hezbollah confirms senior commanders are among the 31 people killed in an israeli strike on beirut. at least three children are also dead. counting begins in sri lanka's first presidential election since the country's economic meltdown two years ago. precautions were organised to protect female footballers from mohamed al fayed at fulham — the club he owned. russia and belarus could be about to return to international chess competition. the global body is due to decide their fate shortly. hello, i'm kasia madera. we start this hour with the latest on the tensions in the middle east. lebanon's health minister says at least 31 people are now known to have been killed by friday's israeli air strike on beirut — a third of them women and children.

the iranian—backed group hezbollah has confirmed that its senior military commander, ibrahim aqil, was among those killed in the attack on a building in the southern suburbs of beirut. addressing the un security council, the israeli envoy danny danon didn't mention the attacks in lebanon but said his country would do whatever it took to defend itself. these are some of the latest pictures from beirut where rescue workers are continuing to search through the rubble of the suburban building destroyed by israel. its military says it was targeting hezbollah�*s elite radwan forces. it was israel's third attack on the lebanese capital this year. live to our correspondent injerusalem, daniel de simone.

bring us up—to—date with what we know on that recovery operation in beirut. the lebanese _ operation in beirut. the lebanese authorities i operation in beirut. tue: lebanese authorities say they've been working through they've been working through the rubble of this southern suburb of beirut to try and identify any survivors, anyone thatis identify any survivors, anyone that is buried beneath it. they've said today that they're now saying, confirming that at least 31 people died yesterday in that air strike. they are saying that at least three of them were children and there were dozens of people injured. in the last 15 minutes the israel defense forces have said that 16 hezbollah terrorists were killed in the air strikes. as we were reporting one of them was ibrahim aqil. the israeli military is saying with in the last ten minutes that

the idf is currently striking targets that are belonging to hezbollah. we had something similarjust after the air similar just after the air strikes. similar 'ust after the air strikes. , similar 'ust after the air strikes.— similar 'ust after the air strikes. , ., ., strikes. in terms of what israel is _ strikes. in terms of what israel is saying _ strikes. in terms of what israel is saying can - strikes. in terms of what israel is saying can you l strikes. in terms of what - israel is saying can you bring us up—to—date as to these later strikes? us up-to-date as to these later strikes? , ., , strikes? the statement i 'ust read out is i strikes? the statement i 'ust read out is their i strikes? the statement ijust read out is their statement i strikes? the statement ijust| read out is their statement on what is happening at the moment. they say they are striking targets in lebanon at the moment as we speak. in terms of what they said about the air strike yesterday. they are regarding this as a major victory. they said they took out ibrahim aqil who has long been wanted by them and to the united states for his alleged

role in bombings against the united states in the 1980s. this all comes in the context of an escalating conflict. the israeli war cabinet set out a new goal... on the same day that that goal was set we saw those deadly pager explosions and then the walkie—talkie explosions and then significant air strikes. the israeli government is talking about a new phase in this war. they've me moved the army. the whole trend is towards escalation. there's a feeling of what next?

there's a feeling of what next? the goal of returning 60,000 people back home doesn't appear any closer. yesterday, hezbollah fired rockets into northern israel. the leader of hezbollah said they will not cease fighting israel until israel ceases its aggression in gaza and the occupied west bank. there is a real sense of an escalating conflict.- an escalating conflict. daniel, thank you _ an escalating conflict. daniel, thank you for _ an escalating conflict. daniel, thank you for bringing - an escalating conflict. daniel, thank you for bringing us - an escalating conflict. daniel, | thank you for bringing us news from a fast developing situation there. palestinian media say at least ten people have been killed in an israeli air strike on a former school in gaza city. the israeli military says the attack targeted a hamas command room at the al—falah school, which has been serving as a shelter for displaced civilians. the israeli military has received widespread

international condemnation for attacking schools, civilians shelters and hospitals in gaza, which it says were housing hamas fighters. and we have a live page online with the very latest reaction and analyis from our correspondents across the region. you will find that on the bbc news website and app. a former manager of fulham's women's football team has told

the bbc precautions were put in place to protect female players from mohamed al fayed when he owned the club. mr al—fayed, who died last year, has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women who worked for harrods, which he sold in 2010. the department store says it's "utterly appalled" by the allegations. simonjones has more — and a warning, his report contains descriptions of sexual violence. how widespread was mohamed al fayed's alleged offending? dozens of women have come forward to say that they were sexually assaulted by him when they worked at harrods. lawyers say they are also representing women employed by al fayed at the ritz in paris. and now there are questions about the late billionaire's 16 years in charge of fulham football club. a former manager of fulham's women's team says extra precautions were put in place to protect female players from mohamed al fayed. gaute haugenes, who managed the side between 2001 and 2003, said members of staff became

aware that he liked young, blonde girls. as a result, players were not allowed to be left alone with him. the club said it was deeply troubled by the disturbing reports relating to harrods, adding: . lawyers representing al fayed's accusers told a news conference more and more alleged victims were coming forward. we don't at this stage represent any women who, for instance, sustained attacks at fulham football club, but our investigations are obviously ongoing. it is highly unlikely that there are not victims out there from these other places of work, wherever he went. there will be victims.

one former harrods employee spoke of what happened to her. mohamed al—fayed, my boss, the person i worked for, pushed himself onto me. i fell to the floor with him still on top of me but i managed to kick free. he just laughed at me. he then composed himself and he told me in no uncertain terms that i was never to breathe a word of this to anyone. harrods said the department store today is a very different organisation from the one owned and controlled by al fayed between 1985 and 2010. it has reached financial settlements with the majority of people who have approached it since 2023. the ritz paris says it strongly condemns any form of behaviour that does not align with the values of the establishment. a man now branded a monster — the legal team representing many of his accusers says it has not ruled out launching proceedings against al fayed's estate. simon jones, bbc news.

counting has begun in sri lanka's presidential election. it's hoped the new leader can repair the country's finances after its economic collapse two years ago, which sparked mass protests and toppled the government. (read on live to our correspondent, samira hussain who is in colombo. counting polls have now closed? poles have now closed and they are going to bring in counting injust half an hour or so. they are going to begin by counting the postal ballots.

then they're going to move to the ballots which have been cast today. as you correctly pointed out there are 38 candidates who are all vying for president. it's a lot of potential people who want to be president. that means it's going to take a lot longer to be counting those ballots. what they do here is you select your first choice of who you would like to see as president and then you move to your second and third choice. and because of how many people are running, there is a sense that it's actually going to go to people is second and third choices. which means that the counting process is going to take a while. we are not expecting results until sometime on sunday. results until sometime on sunda . ~ , ., sunday. when it comes to the results, this _ sunday. when it comes to the results, this is _ sunday. when it comes to the results, this is being - sunday. when it comes to the results, this is being seen - sunday. when it comes to the results, this is being seen as| results, this is being seen as an election to overcome the

economic turbulence that sri lanka has seen recently. absolutely, two years ago there were mass protests and those protests eventually overthrew the government at the time. it was in economic crisis that was sparked due to financial mismanagement by the government at the time. fast forward to now and you have sri lanka which is under billions of dollars of foreign debt so that has really been passed on to everyday people. taxis are much higher. the price of goods, everything from food and medicines, has become a lot more expensive. really the selection in terms of issues is all about the economy. which candidate people believe can ease the financial burden on people right now. pm ease the financial burden on people right now. an election about the _ people right now. an election about the economy. - people right now. an election about the economy. thank i people right now. an election. about the economy. thank you people right now. an election - about the economy. thank you so

much. there are reports of explosions at a russian ammunition warehouse following a ukrainian drone attack. the site is in the krasnodar region, which borders russian—occupied crimea. the russian ministry of defence said it brought down 18 ukrainian drones in the krasnodar region overnight. from kyiv, our correspondent jessica parker, told us more. let me run you through what we've heard from some official sources this morning, as those reports emerged of an ammunition depot inside russia being hit following a ukrainian drone attack. this appears to have been part of a wider ukrainian drone attack. so, the russian ministry of defence have said there were around 100 drones that they were intercepting overnight, around 18 over the krasnodar region. and what the regional governor there has said is that one of those drones was intercepted. the debris fell to the ground,

a fire began, and then there were detonations, explosions, and there have been some evacuations of residents nearby. no reported casualties at the moment. we've been looking at some footage on social media, on telegram. we're working to try and verify that footage, but it appears to show large explosions, a ball of fire, a ball of smoke in the area. now this, of course, is after on wednesday morning, news emerged of quite a similar type of attack on an ammunition depot in a different region in the western region, another drone attack by ukraine which appeared to target a russian ammunition warehouse. so for kyiv, of course, although they haven't officially commented this morning on these latest reports, they'll mark that up as a victory as they have ramped up drone attacks on russia. although, of course, what they really want is to get permission to use western long range missiles to hit targets inside russian territory. and you've got to imagine that

that is going to be top of the agenda as president zelensky heads to the us next week, where among those he's going to meet will be the us president, outgoing presidentjoe biden. it certainly will be the top of the agenda. let 5 get some of the day 5 other news now. a new zealand pilot has been freed after more than 18 months in captivity in indonesia's papua region. phillip mehrtens was held by an armed faction of the west papua national liberation army, after he landed a small commercial plane in a remote, mountainous area. he's now having medical check—ups. the us state of south carolina has carried out its first execution in thirteen years, just days after the key witness for the prosecution proclaimed that the death row inmate was innocent. freddie owens had been convicted of killing a shop worker during an armed robbery in 1997. on wednesday, his co—defendant in the crime, steven golden, told the state supreme court that owens had not been present when the robbery took place. but the court rejected a last minute motion for a stay of execution.

pope francis has criticised police action against protesters in his home country, argentina, where presidentjavier milei has implemented an austerity plan to try to curb hyperinflation. in a video released by the vatican, the pope said he had seen video of police �*repression�*, as he put it, against workers and pensioners. this weekend marks the 80th anniversary of one of the major allied military operation of the second world war. the objective of operation market garden was to advance into german—held territory in the netherlands with a bridgehead over the lower rhine. the mission wasn't successful and many people were killed, but the allies did capture the area a few months later. hundreds of paratroopers this morning jumped from planes above the netherlands to re—enact the operation. our correspondent anna holligan is in arnhem. 700 paratroopers from eight nato nations are taking part

in this drop, and it looks so peaceful now. but 80 years ago, this was the scene of some of the most ferocious fighting during the second world war. i have some experts with me who can explain just what this was like. so al murray you actually took part in a similar jump re—enactment 20 years ago? yes i did. ijumped from a dakota, from a c—47 with a round parachute, as they call it, a round, um, from sort of 900ft. and i landed rather heavily on my backside. and so it's etched in my memory. but, but this place was so different. it was so different because this place on on the afternoon of the 18th of september, 19114, it was what was called dzy. so it's drop zone y. it's one of the many drop zones that the british paratroopers were landing on. and when they landed that afternoon, it was contested. so the germans were fighting out of the tree linejust behind us. um, the heath was on fire. there was machine gun fire going across the drop zone.

and as the aircraft came in, as this fleet of dakotas came in, with 2000 paratroopers from fourth parachute brigade, there was a bayonet charge going on by the men of the seventh king's own scottish borderers, who were chasing the germans off the drop zone back into the wood line so these guys could land here safely. so it was a scene of really high drama and a scene that, that because the battle essentially starts well and then unravels. and by the monday afternoon, it was becoming clear that things were starting to go really very wrong. and this place was a sort of crucible of drama here, i think, extraordinary. and just to give you some background, in case you aren't familiar or as familiar with the history. operation market garden was an allied attempt to find a back route into nazi germany. so there are ground forces pushing up from normandy through belgium into the netherlands. and then the airborne forces were dropped behind enemy lines. and the idea was that they would be able to secure strategic bridges. james holland,

you are a historian. what we are hearing and seeing now behind us are about 100,000 people who have gathered to commemorate what's often referred to as a historic failure. and yet there's more to it than that. well, there is, yes, because the idea behind it was, as you say, to get in through the back door and had it worked, you know, that could have foreshortened the war by a number of months, and it really could have been over by christmas. so, the principles behind which it was planned and executed were entirely laudable, a high risk operation for certain, but one that could have worked, i think. a lot of historians disagree with that take. but my own view, having walked this ground here and overat nijmegen and studied it in some detail, i think it could have worked. and what these people here and the people commemorating in nijmegen and also here in arnhem are commemorating is that effort. it was an attempt to liberate them early, as it turned out, it didn't work out. arnhem itself was left pretty shattered and the dutch living

here had a terrible winter in 1944, 1945 until they were liberated finally by the canadians in april 1945. but the principles behind it were entirely laudable, and it has to be remembered, there was an entire allied airborne army waiting in the uk to be deployed. and if you've got these highly motivated troops, highly trained troops, some of the best troops in the allied arsenal, why wouldn't you want to try and use them? so i think the aims behind it were entirely laudable. kenya's deputy president, rigathi gachagua. has tried to explain his absence from several recent state events by saying he was removed from a whatsapp group that manages the president's diary. pictures of an empty chair reserved for him beside president william ruto

during a church service last sunday have been shared by many people online. in an interview, he told a local tv station that since his team was removed from the whatsapp group, he doesn't know what the president is doing. arguably we've all been there. the international chess federation is due to decide whether to readmit russia and belarus. the two countries were expelled following the invasion of ukraine. with me is our europe regional editor paul moss. before we get into the specifics of what happening, a little bit of background please. one— little bit of background lease. one ., ., ., please. one the international chess federation _ please. one the international chess federation kicked - please. one the international chess federation kicked out l please. one the international| chess federation kicked out of russia and belarus after the incorrect invasion of ukraine. that meant that the russia international team can't play international team can't play in international competitions. even russian officials can't take part in these events. and

no russian flags are allowed. in this meeting in budapest russia is trying to reverse this. the international chess federation is made up of individual member states. each has a single vote. one of the member state has proposed admitting russia and belarus. it's not a big player on the international chess scene. it is an ally of russia and i think it's fair to guess that russia has pushed it to make this move. russia is going to be putting big efforts are getting support for this. the chairman... the president of the russian federation —— makkah chess federation is a russian who is trying to use his influence. each country gets one vote. so do much

smaller countries. there is a good chance that this could succeed. but president zelensky is not taking this lying down. he is putting one of his top people in place. that's the man that president zelensky has put into place to try and stop russia being readmitted. it's still not clear which way this vote is going to go. this still not clear which way this vote is going to go.- vote is going to go. this is seepolitics _ vote is going to go. this is geopolitics within - vote is going to go. this is geopolitics within the - vote is going to go. this is| geopolitics within the world vote is going to go. this is - geopolitics within the world of chess. it geopolitics within the world of chess. , ' , chess. it is baffling. there is a ma'or chess. it is baffling. there is a major war _ chess. it is baffling. there is a major war going _ chess. it is baffling. there is a major war going on. - chess. it is baffling. there is a major war going on. why l chess. it is baffling. there is - a major war going on. why would so much effort be put into this? there are two reasons. first of all, russia is on a lot of sanctions at the moment.

trade sanctions etc. but there are a lot of cultural boycotts in place. russian companies finding themselves unwelcome in other countries. it's thought that what vladimir putin is hoping is that if he can get russia readmitted to the chess federation this would just be the start. it will show that he can assemble a coalition of countries to reverse these boycotts. but there is another history reason. chess really matters to russians. this goes back more than a century to the revolution. lenin said chess would be important to show russian superiority. there were great efforts made to spread chess around the country. it really became part of the cold war. one of the earlierjames bond movies the villain was hs

champion. for decades and decades, every chess champion had been russian. then in 1972, an american one. hard to imagine today, but this was front—page news. everyone was following the chess. when the american one it was on the level with the moon landings. putin is very aware of history. you'll want this one to succeed. you'll want this one to succeed-— you'll want this one to succeed. �* , ., ., , succeed. he's got the top eo - le succeed. he's got the top people on _ succeed. he's got the top people on board - succeed. he's got the top people on board hasn't i succeed. he's got the top l people on board hasn't he? succeed. he's got the top - people on board hasn't he? yes another sign — people on board hasn't he? yes another sign of _ people on board hasn't he? jazz another sign of how seriously they take chess. stay with us here on bbc news.

we had some pretty intense downpours. storms will continue across mainly southern england into the midlands and across wales. those could be really quite intense. lots of rainfall in a short space of time. frequent lightning and gusty winds. but not everyone will see the downpours. in between there will be some sunny spells. particularly in central areas. there'll also be some sunshine this afternoon across north—west england and northern ireland. the central and eastern scotland it will remain fairly cloudy. a bit of cloud hanging on across the finalist of england. temperatures around that north sea coast around 15 or 16. a late summer stay in

london. 24 celsius expected here. tonight will see the thundery downpours affecting north wales. another batch start to move in during the early hours of sunday morning. you might get woken up by the early rumble of thunder. temperatures staying up, a mild if not warm night. those storms will continue during sunday. we could see some travel disruption from those intense downpours. with some flash flooding. similarto downpours. with some flash flooding. similar to today. further north is looking likely dry was some sunshine. those north sea coast saying fairly cloudy. into the evening on sunday though showers across the south. that will continue as we go into monday. we got this area of low pressure very wet conditions. from south—west england up to parts of

lincolnshire, the rain is going to stick around through much of the day. further north it will start to get chillier from mid week onwards. we'll see this arctic air moving its way southwards across many parts of the uk. temperatures will drop below the average. quite unsettled as you can see. by thursday or friday 11 or 12 degrees in northern areas, even in the south 13 or 14 celsius filled full feeling more like autumn.

this is bbc news, the headlines: hezbollah confirms senior commanders are among the 31 people killed in an israeli strike on beirut. israel's military says it killed 16 �*terrorists'. counting begins in sri lanka's first presidential election since the country's economic meltdown two years ago. a former fulham football manager tells the bbc: extra precautions were put in place to protect female players from mohamed al—fayed. russia and belarus could be about to return to international chess competition. the global body is due to decide their fate shortly. a us secret service report on july's attempted assassination of donald trump describes a �*litany of failures' — including complacency, poor planning, and a communication breakdown. here — its day one of the labour party conference — its first in government for 15 years.