this is bbc world news today, with me, karin giannone. our top stories: peace negotiations between the taliban and the united states have been called off. president trump blames a deadly attack in kabul. thousands are evacuated from islands in the bahamas devastated by hurricane dorian — we hearfrom one family who were lucky to survive i lost everything, my children is close, i mean everything. it's only a shell of a building. the building is standing that everything is gone. a senior member of the british government resigns over brexit — saying not enough is being done to get a deal with the eu — a claim the chancellor denies.

we are working wholeheartedly, straining every sinew to get a deal, and coming up: it's been a summer of astonishing moments for england, but australia secure the ashes at old trafford with with one more test to play. hello and welcome to world news today. president trump has called off peace negotiations with the taliban, after they admitted being behind an attack in afghanistan that killed a us soldier. the taliban condemned the decision to withdraw from the talks to end 18—years of war, warning that the us would ‘lose the most‘. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet reports from kabul. a busy kabul junction. the attack said to have changed president trump's mind. a young us soldier died here and ten afghans, aged ten to 70.

the taliban struck this kabul neighbourhood, too, the very day last week the us said it had reached a deal in principle with the taliban to start bringing its troops home. they've been negotiating for nearly a year in the gulf state of qatar, and the taliban almost hit the diplomatic jackpot — a trip to camp david to talk to president trump, his classic high—stakes summitry. but now, it's off. a taliban spokesman sent us their response. a few days ago, the peace agreement was concluded with the us negotiation team, and it was initialed by heads of both negotiation teams. that tweet by president donald trump is astonishing, and i think it harms his reputation. a peace process that may have consequences. . . the afghan government the taliban still refuse to talk

to welcomed the move. i think it was the right move at the right time, and a genuine reflection of the concerns that not only the afghan people, but many in dc, raised of the threats, of the consequences of any deal that could be harmful to all of us. was it this one terrible attack in kabul which provoked president trump's dramatic move, or was it the rising cores of anger and anxiety, in kabul and in washington, over peace talks which only seemed to bring more war? was it this one terrible attack in kabul which provoked many fear taliban at the table don't speak for fighters on the ground. until they put down their guns, their commitment to peace won't be clear. lyse doucet, bbc news, kabul. a us aid worker who's viewed the devastation of hurrican dorian has said that the island of abaco in the bahamas looks "almost

as though nuclear bombs were dropped on" some of the communities. conditions in the caribbean islands are said to be "rapidly deteriorating", six days after hurricane dorian ripped through the islands. tens of thousands of people are homeless and many are leaving the islands of grand bahama and abaco in the absence of food, water, infrastructure and shelter. officials believe hundreds of bodies are yet to be found in areas flattened by the storm. marva smith and some of her children have been speaking to bbc world news from the bahamas. they've lost their home because of hurricane dorian: icame to i came to my mothers house because we are in a low lying area, but the storm just came in and it sat over us storm just came in and it sat over us for what felt like forever, even though it was only two or three days. the wins meant we lost

connection with the radio station at about eight o'clock and at that point we heard people asking for help to be evacuated from their homes. they were in the houses that took on maybe ten feet of water, in their attics, their ceilings, it was just horrific. i just their attics, their ceilings, it was just horrific. ijust can't experience anything like that again. we went back, the day, the morning after the storm and the water, it appears it went over the roof, the whole house, the interior is gone. it is just completely gone. i lost everything my children closed everything my children closed everything and it's only a shell of a building. the building is standing, but everything is gone. we have had family and friends who have assisted us, giving us clothes. my

daughter created a go fund me page on facebook but i know the government has their hands busy trying to recoup and recover, and there are dead bodies all over the place, so ijust can't see when there is any aid insight right now. it is really difficult because my pa rents it is really difficult because my parents work so hard to build this house from before we were born. they we re house from before we were born. they were working on it really hard and my parents have lost everything they had and just you look at your house and realise it is gone in the blink ofan eye. and realise it is gone in the blink of an eye. itjust really and realise it is gone in the blink of an eye. it just really hurts and you have to be grateful that we are still alive. but we have nothing. my family members have brought items from their children to help out and we are appreciative of that, but

right now all food storage has been damage and we have pretty much one food store and we don't know when the water is coming up, so it'sjust unbearable. and we heard reports that there might be another storm out there. meanwhile, hundreds of troops are being deployed in canada to help clear trees felled by hurricane dorian. the storm hit the coast of nova scotia overnight, with winds of over a hundred and sixty kilometres per hour, leaving around half a million people without power. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. iran says an oil tanker which has been at the centre of tension between tehran and western governments has docked and unloaded its cargo. iranian state media didn't say where this happened. but satellite images have emerged that appear to show the tankerjust off the syrian port of tartus. a former south carolina governor has announced he'll challenge president donald trump in the republican party's primary contest.

mark sanford is a long—time critic of mr trump and the third person to challenge for the nomination. no sitting president in the modern era has lost the race to be nominee for their own party. record heatwaves injune and july caused the deaths of over 1,400 people in france, according to the country's health minister. half of those who died were aged over 75. france recorded its highest—ever temperature of 46 degrees injune. british government ministers have dismissed the accusation of a former senior colleague that too little effort is going into securing a new brexit agreement with the european union. amber rudd, who resigned from the cabinet last night, said today that the vast majority of brexit—focused work was going towards no deal and that there were no formal negotiations with brussels. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake reports.

from cabinet minister to backbench mp overnight, amber rudd walked out of government no longer believing the prime minister's priority was to get a new brexit deal. this morning i'm joined by the now former work and pensions secretary, amber rudd... this morning she explained she could see little evidence of efforts to reach an agreement with eu. there is this huge machine preparing for no deal, which is fine, you might expect in the balance between getting a deal and no deal, 50—50 in terms of work, but it isn't that, it's about 80, 90% of government time going into preparing for no deal and the absence of actually trying to work to get a deal which is what has driven 21 of my colleagues to rebel and i need to join them. expelling those mps that voted against the government was an act of political vandalism. the former work and pensions secretary had written in her letter of resignation. i know i could not carry on in the conservative party at such a high level and see 21 of my colleagues, who are good, moderate people, who also want a deal, excluded from it.

and ijust needed to move and stand by them. will brexit ever happen, sir? the chancellor said he was sad at what happened, but defended the prime minister's strategy and hit back at amber rudd's claim the government wasn't trying in earnest to get a new brexit deal. i am absolutely clear that we are working wholeheartedly, straining every sinew, to get a deal, and that the prime minister is personally putting in all of the significant effort you would expect from a leader to get this deal done. what's on the agenda today? in brussels this week, the uk's top mp official having regular meetings. by the eu's chief negotiator reportedly described talks as in paralysis. downing street said negotiations have been constructive, but acknowledged the two sides are still far apart. the prime minister has been in campaign mode this week for the election he wants to avoid asking for a brexit delay.

0pposition parties say not until leaving without a deal is ruled out. i don't trust him an inch. i don't think anyone does. we've got a prime minister now who is saying he won't even abide by the law. the law! i've never heard that before. we are in a situation now where no one can trust while he is in place what might happen. keeping away from the cameras, the government's countryside retreat, the prime minister met his closest advisers, perhaps plotting his next move. the promise is still to deliver brexit by the end of 0ctober. the unanswered question, how? jonathan blake, bbc news. scientists in the uk are attempting to find out how bacteria, viruses and fungi known as microbes keep us healthy. not much is known about they work, but with the help of hundreds of new mothers and their babies, researchers are hoping to answer that question. richard westcott reports.

bacteria, viruses, even fungi. we are a full of them. you might think they make you ill but they make you healthy, too. if you look at what human beings are actually made up of, we are more bacteria than we are human being and most of it is concentrated in our guts. scientists are now looking at how that directly affects our health. things like what we are allergic to, and whether we have asthma. they've launched a study to try to understand this link between the cocktail of microbes in our gut and our well—being, and they are specifically looking at babies. what's interesting is even though we do live for a long time as humans, we actually get our adult—like microbial community by the time we are two to three years of age. and then, those beneficial bacteria are really important for developing the baby's overall health, so including programming the immune system, helping the baby digest food, be that milk or solid food at the time of weaning, and also really important for fighting off infections as well.

over the next two years, they want to analyse the gut contents of more than 200 women and their children, starting when they‘ re pregnant. i'm kate, and my baby is due in three weeks' time. hi, i'm natalie and my baby's due in... ooh, god, eight weeks! oh, my god! like all the volunteers, kate and natalie will be asked to do some very quick and simple things at home, like this swab test. i do a lot of freelance cooking, and i have come across a lot more children in the last two or three years who've got dietary problems and, which are obviously gut related, and so i thought maybe becoming part of the study would help in the research to, you know, find out more about why these children get such horrendous allergies. i'm about to start a biological sciences degree, and i thought that it was perfect for me and i wanted to get involved, as it something that can help in the future and help future babies and mothers, i thought more what's the harm in doing it?

it's so easy. by analysing healthy mums and babies, they can begin to work out what's different in children who develop problems. if a baby does present with a particular condition like an allergy, for example, we can profile that baby, see if they're missing some important beneficial microbes, and give those microbes back to help reduce symptoms or indeed even cure disease. richard westcott, bbc news, the quadro institute in norwich. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: joker, starring joaquin phoenix, takes the top golden lion prize at the venice film festival. freedom itself was attacked this morning and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those

responsible. bishop tutu now becomes the spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here and the blacks in the soweto township as well as the whites and the rich suburbs. we say to you today in a loud and clear voice, enough of blood. enough. the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people in forced by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. i am free. this is bbc world news today. the latest headlines.

peace negotiations between the taliban and the united states have been called off. president trump blames a deadly attack in kabul. thousands are evacuated from islands in the bahamas devastated by hurricane dorian. tens of thousands of people are homeless, and officials believe hundreds of bodies are yet to be found. wildfires across two australian states are continuing to rage in hot and windy conditions that officials warn are unprecedented this early in spring. in queensland, over 50 fires were burning on sunday. a lodge founded by conservationists in the 1930s, binna burra in lamington national park, has been gutted by the flames. queensland fire and rescue assistant commissioner, kevin walsh, says the fire will remain a threat for days to come. accessibility continues to be a major problem for us in this location. it's a very dangerous and dynamic situation at the moment. we

do have some air assets up there trying to make an impact on the fire but because they are structural fires, the effectiveness of this will have to be monitored. for the 14th week in a row, hong kong has seen chaos and violence on its streets. demonstrators threw rocks and broke glass outside a subway station. earlier thousands marched peacefully on the us consulate — an effort to drum up support from washington. they're urging the us congress to pass legislation that would penalize officials in mainland china and hong kong who supress freedoms in the chinese territory. 0ur correspondent in hong kong, steve mcdonell, is following developments. it is the first weekend since carrie lam announced that the bill would be withdrawn. when it comes to the more hard—core withdrawn. when it comes to the more ha rd—core protesters,

withdrawn. when it comes to the more hard—core protesters, they are still turning out in quite big numbers, prepared to take on the police. earlier on today, though, we saw a much bigger rally, tens of thousands of protesters were marching to attempt to get the us government to make it harder for the city to retain its special trading status. and you can tell a day of protest is coming to an end in hong kong because activists have come to somewhere like this where they cannot be seen, they take off their black clothing and put on any other colour for that matter because if you are walking the streets around here with black gear on, for the rest of the night you risk being picked up by the police, so this is now kind of normal and nice in hong kong at the moment and you can see someone kong at the moment and you can see someone has been arrested by the

police, more hard—core protesters have smashed up, you can see all the glass here on the station, and police would say that this is why they are coming in hard and using considerable force to try and catch activists on the train system, but they have been criticised for a very heavy—handed approach at times and they have a lot of work to do to regain people's confidence in that respect. now the sport. australia have retained the ashes after a 185 run victory in the fourth test at old trafford. england needed to bat out the last day to salvage a draw which would have seen the series settled in the fifth and final match at london's 0val as andy swiss reports. what an enthralling final day at old

trafford but it's ultimately australia that retain the ashes. it was always going to be a pretty tall orderfor england was always going to be a pretty tall order for england to was always going to be a pretty tall orderfor england to bat was always going to be a pretty tall order for england to bat out the whole of the final day, and that's exactly how it proved. they lost two wickets during the morning session, notably ben stokes, the hero of headingley, who was out forjust one. joe denly did give them hope with a half—century, then some decent knocks from jonny bairstow and jos buttler kept things going, but when jos buttler went for 3h, at that point singler‘s hopes ian over. but then their new cult hero, jack leach, joined craig 0verton at the crease and they kept australia at bay for an hour crease and they kept australia at bayforan hourand crease and they kept australia at bay for an hour and a half but then jack leach eventually was out and craig 0verton was the final wicket to fall, lbw to josh hazlewood. england all out and the australian celebrations could start. england's hopes of winning back the ashes on home soil are over, but australia, the australia —— the celebrations can beginfor the australia —— the celebrations can begin for them. they have

retained the ashes with one match still to play. steve smith that is breathtaking best again. can rafa nadal move to within one of roger federer‘s haul of 20 grand slam titles. he faces danil medvedev in the final of the us open in the next few minutes. a player who's featuring in a major finalfor the first time. david law is in new york. i guess both of these players will wa nt i guess both of these players will want a fast start in this crucial match. it would certainly help and rafael nadal is very much the favourite to win this 19th single title and draw within one of roger federer, but mededev has a bit of the unknown about him. he has been dominant over the summer, reaching three finals and winning one of the titles that he played in the final in and he did lose against rafael nadal in the final in montreal but was exhausted on that occasion and has managed to get through his first ever grand slam final here, and he really is starting quite well here in the first game of the match where

he has a break point on serve and it will be fascinating, because he is an unknown quantity at this level but nadal is the favourite. as we know, we've talked a lot about records this week with serena williams not able to equal the open era record, a bit of an upset, so i'm supposing anything could unfold in the next few hours. that's right and the feeling we get after what we witness last night with one of the all—time greats in serena williams losing out to a 19—year—old playing her first ever losing out to a 19—year—old playing herfirst ever us losing out to a 19—year—old playing her first ever us open, let alone first us open final, makes you come into this match thinking anything is possible. mededev has that feeling about him where there is no mental scar tissue from years of being defeated by this guy. he believes he can win and it will be up to nadal to prove he can't. nadal has saved a break point in the first game of the match. david, thank you for that at flushing meadows. a dangerous

opponent, mededev. charles leclerc won the italian grand prix, giving ferrari their first victory on home soil for nine years.he held off the challenge of mercedes drivers valteri bottas and lewis hamilton, to win his second grand prix in a row and underline his status as a major new force in f1. there are no words to describe this feeling. i think it is going beyond my dreams here. a podium with so many people, so many red people, singing exactly the same thing and cheering for the same colour, and it feels amazing. the venice film festival has drawn to a close — with the golden lion being awarded to the film — ‘joker‘. it's the first time a comic—book movie has won the top prize at a major festival.

in second place was ‘an officer and a spy, by the controversial director roman polanski. this report from alydia noble's contains flashing images. my mother always tells me to smile and put on a happy face. dark, disturbing, one critic described it as prurient but exhilarating. joker is unlike any other comic book movie you have seen. comic book films dominate at the box office, but have always failed to win the major prizes. until now. joker! director todd phillips looked a little surprised to be winning the golden lion for the origin story of batman's archenemy, a film now lauded by one of europe's top film festivals. in his acceptance speech, he was full of praise for his leading man, joaquin phoenix. joaquin is the fiercest, bravest and most open—minded lion that i know and you are a beautiful soul, and thank you for trusting me with your insane talents.

the grand jury prize went to an officer and a spy, telling the story of the dreyfus affair. its director, roman polanski, still wanted in the us for the drugging and rape of a 13—year—old girl, was not present for the ceremony. the acting prizes went to france's ariane ascaride and italy's luca marinelli. both paid tribute to those risking their lives in the mediterranean. translation: i would like to dedicate this award to all the splendid people who are at sea to rescue other human beings who are fleeing from unimaginable situations. thank you. long live humanity and long live love. and long live thejoker. a great night for comic books and the films they inspire. once dismissed, now honoured. alydia noble, bbc news.

thanks for watching bbc world news today. we have sunshine, wind, rain and even tropical air heading our way next week. today the weather has been very pleasant and we had a few showers yesterday across kent, no sign of them today and indeed we have been enjoying some healthy spells of sunshine. after a really cold start in the north—east of scotla nd cold start in the north—east of scotland we have seen blue skies for a while but there is more cloud coming in from the north—west and this weather front will be waiting in the wings to bring rain overnight. ahead of that, fine end to the day and sunshine around but the clouds thickening up across scotla nd the clouds thickening up across scotland and northern ireland and it will turn wetter here overnight and that rain will spill into wales, and western parts of england and could be heavy at times. more cloud around tonight so no where near as cold as it was last night except perhaps

across east anglia where we have clearer skies for longer. tomorrow isa clearer skies for longer. tomorrow is a messy day and we have a weather front that going to sweep across. there is no wind to move it, but the weather will drift southwards and we will see patchy rain developing across eastern parts of england and outbreaks of rain and cloud in the morning but the rain will ease off in the afternoon for northern areas and it might turn brighter but towards wales in the south—west we keep it going and it could be heavy and potentially thundery and it's really going to be a chilly day tomorrow. look at those temperatures, only 14 or 15 degrees widely. the weather from temperatures, only 14 or 15 degrees widely. the weatherfrom or get pulled apart and most of the rain is pushing south towards iberia and this ridge of high pressure means we will have a weak weather front on the scene and that is why we have a band of cloud here and it could produce one or two showers, but on the whole it will be a drier day with some sunshine around as well and it will feel warmer where

temperatures in england could be up to 20 degrees, but there is wet and windy weather arriving in the north—west later in the afternoon and it will turn wet and windy across northern areas overnight around an area of low pressure which contains rem na nts around an area of low pressure which contains remnants of the x hurricane dorian which is no longer a hurricane, but it will bring wet and windy weather overnight and by wednesday the rain sweeps toward southern parts of england on the rain becomes light and patchy. behind it, more sunshine arriving, some showers across scotland but temperatures will be higher for all of us.

this is bbc world news. the headlines: peace negotiations between the taliban and the united states have been called off. president trump has blamed a deadly attack in kabul, which killed a us soldier amongst others. the taliban said america had most to lose from cancelling the talks. thousands are evacuated from islands in the bahamas devastated by hurricane dorian. tens of thousands of people are homeless, and officials believe hundreds of bodies are yet to be found. a senior member of the british government has resigned over brexit — saying not enough is being done to get a deal with the eu. amber rudd also claimed the recent expulsion of 21 mps from her party was "an act of political vandalism.".