this is the briefing. i'm victoria fritz. our top story: destructive winds whipped up by hurricane florence have begun to affect coastal regions of the us states of north and south carolina. one person has been killed and several injured in a series of gas explosions in the us state of massachusetts. dozens of homes and buildings have been set on fire. 10 years on from the global financial crisis, we take a look at why spain was so badly hit and why it is still trying to recover. coming up in the business briefing, trading blows. 620 ministers gather in argentina as trump tariff tensions run high. plus, 10 years on from the collapse of lehman brothers we'll be finding out why asia was spared the worst of the crisis. a warm welcome to the programme,

briefing you on all you need to know in global news, business and sport. and you can be part of the conversation — volkswagen is to stop producing its iconic beetle car next year. we want to know what other brands that you love have disappeared. what icons do you miss which have vanished over the years? let us know — just use the hashtag #bbcthebriefing. the eye of hurricane florence is just 50 miles off the america's eastern seaboard this hour — with wind and rain already lashing the carolina coast. florence has been downgraded to a category one storm — but it's feared flash flooding will become a serious threat to life and property. hundreds of thousands of residents

have heeded warnings and taken shelter or been evacuated from the area. laura trevelyan sent this report from north carolina. dramatic scenes as the leading edge of hurricane florence breaches the north carolina coast. rain and wind pummel the barrier islands exposed to the atlantic. they then move on. this huge slow—moving storm is now so this huge slow—moving storm is now so wide it is threatening the south—eastern coast of the us from the carolinas to georgia. it is the rain from the hurricane that could pose the greatest threat. forecasters warn that if we get prolonged rainfall over a couple of days he could be catastrophic flooding and if water levels rise they will inundate people ‘s homes. north carolina's governor is warning

that conditions are only going to deteriorate. people inland could be threatened as well. there are fears that millions could be without power gci’oss that millions could be without power across the coastal south—east of the us as the triple hazard of hurricanes also wins, storm surge and flooding become a reality. many have fled their home, seeking shelter in evacuation centres inland. from the vulnerable elderly to the very young. while most people in mandatory evacuation zones, they have left, some are determined to see out the storms. my family and eve ryo ne see out the storms. my family and everyone has evacuated except my wife and i but we are setting up teams now to deal with the aftermath which could take weeks. the track of the hurricane florence was it makes la ndfall the hurricane florence was it makes landfall is uncertain. at a sustained and a giant and damaging assault on the coastline from wind and water is intensifying. our correspondent paul blake is

on the line now from morehead city, north carolina. yourfamily your family live yourfamily live in your family live in the yourfamily live in the region. what preparations have the people you know in the area been making? they are originally from this area and we have seen many storms over the years including some similar to this one. in terms of preparation, it has been about boarding up windows, putting salt and sandbags in front of doors and trying to seal up homes ahead of the strong wind and heavy rain is coming in. most importantly, especially at this hour, the storm surge. looking at the latest advisory, it seems that the concern has turned towards the storm surge. about 80 kilometres south of the city right now. exploit froud it was

widely storm surge is such a problem now. “— widely storm surge is such a problem now. —— explained four—hour view was widely storm surge is a problem. —— around you with. this area is flat. 0nly this area is flat. only a few feet above sea level so very low lying areas. that storm surge is being called at ten feet. i took a walk around the neighbourhood little while ago and berries ankle and knee deep water out here in some areas. that is driven by ocean water being pushed in. notjust rain as you may hearin pushed in. notjust rain as you may hear in the background right now, it is the water coming in from the ocean. you think -- you seem to be batted on both edges. but this

hurricane is different because it is slow moving. the area of wind and rain does not seem to move along and that poses another danger, doesn't it? that is the concern. it is only moving about six miles an hour at the moment. typically they will come in from the equator and hit somewhere between the carillion and washington, dc that it —— caribbean. this one is moving slowly and it is still quite big. a category one storm and the fear is that it will sit over this region and dump all the water. there is still a bit of wind and the trees around here, with a lot of the breed —— debris on the

ground. but the theory is that the storm surge could linger. that is oui’ storm surge could linger. that is our business correspondence with family in the region. thank you and stay safe. there's a major storm on the other side of the world as well. hundreds of thousands of people are being evacuated on the philippines island of luzon as typhoon mangkhut approaches with winds of more than 250 kilometres an hour. it's due to make landfall on the northern tip of luzon over the weekend. up to ten million people are in the storm's path. 0ur manila correspondent howard johnson sent us this latest update. i'm outside the provincial government headquarters where theyjust held an emergency briefing. the governor has a plan where he wants people to help their neighbours. if you live in a shack or a flimsy house, move to a more robust house. help a neighbour by letting them

stay with you or go to a church or to a school. he is also saying there is a liquor ban or alcohol ban in place, to stop people drinking through this period and get exposed to the weather. i asked him if there were any faults in his plan and he said potentially telecommunications could go down on roads were impassable. lots of bread was being loaded into baskets, ready to be taken up around the province. he is also appealing for air support from the national government to be able to spread that food around the province. last time the storm hit here, 2016, there were four casualties in this province. this time around, he's hopin for zero casualties and that seems somewhat optimistic given the magnitude of this super typhoon. let's brief you on some of the other stories making the news:

israel is ending an operation which provided almost 5,000 syrian civilians with humanitarian and medical aid in the occupied golan heights. the israeli army said it had taken the decision now that syrian government forces had re—taken control of areas bordering the heights. cynthia nixon has failed in her bid to become the governor of new york. the former sex and the city actress was defeated by the incumbent andrew cuomo, who won the democratic party nomination for a third term. mr cuomo will face republican candidate marc molinaro and independent stephanie miner during november's election. thousands of people have marched through the streets of argentina's capital, buenos aires to protest at the government's austerity measures. teachers have demanded an increase in salary and students want more funding for education. president mauricio macri has announced budget cuts to tackle the country's currency crisis. the peso has lost more than half of its value this year. if anywhere symbolises the struggles of the global economy,

it's argentina where the currency is falling — and market confidence ebbing away. but that's where ministers from the group of 20 top global economies are gathering to discuss the pressure on world trade. with me is geraint anderson, former banker and author best known for his book cityboy: beer and loathing in the square mile. we spoke about some of the issues facing argentina. record high inflation and skyhigh interest rate as well. two meetings like this make any difference to countries like argentina? i think they do less now than they used to because they rely on international cooperation to sort

these things out and what we are in now is an era of protectionism and an era of, basically, self interest. and that is dangerous. it is real politic and it is contained just. if donald trump says that make america great again at the expense of eve ryo ne great again at the expense of everyone else then other countries almost have an obligation to follow suit because there is a lack of cooperation. that is a negative path to go down and if you look at the second world war, for example, not to be melodramatic, but there was a breakdown in international communication. the league of nations stopped working together and so forth. it can lead to things that are seemingly beneficial for one country but destructive for the global economy as a whole. speaking of communication and the lack of, there seems to be a lot of hot air and talk when it comes to trade tariffs, for example. donald trump

talks a good game in terms of raising tariffss and so far he has not gone quite as far as people believe he might do with china and with europe, for example. are we in any around where the look of the thing and the feel of the thing is very different and perhaps more important than the reality? when donald trump wrote his book i'm sure that a large element of that is where you are trying to bluff your opponent and the use of threats and do things to get what you want. the problem with that approach is that you are found out, like the boy who cried wolf. there is a slight disconnect at the moment between the threats and what is delivered. all in all, the problem with this entire approach is that no—one ends up winning. if you have every economist out there, they would agree that if you have a global trade war everyone ends up losing. lack of trade equals

that lack of gdp and it is a vicious circle that hits global growth. we will come back and go through some of the newspapers and the anniversary of the financial crisis we will talk through those later with you. a series of gas explosions have set fire to dozens of homes in the us state of massachusetts. the blasts in three towns north of boston are thought to have been caused by the rupture of an overpressurised gas line. 0livia crellin reports. 0nfire. 0n fire. flattened. and up in smoke. these are homes from three communities north of the us city of boston, massachusetts. destroyed in the wake of an apparent natural pipe line rupture. is a total of 75 fires, explosions or investigations of gas were reported. hundreds were evacuated and some 50 fire

department rushed to the scene. the cause of the blast is still unclear and the massachusetts government says that safety and shelter were the first priority. there will be plenty of time later tonight and tomorrow morning and into the next day to do some of the workaround determining exactly what has happened and why and what needs to be done to deal with that. the focus in the short term is to make sure we do everything we can in to provide shelter for people who need shelter. at least one person has died and i2 have been injured. investigators suspect over pressurisation of a gas main lead to the series of blasts and fires. the colombia gas company who supply gas to the area says it is investigating what happened. earlier that day it said it would upgrade gas lines in neighbourhoods across the state but it is unclear if this was one open locations where work was planned. residents supplied

by the companies are unable to return to their homes and many are in the dark about the state of their property. it may take days to work out what has happened and weeks for those affected to come home. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: volkswagen lose the love bug for their beetle. production of this iconic car is to end next year. 30 hours after the earthquake that devastated mexico city, rescue teams still have no idea just how many people have died. there is people alive, and there is people not alive. we just can help and give them whatever we've got. it looked as though they had come to fight a war, but their mission is to bring peace to east timor, and nowhere on earth needs it more badly. the government's case has been forcefully presented

by monsieur badinter, the justice minister. he has campaigned vigorously for the abolition, having once witnessed one of his clients being executed. elizabeth seton spent much of her time at this grotto, and every year, hundreds of pilgrimages are made here. now that she has become a saint, it is expected that this area will be inundated with tourists. the mayor and local businessman regard the anticipated boom as just another blessing of st elizabeth. you're watching the briefing. 0ur headlines: winds caused by hurricane florence are starting to hit coastal parts of north and south carolina. dozens of homes in the us state of massachusetts have been set on fire by gas explosions. at least one person has died. all this week, we've been reporting on the 10th anniversary of the collapse of lehman brothers bank in new york

which unleashed the global financial crisis. spain was particularly badly hit — a building boom funded by reckless borrowing rapidly gave way to a bust that cut growth and costjobs. 0ur europe correspondent kevin connolly went back to madrid to look for signs of recovery. not farfrom not far from bustling madrid, not farfrom bustling madrid, a ghostly spanish road to nowhere. a stretch of highway left unfinished ata time stretch of highway left unfinished at a time when businesses were losing their money and bankers were losing their money and bankers were losing their money and bankers were losing their nerve. there are ghost towns of empty houses, too, nearby, but in some of these, signs of change. in once deserted val de luz, the mayor says money spent on schools and sports facilities is bringing people in. it was empty.

val de luz six years ago was a ghost city. but now it is a star city. we changed the perception of the outside people. but spain's recovery is patchy. this community group in madrid campaigns against banks which re possess madrid campaigns against banks which repossess homes and families can't pay their mortgages. they say the poor are being punished for mistakes made by bankers and politicians. i'm sure things have not been fixed at all. people are losing their houses. we are fighting for their rights. the depression of the 1930s still hau nts the depression of the 1930s still haunts spain, too. this new leftist government wants to remove from this memorial site the remains of franco, the dictator who ruled as fascism prospered. there will be nothing like this to mark the fallout of the first financial crisis of the 21st

century. the consequences were less violent, less profound. but there we re violent, less profound. but there were changes on the left and right of european politics, and it's possible that the final consequences are still just working possible that the final consequences are stilljust working their way through the system. high streets have tipped over as public money has propped up the banking system and borrowing has been cheap. but some economists warned that policy is meant to fix the last crisis could yet trigger the next one. there is an old spanish saying that goes, " well, a pessimist is a well—informed optimist". you say when we have the crisis, not if. that's right, when, not if, because i'm sadly sure we will have another crisis. ten years on, spain can at least see a road to recovery, but there's highway to nowhere, a reminder that uncertainty

as well as opportunity lies in the future. now it's time to get all the latest from the bbc sports centre. i'm chetan pathak with friday's sport briefing. we're all waiting for the weigh—in in vegas between canelo and triple g. there's a rookie leading the final women's major of the season. and the davis cup semifinals get under way. gennady golovkin and canelo alvarez will go eyeball to eyeball at the weigh in on friday ahead of their rematch. a year on from their controversial draw, they meet again on saturday. it's being billed as the biggest fight in the sport of boxing and the fans in las vegas may well get to see more fireworks before the bout. talking of fireworks, carlos ramos, the umpire accused of sexism by serena williams during the us open final, takes charge of a court again when the usa's davis cup semi final

gets underway with croatia on friday. despite being the most successful tea m in davis cup history, the usa haven't made the final since 2007 when they last won it. hosts croatia are the favourites to win with world number six marin cilic in action on the opening day. every match is important but i feel the first day can be very crucial in all the ties, so i'm going to try to give my best, play good tennis, and hopefully with a great crowd from oui’ hopefully with a great crowd from our country, from our city, that i can get through. meanwhile, last year's winners, france, take on spain in lille. despite world number one rafa nadal missing because of injury, the french aren't taking their opponents lightly. it's going to be a tough one, very close. even though rafa is not here,

head—to—head, they are a better team, but this davis cup is crazy. we have a dream, to win this one, to defend our title in november. a rookie is leading the way after the opening round of the evian championship in france. this is only maria torres' second major since turning professional at the end of last year. the puerto rican sank two birdies and an eagle on the back nine for a round of 65. tying her for the lead is spain's carlota ciganda. she had a bogey—free round and sunk six birdies to also end the day on six under par. he still has the red jersey with just three stages remaining. the dream of winning one of cycling's grand tours is a step closerfor simon yates. the 18th stage of the vuelta a espana was won by belgium'sjelle wallays, who managed to hold off the chasing peloton after a breakaway. the overall leader yates

maintained his 25 second advanmtage over alejandro valverde going into stage 19. it's one of the most recognisable cars in the world — the volkswagen beetle. from its roots in nazi germany, it became a symbol of the hippie era. but now the german carmaker has said it will stop making the vehicle next year. vw says it's focusing on family—friendly models and electric power. here's lebo diseko. it's the end of the line for the bug. vw says it will stop making its much loved beetle nextjuly. the car has been through many incarnations through the years, with new, modern designs replacing the many iconic versions seen here. now, though, the company will stop producing the car altogether, it's left beetle lovers heartbroken. the beetle represents 20 years of

the compa ny‘s history. the beetle represents 20 years of the company's history. losing the beetle in production makes me feel like i'm losing a little bit of myself. the car was originally created in 1938 on adolf hitler's orders. he wanted a cheap, reliable people's car. but, by the freewheeling 60s, it found fame with the disney film, the love bug. its funky designs and cheap price made it a firm favourite but, despite being one of the bestselling cars of all time, sales have fallen in recent years. the company is trying to move forward after the diesel emissions scandal and looking towards new technology. some argue any remaining beetle magic died 15 years ago when the rear engine models stopped being made. the world is changing very quickly, manufacturers are all moving towards electric platforms for their cars.

this is an archaic, outmoded platform with an old motor in it. vw has got to move into the future. but it may not be the end of the road forever, with some suggesting a new electric version might one day be made. so perhaps it's farewell rather than goodbye for this old friend. i'm certainly going to miss that one. we had an orange one, and i remember many happy holidays in that orange beetle. we've been asking you to talk to us about what you miss, your long—lost favourites. doesn't have to be cars but we had one tweet from john mcdonald in china saying, ca i’s from john mcdonald in china saying, cars from the past i miss, the ford capri, the ford cortina and the triumph spitfire. we've also heard from charles lloyd in derbyshire saying, maybe like rock stars, they'll make a comeback in the next decade, which, as luck would have it, is only two years away. plenty

more in the business briefing. hello. well, before we go to the weather for the uk, an update on hurricane florence battering the east coast of the united states. and the worst of the weather is technically still out to sea. the storm's eye isn't expected to cross land, that is, make landfall, until around about lunchtime on friday uk time. but it has already been battering north carolina, south carolina, areas towards the north as well as further inland, and it is a slow—moving storm, that means it is dumping a lot of rainfall in the same place for a considerable amount of time, and those destructive winds, the storm surge, likely to be some showery weather in the north of the

country but drier and brighter in the south, and this is the latest satellite image, a lot of cloud streaming in across more northern parts of the uk. clouds more broken up parts of the uk. clouds more broken up further towards the south, so the forecast for the early hours of friday morning, some rain to northern ireland, western scotland, the north—west of england as well. sales of that, dry start, with some lovely sunshine on the way the many central and southern parts of the country, but through friday morning, we are going to see increasing cloud across northern england, wales, possibly into the midlands, and some on and off rain, but eventually most of it will peter out and will be on and off showers through the course of the afternoon. cool in the north, 12 degrees. high teens in the south. as we go through the course of friday, into saturday, this area of high pressure starts to build in from the south. that effectively means dry weather for southern parts of the uk on saturday. central areas will see some sunshine, too, and

eastern scotland, i think, fine weather, but later on in the northwest, another weather front moving in, so rain expected in belfast later in the day. temperatures up to 21 on saturday. sunday's weather forecast, a temperatures up to 21 on saturday. sunday's weatherforecast, a cool front moving through the uk. that means sometime on sunday there will be some rain in central areas, but either side we will get some sunshine. that's the latest from me. hello. this is the business briefing. trading blows. to 20 ministers gather in argentina as donald trump tower of tensions run high. plus ten years on from the colla pse high. plus ten years on from the collapse of leeman brothers, how has the rise of china saved asia from the rise of china saved asia from the worst of the crisis. and here is what is happening at the markets at the moment. a recovery in the asian markets after a solid day for the us markets. there were hopes that the

us and china could restart some trade talks and stop an escalation of that damaging trade war.