centre has now downgraded idalia to a tropical storm — no longer a hurricane — although they are still warning of the risk of freshwater flooding, and storm surges as it moves inland with georgia and south carolina next in its path. helena humphrey has been witnessing the aftermath of the storm, in cedar key. mariko, that's right. not at least in terms of loss of life. but some people here are saying that the destruction is far worse than anything that they've been seeing in terms of the debris. when you compare it to example to hurricane injust last year, ian just last year, and if you just take a look behind me, mariko, i mean, you're just starting to get an idea of the destruction that we're seeing. this is just one of 49 counties here, which was under a mandatory evacuation order. so you've got to imagine that scenes like this will be replicated across the coast. nevertheless, this is one of the hardest hit areas. and as you can see, this hotel here essentially has just been hollowed out in these rather picturesque, quaint holiday homes. i was just speaking to the family of the hotel saying they're happy, at least that they weren't hit in their own personal homes. but just look at the toll that this has taken on this business. and you can just see some of the elements from people's lives tossed out by these hurricane winds there. for example, you can see a microwave, a street sign. you can see the remnants of a lamp which was simply turned over and just over in this direction as we move here. let me tell you, we're just a couple of hours into this disaster response, but already this area has been completely cleared. it was strewn with debris just a matter of hours ago. but the national guard have been on the scene here. they've come in from across the united states. fortunately, in this area, we do know that everyone has been accounted for. but we have seen rescue missions in other parts of florida, saint petersburg, for example, another coastal community, 75 people there having to be evacuated by boat because keep in mind, the risk here isn'tjust the winds. it's risks from water like this, the gulf there of mexico and the storm surge that we saw here up to seven feet in some cases in the early hours of the morning and usually in hurricanes. in fact, it is that storm surge which can prove to be the greatest risk to life. the decision to downgrade idalia to a tropical storm was taken by the us national hurricane center. my colleague caitriona perry has been speaking to jamie rhome, the deputy director of the national hurricane dalia has transitioned into a tropical storm but it's no less dangerous than it was this time last night because the heavy rains and the flood threat appears to be unfolding over southeastern georgia, eastern south carolina and southeastern north carolina. did south carolina and southeastern north carolina.— north carolina. did you dalia make landfall _ north carolina. did you dalia make landfall as _ north carolina. did you dalia make landfall as anticipated | make landfall as anticipated and how widespread is the damage?— and how widespread is the damaue? ., ., , damage? unfortunately the escalation _ damage? unfortunately the escalation into _ damage? unfortunately the escalation into a _ damage? unfortunately the escalation into a major - escalation into a major hurricane before landfall did occur, and then within the florida big bend there, a small community called tiki beach, we haven't seen or we don't know too much about how badly they were impacted down there because for obvious reasons there's no commune negation, no television. so it would probably take until tomorrow before we truly understand the magnitude of the impact. m0??? magnitude of the impact. now ou have magnitude of the impact. now you have been _ magnitude of the impact. now you have been warning - magnitude of the impact. now you have been warning of record levels of storm surges, have we seen that, has the worst past, or do people still need to be wary of water levels? the community _ wary of water levels? the community to _ wary of water levels? the community to the - wary of water levels? the community to the east. wary of water levels? the community to the east of| wary of water levels? tue: community to the east of where landfall occurred, cedar key, we do have information from there and we do have footage from there and it looks like they got really substantial storm surge, flooded large portions of the island, other places cut off transportation and roads, we can only assume it's only going to be worse when we finally get into the communities where the centre of circulation struck dead on. find circulation struck dead on. and movin: circulation struck dead on. and moving on _ circulation struck dead on. and moving on to _ circulation struck dead on. and moving on to what _ circulation struck dead on. and moving on to what is _ circulation struck dead on. and moving on to what is going to happen next, what about the communities in georgia and the carolinas? we can see there on the map beside you a large red splotch there.— splotch there. this indicates where the — splotch there. this indicates where the heaviest - splotch there. this indicates where the heaviest rains - splotch there. this indicates| where the heaviest rains and heaviest risk of flooding is going to occur, to help you understand that, the centre of circulation is down here over southeastern georgia. and so all of this tropical moisture is wrapping around and then there is a front right here, so all of that is just being piled up all of that is just being piled up in this narrow red swathe. wilmington north carolina, myrtle beach, and columbia south carolina are all in that swathe of very heavy rain. in swathe of very heavy rain. in a ractical swathe of very heavy rain. in a practical way. _ swathe of very heavy rain. in a practical way, what _ swathe of very heavy rain. in a practical way, what can - swathe of very heavy rain. in a practical way, what can people along they are expect to see? extremely heavy rainfall rate, i know when i say rain you are thinking oh it rains all the time, but the rain rates here are going to come down so fast that flooding is going to occur. and then as the that's when are going to get particularly dangerous because it's hard for people to see flooded roads. it's a good night to stay indoors. tt’s flooded roads. it's a good night to stay indoors. it's not a hurricane — night to stay indoors. it's not a hurricane any _ night to stay indoors. it's not a hurricane any more - night to stay indoors. it's not a hurricane any more as - night to stay indoors. it's not a hurricane any more as you| night to stay indoors. it's not i a hurricane any more as you are saying, it's been downgraded. but by the sound of things, that's not going to mean, the impact of it will be much less end. ., . ., impact of it will be much less end. ., . . end. correct, and if you look back when — end. correct, and if you look back when we've _ end. correct, and if you look back when we've done - end. correct, and if you look back when we've done this, | end. correct, and if you look- back when we've done this, with past hurricanes, we end up losing more people in this set “p losing more people in this set up then we do down here at the coast where the full brunt of the wind and rain comes ashore. people mistakenly view this downgrade, this "downgrade" is less of a risk, but the risk is just as high in this red area for life—threatening flooding. when do you expect this weather system to totally move out? it's really starting to exit georgia as we speak, sort of occurring over south carolina right now and will be moving into southeastern north carolina over the next several hours. then ultimately out to sea, so tomorrow things should start to improve except for maybe the extreme eastern portion of the outer banks. home portion of the outer banks. now ou sent portion of the outer banks. now you spent your _ portion of the outer banks. now you spent your career _ portion of the outer banks. now you spent your career studying and researching hurricanes. are they becoming more frequent and more intense? t they becoming more frequent and more intense?— more intense? i don't know about becoming _ more intense? i don't know about becoming more - more intense? i don't know- about becoming more frequent, but i think they are becoming more impactful. meaning the same stores are having —— storms are having a bigger impact on communities than they did before, they are evolving, becoming bigger rainmakers, involving climate. partly because more people are moving to the coastline in the path of these systems.— to the coastline in the path of these systems. that was jamie from the national _ these systems. that was jamie from the national hurricane - from the national hurricane centre speaking to my colleague. in the uk, the inquiry into how nurse lucy letby was able to murder babies will now have greater powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. ministers upgraded the independent inquiry into a statutory inquiry led by a judge, after criticism from the victims' families that it didn't go far enough. our social affairs correspondent, michael buchanan, reports. hello, lucy, is it? can i step in for two seconds? yes. thank you. lucy letby seemed bewildered by her arrest, but what she did and why she killed, she has never explained to the families of her many victims. over 12 months, the nurse killed seven vulnerable babies and attempted to murder six others. the scale of her crimes are such that the health secretary says the inquiry into what happened will now have greater powers. we will have a statutory inquiry into the letby murders, into the events at chester. that will be a judge led inquiry, as the prime minister has confirmed, and that reflects the wishes of the families, which i discussed with them. those that worked alongside lucy letby at the countess of chester nhs trust will now be compelled to give evidence, to answer the families' many questions. you the judge who will lead the inquiry has not yet been named. among the issues that will need to be addressed are why she was able to kill for at least a year, what systems were in place to stop her, and why didn't they work, and how did the nhs handle the concerns doctors were raising about her. the families will be pleased with this announcement. we need an inquiry that can get to the truth. they want the truth to come out here, and we need an inquiry which is effective and can do that, so we need an inquiry which has the powers to compel witnesses, has the powers to compel documents. it looks like we have got that here, and that's really good news. a key witness will be tony chambers, letby�*s former boss, seen here last year at the opening of the royal liverpool hospital. some staff on the neonatal units accuse the former chief executive of ignoring their concerns about the nurse, and threatened to report them to medical regulators for misconduct. he resigned two months after the killer was arrested, but then got a promotion as interim chief executive of this east london trust, a job the bbc has learned that nhs england helped him get. they also proved further interim chief executive post he got, in fact the inquiry will examine. in a statement, nhs england said mr chambers had been appointed after a competitive process. lucy letby has never revealed her true self to the victims' families. this inquiry should now be able to fill in some gaps as to how she was able to kill so many for so long. michael buchanan, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines in the uk... a crowdfunding page for the family of a police officer who died after being hit by a train has raised over £100,000. sergeant graham saville died yesterday after he was struck while responding to concerns over a man's safety, on thursday. the 46—year—old nottinghamshire officer died in hospital with his family beside him. the sandwich chain preta—monja has been fined £800,000 - that's a million us dollars — after a member of staff wearing justjeans and a t—shirt was trapped in a walk—in freezer at one of its london shops for two—and—a—half hours. the woman was treated for suspected hypothermia. vaccines to protect vulnerable people against covid and flu this winter will be rolled out a month earlier than planned in england, because of the emergence of a new covid variant. anybody aged over 65, older adult care home residents and people with compromised immune system are to receive immune systems are to receive jabs from 11 september. the uk foreign secretary james cleverly is flying back home from beijing, having completed the first visit to china by a british foreign secretary in five years. he met china's vice—president, han zheng, and the foreign minister, wang yi on a 24—hour visit which has drawn criticism in the uk. some senior conservatives have said it showed weakness, and likened the uk government's china policy to one of "appeasement". mr cleverly defended his trip saying that it would not be "credible" to disengage. our beijing corrsepondent steve mcdonnell has been speaking to him. this is the first chance a foreign secretary has had to visit china for about five years. a lot has happened in the world. one of the things that has really struck me over the last few years is that where you lose that face to face interaction, the regular communications, there are more opportunities for perhaps misinterpretations, mistrust, errors. and so part of this trip is about making sure we reestablish those lines of communications. now, there are those in your own party who don't want you to be here at all. they say you're sort of essentially assisting a government that's guilty of serious human rights abuses. but, i mean, can you point to any breakthroughs on any trips like this in the past, which have actually changed human rights on the ground here? something concrete? well, ifundamentally disagree with those voices, including people i regard as good friends who feel that we should disengage from china. i don't think that is a credible option. i do believe we have influence and i do believe we should use that influence. i'm realistic that that influence is not going to have an instant reaction, which is why we have to be patient and we have to be consistent. and that is why i bring up issues around human rights, xinjiang, hong kong and indeed individual cases. every single time i have meetings with representatives of the chinese government and i will continue to do so. but again, but do they care about these comments? i genuinely do think they care. they do. otherwise i wouldn't be here. given that parliament's intelligence and security committee has warned about china having successfully penetrated every sector of the british economy. how does your government manage that and still have good trade relations with china? i made it clear that whilst we want to maintain a economic relationship with china, our national security comes first. and if there is ever a situation where our security concerns are at odds with our economic concerns, our security concerns win out. in the days before your visit there was coverage in the press in britain promising tough talk on ukraine, that you would raise this subject with your chinese counterpart and actually call on beijing to try to use its influence on russia to bring about an end to that war. well, i mean, what realistically can be done on that front? and do you trust beijing's reassurances on ukraine? i don't believe it is in china's interest to be seen in any way to be supporting russia's brutal invasion of ukraine. and i don't think it's in china's interest in any way for there to be a perception that they are actively or even passively supporting putin's brutal actions. and i made that point... does beijing care about that? i mean, look, they... i do think in the conversations i've had, i think beijing do care. and i therefore, i think china has an interest, just as we do, to help bring this war to a fair and successful conclusion where ukraine gets its country back. but no signal yet that beijing is changing its tune on that front. i'm realistic. that one phone call, one visit, one meeting isn't going to fundamentally change a country's direction of travel. but patient, consistent, reliable communications can have an effect. and that's why i intend to maintain my meetings and conversations with the chinese government. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. but when the post office closed, the town was left without one. the people of hemsley came what up with swan a heck of a good idea.— a heck of a good idea. good morning. — a heck of a good idea. good morning, it's _ a heck of a good idea. good morning, it's lovely - a heck of a good idea. good morning, it's lovely to - a heck of a good idea. good morning, it's lovely to see i a heck of a good idea. good i morning, it's lovely to see you here. ., ., . , morning, it's lovely to see you here. ., ., �* here. from today, the black swan is holding _ here. from today, the black swan is holding a _ here. from today, the black swan is holding a new - here. from today, the black swan is holding a new role l here. from today, the black| swan is holding a new role in the town. swan is holding a new role in the town-— swan is holding a new role in the town. , , ., the town. this is an element we took into consideration - the town. this is an element we took into consideration by - took into consideration by offering service to the people who let — offering service to the people who let me serve through the watertown and the restaurants and all — watertown and the restaurants and all that.— and all that. the world is becoming _ and all that. the world is becoming digital - and all that. the world is becoming digital and - and all that. the world is becoming digital and we | and all that. the world is - becoming digital and we should get more stuff done online, but it's not always possible for everyone. it's not always possible for everyone-— it's not always possible for eve one. ., , ., , everyone. one of your finest first class — everyone. one of your finest first class stamps _ everyone. one of your finest first class stamps please. i everyone. one of your finest i first class stamps please. beth parsons, first class stamps please. beth parsons. bbc _ first class stamps please. beth parsons, bbc look— first class stamps please. beth parsons, bbc look north. i you're live with bbc news. (sing in the last hour — the british government has in the last hour — the british government has joined a number of other western nations in condeming the coup in gabon on wednesday. the country's military has named one of its generals as the new transitional leaders. the country's long—time president, ali bongo, has been put under house arrest and a curfew is in place. the bbc�*s africa regional editor, will ross, has more. on the streets of gabon celebrations for africa's latest military leader. earlier, a dozen senior officers said for the sake of peace, they were putting an end to what they called the regime and were taking over. they cancelled the result of last weekend's election. many journalists and observers were barred from monitoring the vote. the opposition said it was a sham. and it was no surprise when this man, president ali bongo, was declared the winner. i am ali bongo ondimba, president of gabon. and i'm to send a message to all the friends. you but this is him appealing for help just hours after being detained by the military in his presidential palace. the people here have arrested me. here's the president's father, omar bongo, at downing street in the seventies. the same family has been in power in gabon since 1967. today, people are celebrating what looks like the end of the bongo dynasty. these coups seem to be contagious. this is niger, which also saw a military takeover last month. it's been a key western ally in the fight against violent extremism in an increasingly unstable region, along with some highly suspicious elections and eight coups injust three years, democracy in africa is taking a battering. as people celebrate the military takeover in gabon, many on the continent are wondering, where's next? will ross, bbc news. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines... the mother of luis rubiales, the president of the spanish football federation, has been taken to hospital on the third day of her hunger strike. she locked herself in a church in southern spain earlier this week in protest at the accusations against her son, following the kiss on the lips he gave spanish playerjenni hermoso after the world cup final. north korea says it has fired two short—range ballistic missiles as part of a "tactical nuclear strike drill" prompted by us—south korean military exercises. state media reports that pyongyang fired these missiles late on wednesday, saying that the drill was aimed at sending a message to what they called the country's "enemies". japan's prime minister has released video of himself eating raw seafood from fukushima, to convince people of its safety, despite the release of treated waste water from the wrecked nuclear plant into the sea. fumio kishida is seen tucking into sashimi from fukushima with his ministers. the un's atomic watchdog and other scientists have said it will have a negligible environmental impact. the global video gaming industry is big business, reckoned to be worth around £250 billion — more than $300 billion. well now, one big media company, netflix, has been telling the bbc about its plans to increase its presence in the gaming world, as steffan powell reports from liverpool. thanks to shows like stranger things, squid game, the crown and others, netflix helped change the entertainment landscape. now, if i said to you i was on the set of a netflix production, this isn't necessarily what you'd have in mind. you'd be thinking of big spaces, with cameras, actors and directors making television and movies. but it is development studios like this one, in liverpool, that could hold the key to the streaming giant's future. a lot of gamers play chess... to not fall behind its rivals, netflix is turning to companies like ripstone, who make video games. because you're a female in a gaming world, we really wanted to tap into that and help people learn chess. since 2021, the streaming service has offered subscribers the chance to play games on its app. the offering hasn't captured the imagination of the games industry so far, but there are now 70 playable titles and more being made, tied to their intellectual property. games is a really huge part of entertainment, and so it really is a natural progression for us to start thinking about how to offer games to our members. so to stay relevant, netflix is trying to leverage its famous franchises to have a stake in an industry that sees mobile games like candy crush make £135 billion a year. but success is not guaranteed. other mainstream entertainment and technology companies like amazon and google have tried. earlier this year, google's stadia service was shut down, and amazon laid off workers at its games division. i think when mainstream entertainment organisations have tried to enter the games space, they've struggled a little bit, and i think most of that comes down to the fact that they fundamentally misunderstood what it is about games that people love in the first place. they had these big budgets behind them, but ultimately lacked the creativity and uniqueness that we've come to expect. netflix is trying something slightly different, focusing on mobile games that are cheaper and quicker to make, so easier to build up a big portfolio. but the risk is that this approach could lack a scale and ambition to grab players' attention in a crowded market. but in liverpool, the belief is their involvement will open doors. netflix has an audience of 238 million people now, many of which probably have never experienced a game before, so i think it'll make the games' audience bigger. and so in this fierce battle for subscribers, netflix hopes this gaming gambit is a good move. steffan powell, bbc news. we all know the well—known phrase �*once in a blue moon'. well, across some parts of the world you can actually see it. this is a time—lapse of the moon rising tonight over the uk. it's called a blue supermoon, and is much larger and brighter than usual. that's because it's near the closest point in its orbit around earth. but anyone hoping to see the moon in the colour blue will be disappointed. itjust means it's the second full moon in a single month — something that doesn't happen very often. this marks the first time in five years that two supermoons have appeared in the same month. the last blue moon was in august 2021, and the next one will be in 2026. and the combination of a blue moon and super moon is much rarer — we will have to wait until 2037 to see that again. send us some pictures if you manage to spot it, thank you so much for watching the programme. hello. for those of you that enjoy a big moon, there's a real treat outside at the moment. a super blue moon. what's one of those? well, the "super" bit is when the moon's closest to the earth for the year, and the "blue" bit is the second full moon of the month, so a super blue moon. and this is how sam's house spotted the rising moon here in derbyshirejust over the last few hours. now, looking at the weather picture at the moment, we do have some thicker cloud out to the west, that's going to rather spoil the sight of the moon. but across the eastern side of the country, we've got the clearest of the skies. now through the day on thursday, we do have some rain that's going to be spreading in from the west, and that will start to make inroads towards south—west wales and south—west england over the next few hours. as that arrives, so will quite mild air. so 1a degrees in plymouth as we start the day on thursday, cooler across the north and east of the country. so north—east, south—west split with the weather for thursday, lovely start to the day for scotland, across much of northern england. bright with hazy sunshine for east anglia. but across western areas we've got the rain moving in and some of the rain will be quite heavy across southern areas of wales, southern areas of england. otherwise it's probably going to come through quite light and patchy, really. top temperatures around about 18—20 degrees for many areas. now on into friday's forecast, the remnants of that area of low pressure still withers. and really it's a day of sunny spells and a few showers. probably the cloudiest zone of weather will be across northern england, north wales, the north midlands and northern ireland, where there'll be a few patches of rain, one to two showers elsewhere. temperatures, again, high teens to low twenties. but as we head into the weekend, we've got a real change in the weather patterns. an area of high pressure is set to move in across the uk. we're not seeing too many of those over the last couple of months, i can tell you. now saturday morning there might be a few mist and fog patches first thing, but otherwise it's a fine—looking day. lots of sunshine to look forward to with just a little bit of fair weather, cloud popping up for a time. temperatures rising across the board pretty much into the low twenties, 23 towards south—east england. and that is going to feel warm in the september sunshine. and we've got more of that to come through sunday and deep into the new week as well. so quite a long spell of dry and sunny weather finally looks set to arrive. bye for now. china's property prices continues. we look at some of the reasons why the world second biggest economy might be losing steam. investors chair as new figures show the us economy could be in store for a soft landing. welcome to asia business report. let's begin in china where we've been talking about the property sector crisis that is weighing on its economy. one of the countries biggest developers country garden has said it lost $6.7 billion for the first six months of this year adding to worries of a potentially disastrous default. it's the latest sign that the world second biggest economy is struggling to gain traction after lifting restrictions. it after lifting restrictions. tt practically rolls off the tongue by now.- practically rolls off the tonaue b now. ,, ., ., tongue by now. slow growth, record youth _ tongue by now. slow growth, record youth unemployment, j tongue by now. slow growth, i record youth unemployment, we can property sector in crisis. china was supposed to be roaring back after three years of zero covid. actually it is doing the opposite. let's take a look at what's happening and how serious the situation is. the property is basically at