welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is ben bland. our top stories: struggling to get the power back on and an urgency to rebuild after hurricane irma. 1,000 british troopsjoin recovery efforts in the caribbean. bangladesh says it's overwhelmed by rohingya refugees. the prime minister calls on myanmar to take them back. we have a special report from the border. a small fortune — apple rolls out its latest gadgets. but if you want the top of the line iphone, you'd better get ready to pay for it. also in the programme, tributes to sir peter hall — one of the giants of british theatre — who's died at the age of 86. across the state of florida, millions are still in the dark

and the clean—up efforts after hurricane irma have just begun. in the caribbean, which was hit last week, some areas still need food and basic supplies. in the british virgin islands, there has been criticism over the uk government's slow response but 1,000 british troops are now there helping with the relief effort. 0ur correspondent laura bicker has been to the remote island ofjost van dyke in the british virgin islands and sent this report. the idyllic shores and secluded bays ofjost van dyke were no match for hurricane irma's wrath. she tore through the island, stripping away years of hard work in just a few hours. this would normally be a place to escape to. some may now describe it as a place to escape from. but not those who live here. this was the bar here. this man has lost everything he built. his bar, his restaurant, and his home. and yet, he is determined to start again. first have to get it cleaned up.

first have to clean it up. take out all this stuff. a lot of work. do you think you've got the money to do it? no, but i've got the... those picking through the remains of their lives need the tourists to come back. nearly a million visitors spend $450 million a year in the british virgin islands. white sands is one of the most exclusive beaches in the whole of the british virgin islands. every decimated building that you see was a bar, a restaurant. someone‘s main income. and they will need to be rebuilt if this island is to survive. at fox's bar, they have been feeding locals rather than visitors. they have already managed to get some things back up and running — a sign that there is the spirit to rebuild. have you got the determination to do this? do we have the determination to...?!

you ask a very simple question! no, we have the determination and actually, when everybody who needs to leave, or that has to leave, gets off the island, which will happen pretty soon, i think the rest of us can really refocus our efforts on what needs to be done. before the storm, the biggest marina on tortola would welcome yacht owners from around the world. cash and jobs flowed from here. but hurricane irma has beached millions of dollars‘ worth of boats into a tethered, tangled mess. it will take some time. the owners know hundreds of livelihoods depend on a quick recovery. there are so many people here who have invested 20 years of their life and more into this and we can't see it go away. so it is obviously a daunting prospect, but it is literally a day at a time, right now. 0ptimism in the face of an overwhelming task. having survived such a horrific storm, the focus now is on how to live in its aftermath. laura bicker, bbc news, tortola.

laura strickling was forced to flee her home on st thomas in the us virgin islands after hurricane irma. she joins me live from sanjuan in puerto rico. delighted to see that you are safe and well. just tell us how you ended up and well. just tell us how you ended up getting the porta rico and your experiences over the last few days. a friend that i have been calling at the puerto rican navy. it is civilian boats that are bringing supplies to saint thomas and taking back people who need to go. my particular boat was organised by someone particular boat was organised by someone who wanted to get parents of small children off the island. we found out about the lift from another mom, there was a phone change, be at this place — it was

becoming desperate and we weren't sure of is the right move but it was the right move. —— phone chain. we went to the doctor to wait, they said they would be there at 230 and there was no formal organisation, they just say go, there was no formal organisation, theyjust say go, there will be a boat, we waited and went to 30 and the boat had mechanical errors, we didn't realise it but we waited in the sun with no shade with one—year—old until 6:30pm before we got to leave, go for the boat showed up got to leave, go for the boat showed up andi got to leave, go for the boat showed up and i am telling you i have never been so happy in my life to see boat. we have a curfew in effect on the island that begins at 6pm so we couldn't have travelled home. someone dropped us off at the dock, we couldn't have travelled home, we would have had to spend the night with our one—year—old onto docs we we re with our one—year—old onto docs we were becoming very concerned to the point of desperate and the boat showed up to take us to sanjuan and had never been happier in my life. give us a sense of the damage that

is all before you left st thomas. it's unbelievable. the first moment, the first breath of fresh air out of the first breath of fresh air out of the storm after we left the wonder that we survived the stormy and the full storm in, there were no words to describe the shock, we alljust stood stock back it wasn't the same island who closed the door on we went into the bunker that morning. the beautiful place that is known for being beautiful and people visited because it is a paradise, everything was green, colourful flowers everywhere, and it around, all of the trees are snapped in half, when we have ventured off of oui’ half, when we have ventured off of our property, it's almost impossible to know where we are going because it is so unrecognisable that all of the familiar signposts, that tree is where you know that this is the turnoff to the present‘s house, and the tree is gone, so it was actually quite difficult to get from a house

to the place for we were picked up for rescue. we live about ten minutes to the harbour in normal time and yesterday it took us over an hour. downed power lines, you know, everywhere, some such that there are paint marks on the bottoms of the cars just slip right under to get through, downed power lines everywhere, and on the northside where we live, there is no power, i am—i where we live, there is no power, i am — i don't think it will be power for about six months. laura, many thanks for that. north korea's rejected new sanctions imposed on it and called the united nations' resolution illegal. the sanctions include limits on oil imports and a ban on textile exports put forward by the us. at a un conference, north korea's ambassador at the organisation gave this warning to america. the dprk is ready to use any form of ultimate means. the forthcoming measures by dprk

will make the us suffer the great pain it's never experienced in its history. thank you. with his own tough talk, donald trump warned there could be worse yet to come for north korea. we had a vote yesterday on sanctions. we think it'sjust another very small step. not a big deal. rex and i were just discussing, not big, i don't know if it has any impact, but certainly, it was nice to get a 15—0 vote, but those sanctions are nothing compared to ultimately what will have to happen. the prime minister of bangladesh has called on myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims who've fled across the border. the bangladeshi authorities and humanitarian agencies have been overwhelmed by the near 400,000 who've arrived since a surge in violence in rakhine state last month.

there's an urgent meeting of the un later today to discuss the crisis. it says the treatment of the rohingya by myanmar — a mainly buddhist country — amounts to ethnic cleansing. justin rowlatt reports from the border town of teknaf. roshida is nine months pregnant. she is expecting any day. but this is where she's living with 15 other family members and it is almost certainly where she'll have to give birth. translation: i'm worried. there is no help. nobody‘s getting any food. here, there is no rice, no vegetables, nothing. i'm starving. i first met her a few days back. she'd hiked for seven days through the hills and jungle to get here. she says her village had been burned to the ground. we've seen her and herfamily moved on by the authorities and driven off the land by fellow refugees.

many nights, she's had to sleep under the skies, despite the monsoon rain. now her baby is sick and her husband has jaundice. and tens of thousands of other refugees are, like roshida, living in these filthy, makeshift cities that are mushrooming on the muddy hilltops here. they arrive bewildered. if they want a plastic sheet or bamboo to make a shelter, they pay. they often have to fight just to get food. these guys are well—meaning bangladeshis trying to help out. just look how chaotic this is. and it's so demeaning for these people to have to beg for food. there is growing criticism of the way bangladesh

is handling this crisis. we have to give them shelter so that they can live and get some food, medication. all the big international aid agencies are here. but the government restricts what they can do. for example, the un's main refugee body, the unhcr, is not allowed to work with the vast majority of the refugees. we're discussing with the government to see how we can provide assistance. what needs to happen next is for us to work closer together to make sure that land is allocated, that temporary shelter is provided and while that discussion takes place, what these people really need is food and fresh water. somewhere clean to live and sleep. roshida needs medical care and a safe place to have her baby. what she and all the refugees need is a home.

justin rowlatt, bbc news. ten years ago, the iphone changed our worlds and now apple is hoping its latest design will help ward off the growing competition. rory cellan—jones reports. it's the world's most valuable company and its vast new headquarters speaks of its ambitions to grow even richer. and in the stevejobs theater, named after its founder, apple unveiled the latest versions of the device which has made it so wealthy. we have huge iphone news for you today. two iphone 8 models will look like modest upgrades to all but dedicated apple fans, but a decade after the first version, it's the iphone x which is meant to showcase how far the device has come. the stand—out feature is face—recognition technology, allowing you to unlock the phone with just a glance. but it's the fact that it starts at an eye—watering $999, or the same in pounds,

which may stand out for those wondering whether to upgrade. apple is rarely first with new technology. face recognition, for example, is already available on this samsung phone. but its reputation for quality and the loyalty of its fans means more thani billion iphones have already been sold. now, though, with customers showing a bit of a reluctance to upgrade quite so frequently, retailers need these new models to be huge hits. but one technology investor says building on its success gets ever harder for apple. apple has become the master of psychologically instilling need and desire in people to buy new phones. because unlike other manufacturers, their prices keep going higher and higher and higher. so not only are you trying to convince consumers to change or upgrade their phone, you're actually trying to convince them to spend even more than they did the time before. what's exciting software developers is that the new phones make it easy to create augmented reality apps, like this game, where virtual pigeons suddenly appear

in a london office. the technology before would have taken years to create and hundreds of people in a team. now small studios like me of four people can suddenly create games in just a couple of months. unlocking it is as easy as looking at it. back in california, not everything was going smoothly with the facial recognition system. ho, ho, ho! let's go to back—up here! but apple will be hoping that this, its most expensive phone yet, will prove it hasn't lost the knack of delighting consumers. rory cellan—jones, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come — the hugely popular internet reality show that's shining the spotlight on chinese hip—hop. freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom

will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here — of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites, in their rich suburbs. we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears — enough! translation: the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people, caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is bbc news.

our main headline: 1,000 british troops join recovery efforts in the carribbean as thousands are left without power in the wake of hurricane irma. more on this now. anna hrybyk is technical advisor at the emergency response for catholic relief services and she is in santo domingo in the dominican republican. i want to ask you about the situation as far as cuba in particular is concerned, anna, there's some complaints it hasn't got quite the attention some of the other areas hit by the hurricane have? thanks for having me. what we know coming out of cuba from our partners on the ground right now is most of the northern provinces all the way to havana as endured severe

devastation. we also know 40% of the country's industrial infrastructure has been compromised, we're talking about the electrical grid, refineries and thousands are without power. we're still waiting for official estimates while our partners are doing rapid assessments on how many homes are damaged, but initial reports say the devastation is widespread. 0ur initial reports say the devastation is widespread. our partners have been on the ground providing shelter, food, water, hygiene items since even before the hurricane hit and now during the rapid assessments there are also providing that two people. about 1.5 million people we re people. about 1.5 million people were evacuated out of provinces that we re were evacuated out of provinces that were in the path of hurricane irma and are now slowly going back, however, in havana, as you might have seen through photos in the past couple of days is still flooded in some parts. anna, try and give me a sense of how your teams are finding it on the ground for catholic relief

services, are they reaching people, how badly are the roads and the infrastructure they are having to navigate? in cuba there is serious damage to infrastructure and it has kept many communities cut off from aid at the beginning of this response. however, due to the great work of our partners on the ground, they pre— positioned a lot of things and some of the smaller communities... hopefully they are being used right now. definitely in the antilles were trying to access some of the islands that haven't seen anyone yet in terms of relief and evacuations. in the dominican republic there are still five communities that are under contract double. sorry to interrupt but we must leave it there —— uncontactable. sir peter hall, one of the greatest names in the history of british theatre, has

died at the age of 86. sir peter founded the royal shakespeare company when he was just 29 and directed some of the greatest actors of the age. 0ur arts editor will gompertz looks back at the life and achievements of a man described as a colossus. we, our sad bosoms empty... it's all about emptiness and weeping. for sir peter hall, the text was always paramount. hisjob as director was commonly thought, to get the playwright to speak. you want to get to the centre of the play, he said, not me. i will employee the back again. i find thee must fit for business. it was an approach that had the finest theatrical talent in the land making a beeline to work with him. peter is sublime at directing. when we did antony and cleopatra he'd them actually beating out the line, "0ur royal lady's dead, dead, dead." it took us ages to do. so at the end of the morning we got to, "our royal lady's dead..."

there was a pause and peter said, "thank christ!" i think she wants to be that side. give me a stage and three actors and a text, and i have the confidence to know instinctively what should be done. he was, from the outset, a confident, precocious, risk—taking director. with some luck and plenty of good judgment, it was he who brought samuel beckett's waiting for godot to london. it was a sensation that changed the game and made his name. i did find it startlingly original. first of all that it turned waiting into something dramatic. second that waiting became a metaphorfor living. what are we actually living for, what are we waiting for? will something come? will go to come? will something come to explain why we are here and what we are doing? having blown the cobwebs from london's postwar west end,

he made his way to stratford to give shakespeare the same treatment. my lovely edward's death, their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment can all but answer for that. the dish brats! still only 29 years old, the visionary director turned impresario in 1960, found in the royal shakespeare company. i think we need the plates. his radical approach of mixing and classics by with new work by unknown playwrights, such as harold pinter, at first raised eyebrows, then standards and then the reputation of the company and the bard. when sir laurence olivier stepped down as the artistic director of the national theatre in 1973, it was peter hall who took over, transforming it from a small company based in an old building into a globally respected theatrical giant with a modern home on the london south bank. all peter's successors as director of the national

would acknowledge without petered out might be no national to run. it's easy to forget how hostile the reception was when the national moved to the south bank. it wasn't a popular place. he loved opera, and delighted in his time as a director at glyndebourne, making, in the eyes and ears of many, some of his finest work. sir peter hall will be remembered as one of the most significant figures in british theatre. he was the man who, by developing a model of public subsidy and private finance, created the landscape for today's golden age of british theatre. he was, as the director trevor nunn has said, the man who changed theatre from ancient to modern. david will gompertz, bbc news. a hugely popular internet reality show called the rap of china is shining a light on chinese hip—hop. with more than 2.5 billion views injust two months, the show has helped propel hip—hop into mainstream chinese popular culture. we've been speaking to three young rappers who rose to stardom on the programme.

chinese people are dope, chinese rappers are dope. so now that china is making a lot of money, china's coming up now in hip—hop, in finance, in innovation, entrepreneurship, everything. yeah, we've been neglected for so long, but we're here now. you know, we've got money now, we've got power now, look at me now, it's good. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter, i'm @benmbland. plenty more news on the website whenever you like it. this is bbc world news. thanks for watching. hi there. wet and windy weather will continue to work its way eastwards, we've already had some fairly lively gusts of wind around our most exposed coastal areas

around england and wales. gusts of around 50mph or 60mph typically, and the met office has issued an amber weather warnings, strong winds expected to reach 75mph in places. the warning across parts of north wales, north england, lincolnshire and norfolk as well. this is the first named storm of the season, eileen, and the strongest winds will be on the southern flank of the storm as it works out into the north sea before those very, very strong winds batter the north—west of europe. it will be blowy to start the day across a swathe of north—east england, across yorkshire, lincolnshire and across into norkfolk as well. the wind gusts, given the trees have fallen leaf, will bring down branches and maybe knock down a few trees so the potential for localised transport disruption, maybe some power cuts as well. through the rest of the day it will stay pretty blustery nationwide with those north—westerly winds dragging in plenty of showers across scotland, northern ireland and across the north—west of both england and wales, but nowhere is immune from catching a downpour. some heavy and thundery at times, feeling quite cool across the north of the uk, temperatures up to 18

degrees in london but feeling a bit cooler than that given the strength of the wind. then as we go through wednesday night, there'll be further bands of showers pushing southwards across the country. temperatures dropping away despite the winds, we could still see lows getting down to single figures. then for thursday, we're looking at another unsettled day with further showers coming in on those strong north—westerly winds. given the north—westerly wind flow, the showers always more likely across the north and west of the uk. the fewest showers likely towards the south and east but again, nowhere immune. temperatures still disappointing for this stage of september. we're looking at highs ranging from 13 degrees in the north of scotland to around 18 degrees in the london area. will there be any improvements towards the end of the week and the weekend ? not really. high pressure builds to the west of the uk and thatjust sends more of a northerly wind flow down the uk. again plenty of showers, particularly flowing down the north sea, some of those could be heavy with some thunder mixed in at times.

some chilly northerly winds feeding all the cloud in as well. now, we are approaching mid—september, is it too early for thermostat wars with your partner? well, maybe not. because on saturday we're looking at highs again reaching around 12 or 13 degrees, but cooler than that in the wind. even 17 in the south—east, there'll almost certainly be an autumnal chill in the air. that's your latest weather. this is bbc news. the headlines: 1,000 british troops havejoined recovery efforts in the cariibbean, where thousands of people have been left homeless by hurricane irma. there has been criticism over the slow response. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, says an "unprecedented" uk aid effort is now under way. the united nations security council is to discuss the persecution of rohingya people in myanmar. almost 400,000 refugees have poured across the border into bangladesh since the end of august. the prime minister of bangladesh has called on myanmar to take them back. north korea has threatened the us with the "greatest pain"

after new sanctions were imposed by the united nations. action came after pynogyang carried out its sixth and largest nuclear test. russia and china have called on the us to resolve the crisis with negotiations. now it's time for a look back at the day in parliament.