this is bbc news. i'm rajini vaidyanathan with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. cutting its way across america — hurricane laura strikes the louisiana coast, the biggest storm to hit the state in over 100 years. us sport takes a stand over race and police brutality — with players boycotting, basketball, baseball, soccer and tennis, in protest at the shooting of jacob blake. getting ready for the grand finale. president trump prepares for one of the biggest speeches of his career, as he tries to win a second term in the white house. and the manchester united captain harry maguire speaks for the first time about the brawl in greece that landed him in court.

one of the most powerful hurricanes on record in the united states has hit the country's gulf coast, destroying buildings and pulling down power lines with winds of up to 150 miles an hour. four people have been killed, including a 14—year—old girl. the storm, which started out as a category four hurricane, has since been downgraded as it makes its way inland. but there are still fears of catastrophic flooding from intense rainfall and storm surges. larry madowo reports. hurricane laura arrived late at night with destructive winds of 85 mph, toppling over cars and other objects in its wake. the eye of the storm was in lake charles in louisiana, but the damage extends much further. roofs were ripped off in its path and homes

destroyed as it raced inland. it was wild. around one or so, the wind picked up and i could hear the neighbours‘ roof blew off the side of the house and blew into my house. a chemical plant caught fire hours after hurricane laura whizzed past, sending thick black smoke into the sky. residents have been asked to remain indoors, close windows and turn off air conditioners. it looks bad, but the louisiana governor says it could have been far worse. it is clear that we did not sustain and suffer the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought was likely based on the forecast we had last night. but we have sustained a tremendous amount of damage. nearly 800,000 customers are thought to be without power in texas and louisiana. the federal emergency management agency has committed resources to aid in the weeks and months ahead. this region is not

out of the woods yet. we stand ready to watch and respond to potentialflash flooding, as well as potential tornadoes, as the storms continue. because hurricanes are so frequent at this time of the year, this donation centre at a church in houston is one of the many that have popped up across texas and louisiana to help those affected by hurricane laura, some of whom have nowhere to sleep tonight. president trump has been briefed on the damage and clean—up effort and has promised to tour the affected states this weekend. but for those left in its wake, the rebuilding is only beginning. larry madowo, bbc news, houston. a number of major sporting events have been postponed in the united states in response to the police shooting of a black man, jacob blake, in wisconsin on sunday.

baseball, basketball, football and tennis matches have all failed to take place as scheduled. from kenosha in wisconsin, here's aleem maqbool. the latest night of protests in kenosha was mainly confined to marching through the streets of the city. there was none of the violence and destruction of recent days, and no sign of the armed vigilantes who had intimidated and killed protesters. well, this courthouse had been the focal point for protests. but during the night, we barely saw anybody here at all. but that's likely to be because of a new police tactic to drive by, round people up and detain them for breaking a curfew. it's certainly not because anger has dissipated over the shooting ofjacob blake. the officer involved in the shooting has been named as rusten sheskey. it's been confirmed police first tried to tase jacob blake, but failed to stop him. during the investigation, following the initial incident, mr blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession. dci agents — that's the division of criminal investigation — recovered a knife from the driver's side floorboard of mr blake's vehicle.

that still doesn't explain why jacob blake was shot seven times in the back, when he was walking away from 0fficer sheskey. sports stars are making their voice of protest heard. the nba abandoned games because of a player boycott, calling for justice. people still don't care. and for this to continuously happen, i mean, itjust shows... just a hate in people's heart. and being a black man in america, it's not easy. demonstration and confrontation has continued in other cities, some of it violent. but for all the outrage of recent months, real, systemic change still feels a long way off. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in kenosha, wisconsin. in the next few hours, president trump

will address the republican national convention from the south lawn of the white house to formally accept his party's renomination for november's election. the us faces crises on several fronts. the pandemic has cost over 180,000 lives and caused mass unemployment, hurricane laura has smashed into the louisiana coast and anti—racism protests show no signs of stopping. so how will he convince voters he is the man to deal with them? i'm joined now by katty kay in washington. always good to talk to you, katty. four years ago, we are both in cleveland, ohio, for the republican convention, where candidate trump excepted the republican nomination. things look different now, don't they, katty? he is in the white house and we're in the middle of a pandemic. what can we expect tonight is yellow he made that very dramatic

entrance in cleveland, do you remember, with the lights behind him, all the fog smoke behind him, all the fog smoke behind them. it is going to be pretty erratic tonight. he is going to be on the south lawn of the white house with lots and lots of american flags. the chairs have all been laid out for guests, it looks like there's going to be a couple of hundred guests from the look of all the chairs that have been put out, and there is no social distancing between those chairs, so the message almost, subliminally, from the optics as you don't have to worry about social distancing, the coronavirus is behind us, and i'm going to give a campaign speech... vision has —— traditionally, there's been a separation between occupants of the white house in their campaigns, so that's been some controversy, but this is a president who has broken traditional norms in the past, so

traditional norms in the past, so perhaps not a surprise tonight. you talked about mr trump's entrance... it was going to be his speech, though, that painted a dark picture of america. he has been in charge now, as president, forfour yea rs, now, as president, forfour years, select taint of tone could we expect for him now?m is always harder running against the current situation when you're the incumbents —— so when you're the incumbents —— so what kind of tone could we expect. he cannot limit on barack 0bama and joe biden in the way that he did last time. we have had a few excerpts from the speech, and his go to tell his supporters that america faces two interests between joe biden and donald trump. he is going to talk about how there we re going to talk about how there were two parties, to visions, two philosophies, and then in reference to the violence going on around the country, he is going to say that the crime and violence will and under donald trump and, of course, all week, we've heard republicans painting a dire picture of would happen ifjoe biden would

win, in terms of violence. you mentioned the democrats there. we have hired a rebuttal, or a prebuttal, from the vice presidential candid kamala harris. she really eviscerated donald trump's record. we have not heard much about covid this week. it is something the president would not like to dwell on, given what you said earlier, 180,000 mannequins have died from it, but she said they had failed the country. she pointed to the record of the country and said that his donald trump's fault, so she was very prepared to address the coronavirus. those were the delegates hope they have the advantage. katty kay, always good to talk to you. i'm joined now by larry sabato, director of university of virginia center for politics. it is very good to talk to you. president trump tonight has to

deliver a speech that can convince those who voted for him in 2016 to stay with him in 2020. does he need to do tonight? how did he convince them in 2016? by going hard negative against hillary clinton and making her on acceptable. that's how he won. that's precisely what he is planning to do tonight. i've been told that the speech would require pretty much those of us listening to it to where asbestos clothing, what exactly that means, i can't tell you, but i can tell you it is very tough and very anti—fighting. anti—bite and —— anti—joe biden. what exactly is he going to refer to, the other events happening in america right now? we talked earlier in our intro, the current numbers pandemic, the current numbers pandemic, the antiracism protests across america and various other issues. the economic situation

as well. as i understand it, the two attacks, namely, will centre around the economy, the fa ct centre around the economy, the fact is, that up until early this year, early 2020, the economy had done quite well during president trump laws term, three years, so he actually still has on that issue, and in most surveys, he issue, and in most surveys, he is said to have a handle on the economy better than joe biden would. the other attack will be difficult, and recently will listen to every word, but he a p pa re ntly listen to every word, but he apparently is going to suggest, with joe apparently is going to suggest, withjoe biden, apparently is going to suggest, with joe biden, our cities apparently is going to suggest, withjoe biden, our cities and suburbs would be overrun with looters and protesters and rioters and arsonists, and he will leave it at the feet of joe biden. they reap, this is effectively the starting gun for the campaign. we will have the republican and democratic candidates formally nominated come up with this campaign is

not going to be an ordinary campaign in really. it is our first virtual campaign, at least in the television age, maybe in the radio age too. it's really a throwback to the 19th century, when we used to have front porch campaigns. for a while, it used to be candidates sat on their front porch, wherever they were from, and greek guests and crowds as they came to them. there may be some of that in this campaign. trump has a major advantage here, obviously. he controls the white house, people love going to the white house, and he has air force one, marine one, a giant contingent of secret service and troops, so he can actually travel relatively freely. it is going to be much more difficult for joe biden, he's got to get out of his house in delaware, he's

going to have to find a way to campaign, he cannot continue to do what he has done for the past few months. that's interesting. i followed your blog, your crystal ball, for many years. usually get it right but you've got a great record, but unfortunately, in 2016, you did not call for trouble. what you going to call for in 2020? or is it too early now? we are going to be cautious. that is how we are going to call... laughter that's a wise thing to say! it is too early! we are not even a labour day, which is the traditional kick—off of american presidential campaigns. that's at the end of the first week in september, so people are saying it is totally over, and it's obvious who is going to win — in most cases, they are saying biting. look, biden is different —— the front runner, but a lot of front runners have been upset. think hillary clinton. wise to stay cautious for now.

thank you, larry sabato. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: donald trump's big night at the republican national convention — will his speech be a play to the base or a reach for the the middle? he's the first african—american to win the presidential nomination of a major party, and he accepts exactly 45 years ago to the day that martin luther king declared, "i have a dream." as darkness falls tonight, an unfamiliar light will appear in the southeastern sky — an orange glowing disc that's brighter than anything save the moon, our neighbouring planet, mars. there is no doubt that this election is an important milestone in the birth of east timor as the world's newest nation. it will take months and billions of dollars to repair what katrina achieved injust hours. three weeks is the longest the great clock has been

off—duty in 117 years, so it was with great satisfaction that clock maker john vernon swung the pendulum to set the clock going again. big ben chimes this is bbc news. the latest headlines: hurricane laura, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the united states, leaves at least four people dead as it strikes the louisiana coast. us sport takes a stand over race and police brutality — with players boycotting basketball, baseball, soccer and tennis in protest at the shooting of jacob blake. the manchester united and england defender harry maguire has spoken for the first time about being found guilty of assaulting police and bribery on the greek island of mykonos. in an exclusive interview with the bbc, he says he didn't believe the men involved were police and feared

for his life. the officers were in plain clothes and he says he thought he was being kidnapped. he also denies offering money to get himself out ofjail. the manchester united captain says he has nothing to apologise for but he does regret being in the situation and putting his club and fans through all this. he has been talking to our sports editor, dan roan. since he left a greek court house on saturday, harry maguire's not been seen or heard. two days ago, in his absence, he was found guilty of assaulting police and handed a suspended sentence after a night out on mykonos went wrong. but finally, the united and england star has broken his silence, telling me what it was like to spend two nights in custody. it was horrible. it's not something i ever want to do again. i don't wish it on anybody. it's the first time i've ever been inside a prison. who do you owe an apology to? i don't feel like i owe

an apology to anybody. an apology‘s something when you've done something wrong. do i regret...i regret being in the situation. obviously, the situation has made it difficult, i play for one of the biggest clubs in the world, so i regret putting the fans and the club through this. do you accept that you were, in a way, asking for trouble, being in that place that night? no. i think it could have happened anywhere. i love greece. maguire says trouble began when he suspected his sister, daisy, had been attacked by two strangers. these two men approached my little sister. they said... asked her where she was from, she responded, and then my fiance, fern, saw my little sister's eyes, like, go into the back of her head.

and... she ran over, and she was fainting, she was in and out of consciousness. and... sorry. maguire says he and his friends tried to get to hospital but were instead taken to a police station, where, they claim, outside they were attacked by plainclothed officers. my initial thought was, i thought we were getting kidnapped. we got down on our knees, we put our hands in the air. and then theyjust started hitting us. they were hitting my legs, saying my career‘s over, "no more football, you won't play again." and at this point, i thought there's no chance these are police or i don't know who they are, so i tried to run away. i was in that much of a panic, fear, scared for my life. you feared for your life, did you? yeah, forsure, all the way through it. you said, "do you know who i am? i play for man united,

i'm very rich, i can pay you, let us go." they were the quotes attributed to you. did you try and bribe the police? no, for sure. as soon as i seen that statement, it's just ridiculous. despite everything you've said, the fact remains, sadly, that you were found guilty. how can you remain captain of one of the biggest clubs in the world? it's a massive privilege to play for the club, never mind to be the captain. obviously, it's not my decision to make. i have great faith in the greek law. the retrial will give us more time to prepare, gather the evidence, allow witnesses into the court, and i'm really confident that the truth will be told and come out. now, let's get some of the day's other news. a white supremacist who shot dead 51 muslim worshippers in new zealand last year has

been sentenced to life in prison without parole. brenton tarrant is the first person to be convicted of terrorism in new zealand. the prime minister, jacinda ardern, says she's relieved the 29—year—old will "never see the light of day". the us labour department says another 1 million americans made new claims for unemployment benefits last week. people in the us are not returning to work at the speed economists had hoped, with a surge in covid cases preventing some businesses from re—opening. around 30 million americans are currently receiving unemployment benefits. health officials in france have reported more than 5,000 new coronavirus infections in a single day. that's the country's highest daily increase since the pandemic‘s peak in april. the government has made it mandatory for people to wear face masks in public across paris from friday, and says it's considering "all options" for slowing the spread of the virus. more than 4,000 police have been deployed to clear some of chile's main highways which have been blocked by striking truck drivers. the drivers are demanding better protection following an increase in attacks, which they blame on indigenous mapuche activists. the chilean government says

it sympathises with the drivers but needs to avoid further disruption to supply chains already affected by the pandemic. let's return to the republican national convention. in the next few hours in washington, president trump will deliver a speech from the white house to formally accept his party's renomination in november's election. let's go to the white house, where jane 0'brien is awaiting the speech. jane, not long now. what can we expect from the president tonight? the excerpts we have seen so tonight? the excerpts we have seen so far suggest that he will continue his attacks on joe biden, painting a very dark picture of what the country would look like if joe picture of what the country would look like ifjoe biden won the white house. also describing his proposals as the most extreme of any party. he also, however, will be offering also, however, will be offering a bit of an olive branch, saying that he will welcome any disenchanted democrats who may

wa nt to disenchanted democrats who may want to cross the aisle and vote for him, and that's an interesting point, because it was disenchanted democrat to help propel him to the white housein help propel him to the white house in 2016. they did not like hillary clinton, partly because donald trump very successfully painted such a negative picture of her, and he is clearly trying to do the same thing now withjoe biden. he needs all the support he can get, this is also about turning out the base. both candidates have very similar problems. they proof the —— have to prove they are more than the antitrust or the anti—biden candidate, so we'll see whether he can position himself to be more than for his bass stop at this comes in the middle of a pandemic, unlike four years ago, where mr trump was candidate trump back then, accepted the nomination in a large convention hall with thousands of republicans. he is in the white house, in the south lawn, where you are, with

a couple hundred people instead ? a couple hundred people instead? it is still in audience, and it's more than democrats had last week. their whole event was virtual, there we re whole event was virtual, there were no audiences. at least he has an audience, and that is important for donald trump because he, as we know, loves speaking to crowds, and 1000 people, 1500 people, ithink speaking to crowds, and 1000 people, 1500 people, i think at this point, if it was three people, he would still put on his best performance, and that's another of his campaign pictures. he's resenting himself as a man who is out there, he is campaigning, he is looking strong, he is not afraid of the coronavirus, will joe biden still has not left his home state of delaware and is still campaigning virtually ina lot is still campaigning virtually in a lot of republicans are making fun of him, quite frankly, for staying in his basement, psychically going to see, possibly, a little bit more from joe biden in the coming weeks and months. not a sustainable campaign picture on his part to stay locked down and we are starting to see his

running mate, kamala harris. she has been already making the speech that previews donald trump's acceptance speech, so i think things will start to shift once the formal nominations are accepted. that happens tonight. i think we will see the campaigns getting under way in full swing stop i just briefly, there also protests expected outside the white house tonight —— just briefly. i can hear the drumming now. i do not know how the crowds are, but the bear —— barricades. don't forget, tomorrow, expected tomorrow. smaller crowds than expected, there probably will be around tens of thousands of people rather than hundreds of thousands of people, partly because of the pandemic... the drums have started up and the aims of these protest is to, quite literally, drown out president trump when he speaks later. jane o'brien, i know you're going to have a long

night ahead of you. thank you for joining night ahead of you. thank you forjoining us. and we will have full coverage of president trump's speech, when he accepts the party's nomination for this yea r‘s the party's nomination for this year's election, later in the evening. now we've been casting our hook for some beautiful pictures to bring you. which has just opened its latest goldfish exhibit? it features some 30,000 fish, including koi carp and rare goldfish, in tanks designed by the artist hide—tomo kimura. goldfish have long been considered a symbol of beauty injapanese art. the exhibition has been making quite a splash injapan. don't forget, there's lots more on all the stories we're covering on our website, including the republican national convention on our website — that's all at bbc.com/news — or you can download the bbc news app for your tablet or smartphone. you can find me on twitter — i'm @bbcrajiniv. do stay with us throughout the

night for coverage of president trump's speech here on bbc news. hello there. the weather is set to change this weekend, but there's no sign of summer returning. the last 2a hours, it's been very wet across many parts of the country. some flooded scenes here in southern england, with an inch of rain falling in about an hour. there could be some flooding in northeast england in the morning as well with that persistent rain from overnight. that rain band will move southwards through the day, heading towards wales and the midlands. south of that, some sunshine triggering some heavy and thundery showers. the weather should improve for northern ireland and scotland, and later in northern england, with some sunshine. but for these areas, the winds will be much stronger, particularly windy around some of those north sea coasts, maybe blowing in one or two showers as well.

a disappointingly cool day on friday. again, temperatures 15 to 18 degrees. now, the really wet weather that we're seeing across england and wales into friday is around that area of low pressure and weather front. it's trying to pull away on saturday, getting nudged by this area of high—pressure in the atlantic, but with that sort of set up, we're left with a northerly wind on saturday. and that will drag down some colder air across the uk. indeed, right the way through the weekend, a bank holiday weekend for many, it's going to be quite chilly, and it's going to be cold at night as well. a lot of dry weather around and, after a windy day on saturday, the winds will be much lighter. but we've got those northerly winds on saturday, making it feel chilly. some sunshine around. we will see some showers, especially across northern scotland, and there's still the threat of some rain coming back towards lincolnshire and east anglia in particular. and it will be windy, especially in the morning, with the strongest winds down those north sea coasts of england. for a while, could be gusting 50 miles an hour. that, of course, will make it feel much colder, and those temperatures are below average for this time of year, 15—17 degrees. and once we see the winds dropping overnight and the cloud melting away,

we're going to find those temperatures will fall sharply. a really cold night for the time of year on saturday night, worth bearing in mind if you're going to be out and about — perhaps camping, for example. as we head into sunday and monday, this area of high pressure then moves across the uk, so the winds will fall much lighter. we've got a weather front arriving towards northern ireland by the end of monday, but ahead of that, a lot of dry weather. a little bit of sunshine from time to time, lighter winds, but those temperatures aren't really going to change a great deal. and before then, of course, we've got more wet, perhaps windy weather on friday.

this is bbc news. the headlines...

hurricane laura, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the united states, has left at least four people dead as it struck the louisiana coast. officials are assessing the scale of the destruction, and dealing with a chemical fire at a lakeside chlorine plant caused by the storm. us sport has taken a stand over race and police brutality with players boycotting basketball, baseball, soccer and tennis in protest at the police shooting of jacob blake. playoff matches have been postponed for a second night, but are expected to resume this week. president trump is due to address the republican national convention from the south lawn of the white house to formally accept his party's renomination for november's election. his speech will be one of the biggest of his career as he sets out to defeat the democratic candidate joe biden. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.