spain's conservative popular party falls short of an all—out election victory as the left celebrates. and its day five at the women's world cup. we'll have the latest on all the action on the pitch. hello, i'm helena humphrey. it's good to have you with us. we begin in greece, where authorities have declared a state of emergency in southern rhodes — one of at least two greek islands where firefighters are battling wildfires. well, greek police say 19,000 people have now been evacuated from homes and hotels in rhodes, while new evacuation orders are in place tonight on the island of corfu. three hotels there have reportedly burnt down and many others are in the danger zone. this is the damage at one hotel in the town of kiotari. and some fires are still burning — these pictures have

come into us from the turkish ministry of agriculture, taken from one of their planes which is helping to fight the blazes. well, many people spent the night in temporary accommodation like this after being evacuated from hotels. others have been forced to gather in public buildings like halls and schools. these pictures are from journalist katy dartford, who is in corfu. i spoke with her a short time ago. katy, thank you so much for being with us. now, i did see a photo that you did actually post on twitter, close to where you are, the wildfire on the horizon. i mean, it must�*ve been quite terrifying. what is the situation where you are currently? well, i am in corfu town, which i would say is maybe ten to 15 kilometres away from where the wildfire is actually happening, but i can see it directly from my window — it's going on right behind me now at the moment, but it's a bit too dark to see. i would say i first started seeing little glimmers in the background about nine

o'clock but it had obviously been going on a bit earlier than that and then, just as the night went on, rapidly see it spreading down the side of the mountain towards the east of the mountain. so, as the night has gone on, it seems to have flamed up even more to the western side, but i think it is the wind coming up from the west and flaming it all night. and, katy, are you having to evacuate? no, no — not here, not at all — but it is the people who are here in the central municipalities of the island, up in the mountains, that area there, it's quite mountainous, and it looks of barbiti, which are the seaside areas, so leaving their homes, which are higher up in that mountainside, to go down to the coast. i'm too far away at the moment but i have heard that there were smaller wildfires yesterday that they did put out

in the south and further up north, so we just wait and see what happens, as to where else it spreads in the island. and, i mean, what was that moment like when you did just happen to glimpse out of the window and you saw a wildfire on the horizon? how did you feel? i was like, "oh, my goodness". because i was looking at it — it was like a little bonfire. from here, it looked like a small bonfire in the distance, but i know what's been going on and i was like, "no" because all week we have had problems with red alerts, heatwaves, museums and things have been shutting in — commanded to shut in the afternoon, so we have all been aware of what could be happening, so ijust kept watching it and watching it, like, and just seeing it grow bigger as the minutes went by, in fact. and are you being given any kind of instructions from authorities about what you might have to do? i mean, what has the response been like?

yeah, so they sent out 112 alerts — these are evacuation alerts but obviouslym they are going —— alerts but obviously, they are going to people in the central part of the island — but we have all been aware that there's warnings and fines out there if you are leaving litter that could cause any spark or catch fire at all. and we all know — yeah, we've been told, warned not to go out in the afternoon too much, that kind of thing. as we mentioned, many are trying to get to safer areas in greece, including foreign tourists. here's courtney bembridge with the details. well, rhodes is a popular tourist destination at this time of year and a greek tourism minister is keen to keep it that way, underlining that the island is almost operating as normal and expecting that those disruptions will be limited in a few days but we are hearing from a lot of passengers and people who are stuck there and are experiencing disruptions so we've spoken to some of the major operators, tour

operators, here in the uk about what's happening with their plans and let's go through them now. so, first of all with easyjet, they have cancelled their package holidays to rhodes until at leastjuly 25. rhodes until at least july 25. they rhodes until at leastjuly 25. they are still running flights and they will be flights, extra flights, put on to help ring people back to the uk from rhodes. that's happening tomorrow and the next day. we've also heard from tui who have cancelled bears into the 25th, two days�* time, and jet2 have cancelled for at least a week, untiljuly 30. ryanair, though, says flights are still running as normal and we've heard other airlines saying the same, this schedule has not been affected. 0ne flight that was due to take off this afternoon spent several hours on the tarmac, you can see passengers there fanning themselves with the safety instructions, and we were told that a few hours after this

flight took off, it actually had to land in italy, not its intended arrival point in london, because the crew had timed out, it's been so long in the tarmac waiting departure in rhodes that then, the crew timed out. so that's the experience of some tourists. 0thers experience of some tourists. others are spending days on end here at the airport, waiting for flights out. and, here at the airport, waiting forflights out. and, of course, we have people stationed there, speaking to them. and also there is the british foreign office. now, they've got a team there that's been sent to help people who may not have the documents, may have left hotels in a hurry or make their way to the airport from other destinations and not been able to go to the resorts and hotels to get the documents and hotels to get the documents and baggage so they are on hand to help with that. and just talking about the level of impact of this fire, after the tourism minister's comments about only 10% being affected, consider the area here marked in fires but it is burned all

the way to the seaside here where a lot of the hotels and seaside resorts are so certainly having an impact and we know that 19,000 people had to be evacuated from hotels and homes, 3000 of them via the sea, so certainly there are large numbers of people being disrupted by this. another thing to show you, we've been talking about the aegean sea but if we go over to the ionian islands here just off the coast of albania and we have italy just over here, we've got the island of corfu which is actually experiencing fires as well and these are some of the latest pictures we've had here from there. this is, as you can see, a resort with people eating their dinner, eating their meal while in the background, fires burn. now, these fires, some people have been evacuated as a precaution because of these fires but they are, at this stage, not burning is out of control as those in rhodes but certainly, pictures we've seen a quite dramatic of the fires burning on the skyline bear so this is something that firefighters

will be watching closely over knight skyline there. spain's government is in limbo after sunday's snap election delivered no clear winner. the centre—right people's party, led by alberto nunez feijoo, gained dozens of seats and will be the largest party in spain's parliament. but the incumbent prime minister pedro sanchez and his centre—left socialists performed better than expected. parties on the far—left and far—right lost ground, leaving basque and catalan nationalists holding the balance of power. 0ur reporter sergi forcada has the latest from madrid. this is a bittersweet victory for those who have been celebrating here at the headquarters of the popular party, the conservative party in spain. despite being the largest party and having won the election, they have fallen short of a majority. even if they got the votes of the far—right party vox, numbersjust don't really add up. the conservative leader alberto nunez feijoo has claimed victory and has said

that as the largest party, he should be the new pm, but it is actually unlikely that he will be able to form a government. 0n the other hand, prime minister pedro sanchez has also claimed victory for the whole of the left, not necessarily for his socialist party — that came second in these elections. mathematically, mr sanchez could still be elected as pm if he got all the votes from the left and also from the catalan and basque nationalists. now, negotiations will start in the coming weeks but if no candidates have enough support in parliament to secure a majority, the country may end up going to new elections again. so, spain, which is the fourth—largest economy in the european union, has now a new parliament, but the country is still looking for their new prime minister. there has been no trace of american solider private travis king since he ran across the most heavily fortified border in the world and into north korea almost

a week ago. the us government says pyongyang isn't responding to their inquiries. so, what now? and can previous cases tell us anything about what private king could be facing? john everard is one of the rare diplomats with direct experience in pyongyang, having served as the uk's ambassador to north korea. i spoke with him a little earlier. welcome to the programme and thank you forjoining us here on bbc news. in the case of travis king, north korea doesn't, at the moment, appear to be responding to any entreaties from washington right now. you think there is anything that washington could do to compel north korea to respond? do to compel north korea to remind?— do to compel north korea to resond? ., , �* ., respond? no. there isn't. north korea will _ respond? no. there isn't. north korea will respond, _ respond? no. there isn't. north korea will respond, if _ respond? no. there isn't. north korea will respond, if at - respond? no. there isn't. north korea will respond, if at all, - korea will respond, if at all, and you shouldn't assume that north korea is going to respond on this but if at all on its own good time. they are in no rush. why should they be? they will want firstly to make absolutely sure that travis

king was not some kind of american attempt to probe the north korean defences so remember, hejumped across remember, he jumped across actually remember, hejumped across actually at thejoint remember, hejumped across actually at the joint security area where the north koreans have been putting batches for some time. largely because of quarantine to do with the covid pandemic. they will also want to get senior leader guidance on how they are going to handle this. now, this is a private second class. he is unlikely to be a huge intelligence falter north koreans. they be assessing whether they can use him as a propaganda value. all this will take time. a lot of consultations. a lot of discussions. probably at a quite senior level in the north korean leadership during which they will simply not respond to any approach. they will simply not respond to any approach-— any approach. and how do you think they _ any approach. and how do you think they will _ any approach. and how do you think they will go _ any approach. and how do you think they will go about - any approach. and how do you | think they will go about making those assessments about private travis king? you are one of the few rare people, an outsider, who has lived in pyongyang. from your experience, how do you think you will be regarded?

north koreans are very thorough in these matters. they will be studying all the available event information on private king, of which there is a great deal. the media of course have reported extensively on his problems in south korea and on his attempts to escape. they will probably also be interviewing private king himself. they will likely put himself. they will likely put him in quarantine for a while. they remain deeply concerned about the spread of covid. they will want to find out what they can discover from talking to him directly. £31 can discover from talking to him directly.— him directly. of course, we don't know— him directly. of course, we don't know why _ him directly. of course, we don't know why travis - him directly. of course, we don't know why travis king | him directly. of course, we - don't know why travis king went over to north korea but from your experience, when people from outside of the country try and do this, is there ever a kind of common motivation here and also, do they often end up being surprised by what they find in north korea? yes and es. find in north korea? yes and yes- common _ find in north korea? yes and

yes. common motivation, i find in north korea? yes and - yes. common motivation, travis king is not the first soldier to become disenchanted with the us army, for whatever reason. charles jenkins many years us army, for whatever reason. charlesjenkins many years ago got drunk one day and did much the same. he was actually trying to avoid a deployment to vietnam. but there, the similarities end. north korea now is a very different kind of place from the north korea to which charlesjenkins defected, different atmosphere and a different atmosphere and a different leader. and of course, there is a lot of tension around between north korea and the united states right now. charlesjenkins, sergeant right now. charles jenkins, sergeantjenkins right now. charlesjenkins, sergeantjenkins as it was, spent many, many years in north korea and ended up marrying a japanese abductee. it was only released a few years ago. it's not at all clear that the same is going to happen to private king. the north koreans may decide to hold him for a long

time or they may decide that he simply not worth the trouble and find a way of putting him back across the border. talk to us a little _ back across the border. talk to us a little bit _ back across the border. talk to us a little bit more _ back across the border. talk to us a little bit more about - us a little bit more about those communications, relations between north korea, then, and the rest of the world. through the rest of the world. through the process of time, i mean, how much do you think they have deteriorated of late, and have they? deteriorated of late, and have the ? , ., deteriorated of late, and have the ? , . ., ., ., they? they have deteriorated to almost nothing. _ they? they have deteriorated to almost nothing. i— they? they have deteriorated to almost nothing. i mean, - they? they have deteriorated to almost nothing. i mean, not. they? they have deteriorated to almost nothing. i mean, not so| almost nothing. i mean, not so long ago, there were open channels between the united states and the north koreans directly. the united states had a protecting power, sweden, with a functioning embassy in pyongyang, so that if anything went wrong they could ask the swedes as the protecting power to go and talk hunt closed doors to the north koreans to try to sort it out. right now, the swedish embassy still exists in pyongyang but it's exists in pyongyang but its staff have been withdrawn because of the covid pandemic and there is almost no direct contact between the united states and north korea. it is

the famous pink telephone which the famous pink telephone which the americans have been using to pass messages to north korea about this case and other matters but they have told the north koreans that private king crossed the border without authorisation, without orders, and the north koreans have simply acknowledged the message and not responded to it. north koreans could, if they wished, simply ring back along the same channel. , ., ., ,., channel. they have done so. fascinating _ channel. they have done so. fascinating insights - channel. they have done so. fascinating insights from - channel. they have done so. l fascinating insights from john everard, former british ambassador to north korea. really great to have you with us. thank you so much. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bbc news, bringing you different stories from across the uk. he means everything to me. because of what he's done and because of what he does, i really couldn't survive without him. , �* , u,

really couldn't survive without him. jenevieve's cat has never had any special _ him. jenevieve's cat has never had any special training - him. jenevieve's cat has never had any special training but i had any special training but somehow he understands his own is death. if somehow he understands his own is death. , , ., , is death. if my phone rings in the middle — is death. if my phone rings in the middle of _ is death. if my phone rings in the middle of the _ is death. if my phone rings in the middle of the night - is death. if my phone rings in the middle of the night or. the middle of the night or during the morning, my hearing aid is not in, zebby will tap me on my hand or cheek. if anyone is ringing the doorbell knocks at the door, he will jump knocks at the door, he will jump into the window and try and have a look. he will come in and let me know. when the post comes through the letterbox, he actually takes the letters out of the letterbox and drops them the bedroom floor. he is everything. he is the nightwatchman, security, guardian angel. for more stories from _ guardian angel. for more stories from across - guardian angel. for more stories from across the i guardian angel. for more i stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. let's turn to the women's world cup — this year's tournament is already setting records. according to football's global governing body, fifa, ticket sales have already

surpassed the previous tournament, making this not only the most attended women's world cup ever, but the most—attended standalone women's sporting event in history. fans all over the globe have been following the action too. this viewing party in portland, oregon drew more than 1,000 us fans for the team's opening match against vietnam. and it's just one sign of the surging popularity of the women's game — and women's sports in general. for more, we can speak tojenny nguyen, the owner and founder of the sports bra in portland oregon, the first bar in the united states dedicated exclusviely to women's sports. great to have you. you helped organise that viewing party in portland. how much excitement has there been for this year's world cup? there has been so much

excitement. you would not believe how early people asking me about watch our plans, everybody wanted to know and we just really wanted to give people a really great time and our bar is much too small so we decided to try to throw in very large party in downtown portland and we were getting reads that it was a little over 4000 people that attended. well, it looks so cool, really epic. i'm sad to have missed out on it stop for the time being, described to us how difficult it can be ordinarily to actually find a buyer, somewhere that people can go to watch women's sports. i somewhere that people can go to watch women's sports.— watch women's sports. i think before we _ watch women's sports. i think before we opened _ watch women's sports. i think before we opened the - watch women's sports. i think before we opened the sports| before we opened the sports bra, it was a challenge, known to bid seriously. 75% of the time we asked to have women's sports shown, it will be shown,

there are people watching other sports and whatnot but since we opened the sports bra and there has been a lot of publicity and media coverage around what we do there, there is being a lot more folks asking for coverage and a lot more bars and restaurants showing women's sports because they are starting to understand and see that there is a great interest, particularly for this women's world cup stop can you describe to me as well how much more interest there has been for women's sports in since 2018 when you decided to open your bar and how when you decided to open your barand how far when you decided to open your bar and how far is well you think women sports have come in that time? i had considered the idea of opening the sports bra in 2018 but i didn't plan on opening at all until 2021. and i would say that during the pandemic, there was a lot of dramatic changes around the world and how people wanted to

move forward with their futures, and it was called the great resignation, is everybody rethought moving forward in the world, and i think that we all decided we did not want to go back to what was normal or what was the status quo and the part about for me was developing an idea of a sports bar that was dedicated to women sports in the same vein of notjust going back to what is a traditional sports bar, not going back to the status quo, asking women sports to show so think in the last 50 years since we celebrated title nine, there has been dramatic increases in representation, investment, the ability for girls and women to play sports. ability for girls and women to play snorte— play sports. and tells about the crowd- _ play sports. and tells about the crowd. is _ play sports. and tells about the crowd. is it _ play sports. and tells about the crowd. is it locals, - play sports. and tells about l the crowd. is it locals, people from out of town.— the crowd. is it locals, people from out of town. you have men cominu ? from out of town. you have men coming? at _ from out of town. you have men

coming? at the _ from out of town. you have men coming? at the sports _ from out of town. you have men coming? at the sports bra, - from out of town. you have men coming? at the sports bra, we i coming? at the sports bra, we are to everyone. anyone who is are to everyone. anyone who is a women's sports fan, we get people in there all the time. they just want to be people in there all the time. theyjust want to be in a place that feels safe and comfortable, representative of who they are. and yes, we absolutely welcome them and i would say the very beginning, it was mostly women who came and now it's such a diverse group. we allow under age up until 10pm, group. we allow under age up until10pm, and we group. we allow under age up until 10pm, and we get families and everybody in there. haifa and everybody in there. how important — and everybody in there. how important do _ and everybody in there. how important do you _ and everybody in there. how important do you think - and everybody in there. how important do you think women's soccer in the united states has been full recognition of women's sports? i been full recognition of women's sports? i think it is bein: women's sports? i think it is being just — women's sports? i think it is being just incredibly - being just incredibly important. they had a very large platform. very outspoken. particularly megan rapinoe and just because of how incredibly talented and spectacular they've been a dominating, they had the opportunity on the

platform to really push the agenda forward of equity in women sports so yes, i would say they've been incredibly important notjust say they've been incredibly important not just the say they've been incredibly important notjust the united states, but for women internationally.- states, but for women internationall ., , , internationally. jenny nguyen, the founder _ internationally. jenny nguyen, the founder of _ internationally. jenny nguyen, the founder of the _ internationally. jenny nguyen, the founder of the sports - internationally. jenny nguyen, the founder of the sports bra | the founder of the sports bra in portland, oregon in the united states, the first sports bar dedicated to women's sports, thank you and have a great world cup.— sports, thank you and have a great world cup. thank you so much. in cambodia prime minister hun sen has declared victory in a general election. but the main opposition party was banned, so it's been dismissed by some 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 surprisingly 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. barbie once again proves that she really can do anything. greta gerwig's barbie has

broken the opening weekend record for a female director bringing in a combined 235 million dollars from the us and canadian ticket sales. globally it raked in an estimated $337 million. while christopher nolan's 0ppenheimer made over $80 million at the box office domestically and over $93 million internationally. the turnout to see the antithetical stories about the imaginary pink—wearing fashion icon and the man known as the �*father of the atomic bomb' have shattered early box office predictions, fuelling one of the biggest movie weekends in history since the pandemic. stay with us here on bbc news. thats all from us here in washington, but we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand over to our colleagues there. thanks for you company. bye for now.

hello there. the full uk forecast in a moment — but first of all, the extreme heat continues to affect parts of the mediterranean. and later on monday, we might actually see one of europe's highest ever temperatures — 48 celsius possible to the southwest of catania. now, the significance of that is the all—time european record currently stands at 48.8, so we'll be very, very close to that. on sunday, though, here in the uk, it was a very wet day across central portions of the uk. we have 91 millimetres of rainfall in preston, 3.5 inches — that's about a month's worth. these figures only go up to saturday, but even at that stage, there were a number of places that were getting close to double thejuly average rainfall. 0ur weather pattern, then, is a bit stuck at the moment, and it was this weather from the kind of rained off the cricket in greater manchester. the front itself is starting to push its way southwards, so the rain is going to eventually swing across wales, into the midlands and parts of east anglia, with the skies clearing behind.

now for scotland, northern england, northern ireland, with those clearer skies, temperatures get down into single figures, so it'll be quite chilly air. but underneath the front into the south, it's a relatively mild start to the day for monday. cloudy, though, with further rain — east anglia, south midlands selling hounds of england. the rain then pulls away to leave us with a day of sunny spells and showers. and, ok, the showers shouldn't last too long, there'll be large portions of the day that stay entirely dry. 0ur temperatures a little bit below average for the time of year, but still feeling 0k in thejuly sunshine. now, i think there should be a bit more of that sunshine to look forward to across england and wales, with not many showers here for tuesday. further north, though, for scotland and for northern ireland, there will be quite a few downpours developing through tuesday afternoon, so another fairly unsettled day. now, heading into wednesday and thursday, another area of low pressure will form in the atlantic and move towards our shores, so we have

more rain on the cards. now wednesday, it might well be to the northeast of the uk that it stays largely dry with some sunshine. but certainly further west, the cloud will gather, outbreaks of rain will swing into northern ireland, and probably reach western parts of england, wales, and scotland. certainly through wednesday night, it turns wet for most of us, with the rain still hanging around for thursday. might start to clear for western areas with, again, the weather brightening up. but on the whole, temperatures staying below average. the weather staying unsettled.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. imagine swimming at the north pole. 0r swimming at the north pole. or in a tunnel below the ntarc ice. 0r belong the entire length of the english channel. all of these seats of super human endurance have been undertaken by my guest today, lewis pugh, what is he do it? to focus attention on the climate crisis and its impact on our blue planet. his death—defying exploits of one him political access from downing street to the kremlin. but is the response to little too late?