this is bbc world news today. i'm nancy kacungira. our top stories... rescue efforts ramp up in the bahamas. the government warns the final death toll from hurricane dorian will be ‘staggering' as the clear—up operation begins. i think it will not recover until the next ten years, fully recover because everything is gone. absolutely everything is gone. zimba bwe‘s president pays tribute to robert mugabe, calling the late leader a national hero, but fails to mention the suffering endured under his rule. comrade mugabe leaves a rich and

tenacious legacy on the collective rights of africa and africans. a turbulent week for britain's prime minster ends with opposition parties uniting to block a snap general election in october. and coming up — a huge moment for india as hopes to land a space craft on the moon within the next hour. hello and welcome to world news today. officials in the bahamas say the number of deaths caused by hurrican dorian could be ‘staggering'. at the moment, 30 people are known to have been killed, but many areas remain cut off. in the last hours, dorian has made landfall over cape hatteras in north carolina and has weakened to a category 1 storm. but the full force of the hurricane was felt in the abaco islands in the bahamas.

these are the latest pictures from there — along with aid and equipment, officials are sending morticians and hundreds of body bags. richard galpin has this report. it is hard to imagine how anyone can survive here, in this, the ruins of marsh harbour, one of the largest cities in the abaco islands. dorian, a category five hurricane, hit this island at full force and stayed over it for two days. hundreds or possibly thousands of people are missing here and on other neighbouring islands. i honestly believe abaco is finished. i think abaco will not recover until the next ten years. like, fully recover, because everything is gone, absolutely everything is gone. and that includes food. inevitably, some people have been breaking into shops to find something to eat and drink. and supplies becoming

increasingly scarce. help is at hand from this british naval vessel which has been in the area on hurricane watch for some time. it has been delivering essential supplies, including hygiene kits and clean drinking water to those most to on this island. other international and local organisations have also been bringing in small amounts of food. and the united nations is now promising to fly in 85 tons of ready to eat meals. but when this will arrive is unclear. in any disaster response, aid does not get to the affected areas as quickly as you want but in this case it is particularly challenging because so much of the infrastructure has been completely destroyed. we are hearing the airspace is dangerously overcrowded so we are prioritising those things which are most needed. but for many of the survivors here, conditions are so bad that they are trying to get away from this island as quickly as possible.

richard galpin, bbc news. let's stay with that story. we can speak to ariel kestens now, he's from the international federation of the red cross and is in nassau, the capital of bahamas. thank you very much forjoining us. tell us a little bit about your assessment of the need at the moment. i hope you can hear me. we would like to start off with your assessment of the situation on the ground. what are the biggest needs and what is the scale of the requirements at the moment? u nfortu nately requirements at the moment? unfortunately it looks like we might have lost him there. we will see if we can pick them up a little bit later. india is preparing to become

the first country to land a mission on the south pole of the moon. chandrayaan—2 entered the moon's orbit on 20 august, a month after take—off. the lander it's carrying is due to make the historic touchdown on the unexplored south pole in the next hour. if successful, india will become only the fourth country to make a soft landing on the lunar surface, after the former soviet union, the us and china. joining me now from california is bidushi bhattacharya, a former nasa scientist who now runs her own space technology corporation. thank you very much forjoining us. what an exciting moment. give us some context about why this is such a big deal. i am really excited to be here. this is the fourth country thatis be here. this is the fourth country that is going to land on the moon and the thing with india is you have all these innovations coming in under cost so it is a fantastic

opportunity not only for a technology but are bringing and research from around the world so we have a collaborative opportunity on a global scale and i have to say from the commercial standpoint this is rather fantastic because all the work that is being done right now is easier to understand the moon and help us build colonies in the future. how will this help us understand them men that are? they have instruments on board that will look at the lunar surface to look for minerals and map of the moon in detail and we have a general sense of what the man is about but only four countries have landed there and it isa four countries have landed there and it is a big place so more detailed information we have on the composition and what can be extracted for commercial purposes, the more we can help people on planet earth. tell us more about what we can expect to see in the next hour or so when we look at our screens. next hour or so when we look at our

screens. what can we expect to witness? i am watching live now on the indian space organisation flight channel and many people are looking at screens and what will happen is the orbiter is going around the moon and travelling at a very high rate and travelling at a very high rate and it will have to slow down its speed very quickly and when he gets to about 400 metres above the surface of the moon it will slow down and take an image to try to do a system check and make sure it knows where it is and this is a huge technical challenge because unlike here on earth where we have gps to tell us where we are, they will have to figure out the orientation, if they are upright, the speed at which they are upright, the speed at which they are upright, the speed at which they are going and to get an understanding of the terrain. they have artificial software on board that makes a decision autonomously and remember the distance from here to the men the signal from the radio ta kes a to the men the signal from the radio takes a second and i half to get there so there is no way they can

transmit images to the scientists and engineers here to allow them to make any decisions and send commands back, it has to be done on the fly on the space craft. so it will come down to 100 metres and look again and decide between two landing sites to see which would be the best he land and the issues here could be creators or land and the issues here could be creators 01’ i’ocks land and the issues here could be creators or rocks and this is a surface that has not been disturbed for billions of years so it will not be exactly smooth and they need to be exactly smooth and they need to be able to land properly because they have a limit to the angle at which they can land and the next thing that will happen once they have landed as they will let the dust settled for about three hours than they will put out a ramp and the rover will come down to start to ta ke the rover will come down to start to take images and wander around the surface and that is when we look at the really cool images. a challenging mission but when we will be watching very closely with you. thank you very much. the former president of zimbabwe robert mugabe has died at the age of 95.

mr mugabe dominated his country for decades. he led the independence struggle against white minority rule and then himself ruled zimbabwe for 37 years. his early achievements in broadening access to health and education for the black majority were later marred by violence and economic collapse. our correspondent shingai nyoka reports from the capital harare. he was once zimbabwe's liberator, leading the fight against white minority rule but by the end, the adulation president mugabe once enjoyed was gone. i, robert gabriel mugabe... he cemented his power winning overwhelmingly at elections in 1980. as leader of a new nation he set about creating a better country than the one he inherited. there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under

the lancaster house agreement. surely, this is now time to beat our swords into ploughsha res. he spent massively on education and infrastructural development, building a thriving black middle class and one of the most literate populations on the continent. but there was a vicious, ruthless side to the statesman. between 1983 and 1987, mugabe deployed a military unit trained by the north koreans to deal with his political opponents in the south of the country. thousands were murdered and the world seemed happy to turn a blind eye. but as the 1990s ended the economy was in trouble. facing new political opposition, mugabe made a fateful step. he gave the go—ahead for the seizure of white—owned farms. he knew this was a fertile ground. this was the land that the country's wealth was built on. white farmers fled, the western world took note, breaking diplomatic ties

and imposing economic sanctions. the opposition, its leaders, human rights workers, bore the brunt of his anger. in 2008 in the midst of a billion per cent inflation and widespread unemployment, mr mugabe suffered his first electoral defeat. it only led to more violence in the second round of voting. britain stripped him of his knighthood. former allies condemned him. nearer to home we have seen the outbreak of violence against fellow africans in our own country, and the tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring zimbabwe. tonight, president emmerson mnangagwa paid this tribute. a veteran nationalist and a pan—africanist fighter,

comrade mugabe bequeaths a reach and indelible legacy of tenacious adherence to principle on the collective rights of africa and africans in general and in particular the rights of the people of zimbabwe. in harare, many people chose to remember the liberator. he was my first president. so, to me, he deserves a great honour. this is sad news. we have lost a good father. mugabe was all right. but the truth of his last years in power was that his country was collapsing around him, he could no longer hide his frailty and lent increasingly on his younger wife grace. she had ambitions of her own but the rising discontent in the party he dominated for over 40 years led to them both being outmanoeuvred by his right—hand man emmerson

mnangagwa. in what was effectively a military coup, mugabe was ousted and the country celebrated. there are reminders of robert mugabe everywhere but here on the streets there are no visible signs of mourning. that's because he lived out his last years cut off from public and political life in an opulent mansion far removed from the struggles of many zimbabweans. many will remember him as a gifted orator and visionary who liberated zimbabwe but who turned his back on the high ideals he'd originally believed in. a long week in british politics is coming to an end, dominated by the next steps in brexit, and attempts by the prime minister borisjohnson to call an early election. so far, those attempts have failed, with opposition parties coming together and inisting one can't happen until after an eu summit in mid—october. the opposition parties are also

close to succeess in passing a law that would prevent a no—deal brexit. here's our deputy uk political editorjohn pienaar. much easier, this, than leading the country. borisjohnson‘s trying to call an election before brexit to stick to his plan, leave on time deal or no deal. but he's lost control and he wants it back. we must get brexit done and that's my message to my colleagues. let's come together, get this thing over the line and unite our country, then get on with defeating the labour opposition. you know, when they finally have the guts to have an election. you can almost smell the election coming but he is having to wait. a spectator, as his opponents try to force him to give up on a no—deal brexit, break his promise, maybe his premiership. you keep mentioning october 31st,

you've made it abundantly clear that's your line in the sand. if you can't deliver that, you're going to have to resign. that is not a hypothesis i'm willing to contemplate. i want us to get this thing done. today in the lords, the legislation banning no deal was sent to become law, decreeing there would be no election until brexit is delayed. as many of that opinion will say "content". content! to the contrary, "not content". the contents have it. opponents had coordinated their plans. we've agreed that we're not going to give the prime minister the general election he is so desperate for until an extension is secured and the risk of no deal is completely eliminated. the prime minister is on the run. boris is broken. we have an opportunity to bring down boris, to break boris, to bring down brexit. and we must take that. i want an election, the snp wants an election, but we will do that when we have made sure that the security

of our citizens is determined. and you want to weaken borisjohnson ahead of that election by making him break his word. well, he has gone out with ridiculous promises of leaving the european union on 31st october. borisjohnson, that's not going to happen. no sight ofjeremy corbyn, though, he gathered opposition leaders by phone. labour's brexit policy is still a work in progress. but the party's joined the alliance that's cornered borisjohnson. and in downing street they're searching for a plan, any plan that will somehow help the pm regain some kind of control. he's sworn he will never seek an extension to brexit but now a new law could force him to do just that. he won't break his word, he can't break the law. mrjohnson needs to find a way to force an election, or salvage his to deliver brexit, maybe without reaching an eu deal first, and in there there is no sign they have found one. are you asking for an extension, mr frost? what chance of a last—minute deal? britain's brexit negotiator david frost has been in brussels today but the finnish pm,

who is chairing the eu, suggested a no—deal brexit could be close. it seems very obvious that we are not yet in brexit agreement. on with the whites and off to peterhead market, campaigning keeps you busy. haggling is part of the job. £50 per fish. good god, expensive fish! boris johnson is famously upbeat but his premiership could still end badly. let's go back to a story around which there is a lot of anticipation. india is preparing to become the first country to land a mission on the south pole of the moon. joining me now from california is bidushi bhattacharya, a former nasa scientist who now

runs her own space technology corporation. things are coming back again and speak to me on how significant a moment this is for nds. speak to me on how significant a moment this is for ndsi speak to me on how significant a moment this is for nds. i have to speak as a moment this is for nds. i have to speak 3s a nongovernment moment this is for nds. i have to speak as a nongovernment employer, i used to work for nasa and now i am ina used to work for nasa and now i am in a private sector. i have been tied to it very closely and my a ncestors tied to it very closely and my ancestors left the at the time the partition so i have ties to the country from an emotional side and this is a very cool mission for india because it is 100% home—grown, the components, every component, all the components, every component, all the software and hardware is done in country and has not had to rely on outside of the country and it is all proof of concept of getting to the moon, of deep technology and ai within india itself. what is happening right now? tell us a little bit about what we can see? when i am doing right now is looking at mission control video from this

railand at mission control video from this rail and they are showing the control room and they had a bunch of people applied, i think what is going on now, they are lowering the breaking speed and what you can see now, there is a screen showing they are now, there is a screen showing they a re halfway now, there is a screen showing they are halfway down, so they are at seven km above the surface right now and what they are doing is rough breaking and breaking really hard to get the velocity down to a manageable level and after they get down to about 400 metres as we said earlier, they will look around to see where they are and once they decide where they are they will slow down further and at 100 metres they will make a choice between two pre—identified landing sites. we saw a lot of schoolchildren selected throughout and get to come and watch this and now we see that they are coming down close to four km above the surface. the moon is very dusty, and the service has not been touched for millions of years and what we will see is what is known as a soft landing. they do not want to come

down with their engines firing against the moon gravity and what they will want to do is actually fire thruster is very softly so they do not take up a bunch of dust because that dust will end up all over the spacecraft and when you open the door of the spacecraft to let out the land or, you do not want it to be covered and dust showered upon it because the instruments and cameras need to be as clean as possible so a soft landing is key. i see now they are about two and a half kilometres above the surface of the moon. this is quite a risky mission, isn't it? a lot can go wrong but these are really smart people and i think a lot can go right. a few months ago the israelis tried this and just before landing the instruments cut out and u nfortu nately were not the instruments cut out and unfortunately were not able to land and crash landed rather than soft landed so we are in the fine braking

phase and this is very exciting. aide turned off the rough breaking and will go to a refined braking system to not take up a lot of dust and come down as softly as possible and come down as softly as possible and they do not want to jar all of the instruments and it is also so you do not have a big dust storm interfering with the sensors afterward. we can imagine what the atmosphere in that room is, can't you? you can look at the faces of all those people, they are so excited and tense and i watch so many missions i worked on go up and turn on and it is a breathtaking moment, you cannot stop your heart from beating, it is very exciting. a practise test hundreds of times so i think they have a great deal of confidence that you never know and space as confidence that you never know and space as a game confidence that you never know and space as a game changer, confidence that you never know and space as a game changer, you can confidence that you never know and space as a game changer, you can try on the ground a thousand times by getting up there in space, all sorts of unpredictable things can happen. as you said, this is something

practise many times before but this will be entirely different from this practise runs, want to? absolutely. when you are out side of the earth possibly gravity, a game changer. instruments can go funny, not radiation can affect software and hardware systems and an unexpected way and hopefully they have done the planning and have all the contingencies in place that they have the hardware and software knowing how to react to one another and if there are any unexpected signals coming in in terms of dust radiation they can fix that. we can see that there are a lot of people watching this, a lot of important people watching this. obviously the prime minister has his eyes on this as well. what can we expect if this mission is successful? other than i°y mission is successful? other than joy and celebration in india, i think the world over, and is one of the serious players of the sector and this will put them in the lead in terms of viable, accessible

technology to get us up and outer space. they got to the men and have already gone to mars and they provide the best and most reliable and inexpensive rockets for satellites around the world. this will make them a serious player and long—term implications are huge for the commercial sector as well. thank you very much. stay with us, we were talking about the atmosphere in the ram at that and let's listen in and hear what is going on now. those are the scenes from the control room there, where india as

we know is preparing to become the first country to land a mission on the south pole of the moon. if we talk back to you, tell us a little bit more now about what the significance of this moment is in terms of what we can learn about the men from the events that are happening right now?|j men from the events that are happening right now? i think from my own perspective as a former government nasa scientist, coming into the commercial sector, i see a significant impact on the worlds economy from this particular mission and we have a general sense of what that means that we have not been able to there or the amount of water on the moon for example and i do see the possibility of winter colonies in the next few decades, for the purposes of science and explanation for exploration and for us to go up there, but we realistically cannot

ta ke there, but we realistically cannot take everything out there, there is a lot of ways and a lot of weight and very expensive to get up there so we and very expensive to get up there so we need to figure out what is locally available to get locally sourced materials that we are going to need to either 3d print what we need or to get people up there so everything we learn from this mission i see as immediately implications coming out of the commercial sector. are you able to tell what is going on right now as a look at this speed or perhaps people that you are following or do you have any sense of what is going on in that room right now.|j have any sense of what is going on in that room right now. i am looking at the plot we had of the dissent and one thing i did noticed was that the rate done a great at this event was a little faster than anticipated because you see this line here is a bit more vertical and is sharper than they initially thought. they are not zooming in to show us exactly what distance we are at right now but it looks like less

than a kilometre and i remember at about half a kilometre there is a 12 second hold with the spacecraft stops and does a visual inspection using software on board at that point and deciding where to go and what not to go and it dissents another 300 metres and just when it is 100 metres above the surface it will make a final decision autonomously without input, autonomously without input, autonomously there will be software that decides whether to choose landing site one or two and i suspect right now the orbiter or outlander is just there. suspect right now the orbiter or outlander isjust there. for suspect right now the orbiter or outlander is just there. for the uninitiated, how will we know when the landing actually takes place? uninitiated, how will we know when the landing actually takes place ?|j think it will be able to tell by the looks on people because faces, i think they will pretty clear. fairly obvious from the faces at least.|j think so, they are not zooming in and providing us with real—time data at this point say you are seeing

what i am saying and i suspect there isa what i am saying and i suspect there is a lot going on in the background and people talking to each other and trying to understand the velocity because we are getting measurements back with 1.3 second delay so whatever is happening on the men we are learning about all moustache second and a half later and they are looking at speeds in orientation in the lander was coming in at sort of a horizontal angle and had to com pletely a horizontal angle and had to completely write itself and land properly and i am sure they are looking at where exactly those legs are and relative to the surface of the men. they do have a contingency plan and do have a slight angle. but they need to be sure it that it is where it thinks it is. remember they do not have gps develop them and tell them exactly the altitude or location. the lander has to figure out on its own its own hardware and software. looking at the faces in the room, they are starting to look

a little bit stressed. or concern perhaps? they are, and i am marginally concerned because i see that the green line is much more vertical than i had expected it to be soiam vertical than i had expected it to be so i am not clear on what is going on. it looks like someone is coming up with some big news for the prime minister here. so there is no way of really telling what exactly is going on right now, is there?|j is going on right now, is there?” cannot tell in the audio feed, do you have the audio feed in english? ido you have the audio feed in english? i do not. it is a matter of waiting and seeing but there is a lot at sta ke and seeing but there is a lot at stake at this moment, isn't there? there is but i will tell you even if things do not work out perfectly as planned, they have done so much at this point to prove we can get ourselves to the moon in an affordable and rapid way and the technology is already been developed for this mission i think will be

very important in terms of developing the future of winter colonization so even if they do not mind perfectly i certainly will not be disappointed and beyond the adventure last minute of the project, it has been spot on and then fantastic. will the people in this room have done many projects like this because we know that india is not need to space exploration. they do have flight heritage and thatis they do have flight heritage and that is really important. they have an experience team there, and a team that have come on board and i am sure they know what they are doing and prepared for every contingency but eventually when you have a spacecraft that is not far away and is trying to make these incredibly precise manoeuvres and try to do decisions on site it is complicated and it is a wonder they have gotten this far in terms of what they have done but am not surprised because of the amount of expertise they have in

house. i see some schoolchildren here who are eagerly waiting. i think the prime is going to come onto the mission floor, mission control so let's have a look. you are watching bbc news. at 10pm there will be a full round up of today's news. first there is an inside out west climate change special. exclusive interviews with people behind extension rebellion. exclusive interviews with the people behind extinction rebellion. i know it sounds a bit odd, but i did know since being nine, that there was something going to come. and i've been preparing. plus, i meet the curry king, who wants to ditch plastic. i'm no expert, but that is not going to be very environmentally friendly. that's definitely not, that's why we wanted to get rid of it. and what impact is climate change having in

birds in your back garden?