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,
uk intelligence agencies are accused of tipping off indian authorities about the british national jagtar sinthohal before his abduction and alleged torture by punjab police. we ll be speaking to his brother later this hour. and ready for blast off to the moon nasa says it will go ahead and launch the most powerful rocket its ever built. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. a man hunt is under way in liverpool after a nine year old girl was shot dead. police say an unknown man is reported to have fired a gun inside a house in the dovecot area of the city at around ten o clock last night. the young girl is the third person to be shot dead in liverpool in less than a week. a man and a woman also suffered gunshot injuries in the attack. ian byrne is the labour mp for liverpool west derby, where this attack happened. he spoke to the bbc a little earlier. i think devastating is a good way of putting it. we are still going to process what we have hea
or eating this winter as energy bills soar that s the warning from the charity age uk. to support older people, the government says an extra £300 will be added to the winter fuel payment, the annual lump sum given every autumn. that s on top of the £400 all households in england, scotland and wales will receive to help pay rising fuel bills. for those on disability benefit, the government has confirmed that £150 cost of living payments will start to be made from 20th september, with the majority of payments coming in at the start of october. this comes ahead of friday s energy price cap announcement, which will set the maximum amount suppliers can charge households in england, scotland and wales for their average energy use. latest estimates suggest typical energy bills will now reach £3554 a yearfrom 0ctober. ahead of that announcement, philippe commaret, from edf energy, one of the uk s major energy suppliers, issued this warning about fuel bills. in fact, when you look
for their average energy use. latest estimates suggest typical energy bills will now reach £3554 a yearfrom 0ctober. ahead of that announcement philippe commaret from edf energy one of the uk s major energy suppliers issued this warning about fuel bills. in fact, when you look at the figures, without further support from the government, more than half of the uk households will be likely to be in fuel poverty injanuary, meaning they will have to spend more than 10% of their disposable income to pay for their energy. staying with energy, a regular emergency planning exercise to help the uk prepare for the possibility of a shortage of gas supplies has been doubled in size. potential scenarios including rationing electricity will be wargamed over four days, rather than the usual two, as energy concerns gi’ow. a former executive at shell now chief executive of portugese energy giant galp told bbc radio 4 s today programme