this is newsday on the bbc. more than 800 people have been killed by a tsunami and earthquake on the indonesian island of sulawesi. there are fears that thousands more have died. —— as aid supplies trickle in, many desperate residents resort to looting. translation: we need to eat, we don't have any other choice, we must get food. translation: we're in a crisis, we have nothing for our basic needs. food, water, we desperately need them. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: switching on in style. spectacular celebrations commemorate the birth of modern china. and unlocking the secret life of the geisha: a new film lifts the lid on one ofjapan‘s most misunderstood traditions. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. glad you could join us.

it's 8am in singapore, 1am in london, and also 8am on the indonesian island of sulawesi, where the authorities are digging mass graves for hundreds of victims of the earthquake and tsunami which struck on friday. the number of people killed currently stands at over 800, but there's a warning that thousands may have perished. presidentjoko widodo visited one of the worst affected areas on sunday. he said that he was grieving for the people there. our correspondent rebecca henschke is one of the first foreign correspondents to reach palu, where rescuers are still searching through the wreckage to try to find any more survivors, she sent this report. up to 50 people are believed to be still under the rubble of the roa roa hotel here in palu city. rescue workers are trying to find survivors. with no heavy building

equipment available, they're using whatever they have. cries of help had been heard from the rubble. in this case, it came too late. presidentjoko widodo has visited the area, promising to speed up the aid operation. hundreds of military personnel have been deployed, and some of the most vulnerable are getting help. those left behind are struggling. and with aid only nowjust trickling in, desperate residents are taking matters into their own hands. translation: we need to eat, we don't have any other choice, we must get food. translation: we're in a crisis, we have nothing for our basic needs. food, water, we desperately need them. desperate relatives are flocking to the area to try to find out the fate of loved ones.

this lady hasn't heard from her son and daughter. translation: i'm going out of my mind. i don't know where my children are. i'm going crazy with worry about them. i have no news at all. she still has a long way to go to reach palu. we arrive after hours waiting for landslides to be cleared. people that i'm meeting here are saying that they haven't received any of that promised aid. the houses behind me that have been completely destroyed by the quake, those families are now camping out in tents, salvaging what they could for their homes. but they say they have only limited supplies to last into the coming days, and are breaking down in tears when i ask them about how they're coping. all along this coast road from the left and the right, for metres in, is all rubble. all these families have fled to higher ground.

those that didn't flee in time were caught up in those waves, and the death toll here is expected to rise. i've been to the hospital near here that's struggling to cope with the injured and many people are still missing, unable to find their families. the bodies from this area are lined up at the nearby health clinic. doctors say that in this muslim majority country, they will be buried in a mass grave soon to stop the spread of diseases. translation: they are starting to smell. we want to wait for relatives to pick them up, but we can't wait any longer. this five—year—old girl was found alone with a broken leg. she knows her name, but herfamily is missing and she can't remember where she lived. doctors are doing what they can to look after her. rebecca henschke, bbc news, palu, sulawesi.

as we've been hearing, rescuers on the island are struggling against the clock and a lack of heavy equipment. in the city of palu, up to 60 people feared to be buried underneath one hotel alone. and desperate survivors in the area have turned to foraging shops for food, water and fuel. a short time ago, mariko oi gave this update from makassar in sulawesi. is in the city of makassar, which is in the southern part of the sulawesi island. this is as far as we could get last night, as you can see, behind me is the airport and we have been booked to fly there later this morning. there are some confusions over whether we can actually catch that flight. until now, the palu airport has been shut for commercial flights, understandably, to give the priority to the chartered planes, helicopters to get those crucial supplies like water, food and fuel to those who survived

the earthquake and the tsunami. as rescuers get to grips with the situation, there are fears that the death toll could rise. indeed, at the moment the official figure is just over 800 but even when the authorities announced that number yesterday on sunday, they warned that it could rise further, it could actually be in the thousands. of course, indonesia is prone to these earthquakes. only just about two months ago in early august, several strong earthquakes hit the island of lombok, as well as a very popular tourist destination, bali, killing hundreds of people as well. and of course, many of our viewers would remember the earthquake from 2004 which killed hundreds of thousands of people, and that's because the country lies in what is known as the ring

of fire, where a majority of the world's earthquakes take place, and yet in some poorer parts of the country, especially somewhere like palu, the buildings, they don't have the money to build strong enough buildings to survive those earthquakes. it was very telling during the lombok earthquake in that many international hotels managed to survive the earthquake and yet a lot of local homes were destroyed. and mariko, given what happened in 2004, as an alert system, a warning system was introduced, and yet i think viewers will be really surprised to hear that that alert system, that advanced system wasn't working. that's right. they were implemented and yet the country hasn't managed to come up with enough money to keep maintaining them, so back in 2016 when there was a big earthquake, it revealed that some of them were damaged and because they weren't properly maintained, they weren't working properly and there have been some experts voicing criticisms, saying that it's heartbreaking to see

all of these people dying, even though when the systems have been available and could have been installed properly. others do disagree though, kasia, saying that each earthquake, each tsunami is different and it's impossible to come up with a perfect solution. the government hasn't responded to those criticisms, but i'm sure they would say that it's too early to start pointing fingers at each other. that the current priority is to rescue those who are still buried alive in palu. yes, absolutely that is the current priority. she is now on her way to palu and she will be joining priority. she is now on her way to palu and she will bejoining our foreign correspondence, he was actually one of the first foreign correspondents to reach the situation there. we will get more on the situation in sulawesi a little later here on newsday.

also making news today: tokyo is bracing itself for the arrival of typhoon trami. the weather system has already caused flooding in parts of western japan. some rail and subway services have been suspended, and more than 1000 airline flights have been cancelled. evacuation orders are in place in some areas, and 750,000 homes in and around tokyo have been left without power. a south korean mp says the number of defectors leaving the north for the south has fallen sharply since kimjong—un came to power. park byeong—seug said that official records showed the number decreasing by almost 60% since 2011. he said that tighter controls on the border between china and north korea were a key factor. british prime minister theresa may has rejected claims she does not believe in brexit, and insisted that she would make a success of it "regardless of the outcome" of talks. mrs may asked her conservative party — which is gathering in birmingham for their annual party conference — to back her post—brexit trade plan.

i do believe in brexit, but crucially, i believe in delivering brexit in a way that respects the vote and delivers on the vote of the british people, while also protecting our union, protecting jobs, and ensuring that we make a success of brexit for the future. there's been a low turnout in a referendum in macedonia on whether to change the country's name to north macedonia. the electoral authority said little more than a third of macedonians had voted — well short of the 50% needed for the poll to be valid. now, let's turn to china, where monday the first of october is the national day, and to get into the spirit of the event, several cities across the country have been staging these amazing light shows. this is just a flavour of what was on offer in shenzhen, where more than1 million led lights were installed on the skyscrapers to illuminate the night sky. it looks fantastic.

most people in china will be on holiday for what is known as the golden week, this year marks the 69th anniversary of the founding of the people's republic. let's talk more about the earthquake and tsunami in sulawesi. joining me now, ridwan sobri from the indonesian red cross. he's in the capital, jakarta. thank you so much forjoining us. 0ur thank you so much forjoining us. our deepest condolences on the many losses of your fellow indonesian people in the island of sulawesi. how many red cross volunteers and staff members are already on the ground? yeah, we have currently 73 on the grounds. we are just working 110w on the grounds. we are just working now within the sulawesi islands and yeah, they raced into palu and they

also assessed around the areas. and 71 volunteers and staff members from the red cross is not sufficient to help out in the search and rescue, medical support and distribution of emergency relief supplies. how many more volunteers are you expecting to join this current number of 73 in palu? yes, we are counting our volu nteers palu? yes, we are counting our volunteers now and there will be at least 400 people as volunteers, who specialise in the medical assessment... it has already been three days since the earthquake and tsunami struck the island of sulawesi, when you expect these more than 300 additional volunteers and staff members to get to palu? we have to manage our resorts is as

well, so we have to immobilise from the sulawesi island itself because from jakarta, it is quite far away. we took two hours to get there and we have to take by road at least eight hours. so this week, will make sure that all the volunteers can be deployed in that area. all right, but a lot of the road is into palu have been cut off so supplies are 110w have been cut off so supplies are now being sent by air and sea? yes, that's true. so we dispatched by air, via the sea, and also by land because we have our regional airport in sulawesi, so we can just go there. what additional emergency

medical supplies to the people of sulawesi still need 7 medical supplies to the people of sulawesi still need? yeah, at the moment, wheat, we dispatched suppliers such as body bags, we have dispatched 1600 body bags because we thought there will be an increasing number, as well as 800 people died and the rest is also, we sent supplies of blood. so yesterday, we spent about 100 boxes of blood, and decide that, also medical supplies

and yeah, we dispatched from jakarta and yeah, we dispatched from jakarta and makassar. we appreciate you joining us during these trying times in indonesia. you're watching newsday on the bbc. live from singapore and london. still to come on the programme... we'll be looking at what's in your energy drink — an australian report has found excessive levels of caffeine. also coming up on the programme... how becoming a geisha was a way for women to escape poverty. a new documentary looks at what their lives were really like. in all russia's turmoil, it has never come to this. president yeltsin said the day would decide the nation's destiny. the nightmare that so many people had feared for so long is playing out its final act here.

russians are killing russians in front of a grandstand audience. it was his humility which produced affection from catholics throughout the world, but his departure is a tragedy for the catholic church. israel's right—winger, ariel sharon, visited the religious compound, and that started the trouble. he wants israel alone to have sovereignty over the holy sites — an idea that's unthinkable to palestinians. after 45 years of division, germany is one. in berlin, a million germans celebrate the rebirth of europe's biggest and richest nation. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm rico hizon in singapore. i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories:

over 800 people are confirmed dead on the island of sulawesi, with fears the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami could rise to the thousands. aid supplies have started to reach sulawesi, but many desperate residents have resorted to looting supermarkets and petrol stations. let's take a look at some front pages from the newspapers. the south china morning post leads on the indonesian earthquake. it says the death toll could hit thousands, once rescuers reach areas where victims are trapped although it reports that in the city of donggala, close to the epicentre, many residents managed to flee to higher ground to escape. the japan times concentrates on the typhoon that's made landfall there. it shows a picture of a women leaning into powerful winds in the city of kagoshima

where rainfall has been at levels seen only once before in half a century. and india's business standard newspaper covers a shortage in vital drugs, blamed on china. it says antibiotics, steroids, and other drugs are becoming hard to find because chinese companies have cut back production. now, kasia, a change of name is sparking plenty of interest online. yes, the rap star kanye west has re—branded himself on twitter by shortening his name to ye. here's how he broke the news to the world, describing himself as the being formally known as kanye west. as he put it — ‘i am now ye'. he added more later on — saying that he will now

always be ye. and he also left his twitter page without any images on it, just a blank white header with a link to his website. he hasn't explained the reason for his name change but he has used ye as a nickname in the past and also in the title of one of his albums. and there's more on that on our website — at bbc.com/news i have a name for you, kasia. the new name is. —— your i have a name for you, kasia. the new name is. —— your new name i have a name for you, kasia. the new name is. —— your new name is ka. that is what is trending online. thank you, kasia. recent years have seen a huge increase in popularity of sports drink and other supplements in the fitness industry. but are all of them completely safe? not according to research carried out in australia which suggests that around half of the products tested contained

excessive and potentially harmful amounts of caffeine. ben desbrow, the lead researcher on this study, joined me a short time ago from queensland. well, caffeine is probably the best—known what we call ergogenic substance. it means enhancing. it improves your ability to do some forms of sports. one of the things we know about caffeine is you don't need very much of it to have these performance—enhancing effects. with these supplements, what we found is — we wanted to explore exactly how much caffeine was in them, because many of the products don't list the caffeine which is in them. and many of the products we found, in fact about a third of the products we found, contained over 300 mg of caffeine per serve, which is the equivalent of about three to four cups of coffee in a very small serve. so ben, you mentioned that half the products that you tested contained high amounts of caffeine.

are the products named in your study? so these products are purchased — we purchased these products either in—store or online. they‘ re commercial products, that are available and heavily marketed to people who attend gyms or who are looking to change their body composition through weight training. but what we have also found is that, anecdotally, a lot of people use these pre—workout supplements to just stay awake, or to function within their sort of normal day—to—day living, so they are not exclusively used by gym—goers. for many people around the world, geishas are perhaps one of the most iconic apsects of japanese culture. but while the word evokes an image of grace and style, few can describe exactly what it means. well that's about to change, because japanese director, ken nishikawa, has made a highly—regarded documentary explaining the life of a geisha. lets have a look. what you are about to see is a documentary of a woman who, in this 21st century,

still lives the life of a true geisha, in every sense of the word. i should know — this woman is my mother. she is one of the last surviving true geisha in japan. ken nishikawa, director, and mike rogers, producer, joined me earlier to talk about the movie and i started by asking ken about his mother who's a geisha. it's — it takes quite a lot of words, i think. but she's basically, in my film — so she's more than a girlfriend, wife or mother. it's a living piece of art. a living piece of art, my goodness. and mike, you produced this film. you are also a dj. you host a very popular, popular radio show. you understand japanese culture. you have been living

there for many years. how important is the geisha in japanese culture? is it still relevant today? yes, actually. it's probably one of the — it's the last living legend, i suppose. because westerners want to see — when they go to japan, they want to see ninja, samurai, you can still get sushi everywhere, but geisha is one of the last cultural icons that still exists in japan. but it's dying out. do modern women want to do this as a profession? it's mostly — you know, true geishas were basically sold into being a geisha, so modern—day geishas do it forfashion or style, because they like it. they don't have the qualities of... tragic qualities, if you like. the tragic qualities of a traditional geisha. because that is very important, ken. your mother — it all started because your mother came from a desperately poor family. they were heavily indebted, and this was one way of coping with that.

yes, and that was very common in her day. but i don't think modern geishas get into that profession for that particular reason anymore. and when we talk about the profession, because — it's. .. i don't want to use — it's really difficult to really understand what they do. it is a woman who provides support, a conversation, makes tea? what does your mother do on a day—to—day basis? well, she dances. she's a professional dancer. if you're a geisha, you either sing, play shamisen, which is a stringed instrument, or dance. and dance is the main thing. and you are here in london for the premiere of the film at the raindance film festival. what are you expecting, mike? the main show on friday night has already sold out, and wednesday night's show, as of this moment, seven tickets left.

so we're very happy about the reaction we've gotten, and several people have seen the movie, and they gave us basically rave reviews. you have been watching newsday. i'm kasia madera in london. and i'm rico hizon in singapore. stay with us. india's streaming market is proving a tough nut to crack for american tech giants netflix and amazon. we will see why in the final edition of our reinventing india series. and before we go, just a reminder of the devastation caused by the tsunami in indonesia's sulawesi island. the fear is that the death toll will increase. we will bring you more on that. hello there. with plenty of showers around across the northern half of the uk yesterday and south—west england, we had a number of rainbows spotted by our weather watchers.

this was one of these, from devon. thanks to gazzledazzle for sending that in. a few more showers around, but there will be some sunshine. but it will be it. patchy frost in the countryside for scotland and northern england over the next few hours. if you're heading out, wrap up warm. just two or three degrees there for newcastle and for edinburgh. so a ridge of high pressure with us first thing on monday, but we do have an approaching low. it will ultimately bring some rain from the north—west, so enjoy the sunshine first thing in the morning. they should be plenty of that to go around. it's probably going to be the sunniest day of the week ahead, to be honest.

things will tend to cloud over from the north and west as the day goes by, and watch out for few showers continuing to feed into the irish sea coasts, perhaps into cheshire, greater manchester and merseyside, on and off through the day. we'll have more general rain pushing in the scotland and maybe northern ireland as we head through the afternoon, the winds picking up. relatively cool air with us, top temperatures about 15 degrees. but that cool air is moved away by this wodge of milder air as we go on to monday night and into tuesday. now, that's all associated with a warm sector, with the warmest of the air across england and wales on tuesday. this is how tuesday starts, a very mild note. temperatures at 14 degrees, also, to start the day. there will be rain or drizzle, especially around western coasts and hills, where it may well stay quite damp. the cloud will break at times across these areas, to get some brighter or sunny spells. a warm day, actually, across south—east england, with highs of 20. we're still into the cool air in northern england, northern ireland and scotland. temperatures for these areas more particularly around 12—14 degrees. another warm front moves into the uk on wednesday, again bringing more rain to the north—west of scotland. could be quite heavy at times. a lot of cloud, you'll notice, on the charts. still quite mild in the south, little change further north, temperature around 12 or 13 celsius.

what about thursday's weather prospect? well, again, a more active weather front moving into the north—western part of the country, so turning soggy for northern ireland and scotland, with some heavy rain. the winds picking up here. perhaps a little bit of rain getting across the hills of northern england and north wales. however, it should stay dry and bright in the south—east. highs of 19 in london. still quite cool, then, for northern scotland, with 12 in stornoway. so looking at the weather for the rest of this week, it's often going to be pretty cloudy. there will be some rain at times, particularly in the north—west, and it'll be quite breezy at times, too. you are watching bbc news. our main story: over 800 people have been killed by a tsunami and earthquake on the indonesian island of sulawesi. there are fears that thousands more have died, as whole towns were reduced to rubble. survivors are now struggling without food, water or power supplies. indonesia's president has promised to provide all the help they need. typhoon trami has made landfall in japan, injuring at least 80 people. 0saka's international airport, which was crippled by another

typhoon earlier this month, had to shut again. and these pictures are popular on our website. they are from the chinese city of shenzhen, where more than a million led lights were installed to mark china's national day. this year marks the 69th anniversary of the founding of the people's republic. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: the brexit secretary, dominic raab, will use his speech at the conservative party conference later to insist the government