rachel reeves, the shadow chancellor, is there and they promise they will bring back the rate of interest tax to fund nhs staff. other news this afternoon. a moment of history in italy georgia meloni looks set to become its first far right leader since the second world war and its first female prime minister. a school shooting in russia has left at least 13 people dead, seven of them children. and nasa prepare to crash a space probe into an asteroid to find out how hard it would be to save the planet. welcome to bbc news, very good to have your company and it is going to be a busy afternoon. the pound fell overnight to its lowest level against the dollar for half a century. asian markets were reacting in part to the government s announcement last week of tax cuts and increased borrowing to pay for them. of course, that had come too late for their trading week on friday. at one stage, sterling plunged to around $1.03, before regaining ground. a weaker pound raises the cost
residents in jackson, mississippi, are fed up and frustrated with the on going water crisis. we have more on the latest efforts to get relief to those residents in desperate need. and it could be the end of an era for serena williams after the tennis legend gets knocked out of the u.s. open. we re going to have the highlights from last night s exhilarating game and a look back at her incredible career. we re to grateful to be with you. welcome to your weekend, your labor day, holiday weekend. it s saturday, september 3rd. great to be with you, amara. how is it going? great to be with you. it will be a lovely five hours together or so. i m getting comfortable. i have my cookies to keep me going. and my coffee. so i m ready. all the things that matter, right? for sure. as boris was mentioning, in a matter of hours, nasa will try again to launch its uncrewed artemis i rocket on a journey around the moon. preparations are under way right now at the kennedy space cen
frailty had led his decision. now on bbc news, dateline london with shaun ley. hello and welcome to the programme which brings together leading british journalists with foreign correspondents based in the uk who write, blog, podcast and broadcast from the dateline london. ballot papers will be sent out in the coming week to the 160,000 or so people who will, in effect, choose the next british prime minister. the candidate debates have not been without incident the host of one brought it to an abrupt end by fainting. has it sent our panel to sleep? has europe yet woken up to the prospect of energy rationing this winter? and are the democrats slumbering whilst donald trump is back, thundering? here in the studio are jef mcallister, an american lawyer, who was london bureau chief for time magazine. the french author and journalist, agnes poirier and adam raphael, who has been commentating on british politics since the 1970s. thank you very much for being with us. adam, let s s
here in the studio are. the french author and journalist, agnes poirier and adam raphael, who has been commentating on british politics since the 1970s. and jef mcallister, an american lawyer, who was london bureau chief for time magazine. thank you very much for being with us. adam, let s start with the british conservative leadership contest. in effect the beauty contest for britain s next prime minister. it s been 1 on 1, blue on blue in some of the attacks. how revealing or interesting has it been? well, it s an odd election as you rightly pointed out. 0nly 160,000 in the electorate, we think anyway, nobody knows what the conservative membership is. 97% are white, half live in london or the south east, half are over 65, i know i m even older than that, but there you go. itjust is not a representative election. there are 1a million conservative votes in the last election. you have this tiny number who actually decide not only who the party leader should be, who the prime m
hello and welcome to bbc news. after weeks of debate, voting has closed in the conservative party leadership race. after 2 months of campaigning, and 8 initial candidates whittled down to 2, we ll find out on monday whether liz truss or rishi sunak has been chosen by party members to be the next leader and so prime minister. here s our political correspondent ben wright: after a long, rancorous campaign, it s now time to count the ballots. just 160,000 tory party members are picking their next leader, the next prime minister. and the challenges facing them are huge. they were spelt out today by the current chancellor. he is backing liz truss, presumed frontrunner. there are no easy options. we have war on our continent. we havejust come through a pandemic. but this economy is resilient. how will they handle soaring inflation? i borisjohnson s ejection from office injuly triggered a stampede of wannabe successors. tory mps had the job of picking two final candidates. sunak,