on the second day of the democratic party's virtual national convention, joe biden will be formally picked as the party's election nominee. his wifejill will deliver the main speech, and there'll also be an appearance by former president bill clinton. the theme for the evening is ‘leadership matters.‘ state tv in mali is reporting that president ibrahim boubakar keita has announced his resignation, and the dissolution of the government and parliament. he and the prime minister were arrested by by the military in an apparent to attempt. the move has been condemned by the united nations secretary general and france, the former colonial power. the postmaster general of the united states has said he's suspending changes to the postal service, which led to claims that he was trying to interfere in november's presidential election. louis dejoy — a financial donor to president trump — says he expects postal ballots to be delivered on time. marks and spencer is planning to cut seven thousand staff

by the end of the year, after a slump in sales during the coronavirus pandemic. the cuts — on top of 950 already announced — amount to about a tenth of the overall work force. the company is the latest to announce major losses, as our business correspondent emma simpson reports. you do not see this often, a new storejust opening after lockdown. it is close to nottingham and pulling in the shoppers. it helps being out of town. it's a different story in many city centres. this is oxford street in london and much quieter than it should be. not good if you rely on footfall for sales. this was the first floor at marble arch this lunchtime, one of the key london stores for marks & spencer and today the company said there had been a material shift in trade and it had to act. these new figures show the challenge.

in the two months since reopening, clothing and home sales at its stores down 48% compared to last year but online sales up 39%. this pandemic has driven a rapid change in shopping habits. with more people buying online, fewer workers are needed in stores. marks & spencers was already making big changes before the pandemic and they have been speeding up those changes now. today, 7,000 jobs to go today, the biggest cuts this retailer has ever made. awful news for the people involved but i'm afraid rather inevitable as shops like this are expensive to run, the cost does not go down if fewer people turn up to shop and that is what is happening. sooner or later you have to align your cost with revenue and that is what m&s is doing today. they're not the only ones? they're not and we will see i'm afraid a lot more. just look at the last seven days, 2,500 morejob losses at debenhams, a business on the brink.

350 to go at river island and new look trying to cut rent to survive. jigsaw could be cutting stores as well. now m&s is taking drastic action to cut costs, most of the job losses will be in its stores and it hopes many will be through voluntary redundancy or early retirement. there will also be newjobs as it invests in online, a retailer that wants to recove from this pandemic with a leaner and more sustainable business. emma simpson, bbc news. now on bbc news, it's the travel show. this is the mighty river sava, flowing for nearly 1,000 kilometres from the alps in slovenia, right across to belgrade, in serbia. it's the longest river within the balkans. a vital artery that's borne

witness to so much history, stretching all the way back to ancient and medieval times and of course the turmoil of recent decades. today, the sava connects four countries that just a generation ago were at war. 0n myjourney i'll be exploring how today this river is healing wounds by boosting trade and tourism and creating a new identity for the region. and finding out why locals call this the ‘vital heart of the balkans‘. a nation ofjust 2 million people, slovenia prides itself on its close relationship with nature.

it‘s one of the most densely forested countries in europe and nearly two thirds of its landscape is green space. this river, the sava, has been a crucial trading route for centuries, dating back to 400 bc, when the celts named it after their river god savus, protector of merchants and travellers. and this is the river‘s source, the magnificent savica waterfall, bursting from two separate points on the cliff face there. and my intention is to follow the river from here, at its very beginning, until it meets the danube, in belgrade. it‘s a near 1,000 kilometre course, flowing through four countries that just over 25 years ago werejoined as part of yugoslavia. the emerald waters snake through the cliffs and then widen into one of the sava‘s

main tributaries, which has now become famous for watersports. and i‘m getting a face first perspective. this is bellyaking. and, yep, there‘s a hint in the name. it looks like a kayak, but you lay on top of it and use your hands to paddle. like many slovenian kids, luka grew up in the countryside and the sava was a huge part of his childhood. i spent my whole life in the same house about 50 metres away from the river, so when i wake up, if i had my window open, i can already hear it. here in slovenia, the river isn‘t just used for watersports — it‘s an important source of hydropower, and luka thinks the river also has an important role to play in uniting the communities who live throughout its course.

we were formerly part of yugoslavia, so we are sort of still connected. while our languages may not be that similar, they still have the same origin, so we are still sort of one nation and it‘s sort of nice to have the sava river connect us all. the river isn‘t always this placid. it can rise a metre higher in the autumn and winter and turn a lot more aggressive. frankly, the relative calm of these rapids is more than enough for me to deal with. argh! oh, my god! 0k... not sure if bellyaking is the sport for me. further down the valley, two tributaries merge and the sava

starts its journey proper. and at the fork in the rivers lies this majestic castle, lake bled, and its historic castle of the same name. this is slovenia‘s oldest castle, first built in medieval times. it‘s got a kind of fairy tale ambience to it and, because of its location, it‘s been a strategic lookout for 1,000 years. and standing here, i can kind of get why. you can see for miles! this place is legendary in slovenian history. 0n the banks of the lake still sits the former holiday home of the father of post—world war ii yugoslavia, president josip broz tito.

tito took the helm of the newly formed federal republic and more or less kept the country together until his death, in 1980, when yugoslavia began to fall apart. slovenia became the first to break away, with a short—lived war that lasted just ten days. it‘s been a sovereign nation state since 1991, and my next stop down the river sava is slovenia‘s capital, ljubljana. the city centre is made up of vast squares, lined with baroque buildings and the streets are packed with tourists ambling around. but it wasn‘t always like this. just over a decade ago ljubljana was clogged with traffic and the city‘s main piazza was a car park. but in 2006, the city‘s mayor made the decision to ban cars from the centre. now the only vehicles allowed are these so—called cavaliers, electric cabs that give free

lifts to those with luggage or who need extra help getting around. if you had to compare how this city looked ten years ago to now, can you tell me the difference? and the children are still following you. and it‘s notjust the kids that

are using the car—free streets as a playground. filip and blaz are ambassadors for the city. they met when one was a juggler and the other a gymnast, and together became a social media sensation with their urban acrobatic antics. we tried to put ljubljana on the map in our videos. so you can imagine running in a circle or something, we would run off a building. and you‘ve done that? yeah. filip and blaz have good reason to keep the city centre, which doubles as their performance space, spick and span and they‘ve been part of the efforts to keep it that way. cheering wow! thank you! once a year we have action. the whole of slovenia

is cleaned up and the river, they have divers and clean up all the bicycles out. and you‘ve played a big part in those campaigns? yeah. we try to help. we are strong, so we lift all of the heavy stuff, help them to keep it clean and keep it on the next level. citywide clean—ups and specialist waste disposal points helped the capital win the accolade of being europe‘s greenest city in 2016, and filip and blaz are keen to encourage other locals and tourists to see the potential in ljubljana‘s spruced up streets. wow! and the gymnasts are firm believers that anyone can be taught to do this. just change the arms. oh, sorry. yeah, like this. and three, two, one, go! see? i told you it‘s simple. you can move one arm as well. push ups! three, two! three...

i don‘t know how i managed that. it‘s kind of superhuman strength. time to leave this urban oasis and head downstream again to radece. this region, like most of slovenia, is densely forested and has a thriving timber industry. hi. nice to meet you. welcome. hundreds of years ago, the sava was the only way to get the huge logs to major cities across the balkans. and i‘m here tojoin other tourists to get a taste of those centuries—old rafting journeys. we managed to revive this tradition, because otherwise we would forget all that and it was important because it was alive more than 500 years ago. and duska sees the sava playing a much larger role in

the region in the nearfuture. now there is a perception of sava as a connector. connecting with who? with other communities along the river and, most important, connecting also across border regions. croatia, bosnia, serbia. and we already started to connect. baby steps, they are still, but, yes, we are connecting now along the sava river. but before i head across to my next country on the sava, duska tells me i need to be fully initiated into life on the river with this time—honoured tradition. are you going to behead me? no, we don‘t do that any more! but if you want to be a member, you have to show us if you are able to sharpen that wooden stick.

ah, you show me. and just when i thought the wood chopping was bad enough... here you go — on your knees. you have to leave the head down. like this. whoa! baptised by the water of the river sava. next stop on my voyage down the longest river within the balkans, croatia‘s capital, zagreb. croatia was part of the austro—hungarian empire until the end of the first

world war. and you can see much of that architectural influence around zagreb. the city has been fought over by competing armies for centuries. in the 15th century, so the story goes, the ottoman army was camped on the other side of the sava river, just over there, preparing to attack the city. to deter them, a cannonball was fired with such pinpoint accuracy, it landed on a chicken intended for the commander‘s dinner. so freaked out were the turks by this that they scarpered and never returned to the city again — so the legend goes. but ever since 1877, as a nod to this alleged act of defiance, a cannon has been fired every day at noon from this tower. wow! incredible.

alem is a trained engineer who used to work on the zagreb trams before he saw an advert for the position of cannon man in 2008, and landed thejob. ah, how come — what does it do? laughs. the cannon firing has become a big tourist attraction in zagreb. alem needs at least 15

minutes a day to prepare and in his nine years doing the job, he‘s never had a misfire. maybe we should pray. no, no, no. no, no praying. 0k. um, we can... let‘s wait. 0k. please stay here. yep. you stay here. thank you. it's 11:58. 0k. speaks croatian. one minute to shot, please! i‘m feeling a bit nervous. bit tense. he‘s very, uh, focused. waiting for that clock to change. bang. ooh! whoa! even though i knew it was coming, that was still a bit of a shock!

it‘s still, oof, surprised me. wow! look at this! he‘s milking the applause! another day, job done. well done. have a nice day. thank you. croatia‘s struggle for independence from yugoslavia was more prolonged, complex and bloody than the slovenians‘. today, though, it‘s a country of five million and a very popular travel destination, especially zagreb, dubrovnik, and the rest of its spectacular adriatic coastline. but venture away from the capital down the sava and you come across a lesser—known city. sisak lies on the confluence of three rivers and it‘s home to croatia‘s biggest river port. the town of sisak is where the river sava actually becomes wide enough for cargo ships like these to sail downstream to belgrade and serbia, and that‘s what has made

the town such an industrial centre. now, sisak actually has a rich and colourful history but in recent times, it‘s been characterised as dull and dreary. in fact, most guidebooks don‘t even mention it. but that is now changing. i am actually the fourth generation born here. and i lived with this town, i grew up with this town, and ijust, you know, when you‘re reading something about your town, you‘re reading the bad news and you‘re thinking "what are you talking about? "this is not how it is here." so, last year, dahna and her team set about creating rezthink sisak — an art festival that uses the town‘s buildings as a canvas for murals. this one, by croatian artist lonac, was one of the first to be created. it‘s the biggest mural in croatia and took 23 days and 400 cans of spray paint to complete.

and how do the locals feel about this? um, well, at first, when we had to have the permission, they were first a little bit "what are you going to do with this?" but then, when it all started, they came every day here, they brought him the lemonade and cookies, and they were very, very proud of it. they got really emotionally involved — as in people from this building call this, ‘our mural‘ — which is what we tried to accomplish, you know, for people to accept them as their own. the murals are scattered around the city, each with a different theme or message. dahna shows me one that highlights a particularly painful part of sisak‘s history. during world war two, this was the place where the children were gathered to be put in the only concentration camp for children in europe. really? just here? yes — in this general area.

in this general area? yes, yes. the camp was set up by the nazi—affiliated ustase regime during world war two. the victims were serbian, jewish and roma children. this mural by austrian artist robin abramovic is dedicated to their memory. i believe that the artist gave them a tribute that they deserved and maybe a sort of place of remembrance of all those children who didn‘t make it. we called him to be a part of our festival because we, as a team, decided that his work does have that certain dark undertone that maybe we kind of lacked in the festival. and needed to portray. and needed, of course, yes, because the art has to provoke thinking, so, notjust be pretty. there are now 17 murals in sisak and the festival has been such a success, they‘ve decided to keep on painting. mind you, people don‘t come to this part of croatia just for the art. they come to see the country‘s largest wetland, which i‘m

heading through to my next stop on the sava river — the marshlands of brodski varos, where i encounter a man on an unusual fishing expedition. because stjepan goes out every day to collect food for this family of storks. stjepan found the mother, malena, 2a years ago after she had been shot and critically disabled by hunters. she still can‘t fly. because malena can‘t hunt, stjepan has to help feed the chicks. the fact that i can get so close, incredible. and they‘re beautiful! wow. congratulations!

over the years, a male stork, klepetan, became malena‘s mate but each winter, malena has to say goodbye to klepetan and their brood of baby storks as he migrates to africa for the winter. this bond between stjepan and malena has become internationally famous and is even the subject of a brand—new documentary, the old man and the stork.

and so, the first half of myjourney down the sava is complete and i‘m beginning to grasp how important the river is to the people who live along its banks. next week, i will head to bosnia and herzegovina and then east, all the way to serbia‘s capital, belgrade. i‘ll find out how a generation who were born by the sava after the war in the ‘90s have new priorities and why the river has become so important to the future of serbia‘s capital. and i hope you‘lljoin me.

hello there. if this was autumn or winter, this weather forecast wouldn‘t look particularly unusual but, of course, it is summer. the winds over the next few days are going to be exceptionally strong for the time of year, it could cause some problems. low pressure is in charge,

the centre of the low up here, this swirl of cloud. you can see these different lumps of cloud just being scooped up by the low and sent in our direction. this one is going to bring some very windy weather through wednesday night and thursday. this lump of cloud bringing rain into the southwest through the first parts of the day. ahead of that, some areas starting off with some mist and fog, but there will be a lot of dry weather, some spells of sunshine. however, this heavy rain will drift its way northwards across england and wales, getting into northern ireland, and perhaps into southern scotland by the end of the afternoon. the winds will be strengthening all the while, particularly down to the southwest. temperaturewise, 19—23 degrees, quite a humid feel as well. then as we head through wednesday evening, we will see this band of rain continuing to journey northwards. more wet weather pushing in from the southwest, and the winds really will start to strengthen. now, this area of low pressure has been named by the irish weather service, storm ellen. see all of the white lines, the isobars on this chart, squeezing together. this shows that we‘ve got a very deep low, which for the republic

of ireland could well bring damaging winds, exceptionally strong winds for this time of year. but as you can see, those strong winds are also likely to affect western parts of the uk. not as windy as it will be for the republic of ireland, but as we head through wednesday night and through thursday, we are likely to see wind gusts of 40—50 mph, a little more than that in exposed spots in the west. the winds not as strong further east. we will see some outbreaks of rain clearing northwards across scotland, then some sunshine and some showers, temperatures between 21—26 degrees in parts of eastern england. some warm air being sucked up ahead of this area of low pressure, and the low stays with us into friday. still plenty of white lines on this chart, plenty of isobars, so we will see some pretty strong winds continuing. in fact, for some of us, friday is set to be the windiest day of all. showers or longer spells of rain particularly up towards the northwest. largely dry the further south and east you are with some sunshine. top temperatures of 18—24 degrees. so, some unusually windy weather ahead.

this is bbc news. my name‘s mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. day two of the virtual convention — joe biden will be formally picked as the democratic party‘s election nominee. his wife, jill, and former us president, bill clinton will give keynote speeches. the president of mali appears on state television to announce his resignation after he and the prime minister are arrested by the military in an apparent coup attempt. researchers uncover the unseen scale of plastic pollution clogging the atlantic ocean. and an unwelcome spotlight on the chat show hosted by ellen degeneres — three senior producers are fired for misconduct.