this is bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. our top stories: dozens of people are reported missing in a wave of deadly wildfires in the us state of oregon. many more evacuation orders have been put in place, including right here, such that now more than half a million people in this state have been told to leave their homes. bahrainjoins the united arab emirates in normalising relations with israel, a move which further erodes the arab world's boycott of the jewish state. shouting and chanting protests in lesbos against conditions on the greek island, with migrants demanding to be allowed to travel

to mainland europe. coronavirus is back on the rise in the uk, with the r—number, showing how many people each patient infects, above one, for the first time since march. and airplane food for grounded customers — thai airways open a pop—up restaurant for those who want a choice of chicken or beef without taking to the skies. hello and welcome. up to half a million people have been ordered to leave their homes in the american state of oregon as wildfires continue to spread across the country's west coast with around 3,000 firefighters tackling nearly 100 blazes. the state governor, kate brown, has said that dozens of people are missing.

the fires have killed at least 4 people in oregon, and 11 in other west coast states. from portland, our north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, reports. the scale of these wildfires is staggering and, as they burn, more lives are being lost. seven bodies were recovered from this community alone, after the flames were fought back. but around 100 major fires are now burning across the north—western united states. they are doing what they can, but erratic winds are hampering efforts and it's threatening many communities in three different states. well, overnight, two of the biggest fires in oregon merged, and many more evacuation orders have been put in place, including right here, such that now, more than half a million people in this state have been told to leave their homes. those who fled medford,

in oregon, told of having just minutes to grab what they could before their homes were completely engulfed and destroyed. in the last ten years, we see an average of 500,000 acres burned in an entire year. we've seen that nearly double in the past three days. we have never seen this amount of uncontained fire across our state. the governor talked of this being the acute impact of climate change, and warned that, as unprecedented as these fires have been, to expect more of the same kind of devastation in the future. and there is still such a long way to go in the fight against this disaster, and fears of many more deaths to come. aleem maqbool, bbc news in sandy, 0regon. a little earlier i was joined by commander bill ward, from the madera county sheriff's office.

i asked what has been happeing with the fires in his area. much like oregon and other western states right now, ourfire — we are calling it the creek fire — it started last friday so it has been going for about a week now but, as of this morning, it is already up to 176,000 acres and only about 6% contained. so it is one of the worst fires we have seen around here. i have been working here for 2h years and it is definitely the worst fire i have ever seen. how much damage has it done already? you know, it is really hard, we don't know yet. there is lots of areas where the fire is still actively burning so we have not even really had a chance to go in and start surveying the damage. so what have you been doing, i know you said earlier on to the producer that you have been going and helping with the evacuation, checking on residents, what is the situation with the evacuation right now?

so when madera county we have probably about about 4000 people evacuated and about 15,000 under warning which is basically, we have told them to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. so what our deputies are doing is basically patrolling those areas to make sure that the looters don't come in and steal from the homes that are now abandoned, so we have been doing a lot of patrolling, we helped with the evacuations, and we are trying to keep the area safe right now. given what you have said about these fires being amongst the words you have seen, have people been willing to evacuate quite easily? have people been 0k with doing that when they have been asked to and needed to? we always have refusals, but it seems like this time around many more people seem to be willing to leave. i think a lot of people just recognise that this one is different,

this one seems a lot more severe than the ones we have had in the last ten years or so. and looking ahead to the next few hours, the next few days, what are you expecting, what are you hoping? so we're hoping the fire slows down, and doesn't spread as much. they are forecasting some weather conditions might not be helpful, they are forecasting some conditions that might cause the fire to get started moving more quickly again, but we hoping not, are we're hoping it slows down. calfire are working on containment lines and even back fires, so what we really hoping is that the fire doesn't grow any larger. the kingdom of bahrain has become the latest arab gulf state to say it is normalising its relations with israel — less than a month after the united arab emirates said it was establishing ties. announcing the deal, president trump described it as "another historic breakthrough". the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, called it

a new era of peace. tom bateman reports from jerusalem. an american president hailing a peace deal in the middle east. the agreement makes bahrain only the fourth arab country to normalise ties with israel, a much—needed boon in the white house ahead of an election. i want to thank the leaders of israel and bahrain for their vision and courage to forge this historic agreement, their leadership is proving that the future can be filled with hope, and does not need to be predetermined by conflicts of the past. a joint statement between israel and bahrain called their agreement "a historic breakthrough." it is likely to involve mutual embassies, direct flights and new security ties among countries that share a common adversary in iran. translation: i am moved to be able to tell you that this evening we are reaching another peace agreement with another arab country, bahrain.

this agreement adds to the historic agreement with the united arab emirates. it is another significant moment for relations between israel and the arab world. last month the uae and the israelis agreed to forge diplomatic links. but it leaves the palestinians feeling sidelined. they condemned the latest agreement, calling it a dangerous betrayal. they believe the move by the gulf countries torpedoes a promise by arab states not to embrace israel until palestinian statehood is achieved. the gulf countries believe their move could nudge forward an end to the israeli—palestinian conflict, but critics see more self—interest than peacemaking for the parties involved. tom bateman, bbc news, jerusalem. migrants on the greek island of lesbos have been protesting on the streets demanding the freedom to travel

on to mainland europe. more than 10,000 people were left without shelter this week after europe's largest refugee camp was gutted by fire. protesters approached riot police cordoning off the road out of the moria camp. four hundred unaccompanied children from the camp are to be taken in by eu countries. the european commission says the destroyed camp will be rebuilt, a plan strongly opposed by authorities on the island. our correspondent bethany bell is on lesbos. many, many migrants are sleeping and living rough after the moria camp burnt down. they‘ re camping out on the sides of roads, some of them sleeping in cemeteries or under the trees in olive groves. some aid workers have been supplying them with food and basic supplies, but sanitary conditions are grim, there's little to no running water, and it is very difficult

for people to wash themselves. people here have been holding protests. migrants have been marching up and down, demanding freedom to move to other parts of europe, away from lesbos and away from greece. "freedom, not food," one person said. "we want to go somewhere else. we want europe to help us." the local greeks here also want the migrants to go somewhere else — they say lesbos has borne the brunt of europe's migrant crisis for too long, but at the moment, an agreement by the eu looks very difficult. let's get some of the day's other news: all fourformer us police officers charged in connection with the death of a black man, george floyd, in may have appeared in court in the city of minneapolis. derek chauvin, who faces the most serious accusations, was making his first in—person court appearance since he was charged with murder.

afghan government negotiators — seen here leaving kabul — have arrived in doha to take part in the first formal intra—afg han peace talks with the taliban which start on saturday. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, will also attend the negotiations. at least 50 people are feared to have been killed in the democratic republic of congo when an artisanal gold mine collapsed near the eastern town of kamituga. the town's mayor said heavy rains caused landslides in three mining wells, trapping the miners. britain's coronavirus epidemic is once more on the rise. for the first time since march, the r number for coronavirus infections has risen above the crucial level of one, meaning the virus is now spreading again. that appears to be backed up by the latest daily figures for the last 2a hours, which show the highest number of new infections

in almost 4 months. our medical editor, fergus walsh, reports on the rising coronavirus levels. how do you ensure people have the freedom to socialise and spend money — as in london tonight — while keeping coronavirus in check? more and more evidence is showing the virus is on the rise, including a massive study by imperial college london, testing people at home. this monthly survey acts like an early warning system for the prevalence of coronavirus throughout england. 150,000 volunteers do home swab tests. now, the results for the end of august show there were 136 positive cases, sharply up on the previous month, but still lower than when the survey was first carried out in may. 65% of those who were positive had no symptoms on the day they were tested, which underlines the importance

of social distancing. across the uk, the r number is thought to be between 1.0 and 1.2, which means the epidemic is growing, but from a low base. it's thought the prevalence is doubling every seven to ten days. now, back pre—lockdown, r was somewhere about 3, and cases were doubling every 3—4 days, so we are in a much better position than back then. it behoves us all to heed the message because with the virus turning up and robustly turning up, with the r value robustly being above1 but the prevalence still quite low, it's a chance for us to nip this in the bud. take a few deep breaths now, the more relaxed you are the easier it is... most of those testing positive now are young but there are concerns about the virus spreading to the elderly and vulnerable. if we look at the number of patients with covid—19 in hospital across the uk,

that peaked at around 20,000 in mid—april, and then fell sharply for several months before levelling off. it's now above 800 patients and may be creeping up again. i am a lot less optimistic than i was even a few weeks ago, partly because of the very rapid, and unexpectedly rapid, increase in case numbers this last week, and also the reports of the difficulties that we are in actually providing enough testing facilities. those tracking the epidemic say the latest figures are a wake—up call, and a reminder that the threat from coronavirus has not gone away. fergus walsh, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: chicken or beef? thai airways opens a pop—up restau ra nt, com plete with airline seats, for customers craving an in—flight meal.

george w bush: 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 spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here, of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites in their rich suburbs. we say to you today in a loud and a clear voice, "enough of blood and tears. enough!" translation: the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people, caused by the uneven

pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: more than 500,000 people in the us state of oregon are fleeing deadly wildfires that are raging across the pacific northwest. at least ten people are reported to have died and dozens more are missing. bahrain says it is normalising relations with israel, in a move that further erodes the arab world's boycott of the jewish state. it's been 19 years since the september 11th attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in what remains the deadliest attack on us soil since the second world war. memorials were held in remembrance of the victims throughout the country.

our north america correspondent nick bryant has this report. 9/11 — the day that separated the past and the future into the before and the after. this year in new york, the commemorations were loaded with extra meaning. in 2020, amidst a viral onslaught, this city became ground zero again. giann fgamboa. families of the victims wore masks but on a day of such high emotion, it was hard to maintain a social distance. moments of remembrance at a time of mass mourning in america. thomas atwood. donald trump marked this solemn day in shanksville, pennsylvania, where united airlines flight 93 crashed into a field after passengers tried to overpower the hijackers. the heroes of flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat,

no matter the odds, america will always rise up, stand tall and fight back. joe biden, the democrat seeking to replace donald trump as president, began his day by paying his respects to the 9/11 memorial in lower manhattan and suspending campaigning in the presidential race. he's presented himself as the empathy candidate — a father who's suffered enormous personal grief himself, who understands the bereavement of others. in the aftermath of 9/11, america came together in the face of a common enemy but that hasn't happened in response to covid—19. the pandemic has exposed the polarised state of this nation. this anniversary is hard to detach from the looming presidential election, and in the waters off lower manhattan, some supporters of donald trump made their presence felt. political no—go zones are a thing of the american past.

nick bryant, bbc news, new york. the renowned indian politician and activist swami agnivesh has died in delhi. the 80—year—old was best known for his decades—long campaign against bonded labour, where people are forced to work in virtual slavery to pay off debts. he campaigned for religious harmony in india and also worked against corruption, and for the rights of women and girls. feminist icon shere hite has died at the age of 77. best known for her book, the hite report: a nationwide study of female sexuality, hite is credited with starting a sexual revolution for women. the book, which was based on the experiences of more than 3,000 women, challenged societal and freudian assumptions about sex and has sold 48 million copies since it was published in 1976. we spoke to professorjane kamensky, who's director of the schlesinger library on the history of women in america at harvard university,

about her legacy. shere hite is someone you would have heard of if you were watching news in 1976. the hite report, published that year, was a publishing sensation. she claimed to have inaugurated a sexual revolution for women but in fact, she published into the middle of a sexual revolution, asking freud's familiar question about what do women want? i think for the first time at a mass scale, asking women themselves to respond to that question — and their answers were riveting and surprising, even if they weren't gathered in the best social scientific standards. so i think she had the attention of the world during the peak of herfame from the mid ‘70s to the early ‘80s. she had a lot of attention, but she also had a lot

of criticism as well, didn't she? why was that? she was, in many ways, a qualitative researcher passing as a quantitative researcher. the survey was the instrument of choice for knowledge in her day, and she sent out 100,000 58—question surveys and got more than 3,500 responses back. and she tabulated the responses and said a lot about her method. but in fact, what she was doing was a sort of mass version of consciousness—raising, of listening to people tell their stories. so in some ways, she was more of a folklorist than a social scientist. she also got tremendous pushback from men's magazines, most famously playboy, because she said that men weren't that important to women's sexual pleasure — that that's what her female respondents had told her. what do you think her legacy has been in terms

of what she has done for the feminist movement, for women's ideas about sexuality and female sexuality? so she's remembered for being a pleasure activist, and one of the first at this hinge moment between the hedonism of the early sexual revolution, the feminist reaction against the sexual revolution, and then at the beginning of what we would now call a third wave sex—positive feminist. in fact, i think she's misremembered. she comes down as she reads the responses in this survey very equivocal about the sexual revolution and, in fact, dubious about the extent to which modern americans and others she surveyed had put sex at the centre of their lives. she calls it almost an opioid of the masses in the late 20th century.

so she's remembered as a pleasure activist but i think she is really quite equivocal about the place of sex in a world increasingly suffused with it. do you think the kind of research that she was carrying out then has a place now in today's society, or are we way past that? so the schlesinger library, which i direct, holds all of that original evidence — almost 200 file boxes worth of correspondence and surveys, tabulations — and as a repository of ordinary women telling stories about their private selves at mid century, it's enormously valuable, even if they're not correctly sampled to represent the whole of the american population. so i think people are going to be doing research in that data, listening to those stories for generations to come. with fewer people flying because of coronavirus, many are missing the in—flight experience, but does this also include airline food?

paul hawkins explains. airline food. it hasn't always had the best reputation, but that isn't stopping thai airways. they're using it as a way to recoup lost income because of coronavirus, with this aviation—themed restaurant in the company's bangkok headquarters for people who are actually missing airline food. translation: i have seen the news about the thai airways crisis. there are so many people getting affected, including the chefs, cabin crew — even my sister, who works for the airline. i'm also here to show my support. everything has been designed to make you think you are flying at 30,000 feet, with airline seats for customers and novelty tables. translation: all the tables are made from parts of the aircraft's engine that we cleaned. we then painted them and we installed glass on top to decorate first and business class sections of the restaurant.

there's qr codes on the parts, so you can look up fascinating facts about what they do. even the way you enter the restaurant is like boarding an aircraft. translation: i was so impressed, from the moment i stepped on the ramp because i was greeted by the captain and the cabin crew at the entrance. the feeling is the same as boarding an actual flight. the only difference is you're not going anywhere. translation: i'm so happy. i believe the cabin crew love passengers and after we couldn't fly for 3—4 months, we missed our uniform and atmosphere a lot, so for us to be here today is such an extraordinary moment. luckily, the restaurant doesn't recreate air turbulence, a lack of leg room, or that annoying snoring passenger but it is selling 2,000 meals a day — proof that even the most bizarre business ideas can work in these unprecedented times. paul hawkins, bbc news.

a bit bizarre, for sure. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @bbcmaryam. goodbye. hello. the weekend is upon us and the weather's looking a bit mixed. it's something of a north—south split. across much of england and wales, we've got a fairly decent weekend ahead. it's looking largely dry, pretty warm as well, with some sunshine on offer. but for scotland and northern ireland, a different story. here, things will be turning increasingly windy, particularly through saturday, and there'll be some rain at times. heaviest for the north—west of scotland on sunday. but for the here and now, we've got this weak weather front here that's been slipping its way slowly south over the past 2a hours or so. but a more active weather front waiting out in the atlantic. that is what will bring the rain to the north—west. but for saturday morning, we just got a band of cloud on this weak weather front pushing south. could be the odd spot of drizzle for southern england first thing,

but that clears away. much of the uk looking dry with some long spells of sunshine, but there will be more of those blustery showers for scotland and for northern ireland, with more persistent rain arriving by the evening. temperatures on saturday will move to about 13—21 degrees. as we move through saturday overnight, that's where we see that more persistent rain arriving across northern ireland and scotland, too, really heavy around those hills in the west in particular. whereas further south, you should stay dry overnight. and for all of us, it is going to be mild. for most places, temperatures are in the low teens to start sunday morning. now, through the day on sunday, high pressure sits to the south, keeping things settled, but we've got this weather front, this warm front which is going to be quite slow—moving through the day. so on sunday, more heavy persistent rain which could lead to some flooding and disruption across the northern highlands in particular — we've got a weather warning in force for that. elsewhere, a lot of dry weather. the best of the sunshine towards the south and east, where temperatures will be up to about 2k degrees on sunday. that warming trend is going to continue into the new working week, too.

moving on to monday now, as that warm front pushes its way gradually further north, it is pulling in this warmer airfrom spain and france. so it is going to feel quite warm for many of us on monday with long spells of sunshine. could be more cloud and perhaps the odd shower along some north—western part of the uk. —— northern and western part of the uk. most places are avoiding it, though. for the sunshine, those temperatures in the south—east, 29, possibly 30 degrees, many of us in the low to mid 20s on monday. stays warm to the middle part of the week, gradually things turn a bit cooler and fresher as we head towards the end of the coming week. bye— bye.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: more than 500,000 people in the us state of oregon are fleeing deadly wildfires that are raging across the pacific northwest. at least 10 people have died and dozens more have been reported as missing. bahrain says it is normalising its relations with israel, less than a month after the united arab emirates said it was establishing ties. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, called it a new era of peace. but the palestinian leadership slammed it as a "betrayal ofjerusalem and the palestinian cause." there have been protests by migrants stranded on the greek island of lesbos after europe's biggest refugee camp was gutted by fire on tuesday. they're protesting against the construction of a replacement camp and want to be allowed to travel on to mainland europe. here, as coronavirus infections begin to rise again,