also on the programme: a glimmer of hope for the cost of our weekly shop — the rate at which food prices are rising is at its slowest since december. at least 20 people are killed as heavy rain and flooding batters northern china — tens of thousands are forced to flee their homes. and, could this site in shetland be just months away from launching a rocket into space? and coming up on the bbc news. more reaction from the women's world cup as the usa count their lucky stars to make the knockout stage of the tournament. good evening and welcome

to the bbc news at six. england's lionesses are through to the last 16 at the women's football world cup. their 6—1 win over china means they progress as the winners of group d. forward laurenjames was given a standing ovation by many sections of the crowd in adelaide after her stunning performance during the game, including scoring two goals. the lionesses will now play nigeria on monday. our sports correspondent katie gornall reports from the hindmarsh stadium in adelaide. in china, the dragon is a symbol of good luck and prosperity. in adelaide, england were due some good fortune. they were here without their conductor in midfield. would they find their tempo? england without the injured keira walsh looked different, but this new look side hit their stride almost immediately. commentator: collected by russo. what a start for england! four minutes all it

took for alessia russo to settle any nerves. england were cruising. millie bright fired the starting pistol from defence and lauren hemp won the race. here's a chance for hemp — it's two! the plan was working perfectly. china didn't know where to look or who to mark, the threat was coming from all angles. but leaving laurenjames unattended is never a good idea. and england make it look easy in this first half. this is what she can do. her first major tournament and her stock is rising. after the break, china emerged from hibernation with wu chengshu testing the reflexes of mary earps. but the momentum had now shifted. england were briefly rattled. a hand ball was spotted in the area... so the final decision's a penalty kick. - ..and china had their chance. for the first time this tournament, earps had been beaten. england needed to regain control and there was only one player to turn to. laurenjames, what a goal! stunning! everything she touched

turned to goals. what england didn't need was any help. chloe kelly could have finished this in her sleep, and england weren't done yet, as rachel daly hit china for six. it was thrilling. england go through as group winners. they couldn't have written it better. england have taken a bit of time to get going at this world cup, but they have well and truly arrived now. this was a performance to celebrate for sarina wiegman�*s players and gives them all important momentum going into that last 16 clash with nigeria. most importantly, the team won and with everyone, with getting six goals, it just shows the talent we have in the squad and hopefully we can take that into the next round. the nerves were running high at some points, but i can't talk now. that's how — that's how good it was and now can't talk. they put on a clinic. they put on an absolute clinic. they were fantastic. it shows just what they've got with key players missing, like they pull together as a team. tougher challenges lie ahead for england, but they're revelling in the spotlight. katie gornall, bbc news, adelaide.

fortunately for fans who couldn't make it to australia, the match this lunchtime was shown on big screens across the country. our correspondent joe inwood watched the game at a fanzone in south london. just minutes before kick—off, a kick—around to ease the nerves. everything makes me nervous for football, especially because we've got players, retired, players injured, but we'll just have to see what happens. i'm very nervous for this game, so, like, definitely drinking this early is definitely helping. it didn't take long for those drinks to be raised in celebration. hopefully more, but definitely the first five minutes, that's what we needed. just can't get complacent now. there was no sign of that. next, lauren hemp. cheering then laurenjames, meaning that by half—time the england fans here could stop worrying

and start reflecting. it makes you proud to be english, and you're proud to be an english lady. 100%. and obviously i play football. you play football, like... mate, female and british is pretty badass right now. 100%. there was a moment of nervousness when china pulled one back, but that didn't last long. in the end, a convincing victory. but don'tjust take my word for it. i think it was very, very good. they scored a lot of goals, especially laurenjames, and it was very, very exciting. i think they will go through to the finals. what do you make of that in a fantastic game? i feel like we need that, after the last two games have been a bit slow, not showing how well we performed, whereas that is like... that's the lionesses that we know. hopefully we can keep playing like that. and, of course, since this is england, there is only one way to finish.

joe inwood, bbc news, croydon. there's a glimmer of hope for the cost of our weekly shop, as retailers say the rate at which food prices are rising is at its slowest since december. the british retail consortium says food inflation slowed to 13.4% last month, partly because of the falling cost of cereals, fish and oils. but shop prices are still more than 7.5% higher than a year ago. our business correspondent emma simpson has the details. two grapes. grapes, grapes. would you like the grapes? they're buying, but they're also watching the pennies. at this fruit and veg stall in high wickham they used to charge a £1 a bowl. it's £1.50 now, although some items are coming down. they's still customers who come along and say, "really"? because they haven't noticed,

we actually bought some of our prices down or we try as much as possible. like with the onions, they used to be £5, but they're down to £4.50. so it's slowly, but they still think it's quite steep. that's because money's tight. it's very hard. even both of us, me and my husband working, it's hard. i do feel a bit optimistic now that maybe things will ease, - but they need to come down, notiust go up _ let'sjust come down. well, that's not likely to happen any time soon. but let's look at the bigger picture. food inflation was on a downward trend up until two years ago, but you can see here how prices then started to creep up. and this was happening before the invasion of ukraine. it wasn't until last summer, though, when food inflation really started to soar, heading to record breaking levels. on this survey, the rate peaked at nearly 16% in april this year, but it has been falling ever since, down to 13.4% forjuly,

as lower costs and supply chains start to filter through. the brc says some products like cereals, fish and cooking oils have now fallen in price since last month. we have passed the peak of food price inflation now. we are still seeing price rises, but nowhere near the levels that we saw earlier in this year. and i think the trajectory that we're on is downwards. the question is just how quickly? wheat prices, for instance, are on the rise again after russia pulled out of a deal allowing the safe export of grain here in ukraine. and today's figures are unlikely to prevent another rise in interest rates this week. unfortunately, the bank of england probably still will have to press ahead with higher interest rates on thursday. services inflation still is far too high relative to their target, and so they need to squeeze the economy a bit harder to get that down too. consumers are trying to cope by changing what they buy

in the aisles. for now, overall food prices are still going up. it's just that they're not going up quite as fast as before. emma simpson, bbc news. big changes have come into force today around how much we pay for alcohol, because drinks are now subject to tax based on how strong they are. duty on a pint of 4.5% strength beer is up by 4p if you're buying it in a shop, though the tax will not increase in pubs. a bottle of wine that's 12% alcohol now comes with an extra [illp in tax. and a bottle of scotch, which is at least 40% alcohol, is costing an extra 81p. our west of england correspondent, danjohnson, reports from dorset. overall, taxes are going up, but by different amounts in different places. and the cost of a pint at the pub is supposed to stay level

to draw more drinkers in. the general person who drinks a nice pint deserves to have a lesser spend. and they say they're supporting the pubs? i hope it will. i hope it'll encourage people to come because pubs like this need it. do you think it's a good idea? no. why? i think there's already too much tax on wine. you've got a choice, haven't you? don't drink or pay the money. from a health point of view, it's got to be right. does it feel like it's helping you? potentially. but at the moment, everything's going up. so obviously it might have a knock on effect later on. but at the moment, we're not seeing that change at the moment. this is the biggest shake up of alcohol taxes in a fairfew years. and the government says this system is more sensible and fairer, too, because it says having left the eu gives it the freedom to charge different taxes here in a pub to somewhere like a supermarket. but the stronger the alcohol content, the higher the tax and spirits have seen some of the biggest increases. around $0.80 a bottle. so a significant rise for sure.

—— around 80p a bottle. i think when you combine that with all the other increases in costs that we've we've seen recently, then it leaves producers in a position where most are going to have to pass that that increase on to their customers. are going to have to pass that that so, yeah, it'll definitely have an effect. these duty changes are welcome. they hopefully will make for a fairer system. recognising lower strength products should receive lower duty. however, there is still an increase overall for the beer category for your bottles and your cans. they will be going up 10.1% and unfortunately that costs the industry some 225 million. how are you feeling about this increase, simon? well, i think we're just confused. and not everyone's clear yet what their new tax bill will actually be. we're currently paying £2.97 in tax on a bottle of wine. i think we're going to be paying £3.56, which i think is a 59p increase, not the 44 that's

being bandied around. and you'll have to pass that on? we'll have to pass that on or absorb it. these are fragile industries and alcohol prices are a sensitive topic. these increases follow a three year duty freeze and they could still take time to filter through. and they are thankful here for anything that does help support pubs, especially at a time when so many other costs just keep on increasing. this has been described as a common—sense move, essentially increasing the taxes according to the increased alcohol content that it means more income overall for the treasury. there is one way to avoid it, i am driving of course, so this is alcohol free, just a lime and soda for the road. dan, thank you. danjohnson in dorset. house prices in the uk have fallen by the largest annual amount since 2009, according to the building society nationwide, down by nearly 4%. an average home now costs just over £260,000. but higher interest rates mean

affordability is still a challenge for many people. with the details, here's our cost of living correspondent, colletta smith. what we're seeing is the biggest house price fall since the financial crash in 2009. but the ingredients, the causes of this fall are very different. it's really being fuelling by those huge increases in mortgage rates that we've seen over recent months. today, it's been caused by the huge increase in mortgage rates that we've seen over the last couple of months really beginning to bite in the housing market. if you were to get a two—year fixed—rate mortgage deal today you are looking at average interest rates of 6.85%. that is sitting at a 15 year high and that means that more people are

failing those mortgage affordability checks and people are just offering less for properties at the moment, just to be able to afford to buy them. that is why house prices are falling. because those rates and prices have been changing so much recently, it's caused more people to hesitate. nationwide say injune, there was a 15% drop in the number of properties that were sold. more people waiting to see if prices fall further or indeed recalculating what exactly they can afford. nationwide say they expect theirs housing slowdown to continue until the bank of england stop raising interest rates but we are expecting another interest rate rise this week, so it is likely that house prices will continue to fall over the coming months. two teenage girls have died after a car crash near the irish border. three others are in hospital, two of them in a critical condition. the accident happened

last night near the town of clones in county monaghan. the girls were on their way to dinner—dance event to a dinner—dance event for school leavers. 0ur correspondent sarah girvin is in clones this evening. well, the two victims of this crash have been named today as best friends, 17—year—old kiea mccann and 16—year—olds dlava mohamed. two other passengers are critical, an 18—year—old woman, and the 60—year—old male driver of the car. he is being treated in hospital in belfast. though we understand that young people had already gathered in the hotel for this event, when news of what happened here began to trickle through, it was then cancelled, and the school that organised it then reopen to offer counselling services to the young people involved. today, we heard from the principal of the college in clones. he said the school community was dealing with profound sadness and grief. we have spoken to the people who live here. it is a rural

community, a very tight—knit community, a very tight—knit community, and they have described a dark cloud hanging over clones today. this morning, a single black bow tie was tied to the gates of the college, a stark reminder of a night that should have ended with such excitement and joy for these school levers, which has instead ended in tragedy and the loss of two young lives. thank you. the time is 6.17. our top story this evening: the lionesses roar into the last 16 of the women's world cup after beating china 6—1 in adelaide. and still to come: we are in unst, which coming up on bbc news. scotland's struggles at the netball world cup continue. they are beaten by tonga in a hard—fought match in south africa. with england in action this evening.

they are on the hunt for a semifinal spot with a win over fiji. the earth's hottest 28 days ever recorded were injuly, according to the european climate change service?copernicus. scientists say the heatwaves would have been all but impossible without climate change. it is why we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and why gas fires and boilers will become a thing of the past as the world moves away from fossil fuels. instead, the heating systems in our homes will be electrified, and one of the main alternatives is a heat pump, which absorbs heat from the air, ground or water around a building. they're very energy—efficient, but take—up of them has been slow. fewer than 60,000 new heat pumps were installed in the uk last year. that's way off the government's target of 600,000 a year by 2028.

0ur climate editorjustin rowlatt looks at why they're proving a hard sell. it is absolutely freezing! —12 celsius. 0oh! let's get inside. 0oh! it's blissfully warm in here. look, the lights come on automatically. this is the home of the future. even the mirror is a radiator. but you can't move in just yet. these two full—sized homes are a laboratory, built inside a huge warehouse and designed to test low carbon heating systems. at the heart of this vision for the future are these — heat pumps. sales of new gas and oil—fired boilers will be banned in 12 years' time. heat pumps are the front—runner to replace them. why? because they are so efficient. but there are some drawbacks.

getting a heat pump installed can involve more thanjust changing your boiler. a lot�*s going to come out. so in this cupboard, we have an old hot water cylinder. that's being removed completely. the boiler is being taken out, radiators completely replaced throughout the property. heat pumps heat water to a lower temperature than a gas boiler, so you may need bigger radiators, and they work better in well—insulated homes, and that makes them expensive. these costs come on top of the typical £10,000 to buy and install a heat pump. there is a grant, £5,000 in england, wales and northern ireland, £7,500 in scotland. and there is another issue. electricity is much more expensive than gas, so even though heat pumps are more efficient, they cost about the same to run as a gas boiler. which may explain the slow take—up. but the government says that should increase.

the price of heat pumps is coming down, the speed of installation is increasing, and we think that heat pumps, with a rebalanced pricing system across the energy sector, will become more and more competitive going forward, and i've certainly been delighted with mine. at current rates of installation, it will take more than 400 years before every british home has a heat pump. that rate needs to rise if we are going to hit the government's targets for cutting carbon emissions. justin rowlatt, bbc news. and you can find out more injustin�*s documentary heat pumps: what they really mean for you. that's on the iplayer and will air here on bbc one at 8pm. tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes

in beijing as heavy rain and flooding continues to batter northern china. at least 20 people are known to have died as a result of storm doksuri. like many parts of the world, china has been seeing extreme heat and rain in recent weeks, which some scientists have linked to climate change. from beijing, steve mcdonnell sent this report. methods from the old days have been pulled out to reach people cut off by flash floods. boats have been the best option for emergency teams, but in places, there were not enough of them. roads have become perilous, fast—moving rivers, and some have not heeded the warnings, trying to drive through suburban beijing in clearly dangerous situations. yesterday, cars were washed away by the dozen. it's not clear how many people died in this way. rescue workers have been stretched to the limit in a race against rising waters. zhouzhou in neighbouring

hebei province has been especially inundated, after water was diverted there to take the pressure off the capital, but still, beijing has had to move more than 120,000 residents to safer areas, where supplies have been stockpiled for them. translation: we have prepared i water, noodles, bread and hot water to keep people going. the government warned people here to remain indoors and ordered employers to allow their staff to stay at home. but this city is not used to flooding like this, certainly not like the cities in the south of china, and the last couple of days have been very tough. locals have pitched in to defend their neighbourhoods. when firefighters arrive, they are helping the most vulnerable. and now, receding rains have revealed the devastation, with questions being asked about the frequency of extreme weather events in china. the fingers of scientists are pointing squarely at climate change. but in the short term,

what's needed is a solid break in the rain to take control of the situation. another typhoon was expected to hit the south of the country over the next 2a hours. but it may now head towards japan instead. steve mcdonnell, bbc news, beijing. ukraine says russia should expect more drone strikes after another night—time attack on moscow's business district. a skyscraper was hit for the second time in two days. russia has repeatedly accused ukraine of carrying out drone strikes on its territory in recent months. in the black sea, the kremlin says it's destroyed three ukrainian unmanned boats that were targeting russian warships. the family of captain sir tom moore have defended building an indoor swimming pool at their home in bedfordshire without planning permission. sir tom, who died in 2021, became famous for walking 100 laps of his garden during the coronavirus pandemic, raising £33 million for the nhs. his daughter hannah ingram—moore and her husband have lodged an appeal against

central bedfordshire council after it ruled that building had to be demolished. a by—election will be held in the constituency of rutherglen & hamilton west after a petition to recall the mp margaret ferrier passed the required number of signatures. margaret ferrier has been sitting as an independent since losing the snp whip in 2020 for breaking covid lockdown rules. she took a train between london and glasgow after testing positive for covid. our scotland correspondent steven godden is in rutherglen. steven. yes, it is nearly three years since margaret ferrier broke those covid rules by speaking in parliament when she was waiting for the results of a covid test. when she tested positive, shejumped on a train and came back to scotland, rather than self isolating in london. now, the consequences of that decision have

been far—reaching. she was arrested, charged, and data given 270 hours community service. she was first of all suspended by the snp, and then lost the party whip, and crucially, she was suspended from the commons for 30 days. now, she was suspended from the commons for30 days. now, it she was suspended from the commons for 30 days. now, it was the length of that punishment that automatically triggered the recall petition that has today seen her removed as the mp. what it required was 10% of the registered voters here in rutherglen and hamilton west to sign the petition, and when the signatures were counted this afternoon, that total had been passed. so that means a by—election. for the snp, it will be their first electoral test under the leadership of humza yousaf. meanwhile, for labour, it will be a really important yardstick for their ambitions of staging a political revival here in scotland. thank you, stephen. orkney has become the first place in the uk to have post delivered by drone. the service, launched by royal mail and the drone company skyports,

will see letters and parcels flown from stromness to the islands of graemsay and hoy. the scheme is running for three months initially, but could become permanent. nasa has lost contact with a spacecraft after mistakenly well, here, could shetland become britain's answer to cape canaveral? the owners of the uk's first vertical launch spaceport say they're just weeks away from getting permission to send rockets into space. it means the saxavord space centre could carry out its first launch in october, as laura goodwin reports from shetland. as you might imagine, getting to the most northern point in the uk is a bit of a mission in itself. first up, a flight from mainland uk. then onto one ferry and then onto another ferry before you reach your final destination. but its remoteness is just one of the reasons unst in shetland

could soon become something of a superhighway — that way. once part of an raf radar base, the land was bought by frank strang and his wife around 15 years ago. never in my wildest dreams did i think we'd be building a spaceport. it's all about geography and location, location, location, and we're the most northern tip of the united kingdom, so when we launch, we're launching over sea. we've got a clear trajectory into the orbits that we're trying to get to and the airspace itself is very uncongested, so there's very little civilian air traffic flying overhead, so from this location here, we can get the satellites into the orbits they need to be. also, because of our location, we're two and a half kilometres away from human houses, human habitats, so it's a very safe location.

there are currently seven spaceport in various stages of development across the uk, but the soaps to be the first taking small satellites into orbit. ., ., , ., into orbit. the value of small satellites _ into orbit. the value of small satellites is _ into orbit. the value of small satellites is that _ into orbit. the value of small satellites is that you - into orbit. the value of small satellites is that you can - into orbit. the value of small| satellites is that you can have into orbit. the value of small. satellites is that you can have a large _ satellites is that you can have a large number of them on low author bit, large number of them on low author bit. so _ large number of them on low author bit. so you _ large number of them on low author bit, so you are continually monitoring the air. when you look at the earth _ monitoring the air. when you look at the earth and the wildfires happening across europe and the us, how do— happening across europe and the us, how do we _ happening across europe and the us, how do we use these tools to be able to identify— how do we use these tools to be able to identify these things very quickly, _ to identify these things very quickly, but then be able to action them? _ them? but getting into orbit them? — but getting into orbit is precarious. attempted a horizontal launch from cornwall earlier this year but failed. —— virgin attempted. this factory is among the first hoping to launch from unst. companies like us have test flights, with a high likelihood of failure. the first lights are non—commercial,

just to illustrate capability. failure is included and accepted. from flight three onwards, commercial services are offered from our site. , , ., ., , ., commercial services are offered from oursite. , ., ., our site. unst is already a place of immense national— our site. unst is already a place of immense national there _ our site. unst is already a place of immense national there were - our site. unst is already a place of. immense nationalthere were natural immense national there were natural beauty and heritage. this burial site was recently discovered not far from the launch pad. few places in the world can boast bronze age and space age sitting side by side. but before any testing can even begin, this site needs to get the correct permissions from the civil aviation authority. the team here are confident that will happen before the end of the year. that will allow them to run a suborbital launch and then a full launch sometime next year, but the ambitions are big. they hope within five years, they could be launching 30 rockets a year from hearing five years, they could be launching 30 rockets a yearfrom hearing unst up 30 rockets a yearfrom hearing unst up into space. thanks, laura. laura goodwin. that takes us to look at the weather. chris joins us. chrisjoins us. hello. yes, back again talking about

rain, but we have been counting up the july rain, but we have been counting up thejuly rainfall, and it has been thejuly rainfall, and it has been the wettestjuly on record in northern ireland, more than double the average. those records go back to 1836. it has also been the wettest for merseyside, greater manchester and lancashire, we have a bit more rain on the charts as well. an area of low pressure continues to develop, and justice hook and the weather system. develop, and justice hook and the weathersystem. really develop, and justice hook and the weather system. really strong winds for the time of year working into parts of southern england. the rain from that area of low pressure has started to arrive and pushes northwards and eastwards over night, so one way or another, most of us will see outbreaks of rain at some point during the night, and those temperatures in the mild side, 13-15 c. temperatures in the mild side, 13—15 c. tomorrow morning, many of us will see rain. a swathe of strong winds coming through, particularly across parts of southern england. gusts at around 110—55 mph, 50—60 around the channel islands at north france. when is this strong could bring down one or two trees, so likewise disruption is a

possibility, and ferries could see cancellations or delays,