that horrific blaze at grenfell tower being embraced by so many people and we're only literally, those pictures, half a mile away from the grenfell tower site. we'll return to notting hill at various points in the afternoon. now for the rest of our main news. ten of thousands of people living in the us state of texas have been ordered to leave their homes, as flooding, caused by tropical storm harvey, continues to cause devastation. it's expected up to 30,000 people may need temporary emergency shelters, with more than two—and—a—half feet of rain fallen on the city of houston alone. unconfirmed reports suggest up to five people may have drowned, but officials say they can't confirm figures until the flood waters recede. thousands of people have had to be rescued, many plucked from rooftops by helicopter. richard lister has the latest. taking only what they can hold, the people of houston are trying to escape the deluge. three days of torrential rain and the most powerful hurricane in 50 years have left this city struggling to cope. an armada of rescue boats is patrolling the streets. more than 2,000 people have been rescued so far, but the emergency services say they have had at least 5,000 calls from people who are trapped. we have a two—storey home, and on the first floor, it's up to here, and all the furniture is just floating. everything. mattresses, all. with the roads flooded and dangerous, people have been told to stay in their homes and wait for rescue there, but inevitably many have been trying to flee on their own, risking their lives to find higher ground. but those at the edge of the floods reach know that they will be next as the rain keeps falling. they are getting out while they can. 0ne lady won't come out. she is handicapped. she's over here on the left side. so we know she's there. we know a couple of houses saying they are going to ride it out. the owner of this care home photographed the rising flood. her daughter tweeted it, pleading for help. she said within ten to 15 minutes, the water went from ankle—high to waist—high, so immediately they were under water and floating. the national guard saw the photo, and eventually everyone was led to safety. but there are many others still waiting for rescue, perched on rooftops, calling for help. helicopters are patrolling the city to coordinate the rescue effort. they have been pulling people from the flood, too, but it is a slow and dangerous process. and houston's problems are only going to get worse. parts of those regions will continue to receive incredibly heavy rain that will lead to even more flooding and more danger for texans. emergency centres have been set up for those forced out of their homes. the authorities estimate in coming days they'll need shelter space for some 30,000 people. more are being made homeless all the time and some are concerned about the government's response. we haven't heard any official word from any official here. we're out here, mayor, looking for you city councilmen, anybody of importance, we're looking for you. these floods are turning into some of the worst in america's history. thousands of people have been displaced. billions of dollars' worth of property has been destroyed or damaged with, as yet, an unknown number of casualties. officials have been holding a news conference. the acting secretary of homeland security warned that though the hurricane force winds had diminished harvey still pose aid serious threat. i know everyone in this room and on the president's tea m this room and on the president's team has been moved by the images and stories of people who are suffering in texas. we want to make sure you all know that we are working right now to provide assistance as quickly as we can. right now, we are focussed on rescue operations an we'll move into recovery operations later in the week. but today, we are deeply concerned with those in houston and surrounding areas who are stranded oi’ surrounding areas who are stranded or in need of immediate assistance. people need help and we are working to provide it. while the hurricane—force winds have diminished, iwant hurricane—force winds have diminished, i want to stress that we are not out of the woods yet, not by are not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm. according to the national weather service, who you will hear from shortly, rainfall amounts, as much as two feet, have occurred in the houston metro area and life—threatening flooding will occur over a large portion of south and south central and south—east texas in the coming days. rivers won't crest until later this week. that's the official response in washington. we're live in houston with the latest in the next few minutes here on bbc news. the brexit secretary and government officials return to brussels today, for the latest round of brexit negotiations. david davis says he'd like the eu to show more flexibility and imagination in the negotiations. our correspondent damian grammaticas is in brussels. he explained why mr davis had made the comments. part of the thinking is that he wants to look more at the trading relationships, but the eu side, i think, will be very, very luck tant to do that. in fact, they cannot do that at the minute. at lipm, when things begin here, again, michel barnier can only talk legally about what the 27 nations have empowered him to discuss around that table. he has been tweeting about that. those are the issues of citizens' rights, the financial obligations of the uk, the financial obligations of the uk, the irish border and what he wants, he says, is legal certainty. that's what the eu's approach to the negotiations is, this grinding focus on certainty. but it's also worth saying that they will only move on once they think that there's sufficient progress on those areas. i think they will stick to that. back to our top story, tropical storm harvey, up to 30,000 people may need temporary emergency shelters with two—and—a—half feet of rain falling on houston alone. our correspondent is in the area now for us. extraordinary scenes behind you, i wonder how typical that is of the immediate area. i'm in a town called la grange, 100 miles west of houston. the colorado river has broken its banks because of the excessive rainfall in the aftermath of hurricane harvey. we're seeing 110w of hurricane harvey. we're seeing now that this street, which is appropriately enough named water street, has a tremendous current rolling down it. a river that normally eight feet is now at 53 feet. you can see more than 300 homes have been evacuated. you can see the water level by that mailbox. you can see that shops have been flooded. it's really quite an extraordinary situation by the way the waters have not even peaked here yesterday. between four and six hours from now is when the water levels here are expected to peak. you think that hurricane harvey made la ndfall you think that hurricane harvey made landfall on friday. we're we are monday morning and because the tropical storm has just sat over houston and rained and rained and rained we're seeing this extraordinary level of water rising. in the time that i've been standing here, my feet were not in the water when we set off and that was 15 minutes ago. now they're completely covered. you can minutes ago. now they're completely covered. you can see minutes ago. now they're completely covered. you can see the damage being done to homes and property. people there got out, where have they gone and what help is available for them? well, in this town there's a church that's been opened up as a shelter. there's a very strong sense of community here. we've only got here in the last hour and the local baker has closed his store for the day. he was handing out free sausage rolls to everybody. it seems very close knit here. the emergency services are on the street. we saw the national guard being mobilised on the way in. people have been told that they need to evacuate. it came asa that they need to evacuate. it came as a surprise to many here. yesterday afternoon, they got the evacuation order. remember, the hurricane was friday, sojust because of this extraordinary level of rainfall, we're seeing the colorado river breaking its banks, flooding and with rainfall expected for another two days, this situation isn't going to improve any time soon. you offer a snapshot from where you are, it's an illustration of how bad a huge area of that part of how bad a huge area of that part of texas is now affected. that's right. in fact, we can show you, although the situation here is very dramatic, there are some children who are just enjoying going out in their wellington boots. of course, there's a day off school today, as you'd expect for the schools in the austin area and houston area. but yeah, when we got here, one police officer said to us, watch out for the algaitors that you may see in this river. the colorado river itself is probably about a quarter ofa mile itself is probably about a quarter of a mile from us. it's burst its banks. can you see how fast the current is flowing. and how dangerous this is. and why people had to evacuate their homes. this is just a microcosm. this is happening here, 100 miles west of houston. think what's happening in houston, wherein the greater area 30,000 people have left their homes. in houston more than 2,000 people rescued with several hundred more rescues expected today. this is what's happening here. all as a result of that tropical storm sitting in the gulf of mexico, not moved by the winds and dumping more and more rain and the water levels are rising. thank you very much. a lorry driver has appeared in court following a crash on the m1 motorway in which eight people died. two lorries and a minibus were involved in the collision near newport pagnell on saturday. our correspondent andy moore reports. ryszard masierak blinked back the tears and was given a tissue as all 20 charges were put to him through an interpreter. that process took some time. court proceedings lasted about half an hour. he was denied bail. he will appear before a crown court in aylesbu ry appear before a crown court in aylesbury next month. afterwards, thames valley police made a brief statement. six men and two women died. four people who were injured remain in a serious condition in hospital. we've had full cooperation from the two freight companies involved, and they are fully supporting us with our enquiries. our thoughts remain very much with those affected by this tragedy. mr masierak was driving an aim logistics lorry at the time of the crash. 12 people were in the minibus when the collision happened in the early hours of saturday morning. tributes have been paid to the driver, cyriacjoseph. he's been described as an extraordinary father and a great leader within the southern indian community in nottingham. his passengers were a group of people from india about to start a tour of europe. three of the dead worked for an it company. the other lorry driver, david wagstaff, who's 53 and from stoke—on—trent, has been bailed to appear before magistrates next month. he's been charged with 12 counts of causing death or serious injury by dangerous driving. andy moore, bbc news. about 150 people have now been treated in hospital in eastbourne in east sussex afterfalling ill as a result of a mysterious chemical "haze" which drifted in from the sea late yesterday afternoon. our correspondent amanda akass has been to birling gap, one of the affected areas, from where she sent this report. making the most of the late august sunshine, this morning people have been back enjoying the beach at birling gap, despite the toxic cloud of gas which engulfed those here yesterday. my mum heard that people had evacuated, there was a gas in the air. i thought she was joking to start w we saw people with streaming eyes. we got back inside. start w we saw people with streaming eyes. we got back insidelj start w we saw people with streaming eyes. we got back inside. i saw on the news that the roads were open again. nothing strange is going on. soi again. nothing strange is going on. so i decided to have a second try. it's such a nice weekend, we just wa nt it's such a nice weekend, we just want to have a walk and get on with it. people queued late into the night outside eastbourne's district general hospital. in the end 150 people were treated here. we had itchy eyes, sore throat, throbbing head and nausea. we all panicked. everyone, anxiety was high. we were shaking and getting really nervous and everything. just didn't know what to do. even the lifeboat crew sent out to help with the rescue we re sent out to help with the rescue were affected. we went straight into this cloud, which we weren't aware of at the time. we could feel our eyes burning straight away. we advised the coastguards and we were told to stay inside the lifeboat, close the doors and conduct our search from inside. the hospital say in the end, most people only suffered minor effects. in a similar incident a few years ago, a gas leak from france could be smelled across the south—east. emergency services say they don't believe that's the case this time. they're still not clear, though, about what it was and where it did come from. the authorities in houston have warned that the severe flooding, that's forced thousands of people from their homes is likely to get worse. the third round much brexit talks are taking place in brussels this afternoon, with british negotiators urging the eu to show flexibility and imagination. a lorry driver has been remanded in custody in connection with saturday's minibus crash on the m 1. he was charged with 20 counts of drink driving and dangerous driving. sport now, let's go to the bbc‘s sport centre. the second test between england and the west indies is tantalisingly poised with england losing three key wickets in the last half hour. joe root as early casualty. then malan and stokes came together for a stand of 91. stokes fell for 58. malan went minutes later. jonny bairstowe has gone as well johanna konta is taking on serbia the serbian and she could become world number one at the end of the tournament. also in action today, heather watson looking to avoid a seventh successive first round defeat when she faces cornet. liverpool have agreed a club record deal to sign leipzieg midfielder. the fee will easily surpass the £35 million liverpool spent on andy carroll back in 2011. the scotland and aberdeen winger gary mckay is recovering after being rescued from the river kelvin in the early hours of sunday. he was pulled from the river by firefighters and treated for hypothermia. the 26—year—old was on the bench for aberdeen‘s win over par tick on saturday. that is all the sport for 110w. german prosecutors say a nurse who is serving a life sentence for murdering two patients, may have killed 84 others. niels hoegel was convicted and jailed two years ago — for giving lethal drug injections to intensive care patients. investigators have exhumed more than a hundred bodies of patients who died in clinics where hoegel worked. our europe correspondent damian grammaticas has the details from berlin. tell us how this has emerged. well the cases date back to 2005. as you said in 2015, this man was convicted to life sentence for the two murders. now, evidence was shown that he had indeed murdered patients who were in his care, in this intensive care unit, but it later transpires that since that trial in 2015, prosecutors carried out an investigation. during that investigation, they exhumed and examined around 130 bodies of people who died while this nurse was working in the intensive care unit. they found traces of a drug in those bodies that. was the drug which this nurse had administered through injection to patients, apparently his motive appears to have been that he wanted to create or he wanted to really ensure that these people would have a cardiac collapse, that then he would swoop in as a saviour and he would resuscitate them. all of that was really to attempt to gain recognition from his colleagues. it seems to have become quite an obsession. of course, many of the people died. he didn't manage many of the people. earlier today, prosecutors said, yeah, almost 90 people died in this way. but there's another 90 cases which they suspect also happened and they don't have evidence. they can't prove it. that's because those bodies have been cremated. it's impossible to see the drug. it's likely we'll never know for sure exactly how many people were killed by this man. dreadful for the families of these people who've suddenly had this news brought to them. yeah, that's right. that's one of the debates we're seeing now in germany. on the one hand, this investigation‘s been going on for a few years. the court case took a few years to come trial in 2015. there are questions about why it took so long. there are questions about how other hospital staff reacted at the time. because the case only came to light because reporters started digging and because family members started asking a lot of questions. there are likely to be further trials now of hospital staff who are accused of looking away or turning a blind eye because it seems that people knew what was happening or suspected what was happening and that now there is talk here in germany of setting up a whistle blowing system in order for people to really calls the authorities' attention when something like this happens. there is outrage of the murders themself but also why it took so long to uncover what happened to the people oi’ uncover what happened to the people or the relatives of people who died. thank you. a controversial religious leader in india has been sentenced to ten years in prison for raping two of his followers. gurmeet ram rahim singh was found guilty of two charges of rape on friday. there was an explosion of violence following that, in which 38 people were killed an more tan 200 injured. a year ago today bhs closed its doors for the last time after going into administration. 12 months on only 25 of the company's 160 stores have new owners including the likes of primark, tk maxx and morleys — and are trading again. our business correspondent emma simpson has been looking at the figures. bhs, one of the best—known names on the high street. it had its heyday, but last year, nearly 90 years of trading came to an end. and the question, who would fill this gap? at bexleyheath‘s shopping centre, a shiny new department store and new jobs for these two former bhs workers. we couldn't get anyone in to fix anything for bhs, but now we've got brand—new everything. everything's decorated. it is like moving out, having it refurbished and moving straight back in. for us, it's's like a home from home. whatever was going on in in this building, we would be interested. the fact that we both work here is amazing. brilliant. it is a good outcome, but what has happened to the other 159 bhs stores around the uk? more than half are empty. 35 properties have deals or plans in place. four stores have been demolished. only 25 of the former bhs stores have so far been reoccupied. that is about one in six shops. i'm not surprised to see that a vast majority of these stores are unoccupied. many of them, a, are large and costly to reoccupy. secondly, they're in quite marginal towns where there's a lot of out of towns where there's a lot of out of town competition from other locations, therefore these retailers who would normally have been there in the past have moved elsewhere. i've lived in stockport all my life, iremember being i've lived in stockport all my life, i remember being dragged around stockport on a saturday morning with my mum. it was never a complete a visit without coming to bhs. i do remember what it was like. there is a gaping hole now. the council is spending millions on improving the town centre. it's leader is convinced a solution can be found. what makes it a real shame is that this is actually a successful shopping centre, about 95% of units here are let. foot fall is very high. we feel that there is a lot of potential interest in this building. there's an incredible opportunity here. i genuinely believe it can be relatively easy let. but he and the owners may need to come up with something more creative than just another shop. the same goes for many of the other former bhs stores, sitting empty as well. emma simpson, bbc news, stockport. now it's certainly not cricket but it's terminology can be just as confusing — with it's ‘quaffle', bludger and ‘snitch'. yes, you may have thought the game of quidditch was confined to the pages of harry potter. but it's actually been brought to life as a real sport and this weekend the british championships were held in hull. we put colin paterson on a broomstick and sent him along. quidditch. created byjk rowling, and very much harry potter's favourite sport. and now, very much a real thing. eight teams battling it out for the quidditch premier league championship. we've got lots of the general public coming down today, and getting to see them come along, watch the sport and be like, wow, quidditch is a real sport. quidditch has three main rules. this is a quaffle. i'm using it to score goals. each hoop is worth ten points. so this is the bludger. when you get hit by it, you have to go and tag into your hoops before you can do anything useful. he laughs that's the golden snitch. if you catch it, your team gets 30 points and ends the game. and for the players, all this is done with one of these between their legs. if you get hit by a bludger, or if it comes from between your legs at any time, then you have to go tag back in at your hoops. how much easier would it be if you could fly? so much easier, but i think health and safety would have a field day! you know what you need to be doing? it was clear to see just how seriously teams were taking it. this is a quidditch pre—match team talk. what colour are roses? all: white! i said, what colour are roses? all: white! who are you? all: roses! many of the players were attracted to the sport by a certain boy wizard. probably like up the top end of fans. like, i'm a massive harry potter fan. but it's so separate now. quidditch is this, and harry potter is this. but that's not true of everyone. i've never read the books, and i'm the age as well. it surprises quite a lot of people i play with. not even the quidditch sections? not even the quidditch sections! and so to the final — west midlands revolution versus southeast knights. and the revolution were presented with a trophy that was bigger than ron weasley. quidditch‘s long—term goal? well, one day, it could be a case of harry potter and the olympic sport. colin paterson, bbc news, hull. there you are, everything you ever wanted to know about competitive qidditch. now everything you want to know about the weather comes from thomas. i haven't got time. only 60 seconds. one interesting thing today, we're close to beating the record as far as a high temperature goes for the late august bank holiday monday. it's currently around 28 degrees in the south—east and the record was in 1990, 28. 3. we still haven't quite beaten it. next few days, its going to be turning cooler. this is what we've got more or less right now, in the next couple of hours, still 26 in london. fresher in the north, where it's not been such a great day. lake district, cloudy, spots of rain and other parts of southern scotland and northern ireland have also had a fair bit of cloud. this is a weather front that's moving across the uk. you can see spots of rain into wales, through the north west of england, yorkshire and into the north midlands during the course of night. to the south of that, it stays dry, a couple of showers here, but warm. 17 in london. tomorrow's weather — overall a lot more cloud across england. so many areas tomorrow will have a cooler day. for example, today across yorkshire in the mid—20s. tomorrow in the upper teens. london add the south—east tomorrow very warm, highs in the mid—or even the high 20s. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines: us authorities say 30,000 people will need emergency accommodation after more than 30 inches of rain caused floods in and around the city of houston. donald trump has declared a state of emergency in louisiana. the third round of brexit talks are taking place in brussels this afternoon with british negotiators urging the eu to show flexibility and imagination. a lorry driver has been remanded in custody in connection with saturday's minibus crash on the m1. he was charged with 20 counts of drink driving and dangerous driving. more than 130 people have been treated in hospital and hundreds more affected by a mysterious gas cloud that drifted in off the sea in east sussex. a self—styled holy man in northern india has been sentenced to ten years in prison for raping two of his women followers. now on bbc news, the story of dr waheed arian whose