♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news".

♪ >> this is bbc news. our top stories. first rhodes and now corfu as raging wildfires becau evacuations in the greek capital. spain's conservative party fal short of an all-out victory. israel's controversial traditional form bill is to be voted on shortly as water cannons are fired at protesters and the country's largest businesses go on strike. and history could be made on day five at the women's world cup. if moroccon player nouhaila benzina takes to the field wearing a hijab, the first for the tournament. a very warm welcome. i am samantha simmons.

we start in greece, where over 2000 people have been evacuated from the island of corfu as wildfires continue to spread across the country. thousands of people have been affected with holiday makers forced to flee for safety. this video was caught sunday evening. you could see fire with smoke billowing. this video was filmed in a hotel as guests were trying to dine. the government has sent boats to evacuate residents by sea if required. the greek emergency services are dealing with several fires, including two in areas east and southwest of the capital, athens. as well as the blaze on corfu, the eastern islands of rhodes has been badly hit. 1 in 10 of the hotels in the south and central part of the island have been affected.

this satellite image gives an idea of where the worst fires have been burning. you can see how the flames and smoke have made their way to a popular part of the coastline. and this is what those flames look like from the ground. firefighters have been working to set up fire bricks, clearing a strip of ground of things which can burn to stop the flames spreading in an attempt to shield dense forest and more residential areas. where the flames have taken a grip, this is what is left -- burned out buildings and a landscape covered in ash. in some areas, the damage is still smoking and too hot to approach her the has led to a scramble to get thousands to safety, many of them holidaymakers. as many as 5000 are in temporary accommodation like this. thousands of others are trying to get flights home care that has brought many more people than usual to the airport, with hundreds sleeping there before they can board a plane. here's what some of the tourists

had to say. >> my wife and myself got split up -- i went out to sea and out to rhodes. it was a good evacuation process. it went well. >> there wasn't enough coaches to move 800 people, but the fire was coming, so we were set off on foot. i walked 12 miles in this heat yesterday. it took me four hours, along with 700 or 800 other people. we were told to go to the beach, because there would be boats coming to a happened fourimes. then they moved us off the beach, carry on walking. samantha: a horrendous exrience. we will be live with our correspondent in rhodes shortly for the latest. now we will bring you up-to-date with the situation in spain care the leader of spain's

conservative people's party claimed victory in sunday's snap election even though he does not have an overall majority in parliament. alberto núñez feijóo set the task fell to him to try to form a government and urged other parties not to stand in his way. the outgoing socialists performed better than expected, with prime minister pedro sánchez saying that voters rejected a reactionary right wing bloc. in a moment, we will hear from alberto núñez feijóo, leader from -- of the right wing popular party. first, the leader of the socialist party, pedro sánchez. >> i called for early elections because i believed, and have always believed,hat we as a society have to decide which direction to take. a forward course in the next four years or a backward course,

as put forward by the bloc of the popular party and vox. i expressly asked the socialist party and the rest of their political forces not to block spain's government once again. >> we have won the elections and we deserve to try to form a govement, as has always happened in spanish democracy. samantha: let's go live now to our correspondent guy hedgecoe. where does this result the country? guy: it leaves the country apparently in limbo, because it looks as though the conservative candidate, alberto núñez feijóo, will not be able to form a majority with the far right vox party, which the polls had suggested he would be able to do. but that is not look possible now. if you cannot, it foster the prime minister, socialist pedro

sánchez, to try and form a government. it looks like he may have slightly more chance of doing that, if he can persuade all sorts of different nationalist parties in catalonia and t basque country to support him. but it looks very difficulty of the most probable outcome is we may have several months of limbo, followed by a repeat election. that is not new for spain. we have that back in 2015, when there was an inconclusive collect -- election, and again in 2019. samantha: the current prime minister, the one who called this election, socialist prime minister pedro sanchez declared that the reactionary bloc has failed. what is your reading of where the votes have fallen and also their turnout, which was very high? guy: it was a high turnout, especially when you take into account this is the first election that has taken place in spain in the middle of summer. a lot of people were wondering if that may put people off voting, they would be away on holiday and so on.

but actually, there was quite a big turnout. many people were expecting the socialists to perform poorly. they performed white poorly in local elections -- they performed quite poorly in local elections in may. mr. sanchez managed to mobilize the left by warning of the possibility of a right-wing government. we heard him talking there about what he feared -- he feared a reactionary right wing government leading the country for the next four years. he was telling voters to turn out to stop that. it seems many left-wing voters did respond to that call. voters on the right talked about rolling back many of the social reforms mr. sanchez introduced, like transgender rights, gender equality. these have been some of the battlefield fought throughout the campaign. in the end, mr. sanchez's snap election, his calling of a snap election, did seem to pay off,

at least to a certain extent. samantha: let's get more analysis from a professor on international politics at the university of london. give us your analysis of the results of this election. >> i think it was a slightly surprising results. more than that, it was a collection of small surprises that made for these more ambiguous and very surprising results, but i think the biggest thing that changed for the polls was the stronger performance by the socialist party. pedro sánchez was very able to mobilize his base against the right. also, the vox party, the far right party, dropped a little more than anticipated. on the other hand, the popular party did not get quite the

result they were accepting. all of this led to the configuration of the spanish parliament and a complicated path forward. but the two main leaders of the parties will be the happy ones this morning. samantha: tell us a bit more about where this does leave the country and the path forward in your view. >> i think it is very hard to see how the right is going to be able to form a government. the popular party can try and they have every right to try. i think the king will ask núñez feijóo to try and form a government, but there is no obvious path to do so. the obvious way is vox, but once you get vox involved in this coalition, it pretty much scares off any other party, so there is no way to form a majority between the conservative and the far right vox party. i think pedro sánchez has a slightly easier path. they will very much try to avoid calling another general election

in november, and they will try to form some sort of government, broad coalition, with perhaps a lot of support. samantha: as i was mentioning to our correspondent, pedro sánchez declared that the reactionary bloc has failed, but vox gained 3 million voters. what is your analysis of where the electorate is sitting? >> what we saw was a rejection of extremes, because vox did gain 3 million votes, but the share of the vote went down from the last election. i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the popular party, the conservatives, are a little bit more to the right, and they tried to regain some of the vote from vox. but what we have seen is spanish electors rejecting more of the extremes. they tend to move more towards the main parties. but the reality is spain still a very divided country.

you see the results of the election, they seem to reflect what people are thinking, that spain is a divided country. 50% left, 50% right. it is very hard to govern like that. but that parties have to respect the will of the spanish people and find a path forward. samantha: thank you. in a moment, we will be back alive in rhodes for the latest there. first, across the world and the u.k., this is bbc news. >> bbc news, bringing you different stories from across the u.k. >> 20 years ago, you had to head south to see these birds. >> black winged stilt. slightly literal name, perhaps. undoubtedly one of the world's most elegant. >> a wildlife presenter brought them to our tv screens from spain. now, they're in kent. a pair arrived from africa in

spring. four chicks have hatched from -- on marshland. acres of arable farmland transformed into a wildlife haven. the marshland site is among a number of places prepared for new arrivals, making space for nature as our climate ranges. >> for more stories from across the u.k., had to the bc news website. samantha: your live with bbc news. let's get the latest now from rhodes and those wildfires that have gripped parts of the island and other areas in the country. our reporter joins us from rhodes. bring us the update from there. >> you can see buses are coming, because tourists are trying to

make it home kate i just spent the last few hours inside the airport speaking to holiday goers there, and they are simply furious. they feel travel airlines may say they are thinking of their healthnd well-being, but they are finding it really difficult to speak to them. one family i spoke to, a family that had to walk six miles in the beach in flip-flops saturday evening, a family that slept on sun beds at another hotel as they tried to make their way back to the airport, say their airline company, easyjet has been nowhere to be found. there are no representatives there. we are hearing that from a lot of easyjet customers. of course, easyjet is saying services available to them. as far as these customers, they say are -- they say they are traumatized. one lady i spoke to said she

used to work at a travel company and she is disgusted -- those are her words -- because after the traumaticffect -- events she went through, fighting with other tourists, trying to get on boats at the beach, she still does not know what is happening. samantha: absolutely horrendous for so many people. describe the wider situation in terms of what is happening there on tourist and also these -- on rhodes and also wildfires happening on other islands where there are a lot of tourists. >> this is the reality of the weather conditions -- the wind, dry heat, humidity. greece is vulnerable to fires. on rhodes, the fire service told me that the situation is fairly under control. it is not out of control like we saw the last few days, but they are having difficulty maintaining and controlling that fire. but in general, the greek

tourism minister told us that tourists should feel comfortable coming to rhodes. it is really southern rhodes affected, and people should still be effective coming to the north. but we are talking about islands here. we have seen the images of what is happening at corfu. the isle is also facing evacuations, because these wildfires are spreading, they are happening across greece. that is what it is such a difficult challenge for the firefighters here. samantha: thank you very much for updating us there from rhodes. now to ukraine. russia accused ukraine of launching a drone attack against its capital, moscow. the defense ministry says two drones hit nonresidential buildings, with one crashing close to its headquarters in the city center. no casualties have been reported. and the government of crimea, which russia annexed in 2014, said and ammunition depot was

hit during a drone attack if he also claimed 11 drones were shot down or jammed during the attack. there are no indications of any casualties there. ukraine has not commented on either student but said it would respond after air strikes on odesza. this comes after the deal under which both russia and ukraine were allowed safe passage for shipments of grain through the black sea came to an end last week. let's get the latest now live from odessa. our correspondent james waterhouse is there. first, update us on the situation there and what we know about these drone attacks on the grain depot. james: it has been a miserable week for the city, really. we have been here for a number of days now, and typically, overnight, you can hear the booms of air defense is trying to hold out against waves of russian attacks.

we were told there was a four hour long strike from the south, where the russians launched drones as they try to continue and target port infrastructure. this coincided with moscow's withdrawal from a major agreent which allowed ukraine to export grain. the kremlin pulled out, mainly over frustrations over western sanctions. since its departure, it has looked to frustrate ukraine in just about every way possible. it is now targeting port infrastructure, making ukraine's important task -- it sees it as vital for its economy and the wider world -- its j of trying to export grain all the more difficult. it is another night of air strikes. this is a city re-adapting to a routine of clearing up rubble the day after a night of attacks from the sky. james: you're obviously there in odessa, but we are getting reports of russia accusing

ukraine of drone attacks against moscow, i do not know what you can say about tha james: we have what we know and what we don't know. we can obviously talk about what we see in odesza. when we see these claims of drone attacks and footage of a drone across the skyline, there are two scenarios -- it could be russia trying to build solve -- like build false justification for future military action. or it could indeed be a drone attack that ukraine was behind kyiv never really comments on these types of operations. but if we look at the broader point here, when you see these kind of drone attacks inside russian territory, they apply psychological pressure on the russian population, the majority of whom choose to keep their heads down, not ask too many

questions about the kremlin's invasion. what this does is apply pressure and force people to pay attention to what may be happening across the border. i think in the main, it will be ukraine taking more satisfaction from these apparent images out of moscow, but i have to stress we do not know the full picture on this. samantha: thanks very much for updating us. now to the world cup, and history could be made at the woman's woke up today, with morocco's nouhaila benzina set to be the first player to where a hijab durg a match. in the early kickoff -- live now to our correspondent shaimaa khalil. shaimaa: we have been hearing a lot of cheers for italy.

one scene that is hoping to make history, but that cannot so far, is the afghan women's team. they fled their country nearly two years ago after the taliban takeover, and they have re-settled here in australia. i spent time with them in melbourne. it was quite remarkable to be privy to their back stories. one of the players told me she was trying to run away with her family, and in the chaos of what was happening with the taliban fighters firing, shooting around them, she got separated from her family. she made it into the airport, and her family didn't. she said that moment when i called my father and told him i was safe on a plane, he cried, and it was a difficult moment. you can feel how conflicted they are paid on the one hand, they are safe, they are able to do what they love. but they also know there is anxiety about leaving their family behind, their friends behind, and knowing the risk they face every day. on the day that afghan women are

not able to go to salons anymore -- the salons have been closed in the country, at the directives of the taliban government -- these women are calling upon fifa to recognize them. they represented their country before, and they hope they can represent them again on the world stage. this is not prepped for a world cup game, but these women have already come a long way. two years ago, they were running for their lives, fling their home country after the taliban takeover. they are safe now, following their dreams, but it is not lost on them that millions of their countries women cannot do the same -- countrywomen cannot do the same. everything you see here, the jerseys, the hairstyles, even the laughter is enough to get them severely punished or killed had they stayed in afghanistan. >> now there are many people who

are in a voiceless journey, and i have to be the voice for them. i have an obligation to represent those ladies in my home country, those who cannot work, play soccer, or do anything they like. now i am representing them, and i feel more strong and proud. it will be awesome to represent that country, the woman and ladies banned from everything there. shaimaa: it ia bittersweet moment for these players representing afghanistan nearly two years after they fled their home country. many say this is much more than just about football for them. we play for afghan women, they tell me, and we pray for their freedom. none of them take this moment r granted. the taliban government has banned women's sports, which means they are not officially recognized either country or fa. >> i am very sad. i was x working a lot from the

governing bodies of football to stand for these women. when they say the women of afghanistan belong in the kitchen, these women sacrifice a lot to change that, that woman along everywhere in society to that is what we want from leadership. just don't keep silent. shaimaa: we asked fifa for a response to a they sent us this statement, saying the selection of players and teams representing a member association is an internal affair, adding fifa does not have the right to recognize any unless it is recognized by -- doing what they love comes at a heavy price, that constant anxiety of the safety of family and friends back home, and the loneliness of having left everything behind. these players have given up a lot for football, and they are

hoping football does not give up on them. a few days ago, members of the afghan women's national team actually went on the grounds to watch morocco's women's team train. the player you saw in that report sent us a message and told us how great it was to be able to watch another team, mostly muslim players, play in the world cup, hoping they could do the same. you talked about morocco steam and making history with nouhaila benzina being the first habi playing in the woman's world cup. they are also the only team representing the middle east and north africa. this is what the afghan team are trying to do as well. they are calling on football governing bodies to allow them, recognize them, so they can also officially recognize afghanistan's woman on the world stage and hopefully in a world cup like this one. samantha: thanks very much for

the update from there. now, two sets of pictures to share, illustrating two different types of extreme weather which have been affecting canada. this is the forte sam james area of british columbia and western canada, where wildfires have been burning for months now kate around 1.2 million hectares of forest happen burned in the province this year that is compared to a yearly average of 67,000 hectares. more than 30 wildfires there are still burning. on the eastern side of canada, in nova scotia, it is torrential rainfall causing problems. three months of rain fell in just one day, the biggest deluge in the province in 60 years. flash floods swept away roads and railway lines, and a search is on for people missing from the storms. stay with us on bbc news. we will be live in israe narrator: funding for this presentation of this program

is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news".