welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: 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. 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. players boycott basketball, baseball, soccer and tennis, in protest at the shooting of jacob blake. and the manchester united captain harry maguire speaks for the first time about the brawl in greece that landed him in court.

in the next few hours, donald 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. senator mitch mcconnell is now speaking. ... they senator mitch mcconnell is now speaking. they offer no protection at all with non— born americans. they want to erode our constitutional rights and they want to quantify this by making the swamp itself, washington, dc, america's 53rd state. we cannot undo the damage they have done. now you understand why democrats spent an entire week telling us about who joe an entire week telling us about whojoe biden an entire week telling us about who joe biden ease, an entire week telling us about whojoe biden ease, not what he intends to do. ——is. i am immensely proud by the work the senate have done. we fought against nancy pelosi's agenda and like president trump will not be bullied by a liberal

media intent on destroying america's institutions. we will stand on behalf of the millions of americans whose stories are not told in today's newspapers, whose struggles are just as real. we will continue to support american families as we defeat coronavirus and return oui’ defeat coronavirus and return our economy to the envy of the world. the stakes have never been higher which is why i am asking you to support republican senate candidates across the country and re—elect, ourfriend, president donald trump. senator mitch mcconnell, the majority leader of the senate. that was just the start up. the main event for us at the moment is our interview with the next few guests. i'm joined now by a modern triumvirate of co—equals — katty kay, in washington, democratic strategist, mary anne marsh, in boston, and republican strategist and former advisor to president george w bush, ron christie, who's also in washington.

looking ahead to president trump was macspeech, but does a sitting president have to do in a very nomination speech? —— very nomination. which branch of government am i meant to be? i was hoping the judiciary. president trump is going to come out fighting in his speech. he was that he has spent the last four years reversing the disastrous policies of the barack obama joe biden years. if you want an end to the crime and violence you are seeing around the country, you will have to re—elect president trump and he will also say physically a choice for america, between two different visions, philosophies, agendas and lay it out in those terms. it is a sort of a continuation we have been hearing this week and, if joe biden is elected, the country will be in a disastrous state and if you want to carry

on with economic recovery, then you elect donald trump. almost as interesting as anything and we have not heard the speech, but almost as interesting as anything is the setting. it is anything is the setting. it is a movie like set, the white house beautifully lit up behind him. overa house beautifully lit up behind him. over a thousand people, not socially distanced in their chairs andi not socially distanced in their chairs and i doubt they will be wearing masks. speaking in a very unusual setting giving a rally campaign speech. when we see in the uk, when we know president trump he will speak from the white house, we say, he speaks from the white house every day. why is it so different for americans the fa ct different for americans the fact that it is a convention speech? it is profoundly un—american to do it as part of a political's party convention.

do not recall any time in our history having that done. despite donald trump being an unusual president, he is doing it in an official capacity as resident of the united states. yes, he takes some politics and commerce yes, he takes some politics and commerce but this is entirely different. normally you would be in another setting. he could have gone to the capitals arena, plenty of places he could have gone. vice president mike pence last night was in a different place. it is spectacularly done but it is a kind of think you would see in a third world country, run by a dictator and he will use this setting to tear down his political opponent, joe biden that we have never seen the likes of the. do you agree? no, of course i do not. i think it is highly insulting that the united states is a third world country. i think it is highly insulting that the president of

the united states is acting in a manner other than carrying out his duties. we are a very difficult time here in america and it is very difficult to protect the president the united states, even in the most ideal of circumstances and it is frankly a safety consideration to keep him in the white house. i want to get back to something said a few minutes ago because we are in extraordinary times. i work with president bush in 2004 when he was running for re—election and donald trump would be wise to do is to summon would be wise to do is to summon the american people to say what state of course? i have my faults, but let's stay the course and not change direction. that is one thing that president bush did successfully because his opponent was saying, do you wa nt opponent was saying, do you want to make a change? do you wa nt want to make a change? do you want a different direction for this country? my worry and my concern for president trump is he is always in a defensive mood. american people are

looking for a bit of reassurance. the question is, we will see and hear that from him tonight or will it be just another railing event or the president. noting that there was the president use, what kind of buzzwords do you expect him to be using? well, to run's point, some of the words that president trump in a big speech of this nature, is the phrase american carnage which he uses in his inaugural address back in 2017. i think we will hear a lot about crime and law and order and the republican party and his senior adviser, kevin connolly, make this clear. they see this violence erupt. ——

carrie ann. to the message of being tough on law and order and making a comparison to what they sayjoe biden is not being tough on law and order. you will hear about joe tough on law and order. you will hear aboutjoe biden and what donald trump will list a whole list of weaknesses joe biden has and it will be partly an attack of his political opponent and maybe some policies. there may be more on covid. i suspect he would like to put that on the rear view mirror in the week that we have passed 180,000 americans dying and that might be difficult but the setting itself, the setting says this is not a covered back anxiety event. people were really anxious about covered back that would not be sitting so back that would not be sitting so closely together without

masks on. —— covid. i think of the president as much as possible would like to refer to chris reed as of this virus from china but also something thatis from china but also something that is behind them. that sense of visual confidence of a nation that might appear during the donald trump speech might be effective? no question about it and what they are trying to do tonight is put covid—19 into the rearview mirror. most americans cannot and will not but they need to do that not focus on the deaths from covid but on the deaths that have come from law and order. but then, that has three benefits. one it keeps the base finder. they want to hear about law and order. two, they are trying to skate white suburban educated women who voted for him in 2016

who are not inclined to do so, and bring them back. and to define joe biden in a way that most voters do not know him. donald trump has tried to define him and he will use it every single day which is why you saw kamala harris's speech, her rebuttal tried to knock that all down before donald trump had a chance to make the case tonight. how does judd trump beat donald trump? ———— how does donald trumpjoe biden? if you repeat the message of how he restores economy, which was roaring before the covid crisis. he wins if you can find a way to reduce the covid crisis in the us and to do so in a responsible manner working across the line with emigrants and republicans, americans

together, in this crisis. and if you can find a way to work with governors and people at the state and local level to eliminate the social unrest we are seeing in the country, he will have a successful case to say, you need to stick with me for another four years. the best is yet to come. if you cannot do all of those things i think he loses. try factor is the right word to describe our guests. —— try —— trifecta. thank you very much. 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. the calm after the storm, the damage caused by sustained winds of a miles an hour, power cuts to more than half a million homes. it was wild. at

around one o'clock also, the wind picked up and i could hear the neighbours's ruth blew off the neighbours's ruth blew off the house and blew into my house. it was also this chemical fire house. it was also this chemicalfire at house. it was also this chemical fire at an industrial plant. the song claiming for people's lows but it could have been worse. it is clear we did not sustain and suffer the absolute catastrophic damage that we thought it was likely, based on the focus we had last night —— forecast. but we have sustained a lot of damage. this surge failed to materialise because it travelled 15 months east of the river meaning the marsh soaked it up. whent will continue as it heads into arkansas towards the american east coast. meanwhile, eastern

texasis east coast. meanwhile, eastern texas is also counting the cost with places like port arthur underwater. the state was my governance survey the damage from the airand governance survey the damage from the air and warning that the weather is not finished yet. one thing that we are continuing to look at is we stand ready to watch and respond to potential flash flooding as well as potential tornadoes as a storm continues tornadoes as a storm continues to go through the exiting process and exiting the state of texas. and that could be an unusually high number of storms still to come. scientists want if they keep appearing at the current case, the number of storms in this hurricane season equal the record set in 2005 when hurricane katrina hit, 15 yea rs when hurricane katrina hit, 15 years to the day on saturday. geoff fox is an american television broadcast meteorologist with a career

spanning 3 decades. earlier, iasked him how this storm compares with others he's seen. this one was very strong and i think the one thing that it had going for it is it went to the place on the louisiana coast that has the least population. in fact, that furthest south—west county is the least populated county in the state. that being said, ijust checked one of the tide gauges from right where texas and louisiana meet on the gulf coast, and last night, that tide gauge was reading ten feet above where it was supposed to be. so in other words, the gulf coast is now ten feet taller than it normally was, and that was part of what we were worried about, with inundation overwashing the land. that area of southern louisiana and texas is just as flat as a board, and most places are only at sea level or a foot or two about. right now though, the problem for them is the additional rain. by the time all is said and done, portions of southern louisiana could see 15—18 inches of rain,

and let me just say one more thing here about this — when we see the strongest storm to hit louisiana in over 100 years, remember katrina, hurricane katrina hit louisiana as well so this storm stronger still than that. we remember katrina from 2005. how easy or difficult is it to predict the exact path of hurricane laura right now? well, i'm going to tell you, my hats are off to the national hurricane center in coral gables, florida, who are the lead organisation here in the states for doing this. their forecast this time — and it is not always this accurate — was down to the kilometre. i mean, five days out, they had the track and the path really accurate, but part of the reason this was easier

to forecast was because it was moving rapidly — about 15 mph when it hit the shore. when hurricanes move slowly, when they go at walking speed or even pause for a while in their tracks, that is when they become the most difficult to predict. how many days it will louisiana have to endure stormy weather for? oh, well, actually, in southern louisiana, it is over. in fact, next time you see video of people cleaning up after a hurricane, you'll notice it is pretty much always sunny — that's because all that humid air that goes inside the hurricane gets blasted out the top and, through subsidence, clears the air once the hurricane leaves. geoff fox there. 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 country's 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 one 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. a surge in covid cases is preventing some business 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. it says it's considering all options to slow 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.

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. 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...| 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, for sure, 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. that was harry mcguire speaking to our sports editor danny roan. i'm joined now by our north america correspondent jane o'brien,

who's in washington. the convention has been rattling through a number of speakers. it has indeed. we are hearing from a vast array of people. the convention has been promoting very heavily its connection with ordinary people. we have been hearing from businesses, small businesses, frontline workers. but also, james, the number of black speakers has been quite striking. there are two competing sort of analysis of this. one is that the trump campaign is trying to appeal to black voters. it has been doing very well them at all. they do favourjoe biden in the polls. the other analysis is that the number of black speakers is an attempt to give white voters a sense of security about voting for president trump whose, some of whose comments have been interpreted as being racist or

racially insensitive. so whatever the analysis you choose to take, the fact remains they have been a very large number of african—american speakers over the last three or four days and we are expecting to hear from ben carson, who is the secretary for housing and urban development, in the next few minutes. if ukraine at your head or if you jump, are you able to see any of the crowd gathering on the south lawn? no. but i have seen quite a few of them passing by. in fact, it is really funny because right worried i am, i can see the front door of the west wing and that seems to be wearing a lot of gas are and going. there was a group of sports stars apparently. i don't know anything about sport and i said very rudely, who are you? and they looked a bit bemused by that. but apparently they are famous hockey players. who knew? i can confirm he has

hockey players in the ground. we will add a breaking new stra ps we will add a breaking new straps about. do you know how many people are in the crowd and how they got the invitations? well we know that there are going to be somewhere between 8000 and 1500 people and we also know of course that president trump loves talking toa president trump loves talking to a crowd. —— 1,000. president trump loves talking to a crowd. ——1,000. this is a huge departure from the democratic convention which was virtually all virtual. we have had a number of live speakers in this convention and president trump making a number of live appearances. he popped up of live appearances. he popped up at the vice president's speech last night at fort mchenry in baltimore but this is his big night. this is when he will make his formal a cce pta nce he will make his formal acceptance speech and the crowds over there will be cheering. one thing we have learned about the president in recent yea rs learned about the president in recent years is he does like to have a crowd to react to, get chance started, might this look like one of those rallies we used to see before covid? it is

a rally, this is exactly what this is anderson's way to so controversial. the fact he is holding a political rally rally at the white house and here is an carson about to speak. before i begin, i would like to so that our hearts go out to the blake family and the other families who have been impacted by the tragic events in kenosha. as jacob's mother has urged the country, let's use our hearts, our love and our intelligence to work together to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other. america is great when we behave greatly. in order to succeed and change, we must first come together and love our fellow citizens. history reminds us that necessary change comes through

hope and love, not senseless and destructive violence. abraham and destructive violence. abra ham lincoln once and destructive violence. abraham lincoln once said to an america divided that, quote," your purpose then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the government unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the constitution as you please on all points of dispute between you and us. you will rule or ruin in all events". unquote. these words of warning are relevant today. we have a choice. do we want the government that controls our lives from the cradle to the grave? ordo we lives from the cradle to the grave? or do we believe in the power and wisdom of the people and their ability to self govern with help from a limited federal government? our president, donaldj federal government? our president, donald j trump believes in the people. he is

one of us. he makes promises and he keeps them. he is transparent and we certainly know what he is thinking. he does not submit to political correctness or to its enforcers, the media. he is real. right now, we need real, we need courage, we can't cower in the corner and hope that nobody calls us a name, believing that will keep us safe. that is not courage and that will not lead us to a good and just place. we must remember all those who sacrificed everything in order to give us freedom and we must be willing to do the same for those who come after us. president trump does not dabble in identity politics. he wants eve ryo ne in identity politics. he wants everyone to succeed and believes in the adage, a rising

tide lifts all boats. many on the other side love to incite division by claiming that president trump is a racist. they could not be more wrong. years ago, jesse jackson gave donald trump an award for the economic opportunity that he created for black people in. in palm beach florida, donald trump led the crusade to allow bikes and stews into private clu bs bikes and stews into private clubs and results. wannabe person seated as president was to bring the office of historically black colleges and universities into the white house so they could get proper attention and financial support. before the pandemic, african american unemployment was at an all—time low. president trump accomplished prison reform, he created incentives to encourage investors to become involved with economically deprived areas of america. he strongly supports school choice, fully

recognising that no matter what circumstances a person is born into, they can achieve success with a good education. it was true for me. when my mother forced me to read books about doc ‘s, entrepreneurs, inventors and scientists, i began to recognise that the person who has the most to do with what happens to do in life is you. —— doctors. my mother a lwa ys is you. —— doctors. my mother always told me, ben, you can do anything but i will never allow you to become a victim. it was then that i stopped listening to the people who were trying to the people who were trying to convince me that i was a victim and that others were responsible for my victimhood. what is racist is the fact that african—americans what is racist is the fact that african—america ns have the highest abortion rates. president trump is the most pro— life president in the country's history. he will

continue to fight for those who cannot yet speak. a vision of a shining city upon a hill came from jesus's cement on the mount. america is that shining city. we are the beacon of hope for the world — sermon. at this point in time, president donald trump is the amount of the courage, the vision and the ability to keep it shining brightly. that was ben carson the secretary of housing and urban development and a presidential candidate in 2015. jane is still standing by in front of the west wing. what did you think? he tackled head on the allegations from many of president trump as my critics that he is racist. carson