you're watching beyond 100 days. it's sunny today on the coast of north carolina, but don't let that fool you. a monster storm is brewing off shore. hurricane florence is 500 miles wide, moving fast. you do not want to be in its path when it hits land later this week. which is why one and a half million people have been told to get out — the evacuation order took effect two hours ago and traffic is already building. america remembers. 17 years ago, the country was attacked by al-qaeda but did the war on terror making it safer? also on the programme: it's ten years since lehman brothers collapsed — we'll look at whether enough has been done to prevent another crash. the ipad goes in the bin. tv presenter kirstie allsopp takes drastic action to stop the kids breaking her house rules, and then is forced off twitter by the abuse that followed. injune, i smashed my kids' ipads. not in a violent way.

with a hammer? no, i banged them on the table leg. i'm katty kay in washington and christian fraser is in london. the days before a hurricane hits are always slightly surreal, and so it is with this one. on the beaches of the carolinas, the sun is shining, and the weather is calm. but a few hundred miles off the us east coast, hurricane florence is gaining strength. and she could be devastating. so ignore today's balmy images and focus instead on the fact that four us governors have issued states of emergency, a million and half people have been ordered to evacuate today and grocery shops have been stripped bare. a short while ago we spoke to stav danaos from the bbc‘s weather team to find out what's driving hurricane florence. and these systems thrive off a warm

and moist season. in this area, it averages are above 27 or 28 celsius, which is what we need to fill systems. hurricane florence weakened a little bit this morning, but ramped back up to a category four, one level down from a category five, so one level down from a category five, soa one level down from a category five, so a very one level down from a category five, so a very powerful system. it is maintaining its strength as it heads north—westwards into the coast of noise and south carolina. we are thinking it's going to be a cross into north carolina, if you look at the trajectory in the satellite picture. as it moves into the the coast, it will bring a storm surge as well as torrential rain and wind gusts up to 140 mph. what are the particular danger is that you are looking at with a strong? it's a combination of things. the storm surge, coinciding with a high tide around the carolinas. there are the

damaging winds which will effect the coasts as it makes landfall. it will quickly weaken as it makes an full. but, the fed issue with the system is it will slow down as it makes landfall. this is similar to what hurricane harvey did in texas. we are looking at a lot of rainfall on the coast and then further inland. as we are watching this, we should look into the pacific. there is a typhoon that up to 140 mph winds. this typhoon is pretty incredible, it isa this typhoon is pretty incredible, it is a huge system and much bigger than hurricane florence. there is a well—defined eye on the typhoon, it is moving westwards and will maintain its strength and could touch a category five equivalent is a curry doesn't make —— as a hurricane category five. it will

clip southern taiwan. it could weaken into the south china sea as it heads into southern china. it could bring heavy winds to hong kong. this is another system to watch out for. two big systems packing big wind. you see these hurricanes make landfall and then move into the atlantic ocean. a p pa re ntly move into the atlantic ocean. apparently though, this will all move straight through the carolinas as there are some high pressure keeping it where it is. it will slow down and meander around the ca rolinas, down and meander around the carolinas, dumping loads of water. something like what we saw with hurricane hopping in texas? yeah, and look at the damage that caused in houston, with people's houses getting flooded and then getting trapped. this could go even further inland than people are used to. they aren't used to storms coming inland in the carolinas. but sometimes even 150 miles inland could be affected

by the storm. 0bviously, 150 miles inland could be affected by the storm. obviously, there will be questions about weather there is an impact from climate change and weather these storms are getting bigger. we had a couple of big ones last year and weather the amount of warm water that there is is making these storms get strongerjust before they hit earth, these questions will be raised in the days after this storm. 1.5 main people on the roads, so can be the priority is to get all those people out of the area well ahead of the hurricane coming on late thursday night? that's what we're looking at a the moment, we will see how the directory changes. we all know where we were and what we were doing, on this day 17 years ago. then president george w bush was sitting in a classroom full of children, when he was told that the second tower had been hit. and 17 years on from 9/11, america is still fighting its longest war in afghanistan. a total of 2,977 people were killed in new york city, washington, dc and in shanksville, pennsylvania, where today

it was the turn of donald trump to remember the victims. since september 11th, nearly 5.5 million young americans have enlisted in the united states armed forces. nearly 7000 service members have died facing down the menace of radical islamic terrorism. and joining us now is jane harman, who, at the time of the 9/11 attacks, was serving on the house intelligence committee and is now president of the woodrow wilson center. thank you forjoining us. at the moment of the attacks, there was this extraordinary outpouring from the rest of the world. remember the headlines in the french newspapers saying, we are all americans. countries were offering america support. could america in that moment have responded differently to the attacks and really made unusual

and lasting alliances around the world ? and lasting alliances around the world? the answer is yes. a hindsight is always better and actually remember where i was, heading to the dome of the capital, which most believe was the target of the second plane. i was heading to the second plane. i was heading to the dome to meet with the intelligence committee. i was co—chair of the committee on terrorism and a member of one of the committees that addicted a major attack on us soil. it was devastating, i was also trying to breach my youngest child who is at a school in washington. she now works in the skyscraper in new work that has replaced the trade towers. to remind everyone, iran, cuba and every country in the world condemned the attacks and offered the assistance. nato invoked article five, which is the common defence

article, without asking the us. there were all with us. america was together, to. congress was there and i was there, they were saying god bless america on its ipods and basis. the things that we did right after and the devastation were about american and attacks, not the republicans or democrats under attack. looking back, it has a huge missed opportunity to use our soft paris to win the argument. some of the decisions we made were good, but in hindsight, a number of them, including labelling what happened as the war on terror and calling countries the axis of evil, this all hardened the situation. did the war on terror not make america safer? some of our responses made america safer. some of our responses like

putting a prison in guant namo bay in cuba and... they weren't laws, congress is put out of this. a series of practices having to do with interrogations and detentions didn't make us safer. they created a more negative view of america, a poster of why they hate us. i think we missed opportunities to make the case in positive terms for what america stands for. we are doing better in some ways, but some of our policies, keeping immigrants out, or certain immigrants, these are sending a single that america is an armed fortress and i don't think thatis armed fortress and i don't think that is hopeful. if you look back to 2001, al-qaeda posed a great threat, it was an organised unit in

afghanistan and everybody predicted there would be more organised attacks on the united states. what we've had since then has been a series of attacks over the 17 years. it hasn't taken the threat away but it has been at a lower level. this is rather than an organised unit like al-qaeda. surely that means that the war on terror has worked? it has worked... there is no longer one top structure of the terror movement. it is now a loose affiliation of... a horizontal affiliation of... a horizontal affiliation of... a horizontal affiliation of grips. there are more groups than theirwere. affiliation of grips. there are more groups than their were. still, the recruiting devices that terror movement has now moved from the ground to the web. they are

effective in recruiting notjust lone wolves, but small groups. mac in africa and the middle east, they try to get more on their side. thank you very much forjoining us. let's get more now on hurricane florence and cross live to wrightsville beach in north carolina. we can speak to cbs correspondent mola lenghi. thank you forjoining us. it looks beautifully sunny where you are, people are there under umbrellas sunbathing. and imagining we shouldn't be full by that? it is a beautiful beach day, we can see a few mac people out here. but if you look left and right, it is deserted. obviously, it's not a peak season likejuno, obviously, it's not a peak season like juno, july or august. butted is the secondary season where you would see especially on a day like this,

you would see several hundred people out here. this illustrates how people are approaching this incoming storm. without getting out of town and there have been mandatory evacuations, beginning at 8am tomorrow. it is a similar story up and down the eastern coast for the coastal committees, mandatory evacuations up—and—down viscose. a little further inland, some are mandatory evacuations and other involu nta ry mandatory evacuations and other involuntary ones. people are really taking the advice and taking this seriously. they are really worried about the storm surge. what would this storm surge of ten feet mean in the area where you're standing? can? i think we might have lost him there. is extraordinary to see those people on that beach. that is not an

area of mandatory evacuation. but if i knew that storm is coming and was going to hit with a ferocity that all the forecasts are saying, i would not be sitting under an umbro at the beach. that the body keeps safer. ten years ago, managers at america's fourth largest investment bank sat in all night crisis meetings trying to stave off disaster. their share price had fallen 77% in a week. it was a tense moment for the bank which had started as a general store in alabama in 1844, founded by a german immigrant named henry lehman. the crisis meetings failed, lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy and it was the biggest ever such filing in history. the crash was under way. it grew into the worst global financial crisis since the great depression. millions ofjob were lost around the world. the greek economy collapsed. other european governments were forced into years of austerity measures and the housing bubble burst in the us and in europe. let's talk to mohamed el—erian who's the chief economic advisor

at allianz and who joins us from irvine in california. at the time of this crash, this week ten yea rs at the time of this crash, this week ten years ago, did you realise how serious this was going to be? we did because we were seeing it very close by. we were saying it in terms of the inability to move cash and collateral in the banking system. in fa ct, collateral in the banking system. in fact, i rememberon collateral in the banking system. in fact, i remember on the wednesday of the crisis calling home because very few people were going home. i called home and said, please go to the atm and take money out because i don't know if the banks are to open tomorrow. that was a huge concern and one that was validated by all the official statement that we have had since then. one of the things you have written about is that at the time, financial authorities in

the time, financial authorities in the west perhaps could have looked to what was happening in developing markets and had a bit more of a ru nway markets and had a bit more of a runway into their thinking and planning. i was just seeing today that hong kong is down 20% since january. that —— should be wary that this will happen again? i wouldn't worry that the same thing would happen again because lessons have been learned. the banking system has been strengthened and the payments and settlement system has been stricken. where lessons haven't been lined is the importance of energising the growth model. the reason why it took a very long time for policymakers in the advanced world to understand that this was a structural shock. this shock required a lot of

rethinking and open mindsets. had they looked to the developing world that lives in a structural space, they could have figured things out a little bit faster. we know that in the united states and in the uk, red letters brought in many new rules to tighten the banking sector is. of course, the industry innovates and finds ways to get around the rules, they create new rules... in one sense, when you talk about whether this crisis could happen again, there is always that risk if people think they can make money out of nothing. there were two unintended consequences that no one saw coming. firstly, the big banks have gotten bigger. being too big to fail was an issue back then, and it is an even bigger issue today. this is because the bigger banks have gotten bigger. the other thing that no one foresaw was that the risk wouldn't

disappear, it would morph and migrate to the non—banking sector. institutions that do bank like activities but are not regulated like banks. look at those two areas for risk, in particular the second one. but let me stress that 2008 was an issue with the payment and settlement system. it is like the well in your car, you don't think about it much but if it breaks down, your car does not move. this payments and sediments system has really been strengthened. since then, we've got used to the new normal, low growth, wage stagnation, the insecurity in the workplace, the unfairness of the workplace... this is something thatjohn mcdonnell has been talking about today here in britain. i think we are reaching levels of insecurity within our economy. it's almost like going back

to the 19305. the think tank report la 5t to the 19305. the think tank report last week, demonstrated how insecure people feel at work and the levels of expectation that we haven't seen for generations. part of this is from the government plans, but part of it is attached to the new economy, the commie that has prospered. the biggest failure of the global financial crisis is that the global financial crisis is that the west ha5n't figured out a way to grow at a high rate and in an inclusive fashion where the benefits of growth are widely spread. part of thatis of growth are widely spread. part of that is the policy taking that we talked about earlier and part of it is because the commie has changed. it has fundamentally changed. it is how we're doing things openly, not

just be what. it doesn't surprise me that people feel insecure and that feeds into politics, social issues and it is this something that we can solve by to address the challenge of inclusive growth more forcefully. thank you forjoining us. we will have more coverage this week of ten yea rs have more coverage this week of ten years since the crash of lehman brothers. the irish government says president trump has cancelled his planned trip to the country in november for scheduling reasons. mr trump was due to arrive in dublin before travelling to his golf course on the west coast of ireland. the announcement of his visit was met by calls for protests. the white house said it is still finalising plans for the president's visit to europe in november. mark carney will stay on as the governor of the bank of england untiljanuary 2020. mr carney‘s seven—month extension as governor was announced by the chancellor philip hammond who said it would support britain's smooth exit from the eu. it is thought that fears over a ‘no—deal‘ scenario has increased the need for continuity in the upper echelons of the bank. as a canadian, mark carney was the first non—briton to be made governor

in the bank's 300—year history. the hungarian prime minister viktor orban has accused the eu of insulting his country as meps debate whether his right—wing government's policies including those on immigration pose a threat to the european union. it comesjust months after the european commission took the step of launching similar proceedings against poland. in a defiant speech mr orban said he wouldn't give in to threats and blackmail. translation: you're not going to condemn a government but a country as well as a nation. you're going to denounce hungary... that has been a member of the family of christian european nations for a thousand years. you're going to condemn hungary that contributed to the great history of europe with hard work and shed its blood when needed. you're going to denounce hungary that we bailed and took to arms against the biggest army

of the world, the soviet army. you're going to shed its blood for freedom and democracy and when time came, opened its borders to fellow eastern german friends. yesterday were talking about sweden in the context of migration. the left parliament today, our correspondent three question about brexit, saying the year is being unfairon the uk. brexit, saying the year is being unfair on the uk. this point was echoed in italy as well today. you can see that this would have disrupted europe at the moment. we will get more on the british side and perhaps this accidental threat to the eu. there will be lots of thoughts going into that conference next week. those disrupters are all

sticking together at the moment. would you smash your children's ipads to make a point? that's what british tv presenter kirsty allsopp did when her sons played games outside their permitted time. watch this. i'll say this, this is the first time i've said this publicly. injune, i smashed my kids' ipads. not in a violent way. with a hammer? no, i actually banged them on the table leg. that's it, i said there's this game... serious? yes, there is a game called fortnight and another one called pubg and i decided that... we had made all sorts of rules and all sorts of times, saying that you can play them... all those rules got broken and in the end, i said, right, that's it. the confession prompted a fierce response online — with many saying her actions were the reserve of the privileged. and now, today, kirsty has deleted her twitter account. so where do we stand? is this tough love at its best or is it a selfish course of action? moreover is it deserving of the sort

of abuse kirsty has suffered since. there are a two separate issues here. one, how do we deal with our children and social media and their devices because there has been a huge growth, very rapidly in the number of children who now have smart or tablets. mac i think the numbers have doubled over the last six years. we come as a society, have not addressed this. our kids are getting addicted and are addicted to social media and their devices. the second issue is how she has been treated on social media since she said this on television. she clearly has been getting a lot of babies and has had to take herself off social media. this may be no bad thing for her because i had three weeks off twitter and it was very nice. the abuses not nice andi was very nice. the abuses not nice and i have suffered myself, it can get better, vicious and scary. i think it is out of order, you cannot have people on twitter and other social bidder platforms being subject to this threatening abuse.

it interesting to say the children are addicted, i'd add addicted? sab has come out in the united states saying that teenagers wish their pa rents would saying that teenagers wish their parents would spend less time on social media. every time we get our phones out over dinner, to look something up, we are giving them that role model. such we take the ipad of our children, hide it from week and they're not allowed at. one of our producers made the point that when she was young, her sister was addicted to her dummy. they put it away, didn't actually the problem, so her parents made her throat into the lake. it was expanding the problem that assault at. —— it solved the problem. and ipad is a substantially more expensive than what you would call a dummy, here is a pacifier. ipads seem to be the new

pacifiers for children. parents use them to keep their kids quiet. this is something that some in his paper raged would do. you could smash and ipad and not be able to afford to replace its. we've spoken about this before, about how fidgeted we get with our kids and their iphones. i could see myself getting that angry that i would want to take some kind of action. maybe not the example to set to the children, but not where the to the abuse she has received. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news — as hurricane florence closes in on the us southeast coast, more than a million people have been ordered to evactuate. and our programme editor is holidaying there! we'll speak to anna in the next half hour. and playing war games: but this certainly isn't playground stuff. russia are putting on their biggest ever show of power, with 300,000 troops taking part.

tomorrow could be cooler but there will not be a lot of sunshine. there could be weather pushing from the atlantic, earlier, the rain became light and patchy. thickening cloud will come in across ireland, going into england and north wales, even into the north midlands as it goes southwards. a lot of cloud for england and wales, but further north we will have clear spells and some showers. temperatures 6—7 celsius. cooler air pushing down across the uk, this weather front will bring the outbreaks of rain and drizzle. as it ru ns outbreaks of rain and drizzle. as it runs south, the weather front wea ke ns runs south, the weather front weakens and the rain will get strung out and get more narrow. there would be much rain at all by the time we

head towards rush—hour. living northward, we have showers in northern and western areas of scotland. northern part of the uk start dry and sunny tomorrow. this is where the weather front, the band of cloud and rain is in the morning. we can see how narrow that rain is and so light rain and drizzle. we are moving slowly southwards and it will linger through the us channel. more sunshine will follow behind that but some showers will blow across scotland and a few for northern ireland and northern and western england. in the north, temperatures will be cooler as well in the south. through the evening, blustery winds in the north—west, bands of rain into scotland and northern ireland. with clear skies and lighter winds, it will be cold est and lighter winds, it will be coldest across the midlands and eastern england. italy start on thursday, but some sunshine along the way. the band of rain fizzles

and we will have some patchy rain across northern england and northern ireland. cooler air across northern england and northern ireland. coolerair in across northern england and northern ireland. cooler air in scotland and some sunshine of further south, but a lot of cloud. through friday and into saturday, we will see some rain getting as far south as north wales and northern ireland. the further south and east across the uk, a good chance of staying bright and dry with some sunshine. this is beyond 100 days with me katty kay in washington, christian fraser is in london. our top stories... over a million people ordered to evacuate along the us southeast coast as hurricane florence, the most powerful storm to threaten the carolinas in nearly three decades, closes in. commemorations in new york and washington, to mark the seventeenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by al-anda, which killed nearly 3,000 people. coming up in the next half hour... the contradictory numbers of president trump — the economy is doing well so why do a bunch of new polls show him doing so badly?

in a show of force, russia puts on its biggest display of military might since the fall of the soviet union. 300,000 troops take part in war games, alongside them 3,000 more troops from china. now let's get more on the news that more than a million people in north carolina, south carolina and virginia have been told to leave their homes as hurricane florence churns across the atlantic ocean towards the coast. but how many will actually do this? fema says that there is no "culture of preparedness in america. it has warned that people don t stock up on batteries, candles and water. " they "don t prepare a family emergency plan or buy a hand—cranked radio." and they don t listen carefully to warnings and ignore evacuation orders. we can now speak to anna tatton brown — the editor of beyond 100 days —

who is currently on holiday in the us and joins us now from columbia, north carolina. this is by this programme excels, and. we have an editor who flies to the big story. where i do? at the moment i'm in colombia where we arrived about one hour ago. before that we were on the coast and we left this morning and evacuated just before the mandatory evacuation order at midday. you were in an area where there was a mandatory evacuation. what was the traffic light as you were leaving? no traffic whatsoever. hardly any cars on the road at all. it was the owner of the house that offered to take us to his other housing colombia. i was asking him if he knew they were

going to evacuate. he said no. they haven't evacuated in the past. everyone is staying put and some of them are having a reclaim parties. at mid day, all motorways go out. even given that, there was no traffic on the boat at all and in the shops you could see people stocking up on water and food and their plan is to stay put.|j stocking up on water and food and their plan is to stay put. i hope you manage to have your holiday soon. you manage to have your holiday soon. we are very happy that we managed to get you on the programme. enjoy the best of your holiday! reclaim parties! for more on why people are consistently underprepared for natural disasters and other emergencies we can cross to robert meyer.

he's the author of the ostrich paradox and a professor of at the wharton school at the university of pennsylvania. why on earth do people not heed these warnings to get out when they are told to? a really interesting question. a lot of it has to do with our psychology in terms of the way we think about risk. for example, one key feature of human beings is that we tend to be optimist. we think about the way things will go right rather than wrong so when it comes to a hurricane disaster, we think about how we're to escape, we will be all right, someone will get it but probably someone else. you came up with a list of six different reasons why people aren't sufficiently prepared. optimism is one of them. one of them which is very interesting is inertia. how on

earth can people be lazy in the face ofa earth can people be lazy in the face of a massive hurricane? that makes no sense to me. a lot of it comes from the fact that it is not a decision we make every day and because people don't have prepare plans, people are pretty uncertain as to how to go about doing it. as a consequence people sit back and say, what shall i do? another one of the biases we like to talk about is hurting. we are influenced by what our friends and neighbours do. if we don't know what to do, we go head and look at what our neighbours are doing. when they are not evacuating stocking up, we just assume that they know what they are doing and imitate them. we don't appreciate the fact that they are not more

knowledgeable than we are. we have governors warning people. wall—to—wall coverage on american networks. people asked on taking heed. one governor said if you want to have your hurricane right your social number on your forearm so we can identify you afterwards. surprisingly that tends not to work very well. a number of years ago there was a hurricane and warnings we re there was a hurricane and warnings were put out. we have to keep in mind that people think that they are not going to be the ones that died. people tend to believe that the store will hit, it will be bad and they are watching the news coverage and looking at this and that my set is not, i had better get out of here. they are thinking that this will hit somebody really bad. it is

a neighbours house that gets wrecked, not their own. this in—built optimism means it is difficult to motivate people. in—built optimism means it is difficult to motivate peoplem doesn't help that people like me and you go running into the hurricane and then stand there on television and then stand there on television and show that we can stand up in the wind and talk at the same time. i remember some years ago, i was wind and talk at the same time. i remember some years ago, i was the only person down on the beach and then i actually found one of these t3 back parties and the couple who stayed there work as drunk as skunks. they were oblivious to what is going on! every time that a hurricane warning like this is issued, people find it wasn't as bad as they thought they were. they look

back and they say that they really don't need to do it. it is also rescue workers they are putting in danger. that is not fair on them. let's look at politics. a new poll shows a sharp decline in president trump's approval rating. one poll is neither newsworthy nor reliable. but eight different polls conducted over the past two show the same trend. and what is striking, is that two months ahead of the mid term elections, which many will view as a referendum on the president's record, the economy is booming. economic growth is up, unemployment down, even wages are picking up. it's a record to be proud of, it should be a vote winner. for more we are joined by kayleigh mcenany, the national spokesperson for the republican national committee. thanks for coming in. how frustrating is it that you look at eight polls that show the president's approval ratings are declining, yet you see all this economic news that his blood? we're

not frustrated because the outlier poll as the president is ten points higher than most of those polls, it wasn't the most accurate poll during the election so we don't necessarily believe them. we're got eight different polls over the last couple of weeks. you can't dismiss that totally. there were dozens of polls showing that hillary clinton was winning and all those polls were wrong. there is a phenomenon where vote rs wrong. there is a phenomenon where voters do not trust institutions, they don't register their support on they don't register their support on the record but have their support inside. it is record numbers that we are seeing. but have a look at the latest. the cnn poll shows the biggest drop was not the interesting thing is that when you ask people

whether they are in favour, it is over 60%. people are impressed what is happening with the economy. you see the pattern we are talking about. that is over the last few weeks. the latest is on the left on the previous on the right. i suppose that you are hoping that people are going to vote for donald trump but aren't admitting it to the polling agencies. that is exactly right. it did manifest itself in the actual results. no doubt that is what we believed and we do believe that our positive forces the economy. to quote a famed democratic strategist, it is the economy, stupid! we believe the economy is great. it will help those big time come november. you don't want to be talking about the op ed. as anyone

told that to the president? if he was just talking to the economy, may be the networks wouldn't be focusing on his tweets? i've had voters say to me on his tweets? i've had voters say tomel on his tweets? i've had voters say to me i see negative story after negative story and that is driving me to give the president a chance because there is this onslaught of negativity from these new books. we believe that has the opposite effect. i do concerned about independent voters? if the pushes to really drive support amongst the president base, and we... what can you do to reach independent voters? stay positive and state... do the presidents tweets help with that? they are not very positive. his

tweets are the only vehicle he can use to break through the negative cove rage. use to break through the negative coverage. a study showed he had 90% negative coverage. in terms of winning over independent voters, we are showing eight contrast between abstract and resist, the democratic party and the republican party of taking back our place on the world stage and of strength. we believe the positive contrast will push us over the positive contrast will push us over the edge. thanks for coming in. when america pulls back, who steps in? it is one of the defining questions of this moment in politics. one answer can perhaps be found in events taking place in russia today. moscow has launched its largest ever military exercises. but what makes these war games so significant is that chinese soldiers are taking part alongside the russians. nato has criticised the exercises as a rehearsal for large scale conflict. the bbc‘s sarah rainsford reports. this is a war game

intended to impress. russia has been rolling its military hardware into place, ready for what it's billed as the biggest exercise since soviet times. all of this is for vostok, or east, a military drill that will run for a week and involve more than 300,000 troops. russia's defence ministry says 36,000 armoured vehicles will take part. the air force and the navy are both involved. it is not only for training, testing logistics across this vast country. it's also a giant show of strength at a time when relations with the west are tense. and for the first time, some 3,000 chinese troops will fight alongside the russians. that sends a strong signal of the two countries' deepening bond. as does this. china's president arrived in eastern russia today as the military drill began. he is attending an economic forum and also meeting vladimir putin. as they sat down for talks,

russia's president said relations with china in politics, security and defence were based on trust. that and these war games are perhaps a warning to washington about where isolating these countries can lead. for years, vladimir putin has made modernising the military his priority, his way of making russia great again. this, then, is a display to the west of the results, a show on a scale not seen since the cold war. sarah rainsford, bbc news, moscow. with us now is thomas pickering, former us ambassador to russia. thanks for coming in. it's not that these exercises are new. it is not these exercises are new. it is not the first time the russians have cooperated with the chinese on exercises like this. it is the size

of them. nato says this is provocative. are you consent?” would say the big question here the new russian chinese alliance emerging. 3000 russians and 3200 chinese. a warning signal to washington, watch out! certainly something we should watch very carefully. but to jump to conclusions that we now have two against one on the international ballpark is probably premature. against one on the international ballpark is probably prematurem nato overreacting? they will always condemn any large russian exercise. just as the russians will condemn any large nato exercise. condemnation is not an indicator it self. nor is the absence of condemnation. we need to watch what is going on. they feel they are being pushed together by russian policy —— american policy. is this a

response to some of the policies? it is america that is forcing them together? some of it is a response together? some of it is a response to what we're getting out of the white house, of course. that is not unrealistic as they look at it. but there are deep differences between them. there are 10 million russians. there are probably 200 million chinese within100 kilometres of the border. the chinese do want to be dependent on russian oil or russian military equipment which is always done down so the russians are not at a disadvantage. these things are running deeper than being against mr trump. is the general feeling in brochure that they are encircled by nato? and even at the time of

falling oil prices, they think it is necessary to spend this sort of money on defence. as nato in some ways got the tactics wrong? the fact that it ways got the tactics wrong? the fact thatitis ways got the tactics wrong? the fact that it is sitting on russia's border. the need to step back a little bit, perhaps? ithink border. the need to step back a little bit, perhaps? i think nato is there to defend the west. the ukraine and crimean episodes are things that have sent signals to the we st things that have sent signals to the west that it has to pay attention to. that is itv is. the deployment of nato forces in the baltics and in eastern poland and so on are not nearly enough to be counterbalancing to the hundreds of thousands of russian troops that are there. but they are a tripwire and ara signal. what is missing in all this military posturing is something that i think needs to come. that is whether we have an open door to a diplomatic effort to deal with some of these things. certainly putin suggested to

donald trump that we extend new start, a nuclear agreement that runs out in 2021. donald trump didn't seem out in 2021. donald trump didn't seem to know what putin was talking about. that has not in stock. trump will not be very enthusiastic, despite the fact that it is in the best interest of both countries to do everything they can to stabilise the nuclear deterrent and not put us ina the nuclear deterrent and not put us in a position where we are facing down a new war of any kind at all. thank you very much. it is notjust the war games that we are seeing in eastern russia. we did seek major russian naval exercises in the eastern mediterranean. as those attacks step up we are seeing in russian engagement, not just practices around the world. that is causing concern to. this is beyond 100 days.

still to come — the worm has turned — the experiment on microscopic creatures that could help us travel to mars. wages grew faster than expected in the three months tojuly. official statistics show that pay rose by 2.9% during the period, above the 2.4% rate of inflation. the firm that runs this construction site in salford has no shortage of work, but a shortage of skilled workers is a growing problem. until this year, its subcontractors could find the staff they needed easily. mostly from the rest of the european union. we've got eastern european workers on this site. a lot of the concrete frames are eastern europeans, we've got albanians working on here. the dry liners, joiners, tilers, tend to be eastern european. so, in some instances, when they leave, it gets very difficult to entice the british

workforce back onto the site. from the construction firms' point of view, the labour market is on fire. even though profits are tight, they have to fight to keep their workers with pay rises of 10 or 20%. if they don't, they may leave before the work is complete. mid—contract, people come along waving the cheque—book and we lose tradesmen. here is what that pay rise looks like in pounds. an extra £14 a week. that brings the average wage to £489 per week, or about £25,400 a year. but before you get too excited about the pay rise, put it in perspective. here is what has happened to wages over the last 10—15 years. right now, we are not much higher than we were a very long time ago. i think there has been a persistent puzzle why workers have not been able to demand higher wage growth, despite the fact the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest since the mid—19705. we would have expected wage growth to pick up a lot more than it has done so far.

with unemployment at a 43 year low, the number of vacancies is at a 17 year high, with 830,000 jobs advertised and the highest rate of vacancies in hotels and restaurants. one side—effect — you may sometimes have to wait a little longer to get served. andy verity, bbc news. there is a really bad pun coming up ina minute. there is a really bad pun coming up in a minute. if you don't want to hear it i suggest you putjob television on need right now. space exploration has led to countless, ground—breaking discoveries, and now a team of british scientists wants to send worms to the international space station, to help us understand how our muscles can waste away. we've been given special access to the scientists as they prepare to launch the worms into space. you could call it one giant wiggle for mankind. john maguire went to see them at their laboratory in switzerland.

when tim peake spent six months on board the international space station, regular exercise was vital. floating in zero gravity means astronauts stop using their muscles to stand and those muscles then start to waste away. now, a team of scientists from british universities is working to find out more. they've come to switzerland and, on the shore of lake lucerne, this lab that specialises in space biology. we're hoping to prevent muscle loss with astronauts when they go into space, so this will allow them to undergo really long space flight and then this will translate to people on earth. as well, so if we can prevent muscle loss in astronauts we could potentially prevent muscle loss in the elderly population. this will be the first uk—led experiment on the space station. these bags contain thousands of microscopic worms suspended in fluid.

they're called sea elegans and, by sending them up into space, the research team can determine how their muscle structure is affected. perhaps, surprisingly, the muscle of a worm that keeps a worm moving in a line is very similar structurally at the molecular level and in the metabolism of the way it functions very similar to a human. of course it doesn't mean it's directly translatable, but an idea of what might be causing the same sorts of changes in humans. some of the worms will be treated with a drug in an attempt to slow down their muscle wastage. the long—term strategy, we're looking at years to decades, is if we can find out the exact molecular reasons why worms lose muscle mass in space, when we test some of the potential therapies such as drugs for that, we can then apply that to larger organisms such as humans to try and prevent that loss and that then allows exploratory space flights, such as mars missions for the future. the test here in switzerland is essentially a dress rehearsal. the preparations have to be absolutely meticulous because the next time the team do this will be just ahead of launch in florida.

the pressure is really on. this is an opportunity to refine and practise the techniques to make sure that everything goes according to plan when the worms are prepared for space flight. if something doesn't work, there's no fix. there are other facilities on board where you can say, ok, something doesn't work, we will repeat or we do a change or something like this. for cubic, we can't do that. the experiment will only last six days, but that equates roughly to around 20 years of human life. they will then be frozen and returned to earth for analysis. one microscopic step or wriggle for the worms that it's hoped could provide a giant leap in understanding of how our bodies age, notjust in space, but also back down here on earth. john maguire, bbc news, switzerland. he stole your line, christian. i

think that was very cool. if we ever feel like we're getting too big for our boots, we should remind each other that we are basically worms, right? that. iwas other that we are basically worms, right? that. i was getting too cocky in life. from the fabulously random selection of stories we have been looking at today, comes this. furniture belonging to sir rod stewart is being sold at auction this evening. the sale is taking place close to his home in essex. more than sixty items are up for grabs — so people get ready, tonights the night, there is an armchair — here's one with some hot legs, leopard print cushions, never goes out of style. forever young, nice side tables, handbags and gladrags. iwould bid, but i never win. some guys have all the luck. apparently, sir rod decided to have a clearout after recently moving house. about an hour ago, his coffee table sold for almost £3,000.

what a wonderful world. it isa it is a very slow news day! see you tomorrow. tomorrow the weather looks like being a little bit cooler but we should end up with more sunshine. we have this ribbon of cloud all the way across the atlantic pushing into the uk. earlier on the rain became very light and patchy. the thing down into southern parts of england. cloud moving across ireland bringing persistent rain over the irish sea into northern england and wales. with a lot of card for england and wales, temperatures double figures. chillierfurther

wales, temperatures double figures. chillier further north with clear spells. the bidders in eastern scotla nd spells. the bidders in eastern scotland six or 7 degrees. cooler, fresh air pushing down across the uk behind this weather front. that is bringing with it breaks of rain and drizzle as it is running southwards. the weather front is weakening and the rain is getting strung out, narrower and narrower and there won't be much rain at all by this time we had to watch the rush—hour. moving northwards, showers coming into scotland. northern part of the uk quite dry and sunny. a band of cloud and rain early in the morning. you can see how narrow that rain is. like rain and drizzle but moving very slowly southwards, taking all morning to reach the south—east. more sunshine following on behind that but showers will be blown across scotland and if you fight northern ireland and north—western england. temperatures very similar to today in the north. cooler in the south. overnight much clearer skies.

blustery winds in the north—west, a band of rain coming into scotland and northern ireland. the skies and lighter wincing the mac further south. 56 degrees here. a chilly start to thursday but some sunshine on the way. a band of rain coming in fizzled out, brightening up in the cooler air across scotland. showers further south. some sunshine, cooler air across scotland. showers furthersouth. some sunshine, but they bear bitter cloud. temperatures of 20 degrees. friday and saturday, rain at times heading as fast others south wales. a good chance of staying dry and bright with sunshine at times. this is bbc news i'm rebecca jones. the headlines at 8:00. under attack over police pay and funding cuts, the government is criticised

by britain's most senior police officer. i don't want the government to wait for the police to be struggling, like the prison service, with chronic understaffing. saved by her husband — the wife of one of the westminster terror attack victims tells an inquest of his last moments. labour demands that people who work in the so—called gig economy — like cab drivers and shop workers — should be given morejob security. also this hour. hurricane florence heads to the united states. more than a million people in south carolina, north carolina and virginia are ordered to leave their homes as it's predicted to make landfall in the next 48 hours.