narrator: funding for this presentation is made possible by... woman: babbel, a language app that teaches real lif nconversations in language, like spaitsh, french, german, ian and more. babbel's 10 to 15 minute as an app or online. more information on babbel.com. narrator: funding was also provided by... the freeman foundation. by judy and pefor blum-kovler dation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected need and by cons ibutions to this ation from viewers like you, thank you. woman: and now, bbc world news.

ros: i'm ros atkins, welcome te. "outside sou huge crowds have attended the funeral prepossession of -- procession of the military rica oner killed by a monday. his daughter addressed the crowd. arrogant. ros: in the u.s., there's a political row over the justification for the assassination and president trump has aga issued a threat to attack cultural sites in iran. next on the australian bush fires for you, there's a fear a number of fires could merge into what's called a mega-blaze.f

hundreds thousands of iranians have filed through the streets of tehrano mourn qasem soleimani, iran's most senior military commander, assassinated on friday. picturesme of the we've seen come in. this is the supreme leader of iran, ayatollah khamenei, crying over the coffin. we can confirm hundreds osa ths attended the funeral. soleimani was widely considered the second most powerful man in the countr and for many, a hero. iran's foreign minister has been tweeting directly to donald trump saying "have you ever seen such a sea of humanity in your life in is -- and do you imagine you can break the will of this great people?" this funeral procession began in

enbaghdad whereal soleimani was killed by the u.s. air strike and moved, as we have been seeing, to tehran and then to the holy city before taken to the general's hometown much nurther south where burial will take place o tuesday. these are pictures of what haened as the crowdf mourners carried the coffin into a mosque. it struggl to get inside the building because so many people we t pushing to try touch the coffin. here's the bbc persian tv, our correspondent on her reaction to theutpouringf grief. >> it seems it's real and astonishing to many journalists and observers, the turnout has been shockingl huge. what's interesting, you could see promint figures ofhe opposition joining these funerals and said it has nothing to do with our internal problems. in their view, qasem soleimani was a national hero and his

assassination was an a oack iranians. >> why was he a hero? >> that's a vernteresting question. that's what we have been trying to figure out, why do they think he was a hero? there are different reasons. many iranians believe he fought isis and s theyd it's because of him isis is not in tehn raping iranian women. they saye wasot afraid of giving his life to secure borders and to many this is surprising. reporter: he was born in the city of -- in 1957. he oversaw iranian and foreign militia across the middle including yemen, iraq, syria and lebanon. in 2013, former c.i.a. officer john mcguire told "the new

yorker" that general soleimani was the suspecting most powerful operative in the middle east and many agreed with that for a range of reasons. he was believedo have been central in helping devise a strategy to resist the inearningsy in - iurgency in 2011. and perhaps most significantly, there's iraq. during the 2003 u.s.-led invasion, the general directed militant groups who were attacking u.s. tros and bases. this article highlights what happened inha 2008, the head of the c.i.a. was shown a detective from general soleimani and theext was reportedly saying, general patraeus, you should know i, qasem soleimani, control the policy of iran with respect to iraq, lebanon, gaza and afghanistan and the

ambaador to baghdad is a kurds force member. general soleimani's life ended in iraq, killed in a convoy close to the attack. also killed, a senior figure of the popular mobilization forces, the shia militia in iraq, also the commander of the iranian backed hezbollah group which was blamed by the americans for a rocket attack that killed a u.s. civilian contractor in iraq late last year. today, that group held a memorial in baghdad. the bbc's middle east correspondent jeremy bowen was there. >> you can getn idea of the shock and the anger among iran's allies here in iraq at this place which is the official moning, the official

commemoration for qasem soleimani and able -- abdel you can see the fighters from thea groupt of calm anger. people aren't yelling but they want to get even and the two countries they talk about most are thenited states, donald trump, and israel. the question is what happens next, what do the iraqis here in baghdad and also their allies it iran, what doy do with the shock and anger? i don't think it's going to dissipate easily. can you sense it in the air. there will be consequences. consequences that can't be

predicted at the moment but consequences that quite liky ll make this already very difficult situation even more complicated. ros: the u.s. justified the assassination by saying he was involved in developing plans to attack u.s. dipl and service members in iraq and throughout the region. we're unable to verify that at the bbc and no verification has en offered to u.s. congress, either. its members weren't involved in the decision to kill the general. more on that element in a moment. first, his secretary of state mike pompeo. >> we would have been negligent had we not taken this action. the american people would have said we weren't protecting american lives. >> was the attack so imminent, so big it would have been seen as negligence? ros:otraq's parliament's convinced. after the assassination, it's voted in favor of expelli

american forces. donald trump's response to that was sft and to the point saying we will charge them as the iraqis with they've never seen before ever. iraq's supposed to bean an amerlly in this equation. dramatic though as those exchanges are, it's the iranian response watched more closely. here's general soleimani's daughter speaking at a ceremony in tehran today. translator: crazy trump, arrogant and a play thing of zionism. ros: general soleimani's successor will be his deputy, ismael gani, here crying on the coffin of his leader. this is what he said about vengeance.

translator: we wl continue soleimani's path. we will remove the u.s. from the reon in several steps. the supreme leader backs this. ros: attention is focused on the strait of hormuz. last year iran targeted oil tankers there several times explaining what's happened to the oil price. itentin higher a today after donald trump threatened sanctions against iraq but whether iran actsn the state state -- strait hormuz or elsewhere we don't know but no response appears highly unlikely. >> this was a decision of tsunamiic proportions and the ramifications which we're not going to know for a while but there were protests in iran against the regime and that now

has flipped and there were otests in iraq agains the iranian presence and that has -- those have now had all the wind taken out of them. we have a nonbinding but still significant resolution for us to leave. we don't know what the gulf states are thinking but theyot haveo be deeply worried about how this escalates.e i h worked in this region for a ve long time and i have never seen the situation this precarious. ros: the k figure in deciding how iran responds to general soleimani's death is, of course, his successor. reporter: it is likely similar to mr. soleimani without obviously the connections and the recognition that mr. soleimani had. obviously, him being in the crowd, that was very diverse, is remarkable because people who

came out weren't necessarily agreeing this newommando or mr. soleimani. many of them disagreed with them but they came out because it ses they had a bigger priority, to send a message that whatever disagreements the , blic and iran has with the regi is not indifferent, it does not many they are indifferent to foreign involvement or war. it throws the calculation of washington to some extent intole che because it doesn't seem that it has any sympathy inside iran for the action it took and probably unid large segments of the iranian society against donald trump and his threats against iran. ros: the many years you've looking at iranian involvementdl in m eastern countries, do you think the death of one man can change the policy in the region in the way donald trump

hopes it will do in particular inraq? >> extremely unlikely because it's not a one-person show. this is a foreign policy vision yearsas been in works for and the root causes of it comes from the iran-iraq war, that you have to have influences in countries around you so that you don't he to go through the war that w did after the invasion of iraq by the united states. the w idea they're coming for us next so the only way to stop that is to fight americans in aq before they get to tehran. this foreign policy doctrin has carried out -- been carried out by the irgc sense andi mr. soleim was key in it but definitely not the only one capable of carrying it out. ros: further coverage ofns tensn the middle east across the next half an hour or so and bring you the latest o australia's bush fires. there are fears that a number of

them could merge across victoria and new south wales and form what's called a mega-blaze. es there have been pr across india after masked men armed with sticks attacked students at a unirsity on sunday. dozens of people at the campus in delhi were injured. our correspondent reports from the campus. reporter: according to the students here, a right-wing group entered this campus and started assaulting the students and staff here violently. however, abvp, the groupeen as ideologically close to the ruling hiddenno --du hin nationalist government, says was the other group that started theault. the students here allege that police was late response and did not act

adequately. you c see around here, protests are still going on.en are demanding a speedy inquiry, speedy investigation into yesterday's incident. ros: i'mos atkins, "outside source." huge crowds have taken to the streets inn teh to pay respect to thean ira general qasem soleimani skilled in a u.s. attack on friday. here are some of the main stories -- turkish troops deployed in libya. the forces say they've taken control of areas arod the coastal city andhe thave been trying to out oust the area sinp l. harvey weinstein facing charges

in l.a. to the alleged sexual assault of t women. and rowers a dresseds witches have been racing in the annual regatta, an imaginary witch of folklore who fill children's stockings with sweets if they've been good. let me give you the latest on the bush fires in australia. there's been particular focus on thetates ofictoria and new south wales, where there are fears a number of fires could merge to form what's called a mega-blaze. this is a visualization of active fires released by nasa. you can see new south wales is taking the brunt of this. there was arief respite over the weekend, lig city rain well received in sydney.

theering] ros: i'm afrai hot, dry weather is due to return and the prime minister warns that the emergency could last months. here a some of the latest pictures we have. extraordinary, from a militg plane tryo land in victoria amid a haze of bush fire smoke. the military is involved in evacuation efforts. we have aerial pictures shong th devastation to one community in new south wales. there are terrible environmental consequences of what's happening, too. kualas get theirat intake from leaves and are gettingat hp he moment. this is home to several threatened species, with the fear that several coulde wiped out. next, let's focusn the coastal town of eden in the far southeast of new south wales.

many residents have had to evacuate. reporter: iedem north became a makeshift evacuation center this weekend. people sheltering in boats and cars andome in the open air. we have a lull in the weather now. haveratures and winds dropped. we have rain, which many have been telling me they were praying for but we not going to last. authorities are saying they're expecting worse conditions later in the week and that's been the story of these fires. there are more tcome and people are living in limbo. ros: which is what residents have told the b >> uncertainty when the fire comes through, how fast will it come, will the wind pick it up? >> it's a waitingame. >> what are you waiting for? >> for it to stop. ros: those residents of the town

of eden and from there, the australian capital, canberra, the air quality the worst of any city in the world with government buildings having to be clod. reporter: i just arrived in canberra and it's been blanketed bymoke. on any given l day --k over here. this is parliament house. this is the city's most iconic building and normally you can see from every direction. you can probably see it and i'm standing in front of it. the driveas here w also very, very smoky. that's because fires are ragingu all ars. in the southn coastal of new south wales but realln i eastern australia and the air brings i here. it hangs heavily on the city. it's brutal. it makes it very hard t breathe. it's worse because the win are picking up, as well. and people say, it's outdoors, indoors, homes a centers.g there are health conce about

respiratory problems. no one knows how long it will last. as it stands, the air iuality he among the worst in the world. ros: at the center of the story are firefighters. most are volunteers and sevngal are ahe 24 people who have died since the fire crisis began.re this pic was widely shared from last week, a 1-year-old receiving ary bra medal on behalf of his father who died in september. since september, 25 people have died, over 1200 homes destroyed and millions of hectacres burned out. the prime minister has announc another $1.4 billion t help with recovery. >> we make this commitment to australians that we will be there for you durin the immediate response and for the rebuilding and recovery and today in cabet we have mad a number of decisions to support th recovery effort, to do

whatever it takes, whatever it costs, to me those nes,o build our resiliency for the fuiare and enable austr to be able to go forward in confidence for their futures. ros: the prime minister has been facing criticism. he went on holiday to hawaii during a weekes when f intensified. there's frustration, the the help to rural communities has been too slow, too little. remember this from last week. his sincerity iseing questioned. our correspondent t us the prime minister is slammed b,ng depicted as a slick leader.

this video is some of the response. ros: that's the government pushing back at the ideahat it's not rponding adequately to ts crisis. the most serious criticism aimed at scott morrison is that he not doing enough on climate change.

the context is that australia has been getti hotter over the last century, especially the last 25 years. that increase in temperature has been caused by climate change, in turn caused by humans t and higher temperatures mean the chances of faster, more intense bush fir a higher. scott morrison says australia is meing climate commitments which is disputed by the u.n. as well as one of the architectof the paris climate accord. scott morrison talks about the need for balance, helping to reduce emissions while supporting the fossil fuel industry, which creates emissions. it's aough balance especially as coal exports were lucrative responsibleyear, for 50,000 jobs. these are difficult political choices but scott morrison i

clear that his government takes climate change seriously. herere examples which don't necessarily fit with that. this is his deputy talking about people trying to connect the firesli andte change. >> we don't need to write pure greenies at this time. ros: that's craig kelly who posted on facebook a few weeks ago, climate alarmists have been peddling the claim that rising temperatures are putting the boxi day test in doubt, that it's a complete pack of a lies like everything to do with climate change, it's not only a lie, buthe truth is the opposite. this is the same m. who in 2016 linked renewable energy to child a drownin he, i should reiterate, represents the party in power. or there's the senior m.p. reacting to n last year that a news website with climate

change deniers saying that adolf hitler and mao tse tung would be soroud to so superciliously deny a voice to alternative view is reminiscent of total totalarianisms. for some of the party, the question remains, ianclimate real, not so much what do we do about it. it's worthin nthat the previous prime minister was toppled by the liberal party itself over his plans to rei in greenhouse gas emissions. as mr. morrison says, it's a balance. away from politics, a clip widelyon shared,ring whether it's a laugh or cry. a magpie in new south wales which has learned t mimic the firetruck.

[sirens] ros: if you'd like lots of background infmation on what' happening in australia with the bush fires, how many of these fires began, the meteorological context in which they're taking place and more details on what the australian government is doing to support firefighters and those affected, people who have lostheir lives and had to leave their homes, you can get that through the bbc news app. if you don't have that, you can find it in your app store. you can get all the latest on the stories we cover on "outside source narrator: funding for this presentation made possible by...

man: babbel, an online program developed s by language specialiaching spanish, french and more. narrator: funding was also provided by.. the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. be more, pbs. ♪

narrator: funding for this presentation is made possible by... woman: babbel, a language app that teaches real life conversations in a new language, like spanish, frd ch, german, italian re. babbel's 10 to 15 minute lessons are available as an app ore. more information on babbel.com. narrator: funding was also provided by... the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-k.ler foundati pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributionsfr to this pbs statio viewers like you, thank you. woman: and now, bbc world news.