welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm monica miller. the headlines... a team from the un's atomic agency finally carries out an inspection of the russian—held nuclear power plant in ukraine. on the frontline with the ukrainian counter attack— as they struggle to retake areas seized by russia. the threat here isn'tjust the artillery. it's also landmines of.

an urgent appeal is launched to help the millions of people affected by the flooding in pakistan. water levels are rising. the south korean government promises to ban seoul's basement apartments — after severe flooding kills people and traps thousands in their homes. and fans of serena williams are still celebrating, after she knocked out the number two seed at the us open.

hello and welcome to the programme. a team of un inspectors in the ukrainian town of zaporizhzhia have begun their checks on the nuclear power plant which has been caught up in the russian invasion. the team, from the international atomic energy agency — or iaea — had to cross military checkpoints into the territory controlled by russian forces. they'll stay on site until at least monday as they assess how safe — or unsafe — the facility is, after being struck several times by fire. the head of the inspectors, rafael grossi, had this to say about what he had seen. i went into the units, i could visit the emergency systems, the diesel generators, the different parts. we have the control rooms of some of the nuclear power plant there. we chose three or four key areas

that i needed to see first hand, and i was able to do that. with his analysis of the day's events, here's our correspondent in kyiv, james waterhouse. the chief of the iaea posted a video at the end of today saying that structural integrity of the site had been repeatedly violated and, in his words, it shouldn't be allowed to continue. look, it's been messy and unpredictable, but the sight of that un convoy moving into the zaporizhzhia power plant symbolised a major breakthrough. the route they took is a place where both sides were accused of bombing it, to try and delay the inspectors�* arrival, to try to undermine the whole mission. once they arrive, the claim from ukraine was that they were heavily monitored and escorted around, which meant they weren�*t able to speak to staff candidly, heartheirtestimony,

staff who previously described being kept at gunpoint. but the crucial detail, raphael quirke c claimed that his team won�*t be going anywhere. if that transpires, that could have a stabilising effect on a volatile section of a vast front line. —— rafael grossi. but to be frank, the duration of the stay at the zaporizhzhia power plant is decided by the russians who have a tight grip on the surrounding directory. —— surrounding territory. that visit to the zaporizhzhia power plant comes as government forces in ukraine are trying to seize the initiative before the arrival of winter. a counter—attack is already under way in the south of the country, around kherson. but the ukrainians are now preparing to expand that operation in the donbas to the east and also around kharkiv in the north. our correspondent quentin sommerville and camera—journalist darren conway have had exclusive access to a unit of ukrainian troops, near the front line. their report includes

some images that may be disturbing to some viewers. in donbas, there will be no harvest. as russian shells fall about us, these fields and furrows are instead ploughed by gun tracks and fighting men. ukraine�*s national guard leads us through the barrage. they pause only briefly and by the cover of tree lines. this is a war of artillery, of seemingly limitless firepower, and of scorched earth. the destruction is measured in the square kilometres. with phosphorus and cluster bombs, russia burns and scores what it seeks to capture. a canopy of acacias gives some protection from drones. but from here onwards, they must go on foot. the breakthrough in kherson has buoyed spirits,

even as russia�*s dominance in donbas rings out loudly. but this was isn�*t only being fought at long distance. take care, there is a land mine, be careful. careful. the threat here isn�*tjust the artillery you can hear, it�*s also these landmines all along this pathway. that�*s why i�*m following very closely in the footsteps of the men ahead. there�*s another one. explosion. and there are more threats — some locals are ambivalent, others hostile to ukrainian forces. but not sergiy. where is your wife, is it hard being apart? translation: yes.

every hour, every moment i miss her. it�*s difficult without her because i love her, and she loves me. what a life. but i think we will get through it all, everything will be for the better. despite the shelling, yeva and her mother appear numb to danger. we can hear the shelling all around us. explosion. translation: i am afraid. i have a small selection of medical supplies which could be helpful. if suddenly, god forbid, something happens to my child or to anybody at all, i will give them first aid and take them somewhere for further treatment. but at the moment, as long as i have strength, i want to stay at home. so for now, julia and yeva will hang on here amid the illusion of a normal life. explosion. in villages and towns for hundreds of kilometres, there�*s no school, no

work, no life. a country frozen in time and in conflict. few live this war as fast and as close to danger as ruslan and his team of army medics. the cost of hesitation lies all too apparent by the roadside. speed is a matter of life and death for them and for their patients. their ambulance can�*t afford to wait until the shelling stops. but there are times when even ruslan and his medics have to take cover. explosion. translation: over there, you can see smoke. - their mortar is working. ruslan, we can see incoming russian mortarfire here. what do you do when you have casualties out there and this kind of firepower is coming in?

what decisions do you have to make? translation: we see the enemy and the enemy sees us, _ but the enemy hides in the tree line there, disguising himself. we can�*t do that, our ambulance is exposed. we have to pick up the injured and take them out. man screams. russia�*s viciousness is the daily burden of ukrainian combat medics. this man curses in agony. only moments earlier, he was wounded by a mine. they�*re still not sure of his injuries. but in this field hospital, they have an intimate knowledge of the damage that shrapnel and artillery do to the human body. they are covered in blast wounds, their limbs broken. his colleague too has been hit. time is critical here for two reasons — the patient�*s life, and the medics never know when more casualties will arrive. quentin sommerville, bbc news, donbas.

and you can find more reporting on ukraine by quentin sommerville — including on the ukrainian counter—offensive — on our website. simply head to bbc.com/news. you can also download the bbc news app. joe biden doesn�*t make many prime time speeches to america, but in an hour�*s time, he�*ll go in front of the cameras in philadelphia to unleash a wave of criticism on donald trump. the stage has already been set by his press secretary, who made it clear what mr biden�*s white house thought of the maga republicans — named after donald trump�*s "make america great again" slogan. when you ask me about the maga agenda, especially as it relates to congress and elected officials, it is one of the most extreme agendas that we have seen, and it is the extreme part of the republican party. and we�*re talking about, they want a nationwide ban on abortion, they want to give tax cuts to billionaires and corporations

while raising taxes on middle—class americans. they are threatening political violence and they are attacking democracy. to analyse whyjoe biden has changed his tune from a president who entered the white house calling for unity, here�*s our correspondent in los angeles, peter bowes. it is true that up until this point, joe biden, during his presidency, has avoided getting into political spats with donald trump. but now with just a few weeks to go until the crucial mid—term elections, which will determine the political make—up of congress, the senate and the house of representatives for the next two years, that is crucial to joe biden if he is to get anything done in the second part of his term in office. he is certainly going for donald trump, and the right wing of the republican party, we got a sense of it from the white

house briefing. we have already heard mr biden use the term semi—fascism, relating to those on the right wing of the republican party. i think what we will see in this speech is putting a bit of flesh onto the bone, describing what he means. he will talk about the maga forces trying to take the country backwards with no right to choose, to privacy, to contraception and no right to marry who you love. all hot button issues, especially like abortion, following the supreme court ruling a few weeks ago. those are the kind of issues he is going to raise to make a distinct difference between what he stands for and what donald trump stands for. meanwhile, donald trump has sent his lawyers to ask for an independent person to oversee the fbi�*s investigation of material which was seized from his home in florida. mr trump has previously claimed the search,

carried out on8th of august looking for classified documents, was politically motivated. thejudge decided to defer the ruling. so, is there any hope for trump that thejudge will grant this request? let�*s go back to peter bowes in los angeles. we understand that ruling will beissued we understand that ruling will be issued at an unspecified time in the future. my hunch is that it will be fairly soon before we know what the judge thinks about this idea of an independent person, a senior lawyer, effectively, to look through all of those documents and perhaps to determine whether the department of justice has anything in its possession that it shouldn�*t, personal documents perhaps, documents covered by client lawyer privilege as far as the former president is concerned, and should be returned to him. that�*s what he is hoping for. but clearly there are two distinct sides to this. interesting that in court earlier, one of donald trump�*s

lawyers likened the current situation to a lot of fuss over an overdue library book. clearly the department of justice sees it in a very different and much more serious way. i think what�*s happened in the last few hours with this court hearing, it has simply raised the stakes in this deep controversy. you�*re watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme — if the us open proves to be the last tennis tournament for serena williams, what�*s next for the sporting megastar? she received the nobel peace prize for her work with the poor and the dying in india�*s slums. the head of the catholic church said mother teresa was a wonderful example of how to help people in need. we have to identify the bodies, then arrange the coffins and take them back home. parents are waiting, and wives are waiting. hostages appeared — some carried, some running — trying to escape the nightmare behind them.

this britain lost a princess today. described by all to whom she i reached out as "irreplaceable", an early morning car crash| in a paris underpass ended a life with more than its share of pain and courage, - warmth and compassion. this is newsday on the bbc. i�*m monica miller in singapore. our headlines. a team from the un�*s nuclear watchdog has reached the russian—held zaporizhzhia power plant in ukraine, despite shelling nearby.

ukrainian troops continue their counter—offensive in the south of the country as they struggle to retake areas seized by russia. let�*s turn to pakistan now, where the disasters emergency committee has launched an urgent appeal to help the millions of people affected by the floods caused by exceptionally heavy monsoon rains this year. more than 1,000 people have died and around a million homes have been destroyed or damaged. our correspondent pumza fihlani reports from dadu, close to the indus river. finally on safe ground — but kareem is injured. it takes a group of people to carefully help her out of the boat. she�*s shaken and disoriented. translation: one of | the walls fell on my leg. i was stuck there and couldn�*t move for days. i�*ve lost everything. i thought i was going to die. kareem is then treated by medics. officials say 80% of dadu

is already under water, and it�*s spreading to more villages. people need saving and there isn�*t much time. the military, aid agencies, and villagers are all part of a frenzy to evacuate those stranded. wejoined them. just look at all this water. it�*s like being in the middle of the ocean, exceptjust over there are people�*s houses, and there are many more in far—flung communities, and the water levels here in dadu are rising. and officials say around 250,000 people are at risk of drowning unless they can get them out to safety. after some time searching, we come across a village. tens climb on board, but not everyone can make the trip. some have left relatives behind. translation: i left everyone behind, but i'm worried, - because i don�*t know when the next boat will arrive and when i�*ll be

able to return to them. but i have to go and find food for us, we are going hungry. on our way to dry land, we come across more people and pick them up. they�*ve been in the water for hours. three boats had gone past them in a rush to get to other villages. for one of the men, help came too late. translation: our friend drowned just moments i before you arrived. he slipped, and he was swept away. we couldn�*t save him. he�*s gone. in other parts of dadu, families who�*ve lost their homes are sleeping on the roadside. some do not even have tents, let alone food. and it�*s all become too much. "our children are hungry," she says. "we�*re not getting any food, why is no—one helping us?" the water is coming from all sides — from the overflowing

indus river and the mountains in the north, and in the middle of it all are people growing more desperate by the day. pumza fihlani, bbc news, dadu. let�*s take a look at some other stories in the headlines. rosmah mansor, the wife of ex—malaysian prime minister najib razak, has been sentenced to ten years in prison. she was found guilty on three charges of soliciting and receiving bribes to help a company win a $280 million project. just days earlier, her husband started serving a 12—year jail sentence for corruption charges related to the state—owned fund imdb. chengdu has become the latest chinese city to be locked down after a fresh outbreak, as beijing continues to pursue its controversial "zero—covid" policy. around 21 million people have been ordered to stay indoors, with just one person per household allowed out for essential shopping.

this comes as the southwest region is experiencing extreme weather patterns that are destroying its crops. the us dollar index, the benchmark for the currency�*s international value, has hit a 20—year high. investors see it as a safe haven in these uncertain times as central banks around the world raise interest rates as it tries to bring down inflation. to seoul now, where the government has promised to get rid of its basement apartments, which were made famous by the oscar—winning film parasite. it follows severe floods last month, which trapped people inside their homes, killing four people. the underground homes have come to represent south korea�*s growing inequality and spiralling housing crisis. as our seoul correspondent, jean mackenzie, has been finding out, those who live in them fear they�*ll be left with nowhere to go. under the streets of seoul live hundreds

of thousands of people. known as banjiha, these basement apartments were made famous by the oscar—winning film parasite. but when seoul experienced its heaviest rain in 100 years, life suddenly imitated art. do you know how high the water came up? ji—ae has raised her two sons in this banjiha. it�*s the only place they can afford, with house prices in seoul out of control. but this is now the second time they�*ve been flooded.

seoul city is promising to phase out the apartments by creating more social housing, but this promise has been made and broken before. cha jong—gwan only recently moved into his basement, but it was destroyed by the flood. you open a window and what do you see? his previous apartment was a third of the size.

yang ok—ja rents her basement to four migrant workers. she and other owners will be offered money to convert them into warehouses. but at nearly 80, she�*ll struggle. as people start to rebuild their lives from scratch, moving above ground seems further away than ever. jean mackenzie, bbc news, seoul. to sport now, and serena williams is into round three of the us open after winning a sensational victory over second seed anett kontaveit.

she is also set to play doubles in the new york tournament with her sister venus, but the tennis icon is still set to retire after the open, saying she wanted to "evolve away" from playing tennis. in an article she wrote for vogue magazine, she discussed having to choose family life or tennis, renewing the debate about the challenges women face in balancing a family and a career. well, for more on this, earlier, i spoke to eve rodsky in los angeles, who�*s the author of the hit book "fair play", which looks at re—balancing the workload in relationships. i started off by asking her what struck her most about serena�*s vogue article. the most important thing, the most important line is, if i were a guy, i wouldn�*t be writing this. tell us a bit about this... serena williams is a famous star, financially

stable, where a lot of people don�*t have that, and yet she is struggling with this balance. absolutely. there is nothing in america or the world right now which makes it easy to be a mother. it�*s notjust the physical labour. we don�*t have any supports, especially here in america, where she is writing from. wejust in america, where she is writing from. we just lost our bid to try to get build back better done, we have no access to federal paid leave, it is just us and papua new guinea left that doesn�*t have policies to support mothers. we know the physical and mental health is not supported either, so it makes it very hard to be a mother in america, even if you have privilege. we mother in america, even if you have privilege.— have privilege. we will keep a close eye _ have privilege. we will keep a close eye to — have privilege. we will keep a close eye to see _ have privilege. we will keep a close eye to see what - have privilege. we will keep a | close eye to see what happens with serena at the us open. that�*s all for now —

stay with bbc world news. we will have president biden�*s speech in the next hour. hello there. summer 2022 was certainly a memorable one, wasn�*t it? and as we bring summer to a close, these are some of the standout headlines — england�*sjoint warmest summer on record, and the driest year so far for the uk since 1976. now, there is actually some rain in the forecast as we go through friday and towards the weekend. the weather is set to change. we�*ve got this weather front here gathering pace into the northwest, and this weather front�*s been bringing some showers. now, those showers may well linger for parts of england and wales — fairly isolated, but nevertheless, they�*ll still be there. the best of the sunshine, north wales, northern england and eastern scotland. showery outbreaks of rain gather into the far north west of scotland and northern ireland. here, temperatures perhaps at around 18 celsius the high —

but it will be another hot and humid afternoon for central and eastern england, with temperatures into the high 20s. all change as we move into the weekend — for some, there will be some thundery showers around or longer spells of rain, and it will turn increasingly windy for all. as an area of low pressure anchors itself out to the west, spiralling around that low in an anti—clockwise direction is a series of weather fronts that�*ll bring some rain, some of it fairly persistent, through northern ireland and southwest scotland throughout the weekend — and that could have an impact. it will certainly have an impact on the feel of the weather. elsewhere, sunny spells and scattered showers. not a bad day to the far north of scotland, highs of 19 here — but in the sunshine, in east anglia, if you dodge those showers, you should see highs of 2a celsius. more wet weather in a similar position coming up through southwest to england, wales, and then, sitting across northern ireland and southwest scotland. showers elsewhere — if you dodge those showers, you still keep those blustery

winds, but it will still feel quite warm in the sunshine for parts of england and wales, as temperatures still likely to peak at highs of 25 celsius — disappointing under the cloud and the rain. the low pressure is not set to move very far very fast at all — into the early half of next week, it anchors itself down to the southwest. the wind direction still coming from the south, still relatively mild, but still, we could see some showers and those showers could be heavy and quite widespread for the early half of next week.

this is bbc news. we�*ll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues, straight after hardtalk.

welcome to hardtalk. i�*m stephen sackur. never has it felt more important to remember the lessons of the greatest crime of the 20th century, the nazi genocide of thejews. europe is again witnessing a war of aggression, anti—semitism is on the rise and young people, according to the surveys, have an alarming level of ignorance about the holocaust. well, my guest today is tova friedman, one of the youngest survivors of the auschwitz death camp. now in her 805, she�*s written a memoir and is using social media to tell her story. so is the world ready to listen and learn?

tovah friedman, welcome to hardtalk.