this is bbc news, the headlines: a huge rescue effort is taking place in florida in the wake of hurricane ian. fears are growing about the death toll, although only one has been recorded so far. --at ——at least ten deaths have been recorded since the storm struck. president biden said ian could prove to be the deadliest hurricane in florida's history. president putin is due to hold a ceremony on friday to officially incorporate occupied areas of ukraine into russia. but the us has warned moscow it will never recognise russian claims to ukrainian territory. president biden has called the recent referendums russia staged in four occupied areas an �*absolute sham.�* britain's prime minister has responded to widespread criticism of her plans for the british economy. she's defended her government's

policies to try to boost the economy, despite the turmoil it's caused in the markets. liz truss will now meet the head of britain's independent forecaster on friday. 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 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 this country unreliable suppliers in the eyes of overseas buyers. this place 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 said 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 are 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 impact of coronavirus measures on their businesses. for example, how have they survived lockdown?

the women we meet are 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 october. 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, but 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 vaccination policies, it hasn't pushed deaf forced vaccinations. officially 80% of 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. well, it's fairly clear and calm across most of the uk right now, but later on, we are expecting wind and rain to sweep right across the country. a big autumn low is on the way, and here it is on the weather map. a lot of isobars there, and that does mean some very strong winds, especially in northwestern parts of the uk. let's have a look at the forecast for the early hours. you can see that broad band of rain sweeping into ireland and western parts of scotland, a good squeeze in the isobars here. that means strengthening winds.

but further east and south, it's a completely different picture — light winds, calm, mist and fog in a few places and really quite chilly. on those winds, gusting through the morning up to 70 mph in the western isles of scotland, and really very windy around the irish sea coasts and down towards the south—west as well. now, here's that band of rain around lunchtime, and then later on in the afternoon, it'll reach other parts of the uk. but the weather will improve out towards the northwest later on in the afternoon. within the band of rain, it'll be very windy and temperatures will be 12—14 celsius. then, friday night, that rain turns heavy in east anglia and the south—east, and eventually, it'll sweep into the near continent by the time we get to early saturday. and here is saturday. that low pressure is very broad and it's still driving our weather. in fact, the winds will remain brisk on saturday, although not quite as strong, but they will blow in some showers off the atlantic. they will be most frequent out towards the north—west here.

hail and thunder is quite possible. in southern parts of the uk, given a bit of sunshine, it actually shouldn't be too bad at all. and later, saturday night into sunday, we are expecting another weather front to just brush southern parts of the uk. some uncertainty exactly how quickly that rain will clear away on sunday, but the thinking is by the time we get to the afternoon, most of us should have a dry day. just before i go, an update on tropical storm ian — it's out in the atlantic, but the second landfall is now expected on the south carolina coast. and the storm surge around the south—east of the united states, again, is likely to cause problems and heavy rain inland as well. bye— bye.

welcome to bbc news — i'm gareth barlow. our top stories: a huge rescue effort is under way in south—west florida in the aftermath of hurricane ian. president biden warns it could be the deadliest storm that's ever hit the state. the danger is real, to state the obvious, please obey warnings and directions from emergency officials. moscow prepares a ceremony to mark the annexation of occupied territories in ukraine, but the us says it will never recognise russia's claims. and the time and cause of death of queen elizabeth is made public, 3 weeks on.