welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: osama bin laden's son, hamza, chosen successor to lead al-qaeda, has reportedly been killed. it's unclear if the us played a role in his death. ten more democratic hopefuls are going head to head in a second televised debate. the victor earns the right to take on president trump next year. president putin orders the russian army into siberia to help fight the wildfires raging across the region. a rare original copy of the first harry potter book sells for almost $35,000, at auction in the uk.

intelligence officials in the us are claiming that hamza bin laden, son of the founder of al-qaeda, has died. hamza bin laden, thought to be 30—years—old, had released audio and video calling for attacks on the us and other countries, to avenge his father's assassination by american special forces eight years ago. the us had offered a million dollars for information on him and saudi arabia stripped him of his citizenship in march. chris buckler had this update. media reports are saying that they have now confirmed military officials that hamza bin laden is dead, however, there has been no official word from the pentagon and what we don't know is how or where he died. although, there are some suggestions that it happened during what the pentagon is describing privately as some kind of operation. certainly there have been real attempts to find hamza bin laden

in recent months. about five months ago us officials offered $1 million for information that led to his capture. and that signified two things about hamza bin laden, first of all, they were concerned about him, that's because as far as they were concerned, he was emerging as a key figure within the current leadership of al-qaeda. but beyond that, they also felt that he was seen as a significant figure for propaganda purposes for al-qaeda, and that is of course because of his father. he was responsible for the notorious september 11 attacks that caused so many deaths and so much destruction in america, back in 2001. and some of the online messages that have been put onto video and audio sites in recent months, there have been attempts to try and get supporters to attack america and some of its western allies with a specific aim from hamza bin laden‘s point of view to really avenge his father's death. chris, it is quite common, isn't it,

for leaders of terror groups to be reported killed, and quite often those reports turn out to be wrong. what credence are you giving to this report? yeah, and i have to say that in recent months it isn't the first time we've had private conversations recent months in which some people have said that they believe there is going to be information coming out about hamza bin laden very soon. and there have even been reports that have suggested this is a confirmation of his death and that perhaps it may have happened some time ago. at this stage, we simply do not know. but it does reflect that as far as the americans are concerned, that they have been doing their best to try and get information about hamza bin laden and he's been a figure who has been very clearly on their radar. hence all of this gossip and speculation about him in recent months. and certainly, if you take a look at 0sama bin laden and the attacks on 9/11, hamza bin laden would have been a child at that stage.

and if you listen to the legends from al-qaeda and some of the propaganda, they would say he was by his side at the time, but he was a child. nonetheless, 0sama bin laden did say, and some letters were found in the compound where he was killed by us national forces back in 2011 that he was grooming him to succeed him in the leadership of al-qaeda. and we should also emphasise even if it does prove that hamza bin laden is dead, that doesn't take away from some of the threats that are still existing from the extremist group. chris, thank you very much for that. the democratic party's contenders to take on donald trump for the us presidency next year are challenging each other in the second round of back—to back debates. the candidates, including frontrunnerjoe biden and kamala harris have discussed healthcare, immigration, the criminal justice system and climate change. the former vice president was flanked at centre stage by senator harris and cory booker who have both clashed with him on several issues. there will be another series

of debates takes place in september after several of the candidates will have dropped out. a delegation from the us congress, led by speaker of the house nancy pelosi, has ended a 3—day visit to ghana. she spoke with evident emotion to the ghanaian parliament, recalling the horrors of the slave trade, on the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved africans arriving in america. she also paid tribute to the contribution african—americans have made to the united states. thomas naadi reports from accra. this trip has been about what connects the united states and ghana — friendship but also a dark past. it has been 400 years since the first africans were sent across the atlantic, the start of a trade that would claim millions of lives and shape both countries forever. this is the door of no return — the main exit to which thousands of enslaved africans were forcibly

shipped to america and the caribbean to live a life of slavery. visiting the castle clearly had a profound impact on the us lawmakers. as speaker policy told the ghanaian parliament. we saw the dungeons where thousands were grotesquely tortured. at cape coast castle, we stood at the door of no return, where countless millions took their last glimpse of africa before they were shipped to a life of enslavement. being here has been a transformative experience for all of us. for gahna, 2019 has been celebrated as the year of return, a call for african diaspora everywhere to reconnect with their ancestral home. for many, it has reminded them of the way the country's past has shaped their future. it is offering us a moment of sober

reflection to get to know the things our forefathers went through. we were sold by our own cheifs, our own uncles and our own fathers and we should stop blaming people and those things. we should concentrate on working hard, looking after ourselves. 400 years down the line, remembering how they were taken off our shores, it's a privilege to be alive today. nobody, no—one will be left out or behind because of their race, colour or background. the trip finished with a conference at the us embassy. it has come at a time of heightened racial tensions in the united states, a reminder that the legacy across the atlantic is still felt to this day. thomas naadi, bbc news, accra. let's get some of the day's other news. the united states has imposed sanctions on iran's foreign minister, javad zarif. the sanctions freeze any assets of mr zarif in the united states.

in response, mr zarif tweeted that the us considers him a threat to its agenda. the chairman of the federal bank said it is not giving in to pressure from president trump for a rate cut. north korean state media has commented for the first time about wednesday's launch of two ballistic missiles from its east coast. the official news agency said the military had successfully tested a new type of large calibre guided rocket system. the north korean leader, kimjong—un, is said to have personally supervised the operation. the israeli government has given rare approval for the building of 700 palestinian homes in the occupied west bank along with permission for another 6,000 homes forjewish settlers. some israeli media suggest it's an effort to smooth the way for president trump's peace plan, with his envoy about to visit the region. unseasonal weather has brought devastating fires and floods to siberia.

people in the region of irkutsk are experiencing their second floods in a month, and president putin has ordered troops to tackle the fires that have produced days of toxic haze in the centre and east. john mcmanus reports. summerfires are common in russia, but not on this scale. around 3 million hectares of land in the centre and east of the country are on fire. the flames triggered by dry thunderstorms and temperatures above 30 celsius and fanned by high winds. workers with russia's forest protection agency are monitoring the blazes from the air in an attempt to contain them. but it's a huge job, the majority of the fires are in remote and inaccessible locations, the authorities are reluctant to tackle them due to the cost.

while the smoke there producing is drifting across inhabited areas, the effects graphically illustrated by videos posted by residents. and after days of complaints, a petition with more than 800,000 signatures, president putin has now ordered the military tojoin the thousands of firefighters on the ground. translation: there's a lot of moss, a lot of new growth, so the fires spreads really fast. of course, the weather has an effect as well. the russian branch of greenpeace says nearly 12,000 hectares of forest has been incinerated this year, meaning even more climate changing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. and alongside the fire, there are also floods, some of them in the same region of irkutsk, which the first was a month ago. 25 more settlements are now underwater of the river levels rose by metre

following a cyclone six days ago. emergency services have delivered aid to villages, others have been evacuated. this may be the new normal. russia's meteorological services want these effects of climate change are likely to worsen every year. john mcmanus, bbc news. thursday marks a year since the beginning of the ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of congo. at least 1,800 people have died so far. earlier this week a second person died of ebola in goma, a city of 2 million people on the border with rwanda. the death raises fears that the outbreak could spread quickly in the city and across the border. gaius kowene sent this report from goma. this patient travelled hundreds of miles before reaching the city of goma, that has over1 million people, and that shares a border with rwanda. here, right here — he arrived here two weeks ago, but it is only last week that he started showing symptoms and was directly put in an ebola treatment centre that was newly built in the town of goma. professorjean—jacques muyembe, who is the co—ordinator of the ebola response team in the whole drc, says that this patient reached the treatment centre in critical condition, and unfortunately died. now, teams have been deployed

to track everybody who may have been in touch with him, so that they will be offered vaccination or tested to see if they don't have any treatment. and professor muyembe said he is very optimistic about the fight against ebola. so, a year of ebola in our country, it is unresolved. and we are there to stop this outbreak, and we will work to avoid the spreading of the disease, and to close the borders and to go to other countries. so i am confident that we'll work and stop this outbreak as soon as possible. this thursday will mark one year since the ebola outbreak was declared in drc. this is the tenth and so far the worst to hit the country. it has affected more than 2,500 people and has killed more than 1,700 people.

community resistance and insecurity have been slowing down the response. however, the response leaders have said they are changing their strategies to make sure they contain and eradicate it in the coming months. gaius kowene, bbc news, goma. benjamin neuman is associate professor for biology at texas a&m university. i think there are worrying similarities to the outbreak west africa. goma has been the centre of armed resistance against the government since the 1990s. and you have non—compliance in the form of there have been attacks against doctors without borders and some of the other aid workers that are there, that are complicating the problem. how likely would you say is a further spread and what can you do to combat it?

so, if we look back at the last outbreak, the last big outbreak, right now we're seeing about 100 cases per week in the democratic republic of the congo. and by the time we hit 100 cumulative cases per week in the three countries in west africa, that was the point at which it really started to get out of hand. now, the positive thing for this outbreak is we have the vaccine now and there have been about1 million doses manufactured and about 100,000 of those shipped out to the democratic republic of congo. there's plans to vaccinate more people and hopefully that will be the answer, but there is not enough vaccines for everyone at the moment. so, how hopeful are you? sighs. we are always hopeful.

these are good people and they are brave people on the ground doing their best. but this is a particularly difficult situation and the worry is the virus from here could spread, perhaps across the border, and perhaps into uganda. it is a delicate situation, certainly. and more resources need to be poured into this right away, i would say. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a rare original copy of the first harry potter book sells for almost $35,000 at auction in the uk. cheering the us space agency, nasa, has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk. the last foot patrol in south armagh. once an everyday part of the soldiers' lot, drudgery and danger, now no more after almost four decades. if one is on one's own,

in a private house, not doing any harm to anyone, i don't really see why people should wander in and say, "you're doing something wrong." six rare white lion cubs are on the prowl at worcestershire park and, already, they have been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they're lovely, yeah. really sweet. yeah, they were cute. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: 0sama bin laden‘s son, hamza, chosen successor to lead al-qaeda, has reportedly been killed. it's unclear if the us played a role in his death. let's stay with that story. colin clarke is a senior research fellow at the soufan center explained what he thought may have happened. early reports are that hamza bin

laden has indeed been killed and what we're hearing in the states is that the us government did play a role, what role, we still don't know although if you think about the possible countries that have been named where bin laden could have been, we've heard iran, we've heard syria, we've heard afghanistan, we've heard pakistan, to me the fact that the us government was potentially involved, likely rules out iran. that's an operation that would probably seek to escalate already exiting tension. so probably not iran in my opinion, potentially the af—pak border, or maybe even syria. you well know of course intelligence sources have been talking to journalists for some time about the possibility of news about hamza bin laden, i think the pentagon is privately saying, pentagon officals privately saying some kind of operation took place. are you thinking a drone attack? it could have been a drone attack or it could have been a special operations force raid, similar to the attack that killed hamza's father, 0sama, long—time leader and founder of al qaeda.

do you think he actually is dead? because there are reports of leaders of terror groups being killed, quite often they turn out to be wrong. i suppose, though, it is quite useful to a terror group as well for there to be some confusion, isn't there? it helps their operations. of course. that is exactly into the purpose of the group. it's hard to say with certainty, and indeed as you point out, there have been numerous instances prior to this where terrorist group leaders have been reported killed only to disprove that after—the—fact. the one—time leader of al qaeda has more lives than a cat, and this guy has been reported dead about a dozen times except he constantly resurfaces. baghdadi has been reported killed several times by both the us and the russians.

and so it's really hard in these early hours and days to figure out exactly what's going on. the taliban leader, mullah 0mar was dead for a long time before we recognised that he was. if hamza bin laden is dead, what is the likely impact of that, would you say? certainly it is symbolic because he carries the bin laden name, for sure, it perhaps has less of an impact operationally because he wasn't a hardened battle competitor, he wasn't a veteran al qaeda leader like someone with more experience. however, if it's true that he was being groomed to eventually take over the organisation, to supplant either zawahiri or whoever comes after zawahiri, that's certainly a blow to group morale, and in many ways to al qaeda's ability to compete with the islamic state for recruits. is has done a much betterjob in reaching out to the young generation, whereas the current al qaeda leader, ayman al—zawahiri, and the propaganda videos tend to be these very long, boring, religious sermons which is not

necessarily appealing to this kind of next—generation ofjihadists. the government happens it stands upon living the opinion with no agreement. the pound fell against the dollar, the lowest value since january. the gunmen has announced £2.1 billion in extra funding to prepare to leave the eu wanted to be sist. staying with brexit, one of the sticking points is the irish border. if the uk were to leave the eu without a deal at the end of october, this would create a hard border between northern ireland and the republic. 0ur europe correspondent adam fleming has been considering what that might mean for the republic of ireland. ireland's booming economy will boom a lot less if there is no brexit deal, which means a phone call between the two prime ministers yesterday is a subject over coffee today.

i think the relationship already is strained. boris has only yesterday made contact with the taoiseach of ireland. the british have chosen to come out, and we are only defending our interests, they are defending theirs, so i wouldn't particularly want to blame anyone. hopefully it won't come to that, we'll sort something out. hello, what do you think of brexit? if something isn't sorted out, farmers like raymond will be hardest hit. most of his speech goes to the uk. he is worried there would be a further fall in the pound, and about tariffs, the taxes that would be charged on imports by the uk. both would make his beach more expensive. in the unthinkable event of a crash—out brexit, this farm would have to cease beef farming, we are going to have to do something else with the land. disruption to transport is another potential problem because lots of irish products go

to the continent via britain by what is called the land bridge. today, the central bank of ireland warned of lost growth, lostjobs and a hole in the government finances. there is a huge amount of work going into our next budget, which will happen in october. we have two budgets prepared, one is in the event of a deal, the other in the event of no deal. we have already had two budgets where we put specific funding measures in place for industries like agriculture, the food and drink sectors. and what will the relationship be like with northern ireland on a range of issues, especially the border, which will technically be an external frontier of the eu, like poland's or latvia's? but there has been a deal in one area at least. right now british and irish people can cross the irish sea and work in each other‘s countries thanks to a series of arrangements called the common travel area. both governments have agreed that will continue no matter what happens with brexit. a bit of certainty before a possible dive into the unknown.

a first edition copy of harry potter and the philosopher's stone bought for just £1, 20 years ago has sold at auction in the uk for more than £28,000, a world record for a jk rowling first edition. back in 1997, she struggled at first to find a publisher and 300 copies of the book were sent to libraries. laura may mcmullan was at the auction. this is it. it's wonderful to handle something so rare, that in time will be an investment beyond any investment, i'm sure. from humble beginnings to a global phenomenon, it wasjk rowling's original novel, harry potter and the philosopher's stone, which captured the imagination of audiences all around the world, through literature, and later on a blockbuster film. i can start this book at £12,000. and so bidders from every continent competed this morning

at hansons auctions in staffordshire, all hoping to snap up a rare copy. this first edition is more than 20 years old, and was stocked by one of the staffordshire libraries. it was then purchased in a tabletop sale forjust £1. this is the genesis of the entire harry potter phenomenon. long before harry potter world and all the movies, jk rowling famously couldn't get a publishing deal. when she finally did, only 500 were produced. and it's actually on the back of the title page, that magic number -10987654321-blast-off. that is the number that seals the deal. are you bidding for that today? afraid not. it is a children's classic, isn't it? it's the next big landmark after tolkien, i guess. £28,500.

fair warning, it really is yours. congratulations. knowing the interest this book would create, it was a real find. it was like a willy wonka's chocolate bar with that golden ticket, and it's a world record price for a harry potter first edition. possibly made even more spellbinding for the uk buyer on the day ofjk rowling's birthday. hgppy happy birthday, indeed. a reminder of the top story, darker things, i'm afraid. intelligence officials are claiming that bin laden, the son of the founder of al qaeda has died was not his thought to be 30 years old. he had released audio and video calling for attacks on the us, and other countries to avenge his father's assassination by a broken social forces. the us father's assassination by a broken socialforces. the us offered $1 million for information on him,

saudi arabia stripped of his citizenship in march. that's it for now, thank you for watching. hello. in the last couple of days, some of the showers that we've seen breaking out across the uk have been nothing short of vicious, leading to disruption to transport and localised flooding. in the next few days, not an entirely dry story, but far fewer showers, and they should also be less aggressive. the reason being the culprit for all of the showers in the last few days, this area of low pressure, pulling out into the north sea. still close enough by, though, on thursday to exert some influence. quite gusty winds along the north sea coasts, thicker cloud piling in here at times too. and there will be some showers on the outer periphery of the low, if you like, stretching probably in a line, most likely from the north—west of scotland down into east anglia. plenty of sunny spells, however. the sunshine itself, though,

could produce a few homegrown showers, for example across the north—east of scotland. one or two of the showers, again, could be heavier. i can't rule out thunder and lightning entirely, but it should be nowhere near as extensive as it has been in the last couple of days. just a chance of a few showers developing across dorset, devon and cornwall come the afternoon. up to 25 in what should be a sunny london. there's a slim chance of one or two showers breaking out across the midlands through the afternoon. we may see some evidence of those for day one of the ashes at edgbaston, but i think hopefully we're going to get away with it here, with some sunny spells and highs about 20—21 degrees. through the evening and overnight, many of the showers clear as the low pressure centre whirls across towards the netherlands. we're left with quite a bit of cloud, though, and in some spots, with just light winds, it could turn misty and murky. 0vernight lows in the mid—teens. as for friday, well, the lows away to the east. not a bad day, i think, in the making, again with a little bit of help from the sun, though we could see one or two showers just brewing up, probably somewhere across northern

england through into the midlands. but for the majority of the uk, light winds, sunny spells, and temperatures in the low to mid—20s. for the weekend, that little bit of ridging that calms things down for friday hangs on in there on saturday. but by sunday, it looks like we'll see a weather front starting to approach, so that will bring an increasing chance of rain into western areas through the course of the day on sunday. just how far east that rain makes it is somewhat uncertain at the moment, but it does look like once those fronts start to push in on sunday, they will really work their way through across the uk as we go into the following week. plenty more showers, unfortunately, in our longer—term forecast.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

media outlets in the united states are quoting intelligence sources saying hamza bin laden, son of the late al-qaeda leader 0sama bin laden, is dead. it's not clear if the us played a role. he had released audio and video calling for attacks on the us and other countries. ten more democratic hopefuls are going head to head in a second televised debate in detroit. the candidates have discussed healthcare and immigration. another series of debates in september will whittle the candidates down to ten. whoever comes out on top eventually will take on donald trump for the us presidency next year. the russian president vladimir putin has ordered the army to help tackle massive wildfires raging in siberia and other regions in the east. so far, about three million hectares have been affected. many local people complain not enough is being done to tackle the fires. now on bbc news, it's time for click.