then when it all crumbled, i honestly thought we would get something out of the game but maybe they panicked after the game and we could not settle. we are dying a real death right now every sunday morning. you might not have got some points

but the team got a lot of attention in the team has developed a bit in the last few years. can you take me through the women's team journey? there's a lot that has happened since the first appearance at a world cup finals. but we didn't have a women's leak to speak of but then we saw the start of the hollywood super league, the domestic league and it's still very much semiprofessional, not professional at all, but it's playing week in, week out and has been three years so far so the girls are able to play most of the goals that were part of the french team have earned international contracts to go and play in europe or overseas it has been quite a number of things you could see where we are going in the women's champions league as well and the ladies who are the defending

champions in the domestic league have been dominating and even in the current squad one of the defenders to date was playing who did well today is also playing and on the bench today, yes, there's been steps taken to get the women's game moving but it's still a long way to go but there has been a lot of things that have happened since our first appearance at the world cup. you may have heard and seen the annual running of the bulls in the spanish town of pamplona. this is the hemingway days celebration in key west in florida. people dress up like the famous author, ernest hemingway — and parade down the streets on imitation bulls. 140 contestants converged outside sloppyjoe's bar, a favourite hangout of hemingway in his later years, to vie for the title in the hemingway look—alike contest. stay with us here on bbc news.

good weather for ducks at the moment. it's not all doom and gloom, the weather story for this sunday and we've already had lovely sunshine in devon earlier on. there is some rain and some of it quite heavy and persistent. this was lancashire earlier this morning and most of the heavy rain across northern england, north wales and northern ireland and it is stubbornly sitting there as you can see from the latest radar picture this morning so to the north and south it is sunny spells and scattered showers but underneath the cloud and rain it is cool and disappointing and just on the edge is manchester and liverpool, the cricket and the golf which might be impacted today. some of the rain quite persistent and the totals will top up and we will see at least two or three inches of rainfall before the system clears and in addition to the rain we've already seen. but we will have sunny spells and a few scattered showers in scotland and the same for england and wales and with a little more

sunshine and temperatures will be a degree or so higher than yesterday with top temperatures expected of 23 degrees, 73 fahrenheit. underneath the cloud and rain it's been a cool afternoon, and the rain will continue to shift its way very slowly southwards and it will weaken a little and behind it a northerly flow will dig in and we will have clearer skies so a cooler start to monday morning across scotland, milder, with the cloud and rain around. that front is still to clear during monday morning and really it will be across the bristol channel towards lincolnshire first thing and some showery outbreaks of rain sinking south. sunshine behind but because of the northerly component, it will drive in some showers across the far north—west of scotland and it will be that bit fresher. so the temperatures are disappointing this time of year, 1a to 20 degrees as the overall high. looking further ahead, tuesday will be a quiet story

as well but as we move into the middle of the week we do it all again. another low will start to push on from the atlantic bringing yet more wet and unseasonably windy weather for the time of year, so certainly through the middle part of the week it's quite unsettled. sunny spells but still the temperatures are disappointing for the end ofjuly.