good afternoon, and welcome to bbc news. the business secretary s been holding crisis talks with energy firms this morning, amid worries of big rises to energy bills in the coming weeks. five smaller energy suppliers have already gone bust, unable to cope with a 70% hike in the cost of wholesale gas since august. it s understood the government is considering offering emergency state backed loans to companies. 0fgem has confirmed british gas has agreed to take on an extra 350,000 customers from the collapsed firm people s energy. and the uk s sixth largest energy company, bulb, is seeking new funds to try to stay afloat. downing street says it wants to fix the issues as fast as it can. our business correspondent emma simpson reports. gas, the cornerstone of our energy supply and the cost of it is rocketing. there has been a surge in global demand and not enough supply. energy firms here are now battling to stay afloat. in the current market as it is we are not going to see it
us armed forces apologise for their tragic mistake , after killing ten innocent people, including children, in a drone strike during their final days in afghanistan. british retailers warn of a possible shortage of some toys this christmas because of supply chain problems. for viewers in the uk, strictly come dancing is back and there s controversy as reports suggests that two of the show s professional dancers are refusing to get covid jabs. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. the british government is to hold urgent talks with the energy industry amid growing concern about a spike in wholesale gas prices in the uk. a combination of high global demand and lower solar and wind output have been blamed for the price hike. the government says there is no threat to uk gas supplies. the business secretary, kwasi kwarteng, will be talking to gas producers, the national grid, suppliers and the regulator ofgem. it s predicted the typical gas and ele
what s coming down and gerri willis on what is going up at the stores but first, go to jackie on jobs. this has been the moment everyone is waiting for, the time when the economic recovery is on track post-pandemic where pandemic unemployment benefits end. today, seven and a half million workers who have received boosted unemployment checks will be cut off according to the century foundation. a group of people have already lost their benefits, 9.4 million people as of mid-july. these were people who were not traditionally eligible for aid like freelancers who got it because of the crisis. the department of labor said that more than 72% of americans got one form of assistance or another. recall that in march of this year, the american rescue plan extended benefits through labor day and democrats insisted more aid was necessary at that time all republicans questioned why reopening wasn t enough to end benefits and here we are now, many businesses struggling to hire workers as
nonemergency travel and suspending and severely limiting subway service. this video of a rushing water surge into an apartment on 22nd street in manhattan, more than three inches of rain recorded in central park within an hour, shattering a record set last week. at the same time, ida s remnants unleerk rare tornadoes in the atlantic and northeast, like this one in annapolis, snapping trees, ripping off roofs, toppling power lines. similar scene playing out in new jersey. look at this. tornado caught on camera, causing serious damage. and this video of a school bus that got stuck in high water in frederick county, maryland. fortunately, all students and the driver were rescued safely and are home this morning. we have the best team of reporters. i want to start with stephanie gosk. what s the latest? zblt good morning. the sun is out in queens but the damage is done. remarkable looking at the gas station that no one was injured. rachb came down so hard, so fast, the roof krash
indicates how quickly the story keeps changing. for example, when i was first looking at this just a few hours ago, there were some estimates here that as soon as we d see the taliban being able to take control of things, if they even got to that point it would be early next week. some today talking in terms of hours. and at this point, there s a great deal of confusion as to what our response is. the 3,000 additional troops, many more to come to back them up and still no word yet about a strategy that will still maintain all u.s. personnel being out of afghanistan in less than 2 weeks. let s get the read right now from lucas tomlinson who has been following this closely from the start. he joins us out of washington. lucas. lucas: the reports u.s. jets are hitting the taliban outside of kabul over fear it is capital with fall anyday. the first u.s. marines arrived to start evacuating americans. marine corps chc helicopter, preparing for full evacuation and closure of embassy