why we are busy with islamic state. strength in different parts of the middle east and now they are very strong in yemen, in parts of africa. they start to gather strength and recruit people. the same thing, islamic state will do they same. they have branches — in sinai, iraq, syria, afghanistan, pakistan. ijust came back from india. they are worried about terrorist attacks by islamic state, especially among the muslim community. we are now seeing this terrible famine. how that will play together i do not know. i wonder whether al-qaeda will be almost like a successor organisation, as a more kind of sensible islamist force. donald trump claimed — based on no evidence, apparently — that predecessor barack 0bama wanted to wiretap him. the language seems quaint, given that we learned this week — courtesy of wikileaks — that the cia can not only bug your phone, but your tv and, for all i know, your toaster and teapot as well. is wikileaks doing a public service, or is it a danger to the security of democracies? how do you t

and of course, as you havejust islamic state militia.ave cut off the road to raqqa, so that is a target they want to get to at the moment. in the us, president trump says he has removed himself from the day—to—day operations of his businesses. but has he done enough? his critics might point to his mar—e—lago resort in florida where the fees have doubled since he won the election. and in indonesia, mr trump has signed a deal to build two resorts with a billionaire, worth about $1 billion in total. the bbc‘s karishma vaswani went to indonesia to ask mr trump's business partner about their relationship. do you know who donald trump is? no, because i'm from indonesia. he is a president...of america. meet indonesia's donald trump. hary tanoesoedibjo is one of indonesia's richest men. in 2015 he signed a billion—dollar deal to build a trump tower in west java and the first trump resort in bali. you know, i know eric trump, i know ivanka, you know, and then i met with donjunior and then when we signed the agreement then the father came up, you

it is all daesh daesh daesh, for islamic state.e wants to make sure this is stomped out in mosul and there are programs in place to keep it from coming back and being as effective terrorist group. they had a terrible bombing in baghdad today that killed upwards of 40 people. he will want help with that as well. tim: it looks as if mosul will be retaken, but he is looking for money for that, for reconstruction. how does that go with president trump and his proposed budget cuts? it will see the state department lose a lot of money, and that perhaps would have been responsible for reconstruction in iraq. >> i suspect when it comes to reconstruction money, president trump may tell them to look elsewhere, the gulf states and other possible donors, germany and other european countries, but that the united states has put most of the weight on the security side and that is where they should expect to see the contribution. tim: with the proposed $54 billion u.s. extra for the pentagon, more money could be earmarked for the fight against isl

mosul continues thousands of civilians escape as iraqi coalition forces try to defeat so—called islamic statef the northern ireland assembly are elected. it seems the dup and sinn fein will remain the largest parties. let's turn to the united states. donald trump is calling this a witchhunt but the pressure on america's top law officer continues to build. he says he will step down from an fbi investigation from an alleged fbi into. it is said he lied under oath in failing to declare he met russia's ambassador twice during the campaign. at the centre of the latest allegations of contact between the trump administration and russia, the attorney generaljeff sessions. at his confirmation hearing, he'd failed to tell the senate about two meetings with the russian ambassador. senior democrats accuse him of lying under oath. president trump says he still has his full confidence. jeff sessions has resisted pressure to resign, but he has now removed himself from any investigations looking into the election campaign, including allegations of russian interference. the reason i believed i should recuse m

the fear is that when they beat islamic state here in mosul, they may turn on each other.s infested politics and become the route to money, power and territory. war is iraq's tragedy, curse, and its normality. ten minutes ago, he says, i killed one of them near the mosque. the men fighting now were children when america and britain invaded in 2003. they grew up during the sectarian civil war the invaders helped create. in most sought, even in the ruins, sunny muslims are the majority. but the government in baghdad is dominated by iraq's bigger group, shia. the battle grounds of west muscle are still home to several hundreds of thousands civilians. —— west most soul. this street is about 700 metres from the current confrontation line. the sunnis here are nervous about the future. they remember the old threats from shia politicians. this man, with his five—year—old daughter, says that when the army fled in 2014, he thought it was a sunny tribal revolution. then, men from is, daesh, with the accents of north africa and saudi arabia, began to impose their view brutal views. tr

they are on the radar of the islamic state group.et's underscore the fact that there has not been a formal claim of responsibility from the islamic state group. claire: theresa may said police are running on the assumption that the attacker acted alone. >> this is now more of a familiar refrain in the wake of a lot of attacks. -- in the saw this case of brussels last year, yesterday was the one year anniversary. the islamic state group claimed formal responsibility afterward. as we know with the pair attacks. there was -- paris attacks. and had been trained dispatched to commit the attacks. the islamic state group, they take a multilayered approach to organizing these things. says theesa may attacker presumed he was inspired by islamist extremist islamist ideology over the internet perhaps, what do you do about that? can you have eyes on everyone? is it humanly possible to do that? even if you do, is it always an indication that someone is about to commit an attack? it's very easy to sound the faultand say we need to the security for

iraqi forces capture the last major road out of western mosul, to stop islamic state militants fleeing the city, but civilians are still trapped. indeed, some of the people i've spoken to here today say that other civilians have been forced by islamic state to go behind the frontlines and act as human shields. these people, in some ways, are the lucky ones. they've been able to escape the war. after the assassination of the half—brother of the north korean leader, we report on the ups and downs of being a member of the kim dynasty. and british scientists discover what they say could be the earliest evidence of life on earth. good morning. it is 7:00am in singapore, 11:00pm in london and 8:00pm in the evening in washington, where the response to donald trump's first speech to the us congress since taking office has been largely positive. the president has himself tweeted to simply say thank you. and the financial markets seemed to approve, with the dowjones closing at a record high, an apparent endorsement of his calls for a massive infrastructure investment programme. the battle now fo

attack in westminster say they've found no evidence that khalid masood had any link with so—called islamic statei would more describe him as someone who has been exploited, a man who is clearly a lone actor who has come up from the basement so to speak to commit a murderous and cowardly attack. with only two days to go before the brexit process is triggered, nicola sturgeon and theresa may hold their first face—to—face talks since the demand for a new independence referendum. political parties in northern ireland have been given more time to try to form a power—sharing government after failing to meet today's deadline. and on newsnight, we have the uk television exclusive with rachel dollars out, the black activist who turned out to be white. —— rachel dolezal. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the metropolitan police say they've found no evidence that the westminster attacker had links to the so—called islamic state group or al-qaeda. officers said that khalid masood clearly had an interest injihad and they were still investigating the circumstances that led to the attack, which claimed fou

what has the difference been to get islamic state on the back foot now? was 2010the bad period to 2013, when former prime minister maliki took deliberate steps to reduce the effectiveness of his own forces. he was selling senior positions, he was stopping all professionalization, stopping all continued training. he gutted out his own security forces. once that stopped in 2014, you could start rebuilding confidence, the main thing required for the fight. tim: these special forces trained by the united states and others, they are up to the job now. what is the split now in terms of the coalition forces? have you got american fighters and special forces on the front line actually involved? >> i would say actually yes. it is the iraqi counterterrorism forces with american advisers, iraqi conventional forces with american advisers. some of those calling in the strikes are quite close to the front lines. tim: and yet the weaponry used, as jeremy pointed out, indiscriminate and causing , it seems, a lot of civilian casualties. how does america and britain square

it is still held by islamic state group.ing it back is going to be that much more difficult because of the concerns of causing damage to it. over the weekend the islamic state group claiming it had been damaged. they walked that back telling people they should not flee the area. operational and we are hearing the same kind of warnings that we heard in the past about mosul dam. the syrian democratic forces will have to tread carefully in any assault in this area to make sure they are not damaged by fighting or to provoke a sabotaged by the islamic state group. fightingyou would have thought t would be unlikely simply because it would cause large-scale flooding in the areas. genie: thank you, adam. to the iraqi city of mosul. there are conflicting accounts over an explosion that caused dozens of civilian deaths. the iraqi military says 61 bodies were recovered from a destroyed building that the islamic state group had booby-trapped. spoke ofeports hundreds of victims with the u.s. coalition admitting it had shelled the area pr

weighs deploying up to 1,000 soldiers to kuwait to serve as a reserve force in the fight against islamic stated options. let's bring in the bbc state department correspondent barbara pleb usher. i want to ask you about these pictures that have been released by the americans showing their vehicles on the ground in syria. they do not normally do that. they like to keep a low profile, but this is a different situation and has been a deliberate decision. you have this town that was liberated from the is in august. but now there is arab forces backed by turkey forces backed by the syrian kurds and it is a headache for the americans. they want to focus on fighting islamic state and they do not want another conflict area flaring up and they want to get across the message that everyone should focus on the battle against raqqa and they made a decision to visibly insert themselves into this, standing between rival factions. this is the first time they have done this, put themselves between rival factions done this, put themselves between rivalfactions on done this, put themselves between rival factions

islamic state says it was behind the atrocity.ined on westminster bridge. he was 75 but his identity has not been released. a vigil was held in trafalgar square a short walk away from the scene of the attack. london's man said that londoners would never be cowed by terrorism. —— mayor. and the head of the fbi has been accused of double standards by the man who ran donald trump's campaign. he said that they went through the hillary clinton's e—mails but not russian connections to the donald trump campaign. now it is time for

islamic state has claimed responsibility for the attack.n mosul iraqis forces have closed in on islamic state in an attempt to capture a strategic moss. -- a strategic mosque. this strategic airstrike is causing more residents to flee the region. reporter: fleeing their home which is now a battlefield, these are desperate times for most mosul residents as ground fighting and airstrikes intensify in the city once again, more and more of them are being forced to leave. >> i lost my daughter, my wife was shot, my brother was killed. why should we stay? e-house fell enough. -- my son is about to die from hunger. there is no milk. reportrter: this is what they he left behind, their homes, now serve as bunkers for the so-called islamic state fighters. the iraqi forces have renewed their offensive to flesh them out. troops on the ground are backed by firepower from the air. strikes thatat have alsoso regad -- resulteted in heavy civilian hassssle to. one of the targets is this a mosque where islamic leader al-baghdadi named his caliphate. capturin

do you think the islamic state is gaining ground in afghanistan? is adon't think that it consequence of what is happening in syria, yes. that might be the case in the future as they lose more territory in iraq. afghanistan, has for the last year and a half, then a target for i.s. cells from the region. many i.s. belong to what used to , and others belong to foreign fighters from central asia. thea: why do you think afghan government needs to fight the extremist threat, whether it is the taliban or i.s.? would more u.s. troops and nato boots on the ground help? >> better command, better control, better management. going after real targets. there is a suspicion and afghan society there is a 5th column in the government that may be aiding and abetting. i hope that is not true. laura: it might be? .> it is a very strong belief they cannot make sense of why this is happening. the united states is at a point, and nato and other countries who have contributed to the afghanistan security for the last decade, they are at a point where they have to make hard

admitting the cement company paid money to the islamic state group. lawyer hasa's top been accused of lying under a. attorney general jeff sessions said he did speak to russian officials despite telling the senate that he didn't. let's get some business news. tell us all about snapchat. it is having a big day on the stock market and making its debut. the question is, is it really worth the hype? reporter: the holding company of , have seen their shares soar since they began trading on the nasdaq hours ago. currently trading above the $17 targeted which means we could be heading for evaluation of about $33 billion, higher than the $24 billion that was targeted. is sending the app to the very photos or snp -- or snaps. there is of course much more we haven't quite discovered yet although some of the people that know about it -- young users are more than half of the 58 million daily users. the question is, can the company keep up or is the snap bubble destined to pop? >> it is best known for its but thereng messages was no chance the cofounders would esc

islamic state is always trying to use any opportunity, i don't even know if this was a islamic state thrown out of mosul. i think they would use any opportunity. it is a press opportunity for them, and opportunities to instil that terror. we should stand still. the muslim council of britain and other organisations are saying let's not be terrorised by the message of terror that is trying to be spread by them. when news of this latest attack started a break yesterday, what did you feel you need to do? immediately, our concern is obviously about the scale of the damage. any life, any loss of life, is regrettable. in this instance, we are hearing about three fatalities and about 20 or so injured. that is reg retta ble. fortu nately, and about 20 or so injured. that is regrettable. fortunately, it wasn't much larger, which is a good thing. asa much larger, which is a good thing. as a say, any loss of life is reg retta ble. as a say, any loss of life is regrettable. very quickly, we thought it was important for our message to get out there because again we see some people trying to assign

significant setbacks for the islamic state group today.ncentrate on mosul, the last stronghold and as they discussed government forces are trying to reca ptu re government forces are trying to recapture the city. they have taken an important bridge. the freedom bridge, and kurdish forces also backing up the crimes that it has fallen to the government. the reason it matters, we have got the situation in the city when the east is controlled by the government forces, the west still buy islamic state. this bridgejoins the territory. the second development, raqqa. the centre of operations. reports that syrian militia has cut of the last main road out of the city. the plan has long been to encircle raqqa, and if islamic state militants want to get it, they are going to have to cross the river. the situation is complicated because you have got different entries competing. actually, this is the most difficult pa rt actually, this is the most difficult part of this battle, it is not only the battle of eliminating the so—called islamic state from ra

convention, they actually in a report in october last year did say that they pointed fingers at islamic state syria. as i understand, there is also a report, a forthcoming report, that the 0pcw will be stating that isis also is responsible for a mustard agent attack in iraq, as well, specifically against kurdish forces. so basically it is spreading. the use of chemical weapons is spreading from syria into iraq. obviously this is very problematic. yeah, and i suppose the main difficulty is that nobody knows quite what they have. there is no way of checking. how do civilians keep safe in a situation like this? unfortunately that's very difficult. military forces usually have the protective clothing that would be needed. the thing with chemical agents, depending on whether it's in a powder or gas form, it can settle on skin, obviously it can be inhaled. so unless you're willing to be fully covered, walking around in your day—to—day environment, it becomes very difficult to do that, the same thing with whether you wear a bullet—proof vest everyday. so it becomes very difficult. other than making

it is clear that islamic state supporters are just jihadist supporters in that islamic state supporters can implement anywhere, at any time. the other thing is, there is no profile for these attackers. khalid masood was 52 years old, much out of the normal. it is much older than most inspired plotters. that is not something you would normally look for ina something you would normally look for in a profile, but what is a commonality of most of these islamic state cases and the inspired recruits is their criminal history and criminal past. they seem to be more attractive to the islamic state than previously to al-anda, which would sort of fat and train and recruit people who have much less common background. he had criminal convictions, but none for terror. how do you track someone none for terror. how do you track someone like that? there are thousands and thousands of people with previous convictions who may not necessarily be radicalised and do something like this. sadly, there is no one solution for it. what we have done so far, and really the united kingdom probably does better than

northern parts of the today at 5pm, two british trainee doctors have been killed while fighting for islamic staten the iraqi city of mosul. they were part of a large group of students who abandoned their studies in sudan to join the radical islamic group. we'll have the latest. and we'll be talking to the leading islamic scholar, tariq ramadan. the other main stories on bbc news at 5pm: the government faces its first defeat over the brexit bill in the house of lords as peers demand guarantees over the rights of eu nationals living here. president trump promises a "renewal of the american spirit" in his first address to congress. sex education is to be made compulsory in schools in england. a new crackdown on drivers caught using hand—held mobile phones — they'll face tougher penalties from today. it's five o'clock. our main story. two british medical students who travelled to join so—called islamic state almost two years ago have been killed in fighting in the iraqi city of mosul. they were pa rt of a group of british medics, many of them of sudanese origin, whojoined is in 2015. our home affairs

until muslims start to defeat this identity state of islamism, islamic state ideology, and that's whatong-term strategy has to be the resurrection something like the u.s. information agency where we start doing radio free liberty into saudi arabia come into iran, into pakistan in order to defeat those ideas and create society groups the begin to share ideas. like we did in the cold war, without firing a bullet against the soviets directly, but winning that by defeating, and by the way, in america we see the implication of blasphemy laws that using the term islamophobia. we need to stop using that term islam as a diverse idea that doesn't have rights. muslims have rights. we need to fight bigotry that exist against muslims, but don't use the term islamophobia because they're trying to shut us all up from criticizing islamic state ideology. [applause] >> ambassador rooney, you also served in congress from florida. is the republican support for more money for voice of america, for radio free asia, all of those things that seem to atrophy under the clinton administration when without we wo

up islamic state but these camps began to fillup in islamic state but these camps began to fill up ine help is needed as more people tried to escape from western mosul. also making news: i walk —— hayball crime has been pointed at by its syrian forces. they concluded the syrian forces. they concluded the syrian air force dropped weapons on the eastern part of a aleppo. the evacuation amounted to forced displacement. rebel groups are accused of crimes including shelling western aleppo, withholding aid and using civilians as human shields. they say there is no evidence linking russia to crimes involving chemical weapons despite being closely involved with bombing campaigns. another key finding concerns of this fatal attack on an aid convoy last september. after reviewing evidence including witness evidence and satellite images, it has been concluded the syrian government was responsible. what happened in aleppo shows how much the warring parties disregarded international law and our little they fear a counter the tip. we hope oui’ they fear a counter the tip. we hope our report not only

fighting between government forces and so—called islamic state has driven thousands from their homesill trapped in western mosul, that islamic state might now be using chemical weapons is a huge concern. fighting is still heavy but government troops say they are easing islamic state's grip on mosul, its last major stronghold in iraq. with islamic state threatening to kill those who leave the city, and relentless shelling from the government side, escape is not easy. this family was inside the western pa rt this family was inside the western part of the city this morning and as they escaped, there was fighting inside their house. two members of the security forces that freed them we re the security forces that freed them were killed, and according to them, many more are being kept by so—called islamic state as human shields. sammy mahmud and his family survived the warped logic of islamic state and count themselves lucky to have escaped with nothing but their lives. under ias, having a simple simm card for a phone, or a woman refusing to cover her face, could mean certain death. my ki

so what do you think can be done practically to bring islamic state to justice?e are mass graves that are being discovered. just a few days ago, in mosul, a huge mass grave, that‘s thought to have 4,000 bodies in it, was discovered. and there‘s other types of evidence as well. isis is actually a big bureaucracy, believe it or not, and they‘re leaving behind documents. you know, you need to collect dna, you need to collect phone records and none of that is being done at the moment. you‘re going to the un this week, what are you going to be saying there? i‘m addressing the un on the issue of accountability and saying something needs to be done. so why do you think they‘re not doing it? this is exactly the question that i‘ll be posing to member states. you know, i‘m going to ask them — are the crimes not serious enough for you to investigate? well, that can‘t be it because it‘s genocide. you know, do you think that there‘s no evidence for you to collect? that‘s not right either, there are mass graves whose locations are known, you can start there and there‘s plenty

america promises more cash in the fight against islamic state as well?o american boots but local forces who carry the fight to islamic state. 0n the syrian side of the border, they are more difficult to find. it's a pleasure talking to you. pope francis has askedg god ‘s pope francis has asked for god ‘s forgiveness for what he called the and failings from the roman sins and failings from the roman catholic church during the rwanda genocide, and it came after he met the president of rwanda. he asked for an for the president of rwanda. he asked for an - for the role he asked for an apology for the role that some catholic priests played in the manner scope —— massacres. some of the biggest consumers of brazilian meets have. a meeting with ambassadors from in a meeting with ambassadors from europe, the usa and china, the brazilian president said that the is confident in the government is confident in the meat‘s quality, the biggest red meat exporter in the world. the five main candidates for the french presidency are taking part in the first of three televi

gunfire the rule of the jihadists who call themselves islamic state, has brought fire, destruction andn on mosul, iraq's second city. this is where the fight is now concentrated, in the narrow alleys of the old city, too tightly packed for armoured vehicles. it's a classic urban battlefield, a place where jihadis who pray that they will die fighting have managed in the last few days to stall on offensive by far more powerful iraqi forces. the iraqi troops took us to a building about 100m from the isjihadis. to one of dozens of sniper positions... the threat from is has managed to recreate some unity in a country that's been torn to pieces by war. iraq is a very divided country. at the moment they have a common enemy, the fear is that when they beat the islamic state here in mosul, they may turn on each other. violence has infested politics and become the route to money, power and territory. war is iraq's tragedy, curse and its normality. translation: ten minutes ago, i killed one of them near the mosque. the men fighting now were children when america and britain invaded in 2003 and gr

that is islamic state digging itself up. about this and there were no actual communications between islamic state and this man. it is possible that a posthumous video, in martyrdom video, will appear afterwards. he does seem to have largely acted on his own. there is no such thing as a completely lone wolf attack. there will be digital footprints. gchq will be digital footprints. gchq will be digital footprints. gchq will be looking into what is encrypted on his computer to work out who he had been in touch with and who he had met. forensics will look at the fingerprints in the car to see who else had been in it. he isa to see who else had been in it. he is a strange character. born in kent in south—east england, he lived in luton which has been described as a hotbed of islamic fundamentalism, where some people referred to him as the vampire because neighbours said he would always go out only at night and dressed in black. the body is suggesting he drank blood, but he was a strange character, very conflicted and this is a ve

moving on, iraqi government forces are intensifying their efforts to drive so—called islamic state outhey're deploying helicopter gunships and crude rocket launchers to target is militants. but thousands fleeing the city say civilians are being killed because the assault is too indiscriminate. 0ur middle east editorjeremy bowen reports from western mosul. this is the iraqi solution to an offensive that's stalled over the last week or so, attack again. gunfire it feels as if the air war over mosul is intensifying. the gunship pilots fly low. they seem confident they won't get shot down. and every day, a few thousand more people come walking out of the areas of mosul still held by the jihadists who call themselves islamic state. many said is used them as human shields, shooting out from the cover of their homes and streets, but the response, more air strikes, horrified them. translation: they destroyed our homes, our cars, everything. they destroyed us. entire families are gone, they are under the rubble. translation: a lot of people died, children, women and men. houses collapsed on the

the islamic state group, as it is also called.ound the offensive on raqqa, the isis stronghold, is far from straightforward. you will realise why when i show you this map. this red territory is controlled by islamic state. we have the syrian army territory towards the syrian army territory towards the west. the us is opposed to the assad regime. this purple area george the turkish border is controlled by kurdish forces. the americans are working with the kurds. the turks consider them to be terrorists, quite a difference of opinion. they held a joint news conference. rex tillerson was asked whether the us and turkey saw eye to eye on the issue of kurdish fighters. here is what he had to say. let there be no mistake. there is no space between turkey and the united states and our commitment to defeat isis. notjust in syria and iraq, but as members of the greater coalition to defeat daesh anni where daesh shows its face on planet earth. they will be confronted by the coalition. rex tillerson is referring to islamic state as daesh. is

so—called islamic state stopped him going years ago.in iraqi hands, for what it's worth, several more neighbourhoods. troops remain watchful. the militants are about a mile away. explosion. they were driven from here just four days ago. this is the engineering department of mosul university. 0n the is curriculum here, only fanaticism and death. well, this was a place of learning, it was a source of pride for the people of mosul, and you can see what's become of it. it was also a key strategic location for the so—called islamic state, it gave them high ground to dominate the area. it was heavily defended by uzbek fighters and this is just one of the areas that's going to have to be rebuilt when the battle for mosul is finally over. some uzbek militants are still lying where they fell, no decent burial for those who terrorised a city. nearby, a suicide belt they didn't manage to use. at dusk, iraqi forces gather for the next advance. armoured vehicles give some protection against car bombs, but they won't fit in the narrow streets of the

are you talking about islamist state? islamic related terrorism is oui’ state? d terrorism is our assumption. inaudible in terms of levels of concern the prime minister said earlier we are not changing the national threat level. the independent body that looks at those issues decided it is not necessary at that stage so we are still at the level of severe and an attack remains highly likely. given what has happened on a precautionary basis across the country we are stepping up police patrols, unarmed and armed and the public will see far more of their local police forces over the local days, particularly in crowded and iconic places. how long will the centre of westminster be closed as a crime scene? the examination of the crime scene? the examination of the crime scene will take many hours, parliament will reopen tomorrow. some of the crime scene will restrict some of the entrances, but business must return to normal as quickly as possible. you say you think you know the identity of this attacker, was he known to you before? i will not talk about the details of

the islamic state group says it carried out the attack.ament.

the islamic state organization is pushing back hard.ts fighters are using every weapon in their arsenal. to prevent iraqi troops from gaining ground in mosul. >> that was a drone. clear skies mean anti-isa coalition aircraft can fly and bomb any position. the soldiers have a hard time holding onto territory they have just conquered. they have been saying they captured this southernmost bridge. from this vantage point is obvious the reality is quite different as fighting continues just on the other side of this structure. this sergeant is eager to show us the spoils of the day. you can hear our forces firing shots on the other side. there are cleaning up. liberating that part of the city. >> he leads us to a courtyard which has become the final resting place for a few jihadists. >> our forces hit this location and kill them all. there are three over here and one over there. that's four dead in all. four of their fighters taken out. it's a small victory against the islamic state organization. these men know there is a lot of work left bef

two british trainee doctors — part of a large group of students who joined so—called islamic state haven killed in iraq. sex education is to become compulsory in all schools in england with children as young as four being taught about healthy relationships. coming up on newsnight that the man behind some great tv satire. he will tell us about comedy and politics and whether he's laughing at politics now. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the house of lords has dealt the government its first serious blow over the brexit bill — which will trigger the formal process of leaving the eu. they've voted by a large majority to give european union nationals, who already live here, the right to stay in the uk. the prime minister has so far refused to give any such assurances until british citizens on the continent get similar guarantees. the issue now goes back to the commons, where the government will attempt to overturn the decision. our political editor, laura kuennsberg, reports. they have voted, contents 358. not contents 256. so the contents have it. "wow!" you can hear them say. the lor

and the islamic state now, in raqqa, the actual capital of the islamic state, this is going to be -- they are now surrounded, the kurds are in position, only way out to the south. had heavy ar artillery there. but bringing in the heavy howitzers is a big deal in support of all of the forces that are now surrounding raqqa. >> yeah. this was always going to be necessary in my view. i think it has been a missio myth to minimize american involvement we're the. glue than together. it is clear that the military has in mind what happened after over throw of the taliban, al qaeda regime in afghanistan, what osama bin laden, escaped through the net. and got into pakistan, we faced years of searching for him. it is important that no further islamic state leaders get out of dodge in this case to libya or yemen or whatever they are going to go. lou: and also important we not present this as a nice, tidy operation there. when i talked about raqqa surrounded, we're talking about sunni insurgensurgent -- insurgents forces and kurds. and russian forces as well. this is and one general described it a

> sreenivasan: since the united states shifted its counterterrorism focus from al qaeda to the islamic state in iraq and syria-- or isis-- the f.b.i. has opened investigations of potential isis supporters in all 50 states, and federal prosecutors have charged more than 120 individuals for supporting isis in some way. a new book unveils the thinking of isis supporters around the world, including one little- known american said to be among the group's leaders. it's called "the way of strangers: encounters with the islamic state," by graeme wood, a national correspondent for" the atlantic" who has spent time as a journalist with many isis sympathizers. newshour weekend's phil hirschkorn sat down with wood to learn more. >> reporter: americans since 9/11 have really grappled with this question: "why do they hate us?" from your discussions with isis supporters around the world, was it: a, that they don't like our liberal social mores relative to theirs? or b, they don't like our foreign policy, our military deployments in some muslim- dominated countries? or would you say it was something else? >

so—called islamic state stopped him going years ago.ds, for what it's worth, several more neighbourhoods. troops remain watchful. the militants are about a mile away. explosion they were driven from here just four days ago. this is the engineering department of mosul university. 0n the is curriculum here, only fanatism and death. well, this was a place of learning, it was a source of pride for the people of mosul, and you can see what's become of it. it was also a key strategic location for the so—called islamic state, it gave them high ground to dominate the area. it was heavily defended by uzbec fighters and this is just one of the areas that's going to have to be rebuilt when the battle for mosul is finally over. some uzbec militants are still lying where they fell, no decent burial for those who terrorised a city. nearby, a suicide belt they didn't manage to use. at dusk, iraqi forces gather for the next advance. armoured vehicles give some protection against car bombs, but they won't fit in the narrower streets of the old city. ——

tonight at 10: police say there's no evidence to link the westminster attacker with so—called islamic statebut they say khalid masood, who was described by is as one of their soldiers, had clearly been interested injihad. masood drove his car at over 70 miles an hour across westminster bridge, hitting dozens of people in his path. i would more describe him as somebody who's been exploited, and a man who is clearly a lone actor, who has come up from the basement, so to speak, to commit a murderous and cowardly attack. the family of one of the victims — the american tourist kurt cochran — say they bear no ill will following the atrocity. he was an amazing individual who loved everyone, and tried to make the world a better place. and during the day, the attacker‘s mother has spoken for the first time about the atrocity, expressing her shock and sadness. also tonight... nicola sturgeon and theresa may hold their first face—to—face talks since the demand for a new independence referendum, and two days before the brexit process is triggered. in iraq, as the battle for mosul intensifies, we report