good afternoon. a number of conservative mps have joined those calling for the government to provide urgent support to businesses struggling with soaring gas prices. the leaders of industries with heavy energy consumption say spiralling costs are threatening their future. ministers insist they're in regular contact with business groups, exploring possible solutions. our business correspondent katie prescott reports. cement, glass, steel, chemicals. the industries with the heaviest

energy consumption in the uk. to keep the furnaces burning, they're crying out for support. absolutely right now. gas prices are at an unprecedented level. and the businesses that manufacture the goods that we need are trying to operate under these unprecedented conditions. they are backed by some conservative mps representing industrial areas. they need government support, either in direct support or a cap on their energy prices to allow them to continue in business, and it would be ludicrous that we would lose these high energy intensive businesses that we need for our economy. but so far that support isn't forthcoming. the government says it is in regular contact with business groups to explore ways to manage the impact of rising global prices and that this underscores the importance of building a strong, home—grown renewable energy sector to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

businesses don't have the cushion of the energy price cap so they tend to buy their energy a year or so in advance. for those whose contracts are now up for renewal it's a really painful time as they face skyrocketing costs. we've got kids in a nursery. we can't not turn the heating on for children in the nursery. looking at the prices now you are looking at the moment energy is selling eight times higher than it was when that contract started. eight times higher. that is just crazy. i don't know how people and businesses are actually going to cope. while households might be directly protected by the price cap, rising costs for businesses eventually feed through to all of us. if energy prices won't come down then this will happen to this nursery. katie prescott, bbc news.

the us open champion emma raducanu has been knocked out of the indian wells tournament in california, losing herfirst competitive match since her momentous grand slam win last month. the 18—year—old brit was beaten in straight sets by the world number 100, aliaksandra sasnovich. mike bushell reports. and from great britain, _ please welcome emma raducanu! a new feeling for britain's teenage star, walking out onto the court as a big name, the world superstar. and in terms of the world rankings, the favourite. emma raducanu, the world number 22 now, up against an opponent only just inside the top 100. and early on, raducanu lived up to this billing, an excellent start against aliaksandra sasnovich of belarus. holding to love in the opening game and roared on by a supportive crowd of 4,000 for the night session. but remember the british number one is still only 18. she's also now without a permanent coach after parting ways with long—standing mentor

andrew richardson. and there is no substitute for experience. 27—year—old sasnovich took control, as raducanu was forced into errors and seemed anxious to close out rallies quickly on a slower court than she's used to. and after the 6—2, 6—4 straight sets defeat, raducanu said she was glad in a way she had lost, as she could learn from it as she develops in the weeks, months and years ahead. andy murray, though, is still involved in indian wells and was relieved to have his wedding ring tied to his trainers once more, after both were lost and then found — handed in by lost property. andy had a spring in his step as he eased past frenchman adrian mannarino to reach the second round. mike bushell, bbc news. american officials and representatives of the taliban are to meet face to face for the first time since the group took control of afghanistan in august. the united states said the talks,

in the qatari capital doha, did not signal a recognition of taliban rule. at least 50 people died and more than 100 were injured in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in the afghan city of kunduz yesterday. the islamic state group said it was behind the attack. our correspondent, yogita limaye, is in doha for us. what are both sides looking to get out of these talks? lie what are both sides looking to get out of these talks?— what are both sides looking to get out of these talks? us officials say this is a continuation _ out of these talks? us officials say this is a continuation of— out of these talks? us officials say i this is a continuation of engagement with the taliban on matters of national interest. at the top of the us agenda is the evacuation of american nationals who are still stuck in afghanistan and others with permits to go to foreign countries who are still in the country. 0ver who are still in the country. over the past few weeks there have been delays and difficulties in the air evacuation process and the us will be hoping to iron those problems out and hold the taliban to its commitment to delivering safe packed

stage to all individuals wanting to leave afghanistan. the meeting comes a day after those deadly attacks and the growing threat of the islamic state group is also expected to be discussed. as far as the taliban are concerned they have told us that their delegation is here under the foreign minister they have appointed and they are hoping to improve relations with the international community. at the moment a lot of the aid money going into afghanistan has been frozen by many international agencies and the taliban will be hoping to negotiate a resumption of that funding. thank ou ve a resumption of that funding. thank you very much- _ plans for a phone service aimed at protecting lone women walking home have been announced by bt. the company's chief executive said the firm started to develop the system in the wake of the murders of sarah everard and sabina nessa.

bt has set out its plans in a letter to the home secretary. but some campaigners argue such a service does not tackle the real problem of male violence. the wildlife campaigner chris packham and around 100 children have delivered a petition to buckingham palace calling on the royal family to rewild their estates, restoring the land they own to its natural state. ecologists believe some of the estates would naturally be home to beavers and wild boar, as simonjones explains. taking their message direct to buckingham palace, campaigners say the royals must rewild. it is claimed their estates are an ecological disaster zone with practices like deer stalking and grouse shooting and there are calls for the land to be allowed to return to a more natural state.— for the land to be allowed to return to a more natural state. because of their global— to a more natural state. because of their global celebrity _ to a more natural state. because of their global celebrity where - to a more natural state. because of their global celebrity where they i their global celebrity where they lead other people follow and if they were to do this it would be a fantastic gesture at a significant

time when we are tiring of people talking the talk and we need them to be walking the walk. we need meaningful, positive action. b, meaningful, positive action. a petition signed by 100,000 people is delivered to the palace by a 14—year—old while his brother explained his concerns. we 14-year-old while his brother explained his concerns. we are young and we have — explained his concerns. we are young and we have a — explained his concerns. we are young and we have a lot _ explained his concerns. we are young and we have a lot of _ explained his concerns. we are young and we have a lot of time _ explained his concerns. we are young and we have a lot of time ahead - and we have a lot of time ahead of us. the world is going on but may not be pleasant because there is going to be so much chaos in the future. . , ., future. planting trees that bow model for the _ future. planting trees that bow model for the platinum - future. planting trees that bow| model for the platinum jubilee. future. planting trees that bow - model for the platinum jubilee. the model for the platinumjubilee. the royal estates in the royal family has a long—standing commitment to conservation and they are constantly looking for new ways to improve die of biodiversity. next month senior members of the royal family are due to attend the glasgow climate conference and campaigners say that would be the perfect opportunity for them to take a chance. they are calling it a polite protest, but when they hope will bring about

change. simon jones, bbc news. with all the sport now, here's austin halewood at the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. history could be made at old trafford this afternoon, when french side catalans dragons face holders saint helens in super league's grand final. if the dragons win, they'll become the first team from outside the north of england to lift the title. although catalans finished top of the table in the regular season, many experts have saint helens down as favourites, as they go for a third straight title. to come to old trafford is special and looking around the place and the aura and the memories it brings, i've been here before and i've been on both sides of the score line, i've been here and lost and i've been here and won so i know which one i would rather be on. we've loved what's been created back in france . by what they have achieved, - the national interest and the media has been tremendous for the group i but it's all about the performancel on the weekend and performing well on the day to win the game. -

kieran trippier says he was speechless after being asked to captain england for their world cup qualifier against andorra later. the full back will lead his country for only the second time in what will be an historic match as an england men's international is officiated by an all—female team for the first time. a very important moment for gender equality, absolutely, and for us it is almost irrelevant. it is the quality of the official that is important, not the gender, so we are looking forward to being part of what is a special occasion, really. northern ireland are also in action. they face switzerland later — the team one place above them in their group. and there's a crucial game for scotland too, who will play in front of a sold—out hampden park for their match against israel. steve clarke's side are second in their group, one point ahead of today's opponents. and the scotland boss is hoping a full house can inspire his team to victory.

and finally, the wait is almost over. it's the day of the big fight in las vegas between heavyweights tyson fury and deontay wilder. both fighters weighed in heavier than they have ever done before. wilder tipped the scales at 17 stone, with fury nearly three stone heavier at 19 stone 11 pounds. the first fight was a draw, fury convincingly won the second, but former heavyweight champion lennox lewis says this one will be different again. tyson fury is the man leading the way because he has all the advantages in the sense that he's a good solid boxer, he can turn southpaw, he doesn't get hit too easily, he moves well. there is much more on all of those stories on the bbc sport website including the build—up to the manchester derby in the women's super league. that's all the sport for now. bye for now.

this is bbc news. let's get more on the call from several of the common�*s own mps to provide support to businesses struggling with surging gas prices. the british chambers of commerce has called for a price cap are small and medium—sized firms are similar to the one you still a spike in prices for of households. from a business perspective it is hugely challenging times. the larger suppliers and indeed the regulator have been propagating a story that small suppliers just haven't purchased well enough

for this environment. that is categorically untrue. together and bristol, we have access to all the trading instruments and access to the wholesale market the same as the larger players, but as a small supplier in the perverse situation we are in this now, there is something which is known as the price cap, categorically the cheapest tariff you can get in the market, what we have as customers are quite rightly they are staying with us, who normally would roll away and in that scenario we are left buying gas and power for these customers at seven, eight, nine times the level that is allowed in the price cap. from a customer's perspective, they have been very anxious. we have had record numbers of calls asking if we are going to ride this out and if they should be

moving to other suppliers. we are only good place, but it is an anxious time for customers and for industry. just to go back to what you said at the beginning, you said some of the larger companies had been suggesting smaller energy suppliers hadn't, i think the term is hedging, isn't it? insuring against fluctuation in the price of gas, but you have done that, have a new? that's what you are saying your instance? we have done that for the customers. there are three things are good is a buyer has to do, keep their costs as low as possible, forecast a number of customers are going to have and the energy those customers are going to use, and you have the service your customers the best of your ability. those three things are what makes a supplier successful. in the market we then just now, we have customers who are staying with us that we just would not have expected the staples that we would have expected them to move onto another more competitive

deal, we have not been in a position to hedge for those customers. that is leaving the business under huge pressure and putting it under constraints. be absolutely clear what you mean when you say you have not been able to hedge for those particular customers. we were not expecting those customers to be part of our portfolio, so if you think about any given point, if you have 10,000 customers a year signing up to one year deals, typically 20% of those customers will go and find a more competitive deal at the end of their lifetime. there are no competitive products on the market so they are staying where they are. we did not expect to have these customers so we have not purchased the energy for them. ok, you have explained that really clearly now. you mentioned the price cap. do you think, as a mechanism, the price cap is working, is helping, are not? we categorically support the price gap, and it is enormously helping customers today. but the question a customer has to ask, any situation where we are inch and it is enormously helping customers today. but the question a customer has to ask, any situation where we are in over the wholesale price has risen to two or three times what we have ever seen historically, i was working in the industry in 2008 the last time this happened, if the reverse was tapping on the wholesale prices to drop

as fast as it is written, customers would be getting a poor deal. the brands we are seeing failing at the moment is moving us toward situation where there will be ten or 11 suppliers in the real concern is you end up in some kind of cartel mentality and the prices don't drop. the price you see dropping to a customer does not come as fast as a price you would see rising. there is no protection for the customer there. we began when this crisis emerged talking a lot about the impact on domestic customers. obviously in the last few days we've been focusing a lot on the situation for industry and business, they are calling for the government to introduce subsidies to try to help them with these huge fluctuations and the dash in the price of gas. do you think the government should be doing more beyond the price cap for domestic customers? the price cap is so frustrating because generators, there is no price cap on generators. there are examples of generation not being switched on in

the uk, critically on the power side, that would help some of the volatility in the market. the only person that has been asked to cap is the supplier, a complex chain — national grid distributor providers, generators, none of these people have been asked to exercise any type of price cap. if you had a price cap that existed right the way through the complexity of the supply chain, i think you would see an awful lot of pressure being eased for businesses. looking ahead a little bit, you say you are currently well housed for the run—up to christmas in terms of what you've prepared for with the fluctuations in the price of gas, but beyond christmas, what do you think the situation you think the situation might be? we have access to strong trading relationships... but it is not an easy situation for us. between december and april, we are well backed have strong relationships, we will manage it, but we will be making losses next year.

i have been speaking to the ceo of british glass. i think the degree of price rising has been absolutely unprecedented. you heard from other sectors and we are no different, other than safe to say that publicly because of the cost of our raw material being relatively modest and product being relatively low—priced, it is very difficult to pass these price rises through. we are seeing price rises of better than eight times, ten times the spot market price two days ago, which is just impossible to deal with. you took part in the meeting with the business secretary yesterday. i spoke to the boss of uk steel after that and he said there were no immediate solutions on the table from the government.

one idea that's been put forward is a price cap for small and medium—sized businesses, similar to the price cap we see for domestic customers. would something like that help? i think it it would certainly help, but it is probably too little too late. across the heavy industries there is a wide range of models, and this manufacturing industry is very vulnerable. we see an immediate impact, the idea of inflation being a progressive thing, we are seeing price rises immediately, renewing contracts that are 40p or 50p from years ago and sort of hedge purchases, to renew those, now being three or £4. i think measures like that will be certainly needed and helpful, but we are also going to need immediate intervention

to help certain companies that are within that spectrum of impact and are far more severely impacted. you estimated around 6000 people employed in the british glass industry and of course many thousands more in related sectors, and with the government talking about the importance of high skilled jobs, well—paid jobs, how important on that front is it that the government make some sort of intervention at this stage? i think, to be fair to the secretary of state, that was acknowledged during the meeting. the reality is models had already been constructed to look at whether we could weather the sort of transient see of the issue. i guess everyone has in mind that this is likely to be dealt with in terms of severity before the winter is out, maybe even sooner than that, with contracts we have already seen being negotiated with russia and elsewhere. the reality is it's going to be

incredibly difficult to make the impact of that something that is manageable in the immediate term. we are seeing contracts now that it's impossible for us to react. we are going to need intervention at the company level by those that are particularly exposed, and able to find measures to deal with it. you've mentioned changes in tariff barriers meaning it is becoming increasingly more difficult for you to compete against cheaper products coming in from elsewhere... would you go as far to say that this energy crisis is turning into a survival crisis for a number of sectors across business and industry? it certainly is. i think there is a compound effect here, the price of carbon increase considerably. the fuel price is only massive roller—coasters, but to compound that we have the residual

effects of brexit, where we are is britain open for business. 0ur border tariffs have been liberalised and historically glass is not really been a material that has been massively exposed to imports, because of the low price obviously, cheaper commodities don't travel a long way and bear the costs. with these sorts of price hikes, and the way that the progressive markets to infiltrate have been developing, we've got to be very cautious that products hitting the uk shores from further afield are not outpacing the in the uk to an extent that we just can't bear it, — out pricing. and i think that is an entirely likely scenario and something needs done. china's president xijinping has said that reunification with taiwan must be fulfilled. his comments come at a time of heightened military tension in the region. it also comes a day before

taiwan which china views as a breakaway province celebrates its national day. mr xi added that unification should be achieved peacefully but he didn't rule out the potential use of force to achieve that goal. in response, taiwan has said its future rests in the hands of its own people. here is a little of what president xi had to say: translation: unification is the hope of all chinese people. _ if china can be unified, all chinese will enjoy a happy life. if china can't unify, everyone will suffer. 0ur correspondentjohn sudworth has more from taipei. this was a very confident chinese president saying not only must unification with taiwan be achieved, but that it will be achieved. you know, underlining this idea of this inevitability behind this process. of course it is important to say this is the kind of thing we have

heard from the chinese leadership many, many times before. i think it is coming under more scrutiny at the moment because of the context. first of all, as you mentioned, these comments come around a couple of significant anniversaries, china recently celebrating its national day, taiwan's national day tomorrow, but also china upping the tension with these military sorties that it has been flying into the taiwanese air defence identification zone, acts seen as deeply provocative by taiwan and its allies. and of course a lot of that is kind of business as usual, linked to these sorts of anniversaries when we see an uptick in rhetoric, but there is something bigger behind all this as well and that is the sense that possibly the political and strategic balance is shifting as well. the politics, because of course taiwan and china in many ways have never been further apart, china growing increasingly authoritarian, taiwan today a modern

and vibrant democracy, but also as china grows more authoritarian, it is growing stronger, more wealthy, more powerful, it is updating its military and there is a fear here in taiwan that the strategic balance is shifting, that the day might not be too far off when for china, eyeing the possibility of taking taiwan by force, eyeing the possibility of an invasion calculates that finally the benefits outweigh the risks rather than at the moment what has kind of maintained the status quo some people suggested that at the moment invasion for china is a very risky option. pope francis is launching what some catholics are describing as the most ambitious project of church reform in 60 years. a two year consultation exercise of every parish around the world begins this weekend and could tackle issues such as women's ordination, married men as priests and blessings for gay couples. it's effectively a giant consultation exercise. pope francis is asking every diocese around the world to meet and to discuss solutions

to the issues they are facing. and so, in terms of the processes, you say what's going to happen is those local discussions will then be fed through to national bishops who will then filter through those ideas next year before taking their suggestions, those solutions to the problems they face, to rome in 2023. i think there are a couple of reasons why this is significant. first of all, the catholic church is a very hierarchical institution, so cardinals sit above bishops who sit above priests, and so this is a real shift towards consulting lay and ordinary catholics as to the church's future direction. the second reason why this is significant is it opens up the discussion all sorts of thorny issues that the catholic church faces. so, for example, as you mentioned, the possibility of women being ordained as deacons, a possibility of blessings for gay couples, it throws all those issues up into the air.

i've been getting the thoughts of mary ring from the grass roots organisation �*root and branch' who are committed to reform of the catholic church about what changes she would like to see. we think it's wonderful pope francis wants to hear the voice notjust of catholics, he is interested in hearing anyone who feels they want to comment on the system. 0ur slight concern is that we very much want to work with their bishops on this, but there may be many parishes, people may be listening to me and hearing here in the uk, who have not yet her very much from their bishops at all. root and branch held our own last month in preparation, but the big difference about ours was that it was entirely lay led, led by a grassroots group of us, ordinary people, who feel it is time the church came back to us, and the text we have just released

from that has at its basis that what touches all of us, a maxim from the church's first... what touches all of us should be discussed and agreed by all of us... sorry, given the hierarchical structure of the church, do you think that what people say at the grassroots level, it is going to be listened to, and acted upon? well, thank you very much for letting me make it here. what a great point. 0ur concern is that a bishop may not have the energy or the resources to take this right to everybody in his diocese. we want people to get in touch with root and branch and we can provide a simple template for people to talk about the issues in the church that really matter, so we can bring about good,

and we are concerned about the bad. it is time the people of the church were listened to. we feel people could get in touch with us, if you google root and branch you will find the talks we have had and the text we have put out. because the church belongs to the people of god. are you clear that the mechanism is for the thoughts of every parish to be filtered through? you're saying in some areas bishops may not have a and give a variety of reasons why they may not be as engaged with this process as you might like them to be, so what is the mechanism by which the thoughts on a whole variety of subjects of each parish will be filtered through to those bishops, to the decision makers in rome? there isn't a mechanism, the catholic church is done top—down for the last 500 years, particularly the last 150 years, and the catholic church simply doesn't possess

a variety of mechanisms for gathering up the views of others, the catholic people. so this is very difficult for a lot of bishops. however to do it? those mechanisms, structures, they are simple forms but it is not the case of real listening because the catch is, that although be bishops in their document say to all of us every voice will be heard, the neck sentences and we'd be bishops will what goes to rome — the next sentence. very interesting to hear you explain that to get your perspective on it, mary. how important is it to people that they feel they are being listened to in a meaningful way and that their thoughts will lead to meaningful change in this process, if people are to keep their faith, and to keep faith with the church? well, that is completely

the question. that is why the small group of us, and we are