catastrophic wildfires. horrendous. absolutely... i've never been so scared in my entire life. travel chaos as a number of holiday firms cancel outbound flights and holidays to rhodes. voters take to the polls for a snap election in spain. prime minister pedro sanchez and his main rival alberto nunez cast their votes. and a frustrating start for france at the women's world cup as they're held to a goalless draw by jamaica. hello, i'm vishala sri—pathma. greek police say 19,000 people have been evacuated from homes and hotels on the island of rhodes, as wildfires continue to burn out of control. it's said to be the biggest such operation greece has ever carried out. these are pictures from one village in rhodes where houses

have been destroyed. three hotels have reportedly burnt down, and many others are in the danger zone. here you can see cars, buildings and vegetation, all burnt out, going right up to the edge of the sea. and the fires are still burning. you can see in this video, captured by a tourist, just how thick the smoke is down by the coast. many people spent the night in temporary accommodation like this one, after being evacuated from hotels. others have been forced to gather in public buildings like halls and schools. 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. the budget airline, jet2, says it's cancelled all flights that were due to go to rhodes today.

tuigroup says it's also cancelled flights to rhodes until tuesday night. thomas cook has cancelled all holidays to areas of rhodes until 31stjuly. a spokesperson for the greek fire services gave an update on the evacuation of residents and tourists in rhodes. translation: according to initial estimates by the greek police, - the precautionary evacuation involved some 19,000 people. 16,000 of them were evacuated by ground means, and 3,000 by watercraft. this was the largest safe transport operation for residents and tourists ever carried out in our country. that was an update from the fire services in greece. 0ur correspondentjenny hill is at rhodes international airport. what really strikes you here is just how exhausted and how emotional people are. there must be several hundred people at rhodes airport. there is very limited seating, so most of them are just squatting, or even trying to sleep

on the floor. some of the people here told us they've been here since the early hours of the morning, waiting for a handful of flights back to britain tonight. although actually, i have just met a woman who sat very, very tearfully, telling me that she hasn't got a flight home until wednesday, but she doesn't want to go to an evacuation centre, doesn't want to try another hotel — and they're very booked up — because she is worried that the fires will simply spread further. the greek minister for tourism is here at the airport. we had a very brief word with her earlier. she told us that 19,000 people, locals and tourists, have been successfully moved out of danger, out of those fire zones. she said there'd been no injuries during the course of those operations. she also told us that the authorities are setting up a help desk, here at the airport, for any british citizen who has lost, misplaced their documents or passport during those evacuation operations. that was jenny that wasjenny hill in rhodes, where people are trying to get a flight home from the airport there.

0ur news correspondent phil bodmer is at manchester airport finding out how passengers are feeling there. lots of confusion and stress. it is quite a worrying situation for some. it is, and jenny talk to their about how tired and emotional travellers are. i have to say i think that could buy the passengers who came off that first flight from rhodes this afternoon, and i did at one in manchester airport, at around 330. i think it is also fair to say that those passengers were greeted by the manchester arena. those passengers were greeted by the manchesterarena. it those passengers were greeted by the manchester arena. it has been raining all day here, and half the night also. i've been to honest, they have never been as glad to see they have never been as glad to see the wet, great manchester sky, after what they have been to, which sounds utterly horrendous. —— greeted by the manchester rain. they talk about their holidays which they've saved up their holidays which they've saved up for all year round is being disrupted by these wildfires. the talk about the sky glowing red, the

mean glowing red eye tonight. sitting out having a meal, with ash falling onto their pizzas. they could see a glow on the hills above the hotels. 0ne could see a glow on the hills above the hotels. one man even told us he wondered if this hotel was still standing. it has been quite an ordeal. the flight back was delayed, and i think they really are relieved to be home. it's been pretty horrendous. where we were staying, it was not that bad, where like, the hotel was with fires. 0n the way back from the hotel, you could literallyjust see a whole cloud of smoke. it was horrible. we had ash dropping on our shoulders, and a lot of smoke around, so i think we just missed it, but we're just trying to find out whether our hotel is actually still standing. so we're not too sure yet. the smoke was getting thicker yesterday.

ash was starting to fall, and be blown across the area where we were. and no one or anybody seem to be really too concerned about it. you could see the sky turning red and cloudy, and the mountain disappearing with the thick smoke. yeah, it was scary. i think there was frustration about a lack of duplication from the priorities. there was military roadblocks in place, and so getting to the airport wasn't a problem. but when you do get to the airport, it's absolutely crowded and chaotic, and people don't know whether they will have their flight out. it is a fluid situation, as has been mentioned, because clearly, some tour operators are suspending all flights. people turning up at the airport today, are being told, the flights are not going now. but some airlines, who are not running package tours, are still playing into the island. because as we know, it is the central part of rhodes, which is affected. a lot of confusion about the days ahead. i suspect the flight that came in this afternoon, at 330, will be far from the last. we know another one is due at around five o'clock. that will now not come in around 615. —— until around 615.

that has been delayed too. but i suspect with 19,000 people evacuated, some 3000 of those by water, this will be far from the last of those flights we see from rhodes over the coming days. thank you for that update. clearly, lots of passengers will be concerned about their holidays, and reassessing their options. let's talk more about these evacuations with our news reporter courtney bembridge who's in our newsroom. i want to start with the map, because it helps us to put into context of these fires. you can see the area marketer in orange is where fires are currently burning. we know many of those are out of control. the airport is here in the north, and the main town of rhodes is right at the tip. but a lot of the areas we have marked here are a tourist destinations, but also places where local residents live, and these are the areas where people have been evacuated from. we have heard

consistently that a bigger, 3000 people by water, and if you haven't been following this story, that looks a little something like this. —— we have consistently heard to this figure. people have been put on two passenger ferries, this figure. people have been put on two passengerferries, and other commercial vessels have been brought in along with the greek army to help get people to safety. most of them will go by air, and if we have a look at the scenes at the airport, these are scenes from today. you can see it is very busy, with people sleeping and waiting on the floor, and some of them will be waiting for some time. let's run through what the major opponents are saying. —— what are the major airlines are saying. we have statement in from jet2, who have cancelled flights for the next week. that means they are not taking any new customers into rhodes, but they are sending empty planes there to collect passengers. we have also heard from dui, the company says it as cancelled flights until next wednesday at least. —— we had heard from tui. we have also heard from easyjet, which is that it

is running as normal, but package holidays had been cancelled, and people can change if they want to. anti—british airways and ryanair are flying as normal, but certainly, with british airways, people can change their date to be the longer want to travel on those days. —— if they no longer want to. we have also heard from the foreign office, which as it is working with the airlines and greek authorities to support uk nationals in rhodes. we know they are being set up in the airports to try to do that. this is an ever—changing situation, and we will bring you all the latest as soon as we can. thank you for that update. if you have had a trip cancelled two rhodes, you might wonder what your options are. earlier i spoke to emma brennan — she's head of media and communications for the association of british travel agents, and told me what holiday—makers should do. it's really important to recognise that there's two to sort of groups of people really.

you'll have people who have booked a package holiday. and in these circumstances you've got more rights and protections. and then you will have people who will have booked their travel arrangements separately. so will have booked their own flight and their own hotel accommodation. our members will be predominately probably providing package holidays. you've just mentioned a few of them there who have said that they've cancelled their holidays for the next few days in the next week or so. if you're in that camp where your whole holiday has been cancelled, you've booked a package, then your travel company will be speaking to you about what your options are. that might be that you can try and find an alternative holiday which could be in a different destination, or you might be offered a refund for the cost of the package, or a chance to move that holiday to a later date. so they will be looking at the whole of the holiday arrangements and your rights around that. so you booked your own now, if you book things independently, so you booked your own

flights and then you went on to book the hotel accommodation, then it really depends on the different terms conditions for your individual travel arrangements. as you said, some airlines are continuing to operate flights. however, they have also announced different policies in terms of whether passengers do or don't have to go on those flights if they wish to rebook, or move their flight to another date. so if you are due to travel and you booked everything separately, i would say, have a look at the information from your airline to find out if your flight is still going ahead and then discuss with them your options. if your flight has been cancelled, then you should be offered a chance to rebook for a later date or a chance to get you're a refund on the cost of that flight. and then you'll also need to look at what the policies are around your hotel accommodation, and i think i recommend checking out your travel insurance policies. 0k. and emma, you said that there might be other options offered to passengers if they've booked a package holiday, for example, to rhodes, and that's been now cancelled.

if they're unable to travel to that alternative destination, what do they do? if there isn't a suitable alternative, and they've booked a package holiday, they'd have the right to request a refund for that, the cost of that package holiday. so that's why i'm saying if you booked a package holiday, you've got a lot more protections there over the entire cost of that package holiday. whereas if you've booked independently, then you're going to have to go through and look at your different booking agreements and find out what the terms and conditions are. and it might be that your flight�*s been cancelled and you'll be able to get your money back from that. but then it might be a different situation when you're looking at the arrangements that you've got around your hotel. so unfortunately for those passengers, it will be a case of looking at the different agreements and arrangements that they've got to understand what the circumstance means for their terms conditions. you can read more about that situation and potentially your

rights on our web page. graphic accounts are emerging of further atrocities in the indian state of manipur during an outbreak of ethnic violence. there's already been pain and anger over a video showing two women being paraded naked and assaulted by a mob. several other incidents have now come to light. internet restrictions have slowed the release of information. 0ur reporter divya arya has more from manipur. shops are shut in this part of manipur�*s capital city imphal because another violent incident was reported here. this road leads to the airport, so you do see some vehicles going from here. but mostly residents in this area are staying indoors, stepping out only if they need some essentials. now, what really strikes you when you come to manipur is that the city and the state has seen no internet for more than two and a half months now. so while some areas might be returning to normalcy, it is really hard to communicate and resume normal life. and despite the fact that there is no internet, when we travelled around the state, we found that the video that shows two women being disrobed,

paraded naked and then sexually assaulted was still being shared widely. and people would just take out their phones and show that video to us. it has fuelled more anger, despair and discontent amongst both communities. thousands are still displaced and in relief camps, unable to go back to their homes after they were set on fire in the violence that happened in the month of may. while there have been arrests after the video came out and there has been condemnation from both communities, especially spearheaded by women, everybody has been pointing out that the state government and the central government hasn't done enough, that the prime minister has spoken, but spoken too little and too late. until there is a concerted effort to find a political resolution to the dispute, sporadic incidents of violence can continue. we've heard of reports of fighting across the border overnight. curfew is clamped every evening and it will be very difficult for people to go back from relief camps and even think of rebuilding their lives.

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 led by prime minister, pedro sanchez, here casting his vote, and the centre—right popular party which may go into coalition with the hard—right vox party. live now to madrid where we canjoin news reporter sergi forcada freixas for an update on the spanish elections. thank you put joining thank you putjoining us again. how is voting going? it is still under way where you are.— is voting going? it is still under way where you are. voting is still under way _ way where you are. voting is still under way for _ way where you are. voting is still under way for two _ way where you are. voting is still under way for two more - way where you are. voting is still under way for two more hours. i way where you are. voting is still - under way for two more hours. people are still coming in. it has been quite steady throughout the day, especially in the morning. a bit of a break during lunchtime, and then people are back for these final hours. polling stations were close in two hours's time, across spain, with the exception of the canary

islands, where they have an extra hour. and then counting will start of all these ballots. we should have a clear picture of the results of this election is injust a clear picture of the results of this election is in just five or six hours's time. but opinion polls are saying ahead of the selection is that everything will be quite tight, and there are two big blocks. 0n that everything will be quite tight, and there are two big blocks. on one hand, the conservative party leading the polls, but falling short of the majority. possibly, they would need to look to the far right box, and on the other hand, the working coalition that we had for the past two years, prime minister pedro sanchez and his left eye lies. it is not clear yet you will end up being able to form a government. that is why most analysts are saying that it is not only important the picture we get tonight, but the negotiations that will come in the coming days and weeks. there were concerns about the weather. spain had never held general elections before in the month ofjuly, so when prime minister pedro sanchez but it snap elections just two months ago, everyone is concerned about the

turnout. so far, people are coming here, and with the pillory data we have in terms of turnout, turnout is actually a bit higher then four years ago. —— at the preliminary data. years ago. -- at the preliminary data. , , ., , ., , ., data. there seems to be a flurry of activity behind _ data. there seems to be a flurry of activity behind you. _ data. there seems to be a flurry of activity behind you. maybe - data. there seems to be a flurry of activity behind you. maybe that. data. there seems to be a flurry of| activity behind you. maybe that fine is good in people as they come to vote. in terms of the far right, if they do get in, what does that mean policy wise? would today stand for? well, it will be different if they are in government or if they are just giving outside support in parliament. but anyway, just giving outside support in parliament. butanyway, if just giving outside support in parliament. but anyway, if vox are the key makers for this election, and if the conservative party needs them, then we may see shifts in topics like emigration, like gender, like lgbt rights. so they have also been very critical of the soft approach that prime minister pedro sanchez has had with catalan leaders, with nationalist movements in both catalonia and the basque country. so what we can see is actually a very, very different

government from what we have had for the past four years in spain will stop the past four years in spain will sto ; . ~ the past four years in spain will sto_ ., ~ , ., the past four years in spain will sto_ . ~' ,, ., the past four years in spain will sto_ ., ~ i. ., ., the past four years in spain will sto_ ., ~ ., ., , ., stop thank you for that update. in madrid where _ stop thank you for that update. in madrid where voting _ stop thank you for that update. in madrid where voting is _ stop thank you for that update. in madrid where voting is under- stop thank you for that update. in | madrid where voting is under way. at least one person has been killed and 19 more injured in russian missile strikes on the southern ukrainian port city of 0desa. several residential buildings and an orthodox cathedral have been badly damaged. moscow has been launching near constant attacks on the city since monday when it withdrew from a landmark grain deal which protected wheat exports being shipped out of ukrainian ports. here's our ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse. ? a familiar brutality caused by a different tactic. 0desa's transfiguration cathedral hit by a russian missile, a place of worship. a refuge, now in ruins. this is a city showing its cracks after a week of sustained bombardment.

|translation: | think russia has| chosen 0desa as the main target. they want to stop the grain agreement to show that nothing will work without them. the most terrible thing is that in order to achieve their goal, they have attacked innocent people. the speed of the clean—up is remarkable and there is still the real risk of debris falling from the ceiling. russia is deliberately targeting ukrainian ports here and of course, no building is safe. the consequences are far—reaching and 0desa is at the sharp end. tens of thousands of tonnes of grain has reportedly been destroyed this week. this was an area which had a diplomatic shield. that protection is no more after moscow pulled out of the year—long grain initiative to the anger of the west. the kremlin is frustrated with western sanctions. it's a decision which affect�*s ukraine economy, its farmers and the tens of millions of people who rely on its grain.

james waterhouse, bbc news, 0desa. here in the uk, a treasury minister has written to all major banks, warning them against closing customers' accounts because of their political views. it comes after the former hard—right ukip leader, nigel farage, claimed his account with coutts bank was closed for political reasons. the boss of natwest, which owns coutts, dame alison rose, has apologised to mr farage. earlier i spoke to business reporter noor nanji who explaining what was written in the letter. so this is a letter that's being sent to all the big banks on monday. and in the letter, andrew griffiths essentially says that there's significant concerns from both houses of parliament about this issue of accounts being closed. he said that the government would defend the freedom of expression. he said that that's a fundamental right for all british people. and on the back of that, he said that he's essentially hauling in all the bank bosses to come in and discuss this.

and it's not unusual for bank bosses to meet with the treasury, but given the context of this, that's why it's very poignant. tell us a bit about how we got here. that's right. so well, actually, the government's been looking into this whole issue for quite some time. but of course, as you mentioned, there has been a spotlight on all of this recently because of the row involving nigel farage, who is the former ukip leader and brexit campaigner. now his account was closed by coutts, which is the private bank that's run, owned by natwest. now, mr farage said that he thought his account had been shut because of his political views. he subsequently obtained a document relating to his suitability as a coutts customer, and that document flagged concerns that mr farage was xenophobic and racist and there was reputational risk in having him as a client. natwest boss, which is dame alison rose, has since apologised to mr farage for these comments that she said were deeply inappropriate. but mr farage says that she now needs to go in front of mps to explain what's happened here.

cambodian prime minister hun sen has declared victory in a general election. with the main opposition party banned, it's been seen as a contest that has been dismissed as a one—sided sham. jonathan head reports. the man who's held onto power here for nearly four decades was among the first to vote. hun sen had made sure his party faced no rival in this election. it was dismissed by many as a sham, but he still needed it to go well. and here's why. his son, hun manet, will soon succeed him in a once in a generation dynastic power transfer that's fraught with risk. the disqualification of the main opposition party left people with no real choices. the 17 others permitted to contest the election were either too small or too new to attract more than a handful of votes.

"it was a boring campaign for the people", said the spokesman for the banned candle light party, which was forced to sit out this election with no opposition. "it was like a soup with no flavour." the ruling party still campaigned hard, though its colourful rallies were the only ones that most cambodians got to see. the cpp was pushing for a strong turnout, and it looks like it got that. we've just finished counting the votes here in this polling station in phnom penh. quite a surprising number of spoiled ballots here. it's quite high, which is the only way people can really show their support for the opposition, which, of course, was banned from contesting. but once this is over, the bigger question really facing cambodia is how the planned transition of power from hun sen, who's been there so long, to his son goes. that's expected to happen within a few weeks. hun sen hopes that this will be seen as his legacy, a once war—torn country transformed

under his rule. but all this glittering growth has come at a high price with levels of corruption, injustice and inequality that would certainly have cost him many more votes in a freer election. jonathan head, bbc news, phnom penh. some sport now. let's start with football and the women's world cup. and france were surprisingly held byjamaica in group f. the match ended goalless. the jamaica manager hailed the result as the "greatest" in his country's football history. france were one of the pre—tournament favourites. a good day for it to make out there. —— a good day forjamaica. elsewhere and sweden came back from a goal down to beat south africa 2—1 in group g. the winning goal coming in the last minute for the swedes, who are current 0lympic silver medallists. and in group e, the netherlands overcame portugal 1—0 in dunedin. it's the first time

the portuguese have featured in a women's world cup. the only goal came in the first half. cricket and no play has been possible so far on day five of the fourth ashes test match. the game is seemingly heading for a draw. australia still has five second innings wickets at close of play yesterday but trailed england by 61 runs. if this test match does end in a draw, australia will retain the ashes with one test remaining. golf — and it's the final round of the open, drawing to a close. american brian harman remains out in front. a short time ago he was on 12 under par. he is already through 12 holes today. northern ireland's rory mciiroy has enjoyed a good final round moving to six under par. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. rain has been a big feature

of the weekend weather for many of us, but it wasn't a complete wash—out. there was a little bit of sunshine to be had. sunday afternoon brought some blue sky overhead for this weather watcher in cornwall. but on the earlier satellite picture, you can see this curl of cloud, an area of low pressure moving away. but this frontal system here left behind. it has been very, very wet again today across some parts of southern scotland, northern ireland, most especially northern england. and that rain will continue to push its way southwards through the night. 0nly moving quite slowly though into the midlands, wales, eventually the south west of england, parts of east anglia. behind it, we get into a northerly wind and that's going to make for a rather chilly night across some parts of scotland. i think some places will get down to around four or five degrees. tomorrow then, here's our slow—moving weather front, still only moving slowly southwards and eastwards, but behind it, we get into that northerly winds, bringing some unusually cool air

for this point in july. so our weather front bringing clouds and outbreaks of rain across some eastern and southern counties of england first thing. it should pull away southwards. sunny spells and showers following on behind and then perhaps some more widespread showery rain into the far north west of scotland, particularly the western isles, as we head through the afternoon. temperature—wise, pretty disappointing actually for this time of year. 1a to 19, maybe 20 degrees. that is below the average for late july. and then as we head through tuesday, some spells of sunshine, a scattering of showers, not quite as breezy, but still rather cool with top temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees. now, as we head on into wednesday, the day should start on a mainly fine note, albeit with one or two showers. and eventually, some outbreaks of rain moving in during the afternoon. the further east you are, the better chance of staying mostly dry. and those temperatures again in a range between 1a and 19, maybe 21 degrees in the brighter

spots in eastern england. but through wednesday night, we see this next frontal system bringing another dose of rain. that should tend to clear during thursday to leave a mix of sunny spells and showers for the end of the week. but whichever way you slice it, it is an unsettled week ahead and broadly speaking, a rather cool one for the time of year.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a huge evacuation operation

has been taking place on the greek island of rhodes.