programme: fighting rages in eastern ukraine in one of the bloodiest battles since the start of the war, as russia sends in mercenary forces. more torrential rain and storms in california wreak damage and put millions of people at risk. and evading rescue: the seal trapped in a fishing lake in essex who, funnily enough, seems to be in no hurry to leave. and coming up on the bbc news channel. england captain 0wen farrell is set to be clearfor their six nations opener against scotland despite a four week ban for a dangerous tackle. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. ambulance workers in england and wales are striking over pay for a second time. they have been joined this time by call handlers, which is why managers are warning the impact of this strike is likely to be worse than last month s. some of the walkouts started at midnight, but the duration and scale of the disruption varies across different parts of england and wales. only the east of england ambulance
she upset the dynamic of the hierarchy in the royal family just by existing . good afternoon. the united nations has launched an emergency appeal for almost £140 million, to help pakistan deal with devastating floods that have killed hundreds of people. the un secretary general, antonio guterres, says the country was facing a monsoon on steroids that s left millions homeless. provinces like sindh and balochistan in the south are the worst affected, but mountainous regions in the north west have also been badly hit. our correspondent danjohnson has the very latest. so much of sindh province now lies under water after weeks of torrential monsoon rain. a third of the country has been affected, and so many people here have lost absolutely everything. translation: our houses - were destroyed by rain and floods. everything sank in water. we couldn t save our household, except for a few things. now we are sitting here in the open. translation: the rainwater came, our houses go
widely into the mid 30s, locally as much as 37 celsius, especially across parts of southern england. that weather warning could have impact on health and infrastructure. sharp criticism for the way police forces investigate burglaries, robberies and theft most victims aren t getting justice, a major review says it s unacceptable tears in toronto, as serena williams says goodbye to fans in canada. playing for the first time since announcing her intention to leave the sport, she was beaten in straight sets at the canada open. a hero s welcome for rugby star ed slater, as he completes his 350 mile bike ride, just weeks after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. good morning. it s thursday, august 11th. our main story. talks between energy bosses and the government will take place this morning, amid fears over the soaring cost of gas and electricity. average annual bills are expected to rise to more than £3,500 in october. but ministers say no extra support will be anno
we ll also look at the crisis in sri lanka. the president has confirmed he will step down after protesters stormed his palace. and we ll look at twitter s share price, which has fallen welcome to college green in front of parliament, where the process of selecting a new leader of the conservative party and new prime minister is under way. if i m occasionally glancing this way and that, sir graham brady, the committee chair, will be speaking in the next few minutes. he will outline the rules of the tory party leadership contest. bear in mind since thursday, effectively that contest began. we still don t know precisely how that will work. what we do know is what the stages of the contest will be. first, each candidate will need to find a number of conservative mps to back them. in previous contests, it was eight. this time, it could be as high as 20. then the 358 conservative mps will vote for their favourite candidates in a series of elimination rounds. let s speak to our poli
accusing labour of moving the goalposts in terms of what it s prepared to do to support them. labour has not backed inflation matching pay rises, but has said if they were in power the party would join negotiations between employers and unions. our business correspondent marc ashdown has more. what do we want, 10%! could the summer of strikes turn into a winter of discontent? at felixstowe port, 900 dock workers are finishing an eight day walk out. impacting uk supply chains for food, clothing and essential goods. there are now calls ahead of next month s gathering of trades stack there are now calls ahead of next month s gathering of trades unions, stack at the tuc conference for future strikes to be synchronised, or staggered, to maximise the impact. and sharon graham, the general secretary of the uk s largest union, unite, has called on the labour party i think that if they came out now strongly and said, these profits that are going on, what is happening with the cost o