thatis of austria sebastian kurz,, that is stepping down to fight corruption allegations. and porridge with a twist. we speak to the runner—up of the world championships of porridge making. hello and a warm welcome to you. the taliban says it will observe a peace agreement observed with the united states last year. the announcement, which includes a pledge to prevent al-qaeda from operating in afghanistan, follows in afg ha nista n, follows fa ce—to —fa ce in afghanistan, follows face—to—face talks with the us in the capital doha. meanwhile, mass funerals have been held for friday's bomb blast in kunduz. prayers and tears for the dead. up to 80 people are now said to have died in friday's blast, targeting worshippers from the shia minority. "we are burying the victims next to each other", says this man. "we have no choice. it is a mass grave." the local branch of the islamic state group said one of its suicide bombers had carried out the attack. is and the taliban are fierce rivals but hundreds of is prisoners escaped from jail as the taliban took over the country. the group is small but there are fears it is growing in strength. translation: we strongly condemn this incident. - it was a cowardly attack and i hope that god will punish the perpetrators. however, i still hope that the martyrs will go to heaven and the wounded people will heal. the taliban delegation met with us officials in qatar today. tackling the threat from is is a common interest. but with foreign funding largely frozen, afghanistan is facing an economic crisis. secondhand markets like this have sprung up across the country as desperate people try and sell their possessions just to buy food. how to help afghans without supporting the taliban — a dilemma the west is still debating. this is a country that has already endured so much and its future remains deeply uncertain. secunder kermani, bbc news. taiwan has issued a rebuttal after claims that reunification with china is inevitable. detention between the two has grown once again as they celebrate their national day. earlier i spoke to a researcher, scott harold, about the rising tensions between the two countries.— two countries. bei'ing seems to think that right _ two countries. beijing seems to think that right now _ two countries. beijing seems to think that right now is - two countries. beijing seems to think that right now is a - think that right now is a moment it needs to rattle its labour against taiwan because taiwan has been striving to push back against that pressure and the united states and allies and partners can see that the entire us—china relationship is premised on beijing resolving differences with taiwan peacefully. the united states, japan and the united states, japan and the united kingdom recently completed the naval exercises and four aircraft carriers in what is approximate to taiwan and what china is trying to do is show that it also has threats to taiwan and the united states and allies and partners so as to deter taiwan from even contemplating any steps. taiwan has said they were not planning to take any steps, they simply maintain they are a sovereign country. what you make of the comments of the president on saturday that china will have to reunify with taiwan?— with taiwan? president xi jin - in: with taiwan? president xi jinping and _ with taiwan? president xi jinping and his _ with taiwan? president xi jinping and his claims - with taiwan? president xi jinping and his claims are | with taiwan? president xi i jinping and his claims are at peace with his broader china dream. and of course the president of taiwan, tsai ing—wen, has a right to feel angry and frustrated that china will not seek to negotiate their differences as equals and respect the people of taiwan's hard—won democracy and i think that president xi jinping would try to continue to rattle his labour but the reality is a sabre cannot achieve what he wants. —— sabre. but this cannot achieve what he wants, because it means engaging with taiwan, united states and japan, possibly the united kingdom, and that would simply be far too costly for china to win a conflict and think it can do so in a way that is acceptable. the electricity grid of lebanon has shut down, leaving the country without power for the second weekend. official says unlikely supplies or resume on monday amid an ongoing crisis. careful steps in the blackest of nights. for many, this is the reality of life now in lebanon. light and hope are in short supply. translation: the collector - comes at the end of each month to take 300,000 lira from me. and where is the electricity? there is no electricity. lebanon's national grid was already weak. when it works, it is only for one or two hours a day. but for the country's poorest, that is a vital lifeline. people here are dealing with crisis after crisis and while the blackout was not a surprise, it is just another thing to make an already difficult life even tougher. this is keeping the lights on for 300 flats. those who can pay for expensive private generators but prices have doubled in the last month and they are getting harder to afford. some people, they text me that "we don't have much money" and we are helping them but it is difficult for us too. so without all of this and without you, the people are in complete darkness? yeah, unfortunately. a ship carrying fuel is on its way. it is another short—term solution to an enduring problem. lebanon's politicians are talking about answers but this struggling country does not have time to waste. anna foster, bbc news, beirut. the head of the atomic agency in iran says the country has amassed more than 120 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium. the figure is well above agreed in the deal with the world powers six years ago. under that agreement, iran agreed to reduce its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. the people of iraq elevating today in a parliamentary election which the president has described as an opportunity to rebuild the state. iraq is grappling with an economic crisis, rampant corruption and sectarian division. the election is being held early after months of anti—government protests. the chancellor of austria, sebastian kurz, says he will step down after his place on investigation of corruption offences. he stepped down after his coalition partners, the greens, withdrew support describing him as unfit to govern. the batching hurts denies the allegations and says he will continue leading the party —— sebastian kurz. music plays. joy outside austria's chancellor's headquarters from opponents of the country's popular leader as he fell on his sword, days after being placed under investigation for bribery. translation: my country is more important to me than myself. - what we need now are stable conditions. i'd like to make way to end the stalemate, to prevent chaos and ensure stability. the 35—year—old denies using government money, back in 2016, to pay a newspaper group to publish polls favourable to his centre—right party. but his resignation came after pressure from his governing coalition partners, the greens, who said it was an important step for their future cooperation. translation: it's the right i step and means we'll be able to continue our work for the people in austria. to adopt a budget and push forward the last big project we negotiated — the eco—social tax reform. this man, alexander schallenberg, austria's foreign minister, has been proposed by kurz as his replacement as chancellor. the two are close, and his appointment would keep kurz near the heart of power. kurz says he will continue to lead his ovp people's party and sit in parliament. that has the raised hopes of some in his party he could stage a comeback, but other austrians think it is time for him to leave politics altogether as this follows the fall of his last coalition government. a snap election was called two years ago after his right—wing partners were caught in a sting dubbed �*the ibiza affair�* as they appeared to offer public contracts for positive press coverage. an undercover reporter filmed one of the coalition partners at that time discussing various transactions with what he thought was a russian oligarch, so this has been rumbling away for some time and there's been quite a lot — it's quite widespread, the practice of political parties getting favourable coverage in newspapers in return forfunding. but the crucial question sebastian kurz faces that could determine his political future, alongside nine other individuals and three organisations, is whether public funds were used to manipulate such coverage — allegations kurz calls baseless — as this investigation continues. mark lobel, bbc news. opposition parties in the czech republic are celebrating a surprise victory over andrej babis, the billionaire turned politician who has led the country since 2017. two opposition groupings will now control a majority in the lower house, and will ask the president to entrust them with forming a new government. however, he has said previously he will give the first chance to prime minister babis, despite little prospect of success. with more, here is rob cameron in prague this weekend belongs to spolu, the czech word for �*together�*, a coalition of three parties — conservative, liberal and christian democrat — as well as a second opposition alliance between local mayors and the pirate party. together, they have deprived andrej babis of a majority in a result that few of them had predicted. and on saturday night they were celebrating. the man they defeated appeared almostjovial at a news conference, laughing off suggestions that he might become speaker of parliament instead. not for him a role in opposition, it seems. translation: to the chamber of deputies, as speaker? - no, certainly not. what would i do there? that was an attempted a joke, wasn't it? iam a managerand my place is in government. instead, this man, petr fiala, a bearded, bespectacled soft—spoken leader of the conservative ods party could now be the next prime minister. he and his coalition allies say they want to repair the damage done to the country's reputation. mr babis has fought a criminal prosecution and claims he misused eu funds. he is facing a separate eu conflict—of—interest probe and was also a central figure in the recent pandora papers leak. he denies any wrongdoing and says the accusations are part of a conspiracy against him. czech voters, it seems, disagree. but while change is afoot, it may not happen very quickly. it is not quite game over. the ailing president, milos zeman, has already said he will only ask the leader of the largest single party, not an electoral alliance, to form a new government. that is still andrej babis, even though his prospects look grim. here in the uk, the recent murders of two young women have highlighted the danger that many consider they face simply walking alone after dark. sarah everard and sabina nesser were killed in different circumstances in two separate attacks in london. their deaths have led to an outcry over the safety of women. now a dedicated phone line and app have been suggested as a way of providing protection. more than six months after the murder of sarah everard, flowers and messages are being left at the band stand in clapham, where a vigil is being held in her name. sarah's death and that of sabina nessa, killed last month in south london, have led to a wide public debate over the safety of women and the potential solutions. bt have now come up with plans for a smart phone app called walk me home. an emergency number, potentially 888, would enable women to have theirjourneys tracked and an alert triggered if they don't reach home in a set time. the government says it is considering bt�*s proposal and welcomes working with the private sector, but there are already a number of apps like this. polyguard has been downloaded more than 300,000 times. in an emergency, it alerts a series of contacts, gives a precise location, and automatically starts recording video. it was set up by holly guard's family after she was killed by her ex— partner. it is for everybody, anybody wants to feel extra safe when they are out of the house, it is tried, tested, it has been working for six years, and we could put that out tomorrow to the whole country. is technology the answer? the co—founder of the campaign group reclaim these streets says bt�*s idea is little more than a sticking plaster. an app is not the answer to preventing or ending violence against women and girls. the answer has to be changing our culture that emboldens and enables men to attack women and girls, or harass us in the street. a woman is killed every three days by a man in the uk. campaigners say it should not be up to women to download an app to make themselves feel safe. graham satchel, bbc news. this is bbc news. the headlines. face—to—face talks have taken place in zohar between senior usn taliban as mass funerals are doha held —— for friday's bomb blast. the president of taiwan, tsai ing—wen, has used the national day to respond to a speech to the chinese president, president xijinping, who warned that the island has to unify with china. bushfires, loss of habitat and human liberty are all threatening australia's well—known species. such is the koala. but scientists hope to save them by mapping out and sharing their genetic make—up. she name sequence he gives into the immune system, the diet and population diversity, a that has already shown success with tasmanian devil, an endangered marsupial. earlier i asked doctor carolyn hogg from the school of life and environmental sciences at the university of sydney why this genomics mapping is so important. one of the key things we have come to realise with any type of genetic diversity is the more diversity a species has, the greater potential they have to adapt to future changes. so a lot of people understand and know about the biodiversity crisis that the planet now finds itself in, and there are three main pillars to biodiversity. one is having lots of differences and lots of diversity — diversity in ecosystems, lots of different type of species, and the third pillar is really the diversity of genes, and this has been a really hard one for us to get an understanding of because the technology did not exist, but when the human genome was published over 20 years ago, that really opened up a whole new field of science that we are now applying to a suite of different plants and animals around the world. how can genome sequencing help the koala survive? one of the things is when we had the bushfires two years ago here in new south wales which is where i live in australia, we lost about 25% of the habitat for koalas, and so we have now got these pockets of koalas living across the state and one of the things we want to do is map genome and see where those pockets of high genetic diversity is, and we can put the investment in regards to rehabilitating habitat, making sure the habitat is connected between those different populations, and if we can't connect the habitat then we have to start managing the animal by moving them from population area one to two. the reason why we want to keep that genetic diversity is we know some populations of koalas suffered terribly from chlamydia infections, while others are able to clear it quite rapidly and now that we have the genome, we are starting to understand that there are certain genetic variants that allow koalas to be able to live with the disease, while others succumb. how is this technique helping other species other than koalas? we have been applying it to tasmanian devils and other species, called the bilby, which looks like the australian version of a rabbit, and by knowing the diversity of the species, we do a number of translocations for both of those species here, tasmanian devils suffer significantly from an infectious cancer and we, by moving devils with genetic diversity helping to promote the animals to be able to adapt to live with the disease, i think one of the things the covid—19 pandemic has shown, people globally, is the way genomics is a really powerful to to understand what is happening in a system and we apply the same methods that everyone has been applying to the virus and the different strains of the virus around the world, that same technology is being applied to wildlife. the british government is under pressure to deal with rising energy prices. a cap that protects houses from sharp increases is not fit for popa's. —— purpose. cooking on gas. these are simmering broth, 2a hours each day. there is little this business can do to cut energy costs. bills have recently been painful. my overheads are extremely high already, and it's a concern, deep concern about the viability of the business and i don't want to pass that cost onto our customers, i will do everything i can to avoid that. businesses don't have the cushion of an energy price. they tend to fix their bills a year or two in advance, so for those whose contracts are coming to an end at the moment, it's a really painful time, and it's even worse for companies like this one, who don't have those contracts, but pay their energy bills on a three—monthly metered basis. industries like cement and glass, with the heaviest energy consumption in the uk, are seeing their costs rocketing. to keep the furnaces burning, they are crying out for government support. absolutely. right now, gas prices are at an unprecedented level, and the businesses that manufacture the goods that we need are trying to operate under these unprecedented conditions. they are backed by some conservative mps with these industries in their constituencies. we need government support, either in direct support or a cap on their energy prices to allow them to continue in business. so far, that support is not forthcoming. the government says it is in regular contact with business groups and that this underscores the importance of building a strong, home—grown renewable energy sector to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. for now, even the businesses that supply those fossil fuels are struggling, as what they are paying for gas in the market is more than the amount they can charge under the energy price. but businesses like these, facing rising transport costs and taxes, would love to see some sort of similar cap. i'm doing everything i can to keep this business running. the last thing we need now is sky high energy bills to top that. katie prescott, bbc news. the winner of the 2021 world porridge making championships has been announced. the winner was from the netherlands and the winning dish was arancini balls made from porridge! it isa it is a far cry made from traditional porridge made with odes and water. the competition was run online for the second year running. earlier i spoke to runner—up and food stylist caroline vanek about how the competition was run this year. it was quite unusual about the way had to operate because the pandemic. we had to submit a video of us cooking our recipe and also write the recipe and send it in. you didn't get to taste it. i guess it's the same as a cookbook. if you buy a cookbook, you look through it, imagining the recipes and imagining how it is. that's a good way to put it. we are all used to imagining how food may taste from a visual. talk me through your dish. you were the runner—up and i referenced what was the winner was, those arancini balls of porridge. what was your offering? ijust made porridge. just porridge! it was very special! i am from australia and tried to use native ingredients to try to stand out in the competition and to show the world or whoever is watching the kinds of flavours that we have in australia, so my porridge had mango, something called a quandong, which is like a native peach and finger limes, and other native citrus and macadamia nuts, which i cooked with a praline and river mint, a native mint and a few triples of bush honey. it sounds absolutely glorious! i love porridge, i think i have it every single morning but i've never steamed my porridge oats. will you convert me to that? i hope so. i started doing it myself and, again, i have a steam oven at my studio and ijust thought, what would happen if you just steamed oats for porridge? and you don't actually need to stir it when you do it that way and it's quite easy and it can make a large batch ahead of time and keep it in fridge and just reheat it the next day on the day after that. if you want to get in touch with your thoughts on porridge or anything, with your thoughts on porridge oranything, reach with your thoughts on porridge or anything, reach out to us, we would love to hear from you all. stay with us, still lots to come. hello. for many of you, sunday is going to be quite a pleasant day to get out there and enjoy the changing autumn colours, most parts of the country should be dry, a fair bit of sunshine as well, more cloud in the south compared with what we had on saturday afternoon and for all, something a bit fresher, the muggy air being swept away. this cold front pushing its way southwards and eastwards allowing temperatures to drop, but it will still be quite pleasant out there. the sunshine overhead will be cooler, northern ireland, scotland, northern england, temperatures down into single figures and a cool start to the south—east, where we could see morning sunshine in the south—east. mist and fog but weather front bringing the fresh and will be sitting across central southern parts of england and wales. patchy late rain in the morning, that should clear, all but the far east of kent by the mid afternoon and sunny spells, light winds for the vast majority. more cloud in the afternoon for scotland and northern ireland and a few heavy showers where we will see the strongest of the winds and a gust of a0 mph. in the sunshine in the south, not as muggy and humid, but once that sun is on your back it should still feel quite pleasant. into the evening and overnight into monday, clear skies around, a few mist and fog patches but mostly clear and dry and even cooler nights to take us into the start of the new week. these are the city centre temperatures in rural areas, down to single figures for one or two. going to a new week in a cooler note, a new trend from what we have had recently, the exception to the dry story will be across the north and west of scotland, patchy rain here and we could see some of that at times getting to northern england, a lot more cloud in the northern half than the southern half and we will receive the best of the sunshine, temperatures continuing to drop a little bit after those cooler nights, but as we go through monday night into tuesday, highs close by but it is not quite with us, allowing this weather front to push its way south, introducing a lot more cloud across northern and eastern england for tuesday, one or two spots of rain and showers without, but most places will be dry, sunny spells around, feeling cooler down the eastern coast, and shelter to the west where you get any sunny spells, it should feel pleasant. through the rest of the week, most places will stay dry, temperatures in the mid teens, chances of rain into the north as we go into next weekend. see you soon. this is bbc news. the headlines: the taliban says it will observe a peace agreement observed with the united states last year. the announcement, which includes a pledge to prevent al-qaeda from operating in afghanistan, follows in afg ha nista n, follows fa ce—to —fa ce in afghanistan, follows face—to—face talks with the us in zohar. the president of taiwan, tsai ing—wen, has used the national day to respond to a speech by the chinese president, president xi jinping, who warned that the island would have to unify with china. in heraddress, china. in her address, president china. in heraddress, president tsai ing—wen said there would be no illusions they would bow to pressure. lebanon has been hit by nationwide power cut caused by the electricity grid shutting down. authorities have blamed this on severe economic crisis. electricity supplies are unlikely to resume before monday.