this is bbc news, the headlines: world powers have condemned the self—styled referendums being held in parts of ukraine on whether tojoin russia, while human rights groups say more than 700 people have been arrested in russian cities as protests continue against president putin's plan to draft additional forces to fight in ukraine. hurricane fiona has ripped through canada's eastern seaboard after making landfall in nova scotia. torrential rain and winds of up to 160km/h caused exstensive flooding and mudslides. numerous coastal homes have been swept into the sea. violent anti—government protests have continued in iran. police have arrested more than 700 people and at least 35 people have been killed. the protests were triggered by the death in custody of a young woman who'd been

detained for breaching rules on dress code. now on bbc news, our world. stephen mcdonell travels across china and meets people struggling to stay afloat with their country showing no signs of abandoning its zero—covid policy. when it comes to the fight against the coronavirus, one country stands alone. elsewhere, vaccines have meant learning to live with the virus. not in china. no income. this is my lowest point and, you know, as a man i can't do anything.

each outbreak is still being met with strict measures to return an area to no new infections. it has held back the death rates and stopped hospitals from being swamped. but it's also exhausting the population and hammering the economy. with no clear exit strategy, how long can china keep this 7 up. this is the outskirts of beijing and when you cross that river you are actually

crossing into neighbouring hubei province and the town of yanzhou. now, yanzhou is a popular place to live for people with more modest incomes, because they can afford to pay the rent here and commute into the capital. it sounded like a great idea until these zero—covid measures started kicking in and they found themselves stuck, unable to get from the place where they lived to the place where they work. injune, angerfrom the workers of yanzhou burst onto the streets. they were blocked from entering beijing because of clusters of new cases. these restrictions have now been eased, but the threat of sudden lockouts can make yanzhou's long—commute workers

unattractive for employers. the buses fill up, but they are often delayed and people run late for work, following time—consuming id and health code checks.

for some, losing a job in beijing means returning to your home town. but travel poses its own risks. china's high—speed trains are normally incredibly efficient, leaving and arriving bang on time.

but with zero—covid, nothing is certain. this is us. transport spreads the coronavirus. however, in china, this is more thanjust a health risk. injune, a train was suddenly stopped mid journey after a person who had tested positive was accidentally allowed on board. they are all ordered

into immediate quarantine. officials can no longer count on automatic cooperation from travellers burnt out by zero—covid. the thing you have to be aware of when you are travelling in china at the moment is that when you visit a place, cases can suddenly emerge and your phone app health code will change colour. you can't leave again until it's green. who knows how long that will take? we've arrived in xi'an, let's hope that doesn't happen. so on arrival we have to scan a new local health code and then do a pcr test before

we can even leave the station. xi'an is one of the most famous places in china. since the days of the silk road it has been an engine for inland china's economy. this ancient capital is a popular place for tourists because you don't have to look far to see the remnants of its former glory. it has also had several stay—at—home covid lockdowns, one keeping 13 million people indoors for a month. other cities, like if you went to... addison sun used his english language skills to become a tour guide here, specialising in the international market.

here we are. then came the coronavirus. just generally speaking, how damaging for the tourism industry in xi'an has the pandemic been? well, for the international tourism, 100%. killed it? yes, yes. because no—one could come to china, come to china, come to xi'an. ancient sites, once packed with travellers, became only sparsely covered with local tourists. at times, they've been empty. and there has been no work for addison sun. no income. this is my lowest point and as

a man, i can't do anything. you had no money coming in at all? so you are feeling bad because you had to fully rely on your wife, is that right, and not contribute? it is hard, at the very beginning it is hard to ask my wife, hey darling, give me 100, 200, i want to buy something. because before that time, i give my wife, i give my family, my daughter, money. how did you overcome that? what change did you make to make yourself feel good? when i see my daughter, at that time she just was eight years old. i think, "0k, my daughter, she's little, so i have to do something." i could not, i have to stand up, you know. because i am the model, i am the hero for my daughter. i'm happy. do you know why? because my summer holidays... she is following in her dad's

footsteps, learning english. look at this. wow! watermelon. thanks for watching, see you! without the busyness of his normaljob, taking his daughter to dancing has become a highlight of addison sun's daily routine. he remembers at one point being stuck at home and sleeping through the day, before he decided to make a change so he could inspire his daughter again. in a strange way, though, it

was she who has inspired him. hello, i'm addison! guess, my friend, where i am? i'm in xi'an. using social media, he is back as a tour guide for all those who can't travel here. i am very happy today, i am on the city wall... in this way, he keeps his hand in and makes a little bit of money. wow, it's really amazing! 0ther tour guides seem to have given up altogether and decided to do something else. why have you not given up? because i have a very good, very strong faith that international tourism can recover and we will have a very bright future. so this is my faith. this is why i don't change my mind.

xi'an�*s muslim quarter is said to date back to the tang dynasty. a place where traders gathered after traversing the silk road. in normal times it is much more crowded with tourists. but these days you can see near—empty restaurants and businesses closed because of a lack of customers. zhang min says it takes nearly a month to make some of the bags in her shop and that people like them because they are original. but following covid

restrictions, she says she has lost so much money she can barely pay the rent.

many small businesses in china are onlyjust hanging in there. and there are a lot which couldn't make it through the crisis. the greater the exposure to the international economy, the worse it can be. for decades, china's

economic miracle was built on being the world's factory, but this country's zero—covid strategy has made companies here unreliable suppliers in the eyes of overseas buyers. this province is known as a hub for the clothing industry, but here many warehouses are now empty. this factory, for example, lost a whole season of production because of the covid lockdown. they say they had no way of making this money back. the managers are aware

of plenty of other businesses in this town which closed for good this year. they are getting ready to talk to us about this on camera when a man comes in and starts filming us. he then goes and speaks to the boss. there will be no interview. after leaving, we're followed by five cars. local governments have become paranoid that foreign media reports will make their towns look bad in beijing's eyes. elsewhere in the world, questions relating to

the coronavirus and the economy wouldn't be so sensitive. certainly not so sensitive as to warrant shutting down interviews with reporters. not so in this part of china. here, the government knows that these zero—covid strategies are smashing people's livelihoods, and it seems doesn't want people speaking about this to the media. despite being tailed, we have another go at talking to locals about the impacts of coronavirus measures on their businesses. for example, how have they survived lockdown?

the women we meet a much more frank about the extent of their losses. china once routinely recorded economic growth over 10%. its most recent figure was 0.4%. youth unemployment is now at 20%.

pressure is building on the chinese government over its handling of this crisis with a twice a decade communist party congress starting on the 16th of 0ctober. many people feel that zero—covid has become much about politics as it is about science, and that this stems from xijinping becoming china's most powerful leader since chairman mao. here at the great hall of the people, a big meeting will soon usher in a historic third term in office for xijinping, and the hope was to have china in a stable and tiptop shape when this occurs. however, the coronavirus is not playing nicely. yet scientists are more open about the pandemic than politicians, as a key government adviser, this professor is one of the architects of the policy which has stopped china's

hospitals being overloaded. 0nly locally developed vaccines

have been approved for use in china, and the government has enforced a strict testing and isolation policies, it hasn't pushed vaccinations. officially 80% of chinese people have been vaccinated but some have questioned whether the real rate is quite low, especially amongst vulnerable groups.

every night, china's office towers are empty, and commuters start the trek back home. in one way, people can be thankful that the virus has been minimised in this vast and densely populated country. if it reopens tomorrow, the disease would spread like wildfire. yet remaining cut off from the outside world is also coming at a cost. there are no easy options. china can't go on like this forever.

hello. we've got some windy weather on the way, particularly at the start and end of next week. we started the weekend with a northerly breeze that brought sunshine and showers, most of the showers to england and wales. there will be fewer showers on sunday. instead, we look to the north with this weather front moving down with some stronger winds as well. ahead of that for england and wales after a sunny morning we will see more cloud in the afternoon but it should be dry. one or two to showers are possible for scotland and northern ireland ahead of that rain that arrives in northern scotland in the afternoon.

the wind is picking up, windy in scotland in the north—west, likely to have gales later, very similar to those numbers of saturday. 15—17 degrees. the rain in northern scotland is on the weather front but it won't last long. it will sweep the rain southwards across the whole of the country, pushed on by a strengthening northerly wind. that is going to bring down colder air all the way from iceland, so a chill to the day i think on monday. the overnight rain soon clears the south coast and the channel. sunshine and showers, the bulk across northern and eastern scotland driven down the north sea coast of england as well on a strong wind. gales are likely across northern scotland. they may even be some snow over the tops of the mountains with temperatures in northern scotland in single figures. best numbers 15 or 16 in the far south but it will feel colder for all in the wind. it stays windy as we head into tuesday, the low pressure by this stage out in

the north sea heading over towards norway. another weather system pushing in from the atlantic. it's going to be a cold start to tuesday particularly down the eastern side of the uk, temperatures only a few degrees above freezing in some places. still quite windy but a change in the wind direction pushes the showers away from the coast but they will continue in northern scotland, and the gales will bring back the wind into northern ireland, wales and the south—west of england. some sunshine in between. a chilly day, temperatures between 13 and 11! on tuesday. the weather front coming in from the atlantic is what we call a slider, just sliding down towards the south—west and heading its way down into france so it should be out of the way by wednesday. noticeably lighter winds on wednesday, and many places will be dry, some sunshine. a few showers mainly around the edges, if you like, and those temperatures still below for the time of year 12—14 degrees, still chilly, but we don't have the strong wind. heading into thursday, we are going to find an area of low pressure just

sort of sitting there towards the north sea, keeping more of a northerly breeze going but not particularly a strong one. we could see some showers, especially across eastern scotland, eastern england, east anglia in particular. out to the west, it may well be dry. those temperatures picking up a little bit, 14, 15 degrees. later in the week, the jet stream and upper winds are quite light but as we head to the end of the week there is a much stronger jetstream propagating all the way across the atlantic, and that is going to change our weather pattern for the end of the week and into next weekend. stronger jet steers areas of low pressure, these can be quite deep, so windy weather on friday and into saturday. another area of low pressure pushing in on that stronger jetstream for the second half of the weekend, so turning more unsettled.

knocking on door. in occupied parts of ukraine to collect votes for so—called flooding and mudslides. flooding ant violent des. are happening in iran an and